Third Battle (advance - turns 36 - visibility 45):
Pre-Battle
Our battalion has been restructured, companies has lost his recon elements (scouts) and were replaced by two man AT-teams armed with Molotov cocktails or tellermines.
A fourth company has added, it was to be the recon element of the battalion so they numbers were:
2 x motorbikes
8 x scouts
3 x sniper
Battle Plan
There was a river dividing the map in two areas the north and the south, there was a bridge to cross the river but it was in the enemy rear. Two victory objectives were at the north and the other one at the south.
When preparing the battle it become obvious that north and south troops couldn't be able to support each other. Also if we try to deploy 2 reserve forces, they had to be to small, and deploying only one will led one of the attack vectors weakened.
Finally it was decided to attack through only one side of the river, concentrating all the force to fast overrun the defenders and use the bridge to cross the river and attack the enemy from the rear. The south side was chosen because it had a road to speed up our attack also it has only one victory objective so lees defenders were expected.
Company D (recon) will fast advance to the objective, near followed by company B, C and tanks using the road, once near the objective C will move through the forest to reach the bridge, meanwhile B will assault the south objective.
A on trucks will be the reserve.
Speed was very important or we will lack of time to take the two north objectives, also we needed the bridge in one piece, so we had to be carefully with artillery usage.
GO:
Motorbikes where launched fast to the objective, for our surprise no enemy was found until we were near to reach the victory objective, we expected that south defenses could be weak, but it was better than our most optimistic thoughts.
Company B engaged the enemy squads defending the objective but they old the line, after a short fire exchange the defenders retreat a bit, but the Lt. Col Samoila decided that he could no waste time to secure the objective, so ordered to B company split his forces in 2 teams, 2 infantry sections (call them B') has ordered to keep the defenders pinned meanwhile C company arrive and the rest of the company will advance through the road to secure the bridge.
Meanwhile Company B was engaging the defenders some tanks were detected hidden in the forest, our tank section was sent to deal with them, they were destroyed without any loss. Once done tanks joined to the B company through the road to reach the bridge.
Looking the situation enemy tried to move force from the north to the south, some infantry squads appeared in the border of the forest next to the north river bank, C company was ordered to change their way an intercept them.
Also a small force was detected at the bridge road, 2 bt 7 tanks and 2 heavy machine guns. 75 mm artillery was plotted on the bridge to suppress the machine guns plus any other hidden unit without damaging it. But our troops advanced faster than expected, BTs were destroyed when they tried to advance through the road and our own tanks destroyed the machine guns, unfortunately no counter order was sent to the artillery and our troops were gunned by our own fire, one tank was immobilized as result.
By the time B' forced enemy troops to route, also detected some mortars and guns which were neutralized, the south objective was secured.
At the river bank, more and more enemy troops were saw, so reserve was sent to help company C which was under enemy artillery fire.
The half company B sent through the road established a bridge head at the other side of the river, and was to reach the victory objective, but a hidden At-gun destroyed one of our tanks, also some infantry squad pinned our men, smoke was launched, artillery was plotted and snipers were ordered to find good firing positions.
B' kept moving through the rear trying to locate more enemy artillery but for our surprise located the enemy HQ, we launched our forces over him, after a short fight the HQ was destroyed.
At the river bank the enemy resist into the forest, our men were at open field so they were in disadvantage, also enemy artillery was creating problems, our own artillery was ordered to suppress them.
At the bridge head things were going mad, large numbers of enemies move out from the forest, they were very low of moral so got routed even with only one casualty, but they were many !!! and our force was to tinny, we were having problems to deal with them, and our infantry squad were forced into melee combats several times. The result was an absolute massacre for Russian but with a high price for our men.
After that all resistance stopped, any remaining unit fly as soon as our troops open fire, the victory objective were secured without more losses.
Decisive victory for us !!!
Post Battle thoughts:
It has been one of the funniest battles I ever played, the attack of the infantry at the river bank surprised me, reserve was still to far to deal with them and forced to alter the plan sending the C company to block the counter attack, it led the B company alone to take the 3 victory objective and protect them, the resistance at the south one was so weak and looking the number of units engaged at the river I though that the two north objective wouldn't have many defenders, by my surprise (again) there were many enemy infantry still there which I can destroy only because their moral was very low after losing their HQ.
My worst fault was using the reserve to support C rather than advance with it through the road to support B sections at the north area, I really though that Russian will concentrate their effort in the river counterattack and didn't expected any kind of reserve at the victory objectives.
Fortunately my men did a good job anyway.