A Legend Is Born DAR (Now completed)

[Crossroads]

A Legend Is Born
by Don M. Fox.

Games played: 28 (46-11-43)
Turns: 40. First side Axis. Ground: Dry. Visibility: 2 (Very thick fog)

(I nicked this cool pic from Lorraine 1944 book - sorry...)

September 19, 1944 Arracourt, France (Best played human vs human, or as Allied vs AI) During the third week of September, the 4th Armored Division penetrated the line of the Moselle River, and executed a double envelopment of the German forces defending the city of Nancy. It was a classic example of armored exploitation, as CCA/4 swept around the north side of the city, and CCB/4 advance around the south. While the trailing infantry divisions dealt with the defenders of Nancy and secured the bridgeheads across the Moselle, the 4th Armored was ordered to hold their positions east of the city. Their activity was limited to strong rear-area raids, and the establishment of outposts at the farthest reaches of their advance. As this action was taking place, Hitler was preparing to launch his own counterattack against the 3rd Army. It was originally designed to carry the 5th Panzer Army all the way to Reims. But faced with the encirclement of the bulk of the 553rd VG Division at Nancy, the collapse of the Moselle line, and the piecemeal early commitment of various elements of the 5th Panzer Army, the objective was changed. The 5th Panzer Army's mission was now the relief of Nancy and the destruction of the 4th Armored Division in its positions east of the river. On September 18th, the Germans launched a strong attack against Luneville (off the southwest corner of your map). Alerted by this display of force, as well as the sound of running engines and reports filtering in from civilians regarding massed German armor to the southeast of CCA/4, "Patton's Spearhead" stood ready on the foggy morning of September 19. Little did they know that this would be a day that would provide the cornerstone for the their reputation as the best armored division in the ETO.

Having pretty much completed my chronological tour of Normandy, I was wondering what would be the next theme for my WF gaming.

Thanks to Hawk, as he first picked Across the Seine, then this one, I will immerse myself on Don M Fox scenarios following the trails of Patton's Fourth AD in thier famed drive towards East.

We are now into turn 11 in this one, and what fun it has been.

I like to do my reading while playing these scenarios, and during the Normandy campaign I finished (at least) Beevor's D-Day, Meyer's Grenadiers, Reynolds' Steel Inferno, and some others as well.

While waiting for Don Fox's Patton's Vanguard to arrive from Amazon:

I have read these two books, available free in web.

Barnes Arracourt - September 1944: http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=...tTRDoc.pdf

The Lorraine Campaign, by Hugh M Cole, and its Chapter V, Arracourt tank battle: http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/l...ntent.html

Those documents have given me a nice historical background on the battles and troops that fought there. The local Discovery Channel has also ran the Greatest Tank Battles series from Canadian History channel. I have thoroughly enjoyed watching them. Arracourt was included, and given the series has always interviewed surviving veterans from both sides, it provided for some very emotional moments as the grim tale of this little known battle was told.

Given the absolute battering the Germans received at Arracourt, in one of the largest tank battles in ETO, I fit nicely the German player as historically they were suffering from a low morale as well...

In addition of playing the scenario, I opted to have some other goals as well.

The tactics...no, amateurs discuss tactics,.... Professional soldiers study logistics.

I will try to concentrate on undestanding The CS Supply rules and, in addition, the CC optional rule. I created this thread for further discussion on Supply: https://www.theblitz.club/message_boards...?tid=57740

Finally, I am playing this scenario blind as a bat. As always. I just enjoy these like that, with very little knowledge of enemy apart from what is available in the scenario description. :kill:

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TURN 1: INTO THE BATTLE

First, some key decisions:

Regarding the DAR, I will faithfully reproduce my thinking with a delay of some 10-12 turns compared to where we are at in the scenario.

The US forces were quite succesful in anticipation of German movements with the information they received from the French population and German POWs. I will gladly allow my opponent with that intel. 10 turns can be an eternity in this game.

I do not guarantee that the information on my main plan is accurate anymore, though! :kill:

One of the (many) deciding factors for deciding the outcome of this battle was the very flexible command chain of the US forces, compared to micro management of the Nazi High Command on the other side. Therefore, I will obey my intepretation of the scenario description to full.

Firstly, I will seek and destroy the US forces at Arracourt, and not concentrate at all on the exit hexes. Later, as there are 40 turns in this scenario, should I still have forces available, I will try to open a relief route to Nancy.

Arracourt, with its high ground, was able to monitor the main highway to Nancy, it is important that this area will be neutralised as a prelude to reliving Nancy.

Therefore, my goal is to meet, engage and destroy the US forces at Arracourt and relieve the high ground around it.

In order to do that, I made the following plan:



With my KG A (Kampfgruppe A), I will advance through the main North-South highway. I will try to engage the enemy very aggressively with my forward units, while at some point I will swing to West with the main force. KGA will advance to Arracourt, with orders to secure the high ground on its way forward.

My KG B will advance North and has orders to aggressively engage any enemy units it will face. KGB will have the task of securing the high ground South of Arracourt.

Arracourt lies in the plateau, well protected with surrounding rivers. Much of the initial fun was to figure out the proper way to approach the town, and my conclusion was that it is absolutely vital I can capture the main bridge, East of town, in working condition. Otherwise I will need to make a long detour via South in order to be able to reach the 3000 VP at Arracourt.



It was not until a few turns ago I realised these are shallow rivers, and they can be crossed anywhere. All this expectation for a Bridge Too Far for nothing. Bummer! :hissy:

[Crossroads]

TURN 5: MANTEUFFEL'S VANGUARD

A detail from turn 5:



The Greatest Tank Battles series, and the two episodes on Kursk explained the German Panzerkeil formation.

From Wiki: The panzerkeil was an offensive formation used by armoured vehicles, most commonly tanks. The tanks would form into a wedge-shaped formation, with the most heavily armed and armoured vehicles forming the tip. At the battle of Kursk, Tiger Is (Panzer VIE) would form the tip, Panthers (Panzer V) the base (where available), with the Panzer IVs and Panzer IIIs forming the wings.

The previous turns have witnessed a series of armour engagements, with both sides having larger concentrations of tanks facing each others. Not without losses, I have managed to maintain an upper hand with my Panthers in the middle, and mkIVs in the flanks and behind.

My opponent opted to play this with AF=on. While it was discussed on another thread that this scenario would be more suited for AF=off, at Arracourt the US tanks and TDs ambushed German armour in hordes, from flanking hull-down positions. By turn 10, my opponent has shown he is more than capable of emulating that as well

Visibility is only two hexes, those long 75 mills will not give me an advantage against Shermans 75/76mills. Lots of Stuarts around as well. The lack of friendly recon units is a pain.

I am not complaining, though. The option would be facing a gazillion of P-47 air attacks, as the Allied made a wreck of any German unit they spotted when skies opened up.

Luftwaffe was completely missing from the battle, once again.

I am already forced to use my mortar and arty halftracks for recon, I keep loosing them as well. Valuable VPs lost! :(

With morale 5 units, Leaders must be nearby to rally any disrupted units and have them continue going forward. East front awaits any cowards who will not do their part in this fight! On this turn, I made a note of 0/10 units recovering from disruption...

TURN 6: LOW MORALE, EMPTY STOMACHS

With a base supply of 60%, those all important Battalion HQs may not be far behind either. Leap frogging them forward is quite a task.

Pictured below, I have the Bn HQ of my Panther Brigade stationary on an IP. Road movement helps a lot, but still it is i) move ii) out-of-supply iii) in-supply-if-lucky turn sequence for my troopers. While the Panthers do enjoy a thick frontal skin, their fangs are seriously blunt here.



As shown in the picture, even on a narrow front, tanks on flank duty are outside the command and supply range. The mk IV HQ is in the same IP, the command range for those lighter skinned cats is the same. As you can see, some of them are within supply range, some are not.

In addition, there's the Regimental HQ, supplying all the Battalion HQs. It needs to be in supply, for the Bn HQs to have a chance? I have no clue. Need to visit the thread again: https://www.theblitz.club/message_boards...#pid336112

Oh, there's the CC rule as well. All other platoons need to be within a 50% range of a Bn HQ from their 1st platoons, in order for the chain-of-command to work.

There's a Leader stacked in the same IP hex as the two HQs, he should add to the command range the same number of hexes his Commander level is. This is helping, but again, with morale 5 units, the leaders are busy dashing around the battlefield, keeping thinds moving.

Quite a logistical nightmare, I tell you. Loving it!

The US artillery has caused a lot of casualties. While I have a nice ratio on tank kills, on VPs we are pretty even.

I have not kept a track of VPs at this point of time... Onwards and forwards, that is the order of the day!

I assume I need to keep this a bit abstract for a while still, as at least I am for the most part still trying to figure out where the enemy is...

...to be continued

[Crossroads]

TURN 8: A LEAP OF FAITH

They key bridge to Arracourt is marked with a X. If I can capture that in tact, the entry to Arracourt is open from East. Unfortunately(!), I just realised when drawing this picture these are shallow rivers only, bridges are not needed.

Oh well, I will try to capture the bridge in tact just for fun :chin: For a while, this certainly felt like A Bridge Too Far type of an engagement!

The first shells have dropped in the vicinity, but I hope they are expecting that I would be coming from the south east, where my left flank has fought a couple of skirmishes with US forward elements.

I am still maintaining a strict fire control with my SPAs, in order not to give away their position.

My advance must has been noticed by now, at least to some extent, but I remain hopeful the US recon units have not yet been able to report this is indeed the real thing they are witnessing.

My recon units are scouting a safe route forward in the plateau. They have seen no-one, but that doesn’t mean they themselves would not have been spotted. The spotting rules work very nicely, as it is not until the whole turn sequence has been completed you can see what is in your LOS.

Meanwhile, by the main highway, I still have a few tanks spread out, seeking to contact the enemy and cause some confusion.

TURN 9: ONWARDS AND VORWÄRTS

Some minor skirmishes at the exit hexes in North. I hope the enemy continues to keep a force there, guarding the area.

Artillery does not cause big casualties this time, most of it hits the high ground on my left flank, marked with a dotted red ellipse. Good, that would be the logical place to advance, but I am relying on fog and surprise of a direct approach.

So far I have not lost any of my commanders to artillery. Great, I can continue to have them around rallying any disrupted troops.

My turn starts at -4VP and ends with not a lot of action to 7VP.

Enemy armour hit me unpunished. I need to bring my infantry to stop that. Seen a lot of US engineers so far, do not want to engage them with tanks.

With logistics having been my theme for this battle, here is the current situation:

- I have just brought my Bn HQs forward over two turns, while keeping my Reg HQ in place. The latter is now in supply, and hopefully during the next turn the Battalions are brought into supply as well.
- HQs marked with an orange ellipse, units out of supply at this stage are highlighted.

SPAs continue to advance quietly, while I try to make a racket on my left flank with infantry and their 81mm mortars they have for close support.

At the end of Axis movement turn 9, the losses are: US: 90 SPs, total of 341 VPs. Axis: 76 SPs, total of 315 VPs. My VP advantage has been in slow but steady decline. The enemy artillery continues to be a major threat, something I have to think about planning any of my moves.

Plan for next turn: Panzers Halt!, and have the supporting infantry finally catch up with them.

[Crossroads]

TURNS 10-13 A CALM BEFORE THE STORM

KG B, responsible for securing the high ground on my left flank, is having skirmishes with US forces. The GIs seem to have a lot of Engineers, I have to be quite cautious with my armour.

I have not tried to encircle US troops as of yet, I have been happy to push them back with my units there, in order to hide the strength of my main force advancing through the plateau.

Most of the burning oil is caused by enemy artillery hitting my halftracks. Some tank duels, but nothing in the scale that went on in the beginning of the scenario.

I have continued to not use any of the indirect fire capable units in my main force. For a couple of turns now, most of the artillery is hitting the left flank. While the enemy knows I am here, I still hope he is not aware it is my main force lurking just outside his LOS...



Here’s the overall situation at the end of Axis movement, turn 11.

As I found out the rivers are crossable, you can see I am not considering the high ground my first objective anymore. Instead, I am putting all my eggs to one basket in a direct approach to Arracourt.

Again, I wish the rivers would have been uncrossable, for more ”realistic” battle plans being called for? Then again, I do not know anything about the area, maybe the rivers were not that bad? What I’ve seen from telly (The Great Tank Battles), I would assume I am getting a bit of an easy ride here…

I’ve established a defensive perimeter to protect the flanks and rear of my Battle Groups. I know the enemy is using his armour in a concentrated manner, meaning my lone tank platoons would be brushed aside. But atleast I would get an early warning from his approach. Mk IVs on guard duty are marked with a red ellipse.

I am especially concerned about the road network on my right flank, and have allocated a stronger defense there. If he comes from South instead, well, he has found the soft underbelly of my formations. :conf:

Some other observations:
- All 4 Bn HQs continue to be out of supply, although my Regimental HQ is not.
- My infantry still not close enough to begin the assault to Arracourt. Historically, most German troops went fighting immediately upon their arrival to scene. The history will repeat itself here.

The strong US artillery continues to be of concern.



Here’s a view on my depot area. My Regimental headquarters has found a nice place out of harms way. Most of the damage done here – and there is a lot! – was caused by indirect fire by the map. I am quite sure I was not spotted at that time, but who knows…?

I am not a fan of ROEs outside the Blitz rules of engagement. I am happy to remove units from the map, if I feel that would be the logical thing to do.

Here, I am putting an extra effort to have all the units taking part of this attack, as my orders were to first, secure the Arracourt high ground, and then, to continue the push towards Nancy (the exit hexes).

Also, when studying this battle, the 4th AD succesfully ambushed several German depots, head quarters and workshops as a result of their very flexible and mobile fighting. It is only historically correct to allow my opponent with a chance to do just that.



As my troops continue to move cautiously towards the attacking positions, I wish the next enemy artillery phases would miss me. My morale 5 units have proven to be very difficult to rally once they are disrupted.

Lots of tank action during the turn. Enemy recon elements are ambushed in two location at my rear area, leaving the battered Stuarts leaving the battle, possibly to return later.

The enemy 37 mm (57 mm?) AT fires from Juvrecourt, destroying two tanks from my mkIV platoon. The enemy on my southern flank continue to harrass my advance as well. To make things worse, I manage to mistakenly click my halftracks to a hex I only wanted to check for visibility. They do not live to tell of my erraneous ways.

I will see a lot more from these pesky AT gunners as a deploy a small battle group towards establishing a road block to the major road running North from Arracourt. I know the enemy has tanks and some infantry near the exit hexes, and they might very well be sent to South to provide relief for the troops at Arracourt.

I have begun a consolidating of units into a smaller perimeter area to make my flanks easier to defend. I moved my Reg HQ forward, and propably move them again, as they are still far behind. My Bn HQ command range is an issue as well. I need to move them forward as well.

The timing for this repositioning is very bad, it seems I will begin the assault to Arracourt with units dropping out of supply as they fire.

Additionally, as I prepared this picture, I realised I have a gaping hole in my rear area, and having seen enemy tanks there a few turns earlier I became quite concerned whether my security has already been compromised.

H-hour: -6 minutes and counting!

[Crossroads]

TURNS 14-20 INTO THE BATTLE

Turn 14 H-hour! My plan is to attack Arracourt from Northeast, while having the panzers using the paved road for close support.

Enemy artillery hits the ground behind my forward troops. As my troops start to move cautiously forward, I wish the next enemy artillery phase does the same.




Turn 15. Fat chance! The US artillery hits me particularly hard! I must have lost four or five tanks to artillery this turn alone.

Separately, North of Arracourt, I lost my last armed half track to enemy Hellcats, ambushing them from a forest hex near the road. My tanks, hiding in a hull-down position near by, took a swift revenge. Road cleared!

The attack on Arracourt is about to begin. I have taken a town hex providing a view of Arracourt, soon under siege.

To provide a left pincer for my attack, I quickly brought the units responsible for securing the left flank of my advance to front line, with orders to attack Arracourt from South.



I have by now located the general whereabouts of US artillery. North of Arracourt, I sent a Panzer company to deal with the artillery deployed behind the forest of Bezange La Grande. Little did I know I will run into a US relief force, that will slowly push their way towards Arracourt.



Turns 17 and 18 witness some hard fighting as the noose around Arracourt tightens. The US troops fight bravely, with great support from artillery. In the beginning of turn 17 I had a positive VP tally of 37 points, swinging into -54 in a course of just two turns.

Worryingly, I am running out of smoke shells.



At the end of turn 20, the siege of Arracourt is truly on.

Without much cover nor smoke, it is a difficult task to assault and capture the GIs, dug in in the safety of the town. VPs go to -80 at their worst.

I was able to just have enough units to make one concentrated assault on the non-objective town hex, but it failed. With plenty of armour available, I will continue to soften them up. As an observation, the enemy is now only using smoke to cover the main target hex, meaning they propably do not have a limitless stack of smoke shells either.

US platoons show up in my rear. I welcome the hostiles with the two mkIV platoons left for rear guard duty. US relief force from North continues to push towards Arracourt, but I am in the process of stabilising the front there.

The terrain provides grim proof for the strength of enemy artillery. With the lack of supply, I typically have half of the friendly tubes empty of ammo - and there isn't that many of them to begin with!

Not much of the plan left. Just stay the course and try to oust the pesky Amerikäner from Arracourt!

[Crossroads]

TURNS 21-24 THE BATTLE FOR ARRACOURT

Turn 21: The US artillery prove to be a major pain, disrupting my troops, forcing them to retreat. Just not enough officers to rally them.

The noose is tightening around Arracourt city center, where the GIs are putting up their last stand. A succesfull assault conquered the hex west of them, while a just ridiculous amount of direct panzer fire cleaned the hex northeasto to them.

US troops arriving from north, where elements of disrupted platoons are ordered to hold them at bay. Additionally, I have ordered my tanks to break west to find-and-destroy the US artillery units. Last such effort resulted in a complete bloodpath – on my troops. Spreading out too thin is a big mistake in this foggy map!

From -76 VP to -28VP this turn.

Turn 22: 1 platoon out of 20 recovered from disruption! All disrupted units highlighted in the previous pic. It seems the advance towards Arracourt, after all, was the easy part!

Friendly US artillery causes one of the enemy engineers to retreat into IP east of Arracourt centre. They get hit from all sides, and all 5SPs of them are destroyed by the end of turn. Three platoons remain at Arracourt. I manage assault them once, failing with no casualties to either side. I plot friendly artillery to hit the hex again.

Meanwhile, enemy tanks appear from South, as well as from North, with enemy infantry attacking my rear far in East. I get a feeling I just managed to seal off Arracourt in time, before the US relief troops were able to march in.

I try to find the enemy artillery in the West. During the enemy turn I found out (again!) that they are protected by a platoon of Hellcats. I loose a few tanks.

-61 VPs.

Turn 23: I fire smoke again to cover my hexes in the city. After that, three arty rounds hit the defendes, resulting in one disruption.

To keep the pressure on, I pound the defenders, hiding in the smoke, time after time with the MG units and tanks that I have in the vicinity: one disruption only!

Never willing to let my spirits go down, I order my troops (those that are not disrupted, that is) to fix their bayonets:



First assault! One SP killed from the defenders. Second assault: Arracourt falls to my troops!!! WOO-HOO!



(EDITORIAL NOTE: I did not take any screen captures turning 23, as in contrary to what I wrote down, I was quite pessimistic on being able to take Arracourt in the midst of the heavy enemy arty. I actually managed to take the hex on my FIRST assault, on this re-enactment. Extreme Assault, I fear thee no more!)

(ON ANOTHER NOTE: the troops I had were one SP2 Pzg platoon from Northeast, and one SP3 and two SP5 Pzg platoons from the Southwest. Not a lot of firepower, but still plenty enough it seems.)

(EDITORIAL NOTE #3) By mistake, I actually re-played turn #22 (!) for these screen shots, in a manner that I was facing 2 armd infs and 2 engineers, and still was succesful... A true situation for the #23 assault, and additional discussion on EA, can be found here: https://www.theblitz.club/message_boards...#pid338663)

TURNS 25-30 MOPPING UP THE ENEMY

Turn #26 starts at 2991 VP. I sent my panzers to actively engage enemy tanks. North and South of Arracourt they do that, just marvelously. I have to say, playing this with AF=ON, I have a feeling I can ride anywhere with my Panthers as the tip of my Panzerkeil:

At Harlauville, my panzergrenadiers engage with a Hellcat platoon. I sent an understrength Panther platoon to deal with them. Hellcats, having used their other salvo at my grenadiers, see the other salvo bounce off the Panthers frontal armour. They, in turn, fall to victims to my 75mms from upper elevation



At the end of the turn the points are at 3070. Losses to both sides have been just hideous, to say the least...

Turn 27: The 4th AD is not about to give up, as a MkIV platoon is destroyd North of Arracourt. Despite of their infantry support, the Sherman platoons are destroyed, infantry forced to retreat, and their two commanders killed.

South of Arracourt, I continue to search for any enemy unit there. Nothing found. West of Arracourt, an infantry platoon spots two batteries of enemy artillery. They aredestroyed by the grenadiers, with the Panther platoon in close support.

The preparation for a push towards Nancy is begun. I am concentrating the remaining panzers to North. I plan to surround and destroy any enemy units I meet, as I don't believe I have enough units to exit for a Major Victory.

VPs: 3187.


Turn 29. Skirmishes all over the map. South of Athienville, a US cavalry platoon takes out my scouting HTs. Infanrty support knocks out one of them, and my single mk IV the rest of them.

M7 Priest’s continue to give me problems west of Arracourt, they just seem to be all around. US artillery is still very strong, despite of my best efforts to knock them down.

Heavy, heavy losses. The smoking columns of German and US vehicles mark the terrain all around Arracourt.



As seen in the map, my forward troops start to advance the road towards Nancy.

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TURNS 30-34 RELIEF OF NANCY

[/quote]

To cut a long story short, the remaining turns continue to be very painful for the remaining few US troops, and to their general :( .

With several little mobile task forces, I just repeated the following time after time:
- recon with a HT, spot the enemy, move in to destroy them with Mk IVs and Vs.

The map is soon cleared all the way to exit hexes, where the sole remaining Engineer platoon is ruthlessly destroyed, together with several US HTs hiding near by.



I have just enough forces to exit enough units for a Major Victory. SPs are at 4005.

I estimate I have some 50 SPs to exit in addition to this, it seems the massacre of hidden US units was needed for this result. While I left some units to defend Arracourt, they were mostly SP 1 or SP2 grenadiers and MG units, with one Mk IV and one Mk V to support them.

What a tough fight this have been! Lots of fun as well!

How we played, I judge this scenario to be quite Pro-Axis. Having said that, it was no walk in the park. I will post my ultimate judgement tomorrow.

[Crossroads]

CONCLUSION

What a fight! Playing this blind, having read the books, I was quite pessimistic about my chances for getting a result here. That, plus the fact I was doing this DAR as I went alone, ment I paid a lot of attention to this game, more than I would normally do.

For the German player, a lot of fun, sneaking through the fog towards Arracourt. The US artillery was the ever present shadow, always there.

Still, should the German player play this safe, I am not sure how the US player can get a result here... I seemed to have been able to seal off Arracourt just before the US reinforcements arrived, and also was able to fight them in a piecemeal fashion, always having my battlegroups together to punch hard when necessary.

I feel this scenario is not so balanced as the statistics would point out. I played Across The Seine before this, again a scenario that seems to be fairly balanced, and failed just miserably, so take these comments with a pinch of salt, as we say.

I do recommend playing this with AF=OFF, to nullify the forward facing Panthers a bit.

Also, I was a bit disappointed on the shallow rivers around Arracourt. Maybe the designer could throw out a versio where the rivers are deep, so that the bridges would play a more important role. There would be enough turns for the German player having enough time for a detour...

With these caveats, highly recommended!

[RADO]

I agree with your conclusion regarding the play balance. Having played this a couple of times as the Allies, I just do not see any way for them to win if the Axis player is competant.

Evidentely, the people that have posted Allied wins in this scenario obviously see something that I have failed to see!

[PawelM]

I agree with your conclusion regarding the play balance. Having played this a couple of times as the Allies, I just do not see any way for them to win if the Axis player is competant.

Evidentely, the people that have posted Allied wins in this scenario obviously see something that I have failed to see!

Hi Guys,

i totally agree with your verdict on balancing. I am half way through playing this as allies and I think allies do not stand a chance when playing against a german opponent of equivalent skill.

[Crossroads]

I can see the pictures even when browsing as a Guest. Anyone else having problems?