AAR: Balkans N. Africa Leg

[Imp]

TF> 3 squads enter South end of village, its empty & moving into buildings next go should have them near that ATG, scout & MMG crawl out near village but cant see anything. Combination of rough & high grass means LOS is very patchy round here. Ram decides to take on AAgun for no effect but its out of AP ammo now.
MMG to South opens up at group of 3 enemy & takes a shed load of fire losing 2 men, time for a rethink theres quite a bit out there.
I need arty back on line & should be able to get that ATG next go plus think path through mines will be cleared so just going to try to get some armour near village & in position to launch an attack next go. Have a little probe both sides loses about equal but ends up as follows
There are 4 units in original area all told, 1has vacated.
On level 4 or there abouts furthest East is St Et HMG then AAGun on outcrop.
Where outcrop joins the mountain squad & sniper, suspect more
ATG is near enough where expected.
I made a few minor moves on original lot then squad by ACo leader drew sniper fire, Co leader covered them both, AAwagons fired at there counterpart only pinning then squad discovered HMG so HT went to pick him up & was missed by ATG which was spotted by my HQ who is now near enough leading the advance & doing his scout thing. Bit reckless & think an ATR went off some where, Greeks have good interlocking fields of fire it seems.
Most of force that was in woods is now waiting behind mines to move out or on route, a squad & MMG remain to see if they can see anything & the remains of the scout is trying to find a place to hide.
I am a little worried may have guessed LOS wrong when last of the smoke vanishes.

MF> Whoops just realised my 223Fu is leading the charge, looks like 222 still he kills a man & they leave foxhole
2 Tanks in middle kill a man each in other visible squads, then I move a squad to treeline & find another 231s engage & kill 3 men. All these guys are pinned so HTs join in 1 routed. Before fire any other vehicles squad in open moves to see if anyone else is around, find a squad about 300m back, others may well be there but ground falls away behind him.
Yet another sniper fairly close takes a life tank fires at & routes then 1 moves adj ready to kill next turn. Squads move out & are on form lose a couple of men & something else is out there but these guys are devastating at 150m, the enemy is melting even the sniper sucumbs.
Lot of rough here so not managed to get adjacent but squads near woods near enough wiped out, one is in a tricky position & my halftrack decides to take a path that runs by him. Oh heck short moves in tricky terrain please, hey he lives & Greek squad can't be happy, rally HT fires & routes now we can mech assault thank you
FOO is moving slowly to a crest line that should have very good LOS if its safe, hes on his jack

BF> Mines are cleared from JPz1, MkIII fires on St Et HMG & scout in hex pinns & routes so squad tries his luck moving into tree beside them, take down.
Scout cant find anymore runners so risk a bit of trail blazing Sdkfz7 taking over & running down same path, risky but arty did hit & hidden from other firers. About 500m away is the first of his mortars & I think there are about 6 guns total a bit further on. Anything I can do to reduce arty helps, lead guy back on foot as think LOS opens up from here, tanks are 200m back

AIT> Well Greeks had another good go those SE HMG are dangerous
TF> one took out 2 men & I lost another, smoke clearing has let another AA Gun join in the fun its right back on L7 & did no damage.
MF> St E HMG opened up at 600m killed 3 & reduced a motorbike. A gun of some type pretty close opened up as well.
C> 3for7 more if arty got kills but don't think it did. Mortars taking fire to now & his arty is dictating my tactics at the moment, keep moving if you want to live. My 80mtrs are still not quite close enough to be of any use except in the centre.

[Imp]

TF> Where to start, squad in village enters building & loses 2 men in fight with ATG, HQ under fire routes ATG killing 2, MMG opens up at HMG another 2 down getting a patern here.
Pioneer & JPz1 work over central group C>1for2 but think out of shots.
Scout moves in, no they wern't digs squad out under a hail of fire losing a man but sighting several more units.
Ram & AA go to work on AAgun hoping distant one will join in, no luck but mobelwagon kills 4
Then back to central group 2 AC move up to assist then a MKIII comes under fire from an AAgun that has for some reason ignored AC. It has a pen of 3 so MKIIIs share its fire or ACs will die, everything that can has a go at it managing to kill 3 crew
We have lost a few on the way to but in control of centre now 2 remaining units are running &. several vehicles are 150m from a clump of Greeks. Half a dozen squads & MMG are at level 6 by the village. Ht moves to ATG & kills another couple of its crew.
MMG & squad that remained in woods stuck there head out, survival is now there only goal

MF> Slight worry there apears to be another set of mines here, from position think they run South & I am at he end of it, about to find out.
They have all rallied vehicles fire at 3 sqds near woods & one near HMG then only squad in woods that can do anything without attracting the attention of HMG has a go. All routed bar one so units in open check mines seems alright so 2 tanks move up, can't see gun but recieve no fire so shoot at HMG for no effect, one pops smoke between HMG & woods. Sqd moves on last squad & loses 2 men when a new squad opens up allowing adjacent pinned squad to shoot to & get the kills.
A bit of a firefight breaks out & things escalate, scout jumps in remains of bike & recieves fire from another squad in woods, so drives for cover. Others try moving on from woods side & discover a scout with a squad.
Then to top it off inf gun fires at 231, MMG returns favour & routes.
We won that exchange but these are a hardy lot 4 still in holes 3 in ready status.
Not quite true 2 more are still in holes & 2 eventualy forced to run but these 4 squads total 5 men, they are fighting to the bitter end expecting to hear cries of Banzai echoing round the hills any minute.
The HMG took 4 vehicles unloading on & did not blink, they are more than making up for the guy that wimped out earlier only person that folded was the gun crew.

BF> Lead squad crawls forward to the crack of a rifle, man down get a couple of other units on him but thats about it ends up 2 for1. Units further back are going backwards as arty is falling heavily so split into 2 distinct groups till it calms. Found remains of a squad while doing so.

AIT> arty missed & I CB fired but its freaking me out I am in the wrong theatre since when was Greece in the pacific. The only units that did not recover were an AAgun & SE HMG but they are ready to fight now. Even the ATG with halftrack & squad in its hex recovered, give me the French anyday.
TF> There is another ATG somewhere near the first & ATR behind squad cluster, result damaged Ht & 231 dead 222 & mobelwagon men traded losses about equal.
MF> ATG 700m or so & another mountain gun close I think can't see either, 231 & HT damaged. Was winning here then a squad recovered & shot up my squad before torching the HT. About now I utter an expletive just what are these guys on.
BF> Somewhere on hill at over 600m StE HMG opened up & 5 men dropped, thats 5 did I say we were going to N. Africa afterwards the way its going this could become our resting ground.
Shortening the number of turns & going without any support on an assault is extracting a heavy price, not to mention the amount of arty & ferocity Greeks are fighting with. Seriously its like fighting the Japs getting them to run is hard & when they do they come back at you all guns blazing.

[Imp]

Where is Baldrick with one of his cunning plans, can't be any worse than my exploits so far, I need to smoke off areas so I can at least control what I am fighting, MF + BF will get out of woods as fast as possible to take objectives & have Greeks come to me, these guys are just to resiliant to take on up close.

TF> Several vehicles open up Ram kills sniper then squad kills ATG in his hex & moves onto rise to find other ATG & takes fire from a few units including a bunker 100m away, his HT mounts a rescue spots several units including another bunker & ATR that takes a pot shot.
The ram which seems to have developed a bit of a hero complex moves up recieving fire from both ATR, continues & other ATR is spotted ATG fires & misses cant see but know exactly where it is. Squad moves for through village straight into 2 bunkers the force in the village is basicaly stuck that ATG is out of reach they nead armour support.
The only infantry that can smoke it out is my HQ but its to big a risk move so MKIII takes on ATR to no effect but moves up the hill dropping smoke cover.
MkIII moves onto outcrop as some dust covers to take on AA gun & scout, kills & routes them finding a baby tank with MG only CV33 which JPz1 kills.
Sqd moves to kill SE HMG finds another scout, 231 & 222 pin him before sliding behind smoke & sqd digs out HMG then fires at another squad.
Next squad moves up takes out HMG & think defenders are out of shots so 2 HTs move up, turns out its not the case of course another scout is found & kills a man or 2 but carry on & manage to get another couple involved.
Made reasonable ground up the hill & in last phase wipe out 2 squads scout ATR AA gun & finaly manage to scare the bejebas out of most of the others, will they bounce back again. Final moves some units in village jumpin trucks to move to tanks smoke unseen scouts fire so more smoke dropped to protect trucks & MkIII turns on discharger & climbs outcrop sitting there to see if any fire comes his way as should be at range I hope.

MF> Exchange of fire manages to kill most visible units then move ATG takes a shot & still cant see him but I am abandoning woods & moving mainly along edge. Tanks hiding behind anything & troops moving up to try & see ATG to NW next go.
A tank & AC move behind some rough on otherside of clearing 100m fro SE HMG & finaly kill 1 man, there is a squad here to & mountain gun is somewhere close. Bit further SW are 2 flags & at least a squad has fired from there, I have control of 3 flags here
BF> Kill squad & ATR & still trail blazing following footsteps of lead unit, 400m from flags but terrain climbs & becomes open 200m ahead. Have to try & find that HMG & expect other units. Tanks might have to risk guns & become more proactive as troops are hurting putting a bit of smoke here but most arty is focused on TF
AIT> First the good news fighting spirit went a bit & most of those that tried bit the dust, found mountain gun near MF. Now the bad BF is not going anywhere fast the earth did move with the amount of arty that just slamed the location trying to find a unit with less than 3 men down is getting hard & the transport is down to half here now, just could not move quick enough.

[Imp]

TF> Trying to figure out what to take on first is still proving well hard here both braincells are going into overload mode the AAgun on the top of the mountain is a big headache.
2 AC & 2 tanks take a safeish route to bunkers tanks taking fire from ATR, furthest North bunker is destroyed so troops can at least move a bit, the other bunker both tanks manage to repeatedly miss despite hit ratio climbing into high 80s, 3rd tries damn things got a force field or something manage to hit it once with a total of 12 shots.
HQ decides its time to lead from the front so sends a squad to take on the enemy units covering the area, he then moves out under fire & kills a mortar rallies & finds ATG, calls for support & a MMG loses 3 men to that damned bunker but kills 3 ATG crew, HQ gives the all clear as he takes it down showing the men just what is expected of them.
JPz1 Move on remaining troops at base of outcrop under fire from AAgun but with no MGs they have no effect so a squad moves onto the outcrop & discovers a sniper & scout 200m away. He takes other fire to but is determined to not let the side down as he is in rough terrain, RAM tries to pin these new troops then squad takes them on cutting one scout section in half for no loss.
A pioneer braves fire from the bunker & takes out the ATR
Decide to use reserve 231 & try the bunker again, finaly it succumbs so motorcycle heads for AAgun on the heights but StE HMG opens up ouch I have a grudging respect for these things.
Empty HT moves on sniper & kills then a scout takes a risk as several others have failed to find the HMG, finds it & 2 squads pops smoke & still manages to dig a scout out. No one is failing infront of there commander now.
It might not sound much but we now control to hex row 23 50m from the edge of the outcrop & its been a hard slog to get here probably helped by the plight of my BF. There are a couple of bunkers near the village & maybe men but we are on the mountain. There are about 10 units visible within 500m of the lead & a bit further on tell tale signs of arty guns

MF> MKIII & AC take out HMG & squad helps them with the mountain gun they are now adj to flags & just west discover a platoon dug in there is a SE HMG to but scout cant find it. Forces exchange fire for little effect then a couple of squads head towards ATG find 2 more squads & scout at treeline so pioneers ride HTs to & take down after tank uses discharger. ATG fires don't think its the same one & CoB leader fires twice at 450m killing, just earned his stripes as was under fire & spots a squad there to. The FOO has made it to ridge line & can see cavalry moving to reinforce this position.
A good turn as killed a few runners to C> about 35 for 4 & made progress, must get my HQ into the mix more often his boys are fired up.
Southern part of this force is about 2/3Km from remains of BF but its mainly woods. HMG that fired may be the same one

BF> Only one foot slogger can move does his best to clear the area was on the edge, vehicles cant pick up anyone so survivours risk moving SW as its parallel to flags but towards map edge, they may end up pretty much on there own.

AIT> Happy bunny here of course they mainly rallied & a new AAgun opened up on the mountain taking a 222 & HT as well as damaging a JPz1, so much for MkIII drawing fire & I did slightly better in troop exchange. But the bottom force got a reprieve most arty stopped I think because other forces are right on top of flags, Thought I was going to say goodbye to a platoon or more here & the TF losses are acceptable considering the gains they made.
When I have all my arty on line its enough, just. The trouble is as trying to be semi realistic half of it has to keep moving with the advance.
Reports may slow down from tommorow map building.