A59 Death at Carentan AAR In Progress

[Rindis]

My third PBeM game (including the usual one with Patch) right now is against salisbury58 in Death at Carentan from Annual '93a. It's June 11th and my Americans are trying to take the road junction of Carentan from the Germans. At 10 turns, it looks set up for a fair amount of back and forth action.

I start with 3 squads vs 2 1/2. Both sides are elite, but the 747s are definitely superior to the 548s as long as the ML doesn't punish me too severely. I get a 'free' smoke OBA at the beginning and another 8 squads on turn two (and access to OBA on turn 4), and the Germans get 11 squads on turn 3. To win I need 5 points of buildings at the end with 17P4 being worth 3 and another five in the area worth 1 each.

The Americans all start in K4, so my only choices are where to place the OBA smoke (secretly decided before seeing the German setup), whether to deploy, and who to hand the bazooka to (I do deploy, and the BAZ goes to a squad). Salisbury sets up spread out, with the center (and main objective) as an obvious weak point. He's probably faking (7 OB-granted '?') on one flank or the other, but it doesn't much matter since the immediate plan is to go straight in. The OBA is Accurate on O4, shrouding most of the approach.

Sadly, his one shot at the main stack got a PTC which pinned the leader and one squad. That diverts me from putting the bulk of my forces in O4, where they're safe from anything, to putting the remaining squad in O5. I attempt to jump on his HS in O5, but blow the Ambush roll, and he withdraws out to Q4. It's obvious that he'll give me control of the P4 building, but I had hoped to knock out that HS.


Situation, American turn 1 DFPh. Note that rows I through GG are in play.

[Rindis]

Not a lot happened in the first German turn. Still waiting for reinforcements, all they could do was skulk and stay out of the American's way. Meanwhile, the smoke was too thick for me to do anything either.


Situation, German turn 1.

With the American reinforcements coming in, and the Germans not due for another turn and a half, I could be somewhat aggressive with their entry. As it is, I may be a little behind where I should be. I tried getting at his '?' in Q6, but failed my Smoke attempt, and wasn't willing to take a -2 for it. Salsbury's DF was minimal, and didn't manage to get any effect. I'm starting to press in, but there's still a squad and HS missing, and I don't really know where things are yet.

For CC, I piled 2 1/2 squads into O6, along with the 9-2 leader. The remaining '?' was almost certainly a dummy (he doesn't really have enough to put two units into the same location), but I didn't to get tied up there, nor chance an Ambush with my +1 for CX. As it was, I came close to getting Ambushed and the leader modifier saved me. Thankfully, CC was predictable, and I got him for no losses.


Situation, American turn 2.

[Patch_Bunny]

I don't know his one at all, so I'm looking forward to seeing more! Hope this one keeps moving forward.