Subject: Fw: SPWaW AAR part 1(long) steve wrote in message <1b51e2b9.b5d8960c@usw-ex0105-040.remarq.com>... Here's an AAR from a battle in a SPWaW German campaign I'm currently running. It won't be as well written as some of Henri's but at least it gives him a break. I don't know an easy way to compress a 39 turn game into a brief description so I'll be forced to break this up into a couple of pieces. The setting: October 1939, a German assault against unknown Polish forces. 39 turns with the following weather conditions: light rain and a visibility of 22 hexes. The battlefield consists of a mixture of scattered forests and clear terrain with some rolling hills. There is a series of high hills that almost completely bisect the center of the map from north to south in a slightly diagonal fashion from NNW to SSE with some small areas of clear terrain between each group of hills. There are 3 dirt roads (north, central and south) that run from E to W, which cross over the hills and finally intersect a single N/S road deep in the Polish rear near a smaller set of hills that also run N to S. The terrain seems to favor the defender because the majority of the forests lie to the west of the central chain of hills while the land to the east of the hills is relatively clear. There are 5 clusters of VP locations (all Polish) that make a "J" or fishhook shape, starting in the north with one cluster on the eastern slope of the set of hills. The second is directly south of the first VP location but just below the western crest of the middle hill. The third is located just inside the edge of a forest that runs almost up to the slopes of the most southern central hills. A fourth VP cluster is located immediately to the west of the third VP cluster by about 20 hexes and the last group is on an road intersection once again about 20 hexes to the west of the second VP cluster. The Wehrmacht (non-historic) force composition: HQ, HT section, Mot Cyc Inf platoon(3 MC squads), Mech. PG company(50mm motars traded for 37mmAT guns), AC Recon CO(with a mixture of Sdk231-8's and PzIIc's), Mech Rec plt(3 SOPsqds with 3 HT), FO w HT, AA section(2 Sdk10/4), Med. Pz Plt(5 PzIIIe) and a Sup Pz Plt(3 PzIVc). Supporting units: Engineer Plt, 75mm Art Btn w FO, 150mm Art bat w FO, Recon section(3 Kwgn with MG) and a ammo truck section. The Polish force composition: It's unknown at the moment but I've got the preferences setup so that they should have twice as many units as I do and by using my "reconnaissance by Braille" methods I'll soon find out... Deployment: I've never been too fond of the deployment phase because I'm never really comfortable with my decisions but hey," no plan survives contact with the enemy" and I know that the AI would screw it up more so here goes. Most of the ground in front of the central hills is clear terrain and I don't feel very confident about assaulting either of the most northern or central VP locations. Along the northern edge of the map there's a scattering of tree's but not enough to really cover my troops even with the use of a smoke screen. Once the smoke clears an attack on the northern VP cluster, would be exposed to flanking fire from any troops/guns that cover the central VP location. Down south things are slightly better with more tree cover and some small hills which will allow me get within 2 to 3 hexes of the base of the hills that bisect the map. Plus I'll only be taking fire from one hill directly to my front. I decide to deploy the majority of my forces to the south with the Kwgn section in the center and my motorcycle inf to the north. My plan is to break through the Polish lines just below the last of the central hills and roll up their flank from the south, while the Kwgns and motorcyclists act as decoys/recon. Under a cloud of smoke the assault starts. My Spec Op's units lead the way followed by the PzIIIs with the engineer as riders. My 3 grenadier platoons and their HQ, FO's and AA units follow, with the Recon Company covering the right flank. Because I don't have enough HT's for my towed AT guns, I decide to have the light MG's advance on foot with my A0 HQ. Bringing the A0 unit up could be risky but I want it to get experience so I'll take a chance. In the north my MC inf move carefully through the trees towards the Polish lines. The Kwgns spread out and head towards the central VP location in an effort to scout the defending forces. Suddenly the lead Kwgn is taken under fire by a concealed 75mmAA gun. As he swerves a second gun opens up and it's curtains. Yikes, I can't even see where the buggers are firing from, just a terse message with the caliber and hit percentage. The remaining Kwgns fall back and try to get out of range. Luckily they weren't as close as the lead unit and their able to pull back to safety or so I thought! Once the turn ended the most northern of the remaining Kwgn's is fired on by a number of Polish tanks but the range is too great and there's no damage done. I still can't see where they're firing from but I'm glad I didn't assault in the north. On following turns, I continue my southern advance and run right into a line of entrenched inf supported by MG's and AT units. So much for the art of maneuver, the cry of "landsers forward" rings through the air and decent into the maelstrom begins. Covering fire from my vehicles helps but I quickly find out that it's suicide for my unmounted troopers. I reload as many as I can into their HT's and pour more fire into the defenders. My core FO dismounts, and is frantically calling in artillery plots as I bring my recon units up to provide more fire support only to find that the Poles are well entrenched along crest of the southern hill and I'll have to drive the Poles from there as well. I push my PzIII's forward closer to the entrenched enemy and bring up my PzIV's hoping that their 75mm guns will turn the tide. I lose a Sdk231-8 to a hidden AT unit near the crest of the hill and decide to deploy a grenadier platoon and a support FO to assist with its capture. Polish mortars and artillery are beginning to find the range. Damn, my units below the hill are so closely packed I'll get creamed if this goes on too long. Finally I'm able to overrun a MG emplacement which allows me to push my Spec Op's section through and cripes what a mess! A second MG opens up along with a wild shot from an AT team but they both rout when I move another HT between their positions. I dismount the Spec Op's squads and open fire on the retreating Poles eliminating one and forcing the other to retreat further still. My engineer squads are finally close enough to unlimber their flame-throwers and the entrenched Poles get an early taste of hell. Meanwhile in the north, my 3 MC inf squads stumble into a hornet's nest of Poles, which quickly cause them to fall back with minimal causalities. The leader of these motorcyclists must have be relative of Erwin Rommel, because nothing phases him and he always seems to be able to rally his men no matter what! Having totally committed myself in the south, I decide to bring the MC units back to a position where they'll be safer and offer support later on. Back in the south, now that I've managed to punch through, I decide to modify my plan of rolling up the Polish flank. My limited recon attempts in the north seem to indicate that there are a number of unseen forces along the hills in the middle of the map, so I decide to take the rear objectives and then see if I can attack the hills from the rear. I may also be able to entice the AI into leaving its forward positions to save the rear area VP locations. First I must secure as much of the southern hill as I can and I move my PzIV's up to support the grenadier platoons attack. The Recon company is pulled back and joins my other grenadier platoons and together with the Spec Op's platoons and the AA section as they head through the forest towards the fourth VP location. My PzIII's and engineers help clear the final areas on my side of the hill as the A0 and MG units finally arrive and move into position to protect the newly captured VP location. As I attempt to drive down the far side of the hill, I run into more entrenched Polish infantry as well as direct mortar fire. I quickly retreat to the reverse slopes of the hill and dig in my grenadiers with their supporting HT's. The Poles continue to lob un-spotted artillery at the hill but it's more annoying than destructive. By this time, I've taken the fourth VP location (which wasn't defended) and I dispatch the recon company and Spec Op's platoon towards the fifth VP location. With the southern hill somewhat secure, I decide to load the engineers back on the PzIII's and PzIV's and send them down the road to join in the attack on the fifth VP location. In the past, I've found that once the AI loses a VP location it spares no amount of effort to retake it so I deploy a grenadier platoon with the range set to 1, to protect the fourth cluster of VP hexes. I'm hoping that the towed 37mmAT gun will come in handy if the Poles send any tanks to retake it. So far I'm not doing too badly but I can't tell what the AI has up its sleeve. My decoys are holding their own but I got greedy and lost another Kwgn to a minefield when I was trying to kill a 46mm mortar. The crew managed to escape and now I've got them in "stealth" mode, moving 1 hex at a time and searching for bad guys. How long they'll survive is unknown at this point. My advance through the rear continues but unfortunately my troops have gotten somewhat strung out and it will take a couple of turns to get them regrouped. The Sdk231-8's can really cover ground and I don't want to them to running into dug in infantry without any support of their own. As my remaining armor speeds towards the rear they run into a group of Polish tanks and a command car, who are just as surprised as they are and a firefight breaks out. Luckily, only 2 of the 7 Polish tanks are the JP-7's with the 37mm gun. The Polish machinegun tanks spray mine with bullets and my engineer squads bail. I'm forced to rally the whole group and with a combination of AP rounds and flame-throwers, I kill all of them and only losing 4 men from an engineer squad and one of the PzIIIe's loses its main gun. At point blank range the 75mm gun on the PzIV can be deadly. I hear rumors of upgrading the 37mm gun on the PzIII's to 50mm or more and it can't happen soon enough for me (as visions of Tigers and Panthers dance through my head). It really gets old when you're close enough to spit on your enemy and your rounds keep bouncing off. Fearing another armored thrust from the same direction, I leave 2 PzIII's behind along with my battered engineer squad and send the remaining tanks off to join the rest of my forces near the fifth VP location. While all of this is going on, 5 or 6 Polish infantry squads decide to storm my positions on the southern hill. As they bravely hurl themselves across the crest they are met with a withering hail of fire from the grenadiers and HTs dug in there. In a few seconds the squads are reduced to nothing as the survivors drop a smoke grenade and disperse in panic. Finally with my units assembled, I move to seize the fifth VP location. It falls too easily and I'm stumped by all the abandoned emplacements I find but there are no Polish units nearby. Suddenly from a house next to the VP cluster, the Polish A0 emerges and tries to recapture the VP hexes. I'm stunned, first of all, I had no clue it was that close and secondly I have at least 12 vehicles and 7 inf sqds in the vicinity so once again the Poles died bravely. Stay tuned * Sent from RemarQ http://www.remarq.com The Internet's Discussion Network * The fastest and easiest way to search and participate in Usenet - Free! Subject: Fw: SPWaW AAR part 2 (long) steve wrote in message <12d351ec.b6ed907f@usw-ex0105-040.remarq.com>... This was probably just beyond the mid-point of the game and with the death of the Polish A0 unit the Poles went nuts. Of course I didn't have a clue as to what would happen next but I found out in about 3 turns. Now then there were only 2 more clusters of VP's to grab and I was feeling pretty good. My troops were in good order, had plenty of ammo and I really hadn't had to use my artillery all that much so I felt I could really in a position to bring the game to a speedy conclusion. So let's move out! The terrain between the fifth set of VP's and the second set of VP's was wide open with some trees along the central dirt road and a few tree clusters south of the road. There was also a small ridge of hills that ran completely across this clear area in a N/S direction, from about 10 hexes to the west of the fifth VP location and ended at the edge of a patch of forest on the far side of the clear area. Throwing caution to the wind I sent a PzII roaring down the road towards the back of the central VP objectives. Hey maybe this one is undefended too, but it wasn't to be. Suddenly a shot rings out, and then another and then another, BOOM the third time's a charm as my PzII is knocked out. The crew bails, and huddle under their smoldering vehicle and lo and behold, there's 3 Polish 75mm AA guns dug in on the back side of the central hill just to the north of the road. Paybacks are hell and they kept firing and finally were able to kill my crew. Well at least I had an idea of their position, and hey what do you think that FO is for anyway. The loss of the crew calms me down and I decide to deploy around the newly captured VP cluster with my engineer squads laying mines in obvious approach areas (now this is a VERY nice improvement). Before I get my in positions solidified, the first of a series of attacks rocks my troops. A small group of Polish tanks charge in from the NW side of my perimeter and I barely hold them off. They rout one of the engineer squads and it's only with a lucky shot from one of my Sdk231-8's that disables one of the attackers among some burning trees, that prevents them from bursting through the abandoned position. I send a PzIII and a PzIV to reinforce the position and with the help 2 grenadier sqds attacking from the forest drive the Poles back. Just after this crisis passes a second group of Polish tanks slam into the front of my positions. These are anchored along another small tree line and with a hail of 20mm fire from a nearby PzII and a series of close assaults, the grenadiers are able hold them at bay. The Polish artillery becomes more active once again and some of my units begin to rack up suppression under the combined stress of the close assaults and arty fire. I slide my Spec Op's units and FO south under cover of the small ridge of hills I mentioned earlier and ease them over the top 1 hex at a time. What a sight? it looks like all of the Polish Army is headed towards my positions around the fifth VP cluster. Wouldn't you know it, all my arty units are out of contact so for at least a turn or two I'll be without artillery support. In a panic, I decide to detach my AA section from their over-watch positions in the rear and race them up to add support against the Polish infantry. Meanwhile my engineers put the finishing touches on my defensive minefields and then fall back to cover them. At the end of the turn my officers are rallying their men like crazy trying to get them pumped up for the next attack. It comes like the tide rolling in, wave after wave of infantry with a tank or two in support. My PzIV's are firing to a point where it seems like their gun tubes must melt, the Poles stumble into the minefields and the slaughter is great. The AA section arrives just as a Polish infantry squad bursts through the treeline in an attempt to attack my position from the rear. The 20mm guns roar and the Poles dive back through the trees in an attempt to flee. Finally the FO gets the artillery online and the sky is filled with falling shells and just in the nick of time. The Poles fall back and swing to the south through the clear terrain in an attempt to hit us from the south where there are no mines. I've set the range of the 37mm AT gun to 8 and when they open up on the first of the Polish tanks to close on their position, the results aren't quite what I expect. Of 5 shots, the first three ricochet, the fourth damages the turret and the last disables a track. A second Polish tank appears and begins to machinegun the gun crew causing them to abandon their gun. The Polish tank is engaged by the AA section and the clang of 20mm rounds bouncing off the hull, drives it off. I bring up my last two PzIIIs from their ambush positions along the road to the south, in an attempt to attack the remaining Polish armor from the flank and immediately lose one to one of those infernal 75mm AA guns. I sent the surviving crew back to sit with my disabled PzIII to guard the fourth set of VP's and bring the grenadier platoon up. At the same time I decide to send a unit over the crest of the southern hill and see a bunch of Polish squads, heading north to support the central hill. I quickly bring up the rest the defenders and the open fire on the moving Poles but the range is too great and they continue on their way. Now just for the heck of it, I decide to bring my motorcycle troops forward and send the remaining Kwgn in their direction too. At the end of the turn, I am stunned to see about 7 infantry squads and 2 tanks heading in their direction. Holy smokes, now I've got to get them out of there before the AI takes it revenge on them. The Polish assault on my position around the fifth VP cluster has reached its peak. I've lost track of how many Polish infantry squads have surrendered or dispersed. The field is littered with burning and abandoned tanks. All of them are Polish. Thankfully my grenadier squads are still in decent shape but my engineers are down to 1 or 2 of their flame-throwers and satchel charges. I have my FO shift his attention to where I saw the Polish AA guns and request the 150mm battery to fire in support. Soon the area is looks like the surface of the moon and smoke fills the air but I can't tell if I hurt them. Once again the Panzers and engineers move forward while ahead of them glides my remaining undamaged Sdk231-8 with my best and most experienced crew. I'm hoping that the AA guns will be suppressed to a point where I can directly assault them but only if I have too. Balls, it looks like I'll have to as they destroy my Sdk231 and a PzIV to boot. The crews escape but I know it's their last mission. I fire as many guns as I can at the AA guns and I slowly whittle down their crews but not before I lose another PzIII and have a PzII disabled. I manage to drag one of my AT guns into a good firing position and rain HE death upon one of the AA positions. One down two to go! Their crews are getting smaller and their rate of defensive fire slackens. I move an engineer squad up to fry the middle gun only to find a group three totally non-suppressed Polish infantry squads who open fire with devastating accuracy and my engineers surrender! Time is getting short and I've still got 2 objectives to grab. I send my grenadiers from the southern hill up the side of the central hill in pursuit of the re-deploying Poles. As I hit the crest, I'm taken under fire from a JP-7 on the northern hill but the range is too great and I continue. My HTs and dismounted grenadiers pour fire on the Poles below and their numbers dwindle with every burst. I'm finally able to throw my remaining platoon at the Poles from the south and as they burst from the treeline and open fire, the remaining Polish infantry routs and is wiped out. All this time my decoys have been playing cat and mouse with their pursuers. The last Kwgn is damaged by a freak shot and it's mobility is halved. It becomes extremely suppressed as the Poles close in and I'm not sure if I can save it. My fears are unfounded as it retreats due to suppression and the Poles lose track of it for a short while. Meanwhile my motorcyclists make a giant loop to the NE and once at the north edge of the map, they head west in hopes of rejoining the main force. Just before my final assault on the AA guns I sent my Spec Op's platoon with the only PzIV that had any AP rounds left, to the north along a forest track towards the final objective. Once the AA guns were destroyed and with the elimination of the Polish infantry behind the central VP location, I also sent my remaining 2 PzIII, and a grenadier platoon to help. If the Poles ever stopped chasing my decoys they could become quite a problem. Almost done * Sent from RemarQ http://www.remarq.com The Internet's Discussion Network * The fastest and easiest way to search and participate in Usenet - Free! Subject: Fw: SPWaW AAR part 3 (lon) steve wrote in message <14d8e761.b76edc1e@usw-ex0105-040.remarq.com>... Now one might think that the fun was all over but the next few turns were quite entertaining ;-). As my Spec Op's platoon approached the rear of the final objective, they were taken under fire by two more 75mm AA guns (how many of these darn things am I going to find) that were hidden from my view. Once again I send the FO to sneak into a good spotting position and try to silence these pesky guns but time was running out. I had to silence these guns ASAP as they dominated the not only the crest of the northern hill but they also had a clear line of site to the remaining VP cluster. As I regrouped my troops for the final push on the last hill, I decided to storm one of the AA gun positions with 2 engineer squads while trying to get the other AA gun with a grenadier platoon. The engineers threw themselves over the crest of a small hill between themselves and the AA position. The Poles reacted quickly and threw a 75mm round and a burst of rifle fire their way. The first engineer squad lost 2 men and became pinned but they rallied to a point where they could open fire on the gun pit and killed two crewmen with rifle fire. The Poles fired again and the suppression went back up but once again they rallied. I hurled my other engineers into the fray and although the Poles were able to get off a shot, they made it to the edge of the position and drove the assault home. Scratch one! I spot 2 Polish MG's moving up to support the other AA gun and I rush to get my attack off before they can get into position. My weary grenadiers advance and begin to engage the last gun. Their rifle fire doesn't do much but the LMG's they carry are scoring. I send 2 HTs to help and one becomes disabled from a near miss by a 75mm round but the combined fire power of the MG's does the trick and the last gun is quiet. With the AA guns out of the way I began my final push towards the last objective. As I cleared the crest of the hill, I found that the last objective was guarded by about 8 Polish infantry squads, a JP-7and 2 machine gun tanks. The FO shifts his fire to the center of the VP cluster and I squander my remaining 150mm rounds in an attempt to suppress them. My tanks opened fire on the 3 Polish tanks while the HT's sprayed the infantry. A top hit cooks the JP-7 and a nearby HT, machine guns the crew as they flee. Surrender is not an option at this point. My Pz III's close to point blank range and destroy the remaining Polish tanks and then turn on the Polish infantry. A hidden AT unit opens fire but another charging HT mows down the crew and pushes forward. I'm finally able to bring the motorcyclist in to help but they run into a concealed MG nest and take heavy causalities. I dispatch a PzII to help them out but that's all I can spare. I've got about 4 turns left and with my luck, I'll sure there's another 10 AA guns just waiting for me to take the final objective. There's a huge cloud of smoke around the remaining VP hexes and I send in my grenadiers with their HT's in support. With no dug in positions to protect them the Poles were reeling under the artillery and massed fire from my units. Puffs of smoke appear in an attempt to cover their retreat but my troops on the central hill can see them and add to the carnage. Finally I capture the last set of hexes and the battle ends after another turn. Whew over at last... * Sent from RemarQ http://www.remarq.com The Internet's Discussion Network * The fastest and easiest way to search and participate in Usenet - Free!