Main Event V: Owl vs. Der Kuenstler

[Joonny]

Turn One

From DK's POV first



DK has left his infantry and his MGMC as a blocking force on the road in the scattered trees, while pulling back halftracks to secure the mayors house.



He tried to rush TF-C across the open ground but they got pinned down by HMG fire from KG-B.

TF-D was given a mixture of MTC and Run orders, OWL hasn't spotted this TF yet so their movement is unimpeded yet.

TF-E Is being sent on a flanking mission with move to contact orders. It looks like they have a good chance of getting down the side of OWL undetected but it is only a PLT in strength so may not be able to do that much damage.



TF-B is being moved forward on MTC orders, no contact so far.

TF-A is being moved forward on MTC and Run orders, no contact so far.



Now this is an interesting move, DK has ordered his mortars to open fire on one of the treelines on the opposite side of the map. I know I generally try and hold my mortar fire until I know it will be put to best use. Most of these mortar rounds fall harmlessly but they did manage to pin and even panic a few units from KG-B.



Now from OWL's POV

He sent me this screenshot which i feel best shows his movement plans.





Owl has sent his recon forces straight for the Town Square. I had hoped both players would rush straight for this and we would have a brutal fight on the first turn, no luck there.



A shot from OWLs POV at the end of turn 1, he has managed to move most of his units unharrassed but this is more than likely due to the fact that DK has put short cover arcs (~250m) on all his MMG teams.

Comments so far?

[Joonny]

This just in from DK

My initial plans...

Owl is a very dangerous player. I've found that if I do what I usually do against him he anticipates it and counters it. So therefore in this battle I'm doing the opposite of what I might do in order to throw him off. I would normally line up my AFVs with riders on the paved roads as they would get to town the quickest that way. After examining the map more, I see that Owl has LOS to each of the roads from scattered trees up on his hill to the northwest. I'm guessing that surely he will put some AT guns in those trees in an attempt to hit my vehicles before they even get moving. Therefore I have put HQs and mortars on my hill to the Southwest and will target the trees where I think his guns likely are. Meanwhile, my tanks and riders will enter town through the grass to the south, where he has no initial LOS. In addition, I see the map logically says we will both be fighting for the central flag. Since that is what I believe Owl expects me to do, I will not even contest the central flag but instead go for his two flags to the east of town. My armored platoon in town will refrain from rushing to the central flag and instead hold back and defend the western flag in the woods until help gets there. If all goes my way I hope to end up with 6 of the flags around the town's perimeter vs his three.

So it seems both players have expected the other to buy ATGs, but neither has really bought anything major to counter this which seems strange to me.

[cargol]

Judging from what OWL said DKs purchase served its purpose,which it was to
get him off balance with a not expected force mix.
We have to see if in the tactical field these purchase will work.

[Joonny]

Turn 2 Is done

Comments from Players

Remarks Owl:


* Some minor traffic jam in the Pzrpioneer Plt in the city. In this unit a member of a Flamethrower inside a halftrack was killed although the halftrack was buttoned up!
* StuH didn't fire their smoke shells (strange because they had a time of about 12 seconds before the movement started)
* received a mortar barrage of small shells. Counted 50+ explosions so der K must have grouped his mortars. (think they are US 60mm and I expect that there are at least 9!!) How did der Kuenstler now the position of this 2 platoons??????
* Noticed the Us Halftracks back up to the mayor house, pick up more infantry??? Didn't spot his pioneer platoon, probably waiting in the large wooden houses.
* Observed an infantry platoon running from the south. My HMG opened up fire and I think the unit was split.
* Observed an unknown element from the south west in the scattered trees.
* On both last elements I planned area fire with the 81mm mortars to disrupt enemies advance.
* One halftrack send to south side of the village also to get eyes on this platoon.

Conclusion: My 1st turn did going according plan. I don't have to do major changes.


DK:

I see Owl has decided to bring men on the East paved road on tanks. This will complicate my plans as he will no doubt be sitting on those flags first. I'm also picking up sound contacts of more enemy tanks coming down from the north. This means I'm probably outnumbered 2-1 in AFVs. I'm not too worried at the moment as from my tanks' position I can take on half of them at a time, and with my engineer battalion almost every unit I have can kill a tank if close enough.

Screenshots and my analysis to follow tomorrow.

[Joonny]

Note from owl



This HT actually became bogged on open ground and then rolled onto the road, not exactly realistic though.

[Joonny]

Lots of screenshots for you Ladies and Gents! (do we have any ladies on here? lol)

TF-C is taking a battering, it's lost all semblance of formation, I don't know what the Plt HQ is doing but he's lost command with most of his squads



DK Tries to be cheeky and advance his pinned men with a withdraw order but he is punished for it when an 81mm Round lands next to them and they break straight away



The perils of wet ground is shown here as in DK's haste he bogs down one of his shermans, apart from that TF-D and TF-E are moving along nicely, Owl has yet to spot any of these units



TF-B is coming under fire from 81mm mortar fire, Owl hasn't spotted this so he must have used his best judgement to guess where DK would be moving.

He also seems to be rushing some HTs back up to TF-A to mount up presumeably the FTs.



This shows the 81mm fire plan



DK has changed his 60mm mortar fire plan to rain down on the PzIVs, this causes the infantry mounted on the tanks to get shaken up a bit.



The Co HQ loses it's officer and makes a run for it



And at the end of the turn several units have been pinned or at least shaken up



A good example of FOW here, DK sees 2 of Owls PzIVs as a tiger and a panther



DK has spotted the PzIVs and has sound contacts on KG-C



(continued due to image restrictions)

[Joonny]

Owl as a good foothold on the town square, but this is mainly due to the fact that DK has decided not to go for this yet



Owls units from KG-B that were panicking at the end of the last turn have rallied slightly due to the 60mm mortar fire stopping, but they are now seperated from the rest of KG-B and it may take Owl a while to get them to re-group.



Owl has withdrawn two of his HTs to pick up an MG42 and CoHQ from KG-C but one of them has got bogged.



So we're still maneuvering into position at the moment, no major contact and virtually no combat. Neither player has gained the upper hand yet but this is to be expected at such an early stage.

Both players have pulled HTs back from the recon force to pick up assets that had no transport at the start.

Both players have sent a flanking force down their opponents left side, will be interesting if both of these forces succeed as we will have a double flank situation going on where the battle will spin 90 degrees.

Comments anyone? This includes comments on my commentating skills, this is the first DAR i have done of another players match so any advice/(constructive) criticism is welcome!

Also I see we have over 150 views of this thread already, not bad!

[cargol]

Very Good reading so far Joony!
Keep up the good work :)
As for the battle its too early for predictions i think but both of the
players are really skilfull and are taking advantage if every single unit in their arsenal.
Good use of indirect fire from both of them.

[Joonny]

Turn 3 Completed, not too much to report

DK's sherman has become unbogged and now seems to be reversing off.
TF-D is advancing well, the lead elements are in the "housing estate"

TF-C seems to have recovered somewhat, one squad is still broken but the Plt HQ is nearly back in command of the rest of the Plt.



Notice the smoke near the PzIVs, Owl has smoked this area out but strangely so has DK, he is still firing one or two mortars down here but they cause no damage this turn.

The Inf Plt that isn't mounted in KG-A looks like it's walking into trouble, it's heading for the "housing estate" where a CO of engineers and a plt of shermans is waiting for them, also TF-E is about to flank them.



It's starting to look like DK is getting the upper hand, but still too early to tell

[Joonny]

Very Good reading so far Joony!
Keep up the good work :)
As for the battle its too early for predictions i think but both of the
players are really skilfull and are taking advantage if every single unit in their arsenal.
Good use of indirect fire from both of them.

Cheers cargol, nice to know it's appreciated, keeps me going :)