Coil whups CT, a memoir in advance (Colonels Keep Out!)

[The Coil]

[The Coil]

Turn 7
Large bodies of troops moving in on the right and center, one platoon moved up to harass. Still a few turns off from any real contact. A few MGs repositioned on my right. Most of the LMG scouts have given their lives in service to their country, except for the guy on the far right. He's still waiting to pick off the stragglers - had a shot at a flamethrower bringing up the rear, but chose to hold fire, as there is a unit or two behind him in the woods yet. Flamethrower probably implies an engineer battalion, and assuming CT didn't cheap out on the quality (I'm guessing vets), thats 1900+ points, doesn't leave him a whole lot of extra points for goodies. Have spotted at least two Brit units (some intentionally misleading comments in the banter thread to make him think I haven't seen the Brit creeping down my right sideline - psychological warfare and all), not sure what their story is yet. Screenshots to come...

[The Coil]

Have spotted at least two Brit units (some intentionally misleading comments in the banter thread to make him think I haven't seen the Brit creeping down my right sideline - psychological warfare and all), not sure what their story is yet.

So what is that Brit doing running around with your forces? Military advisor or something?

There are actually two of them. Descendents of the redcoats that we have been keeping in the backwoods of Kentucky for 150 years. They were conscripted into service to pay for their great-great grandfathers' war crimes.

Apparently I need some new psyops guys...Or CT is reading my thread. ;)

[The Coil]

[The Coil]

I've always been convinced the flag decider was against me - this proves it:



Someone 'splain to me how that's an American flag, with me having a platoon and an MG sitting on it, and him having one little squad in the trees across the way...

[The Coil]

Turn 12

Some fighting in the middle and on the left. I open up with a few MGs at a distance to slow him down. Most of my infantry staying out of the fight at this point, let him waste ammo trying to supress MGs at range. Waiting for more of his infantry to show up and for him to use up some mortar rounds before I bring the guns into action.

A Priest or something shows up to blow up my little LMG harassing CT's support units on the right. Pins my LMG, he'll probably eat it in the next turn or two.

Wishing I had some more HE to throw...should've bought a Wespe or a Grille or something with my spare points.

Still kind of curious about the Brits running around. Not sure what the heck they are...

[The Coil]

[The Coil]

Turn 17/Orders 18

CT puts the finishing touches on the annihilation of my 2 forward platoons, in the middle and on the far left. The boys in the middle get beat up pretty bad, one pinned plt of 3 men, one routed plt, nothing else left. Satchel charges and flamethrowers take their toll. Same story on the left, still 2 plts and the HQ left, but beat up and low on ammo, not to mention sort of surrounded. Still they got some licks in and burned a few turns. With luck, CT will use up another turn or two chasing down the survivors. Took much worse than I gave out, but not unhappy with the results. Every satchel charge and flame burst now is one less when he hits the MLR.

The center looks like this after turn 17:


My forward HMG in the middle continues to miraculously hold on, on the receiving end of fire from a whole mess of units. Maybe fanatical or something. Plus CT is using half squads for most of the forward work, so it could be a lot less firepower than it looks like. I give him the short cover arc and 'hide' order multiple turns, try to get him to duck and recover his morale state, but he keeps blasting away. Turn 16 he takes 2 more casualties (only 2 guys left), and then the gun jams. Lucky break for me, because he stops shooting. Turn 17 I hide him, and CT loses contact. Beginning of turn 18 he pops up again, and lo and behold, the gun is unjammed. Always thought they wouldn't unjam while hidded, but turns out they do... I put cover arcs on a few of the HMGs deeper on the board, make sure they still have plenty of ammo when the real fight starts, while keeping up some sporadic fire against anyone who tries to advance.

The whole board looks like this from my view on turn 18:



Soon he's going to try to push forward and trip cover arcs with half squads, so I adjust my arcs so that only one or two shooters will reveal themselves to stop the advancer. In lieu of a true defense in depth, I'm opting for the poor man's version, only exposing a few shooters at a time. He'll quickly gun them down, but it'll take him a few turns each time. Still want to maintain a critical mass for the final assault, though, so I don't want to push that strategy too far. But CT still has a little too much time left for my liking.

Not sure what CT is up to on my right, no LOS over there any more, but he doesn't seem to have made it to the flag over there that I left undefended. Some of his left flank seems to have shifted to deal with my forward platoon in the center, but no idea where the rest are...either waiting in place or sneaking forward through the scattered trees. He'll get those flags, but have to get past my MG bunker and a few guns for those dudes to help out in the middle. Not sure what I was thinking on the MG bunker placement - it really should have been turned a bit towards CT's lines, but it has LOS all over that big flag that I left undefended. My LMG on the right (which survived the Priest shelling unscathed) is now behind CTs guys, so he heads back down the map toward my lines to see if he can get a peek at what CT is up to.

In the middle, I'm wavering on whether I let him have the forward small flag or try to hit him hard before he can get it. I have much better sightlines if he has to come forward to that clump of woods. I also consider shifting a platoon from my right to the middle, where it looks like the biggest force is, but decide to hold off until I have a better idea of what he's doing on my right.

I'm still figuring a battalion of engineers, which would make me reasonably happy - it's roughly an even fight in terms of numbers of units, even if his hit a bit harder and have more ammo. Although I keep reminding myself it could be a coy of engineers backed by something else. CT has been chortling with glee over his satchel charges, but he's going to have a hard time using them as well when the cover is a bit sparser on my end of the map.

I'm still afraid of an arty hit on the center, that could be bad news. Also wish I'd bought some mobile HE. I love mobile HE. That's my thing. How could I have gone into battle without it?

[The Coil]

[The Coil]

Turn 23

Left side:



CT starts moving men up to the treeline. I unbutton an HMG on the far left to slow him up, he comes under immediate heavy fire. Again, I'm not real sad to see CT dump a few turns of ammo from 10+ shooters on him. Turn 22, CT sends a runner across the open ground at him, no doubt toting satchels. The MG pops up from 'pinned' just long enough to send the runner crawling away. Other units emerging from the trees - time to open up with another HMG, still holding the last HMG on that side and the 2 guns in reserve. Want to keep the guns hidden as long as possible, because 1) I have no illusions about their ability to survive the inevitable mortaring and 2) I want CT guessing where guns are for as long as possible (more on this in a minute).


In the center, the last brave dude from the HMG crew valiantly holds on:



He goes pinned again on turn 22, once again allowing me to break contact and hide him. Don't want that last guy to die, I want CT thinking twice about charging the position. Cover arcs set on HMGs further back to inderdict anyone who does charge. Can't believe this guy is still alive - shows you what a vet unit with a +2 morale HQ gets you (and maybe a little fanaticism thrown in).

I think I've pretty much contented myself with giving up that forward flag, letting the platoon around it fight off CT as long as possible, but keeping the rest of my men further back buttoned up for later.

On the right:



CT moving onto the flags. My arty spotter drops a few of his rounds on the center section of trees at the end of the turn. Not really thinking it will hurt CT much, but make him cautious about moving more men into the area, especially them mortars... This turn I reposition the spot to about midway between CTs two groups, I can shift it to either one as needed the following turn. My plan is to spatter him with shells at the ends of turns, slow him up and keep him guessing.

His units on my far right head further out on the flank, looking for defenders. Not real sad to see them head away from the center, they'll waste a few turns looking, and probably still not come far enough to see that platoon at the back.

On turn 22, CT finds a nifty sightline with his Priest:



Missed that when I was doing the setup. The SP gun is too far away from the HMG too do much. CT is shelling an (empty) foxhole that he probably thinks might house a unit. Fine by me to see them HE shells being used to no effect.

CT sends me an email fishing for info. He's no doubt confirmed my troop selection, which makes me a bit unhappy, in that he knows I'm sporting pretty much all infantry - if he knows my battalion pick, he knows I had less than 100 extra points. I want him fearing the hidden Tiger that doesn't exist. He mentions my '7 guns', no doubt trying to get a read on whether I've purchased another bonus gun. I send him an email back clumsily confirming the accuracy of his guess, hoping I actually sound like I am trying to cover the fact that I have other guns, so that he'll be looking for guns that don't exist. He also casually mentions his Priests (plural!). He either has a bunch of Priests, which is bad, and doesn't realize I haven't spotted them, or he only has one, and this is a clever bit of disinformation. Got my interest, but I'm not convinced there are multiple Priests out there. In any event, my guns are staying under as long as possible to keep him cautious with the vehicle or vehicles.

Feeling pretty good on my flanks, a bit worried about the middle. He'll be able to overwhelm me, I think, especially if there's an arty barrage coming. However, time is starting to get a bit short, so hopefully the pressure is on him... I'd still feel better with about 5 less turns left in this game.