Counterattack Mission #7 AAR

[Old_Warrior]

I will leave this to the masochists that like to see their entire force wiped out in four to eight turns.

C'mon - the artillery bombardment is ridiculous in this one.

Iain - where are you? This should not be in a mission. Have you played this one? I thought you said that for the AI to have this much artillery ruins the "fun" for the player.

Too many US units in one area. No German artillery means that it will be bayonet and fist all the game through. While I like a challenge that was a bit much for even me.

[citizen6]

I grant you this one is tougher to get all the achievements. You have to balance the number of units together in one place sufficient that they aren't sitting ducks for the artillery and are there in concentration for counterfire. Losing less than twenty requires a bit of skill and luck in roughly equal measure. Move trucks and halftracks out of the way of where the artillery will strike, hold your armour back a little until the motivational speaker can get to them and expect to lose your 88s and any units in the American side of the town. Sometimes one of my 88s survive but usually they go. And ambush, ambush, ambush.....put a unit of infantry on "hold fire", where it can see what's coming but wont give it's position away by attacking. Then you can pick off their armour or infantry at range.

[AndrewGardner]

I think it is significant that the player can end the bombardment by capturing the observation point, which they have a strong incentive to do quickly.

[Old_Warrior]

Well it took me three times playing through this one to get all of the objectives.

Note: Please add a counter for the "Do Not Lose 20 Units" ACH. The UI only shows the text. Its the only counter in the module that I know of that is missing (so far).

Was able to kill 30 units and take all of the objectives. The checks showed up fine at the end of the missions on the stars and the UI worked fine otherwise.

This looks like one of those "hit or miss" type missions. Much of the bombardment and early 57mm AT gun hits or eliminating the AT guns on good shots can really sway the mission one way or another.

This time around I attacked the left flank of the US line and got to the house and objectives. Taking out that 57mm AT gun near the house really helped. It unhinged the US line. Also wiped out a squad and bazooka unit too.

As I noted I did not have enough infantry in my earlier attempts so this time I maxed out on the SS infantry. Seems to be the way to go. Note: please add in some halftracks for the infantry to ride in. Would be nice if they could be purchased too.

Now I think that the mission probably has 6 turns too many. Again, it all hinges on whether you can get past that initial objective of taking out the forward observer's location (building). Take out the bombardment and that really cuts down on the losses.

A REALLY lucky German could avoid the 20 unit loss I suppose but you would really have to be sneaky.

Other than the length the mission is decent. Again, its just VERY much make or break on those initial few turns.

Has anyone taken the Hill by turn 4? That ACH seems a bit much. I would go for turn 5 maybe. I think I took it on turn 7 as I was being very conservative.

[cupoftea]

You kidding ? This by far was the easiest mission Rommel in Normandy has to offer
Easily got past the initial defences and all the allies could offer was SSA (Suicidal Sherman Assaults)