German Campaign using War Cab

[Imp]

Turn 16 End

Losses are B50:G6 + about 20 men.

The Spitfire took the bait and flew near 5 AA units never reaching its target.
We have had no on map British artillery for a while now but one Halftrack was hit by off map, both it & the passenger died. Otherwise trip was uneventful till approached the hilltop.

MkIV's engaged the Stuart's killing 2 but the 3rd fired dischargers, M10 did not fire they are taking pot shots at infantry now so no MG's by the look of it.
As the smoke from the dischargers screened the Panthers from a good portion of the tanks I decided to kick things off.

Still wanted the Sturmpanzer on the hill first & the squads on the South side were only taking mild fire from lower levels. In my excitement found the first Piat but nearly lost the Sturm to a second, luckily it was pinned & missed.
Came over the hill bang into the sights of 2 6Pounder ATG's its damaged but operable. They were quickly dispatched by the squads there but my guys are not doing a good job of finding them - 2 squads 4 hex, 1 3 hex
who has never been shot at so no suppression.
At least no 17Pounders opened up so after that little bit of drama its the Panthers turn.

They are taking what infantry they can with them as eyes & to smoke the flank if needed. So far a Churchill the other fired dischargers & 2 Sherman's, Stuart's discharger smoke blocked sight East of the Sherman's. Hope to take on the Churchill & M10's next as M10's are the most dangerous.
Glad to report its not all down to the Panthers the trailing MkIV saw an opportunity to take on an M10 in a 1 on 1 battle & came out on top.

From fire received looks like there was a platoon between the road & hill & that's it, hence no squads learnt my lesson from the hill.
Found & killed a FOO by my number 2 Gold Spot as infantry exited woods.
Should be safe to transfer a few more units South so Halftracks heading out.

Recon guys are getting a bit of arty support now they have to make contact soon & I forgot to move their MG for a couple of turns so its not turned up. The armour has moved forward under smoke cover & will do so till it passes the mud.

Either the Brits are out of infantry or they have gone for localised defence of the VHexes. Either way the area my artillery has to cover is shrinking rapidly.

Not overly impressed with the 17cm think I will stick to the 10cm in future.
+ virtually immune to counter battery - costs 20% more, no smoke, reduced ROF & HE rounds.
I prefer arty that suppresses rather than kills & taking into account the higher ROF of the 10cm I don't think it kills a lot more overall especially if using against vulnerable units like routers, open top or soft vehicles.
Both have about the same number of fire missions but the 10cm puts a lot more shells down range so more chances to hit offsets lower kill to a degree & produces more suppression. Only drawback in my view is sometimes it has to fire sporadically to avoid CB.
Also & just my luck despite experience in the 80's mine does not CB fire often.

[Mobhack]

Try the 10cm K18 battery (unit 413) if you want a decent long range offmsp bsttery that does not do shell craters. Range of 209 good for CB and less likely to be the subject of same. Range 209 means the UK 5.5in wont reach you, long 4.5in may be the only type to do so.

10cm leFH 30(t) (10cm Batterie) is only 206 range, so several things can reach out and touch it.

[Imp]

That is my go to battery as Germans must have used it a bit learnt the ones I have to worry about for CB
Brit/US 4.5in, 155m or rare 8in - Russian 122mm obr 31 is the other danger if anyone is interested.

[Imp]

Turn 17 update - best laid plans & all that

There has to be a size zero unit within the vicinity acting as a spotter.
Crossing the mud is proving a real issue tanks are targeting & the fire is pretty accurate lost 3 or 4 men trying, bet arty is inbound.
The good news is that revealed 2 new Churchill's on the hill - dash line.

Panthers & MkIV have had to move East for fear of flank shots, one has LOS to a single Sherman.
Placing arty on the new Churchills they are high enough I think to score a top hit which would ruin my day.
I know we can see them from hex shown but squads will move before Panthers to check LOS for them. Most likely action is smoke them out, deal with ground level tanks first then once arty hits them.
Its rarely as simple as you initially think.

Found a 17 Pounder just not where I expected ATG,s are guarding the other flank to.
Moved MkIV to place smoke as fell dispersed & got a surprise as a shell flew past.
Squad shown is only one with a LOS however we may be lucky the squads have not been fired on yet so it may be unsupported. Big question is where is the other one they are hard to spot till they fire.

[Imp]

Turn 19 ongoing
The AI has started moving 1 turn earlier than I would have liked, realised now would probably be a better screenshot than later so partway through turn.
Our artillery is not near the tanks as they moved & majority is plotted to assist the South team.
Smoke has mainly cleared in main area though still a few wisps making gauging LOS tricky.

Some units have moved but main action so far in centre
MG & Sniper have put squad in retreat status (green dash)
Panther & a MkIV got a tank each (lilac dash)
Next moves
MG fire at clustered tanks (yellow)
C - see if MkIV has LOS as long shot, MG will try first still has most of its shots can spray M10
A - Units around here next as described on screenshot
D - Can finish off if needed, probably without taking fire as shots expended by the enemy.
E - Armour here is to take up position so hopefully next turn we can clean up the armour & press on for Vhexes.

Infantry managed to get on the road crossing the mud under cover of smoke but want to keep placement to a minimum now to leave fields of fire open. Chasing runners we have found the British HQ.

South has gone really well first ATG died on 2nd shot & we spotted the second one making life far easier here.
Placed smoke so could deal with it without fire from the squad which will be plastered with artillery shortly. 10cm Batt & several others plotted as was worried about the ATG.

[Imp]

Turn 19 end
Screen shows situation at the end - added blue text which refers to later on.

We managed to take out our targets with shots to spare so MkIV's also took out a Sherman as a bonus.
Damaged one Sherman in AI turn then destroyed all remaining tanks in our next turn.
The hidden Churchill was fast moving (for a Churchill) as we had placed smoke to stop it getting a firing position, MkIV finished it in the end.

As shown there was a infantry platoon defending the South, easy as artillery caused them to retreat however the marksman (M) did not.
Game went to turn 24 before we found him as you can see on the GIF.
British force was totally destroyed no unit on the map.

Decisive Victory - GIF shows we spent half the battle clearing North of the hill but once we attacked the other side progress was rapid.
Maintaining a smoke screen for that length of time without getting a nasty surprise because of a gap is fairly hard though. It was more complex than I expected but in the end MkIV's did pull their weight & got quite a few kills.

[Imp]

The next few battles were are at Casino, bigger mountains, mud & intermittently snow so I skipped them as done that & want to get to June when the Allies become far more dangerous due to APCR ammo being available & the 76mm for the Sherman.
MkIV's weak armour package becomes irrelevant at that point as APCR can penetrate armour 10 out to around 1500m (30 Hex's).
Its April now so having a refit as desire more units that have a reasonable chance of surviving a front hit from Infantry AT weapons before heading to the cluttered terrain of Normandy.
Done StuG III's so sticking with the MkIV theme we now have the following armour.

7 - MkIV
2 - Panthers
2 - StuG IV
2 - JPz IV/48
2 - Sturmpanzer
1 - StuG(i)

Direct comparison

All have the same gun, fire control, range finder & speed so main gun accuracy & penetration is identical.
MkIV is one size bigger than the rest so at a disadvantage in gun duels especially 1st & 2nd shot.

StuG III & IV are very similar the IV's weak spot is its top armour which is worse than the rest so more vulnerable to artillery.
Its also the only one with an AAMG just what you need attract the planes to that weak top (earlier III's had AA)
The StuG III's main drawback is its ammo load especially HE for infantry support however the 2 MG variant shown makes up for that.
I would give the edge to the III & spend the extra point.

JPz IV like the early StuG III's has a short range BMG offset by decent ammo load including HE despite being a Tank Destroyer.
Gets 2 Smoke Discharger shots though because of that role, they might be needed due to the worst armour package of the StuG's.
The extra armour on the superstructure may save it on occasion but is lacking versus infantry AT weapons. No Schurzen fitted & 8 on the front hull rather than 9 means the chance of surviving a Baz or Piat hit drops.
It is however considerably cheaper & has the best crew survivability rating.

Will do next battle in a few days when I get a life back, how people regularly work long hours is beyond me.

[Imp]

April 44

Decided I needed a change so decided to play with T-34's & hopefully a few Soviet heavies as they hit harder in this time period.
As it turns out Sherman would have been dangerous any armour engagement will be close quarters

Outskirts of Odessa visibility 38 & we are assaulting finally.
Marked level 1 hills on the overview, West top area is mainly fields
bottom city continues for around 20 hexes.
HQ & FOO can set up in buildings with LOS shown.

Parking up StuG(I) for the battle & bought 628 points of shortest range off map artillery. Wont use & should not CB but should let the Russians buy another infantry company.

AUX
Spotter Plane
3 Pioneers & a Bulldozer (have 2 Pioneers in core so 5 total)
2 Scouts with SMG
2 Flamethrower Halftracks for fun.
Forgot an ammo dump & extra AA - will add AA to core.

We should be able to get to within about 8 hexes of Russian deploy line undetected by cutting through the blocks.
Only plan after that is find the mines & see how it develops from there, we have 48 turns so could dawdle but would like to do it in about half that.

[Imp]

Turn 6 Start

Well initial task to find a path through the mines is looking like a fail its a pretty extensive minefield I now probably need to decide where to break through.
The good news is after our CB fire Russian artillery seems fairly light - 4 81mm mortars & a 122mm Bat. We should relocate some of our arty now but hoping it goes for the front line so staying put.

So far we have lost 3 men to mines & triggered a bobby trap if you cannot see them on screenshot say.

Apart from the road at A Russians have a squad deployed on all E-W roads, off picture MGs & 3 AA are targeting, one group is taking Mortar fire.
KEY
Blue S - 2 Hidden Squads, SR squad retreated around here.
Green - Underline engineer unit, C cleared mines.
Yellow - Russian artillery
Purple
A - Was aware of mines except around A which have just been discovered hence Pioneer here is in halftrack so he can go to where needed.
Need positions shown to fire on MG so no vehicle support possible till know its safe, can smoke while we find out if needed.
Good secondary breakthrough if light on mines as area is more open allowing multiple vehicle paths & support options. road network makes relocating quick.

B & C - Can fire on enemy however C minefield seems extensive considering pulling out on push at it.
Really need at least 2 Engineer units to clear so possibly relocate.

D - No mines yet, check path in building, this area fairly self contained screened by building & hill.
Removing wire without taking fire should be okay but only 1 hex wide vehicle path.

E - Most promising area for initial breakthrough.
Squad routed without triggering mines so path possibly clear.
2 Pioneers cleared initial path to wire?
Lost LOS to rear squad but heavy firepower here including 4 arty, 2 80 mm Mortars in area so can risk close support if need to & already smoked area off.

Spotter Plane is checking area - now smoke has fallen may move slightly North before mission, it should be safe. Any further missions will require a smoke screen to East to screen AA or risk being shot down, doubt I can spare the arty for it.

[Imp]

Turn 9 Start - Multiple Breakouts

We cleared the initial minefields last turn in most areas due to wide front enemy arty was only a minor issue as spread thin.
We should break out of the last area this turn but the squad that tried took serious fire as marked & lost 7 men so aborted.
Turns out this area is heavily defended there were 8 squads within 5 hexes of the push - heck.
Apart from that we have only lost 8 men plus 1 damaged Halftrack, 6 to mines & 1 to wire I think as couple of squads sped up clearing.
Soviets have lost 7 squads & a HMG we are facing Regular & Guard units but have come across no AT assets yet.

Overview

Main push is to take out marked AA & 2 Mortars so the spotter can fly again, it received more dangerous 37mm fire on that last pass so its side lined for now.
Ignoring map bottom heading for VHexes we can deal with them when they counter attack.
We have moved up around half our artillery so Vhexes are in range.

The action

A - Break out here was easiest light on mines & units, seems clear possibly more mines at next buildings. Otherwise straight forward kill one squad take position on other then into buildings.

B - Again simple pretty sur no mines where shown so move adjacent to kill both squads before finishing the squad for A next go.

C - Err hard going to put it mildly, the lower units have broken out -
Initial one shown following the routing unit was aborted, no mines but at least another hidden squad down there.
Flame HT helped the initial push & is positioned to help the units above exit, the amount of firepower they are about to lay down should produce easy pickings.

Need to be wary moving against the rear squad routers revealed more mines.
So far we have been lucky no vehicle has entered a hex that a squad has only to find it missed the mines.

Looking like the Russians have 2 lines of defence the 2nd defending the VHex clusters.
Things could get exiting when we cross the next road if all its AT assets are deployed there rather than spread about hopefully without the odd mine in the mix.