Scottish Corridor 3 WIP update (Patreon)

So this little update is more about the scripting side, which I haven't talked all that much about before.

For something like an AAR, I've gotten into the habit of writing out the introductory elements before actually playing the battle in question. This does a couple of things, most prominently it splits the time consuming script writing process up and forces me to think more about what I'm doing- after all, if I can't properly explain or justify what I'm doing I might need to rethink it.

The problem with this is that sometimes I end up putting in too much detail. Right now the script is about 2000 words long (roughly corresponding to about 10 minutes worth of video) and the battle hasn't even started yet.

I think this is a bit much: sure, there's a lot of information in there, but it's really what you might politely refer to as an 'info-dump'. AARs need a lot of explanatory information because of all the components leading into a battle- objectives, terrain, terrain analysis, force composition, enemy, planning and so on. But with this one I'm thinking it's going to be better to weave it all into the battle as it happens to keep things streamlined.

... which obviously means tearing what I've already done apart and Frankensteining it back together with added elements. Should be fun.

In the meantime, judge for yourselves! Here's the wall of text I've got so far:

TSC 03 Hansel and Gretel

Welcome back to Combat Mission Battle for Normandy and the third mission of the Scottish Corridor campaign. In the last mission, a couple of platoons from D Company helped clear some of the road to Cheux to the northwest, it’s now just past 9 o’clock in the evening and the Germans are putting a counter-attack in on the Cameronian’s position at le Haut du Bosq.

So… it’s their turn to have a terrible time. This is the last gasp before nightfall- there’s about an hour of daylight left- and it’s going to be difficult to reorganise an attack or counterattack after dark, so whoever’s standing on le Haut du Bosq at the end of this battle is going to own it until the next day.

There are two objectives to hold onto: Hansel and Gretel- two small farm complexes on the south side of the village. These are both worth 100 victory points, then there’s another 200 for destroying the enemy and the usual 100 point bonus for keeping casualties below 20%.

C Company is dug in around the village, with one section from 13 Platoon stationed forward as a tripwire, and has been fully re-ammunitioned and brought back up to full strength since the attack in the morning- presumably by folding in elements of A and B companies who were roughly handled before even reaching the village.

The Company has also been reinforced by two 6pdr AT guns and their vehicles and a three vehicle scout section in carriers, both from the Battalion Support Company.

On top of this force, a 2, 2 tube sections of the Battalion 3in mortars will be coming online in ten minutes- albeit with scare ammunition after the earlier fighting- at the 25 minute mark D Company’s 18 Platoon will arrive, followed at 30 minutes by a troop of Shermans from the Fife and Fofars Yeomanry- consisting of two Sherman IIs and a Sherman VC Firefly with the 17 Pounder- and a battery of 4 25pdrs. These times are all approximate, but by the halfway point here I should have a pretty substantial combined arms force.

The Germans are reportedly attacking in at least Company strength, with their infantry being supported by a small number of ‘Tiger’ tanks and light armoured vehicles. We had a bit of Tiger psychosis in the last mission, it remains to be seen whether the Germans are going to roll up with an actual Mark VI or these are misreported Panzer IVs.

A runner from 13 platoon’s outpost has arrived at Company HQ saying that they can hear tanks off to the South West, so this is probably where the attack is going to come in from. What I need to do is decide what avenues of attack are available, how likely they are and then how I’m going destroy the enemy.

The terrain south of the village is mostly open fields, but there are three broad options the enemy might take: they could attack on my left, in the centre or on my right.

On the left, the fields are broken up by the orchard where 13 Platoon’s outpost section is set up. The wheat field in front of this is slightly downslope from my deployment area in the village so the Germans would be able to attack here pretty much unmolested, then the orchard itself would give them some concealment to advance to the closer end. It’s only about 150m from here to the edge of le Haut du Bosq, so it allows an attacker to close the distance without coming under too much fire.

The final stretch from here to the objectives or into the village is pretty exposed, but it would make a good fire support position, especially given the two tracks on either side that would allow enemy armour to advance with lower risk of bogging.

The centre approach is across open wheat fields and although enemy infantry is likely to disappear if they go to ground in the wheat and there is a good forming up position in a sunken road 300m out, as an avenue of attack it’s probably about as risky as it is direct. Again though, the sunken road might form a good bogging-free position for enemy armour to provide fire support if it’s not too deep to render them hull down.

Lastly, on the right the route out of the anticipated enemy deployment zone is first somewhat masked by a strip of brush, then crosses another chunk of wheat field before ending up at edge of the Ferme des Cigognes- Stork Farm. This briefing notes that this farm is a deathtrap because the Germans have registered artillery on it. It might make it a poor place to defend, but if clear then the farm complex and surrounding orchards offer an attacker a covered approach to close and flank Objective Gretel and the main east-west road passing through the village.

This avenue of attack certainly looks like the most threatening and to make it worse, there’s a track leading down it almost all the way to the main road. I'm not sure how easy it would be for a German tank to squeeze between this barn and the edge of the map, but the amount of trouble one could cause if it did get through and onto my flank means I really need to take it seriously.

The enemy could use any one of these avenues of attack, or combine them. It should be easy enough to deal with one at a time, but defending against a force attacking my right through Stork Farm whilst simultaneously being fixed by a base of fire position in the Orchard on the left would be a lot tougher.

More important than which approach the enemy might use is the question of how to deploy and plan to destroy him on each approach, whilst retaining the flexibility to switch my focus between them as the battle develops.

So… starting with the most threatening one: the Farm approach. The obvious solution is to contest Stork Farm itself, but that may not be an option if the enemy has his arty registered there already, so instead I need to think about hitting the enemy on his approach and as he leaves.

It’s possible to put some fire across the wheat fields on his way to the orchard from the centre- in particular there’s a keyhole position behind one of the barns that may be able to effectively enfilade the edge of the orchard with area fire. This would be prime position for a sustained fire weapon like a Vickers, but I may be able to use one of the scout’s bren carriers.

The enemy exit from Stork Farm is somewhat trickier. The join between that farm and the Gretel objective is pretty dense, translating into a close range fight which I’m not sure would favour the Brits after the last mission. I could certainly infest some of the buildings to act as a speed bump and the southern exit onto the road and through the open field can be covered by the C Company’s reserve platoon, which is restricted to deploying around the Neeps farm.

I’m not sure I’ll be able to stop the Germans infiltrating in from Stork Farm, but with line of sight from Neeps I can certainly use the Company FO to drop all the artillery I’ve got on it and- at least from the rough 25 minute mark- block or destroy them with concentrating 25pdr fire.

Next we have the left, or Orchard approach. This is more oriented on the Hansel objective and with 13 Platoon’s outpost section at the far end I should get some early warning of enemy intentions. The orchard itself is pretty open and would be exposed to small arms fire from the close end- that’s a potential forward position but it would be exposed the German advances on either flank and may be difficult to bug out from. This might be another good job for the Scouts in their carriers, seen as though they can get out faster than the infantry.

That would probably just delay any advance on that axis though- it looks like the best positions to repel an actual assault on the objective are going to be keyholes and defilade spots inside or behind buildings and tucked up against chunks of bocage inside the objective area itself. I’m somewhat concerned about this- defending objectives by literally sitting on them seems like a really good way to get arty’d- but I’m somewhat less confident in positioning Hansel’s defenders out in the open fields around it. The classic compromise would be to have sheltered positions away from likely artillery targets and then occupy the more exposed but more useful battle positions when any enemy artillery has finished and his infantry is closing in.

Finally, I am least concerned about an attack over the centre fields. This doesn’t mean it won’t happen though and an infantry assault supported by armour would have the most direct route. There’s a crest about 300m out, so enemy infantry would be appearing over the reverse slope inside small arms range. They would- however- probably be able to disappear from sight by going prone in the wheat. That works both ways though: once he’s down, he can’t see to put out any effective fire, so the fields are kind of a pop-up shooting gallery in an infantry sense. Enemy armour wouldn’t have that problem though, so I don’t want to just stack the field boundaries with a line of riflemen.

I should be able to cover the fields approach from the objectives themselves though. There’s a bocage line abutting Hansel that can cover across to the Stork Farm orchard and some defilade positions in the Gretel buildings that can provide oblique flanking fire without exposure to anticipated enemy fire from the front.

Or, in other words, I feel like I should be able to cover the Field approach from the positions I can take to cover the other two approaches.

What I’ve ended up with then is two mutually supporting platoon-sized strongpoints on each of the objectives. These are backed up by the third platoon in reserve at the Neeps Farm, which can cover the deep right from where it is or switch to the centre and left as circumstances dictate. This starting force doesn’t need to hold out to the bitter end though: I have plenty of reinforcements coming, including Shermans and artillery, so they just need to delay the German attack until I can throw them in.

The most critical part of the defence, which I haven’t really mentioned yet, is going to be the anti-tank battle. I’ve already intimated that I want to keep my infantry keyholed and defiladed to mitigate the effects of direct fire from enemy tanks, and this is going to be the best way to use my two 6pdrs too. They’re certainly not going to reliably penetrate the frontal armour of something like a Tiger- if one appears- but they can certainly poke holes in the side armour that they should ideally be lined up on from defilade positions anyway.

They’re both mobile- being towed by Loyd Carriers- so they can scoot around as needed to some extent, though it takes about two minutes for them to deploy once in position and almost 4 for them to pack up so it’s not like they’re going to be able to shoot and scoot.

One of them is in the forward deployment zone, and I’m going to set that up in the Hansel orchard where- despite not being either in defilade or a keyhole like I just said- it can hopefully cover off the track leading to Stork Farm. I’ve got its carrier right behind it too for a quick getaway if it needs to redeploy. The other gun is in reserve at Neeps.