| Did I mention that my artillery was abysmal? | ||||||||||||||
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Tough game. My opponent, treadasaurusrex, deployed brilliantly on on Hill 812 with his PK40 and his squeeze bore well placed to take shots at my smallish armor force. The infantry was deployed mostly facing west, but treadasaurusrex well knows I like flank attacks so I deployed my large American infantry force on the hill facing Hill 812. Given that I wanted to sprint along the northern edge of his position, I had a decision to make with my mortars and HMGs. I did not want them moving slowly and getting caught in the open. My solution was to anchor my right wing on the southern hill mass with enough force to make a German advance a little dicey. North of that, as close as I could set up, I deployed all the HMGs in a line adjacent to the road with a Captain and lieutenant who had the ability to form a fire group to provide heavy fire on the forward German units to pin them and to cover the fire of their 75IG and their squeeezebore ATG. (bath of which were finally eliminated through a combination of direct fire and OBA/Mortar fire. The rest of my force, the company of tanks and about a battalion of infantry with what mediocre leaders I had sat ready on the left flank to dash across the open and attack on the German right flank. Using my plentiful artillery, I began the assault by laying smoke along the whole route the infantry had to take for the first three turns along the lower hills obscuring the German visibility on the heights above. The advance went well although the blocking company on the right of my line started to take quite a bit of fire and started to take casualties. Other than laying smoke, my artillery 5x 18s, was highly disappointing, with neither the OBA nor Mortars doing much other than make noise. By turns 4 and 5, my flank attack had reached the north and rear of Hill 812, but the Germans had successfully redeployed to cover the flank and the remainder of the battle was a slow grind with frightening moral recoveries and multi-turn assaults. Did I mention that my artillery was abysmal? Just after dusk, we agreed to end the scenario as a draw. Another fine game with treadasaurusrex |
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| 1 Comment |
This is too modest an assessment of the American's thoughtfully-sequenced & 3-pronged assault on a tough, Hill 812 defensive position. The Napoleonic Grand Battery of 6 HMG units was a great touch that pinned & slowly wore down the forward-deployed German left flank, and prevented these units from effective counter moves. The large-scale, American smoke screens also proved effective in covering the long-reach, left-flank approach accompanied by M3 Lee tanks. Perhaps, a more balanced, deeper & simultaneous right flank hook might have pinned the balance of the German's southern front in an untenable situation. However, the dice fates did not smile on the US side in this relatively-balanced, infantry-heavy, slugfest.