Random chatter...

[Jim von Krieg]

Several of my battles are underway...

On the Western Front with Kucher's Rag-tag, it seems Nort has gone all rope a dope on me... a smattering of contact, but he's biding his time waiting on my push so he can no doubt crush it with all those Tigers and Panthers I saw shoot up my Shermans in the first few turns...

On the Eastern Front, Pax25 in Giants on the Vistula is rampaging over my Russian speed bumps... Its still early... he's approaching the first of my main defensive positions... come on cavalry... roll on down the highway... to save my Vodka stores... Don't want those big nasty Germans to have all the good stuff.

In another Eastern Front thriller, Pawel in Death's Heads has yet to be seen as I rapidly push forward... However, steel rain is falling all around me as I move up... Still early... Squinting hard for Pawel's Big Red Machine... I expect a good punch in the nose shortly as I run into the horde...

Just another relaxing day... Feels good...

Jim

[Nort]

Bring it big boy. <g>

[Dragoon]

Yes good to be back indeed.

I fried my last pc cleaning it with compressed air.I went 14 months or so without a pc and couldn't play EF or WF.I have a new rig now and a new appreciation for the game.Playing the game on this 27 inch flat screen compared to the ol relic 17 inch screen is like a brand new game experience...Thanks to this club and the people who support this game to keep it going.

Cheers

Fred/Dragoon

[Jim von Krieg]

Dragoon,

I agree, a 27" screen is great. I bought one a while ago and love it. Definitely, a great addition if you can swing it.

Nort,

Bringing it, but its a little tougher when my Chaffee company vaporized in one turn. Looks like you took a P38 to them. Definitely, some tin cans.

On the battlefront,

New opening on the Western Front with Wolfman in Still Full of Fight. All I have to say is WOW. Totally unexpected on turn 2, Wolfman came after me like I stole his girlfriend. Man, this is going to be a tough fight.

I was moving forward into jump off positions when boiling out in front of me a whole column of German light and heavy panzers slammed into me slapping my Chaffees and AAA halftracks around. No hesitation from the Wolfman. Luckily for me, my guys had lots of nearby friends to greet the panzers properly.

On my right flank, his scouts came forward to slap me around a bit as well. Not sure his scouts appreciated the Jumbos running just behind my scouts though.

Regards,

Jim

[PawelM]

In another Eastern Front thriller, Pawel in Death's Heads has yet to be seen as I rapidly push forward... However, steel rain is falling all around me as I move up... Still early... Squinting hard for Pawel's Big Red Machine... I expect a good punch in the nose shortly as I run into the horde...

We just need some time to battle through the snow.... I am sure it will be a lot of action sooner than later ...

[Big Ivan]

Hey Jim,

I call that the "Wolfman Stiff Arm to the Face!" and have experienced it a couple of times. Its kind of like getting hit with a thunderstorm on a clear day. There is no doubt someone is open for business. It gets real interesting real quick!

Cheers!
Ivan the Big

[Jim von Krieg]

In the East, Pawel just popped me in the nose. Scratch several scout cars as they all got plastered by Shermans, T34/85's and SU-152's. However, I did pop his engineers at the bridge before they emerged from the back of their lorries. I think this is definitely going ugly. Still lots of steel rain falling around me as I close on my assembly areas. Those MRL's are looking for some easy points. Maintain your intervals, move quickly and don't bunch up.

In the West, Wolfman has done a BANZAI charge with what appears to be every known tank in the German arsenal. Though it appears that the target selection pool is slowing down as there are less and less things for me to shoot at. Most of it is burning under the concentrated 76 and 90 mm fire of my Chaffees, Shermans, Jacksons, and Pershings. Throw in a few bazooka shots from my infantry for good measure and there isn't much left to shoot at. My plans are entirely out the window as all I have been doing is responding to the Wolfman's charge.

Enjoying some good fights.

Jim

[Jim von Krieg]

In the east, Pax25 and I are locked in mortal combat along the Vistula.

I am unable to pause to group for a massed attack due to my foes rapid movement. My center position is under duress from the mailed German fist seeking to crack my defenses. To relieve the pressure on my defenses, I attack from the march with four heavy tank companies. Two on the right flank and two on the left flank.

As the massed Germans fires pound on my infantry in their defensive positions, my heavies made their presence felt by hammering the Tigers moving up to engage me. As I slammed into his left and right flank simultaneously, his Tigers took a beating. His right flank is solid with help close at hand; however, his left is more problematic. As 88mm rounds bounce off the tough hide of the IS-2's, the Tigers are proving a tad more brittle when struck by 122mm rounds.

His Panthers and King Tigers are busy knocking the hell out of my infantry. However, he needs time to dig them out.

The next few turns are going to be very interesting as we are locked in fairly close combat at the moment.

Jim

[Jim von Krieg]

Reporting indicates there is heavy fighting in Germany between Nort's Rag Tag Circus and von Krieg's Heroes. As the battle ebbs and flows, casualties on both sides are mounting.

Nort's forces appear to be "floating like a butterfly and stinging like a bee" as he uses Muhammad Ali's rope-a-dope strategy. He bides his time and uses just enough energy to hammer me as I attempt to close on the village VP hexes.

While I am using Foreman's legendary right hook to take the village. It's my technique of converging columns that has spread my forces thin. Small force south of the village to hold the critical VP hexes. Infantry and SP AT to cover the center and left flank. Large armored force of Pershings, Chaffees and Shermans to sweep the eastern VP hexes up, move to the high ground and attack into the village. Along the way, I routed very light opposition by blasting a few German Pumas and halftracks.

As I press from the high ground towards the VP hexes, a company of Chaffees burns bright under the Germans high velocity guns. Their funeral pyres litter the plateau's landscape. A platoon of Pershings are hammered into ineffectiveness. However, the Shermans and other Pershing platoon hold up to continue to press the issue.

This plan isn't going quite as well as I had hoped. I'm doing damage though. Whatever he exposes, I shoot. Scratch some infantry and Jagdpanzers. Beat up the Tiger a tad. Blast a AAA truck harassing my infantry sitting on the high ground to the west to look down into the village. Blast lurking halftracks when they present themselves. I can already tell, every point is going to count in this.

As I push forward on the right, I get knocked back with Nort going into hull defilade back in the village. It's impossible to dig him out. He pops out, disrupts my attack and melts back into the village every time. Now that I can see down into the village, this is looking harder with the menagerie of German panzers lurking back there.

Last turn, the expected VP hex rush is underway. He surges forward to lock down the remaining three VP hexes we're contesting. Popping smoke with his engineers guarantees that the two at the eastern bridge into the village are immune to my rush. The last VP hex is covered by a crossfire of Panthers and Tigers with an engineer platoon and a Jagdpanzer sitting on the objective. This is not going to be easy. I smoke a key hex, drop two airstrikes and hope for the best.

Only one airstrike flies. Not sure what it hit, but it took out something. I surge forward, Pershings into the smoke. Panther OPFIRE proves ineffective against the Pershings in the smoke. First phase complete.

Now, Shermans race out to pound the Jagdpanzers and engineers. Excellent results! A retreat and a disruption. Pershings surge forward to assault into the VP hex. German engineers wilt under the assault, retreating back into the village. My infantry strolls forward to sit on the objective.

My Jacksons race forward along the ridge in the center hoping against hope to slip in behind the infantry blocking near the eastern bridge into the village. That hope is shattered as a Panther lights him up as he moves forward. My last armor push against the smoked engineers east of the village proves ineffective. Blasting away at point blank range yields no results.

For me, the fight proved to be a nail biter with me looking over my shoulder all the time. I am loath to strike a position head on, I split my forces to sweep to the east, cross the river, seize the VP hexes near the bridgehead, then move up to the plateau to attack down into the village. Think Lee sending Jackson on a flanking maneuver.

At the same time, I leave a trail force to screen the VP hexes I seized on the opening turns. As I look back on this, I think the only reason this strategy was even close to effective is that Nort adopted his rope-a-dope strategy to bide his time and let me come to him.

My blocking force is relatively small (Pershing, Sherman and Infantry platoon with covering fire from M36 nearby) and looking at the enemy forces not too far in front of them, they were probably inadequate for the task. If Nort had sortied against my blocking force while the bulk of my forces were moving to the east, I would have most probably been cut to ribbons piecemeal.

At the end we see-sawed back and forth with rapier thrusts. Neither of us really committed all in. Any time we left something exposed, the other shot it to pieces. We took what the other gave us and were content with that. I'd surge forward, then get slapped around for my trouble.

Nort never seemed willing to overexpose his force to counter-fire and was consistently laying smoke with his engineers. This is the mark of a seasoned opponent, but I definitely feel there were a few times if he had come out of the village he would have mopped the floor with me as I felt super exposed with no OPFIRE to hold the German panzers back.

Against a disciplined opponent, this scenario is a tough nut for the Amis to crack. It definitely tested my skills and I felt near the end on the verge of disaster, but never quite going over the edge. Even though the game says I won, I don't feel like I won as I sit on the last objective staring down the barrels of multiple Panthers and Tigers.

I really dislike the mad dash for VP hexes at the end that we are forced to pursue, but its definitely the result of the very tight battle Nort and I fought. He's an excellent opponent and one that adds a bit of history to the e-mail chatter. Salute!

Regards,

Jim

[Nort]

In the end, I was no match for Jim. He was able to keep one step ahead of me throughout, and I never felt comfortable with any plan. When I realized that, I knew I was in for it.