"Need Help with Operations Planning" Topic

All,

Sorry, this is a bit of a long post, but your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to help me with mission planning for a mini-campaign I'm going to play out on the tabletop. Here's the background:

Americans attacking from north to south (right to left), and the final objective being the village at far left. There will be four fights on the tabletop, in order from 1-4.

US Order of Battle:
Battalion HQ
CO
XO
FO

A, B, and C Company (each)
CO
1st, 2nd, and 3rd Plt – 3 rifle squads and Infantry AT
Wpns Plt – MG, 60mm Mortar, and Infantry AT

Weapons Company
2 MG, 2 81mm Mortar, Infantry AT, 2 ATG

Attachments:
1 x Engineer Platoon (3 Engineer Squads)
1 x Tank Company (3 platoons of 4 M4 Shermans each)
1 x AT Platoon (3 M10 GMC)
1 x SPG Section (2 M7 GMC)
1 x Battery of 105mm Howitzers (eight total fire missions)

I will be soloing as the US force commander, playing against the Germans, and I have already devised my scheme of maneuver. That is to say, I have allocated the US forces listed above into four 'packages' for each fight, 1-4.

Your job is to assume the role of the German commander and do the same. I will then set up the two sides' forces and fight out the four battles in order as a mini-campaign.

German forces:

Commanding Officer (CO)
Forward Observer (FO)

1st and 2nd Company (total)"
Company Commander (CC) 1
CC 2
Rifle Plt 1 – 3 rifle squads and Infantry AT
Rifle Plt 2 – 3 rifle squads and Infantry AT
Rifle Plt 3 – 3 rifle squads and Infantry AT
Rifle Plt 4 – 3 rifle squads and Infantry AT
Wpns Plt 1 – 2 MGs, 1 80mm mortar, and Infantry AT
Wpns Plt 2 – 2 MGs, 1 80mm mortar, and Infantry AT

Weapons Company
MG 1
MG 2
Mortar 1
Mortar 2
PzSchreck 1
PzSchreck 2
PaK40 1
PaK40 2
PaK40 3

Attachments:
Engineer Plt (3 Engineer Squads)
Panzer Plt 1 (2 Pz Mk IV)
Panzer Plt 2 (2 Pz Mk IV)
FlaK 36 88mm ATG 1
FlaK 36 88mm ATG 2

1 x Nebelwerfer Battery (5 total fire missions)

If you would be so kind, please allocate the German forces as you see fit (within the 'rules'). Here are those rules:

-When allocating troops, the rifle platoons and Wpns platoons must stay together as a platoon, and each fight must have at least one infantry platoon allocated. There are four total rifle platoons and two weapons platoons, so the easy thing would be to allocate each of the rifle platoons to a fight, and add Wpns platoons where you want them, but you don't have to do it that way.

-Don't forget there are Wpns Co MGs, Mortars, Infantry AT weapons (PanzerSchrecks), and Anti-Tank Guns.

-You can mix the forces (in 'packages,' as listed above, i.e., Rifle Plt 1, Wpns Plt 2, PaK40 3, etc…) however you like, but each unit can only be used once.

-I would advise to go relatively light in fight #4 as that is well everyone will regroup. That is, I hope the Americans are going to win each fight. If that is true, the fight's will continue in order, 1, 2, 3, then 4 (if not, I'll have to figure something else out). Each surviving German element from the defeats in fights 1-3 will fall back to #4 for the fight there. Be careful though, as there's no promise as to what/who will survive from fights 1-3.

-Regarding leaders, the Germans have a battalion commander (CO) and two company commanders (CC1 and CC2). They also have a forward observer (FO), who does nothing with regards to leadership but can call for fire from the Nebelwerfer batteries. The CO can call for fire at -1 and the CCs at -2.

-You don't need to worry about allocating the Nebelwerfer fire missions, there are eight total that will/can be used by the CO, either CC, or the FO throughout the various fights.

-If you've cheated and looked at the American scheme of maneuver, don't worry about local reserve/battalion reserve, it doesn't apply to the German side.

So, please staff the four fights as you would see fit, for example:
Example Fight #1:
CC1
FO
Rifle Plt 1
Wpns Plt 1
MG 1
Mortar 1
PzSchreck 1
PaK40 1
FlaK 36 88mm ATG 1

So, have at it:
Fight #1

Fight #2

Fight #3

Fight #4

I look forward to seeing these, if anyone can be bothered to read this whole thing and actually fill it out ;) If not, I'll figure something out, but I wanted to see if it would work.

You can visit the blog at:
blackhawkhet.blogspot.com

I have the US scheme of maneuver mapped out there, expecting you're not gonna cheat!

V/R,
Jack

Well, I would put a recon force out front, with minimal assets,

So that will probably be a single rifle platoon, with a machine gun team, (and someone on a radio to announce to the rest that the enemy is here)

My second line is my proper front line,

So two rifle platoons, and a weapons platoon, plus a couple of anti tank guns, commanded by my second in command.
I would also place a forward observer, and if I had time I would have men dug in, or behind hard cover. If restricted route enables a good placement for a pzschrek ambush, locate it here.

Third line,
, pak 40 x 3, heavy weapons team, rifle platoon, engineers, mortars, extra machine gun and a panzerschrek. This would be under my third ( weakest ) sub commander. I wouldn't expect him to be using nebelwefer fire.

Fourth line.

Me,
Lurkers and shirkers, the tanks,

Just my feeling on making best use of reserves.

Maddaz,

Awesome, I appreciate it. Certainly matches German tactics with a small force up front to mask the MLR/defray the cost of Allied air and arty, lump into two a supported line (fights 2 and 3), then 'the Alamo' at fight 4. Though I'm a little surprised that you left the tank platoon to fight 4.

Now, just to clear a couple admin things up, I see you've allocated all four rifle platoons (1 x F1, 2 x F2, and 2 x F3) and both weapons platoons (1 x F2 and 1 x F3), but we need one infantry (rifle, engineer, or weapons plt) in each fight, and F4 doesn't have one. So, which platoon would you pull out and put in F4?

On another forum I posted to I received the following questions, and here are my answers as well:

Is it a stream or river and is it fordable along its whole length.
It's a river that can only be crossed at the bridge (sorry, the bridge is obscured by my red arrow). The Germans are dug-in on the hill to the west overlooking the bridge, and the Americans will have to fight their way up the road.

Are the woods dense or open.
Not to dodge the question, but medium. They will afford good cover/concealment, will slow infantry movement and be impassable to vehicles.

Are the roads lined with walls, hedges or ditches.
Yes to all three, in various places, though please note I mean 'real' hedges and not bocage.

The buildings are single story, multi story, wood, stone etc.
I plan on a couple single-story buildings in fight 1, and a village of one and two-story buildings in fight 4. Fights 2 and 3 will probably not have buildings, and if they do, just a single, one-story building.

Can the germans be dug in or have other fortified positions.
The Germans will most certainly be dug in on every map, and can have sandbag emplacements for MGs, mortars, and/or ATGs. no concrete bunkers/pillboxes though.

Thanks!

V/R,
Jack

A better approach would be to ask how we would defend the area and post just the map, the defending forces and approximately the size and composition of the attacker. Personally, I would not tailor the defense to your 4 battles. The name of the game is to make you dance to my tune, not the other way around. A key item missing is the scale of the map. I will assume it is approximately 2 by 4 km, since that is about the size of a WW2 battalion sector.

Given the preponderance of American artillery and knowing your battle plan, I would place a small infantry force in a reverse slope defense on the 2 northern hills, covered by long range AT fire from the middle and rear hills. Most of my infantry would be in the woods dug in using the stream as an obstacle. The tanks with an infantry platoon would initially be in reserve behind the center hill and the engineers hidden deep in the woods along the top center of your map. The Pak 40s and 1 88 would be on the center hill with the other 88 in the wood line in the southeast corner. I would only delay against your Attack 1, inflicting maximum damage on your armored vehicles while dropping back into the woods. At that point, your firepower would be severely reduced as Attack 2 degenerated into an infantry slugfest of almost equal numbers in the woods. Should your attack 2 succeed, 2 defending platoons would withdrawal to the center hill and the restt to the hill behind the woods. As you launched Attack 3, my hidden engineers would counterattack into your right flank and my tanks, with an infantry platoon riding, swing below the center hill in a deeper counterattack against your left flank aimed at the large northern hill to cut off your forward forces and restore my original defensive positions.

Coldsteel,

I hear what you're saying, but this is the first time I've tried asking folks on forums to 'play the other side' in my solo games. So, I established this quick deal to:

1. Help me play a mini-campaign.
2. I wanted to see if there was any interest online in helping with this sort of thing.
3. I wanted help to break out of the 'one point of view' syndrome that comes with solo-playing.
4. I wanted to see what kind of strategies folks would come up with, even knowing they couldn't decide whether or where to fight, only what forces would be committed to each one.

If this works, I'd like to use it as a springboard for future similar adventures, though in a crawl-walk-run fashion. So before I can get to the kind of stuff you're talking about there's a whole lot of logistics I'd have to work through.

I'm looking at playing these out to have some fun and refine my process for soliciting input via online forums like this. So far I've only received two inputs, and I'm hoping to get at least two or three more, then shuffle and pick one.

Though it would somewhat throw off the force structure I created for the Germans, in order to surprise myself I've thought about mixing them up. Here's what I mean: if I get five different plans, that's five different setups for each fight, 1 through 4.

When it's time for fight #1 I print out each plan for fight #1, shuffle them, and pick one, and use that plan for fight #1 on the table. Then I would do the same thing for each subsequent fight. Like I said, there's a risk it would 'unbalance' the whole mini-campaign, but it's offset by the fact I would be surprised each time. And if it's too difficult for the US forces, I can always add reinforcements from another battalion.

The only real concern is if my random picks made it too easy, i.e., I managed to pick certain plans for each fight that result in the German Panzers and 88mm ATGs never showing up on the battlefield.

So, care to submit a plan? ;)

V/R,
Jack

What you are trying to do is a good idea. We once ran a series of WW2 naval games set in the Solomons where each side had 10 index cards with their forces, starting points and objectives. They picked a card at random and went at it. Sometimes, neither side would spot the other and still meet their objectives, sometimes their force of light cruisers and destroyers ran into the other guy's battleships. Stuff happens.

The basic rule of thumb is an attacker should have a 3:1 superiority over the defender. That does not necessarily mean in all the forces on the table. You can be outnumbered in the big picture and still generate a 3:1 advantage at the point of attack. What is the scale of the map? That makes huge difference in planning an operation.

The battle really should be (assuming US wins every battle):
US attack against the recon line
Us attack against the MLR
German counterattack (or spoiling attack) against the breakthrough
Final battle against the leftovers and rear echelon

These actions could be located in the areas noted on your map.

As for forces:

Fight 1:
Inf Pltn 1, MG1, Pak 1

Fight 2:
Inf Pltn 1, Wpns Pltns 2 + 3, MG 2, Mortars 1 + 2, Schrek 1 + 2, Pak 2, Pak 3

Fight 3:
Inf Pltn 3, Eng Pltn, Panzer pltns 1 + 2, FO, 5 Werfer missions

Fight 4:
Inf Pltn 4, Flak 1 + 2 (and all the leftovers from previous fights)

Assign commanders as needed.

German tactics called for a counterattack against penetrations of the MLR--I would assume such an attack would be timed to arrive before the opposition settled in around the town, hence why fight 3 would be the Germans attacking (though the US commander doesn't have to know that--oops, I guess he does now).

Rob

Just for fun, I assumed the map is a battalion size sector and came up with a plan for Attack 1. Let me know if this is what you had in mind.

Using the US forces listed, form 5 company teams:
A: 1 full infantry company
B: an infantry company minus an infantry platoon, but with an attached tank platoon
C: an infantry company minus an infantry platoon
D: the tank company, minus a tank platoon but with 2 infantry platoons attached
E: the AT platoon, SPGs
The engineers remain under the BN CO direct control.

For attack 1: Tm D fires on the little hill, E fires on the big hill, while A clears the woods along the west edge and B moves along the woods edge to assault the little hill from the west. Artillery fires on the big hill and mortars lay a smoke screen between the little hill and the woods to the south.

Once the little hill is taken, B fires on the big hill while D assaults the big hill from the west. C follows D. The artillery shifts fire to the woods south of the big hill and the mortars fire on the woods edge south of the little hill. A continues to clear the woods. As D takes the big hill, C moves to their south and takes the woods south of the big hill. Put an air strike on the central hill while D is taking the big hill, just to keep any bad guys there entertained. E moves up the big hill once it is taken.

You are now positioned to start Attack 2.

(And I bet you can't tell I used to do this for a living!)

Thanks Rob, I greatly appreciate it, as well as explaining your line of thinking. I agree with what you're saying as well regarding the 'flow' of the battle, but like I was saying, this is just a simple 'get four fights on the table' with some 'how do I set this up with help from the forums?'

And yes, I'm solo-gaming, so now the US commander knows when you're counterattack is ;) Again, one of the challenges in figuring out how to do this.

For that matter, I'd say it would be cool to have German offensive action on any of the maps; fight 1 could be a 'spoiling' attack, and anything after that would be counterattacks of course. Like you said, an issue with counterattacks is the timing of it; it wouldn't happen on a map the US is fighting to take, it would happen on the one they just took, while they're still consolidating.

And again, this overlooks the fact that the US could lose any one of these fights and throw the whole thing out of whack. I have no idea (yet) on how to make this work for a more 'free-flow' game. If you say "I'm holding this force back for counterattack after fight number three, and the US loses fight number two, what do you do? Should that force come up now, or does it sit there?

And so far all the talk has been about the defender, but for 'free-form' we also have to keep in mind that (more than likely) the attacker would not be advancing on only one axis, as in this scenario, which further complicates things.

Cold Steel, I hadn't really thought about map scale as what I was doing with the four 'linear' battles made it sort of irrelevant. Much more important with the 'free-form' stuff we've been talking about in which case you've got to take into account engagement ranges and movement rates for when forces would come into contact with each other.

I'll say this: I'll be playing on a 4' x 4' table in 10mm, which I usually equate to about 350m x 350m. These are all wild-guesses, but based on that I'd have to say the whole map is probably 1500 x 1200m.

Here's an example of one of my 4' x 4' tables, to give you an idea of how much I get on it.

Thanks guys, and keep the plans coming).

V/R,
Jack

Cold Steel,

To be honest I hadn't really thought about it. I agree with what you've come up with, but that still just gets you to the river and not the hard part of getting over it. A big issue with it (that I didn't want to mess with in this exercise) is the reach of the 88mm ATGs from the SW hill, which would easily reach the bridge (probably 75mm PaK-40s too, not to mention the bottleneck it would cause for the German Nebelwerfers).

This also ignores clever ideas about US infantry infiltrating it's way to the east to roll up the initial German defensive position as well to scout and use a river crossing (infantry only) to help open things up at the bridge.

If I was going to do this 'free-form' I would actually run this attack from east to west, in order to give us more room/options for maneuver, with an interesting twist in the river segregating a portion of the battlefield, but not nearly the obstacle it presents at this point. But that's part of why I spun the map this way, the bridge helped me make this a single axis of advance and simplify the options for this exercise.

I'm still waiting on your defensive plan ;) And I did a little of this myself ;)

V/R,
Jack

Achtung!

Here are your orders:
map 1:
Commanding Officer (CO)
Forward Observer (FO)
Weapons Company (Leutnant is promoted to be CO WC)
MG 1
MG 2
Mortar 1
Mortar 2
PzSchreck 1
Engineer Plt (1 Engineer Squads)

The CO will personally lead the avandgarde of the defence force. Forces on Map one will disrupte and delay the advance of any enemy force. All forces use the time to dig in. "Schanzen spart blut" fall back foxholes are prepared for rapid change of position. I.e. Second line of trenches is withhin the wood with no LOS ourside inorder to eavde artillery barage to the edge of the wood by enemy.

Engineer squard will mine the road in the city with anti-tank mines and the buildings with anti personel mines They will use for this task the complete supply of all mines of all 3 squards expect one minefield. Than retreats and marches off to map 2.

Weapon company remeans hidden in the forest in the center of the north/south axis and opens only direct fire at point plant range with MG. Main target are CO in soft vehicle or tank commander in open hatch. FO and CO WC will direct fire of Mortars on second line soft vehicles like loaded trucks and other valid targets for disruption incase own forc is spotted or can be conducted without been spotted. Incase of expected counterbattery fire, retire to the position to the rear trench and fall back in to frontline after enemy salvo. in case of doupt is always the target taken with the highes chance of casulties.

If amored tanks make a demonstartion against the forest will PzSchk fire suppresion fire and one mortar will fire smoke and all foces will move out via the road and use second trenchline if needed. if Needed will Pzschk and MG1 remain in second line to cover the retreat. extra smokedispencer (nebeltoepfe) are allocated to generate a smoke screen.

forces retread to Map to and take position behind the bridge and wait for further orders. FO will take position in the south/west corner of the map with a view in the woodes vally and clear view on the bridge.

Map 2

forces :

all forces extracted from Map 1 plus the rest. All forces are dug in!

Company Commander (CC) 1
Rifle Plt 3 – 3 rifle squads and Infantry AT
Rifle Plt 4 – 3 rifle squads and Infantry AT
Wpns Plt 1 – 2 MGs, 1 80mm mortar, and Infantry AT
PaK40 2

you will take and hold the riverbank to the east of the bridge. You will dug in and only fire at point blank or if spotted. In case the forces to you right (CO WC) at the bridge become depleted will you spread out and your forces will also defend the bridge.

CC 2
Rifle Plt 1 – 3 rifle squads and Infantry AT
Rifle Plt 2 – 3 rifle squads and Infantry AT
PaK40 1
Wpns Plt 2 – 2 MGs, 1 80mm mortar, and Infantry AT
you will take and hold the riverbank to the west of the bridge. you are the shoulder of the line of defence. Your forces should not be overextended to the west. If your forces can cover halve the range from the bridge to the western end if the battlefield is this perfect. If enemy forces bypass your right flank they are allowed to do so. The CC2 should take position at the most right flank. if forces bypass him and he has clear LOS he becomes the Kampfgruppe Forward observer and leads the complete artillery of this kampfgruppe. i.e. Nebelwerfer, Mortar and indirect 88 HE fire will be deployed by him. Fire can be corrected by FO from higher position in the south west corner inorder to increase casulaties. Do not fall back. You will dug in and only direct fire at point blank or if spotted. In case the forces to your left (CO WC) at the bridge become depleted will you spread out and your forces will also defend the bridge.

CO WC and CO together with forces ( execpt one mortar) from map 1 will join forces with:
Engineer Plt (2 Engineer Squads)
PzSchreck 2
PaK40 3
you will hold the bridge. your left border is CO1 and your right border is CO2 who will reinforce you incase of losses. Engineer sq has placed demolitions at the brige which will be exploded as soon as the enemy is visible. this will shift the center of the enemy main attack from the road to a attemet river cossing to your left or right were it will be hold by CO 1 or CO2.

The returning engineer from map one will first lay on lats minefield on the southwestern hill around the position of the FO imorder to deny his position to the enemy without clearing the mines.

one Mortar (from map one or from CO2 will be deployed on the northwestern hill on a hill top position. No military crest but visible. He will open fire asap on any visible forces guided by FO. Incase of counterbattery will he retreat behind military crest and repeat the process after counterbattery is finished or untill he runs out of ammo, victory is achieved or he is killed. Incase he runs out of ammo is the mortar abandoned and the crew will move to CO 2 and support as rifle team at river bank.
If FO is overrun one burst by all artillery and NW should be fired on his last kown position

Reserve is made up from the following units.
as they units are the most expensive you are only commited in a crisis situation.
Units are hidden in the wood in the north eastern corner. Units are positioned in a wedge with facing to the west and have clear view to the road.
Panzer Plt 1 (2 Pz Mk IV)
Panzer Plt 2 (2 Pz Mk IV)
FlaK 36 88mm ATG 1
FlaK 36 88mm ATG 2
1 x Nebelwerfer Battery (5 total fire missions)
Incase enemy units mive along the road are they ambushed in a closed fireassault. (Geschlossener Feuerueberfall)
Incase enemy forces move up the hill in the north western corner (i.e. Position of lone mortar) are the units killed by flanking fire from 88.

pio targets for NW are:1. enemy clusters of troops close to the river or traffic jam on the road ofter brigde is blown up.
2. troops bypassing the shoulder of CO 2.
3.u nits on lone mortar hill
4. units with direct LOS.

88 will fire HE Flak shells in indirect fire to support mortar fire and AP fore direct fire against enemy vehicles.
After the reserve has done some damage, CO decides if counterattack in possible to support troops at river.

Man objective is to hold map 2 with maximum casulties to enemy.
Hold the Map so long untill the Grey Tiger I comes to your rescue, which was promissed he would exist somewere here!

Ausfuehrung!
Wegtreten!! Zeigen Sie mir wo die Eiseren Kreuze wachsen!

PS: Greetings and have fun….

A couple of suggestions: select an actual piece of terrain for your campaign. Check out the US Army campaign histories ( link ) for the maps of the fight, then use GoogleEarth to zoom in to the area you want with an areal view and the scale. Print the picture and draw grid lines to make a map. I do this regularly with WW2 games.

For an example of how to build the decision tree on what happens after a fight, look at the Too Fat Lardies' campaigns, ( link ) ,

To keep the forces on each side flexible, keep a core HQ element, make a list of the subunits and roll a number of dice to select them. For example, the American player gets an infantry battalion headquarters and weapons company plus 6 rolls of a d10, On a 1-4 he gets an infantry company, 5 is a tank company, 6-7 an artillery battery, 8 an engineer unit, 9 an AT company and on a 10, the support unit didn't arrive in time for the battle.

What I gave you above was just a plan to follow your attack arrow on the map. It is just phase 1 of a battalion attack across the whole board. Having the river unfordable changes the whole tactical situation. I suggest you make the stream uncrossable for only vehicles until a crossing is prepared by engineers. Otherwise, your scheme of maneuver is basically take the northern hills, clear the north bank woods, pound the other side of the bridge with every weapon in range and storm the bridge a la Burnside at Antietam.

On the table you have so far describe, the German leaves a couple scouts on the north side of the creek, dig the infantry in along the creek in the woods. If the woods are an obstacle to movement, then from your map, direct fire from the southwest hill shouldn't reach the bridge. Have the engineers prep the bridge to blow when the first Amie steps on it. Leave 1 engineer squad, an MG platoon and all the panzerschecks to cover the bridge. Dig a Pak 40 in on the central hill and one in the southeast tree line covering the open area, with the 3d on the southwest hill facing the west side of the center hill. Keep the tanks and remainder of the engineers in the village as a counter attack/reserve force, Aim the neblewerfers at the road in the open north of the bridge for the inevitable American traffic jam, then send the 88s somewhere else where the defender can take advantage of their long range.

Alright, you guys are killing me! There are lots of great ideas for future attempts at this. But I'm a little worried too, regarding future feasibility; I purposely kept this very simple, but there's a lot of stuff that's not useful because it doesn't meet the requirements set forth for the campaign.

If this is turning into cat-herding on the most simple, linear campaign, I can't imagine trying to do it with a 'free-flow' campaign. Please don't take this the wrong way, I'm grateful to everyone that took the time to post here; there are some great, useful plans, and there's a lot of food for thought for me to ponder later. But right now I need stuff to help me get troops on the table tomorrow morning :)

Rudi – I really like the fact you're taking it in a different direction than everyone else so far, with the idea of going strong on F1 to set the tone immediately and give the remainder of your forces time to get organized.

You've also got great ideas tactically on how you want to use the troops, but that doesn't help my situation because I'm playing solo, so the enemy forces will be deployed initially on blinds, so I won't be able to set them up where you want me to, and because of that, will not likely be able to use them in the way you wish to. That's one of the disadvantages of playing solo; sorry, but I don't have a choice, no friends to play with me ;).

Your map 2 stuff is interesting, but I think there's potentially problems, and it's probably because I haven't been specific enough in the info I provided because I didn't think we were going to get into this type of planning. Putting guys on the east bank of the river is probably tough as they will be under direct observation by the Americans that just took the NW hill.

I'd assume they wouldn't be able to ambush US forces moving into map 2, that because of the short distances involved the US forces would already be deployed for combat movement, as opposed to formed up for an admin movement. Even if that weren't the case, you figure they'd lead with recon elements, though maybe you could get away letting recon pass and ambushing the main column, though you'd still be stuck on the east side of the river. Though maybe your guys found a way across the river other than the bridge. I dunno, that's all beyond the scope of what I'm doing ;)

But where you're killing me is, I need you to fix your plan (if you don't mind). You've got to have at least one of the rifle or wpns platoons on each map, and you can't have your reserve tucked behind the woods to the northeast, everything has to be on one of the four maps.

And the gray Tiger doesn't come to the rescue until map 4 ;)

Thanks man, I appreciate it, I can see you took a lot of time.

V/R,
Jack

Cold Steel,

Thanks for the map info, that's useful in the future.

I know about the Lardies' stuff, I have: All Americans, Blenneville or Bust, Vyazma or Bust, Defense of Calais, Fall of Lion Gate, Wildcat to Whale, Operation Compass, and ten of the Lardies' Specials. I also have eight of the Final Combat skirmish books (though they are generally platoon-sized scenarios) and a boatload of the Battlefront scenarios (though they are generally battalion-sized scenarios).

What I want to do is take company-sized scenarios and fight them as a series of platoon-sized fights. Not what everyone wants to do, but that's what I'm trying to do. If I can get this to work with a simple, linear series of fights then I'll look at adding more and more latitude into the opponent's operational planning.

But, as this thread shows (and I posted this on two other forums, with very similar results), it's very easy to depart from immediately usable data into a whole of 'what-if' and 'wouldn't it be cool if we could…"

With your planning experience and think you could be very helpful, but I'm just not ready yet.

"What I gave you above was just a plan to follow your attack arrow on the map. It is just phase 1 of a battalion attack across the whole board. Having the river unfordable changes the whole tactical situation. I suggest you make the stream uncrossable for only vehicles until a crossing is prepared by engineers. Otherwise, your scheme of maneuver is basically take the northern hills, clear the north bank woods, pound the other side of the bridge with every weapon in range and storm the bridge a la Burnside at Antietam."

I agree wholeheartedly with your assessment. But I picked this map, with the river running that way, and being un-crossable for the express purpose of keeping this simple. If I could do anything to change this set-up, I would expand the scale of the operations area so that folks would look at these as separate fights instead of worrying about (real-life) tactical issues that will not play out on the tabletop.

Prime amongst these would be for the Germans to put their 88mm ATGs in the SW corner (Map 3) in a place where they could cover the bridge (Map 2); with their 2000m+ range, that's what you would do in real life. But because I don't want to change my tabletop groundscale so that I can cover 2000m+, I stated that can't happen because each unit will only fight on the table it occupies. I have the ability to go 8' x 6', but I'm playing by myself and want to keep these relatively quick, so I'm playing on a 4' x 4' table.

So, my intent is to play the first of four independent but interrelated platoon-sized fights, starting tomorrow morning. So if anyone has any input to aid with that, please hurry ;)

And I mean it, thanks to everyone that's posted here, I do appreciate it.

V/R,
Jack

Wow ! Thought I was back at IOAC or CAS3 !

As close to the spirit of the task as I can manage, and hoping it's in time:

1. Covering force battle.

Coy Comd 1
Rfl Pl 3
MG 1
MG 2
PzSchreck 1
PzSchreck 2

Mission: Delay enemy in order to provide time for completion of
reserve demolition.

Setup: MGs and Coy Comd dug in on military crest, remainder dug
in on reverse slope.

Target priorities: 1. Enemy comd 2. Enemy engr 3. Enemy inf 4. Other

IF: Maximum of three NbW missions on sufficiently lucrative targets.

Terminating conditions: Withdraw once four elements have been lost, or
on order from Bn Comd on completion of reserve demolition.

2. Main battle.

Bn Comd
FOO
Rfl Pl 2
Weaps Pl 1
Weaps Pl 2
PaK 40 1
PaK 40 2
PaK 40 3
FlaK 36 1
FlaK 36 2
Engr Pl

Mission: Destroy enemy in order to prevent crossing of river obstacle.

Setup: Engr pl dug in at bridge, remainder dug in on fwd slope of hill.

Target priorities: 1. Enemy engr 2. Enemy AFV 3. Enemy comd 4. Other

IF: No limit on NbW missions.

Terminating conditions: Withdraw if no ATk means remaining.

Special instructions: Engrs to demolish bridge if en approaches within
200m or on order. PaK and FlaK to disclose for armour targets only.

3. Counter-stroke.

Coy Comd 2
Rfl Pl 1
Pz Pl 1
Pz Pl 2
Mor 1
Mor 2

Mission: Defeat enemy in order to prevent establishment of bridgehead.

Setup: Panzers turret-down behind hill crest. Coy Comd on military crest.
Mortars behind crest line, with fire controllers looking over crest. Inf
pl dug in on lower slope of hill.

Target priorities: 1. Enemy ATk 2. Enemy AFV 3. Other

IF: No limit if NbW missions remain.

Terminating conditions: Withdraw if only one tank remaining.

Special instructions: Tanks to win firefight against enemy AFV from hull-down
fighting positions, then attack in concert with infantry, using mortar smoke
to cover the advance as necessary.

4. Final line.

Rfl Pl 4

Mission: Hold village in order to prevent any further enemy advance.

Setup: In buildings, fortified and prepared for all-round defence.

Target priorities: 1. Enemy comd 2. Enemy AFV 3. Other

IF: No limit if NbW missions remain.

Terminating conditions: Fight to the last round.

Special instructions: Prepare additional fighting positions for improvised
battle groups from elements that have fought successfully in the earlier
stages of the defence.

All the best,

John.

Thanks everybody, I really appreciate it.

John Salt, great plan, I like it a lot. And I know everybody wants to blow the bridge, but that would end my little exercise, so can't happen ;)

I've got a lot of work ahead of me to figure out the logistics of making this more free-form. Right off the bat I like the idea of the defender having the ability to carry out a counterattack, and I don't think it's too difficult to fit it in.

Something like, hold back a company commander, rifle platoon, and both Pz platoons for counterattack force. The expectation is that the US will win each of the 'static defense' fights, 1-4, so your one counterattack will occur at the conclusion of fight (1, 2, 3, or 4).

Much more difficult to figure out how to make everything else more free-form. Here's a map, here's your forces, give me a plan is pretty broad, with lots of room for "that wasn't the plan," "that's not what I meant," or just simply nothing interesting happening on the tabletop. As we all know, the best fight in real life is the one where you suffer negligible casualties and annihilate your opponent, and those are the conditions we are trying to set with our planning. But if the plan works, that's not very much fun on the table.

In any case, I played the first fight this morning, need to finish writing it up. Stay tuned.

V/R,
Jack