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I, too, would like to donate my incompetence by commanding a brigade.
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Feb 8, 2017 23:24
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Can BHQs use their runners to communicate with other brigades, or is it solely for communicating with their DHQ?
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Feb 9, 2017 02:35
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I have no objection to notable forums poster 'my dad' commanding our glorious corps.
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Feb 9, 2017 02:48
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If brigades are being selected rather than distributed, I would be honoured to take command of the glorious 96th brigade.
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Feb 9, 2017 02:52
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Then that's the 22nd sewn up: 22nd Division HQ: Barracuda 96th: Tehan 97th: Hunt11 98th: AbortRetryFail 99th: Loel With sullat, sixkiller and hephasto not having selected a specific brigade, xthetenth selecting the cavalry in reserves, and thatbastardken in command of the 6th Division. E: And, of course, my dad in charge of the entire corps
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Feb 9, 2017 02:57
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Two command positions left, by my count.
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Feb 9, 2017 03:03
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xthetenth posted:cuirassity Did you ask that question purely as an excuse to use that pun?
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Feb 9, 2017 03:23
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This is WW1. Even the reserve brigades will probably be wiped out in time for tea.
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Feb 9, 2017 08:59
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What do the various colours on the map represent, and what, vaguely speaking, mechanical effect does it have on the poor mans sent to die in them?
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Feb 9, 2017 13:59
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Hunt11 posted:2. Take and hold St. Croissants until reinforcements can be delivered into the heart of French territory. If this is the case then it may make sense to try and demolish the train tracks near any area that we should be able to hold. I think we should do our best to secure the train tracks south of St. Croissants, as well as the town itself. It could be that they'd want to cut it off from rail reinforcement by French troops, in which case blowing it up ourselves would be a hilarious but ill-advised strategy.
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Feb 9, 2017 14:45
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If we want to secure our starting quarter, both to guard the towns in case of the Germans having objectives mirroring ours and having a safe place for our divisional commanders to set up, then by my untrained eye we're going to need to hold these three villages in addition to holding St Croissants. This would claim a third of the map as 'ours', which is an impressive piece of real estate that may contain possible objectives for the Boche - for instance, if they are targeting the towns along the road leading east and west out of St Croissants. For the sake of reference, I shall call this Plan Anatole. A more modest defensive strategy may be to hold St Croissants as the tip of the bayonet, and the two towns flanking the tracks as the twin points of the crossguard. This plan would surrender much of the countryside to the depredations of the villainous Boche, but would allow us to project power to the western half of the area of operations much more easily than in Plan Alpha to react to enemy movements, as well as better allowing us to defend the southern stretch of the railway. It would also leave the balance of our forces much closer to our objective without revealing it. Another downside is that this would give us little change of inadvertently countering the enemy's plans unless they revolve around the southern stretch of rail. Let this be known as Plan Berthe.  A possible modification to Plan Berthe would be to claim Le Teton instead of the first village of that plan, extending our lines all the way to the western edge of the AO but claiming, as thatbastardken pointed out, a fantastic point for spotters to operate from. Our forces leaning so heavily west, however, all but surrenders the eastern half of the AO to the Boche. It could also be risky to lay claim to an area so far from our current location. Let this be known as Plan Célestin.  It would be nice to defend all of it, but this would give us a defensive line equal to the width of the area of operations, and require so many troops as to surrender all initiative to the Boche. "The left wing will be impotent to succor the right, the right equally impotent to succor the left." (I almost quoted Churchill, but he hasn't made most of his quotable quotes yet) Tehan fucked around with this message at 15:25 on Feb 9, 2017 |
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Feb 9, 2017 15:19
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The primary objective is St Croissants, and all three of the plans incorporated it as part of the defensive line  But if we've got a staggered deployment that'd really change things.
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Feb 9, 2017 15:57
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my dad posted:Figured it might be a good time to give the reminder before anyone starts putting too much effort into an overly metagaming plan. Your plans are perfectly fine, as far as suggestions go. No worries, then. Hunt11 posted:Yes and no. Our first objective is St. Croissants, but unless we want to turn this into a meatgrinder we have to push on past it and reach Faibleimpot. I don't think that's something we can really plan for until we have some idea of where the enemy's forces are distributed. We can't even count on them starting opposite us - if I was running this I'd certainly be tempted to have the German starting line be somewhere else just to trip up the metagamers. All we really know is that somewhere around here are Germans, and that they need a jolly good thrashing.
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Feb 9, 2017 16:12
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It is appropriate that the fourth letter in the French phonetic alphabet is Désiré. Because it is the German's desire for the highest point that could doom them. Le Teton is a nigh irresistible piece of real estate, especially to  First, the bulk of our forces move along the lines marked in red, beelining to our primary objective and awaiting reports from scouts who will range ahead. Should they find that the Germans have taken and reinforced Le Teton, our forces will hinge upwards as marked in orange, leaving a sizable force in St Croissants and sending a strike team up and around the northernmost side of the hill, leaving the artillery that will inevitably have taken position on Le Teton powerless against the mighty bulwark of French soil that will be between us and them, allowing us to strike at Faibleimpot. If, however, they have resisted temptation, we can fall upon Le Teton instead along the lines marked in blue, and then send a force west and then north from St Croissants to strike at Faibleimpot, backed by the power of French cannon. The downside, however, is that this could leave us dangerously overextended should the Germans be on Le Teton - the line of communication required from Faibleimpot to high command would start at the northwest point and and at the southeast to avoid German firepower upon Le Teton, and any part of this line could be vulnerable to attack. Fake edit: the German deployment along the entire northern edge throws a sizable spanner in this works, since any plan revolving around Le Teton would leave us with swarms of Germans at our back. I will, however, share it regardless, in the faint hope that a wiser soul may be able to salvage a workable plan from it.
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Feb 9, 2017 16:31
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To my eye, the terrain of the area suggests itself to a natural 'front line' to any attempt by the Boche to take the area: Should this be the case, a push on the westernmost flank may lead to it collapsing back to protect any artillery atop the northwestern hill, allowing us unimpeded access to Faibleimpot without tipping our hand that it was our true objective all along. This would especially be the case if, God willing, we be able to beat the rascals to St Croissants, or otherwise take it from them - dividing their forces would leave them fearing encirclement, and thus make them more inclined to fall back on the western side if prodded. We must also beware pushing too hard on the east. We want them to seek sanctuary on the northeastern side, not the northwestern. If they use our objective as a staging point for their reserves and a guarded outpost for their commanders because they feel it safer than somewhere on the eastern side, we could be in some real trouble.
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Feb 9, 2017 16:41
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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.
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Feb 9, 2017 16:52
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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 |
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Feb 9, 2017 19:22
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That is a good point. I'm happy enough with the little dash over the e in Téhan to not even miss the picture.
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Feb 9, 2017 19:50
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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.
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Feb 9, 2017 21:27
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Is there a map showing all these names, or are they being made up on the fly?
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Feb 10, 2017 01:16
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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?
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Feb 10, 2017 04:21
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The question is, I suppose, whether the Faibleimpot attack should be a surgical strike from Haltebruit and La Oeuf, or part of a concentrated push involving a whole division, swiveling on St Croissant. The former could give away our objective and be vulnerable to being cut off, but the latter is a much more ambitious push and would leave us vulnerable to our entire flank collapsing, should it fail. Either way, I think we should put troops on La Cote, at least at first. As xthetenth points out, it's basically free since we can almost certainly get there firstest with the mostest, and once we have it we can either hold it and be a thorn in the enemy's side, or force them to expend men retaking a piece of terrain we don't need anyway, or rebuff a probe and then withdraw, leaving them thinking we've got forces there and either leaving forces of their own tied up with our ghost brigade or massing for an attack that will keep even more of their forces busy.
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Feb 10, 2017 05:45
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I like the moxie of Plan Aggressive, but it does seem to doom the half of Red Division sent off to flank and harass. Of course, sacrifices must be made in war and should my own brigade be one of those chosen for the task I would be honoured to fulfill it, but I think the same forces placed on La Cote with a few guns would distract the enemy just as well with much less risk. Because of Bois de Gooneville blocking line of sight between most of La Saglant Femme and the southern approach to St Croissant, I feel it is all but inevitable that the Kraut guns will be positioned instead on Pasteur Ridge, so if we cross their T with guns of our own they would have no choice but to respond in force - pulling forces away from our objectives of St Croissant and Faibleimpot. E: Bacarruda posted:Why are we assuming the Germans will have a bigger deployment area than us? my dad posted:
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Feb 10, 2017 06:20
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Likewise same Roll20 name as on here.
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Feb 11, 2017 19:34
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Artillery range is only eighteen inches, so they could only really hammer the east-west road out of St Croissant from their hills. It'd be safe to assume that road is a deathtrap, and avoid it where possible. Wherever they set up from, they're going to be able to have big guns on the western hill ready to fire by turn 3-4. If they're restricted to, say, the western half of the northern table edge, they could take as long as turn 5-6 to be ready to shoot from the entirety of Pasteur Ridge. The only part of the east-west road that really concerns us in the two potential plans we're playing with is between Baguende and Baguette, and from our position on La Cote that we're going to nail down nice and early, we'll be quite able to assess and deal with whatever forces they have on the eastern side of Pasteur Ridge.
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Feb 12, 2017 05:06
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Turn Four: There are four possible scenarios based on four possible starting locations: northwest corner, western side of northern edge, eastern side of northern edge, and northeast corner. I have colour-coded each of these entry zones, and marked possible enemy infantry positions for each of them at the end of turn four. A solid line indicates that they have had time to unlimber any guns they may have. An arrow indicates that they are only just arriving in this position at the end of turn 4. This does not take into account the unknown movement penalty from hills, or the possible positions of any enemy cavalry.
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Feb 12, 2017 05:37
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At the end of turn two, you, or the cavalry scout attached to any infantry brigade, can be at the western edge of the road overlooking the Clemenceau highlands, giving the following sightline: At this point, it is possible that enemy cavalry units will be in sight. If they are, then they will reveal that the enemy used the entry edge of the according colour. Otherwise, you have less information to go off. However, should a single unit be left as a scout, they would see possible infantry movements on turn three that will likewise reveal the enemy's entry area:  Seeing cavalry on turn three, unfortunately, wouldn't tell us anything concrete.
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Feb 12, 2017 06:17
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Major problem with current deployment plans: Our forces heading west towards La Ouef and to ready for assault on St Croissants will be arriving along the blue arrow at turn four. Case Yellow could have infantry having arrived at St Croissants on turn three and be ready to fire any artillery accompanying them on turn four; Case Blue would have them arriving on four and ready to fire on turn five. And as shown in the image above, the road west of Clemenceau is within the 18" range of artillery, including part of the road on the highlands - so our forces, visible due to being on top of the Clemenceau highlands, would be vulnerable to enemy artillery until they reach the lowlands and the enemy lose visibility on us. To be safe, we would either need good and reliable scouting to be sure the enemy hasn't rushed St Croissants and a plan in place to divert us if they had, or we would have to route around the 18" range of artillery stationed in St Croissants.
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Feb 12, 2017 06:36
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My men will happily exchange their lives for Boche artillery 
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Feb 12, 2017 07:28
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Phoneposting because boche saboteurs and/or the lp curse have claimed my PSU. Will hopefully be back online within a day or two.
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Feb 13, 2017 04:18
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I for one stand ready to give the lives of my men for the glory of France  More detailed orders to follow sometime today.
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Feb 14, 2017 04:58
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Bacarruda posted:EXECUTION You seem to have trailed off here, general.
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Feb 14, 2017 08:49
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Général de Brigade Téhan, 96th Brigade Phase 1 - est T1: With maximum elan, the glorious 96th will form up in the L'espace Envahisseur formation as outlined below and advance in battle formation through the woods, and then head towards a position just next to the farm of Fraise-champs. Note the final position will be within rifle range of the town; they will fire upon any enemy sighted thereby.  It is expected that the time elapsed at this point will be three hours after the commencement of battle, but delays and setbacks occur to us all. If the time is not yet three point five hours after the commencement of battle (turn 7), we shall wait until that point, exchanging fire with any vile Boche in the town and forcing them to reveal themselves to artillery fire. Once that point is reached, or if it is already past that point when we finish those movements, we will move on to Phase 2. At this point, the standing order for attacking changes to bayonet charges. Phase 2 - est T7: The 96th Brigade will head north and swivel west around the farm, reforming to match this formation:  At this point, we shall exchange fire with any perfidious Boche we have the misfortune of clapping our French eyes upon. The weight of incoming fire will decide our next move. Should there no longer be any foul German lead pouring from Saint Croissant, or should our brother regiment of the 98th be above 2/3 of their original number, then the 96th will perform a bayonet charge into the Bois de Gooneville forest as outlined in phase 2a. Otherwise, phase 2b will be performed. Phase 2a - est T8:  This charge shall continue until the 96th run out of either men to do the charging or forest to charge through. Should there be no enemy troops in the forest to perforate with French steel, then a standard march will be sufficient. Should casualties make this exact formation impossible, priority will be given to placing the riflemen screening the machine gun. After this, phase 4 begins, skipping phase 3 altogether. Phase 2b - est T8:  Our men will swivel back towards the town of St Croissant and charge home with bayonets mounted, exchanging the croissants the foul invaders are no doubt feasting upon with a lean diet of cold steel. Again, in case of casualties, screening the machine gun has priority. Once any enemy on the outskirts are defeated, the troops will advance into the town proper and fall upon any enemies found within. After this, phase 3 begins. Phase 3 - est T11: If the 96th joined the assault on St Croissant, then it is possible, verging on likely, that the woods are still crawling with damnable Teutonics. As such, the 96th will charge forth from the town as such with bayonets still mounted and ideally already covered in the blood of invaders:  They shall advance through the forest until it is secured once more for the glory of France, at which point they will move on to Phase 4, as if they had assaulted the forest instead of the town in phase 2. Phase 4 - est T11-T14: Once the forest is taken, move to the following formation at the northern edge of the forest:  The brigade will shift to a defensive formation, fire at any foes unwise enough to be visible, entrench if we can see no foes, and await further orders. Should our brother regiment of the 98th have routed or be otherwise absent from the eastern side of the forest, the following alternate formation will be used instead:  Vive le France, gentlemen. Standing orders: When sighting an enemy on Attack stance: Keep moving along original path When attacking the enemy: Use rifle fire When an enemy company Breaks Off or Retreats Suppressed: Do not pursue Break off automatically when: 3/4 casualties are taken E: corrected a reference to a non-existent Phase 3a to Phase 4. Tehan fucked around with this message at 13:18 on Feb 15, 2017 |
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Feb 14, 2017 11:47
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1. How do you feel the planning for this battle has gone, in general? I feel a certain amount of concern that these orders seem built for an army on the offensive, when it is the Boche that are defiling our French soil with their vile jackboots. However, I cannot deny that our objectives require a certain amount of offensiveness. I only hope that the inevitable collision of four divisions in the middle of the map won't render our plans entirely moot. 4. Is there any one aspect of the battle that seems to you will be most critical, on which success or failure is most likely to turn? The entire road from St Croissant to the eastern edge of the map is an interlocking doom fortress of conditional orders supporting each other, but once one enters the western half of the map, support is much rarer until very, very late in our plans. Much depends on the brigades who will be clearing Le Teton and overlooking our assault on St Croissants, for if we do find ourselves flanked, they will have a great weight upon their shoulders. 5. Thinking optimistically, what do you think the likely result of the battle will be? I have a certain amount of hope that the enemies will trust too much in their weapons, and find themselves vulnerable to eight inches of steel to the throat. If they are reading too much into what pie-in-the-sky academics are calling the future of warfare, they may believe that offense is suicide and defense is impregnable - but that time is not yet upon us, and I intend to prove it by sweeping the Boche out of St Croissants and the nearby forest. 6. Thinking pessimistically, what do you think the likely result of the battle will be? I can too easily foresee a meatgrinder where a few brigades being effectively wiped out will cause us to pile up as Mon Pere desperately tries to reorganize things to work around the lost brigades - especially if the enemy manages to pick off runners going along the road east of St Croissant with artillery. This would leave us awaiting orders that will not come in positions that were meant to be temporary. That said, I am not familiar enough with the other division's orders to comment on how vulnerable their runners may be. Additionally, with my brigade being the point of the bayonet, I can too easily foresee my men being necessary casualties of war and me personally being left to wander the countryside with nothing but a machine gun team to keep me company.
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Feb 16, 2017 02:58
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My only regret is not answering the questions in such a way that the first letter of each answer spelled out HUBRIS.
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Feb 16, 2017 12:40
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The thing that could make this a glorious victory or a crushing defeat is whether those soldiers are dug in or on the march. E: Okay, they're marching. We're not in a fantastic position to exploit this but we've definitely put the cat amongst the pigeons here. They must be making GBS threads bricks. Tehan fucked around with this message at 03:33 on Feb 17, 2017 |
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Feb 17, 2017 03:12
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Even though we mostly dismissed it as unlikely, I'm glad my projections for Case Purple seem to be almost entirely on the money.
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Feb 17, 2017 03:36
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Much depends on how the 55th execute their orders, and what the German autoresponses will be. If the 55th 'spot' an enemy and go into defensive position and freeze up, it's going to tie up our artillery doing little of use for a while. But if they deploy for their planned attack on Baguette and no German lunatic has standing orders to bayonet charge anything that looks at him funny, this could be a brutal pounding for the Germans as guns that were meant to fire on Baguette instead turn on the German formations and give them hell from just outside machine gun range.
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Feb 17, 2017 03:50
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I also have some concerns for my own 96th brigade. Their orders were assuming it likely that there would be enemy troops in Bois de Gooneville, but as it is it seems like I'm going to end up charging in their unopposed and leaving the 98th woefully unsupported for their attack on the town proper. Then again, depending on how disrupted the Germans are by us appearing on a hill on their undefended flank like loving Gandalf and the Riders of Rohan at Helm's Deep, there might not be much resistance in the town itself. We'll have to see.
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Feb 17, 2017 03:54
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It also doesn't seem like they've currently got eyes on our big guns that are going to be setting up to fire on the Baguette-St Croissant road just as their infantry lines start to reach it. That could be great fun. The more I look at the situation the more hopeful I feel.
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Feb 17, 2017 03:57
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