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CC_CO · Rep: **32.1** votes: 3

Strategic movement phase June 11th PM

CC_CO · Rep: **32.1** votes: 3

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

chessmaster · Rep: **33.1**

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.

CC_CO · Rep: **32.1** votes: 3

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

CC_CO · Rep: **32.1** votes: 3

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

pvt_Grunt · Rep: **99.7** votes: 5

Terrific AAR, better than chatting about religion Wink

CC_CO · Rep: **32.1** votes: 3

Thanks pvt_Grunt, I hope I can improve it over time.

Strategic movement phase June 12th PM

CC_CO · Rep: **32.1** votes: 3

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

CC_CO · Rep: **32.1** votes: 3

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.

CC_CO · Rep: **32.1** votes: 3

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

CC_CO · Rep: **32.1** votes: 3

Strategic movement phase June 13th PM

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

CC_CO · Rep: **32.1** votes: 3

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

CC_CO · Rep: **32.1** votes: 3

Strategic movement phase June 14th AM

CC_CO · Rep: **32.1** votes: 3

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

CC_CO · Rep: **32.1** votes: 3

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?

Tejszd · Rep: **133.6** votes: 19

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)

CC_CO · Rep: **32.1** votes: 3

CC_CO · Rep: **32.1** votes: 3

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

CC_CO · Rep: **32.1** votes: 3

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

CC_CO · Rep: **32.1** votes: 3

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


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