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sullat
Jan 9, 2012
While I excelled in the wine-pairing and moustache-riding classes in general's school, I may have missed a few other minor points. How far can our soldiers move in a turn, how far can they shoot? What's the deal with the pop-guns, anyway? I doubt they'll be of much use, since battles are decided by the bayonet, not by the engineer, but I am mildly curious.

As far as plans go, I propose we find the Germans, give them a jolly good thrashing, and then head over to the objective for wine and baguettes. Anyone disagree?

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Eastbound Spider
Jan 2, 2011



Agreed! Battles are won on the offense!

Tehan
Jan 19, 2011

sullat posted:

As far as plans go, I propose we find the Germans, give them a jolly good thrashing, and then head over to the objective for wine and baguettes. Anyone disagree?

I would like to enshrine this as Plan Eugène. What it lacks in details, it makes up for in spirit and joie de vivre.

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous


General Mon Pere, Corps Commander

The staff analysis so far concludes that the heaviest fighting will most likely be on our North flank, and that a large force needs to be committed there if we are to prevail. It is the opinion of the corps command that the reserve brigades should be allocated to the division tasked with taking St Croissants and holding the North against Boche onslaught.

Bacarruda
Mar 30, 2011

Mutiny!?! More like "reinterpreted orders"


Général de Division Bacarruda



The Germans will likely beat us to the Tetons, we should plan for a division-sized assault with lots of artillery support.

We should seize the south-central highlands and put guns on any enemy troops headed into St Croissants.

I'd also like to send a brigade into the woods, hidden there and ready to assault St Croissants as part of any main effort we make.

Tehan
Jan 19, 2011
Général de Brigade Téhan, 96th Brigade

(finding pictures of French WW1 generals was harder than I thought it would be)

Bacarruda posted:

We should seize the south-central highlands and put guns on any enemy troops headed into St Croissants.

Good call, guns positioned there could support attacks on both Le Teton and St Croissants as needed.

If we put all of our eggs in one basket, we could form an ad-hoc artillery brigade to remain on the highlands while the rest of the brigades assault Le Teton, so both the 6th and 22nd Divisions' guns could pour fire onto it in support. Though I suppose conditional orders could allow things like all the brigades giving orders of 'bombard the enemy until we take the hill, then rejoin us on it' to whatever big guns they have.

Tehan fucked around with this message at 19:50 on Feb 9, 2017

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous
Hmm...

I think it might be a good idea to keep pictures only for division and corps level of command. Bolded brigade name and stuff like that should be enough to allow a quick reference to exactly who you are. Higher level commands need to stick out a bit more in the thread, methinks.

my dad fucked around with this message at 19:43 on Feb 9, 2017

Tehan
Jan 19, 2011
That is a good point. I'm happy enough with the little dash over the e in Téhan to not even miss the picture.

xthetenth
Dec 30, 2012

Mario wasn't sure if this Jeb guy was a good influence on Yoshi.

6th Cavalry Brigade

Sirs, I'd advise that since it seems we'll be limited to a narrow zone for deployment that the cavalry go in on the vanguard, since they have a disproportionate share of firepower and mobility for their footprint. I'd say that picketing out towards either the Tetons or St. Croissants would facilitate the deployment of our full Corps towards our objectives, depending on if we want to take the clockwise approach to Faibleimpot or just want to establish a strong position on St. Croissants. If we use the plans drawn up by General Barracuda, the course he's drawn for the 22nd would take us to the Tetons along roads, while a direct course from the north would have to detour over hills or through St. Croissants. If anything, the Boche has a better crack than we do at St. Croissants because they have more direct roads.

Does this correspond with your plans?

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous

Tehan posted:

That is a good point. I'm happy enough with the little dash over the e in Téhan to not even miss the picture.

Cool. :)


xthetenth posted:

6th Cavalry Brigade

Sirs, I'd advise that since it seems we'll be limited to a narrow zone for deployment that the cavalry go in on the vanguard, since they have a disproportionate share of firepower and mobility for their footprint. I'd say that picketing out towards either the Tetons or St. Croissants would facilitate the deployment of our full Corps towards our objectives, depending on if we want to take the clockwise approach to Faibleimpot or just want to establish a strong position on St. Croissants. If we use the plans drawn up by General Barracuda, the course he's drawn for the 22nd would take us to the Tetons along roads, while a direct course from the north would have to detour over hills or through St. Croissants. If anything, the Boche has a better crack than we do at St. Croissants because they have more direct roads.

Does this correspond with your plans?



General Mon Pere, Corps Commander

A vanguard role is, indeed, what is intended for your force. You and your men must advance to St. Croissants as swiftly as possible. It may prove difficult for our infantry to beat the Boche to it, and we'd be forced to fight a bloody battle from an unfavorable position if they manage to take it before we do.

xthetenth
Dec 30, 2012

Mario wasn't sure if this Jeb guy was a good influence on Yoshi.

my dad posted:

General Mon Pere, Corps Commander

A vanguard role is, indeed, what is intended for your force. You and your men must advance to St. Croissants as swiftly as possible. It may prove difficult for our infantry to beat the Boche to it, and we'd be forced to fight a bloody battle from an unfavorable position if they manage to take it before we do.

6ème brigade de cavalerie

St. Croissants it is. All in and hope we have time to emplace the firepower in time for contact or have it follow behind the regular riders in case the enemy gets there first?

(For that matter, do the cavalry and the horse mg/artillery move at the same speed? If the regular riders are faster, I'd advise sending them in as fast as possible to establish control, and have the other firepower move as fast as possible. I'd order the cavalry to hold if at all possible, and if not, send a runner back to the mg and artillery to send them instead to a point option, probably the woods southeast of St. Croissants where they can fire in support of later echelons' attacks)

sullat
Jan 9, 2012
If we use the cavalry to seize St. Croissants, we should definitely move to support them as quickly as possible. The Boche will likely skulk in the forest NW of the town. Not a good place for cavalry to assault, I volunteer my lads to lead the charge on the woods. They will give us a good base to move on the northern Teton

Tehan
Jan 19, 2011
That'd be a pretty good idea - it would probably read like us trying to secure St Croissants' flanks, while getting us closer to our goal. Assuming our assault on the high point in the southwest goes as planned, we could then launch attacks from that forest onto the northwestern hill with ample fire support.

Trin Tragula
Apr 22, 2005

How the Game is Played vol. 2: Time, Movement, and Spotting

Having discussed the rules for giving orders, let us now consider how units move when they are ordered. Rules about firing and engineers and other such things are coming later; these effortposts take time.

Time and Turns

The battle begins at 0700, dawn, and continues until the victory conditions are met. Sunset is at 2030. Each turn is 30 minutes long, which gives you 27 turns of daylight. The weather forecast is early mist, clearing at some point after 0730, and good weather all day. Conditions for flying are excellent.

(Please note that the above only relates to the first 1914 game played on the Saint Croissant map. Subsequent games have different weather conditions and hours of daylight.)

Each turn consists of a series of phases: all units on Team A move, then all units on Team B move; then anyone who is eligible gets to open fire according to a detailed priority list; then if there's a decision to be made, the relevant player(s) make their decisions; and then another turn starts. Who moves and fires first in any one phase is determined by initiative, a die roll before each turn.

Basic Movement

The unmodified movement for all units is as follows:

quote:

Infantry, Engineers, Machine Guns, Artillery, and anything else I haven't thought of: 8"
Cavalry: 12", 16" on a road.
Runner: 8" when off-road, 30" when on-road.

This is halved for any unit which intends to use Rifle Fire on that turn. Units which move more than half their speed during a turn may not fire; MGs and Artillery may not fire if they have moved at all.

That's simple enough. Remember that you must be on Attack orders to move, and when you move you must move your full movement allowance. However, let's just complicate things slightly.

House Rule: Battle Order, Marching Order, and Roads

The base game is designed to be played on a scale small enough for the presence of roads to not be important. We're scaling up to a map that's miles wide from end to end, so roads matter and we need a house rule to govern them.

Now the fun part. When a Brigade is in Attack stance, it may be in one of two states: Battle Order and Marching Order. A unit's default state is Battle Order, ready for combat. Brigades in Defend stance must be in Battle Order.

However, when an Attack brigade is put in Marching Order and its HQ is on a road, it halts for one full turn and adopts the formation you see in the Corps diagram, and everyone in the Brigade is considered to be on the road. The Brigade then gains a movement bonus equal to half its speed. You may bring a unit onto the map in Marching Order and it immediately gains the speed bonus. Cavalry units attached to brigades can move at 24".

A Company in Marching Order is not allowed to fire even if it is eligible; it must first go into Battle Order, and the brigade spends its next available movement phase leaving its Marching Order formation and taking up its Battle Order formation. (There is a default Battle Order formation provided, but I strongly suggest you design your own.)

Brigades in marching order do not display their attached assets; they are assumed to be in the column somewhere and may not be targeted until the brigade enters battle order.

Have fun with that. Is it worth following the roads to get the extra movement, or will you cut across country? Do you want your men to stop and fight if encountering the enemy while on a road, or press on towards their objective?

House Rule: Activity While Defending

Brigades on Defend stance which are not currently spotting an enemy at 12" automatically Entrench themselves, which takes 6 turns.

(Note: again, this applies only to the first 1914 round on the Saint Croissant map. Units still auto-entrench in following rounds, but I may well have changed the amount of time that it takes to entrench.)

Cavalry

Cavalry brigades have an expanded command circle of 12" and 24".

Cavalry companies may be ordered to dismount at the cost of half their movement; they are then treated as infantry until they remount (at the same cost). Do you want to launch a bold cavalry charge, or dismount and ambush the enemy with firepower?

Artillery

Artillery larger than 75mm must be limbered and towed in order to move. Artillery smaller than 75mm can be carried for up to 4 turns in succession before it must be either limbered or put down. So, French 75mm guns can be carried, but the big bastards have to be limbered. In order to unlimber, a gun must remain stationary for one full turn. If it finishes its movement on turn 6, it spends the whole of turn 7 unlimbering and cannot fire until turn 8. Likewise, an unlimbered gun takes one full turn to limber before it can move off. Arse hortillery does not need to be unlimbered.

Note that a British 18-pounder field gun has a calibre of 84mm.

Terrain

So, here's what all the colours mean. Green space is simple open ground. Dark green indicates woods and forests; infantry passes through easily, guns struggle if they're not on a road. The hills you seem to have figured out (there's a slight movement penalty for going up a level, but I'm not saying exactly what it is), as well as the roads and towns. The little snot blobs in open ground are farms, which may or may not cause a movement penalty to go through (again, deliberately not saying). Pink is the railway line, which costs an extra inch of movement to cross unless you're cavalry, or on a road. Woods, each level of a hill, and towns all block line of sight.

(Note: The La Dand-Effyaders map contains a depression, which has its own rules.)

SPOTTING: OR, HOW NOT TO BE SEEN

Right, pay attention to this bit; it is absolutely critical that you understand it, because it's what the spotting rules are based on. Spotting is not a thing that you do; spotting is a thing that is done to you. These rules are not written in terms of "infantry can see this far away, cavalry can see further because of their magic binoculars". They are in terms of "if you are doing X, any enemy chit can see you from Y inches away". There's a few exceptions, but in the main, spotting is not something you do; spotting is something that is done to you.

The base spotting ranges are as follows:

quote:

If the following applies to YOUR CHIT, an enemy unit may spot it at the stated distance:

In the open

Anyone who Fires is spottable from 24" away
Cavalry is spottable from 16" away
Infantry is spottable from 12" away

In cover

Anyone who Fires is spottable from 24" away
Cavalry is spottable from 8" away
Infantry is spottable from 4" away

Spotting occurs during any phase when a Company is within the unobstructed Spotting Range of an enemy company; each company determines spotting individually.

House Rule: Spotting Companies in Marching Order

Regardless of how Brigades in Marching Order appear on the map, all spotting distances (and only spotting distances) are reckoned as if all its companies and attached companies are located on the road, within the boundaries of the formation.

House Rule: Hills and Spotting

I was surprised when I found out how stingy the rulebook is about the effects of hills; I suspect that it's something, like roads, that doesn't scale up well. Therefore, the following house rules apply. (NOTE: Once again, this only applies to round 1 at Saint Croissant. Different spotting ranges can and will apply to different maps.)

quote:

A company that is on a hill may spot other units, and be spotted if it moves or fires, at 32" away if it is on level 1 of a hill, 40" if it is on level 2 of a hill, and 48" at level 3.

A stationary, non-firing company is only spottable at base range

A unit's Firing range is not affected by being on a hill, except that anyone who is entirely on one level of a hill may fire over the head of friendly units who are entirely 1 or more levels below where this would otherwise not be possible.

Units on hills CANNOT see over Terrain that blocks line of sight. Yes, it's a big hill, but those are tall trees.

So, a company on level 1 of a hill has 32" of vision (yes, I know that supercedes what I just said about spotting, this is an exception to the general rule), but if it's moving around or it opens fire on anything while up there, it can also be spotted by an enemy that's 32" away. Vision versus visibility! You may well be able to see my house from up there, but in return, I can also see that you are up on the hill. Should provide a few comedy "OH gently caress" moments. See below for more detail and a case study on the slightly weird rules for hills.

Cover

These rules do not apply to towns; towns are a special case, dealt with in a moment.

A company is in Cover when it is stationary in a Farm, or is in a Wood or Entrenchment. Entrenchments offer protective cover from enemy fire as well as from being Spotted. Any company which is in in Cover and did not move at all on the turn lays an Ambush for its opponents, and may not be fired on until the turn after it is spotted. A company inside a Wood can only see out of the Wood if it is within 4 inches of the relevant edge.

Towns

A company in a Town is invisible to anyone not in the Town and cannot see out of the Town. It has both Spotting and Protective Cover at all times while in the Town, and uses the Cover spotting rules.

All Towns have Outskirts, which extend 50mm from the marked borders of the town. A company in the Outskirts has Spotting and Protective Cover and has an unobstructed view out of the Town, but cannot see into the Town, or be seen by any company inside the Town. The Outskirts are unmarked and do not exist until and unless a Company specifically declares that it is in them.

A company which travels through the Town is assumed to be using the main road and its movement is not affected; a company which intends or is forced to stay must move at combat speed while it is in the town.

House Rules: Spotter Plane

The Corps Commander may request a Spotter Plane fly over any point on the map at any time during the day. The request must be made before the battle begins. The Spotter Plane will attempt to spot anything within 24 inches of that point that is not in cover, and will then report back to the Corps Commander.

Next time: Firing Rules

A Pointy-Hatted Goon posted:

One more question, in this scenario, if the infantry is our guy, and the cav is enemy, which of the cav units are visible to us?

Basically I wanna know how hills work, since they don't have a natural crest that would determine the limits of line of sight.



Here's how this is going to work. The infantry spots all enemy units except the one at the bottom right corner, because level 2 of the hill is blocking the infantry's line of sight. In order to spot that chit, it would need to move forward onto level 2. If the cav on the edge of level 2 and 3 shuffled back an inch so it didn't have any part of its chit on level 3, it also would be hidden by level 3. It's the furthest edge of a level of elevation that blocks LOS, not the nearest.

It's a bit janky and a bit gamey, but it's the best we can do without mucking around with crest lines.

Trin Tragula fucked around with this message at 02:51 on Mar 10, 2017

xthetenth
Dec 30, 2012

Mario wasn't sure if this Jeb guy was a good influence on Yoshi.

Trin, does horse artillery being horse supersede that they're artillery? IE, do all of my cavalry move 12/16? Also, is that 16" not counting the marching order bonus, which would then bring it to 24"?

Also,

6ème brigade de cavalerie staff is going to be calculating whether it's faster to take the roads or cut the route short past the forest SE of St. Croissants, if it's the latter, I'll likely be asking guidance on whether to use the firepower for a bit of bounding overwatch into St. Croissants.

Also assuming that given the current role for them that dragooning it as infantry to hold St. Croissants like it's the first day of Gettysburg is the intent and I should be getting into the North suburbs?

sullat posted:

If we use the cavalry to seize St. Croissants, we should definitely move to support them as quickly as possible. The Boche will likely skulk in the forest NW of the town. Not a good place for cavalry to assault, I volunteer my lads to lead the charge on the woods. They will give us a good base to move on the northern Teton

Hopefully if everything goes to plan, you'll have the cavalry providing a firebase from St. Croissants to get you into the forest. Then it'll be down to your elan.


Tehan posted:

That'd be a pretty good idea - it would probably read like us trying to secure St Croissants' flanks, while getting us closer to our goal. Assuming our assault on the high point in the southwest goes as planned, we could then launch attacks from that forest onto the northwestern hill with ample fire support.

I like it.

Trin Tragula
Apr 22, 2005

:siren: THE OBSERVER THREAD IS NOW OUT OF BOUNDS UNTIL THE END OF THE BATTLE :siren:

Orders from all Brigade Commanders are due in at the absolute latest before 5pm GMT Thursday 16th, one week from now, but if we can get them in sooner, we'll start sooner.

xthetenth posted:

Trin, does arse hortillery being arse supersede that they're hortillery? IE, do all of my cavalry move 12/16? Also, is that 16" not counting the marching order bonus, which would then bring it to 24"?

This is all correct; the guns that cav together, stay together, or something. 12 base, 16 Battle Order on a road, 24 Marching Order on a road.

edit: have a fully-named map, full-size then pocket-size


Trin Tragula fucked around with this message at 00:44 on Feb 10, 2017

Sixkiller
Mar 2, 2015

Sanguine Sanguinary

Bacarruda posted:

Général de Division Bacarruda

The Germans will likely beat us to the Tetons, we should plan for a division-sized assault with lots of artillery support.

We should seize the south-central highlands and put guns on any enemy troops headed into St Croissants.

I'd also like to send a brigade into the woods, hidden there and ready to assault St Croissants as part of any main effort we make.

Général de Brigade Sixkiller, 53rd Brigade.

Sir, if we are to go through with this plan, I volunteer my brigade for the task of securing the woods. My men are eager to deliver a blow to the vicious Boche!

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous


General Mon Pere, Corps Commander

Hold your horses (unless you're the cavalry division, in which case don't hold them, ride them), wait for a plan to be decided on before volunteering. There will be plenty of chance for everyone to earn a Croix de Guerre.

Sixkiller
Mar 2, 2015

Sanguine Sanguinary

my dad posted:



General Mon Pere, Corps Commander

Hold your horses (unless you're the cavalry division, in which case don't hold them, ride them), wait for a plan to be decided on before volunteering. There will be plenty of chance for everyone to earn a Croix de Guerre.

Général de Brigade Sixkiller, 53rd Brigade.

Understood, sir. Got too eager there for a moment.

Sixkiller fucked around with this message at 00:32 on Feb 10, 2017

thatbastardken
Apr 23, 2010

A contract signed by a minor is not binding!



Général de Division Tebeka

Sorry I'm late to the strategy room, mon général, I was writing poetry and enforcing grooming standards.



I agree with the broad strokes of my comrade's plan, except for exposing half my divisional artillery north of Clemenceau village on open ground when they could just as easily support any fighting in St Croissants from the Bois de Tigre.

Tehan
Jan 19, 2011
Is there a map showing all these names, or are they being made up on the fly?

thatbastardken
Apr 23, 2010

A contract signed by a minor is not binding!

tragically the official map does not name Le Teton

thatbastardken fucked around with this message at 01:26 on Feb 10, 2017

Hunt11
Jul 24, 2013

Grimey Drawer
I personally feel like we need to be more aggressive with St. Croissant but I am content to follow my superior's plan.

Trin Tragula
Apr 22, 2005

Rule Clarifications

Brigade-to-Brigade Communications

I've been thinking about this point for a while; here's my solution.

Tehan posted:

Can BHQs use their runners to communicate with other brigades

No, but there *is* another way of doing this, and I agree it makes sense for Brigades to pass information between each other.

Any Brigade which has a Company within spotting distance of a Company from another Brigade (and its vision is not obstructed in some way) is considered "in touch" with the other Brigade. Information that reaches Brigade HQ is automatically shared with any other Brigades with which it is in touch, after a delay while the (abstracted) runners move around. (Yes, this means that you will technically be in touch with a brigade that's 40" away at the top of a hill, but any information shared between them will take several hours to arrive.) Spotting an enemy company based on information from other Brigades may trigger Auto-Responses or clauses of your orders.

Ordering Units and the Command Zone

Companies may be ordered outside the Command Zone by their commander. For instance, an infantry brigadier with attached cavalry may want to order their cavalry forward to scout and then return.

When a Company leaves the Command Zone, Brigade HQ will only know what it is doing if another company can Spot it, and information does not travel back to Brigade HQ from the absent company until it returns to the Command Zone. Companies outside the Command Zone attempt to fulfil their last written orders as best they can; if they are still out of command range, they then switch to Defend orders and do not move.

Cavalry in Brigades in Marching Order

A cavalry unit attached to a Brigade which is in Marching Order can choose to move at the infantry's speed if its commander does not want it getting ahead of the column. Once the Brigade goes into Battle Order its obligatory movement returns to 12".

Trin Tragula fucked around with this message at 13:31 on Feb 11, 2017

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous
OK, I talked to Trin via PM to clarify something. We can all deploy and move on turn 1 - there's no waiting period in the deployment zone and therefore no traffic jam.




General Mon Pere, Corps Commander

No plan has been approved yet. However, all these ideas are appreciated and have been taken into consideration.

A general outline of a plan of attack will soon be provided, and refinement is encouraged.

thatbastardken
Apr 23, 2010

A contract signed by a minor is not binding!


Général de Division Tebeka

My idealized plan would be for the 6th and the 22nd to act as the two jaws of a mighty trap, the 6th pushing north and then west, the 22nd west then north. Trapping the Boches between us and crushing them utterly.

Something like this:



This does leave only the Corps reserves to plug up gaps in the line though.

Fader Movitz
Sep 25, 2012

Snus, snaps och saltlakrits
Is it too late to sign up as a staff officer or reserve brigade commander?

sullat
Jan 9, 2012
If we do have the cav rush forward to secure St. Croissants and its vital pastry stores, we should have infantry come to support it sooner rather than later. Both by reinforcing them and holding the flanks.

Slim Jim Pickens
Jan 16, 2012
Bonejorr monsewers, Staff Officer Slim Jim Pickens from the Corps de la Géographie reporting in!

Submitting a tentative surveyor's map of battlefield sightlines. Trin, is this is reasonable approximation of the line of sight for a single company holding position at la Oeuf sur la Teton?

Slim Jim Pickens fucked around with this message at 04:02 on Feb 10, 2017

xthetenth
Dec 30, 2012

Mario wasn't sure if this Jeb guy was a good influence on Yoshi.

sullat posted:

If we do have the cav rush forward to secure St. Croissants and its vital pastry stores, we should have infantry come to support it sooner rather than later. Both by reinforcing them and holding the flanks.

Also if we reinforce them with infantry, then they can drop back to become a strategic reserve for either plugging gaps or exploitation.

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous

Fader Movitz posted:

Is it too late to sign up as a staff officer or reserve brigade commander?

It is never too late to become a staff officer (until Trin explicitly says it is :v: ) Welcome aboard. :)



General Mon Pere, Corps Commander

To interpret the map:

  • Gold - Primary objectives. Keep these in mind all the time.
  • Black - Defensive lines of last resort. We are not to allow the enemy to push us further back than this under any circumstances.
  • Red - Lines which are to be held by whichever division is tasked with holding the Northern flank, as well as the general direction their advance is expected to take.
  • Orange - Optional alternatives to red, either in the initial plan, or based on the circumstances of the battlefield.
  • Blue - Lines which are to be held by whichever division is tasked with holding the Western flank, as well as the general direction their advance is expected to take.
  • Light blue - Optional alternatives to blue, either in the initial plan, or based on the circumstances of the battlefield.
  • White - Attack on Faibleimpot. Needs to be done in force, and should not be initiated before a sufficient number of brigades is in place.




The key to our victory here is speed.

La Cote must be taken. Not only does it provide an excellent position to deploy heavy artillery at to completely anchor our flank, losing it to the enemy would be utterly devastating. It must be taken and held.
The rest of the red division is to proceed across open ground to secure the North flank and pressure St. Croissant from the East.
Blue division (which will include the cavalry brigade) will proceed in marching formation down Clemenceau road, before splitting its forces, the vanguard and some infantry support peeling away North to capture Saint Croissant, and the rest proceeding in battle formation to capture Dejeuneur Ridge and secure La Oeuf.
Once these positions have been firmly taken, Blue is to notify the division HQ, and wait for orders to continue the attack towards Faibleimpot.
Red will hold the line.
It is possible that reinforcements will arrive on the field before Blue is ready to advance, which may affect the plan. Unfortunately, this possibility is beyond our ability to directly anticipate.


Division commanders, you are hereby asked to evaluate the plan outlined above.
You are also asked to consider which task you are better personally suited towards accomplishing.


Remember: Speed and overwhelming force are the watchword here.

thatbastardken
Apr 23, 2010

A contract signed by a minor is not binding!


Général de Division Tebeka

I volunteer to command the Red section of the plan, Général!

I propose a small adjustment, to satisfy the fighting spirit of my officers and men who long to throw the Boche off our sacred soil.

Permit my brigade commanders to push to Pasteur Ridge and the Bouclecourt Road, like so:



This will allow us to control the high ground to the east of St Croissants, prevents the Baguette-Nainville road from being cut, and serve as either a flanking action or divert the enemy from the attack at Faibleimpot

xthetenth
Dec 30, 2012

Mario wasn't sure if this Jeb guy was a good influence on Yoshi.

I'm concerned that that would risk drawing the focus of Red division away from St. Croissant, leaving Blue to both take St. Croissant and build strength to push towards Faibleimpot. If anything, I'm worried that the plan as is doesn't have a strong enough westward push.

Also doing the math it looks like the fastest route for the cavalry is likely to be road-bound the whole way unless we think that the approach to Saint Croissant is likely enough to be watched that the cover from Bois de Baguette would be needed to get the cavalry in close, and even then I think it's not likely worth it.

thatbastardken
Apr 23, 2010

A contract signed by a minor is not binding!

xthetenth posted:

I'm concerned that that would risk drawing the focus of Red division away from St. Croissant, leaving Blue to both take St. Croissant and build strength to push towards Faibleimpot. If anything, I'm worried that the plan as is doesn't have a strong enough westward push.


Red Division would, in my version, be diverting those forces from the line at La Cote - a brigade at most between both objectives.

Tehan
Jan 19, 2011

While taking La Cote early would leave a massive thorn in our enemy's side, I would question whether it truly deserves to be a line of last resort - being certain of holding it while trying to project force onto the opposite side of the AO would stretch us quite thin. On the other hand, should we take it early and in force, and then allow our men to fall back from a sufficiently heavy attack to Clemenceau via Livredepot could tie up great numbers of enemy forces without sacrificing our defensive capabilities, as they reinforce their new position in anticipation of a counterattack that will not come, and the men who fell back to the Clemenceau highlands would reinforce the defenders already there and be more than enough to rebuff any attempts to press further.

The only strategic loss would be the Clemenceau-Dallas road into the AO, and as far as I can see, the road from Graisse could serve just as well.

(wait, is 'our' table edge considered to be the south side as a whole, or the south-east corner we're entering from specifically? If it is the southeastern corner only then I can see the importance of La Cote, but I'd still suggest that the Clemenceau-Dallas road could be protected by forces stationed in the Clemenceau highlands)

Besides that, a question: will our divisional commanders be gracing us with their presence on the battlefield today?

Bacarruda
Mar 30, 2011

Mutiny!?! More like "reinterpreted orders"



Général de Division Bacarrette

Sir, I'm worried this plan spreads us out too much. We only have 11 brigades, two of them weak reserve units and one of them a small cavalry brigade.

Here is what your deployment plan looks like at a minimum -- that's a very, very wide spread of forces. Our troops our dispersed to assist each other and reserves will have a long way to go to get to any fight.



We need to concentrate our forces. For two reasons: 1) it is too difficult to communicate and coordinate dispersed troops, 2) units (especially our reservists) rout and break easily -- we need to have spare brigades ready to plug gaps.

If they choose, the Germans will get to Le Oeuf and the Dejeunner Ridge first. We will probably have to assault German troops or fight a meeting engagement on the hill. That's a job for two brigades, lead by division HQ - with a third in reserve brigade in case things go badly. This KEY ground and we have to commit forces to take it.

Rather than trying to race to Saint Croissant and get dragged into an uncertain meeting engagement, let's take a more deliberate approach. Our 75mm guns can fire 18" (about 720 pixels) and we have a lot of them - thirty 75mm guns, plus two 155mm howitzers with even more reach. Let's use them to deny the enemy access to Saint Croissant.

And rather than having our troops slap the enemy at many places. Let's have them punch the enemy with a major, planned attack at the right moment.

Here is my plan in four parts:


Phase 1:


Cavalry races to take Le Oeuf.
Blue Division gets top priority for the use of roads and follows them. Gets into position to support.
Red Division sets up on the Clemenceau Ridge and the Bois de Baguette. You can see its gun ranges with the red dashes.

Phase 2:


Cavalry fall back to a reserve position
Blue Division secures the Dejeunner Ridge and set up artillery to dominate Saint Croissant and the Bois de Gooneviile.
Red Division holds position, moves its fourth brigade into a forward reserve position.
Green Reserves move into position on the Clemenceau Ridge

Phase 3: ATTACK!


All artillery opens fire with a heavy barrage to cover our attack over open fields.
Blue Division attacks Saint Croissant and the Bois de Gooneville.
Red Division attacks Baguette and Saint Croissant.
Reserves follow behind the attack, ready to fill in gaps and support the attack as needed. One brigade remains on the Clemenceau Ridge.

Phase 4: Exploit


Blue Division takes Brioche and the Bois de Gooneville.
Red Division takes Saint Croissant and Baguette
Reserves move up to support forward positions.

At this point, both sides will have taken heavy losses. We will probably have destroyed 4-6 German brigades during our assaults and bombardments. With losses, the battle will probably be almost over.

If we do need to attack further, we'll be in a good position. We will have split the Germans in half and we ahev excellent positions to begin an assault on La Sanglant Femme.

Bacarruda fucked around with this message at 04:32 on Feb 10, 2017

Bacarruda
Mar 30, 2011

Mutiny!?! More like "reinterpreted orders"
edited

xthetenth
Dec 30, 2012

Mario wasn't sure if this Jeb guy was a good influence on Yoshi.

I think establishing a presence in St. Croissant does more to weaken a position on Le Oeuf than vice versa, but I do like the focus of that plan and the heavy concentration of artillery towards an objective.

On the other hand, holding Croissant without Oeuf means we pretty much have to hold Baguette and means we definitely need to hold Bois de Baguette lest we get cut off. It's no fun being the forlorn hope if nobody relieves you in time to have some survivors to bury under medals.

xthetenth fucked around with this message at 05:01 on Feb 10, 2017

thatbastardken
Apr 23, 2010

A contract signed by a minor is not binding!


Général de Division Tebeka

Failing to occupy and move forward from La Cote renders us highly vulnerable to German flanking maneuvers or cavalry attacks addressed at our reserves or headquarters.

By all means we should fight concentrated, but not at the cost of being enveloped.

Additionally you make no provision in your plan for the attack on Faibleimpot.

thatbastardken fucked around with this message at 05:14 on Feb 10, 2017

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xthetenth
Dec 30, 2012

Mario wasn't sure if this Jeb guy was a good influence on Yoshi.

thatbastardken posted:



Général de Division Tebeka

Failing to occupy and move forward from La Cote renders us highly vulnerable to German flanking maneuvers or cavalry attacks addressed at our reserves or headquarters.

By all means we should fight concentrated, but not at the cost of being enveloped.

Additionally you make no provision in your plan for the attack on Faibleimpot.

He's put all of the blue division into position to strike on Faibleimpot, far more than the other plan has. Croissant and La Oeuf are much more important to our plan of attack than La Cote. I think La Cote is a useful place to hold from and basically free since we can get there first and we'd need the same troops on Clemencau hill anyway, but attacking from there would likely require more strength than we can put there.

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