DAR - {here}Leto, come to Papa! - Defending an assault

[Colonel Talvela]

Playing a mirrored axis minor assault against Leto. I am pretty excited about the settings.

-Oct 41 - early war.
-Unrestricted units, but as the attacker you can only pick units from one axis minor country. As the defender, you cannot pick T34 or KV tanks.
-1000 point assault
-20 turns fixed
-clear weather
-We loaded the map below with units as follows:
Attacker
- 2 Crack 150mm SP guns
- 1 Conscript 170mm artillery spotter (20 ammo)
- 2 TRPS for the attacker
Defender
-1 mg bunker (wooden kind)
-2 TRPS
-4 wire
-4 anti-inf mines
-4 daisy chain mines
-2 trenches




The reasoning for unit is - axis minor dont have any big HE. And really, what is more fun than 150mm SP guns and huge artillery - but in QBs they never get selected because of rarity. On defense, CMBB actually counts fortification units against your final score, but I personally think they are a blast to play with. So we give each side the same defense units and that keeps it even.

1000 points isnt nearly enough troops to cover this map, but 20 turns isnt enough time to attack it either. So it should be a brutal fight with lots of big bombs and rushed action.

The map has two big flags in the middle back, and six small flags (circled in yellow). the reasoning here is we figured lots of flags will allow somebody who advances slightly further to get a little bonus.


Dont know how detailed of a DAR I will do on both games. But hopefully I will show some highlights, and I will definitely get to make fun of Pete.

[Colonel Talvela]

Turn 3 Action
email from Leto
Was it something along the line of: “I think I’m going to get bitten to death by a thousand ducks?”

I didnt really understand what that meant til I watched the movie. Knowing Leto I should have feared the worst.


Oh my. I think I am in trouble...
I count 27 vehicles. I assume there is 1 more to make 7 platoons of 4. I opened up with two of my 6 AT guns, and I think I killed 1 vehicle. Not good. I hate to think of trying to kill 25 vehicles with molotovs.

All that tin-can armor cost him 800 of his 1700 assault points (they are all greens). But that still leaves him enough to buy a battalion of infantry.

I guess he and the Coil were consulting each other when they purchased.

[Colonel Talvela]

Turn 6 Action
email from leto:
Wow… those little cruisers sure do reveal the foxholes.

Leto is driving these little 20mm tanks around at will. it is actually quite comical. Would be more so if I had a way to kill them, but I dont.

[The Coil]

I guess he and the Coil were consulting each other when they purchased.

Hopefully, for your sake, he took my tactical advice, too...

[Colonel Talvela]

Turn 11 Action
email from Leto:
The Ducks of Death march on…

And they definitely do. Picture Braveheart and the heavy calvary charge - only I dont have any pikes to defend myself. He just lined up the tin-cans and rolled through the scattered trees. To be honest it was hilarious, even though my men were getting routed.

At the end of the turn the first of the 170mm mortars fall, and you can see their destruction in the picture below.



Fortunately I had three units at those locations, but decided that he was going to drop the artillery there, so I moved them. so let him bomb away

I did get one moment of triumph.


4 down - 26 to go. Unfortunately if you add up all my guns and molotovs, I dont even have 26 left - sigh. There is just nothing I can do about those little devil ducks.

I have give Leto credit, he did a masterful job with his kit selection. It was a good bet I wouldnt get enough guns to deal with those things. Russian troops dont have any means of killing them. And the cheap 37mm guns that can take out BT7 tanks, have a really hard time killing these italian tanks. I have to use a side shot to even have a chance. Completely unexpected and lots of fun - every turn I laugh.

[Colonel Talvela]

Turn 13 Action
the madness continues. I cannot kill his armored duck fleet, but am doing pretty well against his infantry



Here you can see he managed to get two squads barely across the road. I have a HQ unit that could have fired on those two squads, but decided against it. Look at the covered arc. My hope was he would send a couple more squads across the road in support, and my HQ would easily eliminate them on the pavement. Well he never sent them across, and my squad in the heavy building was able to eliminate 1 of the units in the trees and route the other. So that still turned out good for me.

Also you can see in the pick I X'd out one of the crack 150sp guns that I was able to get an inf kill on. that should be some good points for me.
________________--

Here is the battlefield at the end of 13. His two inf groups circled in blue shouldnt be able to make it much further than they are. his two inf groups on the right circled in brown have some open ground in front of them, but will encounter some resistance before they get to anymore flags.



His tank in the foreground (circled in yellow) is the little bastage that I thought I KO'd with a molotov. He sat still for two turns then decided flaming gasoline wasnt too bad and took off again.

Both guns got penetrations this turn. 1 got three side penetration on one tankette, but it kept on moving. unbelievable. definitely will never buy these 37mm AT guns. They were only 18 points. for 26 points i could have gotten the 45mm AT gun that would have done much better. Live and learn.

[Colonel Talvela]

Turn 14 Action
email from Leto:
Somehow you just knocked out 5 tanks with one gun… I just lost this game.

My gun onthe right (highlighted in red in the picture on the previous post) fired off probably 10 shots this turn. Hit everytime. I can just picture Leto going nuts thinking how can a good be so lucky. What he doesnt know is that his little armored ducks are sitting on a TRP and the hit chance in 99% because of the boresighting. I really want to tell him that he is sitting on a TRP, because I hate it when people start losing and getting down (I know people that love grind their competition into the dirt - I'm not like that in any sport/game). But hill will definitely move away from that spot if I do that, so I will just leave him thinking I am the luckiest CM player to ever have lived - which I am pretty sure he already does.

Anyway, he said I KOd 5 tanks, but I am pretty sure I KOd 3 and caused two to go shocked and maybe have gun damage. That gun might take out two or three more little ducks this turn.

And I finally got a confirmed molotov kill by a conscript SMG team. :kill:

So I have killed 8 afvs. He had 30. He still has plenty to park one next to every flag and I cannot do anything about it.

[jawsconan]

Hi, Colonel

You wrote "his little armored ducks are sitting on a TRP"

Question : what is a TRP ?
what do you mean here ? is it about the cover arc ?

:)

[McIvan]

A target reference point, those things you use to call down artillery quickly. They also provide a BIG accuracy bonus within a 20-30 metre radius as long as the shooter (such as an AT gun) has not moved in the scenario.....the rationale being they have measured the exact distance from their starting location to the TRP.

[jawsconan]

Well, you mean TRPs improve AT guns accuracy. Are they the same TRPs used for artillery ? or is there another type of TRP (that i wouldn't know existence...) dedicated to AT guns ?
And do AT guns need to have LOS on this TRP to have the benefit of these improvements ?
If you could clear my spirit :)

cheers.
Jawsconan