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Now the lead platoon of the lead brigade is lost take left fork and hope
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Feb 16, 2017 12:26
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| # ? Apr 26, 2024 02:31 |
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Trin Tragula posted:Official Historian's Survey: Turn 0  1: The French are capable fighters but we will seize the initiative and gain victory through aggression.  2: I have carefully managed the lines of communication between our commanders and we are in good order!  3: The speed and overwhelming strength of our assault on St Croissant should ensure victory there;  however, we may meet an entrenched at our further objectives.  4: I am confident of seizing the crossroads, but we must protect against being out-flanked!  5: In the best outcome we shock the enemy with our initial attack and carry our momentum through the later objectives before they can recover, leaving France open to our armies to run free.  6: In the worst case, we meet a prepared enemy at the crossroads and are forced to dig in and merely hold ground, achieving none of our objectives. 
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Feb 16, 2017 14:26
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Trin Tragula posted:Official Historian's Survey: Turn 0 Achtung: The following letter has been censored to preserve the secrecy of important operational details. 1. Quite well Flawlessly, I'd say. Towards the beginning it was a bit scattershot everyone was overcome with sheer é 2. Very confident, at least for the first phase. We have advantageous terrain and forces around Saint Croissant Saint Baguette, and should be able to secure it swiftly and consolidate from there. Moving up the artillery in a timely manner to keep pace with the rest of the army could pose a challenge. will make for a splendid invigorating workout! 3. As mentioned before, the securing of Saint Croissant Saint Éclair appears perfectly possible. The later push towards the secondary objective seems more doubtful pleasant, as it would take us through very defensible beautiful and absolutely picturesque terrain. 4. Likely the initial major clash, while both sides are still aggressively moving forwards. If things go well, we could give the french a significant mauling around Saint Croissant Saint Madeleine and establish an advantage to go from there. If things go bad not quite as ideal, we'd be having much more trouble making any headway towards the secondary objective opportunity to show those frogeaters what for! 5. Best case, we beat the French to Saint Crossaint Sankt Apfelstrudel and inflict severe casualties as they try to dislodge us. From there on we'll drive them back and use our numerical national superiority to encircle and contain them. Things will likely slow down a bit around that point, but on the next day we would then be able to force a breakthrough towards our final objective. We may have to call in the army reserves to amass sufficient power for that last breakthrough, though give them an opportunity to watch our splendid maneuvers in action. And then, back home by Christmas! 6. Worst Case, the French don't attempt to even contest Saint Croissant, and/or initiate a strong flanking maneuver. Prepared full-strength positions on the southern ridges would be hell for us to assault. Similarly, a strong flank would see us scrambling to redeploy, possible leaving our centre dangerously weak and incapable of properly thrusting southward. We'd probably still hold Saint Crossaint or at least the immediate surroundings, but would be too weakened or strung out to realistically go any further. Back home by Easter!
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Feb 16, 2017 14:42
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It is the hour before dawn. Many of you are already on the march. General Beste von Polieren sleeps fitfully, desperate for word from the front. The men's spirits are light; your junior officers have kept them calm and reassured, and slightly drunk on glory and victory and whatever liquor you have already appropriated on your march through France. Your plans are laid as well as they ever will be, and now it is time to put them into practice. After all that, the calculation of the odds, the sifting of the probabilities, and then the fear... Your fate is now, for the moment, out of your hands.  It is in mine.  France wins the initiative. Game on! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tt7xJdKfIMM  THE ADJUDICATION HAS NOW BEGUN. NO FURTHER ORDERS WILL BE ACCEPTED. edit: The game has reached Turn 4 and halted for the night; nobody has orders to give. Update pending... Trin Tragula fucked around with this message at 01:39 on Feb 17, 2017 |
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Feb 16, 2017 19:27
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Well guys, here we go. Hold fast, keep your bayonets mounted, and never forget what this war is all about!  
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Feb 16, 2017 19:46
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As the Baker's Dozens march towards battle, their commander leads them in a selection of military tunes, the reason for his choices known only to him...Trin Tragula posted:1. How do you feel the planning for this battle has gone, in general? quote:2. How confident are you in the plans and orders that you personally have laid for this battle? quote:3. How confident are you in fulfilling the various objectives set by the Army Commander? quote: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? quote:5. Thinking optimistically, what do you think the likely result of the battle will be? quote:6. Thinking pessimistically, what do you think the likely result of the battle will be? The Sandman fucked around with this message at 21:17 on Feb 16, 2017 |
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Feb 16, 2017 20:46
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Turn 3 taking an AWFUL long time to adjudicate makes me thing shooting has started... (unless you've stopped updating us on which turn you're on)
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Feb 17, 2017 00:57
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It wasn't the shooting that was the problem. Next time all cavalry is going to be in cav brigades, it's far too much of a pain in the arse to have it running around attached to infantry. Right then. I'll make this look pretty later when I'm not in urgent need of sleep. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VRHgzrCQHw Turn 1: 0700 French initiative Two issues here; the first is traffic, the second is my inability to keep your cavalry switched on after I've had it switched off to do the other lot's screenshots. One brigade in each division doesn't make it onto the field until next turn.  Turn 2: 0730 French initiative On the other hand, when the said cav makes it up onto La Cote, it sees a French traffic jam that makes yours seem like a pleasant rest cure at Baden Baden. The two sides exchange fire, more for the look of the thing than for anything else, before yours turns about and does a runner.  Which one of you figured out the entirely mean and sneaky trick that I appear to have played on you several days ago? Give them a medal and listen next time. Only thing wrong was that you assumed I would only be cackling out loud now, when it's all going off, instead of while watching you plan. Wheeze of the week! Elsewhere, the Jaegers wonder idly if they can enter the Tour de France after the war.  And the cavalry coming into St Croissant does some spotting of its own, as it sees enemy cavalry riding into Clemenceau (I appear to have misplaced the wide shot).  Turn 3: 0800 German initiative Your spotter plane goes up; its report will arrive at General Beste von Polieren's headquarters after it lands. I finally manage to switch Sandman's cavalry on long enough to catch it riding away from Baguette and into St Croissant; and, it seems, not a moment too soon.  First blood to the Uhlan arse hortillery. (The MG which is also in St C is switched off for the benefit of the French, as is the other division's four-square on the other side of town.) Meanwhile, the long march continues; the Jaeger cyclists caught sight of the French cavalry as it rode round towards St C and directly into your welcoming committee; and here's the East:  (yes, that dratted cavalry is in the wrong place; it's to demonstrate where it was when it spotted up onto Cote de Clemenceau.) Turn 4: 0830 German initiative How many brigade headquarters have you counted so far?  The French cav is in the wrong formation because I blobbed on its orders, although it ended up having no practical effect. Speaking of which...  The French cavalry does its bit to shake that unfair reputation everyone sticks them with by attempting to retreat without firing a shot; your arse hortillery claims another kill and the MG earns a suppression. Can you stop the cavalry? Apparently so. Guess you lot had better make a start at running for all presidencies. More tomorrow; now I'm off to bed, where I intend to stay until my name changes to Rip van Tragula. Division HQs arrived at their destinations safely and are now in telephone contact with Corps HQ. Neither of them are eligible to give orders. See you tomorrow. Discuss.
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Feb 17, 2017 03:28
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Well, that's not ideal.
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Feb 17, 2017 03:37
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Well, on the one hand, my ambush went off exactly as I'd hoped and it looks like we may take St. Croissant without any fighting. On the other hand, we now have two full brigades of Frenchmen at La Cote. On the gripping hand, so long as we still hold the road through Bouclecort, we still have contact with corps HQ, and 43rd Division has a clear path to our objectives.
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Feb 17, 2017 03:45
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loving. TOLD. YOU. SO. *Ahem* Ok, now that that's taken care of, things are looking basically good. That traffic jam is playing hell with them, hopefully we'll be able to take the town first. Interestingly, it looks like the French brigades have only 1 MG unit, combined with their apparent lack of heavy artillery (just 75's and not many at that) we've got a distinct advantage in firepower - let's try and capitalize on that. If I had to guess, they make up for that particular deficiency with mobility and possibly numbers. We don't have a full count, but judging from what we can already see, the French definitely have more cavalry than us (an entire dedicated brigade at least), and might outnumber us somewhat. The TL;DR is we need to make drat sure our flank doesn't collapse from unexpectedly running into their entire force. The town's basically on lock and we could probably even advance some more, so as long as the flank holds the French are effectively bottled up into a quarter of the map and we've got the game in the bag.
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Feb 17, 2017 03:49
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Ikasuhito posted:Well, that's not ideal. it's not entirely terrible either. Here's my idea, expressed in some godawful MSpaints:  Everyone who's on the Naineville-Baguette road--19th--should stay there and fortify their position. If it's a sunken road, dig in. The 43rd should haul rear end to the south of those guys. If the French end up trying to flank the 19th Division, the 43rd could end up getting them in the side instead. Thoughts?
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Feb 17, 2017 04:01
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The problem is we can't change our orders for another turn or two, so everyone'll keep following their pre-battle orders up until ~Turn 6 probably, which puts us mostly in/west of Croissant for the 43rd and in Baguette for the 19th. Now, if aphid can get orders to us quickly the 43rd can basically just keep marching straight for Quatrepouts to 1) secure our second objective and 2) contain the French in their corner. This is exactly the kind of situation I wanted to include a "just keep going for Q" conditional for, but no it's all "dig in and wait for further orders"  Yes I know it's almost pure luck I called this ahead of time but it's not gonna stop me from being a vindictive bastard and lording it over my superiors for the entire rest of the game
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Feb 17, 2017 04:08
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we also have an advantage in machine guns and artillery. if the 19th div can hold out long enough for the 43rd div to unfuck itself and reposition itself, this doesn't have to be that terrible.
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Feb 17, 2017 04:11
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Crazycryodude posted:Yes I know it's almost pure luck I called this ahead of time but it's not gonna stop me from being a vindictive bastard and lording it over my superiors for the entire rest of the game 
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Feb 17, 2017 04:15
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Note that the French seem to have concentrated almost all of their artillery into a single massive block that's nowhere near our objectives. A block that will need multiple turns to shake out into a formation that can actually shoot at things. Depending on what that block does over the next few turns, and how soon we can issue new orders, this suggests some hilarious possibilities.
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Feb 17, 2017 04:43
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umm... where's our artillery?
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Feb 17, 2017 04:49
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Hey, 43rd division, looks like we won't be able to make it to the Saint Croissant party, give my regards to Francois. Ok, the course of action seems obvious. The French have move faster than I would have anticipated, but now we still have an opportunity to reform into battle formations, the question is how. Regarding division rule eligibility, I assume brigades see enemy, and have dispatched their runners already? steinrokkan fucked around with this message at 08:30 on Feb 17, 2017 |
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Feb 17, 2017 08:14
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Crazycryodude posted:The problem is we can't change our orders for another turn or two, so everyone'll keep following their pre-battle orders up until ~Turn 6 probably, which puts us mostly in/west of Croissant for the 43rd and in Baguette for the 19th. Now, if aphid can get orders to us quickly the 43rd can basically just keep marching straight for Quatrepouts to 1) secure our second objective and 2) contain the French in their corner. This is exactly the kind of situation I wanted to include a "just keep going for Q" conditional for, but no it's all "dig in and wait for further orders" Well, you should have advocated for it more vigorously. Anyway, we talked this through at Roll 20 many times, so it isn't ecxactly an unexpected development, and it's one I would argue my plans have been designed to also cover by trying to maintain maximum cohesion, but I have at the same time operated under the assumption that units won't blindly march on if encountering an enemy in sight, which would make such conditionals kinda moot, but if I'm wrong, I will freely admit to loving up. steinrokkan fucked around with this message at 08:27 on Feb 17, 2017 |
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Feb 17, 2017 08:20
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Trin Tragula posted:Which one of you figured out the entirely mean and sneaky trick that I appear to have played on you several days ago? Give them a medal and listen next time. Only thing wrong was that you assumed I would only be cackling out loud now, when it's all going off, instead of while watching you plan. Wheeze of the week! The only thing wrong, and the only thing that is incongruous with our plans is that they got across half the map and reformed into battlelines in the time we took just to enter the map. There's literally nothing I could have done to prevent this aside from digging in the second my troops spawned. steinrokkan fucked around with this message at 08:28 on Feb 17, 2017 |
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Feb 17, 2017 08:25
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shoot at them with our superior guns until the 43rd can get on that road as well is not an unfeasible proposition. this is bad but not battle-ending
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Feb 17, 2017 09:02
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Jaguars! posted:umm... where's our artillery? I'm guessing/hoping Trin just left it out while in marching orders for ease of use?
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Feb 17, 2017 10:18
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The Sandman posted:Note that the French seem to have concentrated almost all of their artillery into a single massive block that's nowhere near our objectives. It would be remiss not to run a loving cavalry charge up their gun pipes  HEY GAIL posted:it's not entirely terrible either. Here's my idea, expressed in some godawful MSpaints: I'll defer if you think it's a better plan, but I'd rather keep my jägers moving around the wood and spot for any hidden flankers. Anyway, we effectively have St. Croissant, unless I'm sorely misjudging the ruler. With all that cavalry they have, we need to get keep some MGs and arty in place and let them crush themselves on our defense. E: HEY GAIL posted:Tias I'll have you know I was completely sober when I entered you into that sable-in-pants competition without your knowing. The three litres of schnapps were for improving my fisticuffs! Tias fucked around with this message at 10:45 on Feb 17, 2017 |
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Feb 17, 2017 10:39
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Trin, I can't find anything looking like 43D's artillery or cavalry - aside from the Jäger - in any of the pics, does that indicate me having done something horribly wrong? e: they're really close to being able to just run something sacrificial up the eastern map edge and cut all the wires, at which point things get tedious for us. e: depending on when and who to I get to give orders I'll (early ) 1a. order 76bde and 77bde into 19D's line and 1b. order 78bde and 79bde into the enemy's flank, or (late) 2a. order 76bde and 77bde into the enemy's flank before they disappear off the road net and 2b. order 78bde and 79bde to follow suit. Jäger bn we'll have to see, eyes to the west, just bike to fuckin Quatreprout, idk. aphid_licker fucked around with this message at 12:53 on Feb 17, 2017 |
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Feb 17, 2017 11:52
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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. A brigade does not dispatch a runner on sighting (unless it is the Jager Bttn and they are not In Touch with anyone) until it has opened fire. The assumption is that you are expecting to find trouble, and so it is not news; it is news when you open fire. Yes, this is inconvenient when the enemy appears from an unexpected direction; that is by design.
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Feb 17, 2017 13:08
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What about Sandman's cavalry, then?
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Feb 17, 2017 13:12
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Right, that makes perfect sense. Thanks!
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Feb 17, 2017 13:13
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aphid_licker posted:Trin, I can't find anything looking like 43D's artillery or cavalry - aside from the Jäger - in any of the pics, does that indicate me having done something horribly wrong? Ve'll be doing donuts on their grüne soon enough, commander!
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Feb 17, 2017 13:17
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Tevery Best posted:What about Sandman's cavalry, then? The cavalry is a semi-autonomous asset executing orders according entirely to plan. If that were core elements of the brigade...
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Feb 17, 2017 13:18
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In that case, I don't understand why I can't send my own runners, since I see enemy and am stationary. Is it because I'm in town?
steinrokkan fucked around with this message at 13:21 on Feb 17, 2017 |
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Feb 17, 2017 13:19
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Trin Tragula posted:The cavalry is a semi-autonomous asset executing orders according entirely to plan. If that were core elements of the brigade... Okay. Will the information percolate to the brigade core once it gets close enough?
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Feb 17, 2017 13:27
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Trin Tragula posted:The cavalry is a semi-autonomous asset executing orders according entirely to plan. If that were core elements of the brigade...
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Feb 17, 2017 13:50
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Tias posted:Ve'll be doing donuts on their grüne soon enough, commander! Send my regards to Oberst Jan Ullrich and tell him that now would be the time to break out the SPEZIALSOSSE
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Feb 17, 2017 14:09
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This looks certain to be a war of maneuver where enemies respond to one another and the most agile will be victorious. I suggest we compose a memo to high command to invest all resources in mobile units!
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Feb 17, 2017 14:11
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That French cav bde is a thing of beauty and I want one. Maybe a slightly less dead one.
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Feb 17, 2017 14:33
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aphid_licker posted:That French cav bde is a thing of beauty and I want one. Maybe a slightly less dead one. Bring back the Totenkopfhusaren, imo. With a proper crown princess at their head to lead them. 
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Feb 17, 2017 14:41
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Du sollst ewig reiten, chromglänzend
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Feb 17, 2017 17:24
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Turn 7 has ended. It is 1000. Update to come ASAP. Both divisions, stand by to give new orders pending final adjudication.
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Feb 17, 2017 19:10
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Feb 17, 2017 19:14
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You're killing me, Trin!
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Feb 17, 2017 19:22
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