CMBN - AAR Roadblock Training Mission

[Bison]

This is an AAR for Combat Mission Battle for Normandy's training battle call Roadblock.  Those of you who have played CMBN will most likely be familiar with this battle as its part of the tutorial for the game.  I've decided to do an AAR on it for two reasons. 1.) This is an easy battle to plan and discuss and 2.)hopefully not confuse gamers who have not played Combat Mission previously.  I'm not going to give any background to the mission, because I'll let Battlefronts own screens set the stage.

The Briefing:




A couple of quick take aways.  The Germans are not an organized unit.  So they should break easily, if you can mass fires on their locations.  However, they we be armed with anti-tank weapons.  The Americans have two reinforcement times.  5 mins and 10 mins into the battle.  However, it is really only the first reinforcements that I will use in the upcoming battle. 

The Tactical Map:


As you can see there are three primary locations of German resistance.  The bocages at the top of the map, St. Martin's Farm and at the crossroads.  The questions for the American commander.  Where are the anti-tank guns and how the hell do I cross two major open fields without major losses before I can engage the enemy at close range and destroy him?

[Bison]

The Bison Plan:

I've gone ahead and assigned objectives and phase lines in order to plan out my upcoming attack.  St. Martin's Farm is OBJ Farm, the bridge and wall area north of St. Martin's Farm is OBJ Stone and the bocaged field east of St. Martin's Farm to include the crossroads is OBJ Phalanx.

[Bison]

Operation Bison Crossroads Assault:



I've decided on the following courses of actions for this plan.

1. 1st Platoon will conduct a distruption manuveur through the open field east of OBJ Farm to PL Broncos.
2. 1st PLT will conduct the major attack on the crossroads through OBJ Phalanx from PL Broncos to PL Vikings.
3. 2nd PLT will conduct a secondary attack on OBJ Farm.
4. 2nd PLT will conduct a follow on secondary attack on OBJ Stone.

[Bison]

Bison's expectations of enemy actions:



Working West (left) to East (right) on the map.

St. Martin's Farm will be used as a blocking action taking advantage of the stream in an attempt to force the American troops into the open field.

OBJ Stone will be used to conduct an ambush with heavy weapons teams and anti-tank guns to prevent a direct assault using open fields and support from American armor.

OBJ Phalanx will use the bocages and small infantry teams to ambush and slow an American attack from the east using the bocage for cover.

Overall I expect the Germans to attempt to funnel my forces into open terrian to use as an advantage over me and make up for a lack of will trained troops.

[Bison]

The Disruption Operations:



This turned into an abject disaster for my 1st PLT's supporting armor.  They were ambushed and destroyed before even getting a round down range.  At this time, I thought the attack came from OBJ Stone.  I'd soon learn the folly of this assumption.

On the brightside, I was able to advance my entire 1st PLT and heavy weapons team up to the bocage at PL Broncos against very little German resistance.  This would set the stage for a very sucessful major attack that would commense in the next few minutes.

I also began the movement of 2nd PLT into position to begin the secondary attack on OBJ Farm.

[Bison]

The Plan for OBJ Farm.  (I took the trees out of the screenshot for the sake of the AAR.  The Heavy Weapons Team was planned to setup under the cover of trees.)



Very seldom does a plan, as the popular saying go, survive first contact.

1st and 2nd SQD were delayed by enemy fire from the farm buildings on the west side of the creek.  This left my heavy weapons team exposed to fire fromthe farm houses, OBJ Stone and OBJ Phalanx.  They never made it intact.  The lone survivor holed up in the trees for the rest of the game.  My armor immediately upon entering into the field through the hole in the bocage, seen at the bottom of the screen shot, was attacked by anti-tank cannon fire and both were destroyed.  So I lost four of my five tanks within the first 15 minutes of the battle.  Painful lesson to be learned.

Eventually I was able to assault the first farmhouse with 2nd SQD.  Subsequently I was able to route the Germans out of the two story house on the north side of the farm with both 2nd SQD and 1st SQD and take up fire postions along the farm's northern bocage.  3d SQD was brought up from it's reserve position to the small farm building next to the stream.  1st SQD and 3d SQD placed a fan fire covering the OBJ Stone and the Crossroads for 2nd SQD eventual attack up to OBJ Stone.

[Bison]

SHOT OUT!  SHOT OVER!



Following the loss of my 2nd PLT's armor, the PLT Leader placed a call for fire onto the enemy strong point at the crossroads.  It was too little, too late to save my tanks and heavy weapons team.  It did rattle the German defenders and soften them up for 2nd SQD's advance.

In retrospect, I should have called for fire on the location earlier.  I suspected it was occupied by heavy German defenses.  What I really didn't know was that the major German anti-armor was to the east of the crossroads and not a OBJ Stone.

[Bison]

The Primary Attack:



The major attack through OBJ Phalanx was suposed to be coordinated with the secondary attack.  However, the secondary attack happened at a much slower pace then I anticipated.  I should have delayed the secondary attack until 1st PLT's had advanced to the second row of bocage.  It might have saved my tanks and heavy weapons team.  At this time, I still thought the anti-tank cannon was located at OBJ Stone.

I used a bounding attack.  Moving two PLTs while the third PLT and Heavy Weapons Team provided cover fires.  The German resistance was not very stout an was rolled up easily by 1st PLT.

[Bison]

The Final Assault:



The heavy weapons team and 3d SQD were able to established a firing postion just southeast of the crossroads.  From this position they suppressed the German defenders along the road running west to east from OBJ Stone to the Crossroads.  This allowed 2nd SQD, 2nd PLT to advance unopposed to OBJ Stone and secure it.  2nd and 1st SQDs, 1st PLT contined to bound through the last few bocage rows to assault the last of the German defenders and the anti-tank cannon northeast of the crossroads.  The Germans fled in panic for the American pincher attack.

[Bison]

The Results:



A good day for the Americans as the Crossroads and St. Martin's Farm were both secured.

However the loss of four tanks is really unacceptable.  I pushed too fast with them, before I was able to secure the route from hidden German anti-tank positions.  I might have prevented the loss if I had only delayed their movement by a matter of minutes.  But since I had no idea where the German anti-tank positions were, this is most likely wishfull thinking on my part.

Combat Mission Battle for Normady is without question the best WW2 tactical simulation game on the market.

[Grim.Reaper]

Good stuff Bison, just curious do you play it real-time or we-go?  I love the concept of the game, but I completely struggle when trying to play medium-large scenarios where there are a ton of units to command.

[Capn Darwin]

Great AAR and nice to see a battle plan formulated. Was the German AT gun a 75mm? Did you have any smoke to use in the scenario to mask possible enemy locations during your advance? This is the only CM game I don't have at the moment.

[Bison]

Good stuff Bison, just curious do you play it real-time or we-go?  I love the concept of the game, but I completely struggle when trying to play medium-large scenarios where there are a ton of units to command.

Thanks Grim.  I play using real time with a lot of pausing.  I really like the idea of the wego, but the issue I have is that each turn runs 60 secs.  In an PBEM, the wouldn't be a bad thing because both sides are stuck with the decisions and outcomes.  Against the AI, the eternity of 60 seconds in a close quarters gun fight is too much for my heart to handle.  The AI pathing can take some odd routes, so real time allows you to micro manage when necessary and make decisons on the fly.

The control can seem overwhelming, but I just break down the battle by area and units I'm using to engage.  So for this battle I had two major initial objectives and two corresponding 2 PLTs doing the attacks.  I'd pause and plan out one area and then plan out the second area.  Unpause and scroll across the battlefield with several shorter pauses.  Generally I'll stick with the area where I feel I'm going to need to do more micro management.  In the case of this battle, it was the assault on the farm complex.  The push through the bocage basically managed itself.  Units held and fired on enemy positions until they surrendered or broke after which I'd move them to the next bocage.

[Bison]

Great AAR and nice to see a battle plan formulated. Was the German AT gun a 75mm? Did you have any smoke to use in the scenario to mask possible enemy locations during your advance? This is the only CM game I don't have at the moment.

Thanks Capn.  The Germans had three panzerscherck teams and one 75mm AT gun.  They were deadly accurate though, perhaps more then untrained units should have been.  I did have smoke with my infantry units, which I really should have used for the assault on the farm house.  I lost the majority of my troops during this operation and several better decisions could have been made on my part.  Smoke use would have been one of them.  There was no smoke availble from the two mortar teams or the tanks.

If I'm spending your money, I'd purchase straight away.  ;D

[TheCommandTent]

Thanks for the great AAR.  I always love lots of pictures!   I am still on the fence about getting this game...