Not a whole lot of action this next turn. The Panzer IV did not spot the Sherman, but it does know that it's in the vicinity. Hopefully next turn he'll be able to target it.

The only other real notable action this turn was the first spotting round targeting the AT gun on the right flank. Hopefully this artillery barrage takes care of the problem. If it doesn't, I'm not going to waste time trying to get rid of it with one of my infantry platoon HQs and instead will move up one of my company HQs to take care of the issue.

The next turn begins with one of my rifle platoons on the right-hand side of my left flank trading fire inconclusively with a Bren team across the field. I'm going to have some of these men take cover behind the wall the next turn, because I don't want them wasting time and exposing themselves to such a target. I have heavy machine guns and tanks for that sort of thing.




Meanwhile, on the right flank, my artillery fire is getting closer to that AT gun:



My XO team from 5th Company, Deutschland, spotted a scout team across the way, as I expected:



And, near the end of the turn, I could hear one of Rambler's mortars letting off a round. Gonna be interesting to see where that lands! Oh, and my Panzer IV still can't see that Sherman. I'm going to nudge him forward just a bit to see if he can get a good fix.

My orders for the next turn focus on doing some more scouting with 1st Platoon, 5th Company Deutschland and keep them from being easy mortar targets. I've kept them idle for way too long. Also, I'm going to cautiously move my StuG and these two Panthers forward. From their new positions they'll have good hull-down line of sight to the terrain several hundred meters ahead of them.




Next turn, my attack elements for the left flank (Der Führer) should be in position to move up.

That round I heard from Rambler's mortar last turn lands to the left of the my rank-flank advance in Der Führer's sector. It's followed by several other spotting rounds in the area. It looks to me like Rambler is targeting this infantry platoon positioned amongst the wall, so I'm gonna need to spread them out:




Near the end of the turn, my scouts from the the rifle platoon pictured above spotted a 57mm AT gun in the treeline. I'm gonna have my forward observer team at the back of the map take care of this, with a 120mm mortar strike:




Meanwhile, on the right flank, my mortar strike on the 17-pounder AT gun has just about found its range. According to the info panel the strike should be coming in within the next minute:



My orders for the next turn include pushing my Deutschland scouts forward along my planned route of advance, pummeling a building on the left flank that I suspect is hiding some of Rambler's scouts, and pushing my infantry through the center field on the left flank of Der Führer. Concerning this last move, I have two HMGs plus a Panzer IV in support. The plan is push two rifle platoons across this field to the large hedgerow:

On the left flank, this spotting round comes oh so close to my scout teams, but other than pinning them to the ground, they are not harmed by its impact. Nonetheless, I know for sure that Rambler is targeting this platoon now, so I'm going to move more of my men from this platoon into the adjacent buildings and deeper into the woods:




The first of my two rifle platoons has begun its advance through the center field on the left flank. The second platoon will begin its move next turn and bound past the first one:




Finally, in this sector, my Panzer IV was unable to target the building, even though the game is showing it having an unobstructed view of the target. So, I'm going to move him a bit next turn and try again.

On the right flank, my 120 mm mortar strike on the 17-pounder AT gun is in full swing, including this hit near the end of the turn that most likely wiped the gun out (the target cannot be seen due to all the dust and smoke in the air from the impacts):




That last screenshot makes me oh so happy.

As my infantry advance through the center field on the left flank, they start to come under fire from the 57 mm AT gun recently spotted. The hedgerow is so far catching all of the rounds, but I'm going to hold up my infantry until the problem is dealt with. I'm going to order one of my Panzer IVs to lay down a smoke screen, and another one will shell the position of the gun:




On the right flank I'm almost certain that the 17-pounder AT gun has been knocked out, as another shell lands almost in the exact same spot as one of the ones that hit last turn. I'm going to hold the observing platoon for a moment here to see if they can confirm that, and then I'll replace them with the Company HQ in their spot:



Finally, at the end of the turn, my 5th Company Deutschland XO team spotted this Vickers team about 500 meters away. I've ordered them to call in an 81 mm mortar strike on the position:

Not a whole lot of action this next turn. My Panzer IV I ordered to fire on the 57 mm AT gun still won't fire off a shot, so I'm going to try moving him over yet a bit more (this issue has been around for about as long as CMx2 has been out - it has to do with how the game calculates line-of-sight solutions for armored vehicles).



Thankfully, I had better fortunes with the StuG I ordered to target the Vickers team. Right at the end of the turn it spotted the team and began spraying some MG fire its way, and it was aiming its main gun as the turn ended:

Some heavy fighting going on. Nice AAR!

Thanks! I get the feeling the action is really going to heat up quickly.

At the start of the next turn, the Stug takes aim and fires at the Vickers team, who take cover behind the wall once the first round hits. They can't be seen anymore at the end of the turn, but I'm unsure if I've caused any casualties. Anyhow, I'm giving the StuG a Target Briefly command next turn and canceling the mortar request, since the StuG can easily take care of this problem:





Meanwhile, spotting rounds continue to fall near my advancing Deutschland troops. I'm going to continue moving my troops up aggressively, as I don't want them to sit in one spot for too long and thus become an easy target:




And, much to my chagrin, I find out that 17-pounder AT gun is still alive. So, I've ordered one of my Deutschland company HQs to call in another 120 mm mortar strike:



On the left flank, my Panzer IV finally gets into a good firing position and lands several hits on the 57 mm AT gun position, including this one. This will allow my infantry advance in the center field to resume:

Not a whole lot to report this next turn. My Panzer IV continues to pummel the position of the 57mm AT gun, and my mortar team reports that it's about ready to commence its firing mission on the target. The Vickers team spotted by my StuG wasn't seen this turn, while a couple more 75mm shells were lobbed its way. Infantry continues to advance on both flanks. Near the end of the turn, one of my Panzer IVs spotted this mortar team and was taking aim at it as the turn ended:

We will be resuming action hopefully soon.

Alright, so we're back in action! At the start of the next turn, the aforementioned mortar team was observed running off towards the center of the map before they disappeared from sight.



Meanwhile, on the left flank, my leading rifle squads make contact with an enemy rifle team behind some bocage. After some return fire from my MGs they duck down and slip out of sight as well:




On the right flank, some mortar fire drops near my spotting position to call artillery fire on that 17-pounder AT gun, but so far it's proven ineffectual:



To deal with that enemy contact on my left flank, I'm going to move up two assault teams to the hedge, but for now they will go no farther than that. I don't want to overextend my rifle teams and have them being outflanked. Also, I'm going to move up the two overwatching HMG teams, in order so they can provide better flank protection and get me some eyes into what may be lurking in Rambler's backfield:




Finally, I have an entire company of infantry in reserve right now in this grove on the right flank. They're going to stay there for now.

I'm loving this AAR. I know RL has been difficult but I'm really hanging to see how all this eventuates!

Believe me, so am I! I have this nagging feeling that things have been too easy so far, because Rambler is instead keeping a nasty surprise in store for later. We shall soon see...

Right at the beginning of the next turn, the enemy team behind the hedgerow pops back up and starts firing. My left-hand assault team spots a rifleman and opens up on him, along with one of the squads back in support. After trading some fire, he falls to what looks like fire from an MP44 in my left-hand assault squad. The right-hand squad does not spot the team before the turn ends. I can still hear a Sten being fired from the same location, so that's still an issue to be dealt with:





After moving back into position, my scouts have reported that the 57 mm AT gun is still active, with at least one crewman. They open fire on said crewman, pinning him to the ground:



Nothing really happened on the right flank in Deutschland's sector this turn.

For this next turn, I've ordered one of my Der Führer company HQs to call in a short 81 mm mortar strike on this scout team:



On the far left flank, I've ordered that right-hand assault team to move a bit to the left to see if they can spot that enemy rifle team. To help cover them, I've ordered one of the supporting rifle squads to lay down suppressing fire for 15 seconds:



My HMG platoon from 9th Company Der Führer is not quite yet in position, so I'm going to wait a turn before having a rifle platoon from the same company fan out and probe ahead:



One of my Panzer IVs is going to move a bit to the right and pummel that 57 mm AT gun position some more. It's about time that thing gets knocked out!



Lastly, I've split off some more scouts on Deutschland's flank to scout out the terrain ahead:

The source of the SMG fire pops up almost immediately at the start of the next turn. However, he and whomever is left of the team decides there's too much incoming fire, and so they make a run for it:



The Panzer IV continues to pummel the 57 mm AT gun position, including this shot:



In front of the AT gun, my troops along the wall catch sight of and open fire on a Bren team moving out of the woods. They make it to the hedgerow, where they drop out of sight. A short while later, the previously-spotted mortar team is seen running towards the same hedgerow. They're picked up by my 9th Company Der Führer HMG platoon at the end of the turn:





In Deutschland's sector, a mortar round lands uncomfortably close to the team spotting for the artillery fire planned for the 17-pounder AT gun. None of them are hit, but they all hit the dirt nonetheless:



For the next turn, 5th Company Deutschland will continue to scout ahead and advance cautiously:



I'm going to start moving up some of my men from 1st Platoon, 9th Company Der Führer to see if I can get within grenade range and take out that 57 mm AT gun:



3rd Platoon, 9th Company Der Führer will move up all the way to the hedgerow to scout for further enemy presence, and 2nd Platoon will begin scouting in preparation for moving out to the right of 3rd Platoon:

Awesome stuff. This is really starting to get exciting!

Most of the action on this next turn centered around the 57 mm AT gun and the Bren & mortar teams on the opposite hedgerow. The AT gun continued to be subjected to MG fire from one of my tanks and my forward scouts.

My teams started taking more concentrated fire from the mortar and Bren team behind that hedgerow. One of my Panzer IVs even spotted them and let off a shot, which landed short. One man from my platoon here was seriously wounded, but it looked like the shot came from a sniper I've yet to uncover:




On the right flank, more spotting rounds for my artillery strike on the 17-pounder AT gun fell, while more enemy rounds landed around the spotting team, to no effect.

For this next turn, in Deutschland's sector I will continue to move my scouts up some more before moving the up the rest of 5th Company:



On the left, I'm ordering one of my Panzer IVs to target the hedgerow with MG fire to suppress the two enemy teams. As there are trees along the tank's sight line, I am ordering it to only fire its machine guns so as to avoid friendly fire casualties from 75 mm HE rounds. My MG34 from the weapons platoon of 9th Company will also contribute suppressing fire. All the while, I'll continue moving up my fire teams so they can get within grenade range of that AT gun:

The action was hot and heavy this turn, and it again centered around the Bren and 81mm mortar team, the 57mm AT gun, and 1st Platoon of 9th Company.

The Bren team quickly decided this wasn't a good place to be, and it packed up and left soon after the turn started. However, the 81mm mortar team, initially unaffected by my fire, deployed behind the hedge. I knew this wasn't gonna be good:




Sure enough, the 81mm mortar starts firing in direct-fire mode against 1st Platoon. How this mortar did not take out my two scouts, I'll never know. In the background, you can see my assault teams moving up for the attack on the 57mm AT gun:



Meanwhile, other troops of the platoon continue to pelt the AT position with fire:



My MGs of 1st Platoon finally pin the 81mm mortar, but not before raining about half a dozen shells on their position. Mercifully, outside of some rattled nerves, not a single man was injured or killed by this attack:




The rest of the front was relatively quiet this turn.

For the next turn, the MG34 in 9th Company's weapons platoon and one of my Panzer IVs will shift their fire to the 81mm mortars position. As before, the Panzer IV will use only its MGs, since there are trees and buildings along its line of fire:




2nd Platoon, 9th Company scouts will fan out into the next field and see if they can spot anything. I know Rambler has a Sherman back here somewhere, but what else is a mystery:



Two 1st Platoon, 9th Company assault teams will continue to bound ever closer to the AT gun:



On the right flank, 1st and 2nd Platoons of 5th Company will continue to move forward. They are making very good progress:

Oh, and just to clarify things, as far as my infantry composition:

9th and 10th Company are on my left flank and are part of Der Führer Regiment. They are supported by a platoon of Panzer IVs.

5th and 6th Company are on my right flank and are part of Deutschland Regiment. They are supported by a platoon of Panthers. In addition, the StuG is attached to 6th Company.