THE MAIN EVENT III! Arrow vs. Moondog

[Der Kuenstler]

Minute ten:

Starting off at the North flag, we can see that either Arrow was not planning to seriously defend this flag, or he is just not paying attention. His defense shows signs of sloppiness. Notice on the left he has put his weak green squad up there on point - and it is already in a state of panic. His other squad is regular quality, but he doesn't have his HQ close enough to keep them in command, so they are also panicked. His one good regular squad in this patch of woods has no LOS to the approaching Germans. Over on the right, he has another green squad on point. His regular squad tried to advance forward earlier and they are now routed. The green M1917 may or may not make it across the road. If it weren't for the regular M1919 MG in good position and the approaching M3A1, the whole defense would quickly collapse.



Here we see Moondog targets this high knob with one of his 81mm mortars - the target line is exactly where one of Arrow's 57mm guns is. Yet Moondog has no indication that anything is there - no generic icon, no halftrack showing in the vicinity.



From Arrow's side we see the deadly mortar does its job. But how did Moondog know to target that specific place? All we know is that this is the only high knob around the area, and the logical place for a gun to set up shop. Lucky guess? Intuition? Stroke of genious? Moondog wouldn't be looking at this thread, would he? Naaaaah - too many guys are reading this to give in to that temptation - much too risky - it would wreck his good name if caught. Its possible he may have seen the delivery car taking the gun that direction early in the battle and, with no other clear targets, figured he'd take a shot. Who knows? But regardless, Arrow takes another tough blow.



Back in town, Arrow is anticipating that dust ahead to clear just like Moondog is - he backs up one of his Shermans and moves it to the other side to try to assure both can see the two German AFVs when the dust dies down.



But Moondog continues the LOS arms race - he moves another Stug to the back of his growing German conga line. Now he has three AFVs all pointing towards the Shermans on the ridge in a straight line. POS would be proud. The dust should clear any minute. But who will still be alive afterwards?



Moondog finally orders his vet Tiger to do something- it backs up and begins hunting up the ridge. This may end up being a 4:2 tank engagement if Arrow is not careful. Arrow's other two Shermans are out of the vicinity, near the US flag pictured on main street.

[British Tommy]

With those Stugs being so close together, a lucky shot from a Shermie could be disasterous by killing all tank commanders or even having another Stug knocked out should the one next to it explode in a ball of flame and charred metal :(
But then, it's a risk worth taking especially as the Shermies are concentrating on the Stugs and might not notice until too late there's a big cat stalking them :eek1:

[Der Kuenstler]

With those Stugs being so close together, a lucky shot from a Shermie could be disasterous by killing all tank commanders or even having another Stug knocked out should the one next to it explode in a ball of flame and charred metal :(
But then, it's a risk worth taking especially as the Shermies are concentrating on the Stugs and might not notice until too late there's a big cat stalking them :eek1:

Well, if I were Arrow at this point, I'd back those Shermies up and not risk a standoff - he can't afford to lose them - if they get knocked out the whole Southern side of the line will collapse.

[Ratzki]

I think that is the underlying issue, you should not have armour as the mainstay of a force. I try to use it as extra punch, but let the infantry be the anchor of the force. Armour is the exploiting part of your formation. I agree, get those shermans out of there and force him with the infantry making him commit then use the armour to win the advantage and make him play your game.

[fluidwill]

I think that is the underlying issue, you should not have armour as the mainstay of a force. I try to use it as extra punch, but let the infantry be the anchor of the force. Armour is the exploiting part of your formation. I agree, get those shermans out of there and force him with the infantry making him commit then use the armour to win the advantage and make him play your game.

How you can say that after Lord Banes master class last time out is beyond me, horses for courses definately and play how you feel happiest but there are no rules that work all the time except maybe the Clauzwitz quote "What genius does is the best rule".

Having said that I agree that the Shermans are in for a kicking if they face off the Stugs as shown.

[Der Kuenstler]

Minute 11:

At second 53 of minute 11 the dust from the fallen house finally clears, but the much anticipated AFV fireworks end up fizzling - after seven seconds no AFV gets a target line - it appears the corner of the tall hedge is also in the way! Both commanders will have to change their plans. Moondog's other Stug is area firing the building marked with the blue "x" up the road.



Moondog has redirected his vet tiger to the north of the fallen house pictured - when it clears through the dust it will almost certainly see the two shermans. Except now the advantage has changed - with the hedge blocking his three Kamerads, Unt Bischoff and his crew will now have to duel with the two shermans alone.



As the minute ends, we see Moondog's 105mm spotter has a target line set to the downtown area right on top of Arrow's other two Shermies. It will fall in three seconds. Can the 105mm shells hurt them? We'll find out soon. He also has one of his 81mm mortars peppering the infantry in the downtown light buildings.

[Der Kuenstler]

Minute Twelve:

Arrow gets tired of waiting outside for Moondog to blow the central church down - he orders this Poineer squad to do it themselves. We can see the demo charge flying through the air.



The second charge brings down the church. Now Arrow's infantry can enter the remaining rubble in relative safety. In the background we see one of Mondog's stugs is area firing one of the light buildings to the north. Moondog's 105mm artillery begins falling downtown on top of two of Arrow's shermans but it only buttons them up - no damage is done.



Here we see a rather odd order - I'm not sure what Moondog's intention here is. He orders his vet Tiger, a stug, and the elite IVH all to fire smoke at the area circled in white. Does he want the smoke to enable his tiger to get closer to the Shermans? If so, why? The Tiger has great sights and would actually do better from farther away. Maybe someone else has an idea of why this would be a good move? (The third stug pivots and area fires at the house marked with a blue "x.")



At any rate, the smoke orders end in absolute disaster. The vet tiger fires only one smoke shell into the ground, and, about six seconds later, the dust unexpectedly clears over the house he was hiding behind. The German tank crew is caught with their pants down, trying to pull out the next smoke shell and frantically insert an AP shell. But they aren't fast enough - both Shermans get LOS instantly, and the vet Sherman hits home - boom - one shot, one kill. A partial penetration. Arrow doesn't know it is dead yet, but the complete stillness of the big beast for the rest of the minute gives him a clue.



The German high command is in shock - now Moondog has bumbled away both of his best assets - the Elite Panther and the Vet Tiger. What was practically a guaranteed victory for Moondog a few minutes ago has now become a toss up, and perhaps even advantage Arrow. Now it is three regular stugs and a Pz IVH against four M4A3(76)W Shermans. The IVH is easily pierceable and the stugs are hindered by their fixed carriages. In this shot Goebbels shows Hitler a security guard position at Auschwitz that would be ideal for Commander Moondog....



At the Northern flag, things are going better for the krauts - we can see they have driven Arrow's southern platoon out of the woods and sent them on the run. Arrow has been forced to send another '44 platoon to reinforce this Northern flag, and they are on their way now. But one platoon may not be enough to stem the German infantry tide.

[Lord Bane]

Well, Moondog seems to find himself in a tighter and tighter spot. I have been thinking about his perdicament though and don't think he is totally screwed yet. It is appauling that both of his big cats have been taken out. And it is true that his PzIVH won't be able to take a hit from the Shermans 76mm, but it is an Elite tank with a fast turret. This is his last hope. This will be an interesting test of how good Elite tanks really are.
Lord Bane

[fluidwill]

What I find gratifying about all these Main Events and this one in particular is that advantage balances on a knife edge and swings wildly from turn to turn, never give up!
Fortune favours the brave!

[Der Kuenstler]

A couple of minutes of small arms fire and position jockeying goes by. Moondog's central artillery strike is over, and, though he managed to break and kill several footsoldiers, the two regular Shermans rode out the storm unharmed. Arrow backed them out of possible danger near the end of the strike. Now, at minute 15, a new threat appears - it is one of Moondog's stugs. Arrow's buttoned Sherman gets LOS just as the stug fires - a "Front upper hull partial penetration" - but no damage is done! A second later the Sherman fires back and sets the stug on fire - one shot, one kill!



And it's not over - a second stug comes knocking - hunting the same Sherman. The Sherman fires first - miss! The stug fires - the deadly shell whistles under the tank and into the ground behind it. The Sherman fires again - boom - and knocks out the second stug! The other Sherman on the left (not pictured here) never had LOS and was never in the battle - it was firing the whole time at the Germans gathering in the nearby house.



Looking back, it appears as if Moondog was trying to line up both of his stugs for a 2:1 advantage - but he mistimed his commands; the stugs showed up one at a time instead of together. Moondog's stock continues to drop with the Fuhrer, as well as his once bright hopes for victory.

But on the other hand, Moondog did manage a well-coordinated artillery drop in sync with a company advance - he is now very close to taking the central church flag back. This prompts Arrow to comment: "No good arty prep followed by Company sized rush, good strategy, better than anything I could come up with."



He also looks pretty good with his German company attacking at the Northern flag - if he keeps the pressure on he will at least neutralize it.



But the loss of two Stugs means that the armor advantage swings to Arrow, 4:2. Arrow can now tie up Moondog's two remaining AFV's and still spare a Sherman to go North and hit Moondog's infantry company with some tank HE. Are we witnessing a major upset here?

Moondog laments after watching his two Stugs go down: "Ebay, I'm selling my strategy. It's poor quality, broken and has had one stupid owner. No reserve, Happy Bidding."