Note: The graphics may appear a little jagged in this AAR. This is because I always turn my games down to around 1024x (bad habit?) to keep things always running as smooth as possible on my box. But the default for this game actually starts at much higher resolution, so don't let that worry you.
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Here’s an AAR from one of my PBEMs. It is a desert scenario, and if you can’t tell I’ve been given axis, then you have a lot to learn about history
My starting forces & position are shown. Let’s break it down.
- Two 8-Rads
Six SDKFZ-251/1s
Two Engineers
One MG-34
One Afrika Korps Infantry
Two Italian Carros
Two PZ-III
One Marder III
Two PZ-IVF
Two 37 MM AT-Guns
- Eight Bren Carriers
One Mortar unit
One MG unit
Two Infantry
Two Engineers
Two Queens
Two M3 Stuarts
Two Crusaders
Two 2-Pounder AT guns
One AA gun (for some reason axis have no AA here).
However, if Rommel could pull off brilliant victories while at similar disadvantages, I guess I shouldn’t complain too much. I think I may very well be able to pull off a victory here by not making any mistakes and playing my cards/gambits just right. Let’s see if I could make the Desert Fox proud.
Special Note: It seems not everyone will agree with me on the balancing bias of this scenario. I have to admit that I have not played it very much at all yet, so my opinion could possibly change after the first hundred games or so
Let it then be known then that the balancing issue just my opinion for now, and not an agreed upon fact.--
Turn 1
At the end of my turn here you can see I put my MG34 near the centre of the city. I added an infantry next over to add some support. After all, MG’s don’t have that much a life expectancy if another infantry pounces out of the building tiles next to it. Anyhow, I am happy with all the tiles that MG has covered at the moment.
I did leave one SDKFZ-251parked on the roads. This was a mistake due to a miscalculation on my part. Let’s hope I don’t have to pay for it now.
On the eastern hill I didn’t put much. This is because I suspect 90% of the time my opponent is going to try to hit me there with air-support before my next turn starts. Let’s see what happens there. In the meantime, I didn’t use my Stuka this turn, since I want to see a more clear picture of what my opponent has and where, before I take advantage of him.
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Turn 2
Alright, we had our first little disaster. A very lucky hit by our opponent’s air-power has knocked out one of our Italian Carros before we could really get started. There wasn’t anything more we could do here, and just another reason why I don’t believe this game is properly balanced just yet. You can be sure I rang up the developers after this and reminded them that the axis are lacking an AA gun!
However, I was reminded that the Stuka bonus is SUPPOSED to be stronger than the Hurricane. Hmmmpf!
So, we’ve managed to go from a small disadvantage, to a larger one now, so we’ll have to double our efforts (somehow). Hopefully our opponent will get very sloppy with his great fortunes and somehow lose the advantage back to us.
You can see the burned out wreck of the Carro here. I have also repositioned my MG and placed him closer to the center. Other units on the west end have advanced up even closer to the front. I suspect this western flank is where much of my opponent’s units may come from, and hence I am concentrating my fire-power over on that end.
On the bright side of things, at least my Marder III did not get taken out yet. It’s my most powerful TANK-BUSTER I have.
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Turn 3
Here’s the casualty screen at the end of turn-3. As you can see, I did knock out two units from the enemy. One Bren MG, and the other is an Engineer. In order to do so, I lost 2 men out of 10 with my engineers (each starts with 5 men). But so far, good trade, the problem is what may occur during the counter-move.
At the start of the turn I had noticed a Bren Carrier oddly positioned, so on a hunch I suppressed one of the nearby buildings. I was correct, but what I didn’t know was there was a second unit defending in an adjacent building to that one, so I did take a couple casualties. And then I find out there was yet a third unit (infantry) adding support fire to one of those buildings as well.
I also tried, tried, and tried to knock out an M3 Stuart. But try as I may, I could never penetrate. At least I dropped morale down into the negative so it cant counter-punch on me for a few more turns. I also knocked down morale on a Bren carrier to 0 so another thing I don’t have to worry about just yet. Though it is frustrating when I fail to penetrate.
I feel like I wasted my Marder III this turn since I moved it up to the front, but I didn’t get any shots off. Part of the reason is I was too scared to leave it exposed since it’s weakly armoured, and I know an experienced player may make it a primary target.
Crusaders have a tendency to break down half as much as Tigers, so there is perhaps a 10% chance that he gets stuck there next turn. In that case I will follow up with my Marder and we’ll see what happens.
I also shifted my other infantry around a little to add more support in the left flank. There is a Stuart spotted in the east, and I still have my AT and a PZ III there to see what it does or brings out next there. Though I wish for now I had also moved my second AT unit out to the left flank.
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Turn 4
Things looked like a disaster after my opponent’s phase. Our Stuka of course couldn’t even damage a Bren Carrier in the open field. Just typical. Then one British engineer ends up taking out both of ours! And that’s after we blasted it with numerous suppression fire before it even attack us. That was some more bad luck, but as Elizabeth the First once said, "War has uncertain outcomes."
However, our opponent left both his Crusaders exposed. One was on the right flank and I tried to knock it out with my AT gun and PZIII. No luck. But my Marder III was able to save the day and destroy it.
The second Crusader got away unfortunately, but we had at least dropped its morale down to the negative. I also knocked out a couple Brens since they were all over the place, and took out that engineer which nailed two of ours.
From the casualties list it would appear that I may be ahead at this point, however, due to the extra numbers the allies have, this still puts me behind (at least I think so).
At the moment I know where the last two infantry units are. I’m pretty sure the pile of rocks near the bottom center is where my opponent hid one, since I could see more suspicious movement there with a carrier during the replayer.
Note: I tilted the camera 90 Deg clockwise for this shot, so that’s why it may look confusing. This is taken from the left flank. You can see the rubble left behind from my SDKFZ-251 which the Crusader knocked out before I broke its morale and sent it running home.
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Turn 5
I got hit by enemy air-power again. Good news is nothing got killed this time, bad news is my AT gun’s morale broke. Of course I did something dumb and loaded then un-loaded it with an enemy Bren carrier near, so then I got hit for another morale loss. I really do play like a rookie sometimes. This could cost me the unit if I get hit by mortar again.
It turns out that the infantry I suspected that was hiding in the rocks was in fact a 2-pounder. Actually I thought there was a small chance that could be it. But rest assured, the unit is toasted now. I also killed 2 more Bren carriers. One of them was very nice to run right into an ambush by my Marder III.
I destroyed another soft-target this turn, and technically after adding up all the details, that should leave only one other 2-pounder, one infantry, and the mortar unit for soft-targets out there.
You can see to the left that the first Matilda has shown up. I tried to break its morale but unfortunately I just came up a few % too short. @^($#@ Hopefully I don’t take much damage/kills during the allied phase.
My 8-Rad has been promoted to top veteran status, and I can’t wait to put it to some further good use. As long as it survives
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Turn 6
Well, just as I feared. Because I failed to suppress that one Matilda, I ended up losing my PZ III. I also ended up losing my precious 8-Rad vet, but at least I took out the last of the Crusaders with it (despite it was out of action due to low morale anyway).
On the other end of the battle-field, my last PZ-III chased down and destroyed another Bren Carrier. I also destroyed another up front. So that’s 7 confirmed kills of Brens, leaving just one transport for the allies left. However that’s all he needs to move his 2-pounder & mortar.
I did leave him in a bit of a dilemma. I tried to break the 2-pounder, and even took casualties with my SDKFZs, but no luck for me. However, if he blasts me on his turn he won’t be able to move so I’ll know where it is. I also have called in my Stuka bomber for good measure.
In other good news, I did kill the last allied infantry, so all in all it looks like I have POSSIBLY wrestled up a slight advantage at this point. It all depends on how much damage my opponent delivers on his turn now
I really am not happy now in hindsight how I played this turn. I left my AT guns behind my lines because I was too busy focusing on other elements and didn’t want to risk them. I feel I wasted a lot of power now by going about things the way I did. But it’s getting late and I’m tired, so that is bound to happen.
I’ve re-suppressed the low morale Matilda, so I’ll only have the one Queen and Stuart to worry about before my next turn. Interesting enough, my opponent keeps going after my Marder III with mortar. Looks like he is very desperate to get a lucky kill there.
It would seem that my opponent fears that Marder more than anything. Now... how to use that to my advantage. Hmm.....
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Turn 7
Well this looks like the one turn that we definitely snapped the allied back. During the allied phase, the 2-pounder knocked out one of our transports. The nearby Stuart then couldn’t resist the temptation, and ran in to attack as well when the same 2-pounder failed to destroy the second SDKFZ.
My second transport ended up surrendering to the Stuart, but this then forced the Stuart to be left exposed for a countermove right on the roads in plain sight!
Unfortunately my Stuka failed to do anything again, as this time the MKVI AA ended up blasting it right out of the sky, (why can’t I have an AA gun too!?)
HOWEVER, on our turn we did make up some great ground. I moved my SDKFZ located near the two Queens away from them, and caused the healthy one to fire off his reserve shot as I luckily escaped. But in hindsight this was another serious MISTAKE I made. Because I was going to attack it first with my Marder anyhow, there was no need to run away from a target that had a moderate chance to be destroyed that turn.
Indeed, the Marder did very well. After adding up my percentages for hits and penetration, I had a 17% chance for a kill on the first shot, IIRC. I missed, but that gave me around 27% I believe for the final. Boom! That Queen blew up sky high. Phew... at this point we smile as the game seems in the bag.
Next I moved my remaining Carro Armato to engage the suppressed Queen head-on. I was just trying to whittle at it a bit more to get the damned thing to retreat and surrender, but suddenly I was awarded with another BOOM! Looks like it got a lucky hit on the frontal armour. Well, God bless you my beloved Italians! La Costa Nostra... That Matilda now sleeps with the fishes.
I moved up a Panzer IVF and knocked out the sitting duck on the roads. And while I tried to knock out the 2-pounder with my last two soft-targets and transports, I just couldn’t get him down to negative morale. However, he won’t be firing next turn at least, so he’s as good as dead unless rescued on the allied phase.
But even if rescued, I’ll know where he is by following the Bren carrier, so.... that 2-pounder can run, but it can’t hide anymore!
More unsettling to my opponent is my Marder that he fears so much, has been promoted to full veteran status. Now I’ll get 3 shots out, which includes my special Aimed Fire skill.
So now, we’ve finally come around and flipped our initial disadvantage into a major advantage. The end looks near, and soon I’ll find that very annoying mortar unit, and I’ll silence it.
Of course, at the end of the turn-set I just couldn’t resist taunting my opponent and gave him the old: “I warned you about leaving your Matildas there...” And yes, I had really warned him earlier, with another taunt “Looks like you want to lose your Matildas too now?”
But the time for psychological warfare is now over, with no more enemy tanks left, I should have a field day knocking the rest of the units out. Of course, even mortar has a slight chance (in theory) to knock out my tanks. But I’m sure to dig him out before that happens.
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Turn 8
Note: We shifted camera view 180 degrees here.
Once again, during the allied turn he tries in vain again to knockout my Marder with mortar fire. Sure he removed some morale, but not nearly enough. Also the Hurricane dropped down from the skies, but no lucky hits from that again.
Surprisingly, my opponent did not move his 2-pounder to safety, and also left his Bren carrier sitting there. I’m not sure if this was due to frustration, or some sort of last stand with a cry for help with Bren support-fire?
Needless to say, I knocked out the last Bren with my Marder, and then also took out the AA gun with it as well. My SDKFZ forced the last 2-pounder to surrender, and then that left me with just a hunt for that annoying mortar unit.
I found it eventually with my MG. It wasn’t where I thought it would be, but it’s as good as dead now. With no transports left, it can’t physically escape to anywhere on me. I also whittled its morale down to the point there won’t be any more firing from that next turn. I’m 100% sure I’ll either destroy it or cause it to surrender on turn #9, assuming my opponent doesn’t just surrender the game outright by then.
What theoretical chance allies had to win this game last turn, has now turned into something astronomical. Now it’s time to celebrate the liberation of these desert lands from British occupation.
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Turn 9
That was easy, I can’t remember if we destroyed that mortar, or took it prisoner. But rest assured, we have gained another axis win.
Counting up the casualties here, it seems we really did quite well in this battle. One should note though that the amour kills doesn’t just mean tanks, but also armoured vehicles like AA guns on tank-chassis, and even those armoured Bren carriers.
So... who’s next?
