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#1: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: CC_CO,

Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 1:50 pm
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After Action Report Grand Campaign

Mod and Sub-mod: Gold Juno Sword True Realism Sub-Mod 982

Players: Ronson (Allies) versus CC_CO (Germans)

Short on the rules

Extended list of all the rules can be read here TRSM GC Looking for opponent

Link

About this After Action Report
The AAR will be split up in two continuous parts.

I. The part first will be a full strategical map size large, showing both all my own and all the spotted allied BGs. The idea is to post a full map per turn. These maps will be posted in their own section and titled; Strategic movement phase June the Xth turn am or pm
The maps have to be clicked on for the large view.

II. The second part will be the reporting on the battles each turn.

Morning battles 6th of June - 5 battles in total

Gold Beach; map is still in German hands. - enemy took the exit to Port-en-Bessin, however, not the exit to Creully. Enemy casualties 2 tanks and nearly 40 men. Own casualties 2 guns and 25 men. Enemy naval artillery and air-strike took out at least one PAK and several infantry troops. Enemy made good use of combined infantry and tank tactics, with infantry up front and the tanks as backup fire.

One note, taking into account that Ronson couldent see my muzzle flashes he did pretty well. I think had the game been fair in this battle, he would have had a realistic chance of taking the exit to Creully as well.

Juno Beach; MAP IS LOST! - enemy took the entire map. With exception for the 3 mortar teams deployed, own casualties mounted the total force deployed. Enemy casualties high in infantry and light in tanks. Enemy made good use of heavy suppressive fire. My PAK 40 was on Defend from start, a clear mistake on my side, cause after the first two shoots it was identified and knocked out by very massive tank shelling. When the enemy began moving his infantry units, my mortars over and over halted their advance. Thus eventually the enemy ewas forced to send in his tanks at front, enabling my two light PAKs to revenge the loss of the PAK 40. I think it was a hard battle for both sides.

allied Air-strike decimate my troops hidden in the hedge.

Flamer tanks!

Battle results:

Courseulles-Sur-Mer; map is still in German hands. - we both fought fiercely over the Hillman exit. It actually went neutral at battle-end, however, after the battle it was on German hands, as was the Bunker-VL, even though I never moved any unit to the bunker. I think this map has a VL-bug?
I stupidly lost my 88-PAK because I deployed it in a very wrong position from start. Not going to make that mistake again...I hope. However, in overall, it was rather easy to defend this map, even without PAKS. One thing though, I think the next time I fight as German here, when the big counter-offensive has pushed the allied forces into the sea again, I will concentrate more infantry in the proximity of the Hillman exit.

If I recall correct, the enemy did not call in Naval barrage or Air-strike. Report status is therefore that Festung-Courseulles-Sur-Mer - still stands strong!

Battle results:

Sword Beach; map is still in German hands. This was a tuff battle. Had the timer been set to 30 minutes Ronson would have captured the entire map. Not much to say actually. My forces was put under a devastating fire from round-start to round-end. I made several mistakes in my deployment, not guarding the exit to Courseulles-Sur-Mer with enough infantry. Ronsons first objective clearly was to take this exit and from there on roll down, which he did very effectively.

Battle results:

Ouistreham; map is still in German hands. a rather easy battle. I managed to hold off Ronson in the centre of town. he went for the first big bunker, however, he wasn't able to capture it, although it switched hands some 10 - 20 times. The exit to Benouville never was in danger and for the most of the round also the exit to Perriers Ridge. The latter was lost though, in the last minute of the battle.

A second bold attempt to capture the Exit VL to Perriers Ridge is rewarded with success

The Stuart just makes it for the capture!

Ronson loose several squads trying to capture the Observation Bunker

Battle results:

Heroes from the Battle of the Observation Bunker

Zugführer Kuhn

Gruppenführer Shchennikov

Total losses and situation debrief June 6th AM

Map wise I lost Juno Beach and on the other maps, the following exits:

- Gold to Port au Bessin
- Ouistreham to Perriers Ridge
- Sword to Courseulles-Sur-Mer

About Ronson
In overall Ronson use a combination of strong tank support and high quality infantry, backed up by strong naval artillery and air-strikes. In general he is very fast when he has broken through a position and also makes good use of backup and flanking manoeuvres. There is already now, at this early point, no doubt he is a much better attacker than me. I need to come up with a formula that can challenge his skills in the manoeuvre battle.

Informations from the front

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Bugs and crashes: 0

Player mistakes/misunderstandings/issues: I hosted the first battle, thus Ronson wasn't able to see my fire flashes. This was my mistake and a clear violation of the rules. Not sure what happened here? I think I had played the allies a bit too much in another TRSM GC, thus being used to being the hoster. Just didn't think of it. Stupid start, violating my own rules in the first battle and unfair for Ronson who has naturally hosted the game ever since. I suggested we replayed the battle with him as Hoster, however, Ronson didn't mind the mistake.

If I recall correct, Ronson also experienced the cant fire bug.

Last edited by CC_CO on Wed Sep 05, 2012 7:36 pm; edited 15 times in total

TRSM 982 German deployments the 6th of june with supply map and BG data from both sides - plus PLAN BL Kopi.jpg

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The Situation at Campaign Start. My plan is to hold the BL-Line until reserves arrives in force. SMP 0

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TRSM 982 German deployments the 6th of june with supply map and BG data from both sides - plus PLAN BL Kopi.jpg

#2: June 6th PM Author: CC_CO,

Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 4:00 pm
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Strategic moves June 6th PM

In the room of Bayeux I withdraw from both Gold and Talleville. I stay in Port-en-Bessin since Ronson captured the exit to it from Gold beach. Staying here will also halt the upcoming allied BG in turn 3 (7th AM). All moves here are in accordance with the BL-line-plan.

In the room of Benouville I withdraw my BG from Sword, to Perriers Ridge and move forward my BG in Buron to Benouville. This Buron-Benouville-move is not in accordance with the plan, that states the BG in Buron should stay put until it can be relieved by reserves. However, my reason for stepping out of the plan, is the experience from the Ouistram-battle, that went pretty well. I found this map very easy to defend. Thus now I saw the opportunity to create a corridor of maps, going from Caen to Ouistram - all in German hands.

Looking back, it was a stupid move, cause it depended on a success in the next battle at Perriers Ridge, where my plan is to survive the expected 20 minutes onslaught, holding at least 1 flag at battle end.

In the room of Ranville I send in my panzergrenadiers from the 21st Panzer, to try and hold onto Ronson here, as well as get a feeling of his defensive skills.

In the room of Colombelles I move the two Panzer battalions to Caen and Troarn. according to my original plan the destinations should have been Caen and Cagny, thus not Troarn. However, I decide that one Panzer battalion should try to go for either Ranville or Merville. The idea is to hold out in Lebissey Woods, Benouville and Ouistram for as long as possible, meanwhile the Panzer battalion and the units from the 346th destroys the Airborne infantry Bgs.

Short on my strategical mistakes

In this first strategic turn, I made several devastating mistakes. Firstly, I decided not to move my BG out of Courseulles-Sur-Mer towards Hillman, and secondly I moved my BG at Sword to Perriers Ridge.

What I should have done, was to move the Courseulles-Sur-Mer-BG to Hillman, while at sword I should have stayed put. Thing was though, I thought Ronson wanted to clear Sword and Ouistreham before moving on. This was the impression I got from the tactical fights, even though I my self would have moved inland as soon as the opportunity presented it self. A clear and serious misinterpretation on my side. A strategical mistake.

Secondly I moved one of my panzer BGs to Troarn, even though this map the very turn after, is an entry map for a BG from the 346th. Not to mention that the 346th in these first days would have been sufficient to hold back any attack from the airborne units. I should have moved my panzer to Cagny, as was already the plan; having both panzer BGs deployed within or behind the BL-line.

Thus in the first strategic-round, two strategic mistakes on my side and they both contributed to a disaster. Cause these two decisions led to the destruction of both Battle Groups from Sword and Courseulles-Sur-Mer, cause Ronson moved his BGs from Ouistreham to Perriers Ridge and from Sword to Courseulles-Sur-Mer. Conclusively I have to say that the Courseulles-Sur-Mer-BG should always retreat when Hillman can be threatened from either Talleville or Perriers Ridge.

Evening battles 6th of June - 3 battles in total

Courseulles-Sur-Mer; MAP IS LOST! - enemy moved onto this map from Sword, thus splitting up the map completely, pretty much providing me with only a tiny strip of deployment area on the previously German side of the harbour.
The battle that followed was bloody, intense and short. It literally was a massacre. I lost the entire map and the entire garrison.

Battle opens with an infantry-clash along the front

Only a few of my brave teams survive the shelling

My fine PAK 40 is lost

Allied Air Power decimate my brave men

Battle results:

Perriers Ridge; MAP IS LOST! - enemy moved onto this map from Ouistreham, while I simultaneously moved onto it from Sword. We therefore has entry boxes just next to each other. Ronson with tons of tanks, me with nothing except low-class infantry and a single PAK 4.7 -

Scheisse krieg -Tommies enters just next to us!

The plan is to cross the cemetery with the bulk of my force and then move south

A closer look on the plan

However, just as on Courseulles-Sur-Mer this battle soon turns into a massacre on my brave soldiers. So what starts as a run for the exits in the upper part of the map ends with a run for the shelling. Ronson fights his way into my long flank and retake them, while slaughtering my fine men following my too bold plan. At the Church I do though manage, for five few minutes, to make a stand and even take out an AVRE with Molotov cocktails or magnetic mines. I really needed smoke here.

Ronson quickly move his tanks to Church-street.

The AVRE is taken out at the Church - Good work men!

Ronson revenges his lost AVRE with a deadly shelling

My mistakes was as follows:

1. I didn't make use of a mortar to provide my light infantry smoke-cover.
2. I didn't try to make any surprises, thus eventually Ronson didn't loose time from any such actions.
3. Although I did try to deploy a BG consisting of AT-Infantry in combination with Scouts and Grenadiers, I didn't deploy a force strong enough to guard the flank. So Ronson basically rolled up my entire wave.
4. From start on, I had available a tiny position in a hedge from where I would have been able to spot some of his movements from start, however, I thought it was too risky using this position. Big mistake. Cause looking back, I should have put a scout team here and used them to provide information to a mortar team.

Battle results:

Ranville;map is still in Allied hands. Here i wanted to see how Ronson performed in defence, I never really wanted to capture anything at this point, so my attack wasn't that devoted either. I only used 5 out of 15 units in the attack, and as soon Ronson sort of identified that, he counter-attacked and pushed me back to my entry position. Battle ended with an allied victory. He uses those Paratroopers really efficient.

Battle results:

Total losses and situation debrief June 6th PM

Last edited by CC_CO on Mon Aug 06, 2012 4:19 pm; edited 12 times in total

SMP June 6th PM.jpg

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Strategic movement phase June 6th PM - overall situational picture

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#3: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: dgfred, Location: N.C., USA

Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 11:35 pm
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Nice AAR. Thanks. Cool

#4: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: AT_Stalky,

Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2012 1:11 pm
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cool. thanx.

#5: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: CC_CO,

Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2012 11:44 am
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Thanks Dg and Stalk.

Strategic movement phase June 7th AM

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Last edited by CC_CO on Mon Sep 03, 2012 4:56 pm; edited 8 times in total

SMP June 7th AM with comments.jpg

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Strategic movement phase June 7th AM

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SMP June 7th AM movement results.jpg

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Results from the movements June 7th AM

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#6: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: CC_CO,

Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2012 10:15 am
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Morning battles 7th of June - 4 battles in total

Creully; MAP IS LOST! - in the 20 minutes the battle takes, Ronson terminate my forces. He move his force through the exit to Port en Bessin and the the forest-vl, and only then the Crossroad vl, while simultaneously destroying everything in his path. At no place am I able to stop his advance, not even in the forest. Ronson seems to have both scouts, tanks and commando-teams working together really well. I manage to damage an AVRE and kill a Sherman or Stuart, plus some 30 men of his infantry, but my entire OST 441 BG is terminated, with my two mortar teams fighting to the last at the last flag.

I had hoped I could at least keep a flag or two on this map, and in the last minute I almost got back the exit to PEB, but eventually I didn't. My mistake was that I spread out my forces too much, thus everywhere, they were both out-flanked and out-gunned. I should have deployed my entire BG around the exit to Bayeux only. Lesson learned.

Thaon; map is still in German hands - a rather easy battle, where I constantly withdrew my infantry teams after they had ambushed some of his infantry. However, from start I had read Ronsons intentions as wrongly as I could. I thought he wanted to go for the exit to Bayeux - either passing through the exit to Cruelly, or smashing through the centre, but no, he goes the other way with full force, like perhaps 13 teams and tanks, going for the exit to Rauray passing through the exit to Hermanville. So from the beginning to the end of this battle, I have to redeploy my troops, constantly, pulling them back to the exit to Rauray as well around the Tank Trap. Still the battle runs fairly well for my troops although I am forced to give up a lot of ground.

My deployment focusing on Ronson going for the centre or north part

Battle results

Ouistreham; map is still in German hands - a most easy battle, where I deployed my force in depth, focusing on the big bunkers. Ronsons BG entered from the Perriers Ridge exit, which is just flat ground, thus eventually the battle became a shooting range for my 7 - 8 teams with LOS on his entry box.

My mistake was that I should have deployed my entire team around his bow, and not in depth as I did. Only half my team got into the fight. I also should have deployed a unit in the bunker closest to his box and I should have send a recon team to the most north MG bunker too.

Ronson was surprised I didnt try and kick him off, however, I dont think my OST BG is suitable for attacking an allied BG having naval artillery available. Had I only had a few panzers in this BG, or vehicles for that matter, then I would have tried to kick him off.

A 20mm gets a lot of kills in this first battle against Ronsons infantry BG

Battle result

Merville; map is still in German hands - this battle was a mess. First of all, I should never have fought it. Secondly we encountered the 00-freeze-bug, thus eventually we decided to rebuild the hardware losses, where I had lost my first panzer (A Marder) and a 20mm gun.

However, had we rebuild the infantry-losses too, my losses would have been much greater, since I lost 13 teams in the real battle, as you can see on the image below.

I did offer to rebuild my infantry losses too, but Ronson was only interested in the panzer and the gun.

Exclamation

But thinking about it I should have sacrificed those 13 teams in the next or the following battles my self, regardless of what Ronson had to say to that. See, it was not good sportsmanship of me simply to accept Ronsons decision of not wanting to rebuild those 13-teams I had lost. The fact that I offered him to rebuild those losses, meant that I didn't take responsibility my self - but moved that responsibility onto his shoulders. That what wrong of me, however, at that point I didn't view it like that.

Total losses and situation debrief June 7th AM

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Bugs and crashes: 1 at Merville, the 00-Freeze.

Player mistakes/misunderstandings/issues: 0

Last edited by CC_CO on Tue Aug 28, 2012 4:40 pm; edited 11 times in total

Creully - battle imagemix.jpg

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Imagemix from the Creully massacre

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#7: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: dgfred, Location: N.C., USA

Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2012 2:44 pm
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That was nice fighting there. Wink

#8: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: CC_CO,

Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2012 1:19 pm
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Thanks dgfred

Strategic movement phase June 7th PM

The situation is difficult. Due to the fact I moved my panzer BG to Troarn at first and not Cagney, I am still one move behind Ronson, who is now able to move into Abbaye D'Ardenne and onwards. And I have nothing deployed to stop him.

In Thaon - still at this point being an important map, I have already fought one successful delaying battle last turn, where I however, also lost some very important ground. Ronson is close to the exit to Rauray and also captured the exit to Hermanville. So the question is; can the 352nd hold the Rauray exit in the next battle...or should it withdraw now - to Rauray?

Under these circumstances it is only theoretical to talk about the BL-Line - cause with my idiotic loss of Buron and my 21st panzer BG being one move behind Ronsons BG in Buron, the BL-line already seems lost.
As you can see, Ronson is actually able to reach Carpiquet airport before my 21st Panzer is. However, my Lehr panzer BG is able to reach it before him. But moving my Lehr BG to the airport also mean that it will not be able to reach Tilly Sur Seulles simultaneously as Ronson, should he in the next battle be able to capture the exit to Tilly on Bayeux.

Everywhere the disasters at Perriers Rigde and Buron now cause problems I wouldn't have had, had I not lost these two maps in the way I did

I decide to move as follows

Last edited by CC_CO on Mon Sep 03, 2012 4:58 pm; edited 9 times in total

SMP June 7th PM with comments.jpg

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Strategic movement phase June 7th PM

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SMP June 7th PM movement results.jpg

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Results of the movements June the 7th PM - Ronson captures Lebisey!

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#9: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: CC_CO,

Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2012 4:30 pm
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Evening battles 7th of June - 2 battles in total

Bayeux; map is still in German hands

The battle of Bayeux, where I had expected to hold the ground for at least 1½ day, proofed to expose my completely lack of understanding the map, my own force and my opponent.

See, Ronson entered from Creully, and I already knew that he could decide to move north in order to swing around, following the edge of the map until the Lingevres exit and then turn down towards the Tilly exit. However, I also thought that a move like that was too obvious, thus I thought he would surprise me and simply attack the Church head on, crossing the open ground between the Creully exit and the Church. Thus the bulk of my force was set up facing such a straight forward assault.

But Ronson did not make that frontal assault; he flanked Embarassed

To make things even worse, I did not think that Ronson would be able to pull off a flanking move. So I clearly underestimated his skills on this map. My reasoning for not thinking him able to make the move, was my experience from Ouistreham, where I already had been able to hold off his force quite successfully.

Anyhow, the battle started with a blast from lots of support-tanks, and then his infantry seemed to have moved along the edge of the map, passing the exit to Port en Bessin, and from there on up to the upper edge. However, a few fire-fights was duelled in the centre of the map, and I did succeed completing a single successful ambush at Place de la Republic. But as soon as Ronsons tanks appeared I had to withdraw. I had deployed a Pak 3.7 to secure the Place, but as usual I used it on the approaching infantry, thus quite fast Ronson had it spotted, put under rifle fire and then finishing it with some tanks moving in for the kill. This ended my defence at the Place, and I began falling back to the Lingevres-exit with my depleted teams.

My reaction - after he had broken my lines at Place de la Republic, when I firstly at that point slowly began realising my totally mistaken deployment, realising that Ronson was going full-force for the flanking move, was way too slow, way too indecisive and essentially completely without focus. I reacted sort of panicked, and moved up too few units as reinforcements, tmoved them up towards the room of the exit to Lingevres, where I throw them in as drops against a most well-coordinated and concentrated allied force. Thus Ronsons spear simply ran them over while moving down to the Tilly-exit.

The battle was a total fiasco. I lost most the map and at battle end I was forced to use depleted teams to try recapturing some flags. My self-confidence was shattered after this battle; cause here I owned most the map from start, and it was an entry-battle, and I had a complete BG (the one from Bessin) AND still I had misinterpreted Ronsons intentions as wrongful as I possible could Shocked

My defensive setup in Bayeux proof to be as incorrect focused as it possible can be

In the last part of the battle, Ronson move down towards the exit to Tilly, while the bulk of my forces are still deployed in the room of the Church.

Ouistreham; map is still in German hands

Total losses and situation debrief June 7th PM

Last edited by CC_CO on Mon Aug 27, 2012 3:38 pm; edited 10 times in total

First battle of Bayeux on June 7th PM - mixed images put together.jpg

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Mixed images from the battle put together

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Bayeux for AAR -.jpg

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Overview of the clashes in the battle of Bayeux

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#10: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: CC_CO,

Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2012 4:35 pm
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Strategic movement phase June 8th AM

SMP June 8th AM.jpg

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Strategic movement phase June 8th AM

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#11: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: CC_CO,

Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2012 4:38 pm
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Morning battles 8th of June - 7 battles in total

Ouistreham
00-crash at battle end. It was a good battle for me though. Ronson lost plenty of infantry capturing the Observation bunker, plus an M-10 TD. We agree to rebuild, without the losses, but with the Bunker flag that Ronson captured.

Bayeux; MAP IS LOST!

Benouville

Hermanville

Lebisey Woods

Rauray

Ranville

Total losses and situation debrief June 8th AM

Last edited by CC_CO on Wed Aug 29, 2012 9:25 am; edited 5 times in total

#12: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: CC_CO,

Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2012 4:57 pm
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Strategic movement phase June 8th PM

Now the entire strip of maps from Lebisey to Ouistreham will be contested.

Last edited by CC_CO on Sat Sep 01, 2012 10:32 am; edited 1 time in total

SMP June 8th PM.jpg

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Strategic movement phase June 8th PM

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#13: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: CC_CO,

Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2012 10:36 am
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Evening battles 8th of June - 10 battles in total

Ouistreham

Bennouville

Lebisey Woods

Hermanville; MAP IS LOST!

Rauray

Crashed, cant remember if we replayed or if the game did save?

Lingevres

Tilly sur Seulles

Abbaye D'Ardenne

Ronson loose one tank after another

Results of the battle where I almost kicked Ronson off

Bois du Bavent

Ranville

We have a crash here, grrrr. We decide to replay with truce from start, cause nothing really happened in the battle anyway. I still control the church and still get blasted by his light tanks.

Total losses and situation debrief June 8th PM

Last edited by CC_CO on Thu Aug 16, 2012 7:48 am; edited 4 times in total

#14: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: CC_CO,

Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2012 10:50 am
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Morning battles 9th of June - 9 battles in total

Ouistreham
Benouville
Lebisey Woods

Abbaye D'Ardenne
Ronson makes another attempt of forcing and blasting his tanks through the proud German lines. At the Authy intersection he almost succeed to make a decisive breakthrough towards the fields leading to Jocks Farm. His AVRE (Assault Vehicle, Royal Engineers) positioned behind the Church, takes out both an German infantry team and an armoured vehicle plus wounding another infantry team too - all in one shoot-only Shocked

One shell.

Clearly something has to be done, otherwise there will be no German units left to cover the Authy sector. My best Mark IV, having been deployed as tactical reserve for the platoon defending the road to Bretteville, is rushed forward to fire-sight of the AVRE behind the church, and BOOM! the AVRE explode. Beautiful! Its crew panic and attempts to escape the exploding wreck, but the proud bullets from the Mark are only evil now. Revenging the dead comrades is all the Mark crew has in mind DRRRRRRRRRR the entire AVRE crew instantly splatted out by evil machingun bullets...

Ronson clearly doesn't like this development of the situation. He send forward a Sherman that manage to immobilise my Mark, however, the gunner in the Mark is better - BOOM! the sherman explode. Surviving crew members scream and scream we surrender, but today there is no such thing as surrendering. The evil sound of two MG34s silence their screaming.

Result of the AVREs one shell exploding between 3 of my teams. My 20mm armoured car on the other side of the building also explode!

Mark IV knocking out the AVRE

The Sherman send to help out the AVRE explode in a burning inferno of flames and screaming

The Mark and the AVRE

Bretteville

Rauray

Tilly
I loose my first Tiger on Tilly, when I order it 15 meters forward. Boom! A Firefly somewhere down at the exit to Cristot, had LOS.

Lingevres
First entry battle with the Lehr. Things go very well. First Sherman VC knocked out in a duel above 360 meters. Also, a Cromwell taking some serious damage, was forced to retreat from another duel with a second Jagdpanzer.

My deployment

a Sherman VC rounds the corner and face a Jagdpanzer 300 meters up the road - the gunners begin the duel

four five hits on each other and the Jagd wins the kill, however a crew member loose his life too - he is buried at the church

SIEG UND NUR DER SIEG

Ranville

Total losses and situation debrief June 9th AM

Last edited by CC_CO on Wed Sep 05, 2012 1:27 pm; edited 14 times in total

SMP June 9th AM.jpg

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SMP June 9th AM - temporary posted here

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#15: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: tigercub, Location: charters towers

Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2012 12:31 pm
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in reguard to the zero free bug i like to truce in the last 10 sec when given the chance to reduce it happening.

#16: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: CC_CO,

Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2012 8:25 am
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Strategic movement phase June 9th PM

The phase can be seen on the framed images. They are as all others strategic images, click-able to size up.

Evening battles 9th of June - 10 battles in total

Ouistreham
Another fierce battle on this heavily contested map. My units have almost no ammunition left, however, they are still able to inflict notable losses on Ronsons infantry BG. It seems that with only one flag left and almost no heavy weapons the fight for Ouistreham will end in the next battle.

Benouville
Nothing much happens. Ronson consolidate the gaps into his lines around the village and makes a short push against Chataeu Benouville, but is stopped fairly easy. He does capture the bridge to Pegasus though, which has been the very reason for my BG to be deployed here.

The chateau cannot be seen on this picture, however, both the he Horsa and Pegasus bridge can be seen.

Lebisey Woods
My 26th SS BG is send in on Lebisey in order for the Panzers of the 21st to be used east of the Orne, perhaps on Ranville? However, this SS infantry BG is unable to hold anything on the tiny entry area, and Ronson use mortar and artillery barrage plus an air-strike, thus my losses are too high. I decide to move out this BG again after this battle-result.

The idea is that the SS infantry relief the Panzers from the 21st having now been moved to Caen

A terrible outcome for the 26th / 12th SS. All my lost guns never took a shoot on anything.

Soldier from 12th SS Hitlerjugend after his first encounter with allied artillery in Lebisey

Bretteville
Nothing happen. No screens. Bretteville should perhaps be renamed to Sleepville?

Rauray
No result screen for some reason? Nothing much happens. No real losses. Ronson use the battle to slowly fill out the gaps behind his main line. I on the other hand miss several opportunities to infiltrate and thus counter his patching the map.

Abbaye D'Ardenne
I make several successful ambushes on Ronsons infantry. Lots of sneaking around. I am trying to conceal the Authy intersection, and is partly successful in doing so, however, I am unable to recapture it. Otherwise a good battle. Ronsons sledgehammer BG has taken some serious tank losses by now.

Lingevres
Safety first. Thats the motto of the Lehr on this map. Slow but as secure movement as possible. I grab a little land in the centre and in the north. My Flametrack has a lot of problems firing the flames. Thus for the most part of the battle, it constantly fire its Mg. Ronson makes no offensive moves.

Tilly
Nothing much happens. Ronson throw in a devastating barrage, knocking out a PAK. Fortunately he doesn't follow up with a dedicated assault.

Bois du Bavent
A meeting engagement between my BG from the 346th and Ronsons Paras from Merville. A very intense battle, where I manage to take all the flags except 3, hereunder the exit-flag to Merville. My 3 mortar teams hold down Ronsons Paras for quite some time. Time I sadly didn't exploit effectively enough. However, the mortars contributed greatly in increasing his losses.

Although I in overall performed better than Ronson in this battle, I did make several grave mistakes. These were as follows:

1. I did not make a push for the exit to Merville
2. I did not make a push for Chateau Bavent
3. I was too slow forming a defensive position between the cross-roads flag and the exit to Troarn

My deployment

With heavy losses Ronson capture the earth-bunker controlling several squares of Bocage

The result

Ranville
I decide to try and make another push with the 192nd PanzerGrenadiers and this time I manage to get somewhere. I capture both the town flag and all the ground down to the church, however, not the church it self. Ronsons losses is in this battle, is for the first time, higher than my own Smile

my deployment and the map situation after my BG from the 346th left it last turn

for once Ronsons Paratroopers take a good beating on Ranville

Total losses and situation debrief June 9th PM

Last edited by CC_CO on Wed Sep 05, 2012 8:07 pm; edited 7 times in total

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#17: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: CC_CO,

Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2012 9:02 am
—
Morning battles 10th of June - 10 in total

Ouistreham
Map is lost! - the last battle was a shelling from tanks and infantry from start to end. I do however, manage to knock out one more 57 antitank gun.
A satisfactory result Smile

Bennouville
Ronson completely surprise me, as he moves with a huge force for my flank at the Buron exit and then move down. I loose most the map in this battle. My HT Pak is not able to turn so everything goes wrong here)

Lebisey Woods
Small duels where I loose some HTs and gain a little ground.

Rauray
I loose important ground in front of the village. I act once again way too passively and just idiotic give him ground he doesn't have to fight for. I doesn't even use my rockets, since I deployed them too far back. Ronson moves very slow forward, using safety first, thus I had plenty of opportunities to knock out at least one tank. Stupid deployment I made here - again. I also loose my Pak in the most stupid way. I simply fire on his infantry because I think it has already spotted it. After one shot Ronson call in artillery and wreck the gun. A few minutes after, a tank moves in and take it out.

However, I did manage to kill a reasonable amount of his infantry as it advanced. His BG here is beginning to run of of infantry squads, he he Wink

Bretteville
My first and last attempt to try and kick him off Bretteville is a disaster!
As soon as my brave men move forward, I loose 3 Panzers and more than 20 infantry! - all within a couple of minutes. A most terrible defensive fire. Ronsons entry box is so small, but still a fortress? I could really use some heavy artillery here, perhaps some self-propelled 105s, so his infantry and tanks behind the buildings could take some losses.

I am also pretty sure I faced a LOS bug. As you can see, Ronson lost almost nothing.

These heavy losses MUST be revenged!

Abbaye D'Ardenne
A fierce battle, where we apparently both have deployed our main force in front of each other, only separated by two hedges. I think we both got surprised here. I win the battle and almost deplete his entire formation. His BG is now severely depleted in both tanks and infantry squads. One more of these battles and his BG will be ready for reinforcements.

Noch Einmal a very good Result on this beautiful map

Deutsche Panzer ist stolze Panzer and the men are receiving fine medals

Lingevres
Sneaky battle that start out with a Cromwell getting knocked out. The incident draw in a Sherman VC that also get knocked out. Then a Centur is moved in and it sadly kill my brave four-man rocket team. However, just after another rocket knock out the Centur too Smile

Then, yet another Sherman VC is drawn into the fight, and a 4-6 round duel between my Jagdpanzer and the Sherman takes place, with the Sherman deciding to withdraw. I gain a little bit of ground in the centre, but loose a Späh team in doing so. Ronson manage to grab some of the field in the south.

3 Allied tanks lost and 20 men versus 0 Panzer lost and 10 men. Schöne kampf

Tilly sur Seulles
Not much happens. I try to capture the exit to Lingevres, however, Ronson is ready with a strong force and recapture it just after I get it. My brave are forced to withdraw under heavy fire.

Bois du Bavent
I attempt to counter-attack against the exit to Merville. I use artillery barrage, mortars and a Marder as support, and the attack bring result, as I capture the upper part of the hedge just above the exit flag. However, then Ronson call in a terrible Jabo, killing more than 20 of my infantry and damaging my marder, although the latter is able to withdraw. Then we get the 00-freeze! Grrrr - We rebuild.

from the following chat losses for the rebuild are listed

Ranville
I try to capture the last part of the row of buildings facing the air lander field and also initiate a push for the exit to Bois du Bavent. Ronsons defensive fire is furious and he call in another air strike, that could have killed at least 3 of my units, but fortunately doesn't Very Happy

Total losses and situation debrief June 10th AM

Evening battles 10th of June - 9 in total

Bennouville
Map is lost! - in a last stand battle I loose this important map. My Faust teams are sadly not able to knock out his tanks. The fighting is a mix of heavy support fire, naval barrage and close infantry combat.

Note: I need to learn to understand this map. Our fightings here has clearly showed that I don't understand it.

Lebisey Woods
Only small vehicle duels and I manage to capture the flag in the field Smile

Lots of shooting though, on buildings and hedges.

Rauray
Map is lost! - in a last stand battle where I once again manage to take out several of his infantry squads.

Ronsons BG has lost almost no tanks, but almost all its infantry squads Cool

The 352nd BG has lost Rauray, however, it has managed to inflict heavy infantry losses against this allied BG

Bretteville
A sneaky battle where I get too bold with my 20mm HT and loose it. Stupid.

Abbaye D'Ardenne
I deplete a new BG that Ronson has moved in Smile

sadly we have another 00-freeze, thus we had to rebuild. But it was a good battle. His Infantry BG was literally shot to pieces Very Happy

I made a huge mistake though. I deployed my second and last Pak 40 in this BG. I lost it ridiculously to an artillery barrage. I begin to get a feeling, that playing the German side in this campaign, both the Pak40 and 88, is more important to have in your stock than on the field.

No screens of the result from the rebuild. However, I forgot to move in a 20mm Armoured car, so he gains a little ground trying to find it and I need to sacrifice it in the next battle. I was so tired at this point, so that's part of the reason I forgot to deploy it in the agreed kill-zone. When that is said, I think we need a Rebuild-Guide.

My losses was:

Ronsons losses:

The most remarkable about Abbaye D'Ardenne is that it is defended by my weakest Panzer BG, but it is here Ronson keep taking the greatest losses.
After 5 fierce battles, where Ronson has send in two BGs, he has lost some 13 tanks and TDs, 3 guns, 3 vehicles and more than 220 men. My losses has reached 6 Panzers, 5 vehicles, 2 Pak (the only two I had) and close to 130 men.

Lingevres
Gaining good ground and knocking out a Cromwell too. Few minutes after it blew up I find the crew in a hedge, hiding. It was flamed up. My Jagdpanzer gets immobilised in a hedge, however, I surround it with infantry and support vehicles, so it wont be lost Smile

Ronson manage to capture the rest of the field in the south and the bunker hedge too.

Tilly sur Seulles
A new entry battle with my SS Panzer BG turns into a disaster - Ronson almost kick me off the map, and I only get a exit in the last 10 seconds of the battle. In my defence I loose 3 Panzers and 1 infantry gun, while I take out 4; a Sherman, A Centur and a Sherman VC i think?
But in my non-focused counter-attack, the last 4 minutes before battle-end, I loose one more Panzer. My infantry losses are above 30!

At battle start my main force is focused on the juvigny exit

However, Ronson is focused on the exit I entered from - Cristot

The result show how close I was to be caught here

Bois du Bavent
I loose the middle flag, so now the situation is a Stalemate. I should not have deployed only those two teams in the centre. I need to learn to understand these maps, cause I completely misunderstand his intentions. As I did constantly on Benouville too.

Ranville
Not much happens here, I loose a Marder because I am once again too bold with it down at the Church.

Total losses and situation debrief June 10th PM

In many ways June the 10th became a mix of static defence with my cut off BGs and then also my first real attempts to counter-attack on a few maps. Basically I tried to kick Ronson off on two maps, however, I wasn't able to. Both of us took some heavy amour losses. In two battles-only, namely on Bretteville and Tilly I lost 6 panzers in two attacks Shocked

Losses I cannot afford in the long run.

However, on Lingveres, where my Jagpanzers from the Lehr are located, I have though managed to gain a reasonable amount of ground, while knocking out some 4 tanks, of which 2 was Sherman VCs and 1 a Centur, without loosing a single Panzer my self :-)

On Abbay D'Ardenne I have knocked out between 5 and 10 tanks and vehicles, and close to 100 men too! Very satisfying. He decided to withdraw his first BG here and send in a new, that took really heavy losses.

Last edited by CC_CO on Wed Sep 05, 2012 1:21 pm; edited 7 times in total

#18: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: CC_CO,

Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2012 9:52 am
—
Strategic movement phase June 11th AM

Weather is sunny with clear sky, so Ronson can see the whole map now.

Last edited by CC_CO on Tue Aug 14, 2012 4:32 pm; edited 5 times in total

#19: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: tigercub, Location: charters towers

Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2012 11:34 am
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you need to kill 3 tanks for each tank u lose...

sending the 2 tanks after that sherman will happen many times u just cannot say no i know i cannot :)

Tiger

#20: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: CC_CO,

Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2012 4:31 pm
—
Morning battles 11th of June - 7 in total

Lebisey Woods
Ronson recapture the flag in the field. Scattered fire-fights, no real losses. The situation here is locked.

Bretteville
I capture the upper part of the field that Ronson has taken in previous battles. However, my recon team gets ambushed in doing so and when I send in a ht to support my ambushed scouts, Ronsons antitank gun has it nailed. Boom! - my ht is destroyed. Stupid to send it out where Ronson had a whole field available to deploy AT guns.

I made several mistakes in this battle. First, I used up most my mortar ammunition before the ambush took placed in the last 3 minutes of the round. Second, I had no real backup for the recon team in the field. Third. I send in a ht without knowing if Ronson has antitank guns in the field; he had.

Abbaye D'Ardenne
A disaster takes place here. Ronson has send in a new BG on this map; the third since the 8th. This is an armoured BG; the 151st Brigade of the 51st Division, with some 6 Sherman IIs, 3 Firefly's, 3 Stuarts, 3 Command Sherman's and 2 Centaur AAs; 17 tanks in total.

In the battle he seems to deploy 6 or 7 tanks and at least 1 anti tank gun. I face that force with 6 of my last 7 Mark IVs, of which 2 are Mark C, thus not equipped with a 75mm Pak. I also deploy 1 of my 3 75mm Pak Ht too, thus in total 6 x 75mm Paks on wheels and tracks.

I set up my formation for an antitank ambush, a deployment that in overall work out as it was supposed too. Cause within the first five minutes I have destroyed 2 Sherman's and lost no Panzers. However, one Panzer has lost its main gun, while another has been immobilised. Then, in the following 10 minutes Ronson loose additional 2 Sherman's, of which one is a Firefly, but still I haventl lost a single Panzers, although one additional Panzer loose its main gun as well.

At this point, the battle has some few five minutes left, Ronson has lost 4 Tanks, I have lost 0 Panzers, and although 3 of them have problems in regard to damaged main guns or damaged tracks, Ronson doesn't know this. I have also managed to withdraw 2 of my 3 damaged Panzers, into a safe area.

Then Ronson decide to focus the remain of his infantry on Jocks Farm, where most his send in infantry gets ambushed. Then he send in a single Sherman straight out in the field some 100 meters North of Jocks Farm. It just stand there, I at this point I have no guns covering this sector. However, instead of just leaving it alone I send in two panzers to attack it. One from north and one from Jocks Farm it self. Both my Panzers get knocked out.

So stupid of me! I should just have let it alone. I would probably have been able to knock it out in the following battle anyhow. To make things even worse, in the last minute that is, I move forward my 75mm halftrack that previously knocked out his Firefly. It has been deployed in ambush near the Caen exit, but now I get the naively idea that I should try and drive it up to the Authy flag, that Ronson captured along with the exit to Hermanville. Again overwhelming stupidity of me in this last part of an otherwise quite successfully battle. Cause Ronson has an AT gun deployed somewhere in the field south of the Buron exit. So BOOM! I loose the ht too.

This way of loosing my Panzers, is in fact the pattern of how I have lost my Panzers on Abbaye D'Ardenne. Cause in most battles where my Panzers have been deployed for defence-only, I have lost none of them. But when I have moved them forward, I have lost all of them.

In any future TRSM version, should I ever play this great campaign as German again, I will not loose my Panzers so stupidly. I lost them because I wanted to take out that last tank, or last infantry squad, basically I have been greedy. I should have been humble, cause then I wouldn't have lost 8 Panzers here, but only 5.

2 Marks IVs and 1 HT 75mm Pak lost - for no reason

However, these results also brings Ronsons losses upwards to minimum;

Lingevres
Almost no fighting, except at the very end, where I manage to ambush one of his infantry squads. It seems we are both hiding our forces, cause except at the very end I never spot any of his units. At some point I think one of my infantry squads received fire from a hidden tank. Spooky Shocked

Lingevres is no doubt the big sneaky-sneaky map; you just never know what's hiding in front of you. So although not much happened here it really was quite an intense round Cool

Tilly Sur Seulles
I once again enter the map with the 901 Lehr. This is perhaps the third or fourth time my Lehr enters Tilly sur Seulles. He assault me where I expected, however, I never used interlocking teams in the defence of the hedges south of the exit to Juvigny, so one of my infantry squads gets annihilated in less than 20 seconds, by at least one of his squads. I am therefore forced to move down a ht Inf gun, which I loose to a Sherman, that fortunately gets knocked out by my Pak40. Ronson throw in an artillery barrage on the Pak, however, it survives Very Happy

One of my beautiful Jagdpanzers also gets attacked by a Jabo, but it too survives Smile

These failed attacks is clearly as sign of good fortune on this map

WROOOM!

The Sherman that knock out my HT Inf gun get knocked out it self

Bois du Bavent
As expected Ronson attempt to cross the road in the center of the map. He makes it with a depleted recon team, and he also attempt to outflank me at the map-edge, so he can capture the exit to Ranville. However, my brave MG defence shoot kill most his men. I do though loose one entire infantry squad in the firefights.
At battle end I once again make a stupid decision. Once again I send in a team that should not be send in; my Kompanieführer - that Ronson wipe out with a squad I was pretty sure, not completely sure, but pretty sure was located at that very spot. When will learn not to send in Panzers and command teams - in situations where I do not have any real overview! Laughable decision I made here.

Beside from that my MGs perform very well in defensive fire.

MG fire achieve good results

Ranville
Nothing much happens. Initially I send down a halftrack to the Bois du Bavent exit, and capture it. However, I am not able to move any backup down there, partly because I didnt deploy two hts and partly because my infantry is stopped by an infantry gun inside the church. My experienced Marder gets immobilised in a hedge, thus heavy support to the exit is also out of the question. Ronson smoke the exit area and send in a command squad, that recapture it.

At battle end I loose a precious MG42 that Ronson apparently has been able to see the whole battle. I think my mortars damage one of his light tanks.

Getting the exit was easy enough - holding it was not easy

Total losses and situation debrief June 11th AM

Last edited by CC_CO on Thu Aug 16, 2012 8:09 am; edited 9 times in total

#21: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: CC_CO,

Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2012 4:37 pm
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Strategic movement phase June 11th PM

#22: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: CC_CO,

Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2012 7:54 am
—
Evening battles 11th of June - 7 in total

Lebisey Woods
We fight more heavily on this map, than in any of the previously battles. Ronson loose an antitank gun and a command Sherman. I loose a 20mm armoured car and a half-track, plus two infantry squads.

one of Ronsons dangerous 57mm Antitank guns

Bretteville
Ronson capture more of the field, and I loose a half-track while trying to spot his anti tank guns.

Abbaye D'Ardenne
Although I lost important ground, it was yet another good battle. Cause with only 4 Panzers left, of which 2 are the short barrelled Mark IV C, I thought that I would loose Abbaye D'Ardenne in this round. However, I also had 2 half-tracked Paks left, and they proofed to perform very well.

I do make one big mistake. I deploy one of my Mark C behind the hedge, on my side of Jocks Farm. I should have used a half-track with an Inf Gun instead, or perhaps just an ordinary ht. Cause Ronson outflank the Mark and knock it out. However, Ronson loose additionally 3 Sherman's, against my lonely Mark C. He also loose something between 2 and 4 infantry squads.

Thus after this battle, being the seventh battle of Abbaye D'Ardenne, Ronsons losses have now reached 20 Tanks and TDs, plus a fairly amount of damaged tanks, 4 vehicles, 3 guns and more than 250 men. Not a bad result against my weakest Panzer BG Wink

A new thing occurred in this battle; Ronson made very effectively use of a scout vehicle. It captured terrain on this map, that countless of his tanks haven't been able to do, in the previous six battles. Thus from now on I need to come up with a method to take out those tiny fast vehicles.

Lingevres
A bit of a disastrous battle in this turn. Cause although I do grab a bit more ground, I also loose one of my precious Jagdpanzers - from the very start of the round. I simply forgot about it in my deployment, and thus there it stood - ai-deployed - in the fully open on a road, swinging it self as the Panzers do in start of a CCV-battle, while being in clear line of sight of a Firefly.

So after having knocked out some 5 tanks here on Lingevres, of which at least 2 have been Firefly's, I loose my first Jagd because I forget it in the deployment. In TRSM Lingevres is probably the map I have played the most, thus I know that deploying my Panzers in any potential line of sight from round start, is a stupid thing to do. My Jagd never make it to fire a single shot, cause its doing the CC5 swing.

Lesson: never play the game when you are tired and never deploy your Panzers out in the open.

Tilly Sur Seulles
Ronson is on the attack. He blast my lines with heavy tank fire, air strike and barrage. Then he sends in his infantry and capture the farm-flag just next to the Juvigny exit.

Bois du Bavent
Ronson surprises me big time. He wants the exit to Troarn, a position that I in a few rounds by now have been guarding with 3 teams, of which two are MGs. However, nothing has really happened here for a while so in this turn, I only guard the entire bunker area, with one sMG team. I also have a mortar team next to the exit, because I dont think Ronson want to attack here. He did. With full force and capture the exit.

Ranville
Nothing much happens. An air-strike kill plenty of my men and I capture a bit more ground in the big field. I have a feeling that Ronson will send in a Tank BG here, or try to capture the exit to Collombelles.

Total losses and situation debrief June 11th PM

So ends the first out of the four 6-day-weeks of the campaign*. Ronson still haven't lost 100 tanks, and I am not fighting in the BL line as I had hoped I would. Thus a very different outcome than what I had expected. My disastrous losses on Perriers Ridge and Courseulles Sur Mer, where I lost both BGs proofed to be two disastrous losses to many. My morale and believe in my own skills, dropped significantly after those. Only after my first successful battles on Abbaye D'Ardenne and Lingevres did I begin to believe in my skills again. Thus the 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th got to be some bad campaign days to get through. The loss of Buron, Lebissey and Tilly only made my drop in morale lower. I think this heavy drop contributed to poor battle-performance on my side. I began to fear to loosing more BGs in one battle, thus I lost my focus on the overall map-situation, and tunnelled in on the situation of individual BGs, like the one in Hermanville which I withdrew even though it was obvious he at that point aimed his forces for Tilly and Lingevres. That is why Hermanville became a meeting engagement later on.

*To me it is easier to use four 6-days weeks for statistics, than the 3 and a half regular weeks, running from June the 6th to June the 30th.

Important statistics Exclamation

In total we have played some 84 battles, plus at least 3 replays, thus minimum 87 battles in total. This amount to 29 hours of gaming from June the 6th AM to June the 11th PM. We have used 4½ week to play these 29 hours of gaming.

So to all of those who thought it was too much playing two campaign-days per week, I think Ronson and I have proofed that it is doable. We are playing almost every day now, but many days we only play one or two battles. No big deal. Still plenty of time to live out the real life too.

Battles played per campaign-day and set in six-day-weeks:

The amount of battles during the 8th, 9th and 10th can be drastically reduced, by simply focusing on defending key-exits and keep falling back to avoid BGs being cut off.

About my biggest mistakes in the first week

About my biggest successes in the first week

Last edited by CC_CO on Sat Sep 22, 2012 12:12 pm; edited 21 times in total

#23: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: chessmaster, Location: Antwerp and Ghent

Posted: Sat Aug 18, 2012 11:40 pm
—
nice AAR

And yes, 1 mistakes makes 10 others, went through the same experience. War is bloody and unpredictable.
Ronson improved alot it seems. Good luck on holding on.

#24: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: CC_CO,

Posted: Sun Aug 19, 2012 10:08 am
—
Thanks Chessmaster - it is actually more hard - mentally - than I thought, to just take one defeat after another. I think it was around the 9th or 10th, my mind was just exhausted. Couldn't organise local counter-attacks or solid defences. However, things are getting better now. I am not loosing a map or battle, per turn any more Smile

Strategic movement phase June 11th AM

#25: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: CC_CO,

Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2012 8:52 pm
—
Morning battles 12th of June - 7 in total

Lebisey Woods
Stalemate-situation as usual, we drive a vehicle towards the hedge separating our forces, fire a few shots and move back. However, this time I do manage to knock out his scout vehicle that had killed so many of my men in the previous 3 or 4 battles. All in all a nice battle.

Bretteville
Pretty much no movement. Nothing happens. I fire my mortar tubes empty and that's that. Still, I was on the edge the whole time, fearing that I somehow was not able to spot a scout team that he would infiltrate my line with.

Abbaye D'Ardenne
I loose the entire strip of hedges from the exit to Hermanville and to the exit to Bretteville. In the centre i manage to capture some ground. I was surprised to see that Ronson wanted the Hermanville to Bretteville-strip - thus I had nothing up here except my mortar car and a HtPak. I perceived the exit to Bretteville as my rear, lol, it ended up being the front. I thought Ronson had wanted to exploit his opportunity to go for the hedges next to the Lebisey exit. He didn't.

Lingevres
I grab some ground but loose a Späh team in doing so. I also loose a Flametrack, so that was not so good. Ronson seem to be more confident on this map now and make use of a PIAT team really well. I never spotted it, it was located in a hedge in the centre, but it certainly did mess up my positions.

Troarn
Ronson moves in and face a surprise; my beautiful 20mm Flaks and HMGs. Ronsons paras take very heavy losses. Like 10 teams eliminated or close to that. Then we f..... get the freeze bug - grrrr. Then we discuss Ronsons losses and disagree to their size, but we still agree to rebuild the next day. But I slept on it and thought, why not just replay instead of ending up in a discussion on how many teams that was lost. So we replay and this time my Flaks hit close to nothing. The element of surprise had been lost, however, my belief in my defensive skills - when playing against an allied entry, had just been strengthened.

This is from the freeze-battle, from now on named the massacre on Troarn. Most the killed are brave Paras.

In the following replay-battle, Ronson capture the church and I perform poorly compared to the first battle.

Bois du Bavent
A true disaster. I loose both my Marders and one of my Pak40, while almost loosing the whole deployed formation and map too. I feel I maybe should have moved in my Panther BG, but then again, it is also okay that I didn't. Still too early committing my Panthers. No screens from the result, however, I also lost some 50 men. Ronson lost half that and 2 Tanks; 1 Sherman and 1 Stuart.

I still think I could have stopped his tanks here, however, not with the deployment I used. It had no real gravity and my teams didn't really support each-other too. Then I was also too bold with my Marders also, and after the first of them got knocked out with a flank-shoot - Ronson began moving forward his tanks. But until that moment, the situation looked like a potential stalemate. I lost my Marder because I just wanted to fire on some of his infantry...so I apparently still haven't learned to be patient with my hardware...

I had this feeling before the battle, that now Ronson would push me back along the whole line with all his tanks; he still have Avres and Centuars in this BG.

Ranville
A good success. I finally manage to capture the Church, while taking out one of his Howitzers and two of his light tanks. I loose the Marder that has been fighting here for some 3 days. It had done well; managed to take out two light tanks and kill 10 infantry, so its a loss loosing it, but an okay loss. I also loose a 20mm Flak that declined to fire on his light tank. I actually thought a 20mm would fire on such a tank, but they apparently wont. Lesson learned. My BG here still have two 20mms left, so loosing one is not the end of the world...yet :-)

Total losses and situation debrief June 12th AM

100 has been reached Very Happy

Last edited by CC_CO on Fri Aug 24, 2012 5:29 pm; edited 1 time in total

#26: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: pvt_Grunt, Location: Melbourne, Australia

Posted: Fri Aug 24, 2012 8:44 am
—
Terrific AAR, better than chatting about religion Wink

#27: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: CC_CO,

Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2012 6:59 pm
—
Thanks pvt_Grunt, I hope I can improve it over time.

Strategic movement phase June 12th PM

#28: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: CC_CO,

Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2012 7:16 pm
—
Evening battles 12th of June - 7 in total

Lebisey Woods
Good battle, lots of firing, no larger movements. Ronson ambushed my brave infantry in the most beautiful way. See, my heavy weapons couldent get to him, but as soon as I entered the building his ambush triggered. I therefore lost a experienced and very good team.

Ronsons infantry ambushed my brave men as they were moving forward trying to capture the Hotel flag

Bretteville
Nothing happens, I offer true after 15 minutes; Ronson accepts. We both seem to percieve the situation here as locked. Nobody wants to move forward.

Abbaye D'Ardenne
This was a fun battle. Think we both liked it. Lots of infantry fightings from start to end. The battle was focused on Jocks Farm and the hedges and fields around it.

In the fields surrounding Jocks Farm, Ronson has tried to encircle the farm. In this battle yet another Sherman gets knocked out.

At Jocks Farm it self, the slaughter continues.

Near battle end I decide to send up my last Mark IVC to the Farm, as it is under heavy pressure.
BOOM! the antitank gun lurking in the crops take out my brave Mark

Allied cumulative losses:

German cumulative losses:

Lingevres
I capture an entire hedge without losses, however, then I decide to capture the Orchard flag, which I do, but when Ronson counter attack I loose my brave squad and loose the flag again. Otherwise a good battle.

Troarn
I was way too slow. Ronsons BG is cut off, thus getting low on ammo. I should have assaulted instantly. Instead I waited several minutes for him to make a move. Thus important time was lost. However, the reason for being as slow on the attack as I was, was the threat of barrage or air strike, especially the latter, that are very deadly. The highest amount of loss the 346th has taken is around 20 men in one single air strike.

Eventually I do get organised some suppressive fire and then manage to neutralise the flag in the Church.

Bois du Bavent
With the previous disastrous battle in mind, I was expecting to be totally overrun. However, although I am overrun, I manage against all odds, to inflict heavy losses on Ronsons formation. The Faust and the MG 34 became the primary weapons in this battle, where I lost 14 out of 15 teams, but still managed to capture several flags that Ronson then recaptured, except one.

Before the battle I removed all but one of my infantry squads, replacing them with antitank teams, consisting of two or three men.

The formation that will try to fight against all odds

Ronsons BG

My deployment

The first two hedges has been lost, but in the third awaits my Faust - BOOM!

Antitank teams with grenade-bundles are highly effective against allied infantry

A Sherman attempts to capture the last flag - BOOM!

After a failed attempt to move in another Tank, Ronson use his barrage on my brave gun

Simultaneously I infiltrate and recapture flags

Battle ends with Ronson just managing to recapture the exit to Merville

Truppe Landwehr is the only surviving team after the battle

This was a great battle. Lots of unexpected things took place. I never thought I would last to the end, or inflict so big casualties on Ronsons powerful formation, nor capturing flags.

I have a feeling that the battle on this map is far from over.

Ranville
I once again manage to capture the exit to Bois du Bavent, but Ronson also once again manage to recapture it Rolling Eyes

Otherwise lots of fire fights between two of my infantry teams and what sounded like an allied HMG. Ronson makes a push for the church but is stopped at the walls.

Total losses and situation debrief June 12th PM

Last edited by CC_CO on Tue Oct 02, 2012 11:22 am; edited 1 time in total

#29: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: CC_CO,

Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2012 7:31 am
—
Strategic movement phase June 13th AM

The weather is still clear and sunny, thus there will still be entire hordes of those annoying Jabos. I hope for bad weather again.

#30: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: CC_CO,

Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2012 8:02 am
—
Morning battles 13th of June - 7 in total

Lebisey Woods
The battle start with mortar fire from my tubes, but beside from the explosions, there is no shooting for several minutes. Then Ronson move forward two Sherman Crabs. Both begin to fire on the long hedge separating our forces, and his Crabs sadly hit and terminate one of my brave teams. Then the Crabs begin to fire on the building adjacent to the Hotel flag, and here too they also hit a team I have on ambush. Then Ronson move in at least 3 infantry squads from the Hotel side of the building and take out the rest of my shattered grenadier team. I therefore move in a command team to try and restore the situation, however this team too gets annihilated along with a supporting half track.

After those losses I decided to leave the building alone.

Basically I lost the tiny grab I had in the building next to the Hotel building, so now I am back to my start-line some two battles ago, having lost 5 teams and 3 half-tracks in two battles, accomplishing nothing. From now on I will only defend here. My presence here is as a block in front of Caen anyhow. No reason to attack.

Bretteville
As usual nothing happens here. Lots of fruitless fire from both sides though, and my mortars finally get a kill.

Abbaye D'Ardenne
Things went a bit bad this battle. I lost my last Befehlspanzer, a Mark IVH, so now my BG only has one Mark IV left. Ronson - I think, had deliberately deployed a Stuart and an armoured car right in the field, just next to where he lost that Sherman VC in the last battle. They just stood there, as bait in the open, and I stupidly believed I could sneak my Mark to the hedge, take a shoot and move back. I couldn't. Ronson had an anti tank gun placed somewhere, knocking out my beautiful Panzer :(

I had also decided to give away Jocks Farm, cause the position was kind of doomed. Beside of that one of my half-tracks knocked out a reckon vehicle, on above 150 meters, so that was a nice thing to experience.

I need a new BG on Abbaye D'Ardenne, however, I need bad weather for it to move in, so any Jabo wont end up knocking out one of my beautiful Panzers.This was the tenth battle of Abbaye D'Ardenne, where my single BG have been in constant fightings against 3 allied BGs. Five days of constant fighting with my weakest Panzer BG has depleted its guns. Plenty of infantry teams and half-tracks left though.

Lingevres
With the exception of a devastating Jabo attack, annihilating a whole pioneer team on the run, this battle went my way-only. I captured the flag in the centre, plus two hedge-sections and knocked out a Stuart, forced a Cromwell to retreat and killed a HMG team. My only losses was the pioneer team, that the Jabo took out and a halftrack I used to grab the centre flag. Thus had I not moved them I would have suffered no infantry losses. Jabos...you gotta hate them a bit :-)

Troarn
Here things went just fine. In fact close to excellent.

My brave men annihilated 10 teams of Ronsons paratroopers and damaged at least one more. I therefore pushed him back to the exit to Bois du Bavent, which I with heavy losses failed to capture, since it was defended by a flamer team. Also, another of those annoying Jabos annihilated a whole pioneer team too. Frustrating...

Bois du Bavent
A great battle. My beautiful Panzer Grenadier BG from the 21st Panzer division enter the map from Collombelles. It was a slaughter, however, I expected that. The BG was only moved in as fodder so Ronson was unable to move forward his Tank BG to Troarn, while my excellent troops from the 346th caused carnage on his paratroopers.

Ronson form up as I expected; with lots of tanks, 7 or 8 I think. A devastating suppressive fire naturally followed on my brave and sacrificial troops. I actually hold the exit flag to the last minute, which I never expected I would have been able to. Ronson slowly and methodically annihilated my entire formation, however, not without taking losses him self. He lost some infantry squads and an AVRE.

I did made some serious mistakes though. For one I never understood how important the farm would be as a cornerstone in my entry-box setup, thus I only had 4 teams defending it. secondly I used too many teams as reserve, having them deployed at the map-edge in the upper right corner, where they eventually got massacred as soon as Ronsons tanks broke though the hedges.

However, Ronson didn't push for the upper corner before he had most of the farm in control. So this lack of understanding the Farm from his perspective, was my serious failure in this battle. I am fully confident, that had I had 8 teams defending the Farm, he would never have gotten to the flag.

The Farm was Ronsons first objective

Then he massed towards the exit flag, with tanks - the AVRE explode here

To the last minute I am though able to defend the flag

But in the last ten seconds I am out of troops and Ronson capture the flag

The result from the rebuild

Ranville
A tough but excellent battle. I FINALLY captured the exit to Bois du Bavent and simultaneously defended my own exit to Collombelles, against a very determined and strong assault from Ronson, who managed to capture it at least two times; thus my brave soldiers recaptured it two times too. at one point though both exits was neutralised, and I have to say that I was quite concerned at that point. Fortunately luck was one my side and eventually German Arms ruled the field.

Ronsons light tanks and one of his howitzers i think, caused me a lot of problems. Perhaps they didn't kill so many of my men, but they certainly kept them suppressed.

Also; once again a Jabo-Typhoon almost destroyed my brave and proud Marder. Its gun was knocked out, however, still it managed to withdraw to a safe position, where the crew immediately began to repair the damaged parts. Those Marder men just wanted to get back into the fight as soon as possible!

Once again soldiers of the Reich took a lot of casualties, however, as the men them self have stated; Herr General - it was worth it!

The exit to Bois du Bavent has just been recaptured by the enemy, but German grenadiers
crossing the hedge behind the Marder, are moving in for the counter-attack

Total losses and situation debrief June 13th AM

#31: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: CC_CO,

Posted: Sat Sep 01, 2012 10:31 am
—
Strategic movement phase June 13th PM

Things seem to be developing in the south. Is Ronsons operational objective Cagny or Vimont?

#32: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: CC_CO,

Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2012 9:53 am
—
Evening battles 13th of June - 6 in total

Lebisey Woods
This battle starts as so many others has started on this map; mortar and tank/Panzer-fire on hedges and buildings. I have a 20mm Half-track standing some 100 meters north of the exit to Caen. Ronsons mortar barrage immobilise it. Ronson then send out a Sherman to the south field, trying to get a line of sight on the immobilised track. I then move 3 of my Panzers forward and one of them get a los on the Sherman and Boom, the Sherman explode Smile

My mortars also kill 1 or 2 crew-members inside a Sherman Crab. Ronson use an airstrike on my 3 Panzers and immobilise one of them. I hope it wont be lost after this turn change to the 14th.

Bretteville
Lots of fire - I grab some more land - nothing happens beside that - in the last minute Ronson has a flamer team sneaked up right next to one of my feuer teams, which ambush the flamer team and loose 2 men to the flames. Then the battle end.

Abbaye D'Ardenne
A great defensive victory!

I was out-gunned, my position was close to very bad, my brave infantry and my last Panzer was getting fatigued, I had been loosing terrain and decisive units in the previous 5 battles, where Ronson slowly but surely had forced me back. So, I expected I would loose once again in this battle, perhaps loose the entire map? I think Ronson had the feeling that he would be winning ground once again, without me grabbing anything back.

However, this outcome was not to be. I successfully defeat all his attacks, inflict huge losses on his formation killing 7 of his teams and recapture two flags again, including the exit to Hermanville. Had my infiltration units been faster I would have reached the exit to Buron too.

Link

a tired and proud Grenadier from the 21st Panzer just after having received his medals

the best crew from the battle

Mark Krondorf - the last remaining Panzer in the 1st of the 22 Panzer Regiment

The situation from the last half of the battle

SIEG

Allied cumulative losses:

German cumulative losses:

Lingevres
I capture an entire hedge without losses - then I get bold and try to capture another hedge section - mistake. I loose a command track and a very experienced grenadier team. So a huge loss, however, also a huge victory in terms of ground captured.

Troarn
I more or less expected to be rolled over by all Ronsons tanks in this battle, so although I did take heavy losses and did loose 4 flags, things went much more smoothly than I expected. A terrible airstrike from a typhoon immobilised my Marder, killed a command team and made a Pioneer team that had been under fire, surrender. I also lost a PAK 40. Apparently Ronson has LOS from the Church tower, down south below the bridge.

[/img]

Ranville
Meeting engagement. Ronson had pulled out his Para BG. I suppose he done that due to the fact it has lost all its tanks, and he wont reinforce it yet, thus new BG on Ranville, entering from Pegasus.

I think its the BG that withdrew from Abbaye D'Ardenne days ago. It is still depleted.

In overall this battle went well. My Marder apparently couldent cross the hedge just north of the exit to Collombelles, thus I began to withdraw it, however, Ronson spotted that and moved in a Crab that eventually knocked it out.

My two deployed 88 Flak guns did well. I still have plenty of guns left, so if I can keep the exit to Colombelles in my hands, this map should be an easy fight from now on.

Total losses and situation debrief June 13th PM

Last edited by CC_CO on Thu Sep 06, 2012 7:12 pm; edited 4 times in total

#33: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: CC_CO,

Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2012 6:54 pm
—
Strategic movement phase June 14th AM

Last edited by CC_CO on Sun Sep 02, 2012 9:52 pm; edited 7 times in total

SMP June 14th AM.jpg

Description:

Things are certainly developing east of the Orne. Weather is still sunny, so Ronsons Typhoons will strike hard again. Also, the 15th Division - the Churchill formation has landed. Tons of Churchills.

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SMP June 14th AM movement results with text.jpg

Description:

Results of the movements June the 14th

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#34: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: CC_CO,

Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2012 7:13 pm
—
And yes, things are developing now. I finally commit one of my Panther BGs, cause I have no choice. Otherwise I risk the Panzer Grenadiers from the 21st on Ranville to be cut off, should Ronson move into Collombelles from Bois du Bavent, which is Not the best map to use Panthers on, but the situation is what it is. Besides, the 49th Division only have light tanks and Tank destroyers, thus in regard to traversing the turret slowly, both of us seem to be equal on that account. Perhaps this entry isn't that bad after all.

Thus, should my Panthers be able to hold the entry box on Bois du Bavent, and I think they have a fairly chance doing that, Ronsons Tank BG on Troarn should eventually become cut off. When that is the case, I move in my beautiful Tigers on Troarn.

Morning battles 14th of June - 8 in total

Lebisey Woods
The typical mortar and Panzer / tank fire goes on the first 3-5 minutes. We eventually decide to truce. I apparently damage a car with my mortars, although I never spot it. Then again, i just fire loose with those mortars on all suspicious positions. Ronsons counter-fire doesn't hit any of my units.

Bretteville
Nothing happens except at the end, where an allied flamer team meets a German Feuer team. Ronson both capture back the ground he lost the previous two battles and a bit more.

Abbaye D'Ardenne
I decided to make an attempt to recapture Jocks Farm, thus not holding on to the new flag-positions I captured in the previous fight. My attack on the farm went well, however, I was too slow. I sneaked into it but should have made a run. I had plenty of infantry but as they sneaked Ronson pinned them down and also got time to move in a counter-attack force, before I had formed a defensive line. Had I made a run I think my chances to hold the Farm would have been significantly better.

The battle of Abbaye D'Ardenne continues - it started June 8th PM

152 BDE/51 entered Abbaye D'Ardenne with 17 tanks - most of them gone now

Then again - my II./22 21st Panzer division has only one Panzer left

This the 12th battle on Abbaye D'Ardenne focused on my infantry assault on Jocks Farm, which I did manage to capture, however, also managed to loose. Ronson counter-attacked and made good use of his AA tank as infantry-support. The battle literally evolved into a massacre on my brave grenadiers.

Both dead allied and German infantry all around Jocks Farm

Ronsons AA tank

The result

Lingevres
The battle starts with a move from Ronson, something he hasn't been doing here for at least 5 battles. Soon he loose a command halftrack and a Stuart tank. Then things calm down. No moves. I slowly and safely recapture the ground he just took. At battle end I kill the most of a sneaking allied infantry team, but loose one my self, as I stupidly crawl it onto open ground. Stupid.

I capture the flag in the north too, so now the overall situation is a Stalemate. Bayeux is now only two hedges and two flags away Cool

A most beautiful situation. I loose a halftrack to an antitank gun I had spotted from battle-start and that I waste more than 80 mortar rounds on without success. They just couldent hit it. Idiots!

Juvigny
Ronson enters Juvigny with his 69th BDE/50 division, defended by my 901st Lehr.

In this battle Ronson move forward a Churchill flametank. It soon turns out that it its impossible to knock out, even on a distance below 200 meters with a clean LOS. My Jagdpanzer hit the Churchill several times, like 4 hits or so, but only immobilise it. Then the Churchill flame the Jadg on the distance as seen on the image below, and the crew in the Jagd bails out even though their Panzer had taken no real damage.

I wonder if the Churchill flametank is perhaps a bit overpowered in trsm? I mean, a Jagdpanzer not being able to take out a Churchill on that short a distance? The crew in the Jagd was a very experienced one, including the gunner; it had participated in several battles on Tilly.

Troarn
Ronson capture the swamp-flag and basically clean up the rest of the village. He makes no real attempt to cross the rail-line, where most of my force is deployed. I had 1 Marder, 1 Pak and 1 Späh team defending the swamp area. They all got killed, but performed quite well. Ronson is surprised that I didn't attempt to hold the swamp and the village, however, at this point in the game Collombelles had no defence, so all my efforts focused on defending any massive tank assault towards that exit. Besides, Troarn is surrounded with German BGs.

my Swamp deployment on Troarn

Bois du Bavent
Nothing much happens. I take no losses and move slowly but safely forward. Thus eventually I only capture a little ground. Ronsons infantry BG makes no attempt to attack me and his BG on Troarn is now cut off. Beautiful.

My SS panther formation has not been committed yet, thus it is fully manned and equipped

Same story with Ronsons 147/49th Division - fully manned and equipped

For some reason there are no screens from this the first battle of the Panthers, however, one of Ronsons armoured cars was damaged, but if I recall correct, that was the only loss on both sides.

Ranville
We initially had a crash here, thus we decided to replay.

Lots of fighting over the Chateau de Ranville. Ronson loose at least 2 infantry squads, trying to take it. But my brave and also highly experienced Pioneers have explosives and thus the flag is kept in my hands. Sadly I eventually loose the team, after Ronson moves in his last AVRE-Monster. BOOOOOM! half my brave men killed Crying or Very sad

the situation at the Chateau near battle-end

Total losses and situation debrief June 14th AM

Last edited by CC_CO on Tue Oct 02, 2012 11:20 am; edited 9 times in total

#35: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: CC_CO,

Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2012 5:54 pm
—
Temporary comment on the balance of the campaign
First of all we have now passed the first 120 battles, thus far from the whole campaign. So it could be I am concluding a bit too early?

It has taken us some 10 weeks of gaming to process those 120 battles, starting mid June and until now in constant gaming, playing pretty much every single day.

Playing the German side has been far more difficult than I anticipated before starting this small adventure. So I agree that between the first 50 to 100 battles, the game can very easily be seen as unbalanced. You simply risk keep loosing on the German side, and those losses are countered by very few highlights. Too few perhaps.

However, after the first 100 battles or so, when you most probably have begun to stabilize the overall situation and inflict notable losses on the allied formations too, so these eventually begin to deplete in infantry squads and funnies (special tanks), then the game doesn't feel so unbalanced any more, if unbalanced at all. In fact, at this point in the GC it feels more like a duel between two thinkers, who at this point have a reasonable feeling of each others weaknesses and strengths, enabling both opponents to understand the overall situation more realistically now, than in the first phase of the campaign, where low quality German formations took one beating after another.

For instance, on Bretteville, Lingevres and Lebisey, I feel that it is the German side ruling the battle. On Bois du Bavent it was like that too, until I decided to move my 346th BG out of that map, in order to get a foothold on Ranville, only to discover that the map was a slaughterhouse, thus when I moved it back to Bois du Bavent, fortune wanted Ronson moving into it too from Merville. That was that start of how I eventually lost that map; a strategical mistake.

But - if you as a close combat player can endure the experience of defeat after defeat the first 50 to 100 battles, well knowing that those defats eventually will stop at some point, then the campaign doesn't seem unbalanced at all.

However, not having that endurance, will eventually bring you into the situation where those first 50 to 100 battles, can make the game it self, feel very unfair.

Possible solution
Perhaps the winning conditions for a minor allied victory, should require more maps to be captured than in the present version of TRSM? Perhaps maps like Viller Bocage and Cagny?

Cause in the present set-up, where the German player could play against an allied player being better skilled in at least the first phase of the GC (from invasion to stabilization), the minor allied victory can be achieved pretty early.

For me it was really early Smile

but in other campaigns it has more or less been within the first 14 days that a minor allied victory was achieved. This outcome could make several players playing the German side, feel a drop in motivation to continue playing on, because the game could seem unbalanced, and consequently unfair.

Personally I literally felt mentally exhausted from mid July to the last week of August, thus a period of 5-6 weeks. I felt exhausted because of the constant defeats I had experienced, and the fact my allied opponent already had achieved a minor victory. Thus during those 5-6 weeks of gaming, I began feeling like cannon fodder, or funnies-fodder if you will Smile

and I felt unable to see and end to those defeats.

Perhaps the maps them selfs, should have different points allocated to each side? Thus Buron should perhaps give fewer points to the allied player than the German?

#36: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: Tejszd, Location: Canada

Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2012 6:35 pm
—
Good feedback. For points unfortunately the maps can not have a different value for each side. The maps closer to beach could be given less value forcing the Allied player/side to have to capture more maps to get a minor victory but.....
- it could affect the German AI making it less aggressive
- it would give the German player/side a victory without doing what they needed and wanted historically which was to push the Allies back into the sea (a draw was not good enough as they needed the divisions on the coast on the eastern front)

#37: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: CC_CO,

Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2012 7:26 pm
—

Tejszd wrote (View Post):

Good feedback. For points unfortunately the maps can not have a different value for each side. The maps closer to beach could be given less value forcing the Allied player/side to have to capture more maps to get a minor victory but.....
- it could affect the German AI making it less aggressive
- it would give the German player/side a victory without doing what they needed and wanted historically which was to push the Allies back into the sea (a draw was not good enough as they needed the divisions on the coast on the eastern front)

Thanks Tejszd

- yes to the AI problem, however, although I am not completely sure, I think TRSM is designed for h2h only?
- yes to the perhaps lost incentive for the German side, pushing for the beaches?

I better wait concluding anything, until at least the last week is in process.

#38: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: CC_CO,

Posted: Sat Sep 08, 2012 11:53 am
—
Strategic movement phase June 14th PM
Interesting developments now. It seems Ronsons BG on Troarn is cut off and should I hold the flag on Tilly, so will the BG on Juvigny too get cut off.

When this PM turn is completed, we only have 3 more days to go, then we are closing in to the second half of this great campaign.

June 14th PM: 9 battles in total

#39: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: CC_CO,

Posted: Sat Sep 08, 2012 6:48 pm
—
Evening battles 14th of June - 9 in total

Lebisey Woods
The usual type of Lebisey-battle; not much to report on.

Bretteville
The usual type of Bretteville-battle; not much to report on.

Abbaye D'Ardenne
Decisive tactical defeat!
Decisive strategical victory!

Exclamation

Ronson has reinforced his BG on Abbaye D'Ardenne, making the 152nd Brigade of the 51st Highland Division the first allied BG being reinforced. That is my strategic victory, cause we are not even halfway through the campaign yet. My tactical defeat was the flags I lost. He took all exits and a couple other flags. I also lost 3 gunned tracks and Mark Krondorf, who managed to knock out 1 Sherman in this its last battle.

From battle start I knew he had reinforced, cause I spotted way too many tanks, and he only had 1 Sherman VC left plus 2 AA tanks.

Ronsons tanks began rolling towards my positions and soon found them caught in a duel with my gunned tracks, which they knocked out one after one, however, not in an instant and not without taking some serious damage them self.

I think I did put up a decent fight. Cause my deployment was not setup for a situation where Ronson would have reinforced. My half-tracks with infantry guns managed to stop several allied tanks, on duel-distances above 400 meters.

This was the 13th battle my II/22/21st Panzer participated in. Now there are no more Panzers or guns left to deal with allied tanks.

Allied cumulative losses:

German cumulative losses:

Lingevres
Not much takes place. Ronson has for the first time deployed his tanks out of my sight. They fire upon a hedge-section where I have a small infantry team on hide. One Landser gets killed while it withdraw from the hedge. I capture some land in the south, thus eventually a good battle; no real losses and land taken, getting me one hedge closer to Bayeux Very Happy

Tilly
This entry produced a mixed result. In some way it was a bit of a disaster and in some way it was a bit of a victory. Firstly I was not pushed off, which proofs that if I improve my skills I should be able to stand ground in any future entry on this important map. Secondly the price for holding the entry, was high. I picked several wrong weapons and although most my teams was deployed fairly well, I made my old typical mistake again; trying to move my units towards his even though he was the one attacking.

By moving units towards his spears I lost 1 recon, 1 pioflamme, 1 grenadier and 1 Mark IV; thus 4 teams in total, without accomplishing anything. This time my motivation for moving my units was even quite mixed, so it wasn't a single objective they tried to reach, but four different, thus diverging moves - lol so stupid of me Embarassed

The four different objectives were as follows

Regardless of the outcome I lost 3 Panzers and 2 PAKs, but Ronson lost a Sherman Firefly, a Centaur and a Churchill Flame (3 types of important tanks). Eventually he lost minimum 4 tanks, thus getting 4 tanks closer to that reinforcement button.

destroying a Churchill flame equal saving 10 teams

Juvigny
Nothing significant takes place. A kind of Bretteville "battle".

Troarn
Ronson is on the offensive, using multiple tanks he cross the rail-line and capture the exit to Cagny. My guns hit his tanks but sadly not one shell penetrate. I need to move in a stronger BG on this map now, otherwise I will loose it.

Bois du Bavent
Entry battle with my Panthers from the 12th SS Hitlerjugend. If I recall correctly this is the first time I use them, however, Sadly they are forced to be committed an entire week before planned, however, in the battle my men fortunately avoid taking heavy losses.
Apparently Ronson had deployed his troops further back, thus my entry-box does not come under fire and therefore my men can move slowly and safely forward.

My brave SS Panthers enters Bois du Bavent

Ranville
I loose the chateau-flag but capture the exit to Merville.

Total losses and situation debrief June 14th PM

Last edited by CC_CO on Wed Oct 03, 2012 1:03 pm; edited 10 times in total

#40: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: CC_CO,

Posted: Sat Sep 08, 2012 6:54 pm
—
The reinforcement post

Here I will list the BGs Ronson has reinforced during the campaign.

June 14th PM: the 152nd Brigade of the 51st Highland Division

#41: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: tigercub, Location: charters towers

Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2012 4:19 am
—
So u keep notes on the reinforced units good because there is a bug allows you to do it more than one time.

Tiger

#42: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: Dima,

Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2012 7:51 am
—

Quote:

Perhaps the winning conditions for a minor allied victory, should require more maps to be captured than in the present version of TRSM? Perhaps maps like Viller Bocage and Cagny?

there will be something like that in new ver so GC will better show who's a winner (thanks to Tigercub for idea Smile

#43: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: CC_CO,

Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2012 8:15 am
—
Sounds great Dima. I think that it will change quite a bit of how the campaign will be played.

A second suggestion to that could be to make each individual map dynamic in points, thus making the map relate it self to the adjacent maps and to the region it is placed and eventually to the overall situation too.

Thus a map should be given points from perhaps minimum five layers of values:

The idea could also be applied to the tactical maps. Like for instance if a church has a flag attached to it and the church-tower is destroyed, then the value of that flag could be affected negatively for both sides.

#44: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: Dima,

Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2012 12:03 pm
—
Cool idea but unfortunately not possible in a current CC.

#45: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: tigercub, Location: charters towers

Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 5:07 am
—
CC-CO Churchill flametank is perhaps a bit overpowered in trsm?

no i am thinking underpowed they had the most powerfull flamer put on any AFV of WW2
if a crew men of a crock tells me there range was over 100 yards thats good for me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rpEO3oiuos

Tiger

#46: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: CC_CO,

Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 9:23 pm
—

Dima wrote (View Post):

Quote:

Perhaps the winning conditions for a minor allied victory, should require more maps to be captured than in the present version of TRSM? Perhaps maps like Viller Bocage and Cagny?

there will be something like that in new ver so GC will better show who's a winner (thanks to Tigercub for idea Smile

CC_CO wrote (View Post):

Possible solution
Perhaps the winning conditions for a minor allied victory, should require more maps to be captured than in the present version of TRSM? Perhaps maps like Viller Bocage and Cagny?

Dima perhaps my suggestion to involve Viller Bocage and Cagny into a minor victory setup is in-fact too easy for the allied side? Perhaps a minor allied victory should involve all maps west of the Orne?

In this present campaign we have reached June the 15th and from a German side things doesn't look to bright in regard to create a successfully counter offensive. I think playing the German side, I could most probably still capture Tilly, Lingevres, Bois du Bavent and Abbaye D'Ardenne, however, the price would be too high resulting in the loss of the main bulk of my Panzers.

However, from a defensive perspective - should I keep on slowly falling back, things still look fairly good. Thus should the next version of trsm focus on the Orne as the edge of an allied minor victory - then I think more players would find the game fun.

I haven't asked Ronson yet, however, when the allied player already half way through the campaign, have achieved a minor victory, that could perhaps result in less incentive to keep on attacking? - even though the allied side has the largest resources? I mean, some allied players would simply think "okay, I just got the minor victory, thus naturally the German side should attack now".

Same thing with the player on the German side, having experienced the allied player achieving the minor victory even before being half way through the campaign, could result in quite a motivational-drop, and thus also a less fun campaign?

If I recall correct, historically - the German commanders already after the 12th or so, wanted to pull back behind the Orne, while it was only Hitler wanting to keep on holding ground as well as pushing forward to the coats, meaning when even Rommel could see a strategical solid purpose in pulling back behind the Orne, that would perhaps in it self, be regarded as a Minor German victory; should the German side of course be able to hold that side of the Orne (with the exception of the para maps).

I think that many new players being on the same skill-level, playing the grand campaign for the first or second time, experiencing the notable difficulties playing the German side, and the fairly easy going, playing the allied side, could experience a drop in motivation for the remainder of the game - as soon as the allied side has achieved the minor victory?

I mean, why should it increase any further attacks-motivation for the player on the allied side, having already achieved a minor victory half way through the game? And just as well, why should it increase any further attack-motivation for the player on the German side, having already lost both a Major victory, a Minor victory and a close to stalemate "victory", when realising how many resources the allied player still have half way through, well-knowing that its close to impossible to reach a stalemate or perhaps even a minor victory?

I need to say that I do find the game balanced. However, I think it is more balanced for the very experienced players and not so much the new players. Thus if one of yours and Stalkys objectives with this great awesome game, is to see as many new players as possible, completing the campaign, then the victory conditions should perhaps be edited significantly?

I hope its okay to suggest the above. I still view trsm GC from a new players perspective, so in that regard the victory conditions in any future version of TRSM or any other Close Combat game should perhaps have multiple victory conditions embedded, in order to cover both the new and the experienced players challenge-frame.

And once again - thank you for this great game.

Last edited by CC_CO on Wed Sep 12, 2012 7:21 am; edited 2 times in total

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#47: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: Dima,

Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 9:40 pm
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Quote:

I mean, why should it increase any further attacks-motivation for the player on the allied side, having already achieved a minor victory half way through the game - as well as why should it increase any further attack-motivation for the player on the German side, having already lost both a major victory, a minor victory and a close to stalemate "victory", when realising how many resources the allied player still have half way through, well-knowing that its close to impossible to reach a stalemate or perhaps even a minor victory?
I need to say that I do find the game balanced. However, I think it is more balanced for the very experienced players and not so much the new players. Thus if one of yours and Stalkys objectives with this great awesome game, is to see as many new players as possible, completing the campaign, then the victory conditions should perhaps be edited significantly?

the new version will be called Objective Caen...
will post more info and new FPs shortly...

#48: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: CC_CO,

Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 9:50 pm
—
OK. Looking forward to see that.

#49: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: tigercub, Location: charters towers

Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2012 7:13 am
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The way i see it in TRSM the allied player does not get slowed down in the first few days and rolls over the weak german battle Groups

To me this inblance is the main problem the allied grabbing a lot of maps with some ease...sure the allied player needs to get of the beaches and they did get inland with some ease back in 44 but for game i think the weaker german BG need a small inprovement.

Objective Caen nice name Dima!

Tiger

#50: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: Dima,

Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2012 7:23 am
—

Quote:

To me this inblance is the main problem the allied grabbing a lot of maps with some ease...sure the allied player needs to get of the beaches and they did get inland with some ease back in 44 but for game i think the weaker german BG need a small inprovement.

as we were discussing with you, in OC the allied player won't get Minor Victory even controling most of maps on first 3 rows as the main maps to control will be around Caen and Caen itself.

#51: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: CC_CO,

Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2012 11:25 am
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Temporarily status report

The campaign have now reached the 15th of June, where we have both passed the 2000 men lost-marker. Until the 10th of June, when both of us had just reached the 1000 men lost-marker, most of my casualties were from the 716th Division. Back then, on the 10th, I wrote:

Quote:

Most of my losses are taken from the 716th Division, who's battle groups have lost most their guns too. However, most of Ronson's losses are from his sledgehammer BGs, he he. Hopefully within June the 15th AM, Ronson has lost additional 1000 men. That seems to be my strategy now; kill as many as his men as possible, while only giving ground as slow as possible.

And now it is the 15th and Ronson has in fact lost 1000 more men Very Happy

So clearly something seems to work as hoped; the continuous depletion of infantry in Ronsons best formations (his sledgehammers). By now these BGs has taken considerable infantry-losses and as already mentioned, Ronson has even reinforced one of them as well.

In regard to my losses between the 10th AM and the 15th AM, the majority come from the 21st Panzer and the 346th infantry division.

Within the 21st Panzer it has especially been the two BGs defending Abbaye D'Ardenne and Ranville that has taken the brunt of the casualties. The BG on Abbaye D'Ardenne has lost more than 300 men, thus almost a third of the total loss. It is by now close to depletion. Within the 346th infantry division losses are more evened out in two of its four BGs. Panzerlehr and 12th SS has also taken some infantry losses, however, these are in overall light, accumulating to some 1-200 men in total, spread out on 4-5 BGs, and contributing with a maximum of 20% of the total losses.

Losses between the 10th AM and the 15th AM

June 9th PM

June the 15th AM

Also, in regard to comparing our losses, Ronson has still lost only a few guns and vehicles, while I have lost quite a lot more. Ronsons tank losses however, has fortunately raised much more between the 10th and the 15th, than compared to the period 6th to the 10th. Most his tank losses are from the same formations, so although he still have some funnies left, many has by now been destroyed. Unlike me he has used pretty much the same BGs on most maps, which could be the reason that his tank losses has raised as much as they have? Because those same formations has lost lots of infantry too, thus eventually tanks eventually has been used more offensively now the infantry reconnaissance in force, has no more been a continuously possible to use. Conclusively, the infantry-losses his sledgehammers has suffered, has forced him to put forward his tanks more risky than previously.

In terms of my losses in both panzers, vehicles and guns, they are fairly even. This I think is a result of how I have continuously shifted out my BGs, especially on Tilly, but also a result of my focus to not committing my panzer BGs. Thus most my armoured casualties between the 10th and the 15th, still consist of Marders, armoured cars and gunned tracks. In total I have now lost circa 30 main battle tanks, from the units listed below:

Ronsons tank losses
I have not yet counted Ronsons total tank-loss (Main Battle Tanks) however, I presume that his realistic tank-loss has reached 100-120 units, thus minimum 30 of the listed units lost, consist of light tanks, damaged tanks, armoured cars and tank destroyers. This also means that I at this point still haven't destroyed his first wave of 5 beach-tank-BGs, containing circa 120 tanks.

Short on my Panzer Strategy
As you can see, my total amor loss on June the 15th, consist of 68 units lost, however, of those only 28 are panzers, thus the remaining 40 units consist of Marders, gunned cars, gunned tracks and damaged panzers.

Before this campaign started I made sure to read all the TRSM AARs posted, and from those I learned that most players throw in their panzer formations quite early in the campaign, and loose them too. So consequently, I have tried to do the opposite; throwing in as few panzer formations as possible, only using them when I had no other option. This strategy had lead to increased infantry, gun and vehicle-losses, plus important lost ground too. However, it has also lead to the fact that the bulk of my panzer-force is still intact.

With the exception of the 2nd Panzer, I have now counted the amount of panzers I have available in the campaign (thus main battle tanks-only). The numbers are as follows:

21st Panzer division

these 12 have been lost on Abbaye D'Ardenne

PanzerLehr

12th SS Hitlerjugend

2nd Panzer

Grand Total 198 Panzers

With a total loss of 28 panzers on June the 15th, I still have 170 panzers ready for my counter-offensive, planned for the last week of the campaign. And eventually I probably need a maximum of 60 panzers for that offensive to bring results, thus still more than 100 panzers left for the defence the next two weeks.

#52: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: CC_CO,

Posted: Sat Sep 22, 2012 12:23 pm
—
Strategic movement phase June 15th AM

With my loss of the two C-exits, the Caen & Carpiquet exits on Abbey D'Ardenne, Ronsons overall situation just improved significantly. Whether he then want to make use of them, or capture all of Abbey D'Ardenne first, this strategic phase will tell.

Had I only deployed the other Panzer BG from the 21st Panzer division on Abbey D'Ardenne, I would not have lost the two C-exits this early in the campaign.

#53: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: CC_CO,

Posted: Sat Sep 22, 2012 12:24 pm
—
Morning battles 15th of June - 10 in total

Lebisey Woods
With Ronson now having entered Caen, my I/22 21st Panzer has to do something. I decide to try and make it for the Abbaye exit on the far side of the field. However, my attack fail. Reasons are as follows:

Also, in the fight for the field I manage to damage one of Ronsons many Sherman's. I think it was removed the next turn?

Bretteville
Sleepville is sleepville, so we truce from start.

A German panzer crew use the pause in the fightings at Bretteville to camouflage their panzer

Abbaye D'Ardenne
Ronson send in a new BG from Buron. I manage to capture the exit to Hermanville, however, not enough space around it, to defend it.

my deployment

Ronson moves in Shermans next to the church

the result

Caen
Since our first battle crash we decide to replay instead of rebuild. The argument is that my counter-attack had only begun when the battle crashed.

In the replay things evolve pretty much the same as in the first battle, however, I am not able to knock out the two Shermans as I was in the first. And my PaK40 is not destroyed either Very Happy

Ronson made good use of tank support in this second battle. His AA tank was deadly and several times I had no choice than to withdraw from one building to the next. My infantry teams got plenty of kills though. On average most my rifle teams killed 4 or 5 allied troops.

Lingevres
I manage to capture some ground in the south, not all though. Lots of firing from both sides, on suspicious hedges and buildings, but no real fire fights.

Stalemate

Tilly
My brave grenadiers from the 12th SS Hitlerjugend makes yet another entry on Tilly. I had expected to be thrown off, however, although I am pushed back I still hold some valid ground at battle end. One of my brave IG18s knock out an AVRE on a distance below 70 meters. Beautiful!

Yet another attempt to get a foot hold on Tilly

My SS BG is still in good shape

Ronsons BG is beginning to show signs of depletion

The result

After the battle we discuss whether it is realistic or not, that an infantry gun can knock out an AVRE? It has to be said it didn't knock it out in first shoot. It took some 5 hits or so before the AVRE exploded. I think the antitank shell developed for the IG18 could penetrate 85mm armour, but I am not sure? Could be of course that the hit was a lucky one?

Next a few videos about the IG. 18 Infantry Gun / 7,5-cm-leichtes Infanteriegeschütz 18.

709. Soldaten manning the units ig18 light infantry cannon at the 2012 Dixon

Link

This episode focuses on a WWII German le IG G18 75mm infantry support gun

Link

Jugvigny
I start the battle sending in a lone halftrack, trying to capture the Field flag, which I do. No follow up operations involved though, thus no consolidation attempt. My intention was simply just to see how Ronson would react. He apparently had an antitank gun deployed in a hedge defending his side of the flag, so although nothing happened to my track when capturing the flag, it was knocked out when I moved it some 70 meters further forward.

I spot the antitank gun and use artillery and mortars to knock it out. After that Ronson not much takes place. Near battle end Ronson begin to move out infantry of the nearby hedges to the newly captured flag, and he recapture it. I have units covering the approaches to the flag and they get a few kills out of his infantry approaching the flag.

Troarn
My Tiger battalion enters Troarn from the Cagny map. Battalion objective is to recapture the entire map from one of Ronsons still quite powerful sledgehammer BGs.

My plan was to try and capture the railway crossing flag, however, even though most of Ronsons tanks were out of fuel, they still did put up too strong a defence for me to capture it. When Ronson realised I was not going to advance any further he counter-attacked, however, it proofed to be that my troops were also too strong for him to advance. Battle ended pretty much at my start-line.

My Tigers enter Troarn

Although cut off, Ronsons battlegroup is still powerful

My Tiger BG is also powerful. Only losses so far has been on Tilly.

My deployment

Bois du Bavent

Ranville

Total losses and situation debrief June 15th AM

Last edited by CC_CO on Sat Sep 29, 2012 5:40 pm; edited 17 times in total

#54: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: CC_CO,

Posted: Sat Sep 22, 2012 12:26 pm
—
Strategic movement phase June 15th PM

With the loss of the Carpiquet exit in Caen, Ronson could make use of it in order to get a solid entry-box on the airport-map.

#55: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: CC_CO,

Posted: Sat Sep 22, 2012 12:26 pm
—
Evening battles 15th of June - 11 in total

Lebisey Woods
Stupidly I accept to be drawn into a duel between a Sherman Crab and one of my Befehlspanzers, well knowing that Ronsons lurking 57mm antitank guns most probably have line of sight on the hedge my panzer moves up to, which they did. So I loose a Befehlspanzer. So stupid of me and a bad start of a turn too.

Bretteville
Sleepville continues as such. We truce at battle-start.

Abbaye D'Ardenne
In this the 14th or 15th battle, we both focus on the same area. Sadly I have no real antitank weapons left, only 1 team with a faust and some teams with rifle grenades, so Ronson simply move in his Shermans and fire on all buildings - performing a devastating suppressive fire. My brave men are literally shot to pieces from all sides.

Watching the development of this terrible slaughter, I realise that I need to block the 3 gates in the compound walls, so his tanks cannot move into it. How amazingly it sound, this is the first time after all these battles, that I realise the gates needs to be blocked. It seems I am learning too slowly...but I am learning.

My deployment focus on defending the Abbaye

The slaughter at Abbey remove the bulk of my remaining infantry

Lingevres
Ronson succeed with a surprising local counter-attack, giving him back some lost ground in the south.

Tilly
Yet another entry with the Mark IV Panzers of the 12th SS Hitlerjugend.

My Panzer BG is still in fairly good shape

Ronsons BG showing more signs on depletion

It is obvious that I am loosing too many panzers in these entry battles

After having damaged a Firefly too
my best SS Mark IV is knocked out in this battle

Jugvigny
Once again in the same turn, I loose a panzer because of stupidity. I move a Jagd through a crossroad that I am pretty sure Ronson has line of sight on, with his antitank guns. He had. I lost the Jadg.

This must be the 11th panzer I loose in this campaign, from stupid decision-making-only. Thus 1/3 of all my panzer losses!

Carpiquet
Ronson make his first move into Carpiquet, where my Panthers from the Lehr are now to fight for their first time too. I cannot imaging his objective is to capture important ground, but only holding ground while wanting to draw in my precious panthers. However, I will not use my panthers to try and kick him off. Not yet. If he stays he stays. Thats it. I have lost too many panzers in this turn already, 5 in total;

1 Mark IV in Lebisey (a command panzer)
3 Mark IVs in Tilly
1 Jagd in Juvigny

Ronson moves in from Caen, now being in German hands again

My Lehr panther formation has not been committed yet, thus it is fully manned and equipped

Ronsons reinforced BG still in good shape

The result ends pretty much as I had expected, although with lighter losses on Ronsons side as had hoped for

Vimont
Ronson enters Vimont with his sledgehammer BG being fairly depleted and out of fuel too. At no point had I thought he would go for the exit to Cagny, so the buildings in front of it was defended only by 3 teams; 1 Schreck, 1 Command and 1 Rifle. Looking back now, I see how stupid it was not to deploy more troops up here, because of course he wanted to capture that exit. However, at the strategic map, although I understood the possibility of an encirclement, I still read the development of his bold pincer to force my panzers to battle.

Regardless, he got the exit and thus now he was in fact able to cut off my entire front south west of Caen. I think I need to read a book or two on strategy, because the fact I have let him come this far is a simply too stupid.

Ronson moves in from Troarn to Cagny.

My BG from the 346th is well manned and equipped

Ronsons sledgehammer, depleted in some types of units, is still a strong BG

A fairly good result

Troarn
Ronson moves in his infantry BG from Bois du Bavent. His objective clearly is to try and reach the exit to Vimont, while holding onto the village too. Sadly my Tigers was too slow to cross the railway and my infantry had to crawl most the way too. Thus before I had formed up a reasonable start-line of attack towards the exit to Vimont and the village it self, precious time had been lost. Eventually I had to throw in two Stösstruppe-teams in drops supported by a few Späh teams too, just to capture something.

Fortunately I managed to knock out both a Tank destroyer and a antitank gun too, that strangely is not listed as lost?

One of my Tigers got immobilised by artillery barrage, however, I managed to move in several teams around it at battle-end, in order for the crew not to abandon it. Thus in the next turn on the 16th AM, the Tiger was still available...phew.

My Tigers face yet another BG on Troarn

The deployment

Too slow a build-up for my assault on the village result in the exit to Vimont is out of German reach

The allied antitank gun not listed as destroyed - a bug?

Bois du Bavent
Ronson move in another infantry BG on Bois du Bavent. My Panthers had an easy battle here.

Ranville
We fight on for the flag in the field. Ronson made good use of smoke, multiple directions of attack and finally a barrage destroying my 88 Pak.

Total losses and situation debrief June 15th PM

Last edited by CC_CO on Tue Oct 02, 2012 11:18 am; edited 12 times in total

#56: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: CC_CO,

Posted: Sat Sep 22, 2012 12:30 pm
—
Strategic movement phase June 16th AM

With the loss of the Cagny exit on Vimont, I have no doubt that Ronson is aiming for Cagny. So if he can he hold onto his position in Troarn and in Cagny, my entire front line south-west of Caen will been cut off. Four strong BGs cut off. The campaign could therefore be decided now, with Cagny and Troarn as the decisive areas.

Also, more importantly - the weather, its cloudy and bad - and bad weather is wehrmacht weather.

Last edited by CC_CO on Sun Sep 23, 2012 8:17 am; edited 2 times in total

#57: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: CC_CO,

Posted: Sat Sep 22, 2012 12:31 pm
—
Morning battles 16th of June - 12 in total

Lebisey Woods
Not much takes place. I use up one of my hts in order to try and spot his positions down the road to Bretteville. No ground lost or gained.

Bretteville

We truce from start.

Abbaye D'Ardenne

my II/22 21st Panzer has been depleted after 14 intense defensive battles

Ronsons new BG on Abbaye

Ronson send in yet another BG on this the most contested map in the campaign. Battle number 15 initiate as sort of a meeting engagement, where my objective is to block all entries to the church-area with half-tracks. Ronson simultaneously and methodically form up a line of tanks and infantry moving slowly down the fields from the Buron exit to the Caen exit. Performing his movement like that ensure that any of my teams in the field will be spotted and killed. Thus this time I have not deployed any teams in the field. That lesson has been learned.

Meanwhile at the abbaye, I succeed blocking all gates with half tracks, so Ronsons infantry has to enter the compound with limited fire support. In one place however, his infantry does manage to sneak in and annihilate one of my rifle teams on ambush, but the rest of the infantry fights are more or less on my terms.

The battle ends with Ronsons infantry having captured two of the three inner flags, and naturally all other flags too. My men have a hard time to get the two inner flags back, due to the constant tank fire on the buildings.

However, once again, my brave soldiers from the II/22 of the 21st Panzer hold a flag at battle end. So even though all but one flag has been captured by Ronson, using such a weak German BG against such a powerful allied BG as Ronson has deployed, there is only one word to describe this tactical and strategical outcome;

SIEG

After the battle we discuss whether the walls surrounding the Abbey are unrealistic coded or not?

Caen
The second battle of Caen ends with a position not too bad for my brave men from the 346th. Ronsons BG is apparently the same unit that entered Carpiquet last turn, so congrats to Ronson for the surprise effect. I certainly did not expect a BG to enter from the airport exit.

The battle was sort of a stalemate. I could have pressed on for the flag below the church but decided not too. In the next battle, should his BG still be here I probably need to try and capture some ground. The terrain btw. is excellent for a BG as the 346th.

Lingevres
Lots of shooting. Ronson recapture a bit more ground near the centre flag. Otherwise nothing happens. Basically there were shootings from start to end of this battle.

Tilly
A most great battle this was! My SS has finally created a foothold. No ground was lost! Casualties on both sides were light, however, Ronson only has some 5 tanks left in this BG now. 5 out of 24 Smile

One more of these battles, and my foothold on Tilly will be secured.

Jugvigny
Ronson capture half the length of the important centre hedge. I gain a foothold in a building and my reckon unit that try to recapture the bunker at the south bride, is ambushed and destroyed.

Carpiquet
A great battle for the Panthers of the Lehr. Losses were light on my side and although Ronsons deployment-area was close to excellent, I still managed to push him back, while inflicting heavy losses on his formation. He used an air-strike that partly failed, phew.

Ronson decide not to send forward more tanks towards the Caen exit

Best crew after the battle. A Jabo killed one of the crewmembers

Vimont
Game frooze at battle end, grrrrr! frustrating! We decide to rebuild.

Otherwise it was a great battle, very intense. I once again use too few units defending the exit to Cagny.

Screen from the original battle

Screen from the result of the rebuild

Cagny
Game crashed 3 minutes before end. We decide to rebuild.

Last screen from the battle, before the crash. Suggested borders added.

Screen from the result of the rebuild, which we replayed two times, in order to get it right.

Bois du Bavent
We apparently both deploy for defence. No kills. I slowly but safely capture more ground.

Ranville

Last edited by CC_CO on Fri Sep 28, 2012 6:47 pm; edited 2 times in total

#58: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: dgfred, Location: N.C., USA

Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2012 12:30 am
—
Rubble fell on the armored car... it happens alot in CC2.

#59: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: CC_CO,

Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2012 11:24 am
—
Strategic movement phase June 16th PM

#60: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: CC_CO,

Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2012 12:20 pm
—
Evening battles 16th of June - 12 in total

Lebisey Woods
My BG is now cut off, however, that does not mean my Panzers are out of ammunition. Ronson is aware of that and he therefore moved very slowly and safely forward. No big change in ground lost or taken. Light losses too.

Bretteville
We truce from start.

Abbaye D'Ardenne; MAP IS LOST!
Exactly 8 days after the first battle on this map, more precisely in the very last minutes of the 16th battle of Abbaye D'Ardenne, my II/22 21st Panzerdivision loose the map. Having now only 30 halftracks and a few sMGs left, the battlegroup has almost fought to the last man.

Looking back on this last battle, it is clear that I could have hold out at least one turn more. However, two open gabs in my little castle-fortress at the abbaye it self, meant that Ronson finally could move his tanks 'inside' my "perimeter" and straight up to the building walls from where he literally could shoot up all my infantry inside, who had no antitank weapons left...

Now, had these two gabs been closed with a couple of halftracks he wouldn't have been able to move tanks into the abbaye area, meaning my infantry would have been able to defeat his incoming infantry. Thus not blocking these two gaps, was a clear mistake on my part.

Eventually though, my weakest panzer BG did delay Ronson for more than a week on this map. My BG fought against overwhelming odds, fighting against 5 allied battle groups, cumulating to almost 20 percent of Ronsons total BG-force, numbering 27 BGs.

Since June the 8th, the allied battle-groups having fought on Abbaye D'Ardenne, are as follows:

Although I now know that it is possible to hold out longer on this map than I have been able to in this campaign, I also think that my result is satisfying, well-knowing that just one of my Panzer BGs, in-fact the weakest I had, were able to draw in so many of his powerful BGs and inflict so heavy casualties on these too. Two out of the five allied BGs having fought here, were withdrawn due to losses taken, while one was reinforced. Not a bad result I think.

Ronson use heavy tank-support from start to end of the battle - ongoing tank-fire on my positions

Ronsons tanks have begun to move up to the walls them selfs and shoot straight into the building

The result was a slaughter on my brave men

Caen
A great battle. I knocked out a Command Sherman and killed a lot of his infantry, while capturing a flag and recapturing anther flag I initially lost at the start of the battle.

Lingevres
I recaptured a bit the ground recently lost. Light losses on both sides, shootings and firing went on along the whole line from start to end of the battle. Ronson moved forward a Cromwell but withdrew it again when he spotted my Jagdpanzer moved towards it.

Tilly
I lost ground but no guns.

Jugvigny
A good battle. I once again tried to take the bunker at the south bridge, but my infantry team got annihilated. In the upper part, however, I did manage to break through and cross the road with a depleted infantry team. Thus I captured an important hedge.

Carpiquet
I loose my first Panther in a stupid and unnecessary way. I move it forward where there were no reason for it to move, and Boom! a PIAT knocks it out. Otherwise a good battle, where I were a bit too slow advancing towards the flag. However, safety was my motto - that is - until I moved forward my Panther in the last minute of the battle. 19 Minutes of safety and 1 minute of blind boldness; BOOM!

Vimont
A slaughter of a battle. Both sides lost lots of infantry, however, Ronson also lost 3 guns and one armoured car. I had no losses in heavy equipment. My plan was to try and draw Ronsons infantry into a close fire fight near the Troarn exit and if possible capture the flag too.

Eventually I used up all my deployed infantry units along the road and lost all of them too

Cagny
A slaughter takes place as Ronson apparently is able to move all his tanks - 3 deployed - even though he is out of fuel. I did have antitank weapons deployed, however, not against 3 moving tanks. We both find it strange that he could move so many tanks, since it normally is maximum 2 tanks one can move, and many times only one. I almost lost the entire map.

Bois du Bavent
A very strange problem occur. From battle-start an invisible rigdeline has manifested it self between my units and Chateau Bavent?
Thus I cant move forward, trying to capture it, since the ridge line is deployed on the open ground between my units and the Chateau.

A mystical 124 high ridge is now part of the map.

Thus my Panther is not able to get LOS very far

Same ridge is deployed between my other units and Chateau Bavent - LOS to the Chateau is therefore broken

LOS broken here aswell - by the same 124 high ridge

LOS broken here too - by the 124 high ridge

After the "battle" I test the map in a local game against the ai. No ridge-line now...LOS not broken.

Ranville

#61: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: PionUrpo,

Posted: Fri Oct 26, 2012 6:01 pm
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Getting back to CC5 after a brake and I'm supremely glad to see new AARs around to read. Thank You good sir!

#62: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: JayR,

Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2012 4:33 pm
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Getting back to CC5 and considering starting a GC with a friend. Your AAR really helped to push me in the right direction Very Happy

.

One question thought; how do manage to zoom out on the strat map? The view ingame is so horribly constrained...

#63: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: CC_CO,

Posted: Sat Aug 24, 2013 7:16 am
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A whole year now and not a single comment on the mystical coded ridge on Bois du Bavent lol Very Happy

Quote:

how do manage to zoom out on the strat map? - Your AAR really helped to push me in the right direction - Thank You good sir!

No zoom involved, only screen-shots puzzled together. Very easy to do. Made in paint Microsoft.

JayR, your comment really helped me too, pushing me in the right direction as well. Thank You too good sir!

#64: Re: TRSM Ronson - CC_CO Grand Campaign Author: Pzt_Kanov, Location: México

Posted: Sat Oct 05, 2013 4:34 pm
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About the invisible Ridge.

Who was hosting? did you guys checked that you had same map.txt files for that particular map?

Close Combat Series -> H2H Multiplayer

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