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Section Leaders:
Fionn Kelly & Madmatt
The
Sunken Lane
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German Commander - Fionn
Kelly
NOTE: SPOILER INFORMATION. This After Action
Report contains detailed information regarding units and terrain
disposition to a scenario that may be included in the release version
of Combat Mission. If you wish to play this game Blind or partake in a
Double Blind match then READ NO FURTHER!!!!
Graphics Note:
While the events in this AAR were played on a very recent Beta Build of
Combat Mission. The graphics, at that time, were not finalized. For
Final Graphics please view the POTD Feature which runs daily here and
various features on the CMHQ-Annex site.
Turn
2:
Orders
Phase:
Things will happen
quickly now and I must position my forces so that they are positioned
to take advantage of any errors on Bil’s part as well as being close
enough to eachother to be able to help eachother out. I would like to
have the various platoons be in visual range of eachother so as to gain
a measure of mutual defence but the broken terrain on this map has
reduced me to thinking of each Panzergrenadier platoon as a “mobile
hedgehog”. It can maneuvre, it can provide a stubborn, prickly
defence to any enemies in its immediate location but it is powerless to
do anything about any enemy units which choose to maneuvre around it.
If it attempts to maneuvre with them it will be destroyed.
I order the platoon which just made contact with
the enemy to pull back about 15 metres. Since I don’t want Bil to be
able to bring a crossfire to bear on it. Instead, I’ll let him walk
into MY crossfire ;).
Apart from that I merely hide all units which
have reached their new defensive positions and ensure that other units
which are moving up have been unmolested. So far things are going well.
Action
Phase:
The squad in contact pulls back smoothly. It
loses a man to enemy fire but that was only to be expected. Its time of
slaughter will come soon.
As this platoon re-orients slightly the British
move up and the squad which had just retreated from contact comes under
fire again. It returns fire and a lively firefight develops on the edge
of the woods covering the banks of the sunken lane.
This picture shows the latest minor scuffle at my centre and a nice
example of exactly how to use Panzerfausts against infantry targets.
The fact that I’m at the top of the slope gives my troops a major
advantage when grenading too (as you will see later). You should also
note the tank-shaped grey blob in the distance. This denotes a sound
contact with a tank-like vehicle. It means I can’t see the tank but I
can hear a tank moving towards me from that general direction.
Sometimes I’ve seen this and thought a major tank was heading towards
me only to later find out that my troops got spooked and reported a
half-track moving parallel to the front as a heavy tank moving towards
them. Welcome to the joy of full FOW ;).
This is an interesting shot because it shows Euling’s squad and the
Platoon HQ hitting the dirt as a grenade goes off near them. This
picture really is worth a thousand words for what it tells you about
CM’s ballistics. Essentially what happened is that the British squad
threw a grenade at the squad in the middle of the screen but the
grenade missed and rolled down the slope behind the squad. When it
exploded the grenade was closer to the Platoon HQ or Euling’s squad
and, as such, it caused them to duck for cover whilst not affecting the
squad it had been thrown at (since that squad was farther away). Now,
what is really cool about this is that Euling’s squad and the Platoon
HQ are out of LOS of the British troops and so this grenade almost
causing casualties is just another little example of collateral damage
and the attention to detail in CM.
This shot is overlayed with blue to show the approximate line that my 6
Panzergrenadier platoons are holding. I’ve increased magnification
and turned on unit bases to make it obvious where all my troops are. A
couple of my units have already opened fire on the enemy here on my
right flank and I fear they may have spoiled my ambush. If Bil just
comes about 20 metres closer I’ll slaughter him. If he hangs back and
decides to pound me to dust with HE I could be in trouble
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