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Michael Dorosh
Canada
Calgary
Alberta
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This is from my files of the Rumblings of War V Tournament. The ROW tournaments required a short AAR from the players. Since all the players were submitting AARs, and the judges were already familiar with the scenarios, I tended to write my AARs not with posterity in mind, but to give general impressions of the scenario and feedback to the author, highlight interesting situations, and describe instances of high drama or tension during the play of the scenario.
The scenario Wet Triangle was designed by Frank "Franko" Radoslovich, as noted in this forum posting: http://www.battlefront.com/community/showpost.php?p=27024&po...
My AAR read:
Set Up - Panthers set up on reverse slope, to minimize ability of Russians to shoot at long range. Diminishes my own advantage, but suspect he will be out in overwhelming numbers.
Infantry set up to scamper back to the ridge as fast as possible.
Turn 13 movie - finally! Contact. I had debated moving a Panther up to shoot n scoot and deeply regretted not doing so when he raced his T-34/85 right at me - with the turret pointing the wrong way! Would have been a golden opportunity. However, the rest of his T-34 platoon did emerge from the trees and so I will hunker down and hope to pop him off as he comes over the ridge.
Turn 15 movie - feeling better about my strategy. He is heading towards the hill, where I have two Panthers on the reverse slope. There are only two breaks in the woods that he can come through, and I have them both sighted. A quick test in the scenario editor has me convinced the Panther is more than a match for the T-34s in a head to head fight at close range.
Regret not moving my easternmost tank hunters out of cover. I think that if I can run them out into the open it will make him think I've set up poorly and he managed to infiltrate completely through my line, making him self-confident. He has a limited amount of time to exit the map.
The only danger now is if he crosses over across my front, before cresting the hill, and streams over to the southern side of the hill, where I only have one Panther. I think, though, that the AI will still stop the tanks from simply streaking past me, unless he gives some pretty sophisticated orders. Doesn't feel right to test that in the editor but will trust to luck....
Turn 16 movie - that the plan may work is becoming apparent. My foreward tank hunter moves out, and comes under fire from T-34s. If I can crawl him into cover without getting killed, it will have been worth it to expose him. Meanwhile, the other tanks roll on towards the ridge, with a single tank in the lead....
Turn 17 movie - SUCCESS! And much better than hoped. Tense times as the second T-34 edged towards the limit of my "Cover Armor" arc for the nothernmost Panther. Three T-34s in one turn.....very nice. He only had time to get off one return shot, and it missed entirely. Now the question of what to do with my third Panther to the south... One or two gun hits from him could put paid to my Panthers nicely....
Should I move my infantry from the south? Have started moving them before, in hopes of forcing his tanks to deploy, even momentarily, should he swing around the ridge to the south.
Will be interesting to see what he does now - charge ahead, or swing around. He only has 7 turns left. My northern most Panthers are perfectly placed if he pushes on, but a swing to the south could be disastrous - especially since I have no troops now that can see what the rest of his tanks are doing....
Turn 18 - a shot through the turret mantlet destroys my theory of my Panthers being good head-to-head......
Turn 19 - My riflemen start shooting at a Sherman. He is lining his T-34s up for a goal line rush rather than circling to the south. Questions
a) do I use my tank hunter team against his buttoned up tanks? Can the Borg help but spot him as he makes a mad dash? Can he do what a real tank hunter team would do and use the first tank as cover/
b) do I still keep my southernmost Panther in reserve? I see no movement to the south - if I wait too long to move him, he can swarm my lone Panther, and catch the third one on the move. But - where do I go? Can I move him to the east of the trees on top of the ridge, hoping for flank shots....or does he have something to the rear just waiting to put a round into my thin turret sides?
Turn 20, using ASL mods of my own creation.
Turn 20 - Orders Phase. The decision is made - with only 5 turns left, too risky to skirt the woods. I'll move to the north, keeping the woods to shield my flank. He can't have any infantry up forward this fast, so I'll MOVE TO CONTACT. He is lining up at least 5 tanks for a goal line rush and if I slip around the other side, I may be far too late. He might be starting his rush THIS turn....
Of course, if he is waiting for the Shermans to catch up and run 10 tanks over at once, that will be bad too. So I'll try and goose him with my infantry tank hunter team and see if it doesn't scare him into making two seperate goal rushes....with luck, I can disable a T-34 or two and panic the others into stopping or reversing. The clumsy Tac AI may be my friend....
Turn 20 Movie - my gamey tactic of drawing fire with the tank hunter team seems to have worked, but only marginally. My opponent isn't concerned about buttoning, so all his crews unbuttoned, and turned turrets. Would have been great if the tanks had actually proceeded past the crest of the hill, but he instead just grinded forward slowly and stopped out of LOS. He handily dispatched the tank hunters. And seems to be using his crew at the top of the hill to either spot, scout, or draw fire. It will give my Panther a bit more time to move into a good covering position....though I now need to use COVER ARMOR so his crew doesn't draw fire, and hope that his crew doesn't spot the third Panther either. He may have a sound contact already.
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Email exchanges with my opponent after the game - my files are incomplete so I have no idea what the result was - are as follows:
I was told in the briefing to expect a lot of casualties. I decided to keep them all en masse. I expected ambushes early on, so went pretty slow through the first third of the map. I went up through that clearing on my far right, then jogged over even farther when I got through. I got into some nasty traffic jams, however, in the light wood because I had my tanks clustered too close together. When I got out of that, I decided to use the Shermans as overwatch while the T34s charged ahead. I thought for sure the AT rounds would start attriting the charge. Then when I got to that last ridge, I wondered if something like that would happen. Those panther gunners are quick. For the final run, I figured it would be just a matter of numbers. I would have more guns shooting at you than you at me, and I sent the tanks of the far right on a fast move for the goal. It was a very exciting finish. One of the best ever for me. I'd be happy to play you another one when the smoke clears from ROW. I've got other games that were going before it started too. I was up to 11 games early last week! That's a bit too much.
Cheers,
David
----- Original Message -----
From: Michael Dorosh
To: David G
Sent: Saturday, February 12, 2005 10:25 PM
Subject: Re: Bad!
YOU were surprised?
The historical briefing indicated one of the German tank commanders in this one knocked out like 8 tanks or something so I anticipated an armoured horde coming at me. I didn't trust to having a long range engagement. It may have seemed foolish leaving my Panthers on the reverse slope from your perspective, but I thought that engaging you at distance would leave me open to lots of gun hits and non-penetrating hits. I hoped that I could surprise you coming over the crest, and I did, with three quick kills. I got lucky. I actually thought I would be better off than I turned out being at short distances, but your gunners were quite good.
I tried to use my infantry as spotters mainly, then to draw fire. Didn't work out great. I guess the only real advantage my strategy had was that I was able to get some quick kills from ambush, and I put two of my Panthers in the right spot from the outset - had you come along the road and through the open terrain in the south, I might not have been so able to ambush your tanks.
Will be interesting to see other approaches to this one. I bet you will be one of the few players to kill all three Panthers. If I had the time I'd offer you the chance to switch sides and run through it again (!) I'm not really a fan of playing the same one twice, however, especially ones that really on surprise like this.
Good luck to you too on the rest of the bunch!
Mike
----- Original Message -----
From: David G
To: Michael Dorosh
Sent: Saturday, February 12, 2005 10:40 PM
Subject: Re: Bad!
Yeah, just a bit short on that last one! Great game. I was surprised to see how little you had in the way of forces. This was a real close one. Pretty much even after taking out the scenario bonus. I like to play them fast. The ones that get drawn out really long lose my interest and I forget what I was doing. Thanks again, Michael, and good luck with the rest of the batch!
David
----- Original Message -----
From: Michael Dorosh
To: David G
Sent: Saturday, February 12, 2005 9:31 PM
Subject: Re: Bad!
Few more seconds and that last Sherman would have made it! I'll let you look at the end screen before saying anything else. Congrats on a well played game. And thanks for the turnaround times, this was quite enjoyable. Most of my other games have just kind of fizzled out; haven't really enjoyed a PBEM in a long time.
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Turn 20, using ASL mods of my own creation.
