Panzer Battles 2 - The Official Teaser Thread

[Xaver]

Well, a little pressure is not bad... and well, even when saturday rule is powerfull it cant compare with the power of the "anxious side" 

"i find your lack of report disturbing mr Strela" 



EDIT: i finally can add a Star Wars reference hehehe.

[Strela]

Using the force is definitely overkill.

So much overkill that I just lost a long post here and have to start again. This new forum software is pretty flaky


This week we are going to share the third tranche of scenarios. They say a picture is worth a thousand words and this one typifies these scenarios;




We're sharing another ten scenarios this week;






The end of June 1944 saw the British attempt their most ambition operation in Normandy yet. Jeff Conner has become our resident anglophile (he authored Squad Battles - Falklands) and is responsible for almost as many scenarios as the irrepressible Rick Bancroft.

Jeff has modelled the British doctrine used in the Epsom battles very well. The British forces fought an 'attrition' battle where units would move forward and once pinned, dig in and hold the ground that was taken. Follow up units would call in artillery on the enemy defensive points and then 'pass through' their dug in comrades and continue to push the attack forward. If they ran into trouble they would repeat the process.

As a doctrine this approach was good in concept but resulted in confusion and units in disarray when trying to pass through friendly formations while under fire.

Jeff's first scenario in the Epsom compendium is Operation Martlet. Martlet was designed to both take ground and draw German reserves away from the Epsom attack zones that were planned for the following day. Though only a brigade equivalent on both sides, this scenario runs for 24 turns.

As usual bigger versions of these maps can be seen with a touch device or by right clicking;






The first day of Epsom saw the largest concentration of Commonwealth units in one area in the Normandy campaign to date. The highlighted units are all fixed and only available later in the scenario. Some units will also become fixed based on the historical schedule on when they were committed and withdrawn from combat. This really was a very big scenario that Jeff worked on, but it's obvious how few units are actually available to use in the early turns;






This really is a truck load of United Kingdom soldiery!






The second day of Epsom saw the British grinding forward. The British were leading with their armour to conserve their infantry strength and were paying a high price for the vulnerability of their Sherman tanks. In this 27 turn scenario, the British are about to run into the defences around Coleville. The Germans utilised the railroad cutting in the area as an impromptu tank ditch funnelling the British attack. Highlighted units again designate fixed troops at the beginning of the scenario;






Here is a closer look at the railway cutting area;






On the third day of the Epsom Operation, British armour had managed to cross the Orne River and were in position to capture one of their key objectives - Point 112. The battered German forces had managed to funnel the British into a small area forcing them attack on a fairly narrow frontage. This resulted in fire from both flanks and losses for units that were trying to move forward and cross the Orne. The third day is another 27 turn scenario;






Here is a closer look at the British forces crossing at Tourmauville;






The fourth and final day of Epsom graphically shows why the operation ended in defeat for Montgomery. The II SS Panzer Korp with 9th & 10th SS Panzer Divisions had been moved from Russia to form the basis of the forces Hitler intended to use to push the Allies back into the sea. The pending British breakthrough at Point 112 resulted in the new SS Divisions being committed to pushing the British back. Here you can see the German forces forming up on the flanks of the British salient. II SS Korp is coming in from the south west;






In this closer view you can see how exposed the British are on Point 112 and the possibility that they will be caught with the Orne River to their backs;






Finishing up with Epsom, the British pulled back to lick their wounds. A few days later the Canadians attacked Carpiquet Airfield which had fired upon the flank of the advancing British the previous week. Operation Windsor is a 28 turn scenario designed by Kevin Hankins that shows the desperate defence the Hitlerjugend put up against the Canadians;






For a complete change of pace we move over to the American sector on July 11th, where the newly arrived Panzer Lehr Division counterattacks to stop the US VII Corps that had moved south after their Cherbourg success and were threatening to envelope St Lo from the west. Panzer Lehr was committed at night to avoid the Allied control of the air, but the close range fighting nullified many of the German advantages. The M-10 tank destroyers of the 9th Infantry Division were particularly effective at ambushing the heavier German tanks. Though initially successful, the Germans had little to show for the attack a day later;






In this closer view, you can see how the Germans lead with their heavy armour, overwhelming the surprised American defenders. The German failure to mop up the isolated defenders was to cause problems when the sun rose;






The final scenario for today is the clearing of Hill 192. By coincidence, while Panzer Lehr counterattacked to the west near the Vire River, the US 2nd Infantry Division tried to capture Hill 192. The 3rd Fallschirm-Jaeger Division had held the hill since D-Day. This high ground allowed both the beaches at Utah and Omaha to be clearly seen and targeted. An attempt to take the hill in late June had failed disastrously with heavy casualties and the American's went away and perfected their infantry/tank co-operation. The second attempt at taking the hill showed the value of the training done. This 10 turn scenario was originally intended to be the 'Getting Started' scenario and should be used as a good introduction to Bocage fighting;






As mentioned last week, there is something for everyone here and a much broader range of military situations than we were able to portray with Kursk.

Have a great weekend all,

David

[Xaver]

Thanks for the update, great as usual.... i am going to holstered my jedi powers i am going to need them to deal with all the info 

Interesting the Epsom comments about how well are covered the special feeling of the battle... you made me think in the use of engine in other attrition battles in WWII (and not only in Europe or Rusia) and WWI (and out of WWI in interwars period) more infantry combat orientated combats... maybe new feature is related with casualties/replacements???

The scens are very interesting for a more "classic" combat with less fast mobile combat and more "dirty" with the queen of battlefield doing their unglamorus job. Maybe are the less fun scens if you want be Napoleon but they have their point.

Is interesting notice that at least look like you are or near 50% of scens in game or in 50%.

And what more i can say... every week i need work harder in the posts i do about the game in other forum, is nice have a lot of work here, not like yours of course 

Well, now review all the info an pics a lot of times and waiting next weekly report from the first line 

[Compass Rose]

Boy, those maps are some of the sharpest looking maps I have seen; very, very nice!

The counters and the counter-colors look really good, too!  

Can't wait to see the finished product.

Thanks for sharing.

[ComradeP]

David, in case it hasn't been looked at yet after my previous report and before I forget to mention it and it also slips into PB2: currently, you don't get air support if you have fewer than 4 air units and visibility is below 12 (50% availability). It seems the system requires a number of 1 or higher and rounds down after multiplying the air units by the availability percentage, so if you have 1,2 or 3 air units at any visibility below 12 you're out of luck.

This means there's often no air support in smaller scenarios, although interdiction still works I believe.

[Strela]

David, in case it hasn't been looked at yet after my previous report and before I forget to mention it and it also slips into PB2: currently, you don't get air support if you have fewer than 4 air units and visibility is below 12 (50% availability). It seems the system requires a number of 1 or higher and rounds down after multiplying the air units by the availability percentage, so if you have 1,2 or 3 air units at any visibility below 12 you're out of luck.

This means there's often no air support in smaller scenarios, although interdiction still works I believe.

Thanks - that had slipped my mind regarding bugs and other fixes.

I'll canvas John on a change. I think you're assumptions are correct and align to what I have seen.

David

[Strela]

Hi everyone,

There seems to be less and less comments each week when I post here, hopefully it's still of interest to you all as it takes a fair while to prep these reports. If not, I'll pull back their frequency and focus on finishing the game  

We continue to finalise scenarios and test some of the latest material. We have a couple of long awaited scenarios delivered this week and also some adjustments to existing work. For example, based upon play testing we have significantly shortened the full Cherbourg scenario from 88 turns to 42. This still covers multiple days, but with a revised day length and other tweaks. We also added a version against the German AI that can be played in 30 turns and fits into the large but relatively short category.

Some more mundane items such as documentation and 'shrunk' graphics are also being worked on and one of these days I'll count how many counters are in game - it's not a small number and every one of them have been done by hand. All in all we're making good progress - despite everyone having day jobs.

For this week's scenario listing we are going to be Commonwealth centric again. Montgomery's forces near Caen were viewed as more likely to breakout than US in the West and the bulk of German forces faced the British. This results in a lot of fighting in that area. All these situations are during the month of July, 1944.

Our theme photo for this weeks scenarios is as follows;






Here is the list of scenarios for this week;






The first scenario is another special from Jeff Conner. As mentioned last week, Jeff has done a heap of work on the British offensives after the landings and Operation Goodwood/Operation Atlantic is his next series after Operation Epsom. Of note, Glenn Saunders and Dave Blackman did some original scenarios here, but we have completely reworked both their Epsom and Goodwood work. Jeff has combined both Operation Goodwood and Operation Atlantic that commenced after the Canadians had finally cleared Caen. The attack by the British was preceded by the use of RAF heavy bombers  to disrupt the defenders. This proved to be reasonably successful allowing the British to advance on their left flank;






Here you can see the German front line - every highlighted German unit is disrupted due to the pre-battle bombing;






The next three Goodwood scenarios were created by Saunders and Blackie and were adjusted by Jeff. These cover segments of the Goodwood battle and are quick little scenarios.

3rd Royal Tank Regiment Part 1, is a 12 turn scenario covering the advance of the British left flank.






The Fifes and 23rd Hussars covers the follow on forces that pass through the 3rd Royal Tank Regiment and continue south. This 10 turn scenario covers the situation the Regiment found itself in when the Germans caught the British in the flank due to the forces in the destroyed village of Cagny. This image shows what the top down graphics included in game look like;






The third small Goodwood scenario is 3rd Royal Tank Regiment Part 2. This short 6 turn scenario covers the regiments efforts after crossing the raised rail line and the push towards Hubert-Folie;






A week after Goodwood petered out, The Canadians attempted to clear Verrieres Ridge. This scenario has been well covered by JC's after action report. We have tweaked a few things since that scenario was shown to you all;






Moving away from the Caen sector, #0726 Percy covers the second day of the US attack of Operation Cobra. VII Corps had committed it's armour to penetrate deep into the German rear after the US carpet bombing smashed up Panzer Lehr. The Percy scenario is interesting due to the length of the map and the expected speed the 2nd Armored Division was expected to advance. This is quite a different scenario;






Three days after Percy, Notre-Dame covers the ambush of a kampfgruppe from Das Reich as it attempted to get back to German lines. This 6 turn scenario see the Germans trying to overrun the American blocking forces;






Last but not least in our Cobra trilogy, St-Martin & Roncey covers a similar action where the retreating Germans have to push through Allied pickets. This is another short 8 turn scenario starting at 4am.

 



As you can see there are some real variations in scenario length as well as different situations. These have all been fun to play test.

Thanks for reading,

David

[Xaver]

Nice update, i like specially see the Tiger II because i think ask if was present in scens and what model (Porsche turret model).

Interesting, finally we are going to see scens starting with "burned" units, with casualties and fatigue.

The most interesting scen maybe is the "skinny" scen for the 2nd armored division because is special.

A good point is notice that still there is room for later scens in campaign... at least 1 update more (2 maybe???) and when all scens appear in weekend reports... whats next??? release??? 

If you need more post in thread dont worry, i can include some Viagra, chinese Rolex watches and green card posts, all to oversize the thread post counter 

[Ricky B]

Percy, can you say Exploitation Phase of the battle?

[ComradeP]

Would it be possible to add a "place all" function to the PB reinforcement dialog, like in FWWC?

A battalion arriving isn't much of a problem, but a regiment (not to mention a division) would require a fair amount of clicking.

Every click that can be removed through convenience helps.