During Action Report: CT attacks The Coil (No Coil Access)

[Colonel Talvela]

[Colonel Talvela]

[Colonel Talvela]

Turn 9 Action -

Cpl McNutt's MG group takes two blasts of LMG fire and holds it together. But on blast number 3, his group breaks. Meanwhile Sgt Helton is tearing up the beautiful Italian countryside trying to get his Priest in position to save his buck-toothed half-brother (who happens to also be his cousin-in-law - Arkansas what can I say).

Meanwhile Lt Hill in the center wonders why the German's were so nice as to create foxholes for his men

[McIvan]

You've gone way too far too fast for the defence to be happy.......I doubt that a defender could now be able to hold you off. Should be plenty of time in effective range with which to overpower the defence. I'd feel pretty good about my chances too.

[Colonel Talvela]

[Colonel Talvela]

[Colonel Talvela]

[Colonel Talvela]

Turn 12 Action - A little better

On the Right:



In the orders phase I actually targeted that center unit with each of my men, and then didnt change targets this turn (you think I would have known that by now). The results are better, but still not enough to make him panic, since the unit pops back up at the end. But since my men are doing well and since US units have plenty of ammo to spare I am going to keep the mortars silent for another turn and see if another round of fire doesnt make a difference.

Sgt Kay's squad got within satchel range, but didnt toss them, so I am going to order that again. Like I said in the very first post - satchels are so much fun, but hard to deploy sometimes.

(Note: The numbers in the picture above are casualties I have taken on that side.)

To the center:


Here is one of the MGs that opened up in turn 11. As you can see, I am trying a similar tactic on this MG, seeing if just small arms fire can break it. I am somewhat disappointed as I didnt even see the MG take cover. Maybe small arms alone isnt as effective as I thought. I have time and ammo to spare in this section, so I am going to keep the bullets-only flying for a little while longer.

Still in the center but over to the left just a bit:



Some more units revealed themselves here in turn 11. If you look close you can see the LMG area target order and the treeburst from a 60mm mortar I had targeting the spot. I am hoping that fire pinned the units since I ran a flamer to within distance and I will be torching the area next turn and assaulting with a half-squad (following the green line).

Finally Sgt Helton still didnt see the LMG go to eliminated, so I am going to quit area-firing over there. Perhaps he has snuck away.

[Colonel Talvela]

Turn 13 Orders - Sobering Up

I have revised my estimate of what The Coil chose as his force selection. Since I have LOS to pretty much all of the map and havent seen a tank, I assume he doesnt have any (although one could be hiding). And since I havent seen any major fortifications (two daisy-chain ant-tank mines), I assume he has purchased a Regular infantry battalion. Bummer. And if I had to guess, I would say the aufli-whatever-battalion that has recon squads, five guns, and 1 81mm spotters. Some of the other battalions have 81mm and 120mm spotters, and I assume the 81mm would have been falling on me if he had two spotters since my middle section had to look quite crowded and would have been a nice target. Regardless, his fire discipline by not dropping the art (if he has it) is impressive. Most people drop their art way too soon IMO.

Still have plenty of time (22 turns), but facing a battalion is going to be quite a bit more difficult than I had hoped. Going to have to start thinking about HE conservation of my mortars and probably am going to have to release the AFVs - even though I really didnt want to.

[Colonel Talvela]

Turn 13 orders cont -

My overall strategy right now is as follows:


1) I want to eliminate the platoon marked in the purple X on my right side.
2) I want get control of the woods circled in orange on my center left.

After each of those is complete, I will advance along the blue lines. I could go ahead and advance my troops now, since they are just sitting there doing nothing (especially on my left), but I am not for a very specific reason. Right now the burden is on him to either reveal more of his units locations in order to save some of his troops, or keep his units hidden and let my superior numbers destroy him piece by piece. So until the resistance is gone, there is no reason for me to advance and give him the freedom to engage my troops and force me to split my firepower.

Concerning my AFVs: I was holding them back hoping to be able to win the battle without using them. Again now that I think he has a battalion I am sure I will need the firepower. The problem is that I am sure he has pesky guns hidden around. The good news is that while the guns are hiding waiting for my AFVs to pop up, they are not shooting at my infantry. So I am going to start moving my AFVs around very deep in the back, trying to give him a glimpse of them (notice the movement order of my M10 at the very top left of the picture above) so he will keep the guns hidden hoping to get a shot at my tanks.

Right side action (map key - yellow = flamers, blue = mortars)


The goal here is still to break this platoon without the use of mortars. Before it was just for fun. Now that I think he has an entire battalion I am worried about HE conservation and want to save mortars for the tough parts (which this could be if he would bring some other assets to bear).

So everybody with LOS is targeting that front center german squad. We pinned him for a bit in turn 12, lets see if we can break him. Sgt Kay's platoon again has orders to toss the satchels - it really should happen this time. I am sending another half squad from Dubbin's platoon (squad marked in green) to assist in fire support.

I am moving my flamers up to the front to watch for a counter-attack (to save this platoon he is going to have to bring more units into the action). One of the flamers is going to walk through the open ground - I am doing that so that if he does have a unit with LOS he will see it is a flamer and hopefully think twice about assaulting. I really want to run the flamer I have highlighted into attack range, but it would require crossing 60m of open/rocky ground (I have the LOS tool showing 60m). Flamers attract a lot of attention, and there is just too good of a chance that one of those platoons will kill him - so he stays. If the satchels work as expected, it should soften up the area enough to send him next round.

In the center: (yellow = flamers, blue = mortars)


I am going to continue to lay heavy fire on that closest MG. I really want to break him and gun him down as he runs away.

My flamer is in postion and is going to roast out the Germans that were hopefully pinned where the marker is. At the same time a half-squad from Lt Hill's platoon is going to assault the area. I am intentionally running him behind the woods and then advancing the last couple of meters - woods tiles slow you down quite a bit and I am hoping to cover most of the ground before I get fired upon. Lt Hill is a good commander so, I am bringing him close enough to stay in control of the half-squad the whole time. But in order to not be too bunched up, I am going to send another squad into that small patch of trees.

Towards the bottom left of the picture you notice I have Lt Beretta highlighted. His platoon has just been hanging back for the last couple of turns. I am somewhat expecting an artillery barrage soon, so I dont want to bunch my platoons together too much. And with his +2Morale, I plan on saving him for the last push to the flags later in the game.

Not going to do much of anything on my far left. I want to wait until I get the patch of woods I circled in orange above.