Undercovergeek v Con - CMBS PBEM - Con can read if he wants to

[undercovergeek]

rereading the briefing i shouldnt really be trying to or have tried to engage Con - the initial recon teams were to hold the loading bay, the weather station and the railway bridge whilst the rest of the reinforcements could help in this, the job was just to get them off the map and over the bridge ASAP

I get the impression from Cons current advance, hes no idea hes supposed to be stopping me crossing the bridge and theres an off map exit for me the other side of it

I got lots of tank killing toys without realising they were for killing tanks!! the arrival of this many tanks has come as such a shock particularly as id used the toys on everything else

in hindsight i should have stayed on my side of the embankment and waited for the tanks but then again the briefing is to get the hell off the map - so why is it 2 and a half hours long???

we'll never know!

[JasonPratt]

Maybe the designer realized that despite the briefing the US player tended to try to furball it, so gave them enough time to try?

I don't know what you're going to do about those two (still?) burning vehicles blocking the bridge. Can they be pushed out of the way?

If it helps any, "off-map intelligence" suggests from "partially decoding intercepted radio chatter" that the enemy tanks have been smacked hard.  :)

[undercovergeek]

My withdrawal from my left flank is a teeth grinding comedy of hilarious errors - i waited too long for the straggling, morale shattered troops to come to the Strykers before taking the Strykers to them - in doing so the slow, unstoppable realisation that a T90 was about to break out of the forest behind them led to spontaneous applause from me to Con - there was nothing to be done but watch the survivors go up in smoke, both shots were through and throughs the shells going through the back doors of the Strykers and coming out of the cabin impacting in the woods beyond, all crew and recently mounted survivors killed. Two Strykers escaped, one full of stragglers, one empty

And so to the bridge - eventually the 155mm smoke began to land, obscurring the bridge long enough to try and get the mortar strykers over and the 2 rescuers from the flank. More hilarity ensues, a smoke shell lands close enough to a mortar stryker making its way over the bridge that it gets spooked and reverses back over the bridge, far enough through the smoke to get shot in the ass by Con, the mortar Stryker behind that one sneaks past, now confident with the smoke cover provided by arty and the newly smoking Stryker - 'wow, that looks nasty' say the crew as they all lean out to inspect their recently deceased brothers, just as the mortar storage in the first Stryker explodes killing everyone on board the passing Stryker and taking out the vehicle too - sigh

The two flank escapees do make it over however, ironically covered now by masses of black smoke from burning Strykers.

The west of the bridge, nearest to Con



the east, nearest my exit goal



One good thing comes from all this calamity, brimming with over confidence and no doubt sure that resistance in the forest is over Con drives a T90 to the edge of the trees to park on top of the hill with such chest beating 'this is my forest now' arrogance that i can only snigger as, for once, a plan comes to fruition -

The trailing Javelin team take him out for his show of over confidence



The Javelin team now guard the exit from the woods to the bridge, if memory serves there are 2 or 3 more tanks between here and the recently departed wooded area



This is a wide shot of all my units left on map - to the left, Team Wascally Wabbit atop the weather station, to their right the Javelin team, to their right the Apache assault spotter jogging towards the bridge, then the recon team in the background and the last Stryker with a HQ, a sniper team and a random crew from one of the many deceased Strykers - the Stryker heads for the exit next turn leaving the recon teams to guard the 2 objectives and a Javelin team with 2 missiles to ward off 4 tanks

[JasonPratt]

Ouch -- losing one piece by the detonation of another of your pieces as you go driving past it...  :-[

[undercovergeek]

Ok, been on the fence about this for a couple of days now

Ive handed my formal surrender in and processed the turn, it seems terribly gamey to hang about hoping i can get 2 Javelin attacks on Cons tanks before getting shot in the face and losing anyway

i have been brushed from the field and have been beaten

My only concern is that now the fun bit begins for Con, he gets to roll his tanks over me, to take the VPs - have i cut him off at his moment of glory and spoilt the end game for him

I have kept the turns if he doesnt want to accept it - well see what happens

[Con]

It was a good fought battle very tense there in the middle where I thought you were going to push me off the embankment and then pick my tanks off when they arrived.
I agree with the game score a tactical victory is about right I control the battlefield but for all intents and purposes am combat ineffective.

Its terrifying being on the receiving end of those Javelins.  Now to read what you were thinking on your AAR.  What do the watchers think of this battle? 

[JasonPratt]

I haven't thought of a tactical post-mortem yet, but my prior prediction turned out correct (granted it was a broad prediction): more likely than not someone was going to end up with enough of something surviving soon to be disproportionately effective on the battlefield, and after that the other guy's collapse would happen quickly. Wasn't sure it was going to be the T90s -- UGeek was doing a bang-up job removing them quickly (at the time) -- but that would have been my tentative guess.

Con, Geek never had any tanks coming so far as I can see. In fact I'll be very curious what your own after-action comments are. I think the game would have been a lot closer in points, had he not lost so many expensive choppers for practically nothing.

On the other hand, even if you had lost all your tanks, you might have had enough of a manpower advantage to beat him at my other prediction: that the final third or quarter of the game would end as small but bitter skirmishes over the victory points. Looking at the numbers, you had significantly more men remaining unhurt than I was expecting.

[Con]

I went back and looked at my game where I played the US and lost a lot of airpower including an insanely expensive F15.  I didnt see that I took a hit in points for losing aircraft.  I think the cost part is to try and balance out QBs etc.  At least for the one battle I did previously there was no repercussions from losing aircraft.

Con