PG3 - Let's take all their potato!

[Vaarna_Aarne]

I assume to KV is a pretty good tank in this game?

 

[Johnny the Mule]

No, it outright atrocious. Nobody should use it.

 

[eklektyk]

Three officers down... god damn.

so newlywed bliss is over and its downhill from here on out???

fun times ahead

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Btw, we should have a headcount in the first posts, see how people died and who survived at the end of the LP (and when they entered the war). Like in the Close Combat LP where Comrade Kingcomrade defended the Motherland from a Neanderthal invasion.

 

[Azira]

I'm honestly surprised I wasn't one of the first to go, I mean fallshirmjaeger? That's just a fancy word for shooting target..

 

[Hellraiser]

I salute the fallen while simultaneously drooling over my nice kill count. Just think what I would be able to do with a true aryan panzer!

 

[GarfunkeL]

God dammit! But I'll find my way back to the German lines, pistol in hand!

 

[Crooked Bee]

RIP Bee. First casualty of the war.

Heh, not too surprising, really.

 

[spectre]

Btw, we should have a headcount in the first posts, see how people died and who survived at the end of the LP (and when they entered the war). Like in the Close Combat LP where Comrade Kingcomrade defended the Motherland from a Neanderthal invasion.

Hm. I'll have to figure out something, a compromise that doesn't eat up a lot of time and gives you something more to drool over. (-:

I'm honestly surprised I wasn't one of the first to go, I mean fallshirmjaeger? That's just a fancy word for shooting target..

Indeed it is. Later in the game it is a bitch to keep the infantry alive anywhere near the frontlines. If there's artillery present, infantry gets raped. Especially if they are elites with low unit strength - then they're usually gone after two barrages.
Since it's ironman, I'm trying to play it smart with the fallshirmjaeger, we only have one or two units in the pool, so if they bite it, no more paradrops.

Heh, not too surprising, really.

Yeah, the AI seems to randomly see through camouflage, which is a bit annoying. Another AI quirk is that it likes to target high ranking officers, and likes to target recon whenever it can.
Which means, recon leaders with level >4 have a pretty short life expectancy. Good thing the veteran orders for high level recon are pretty meh, so nothing of value is lost here.

All right, you probably began to think this was dead. I fo, shame on you.
The story was simple, first I ran into an Internal Server Error, which resulted in
Which reminded me that I just had downloaded Skyrim.
And it took me a day to conclude that I was actually having a bit more fun with Morrowind.

So here we go with PG3 As said, I have screenies for the next three missions, so when I am done updating I'll attempt a headcount and ask for some more volunteers .

As you probably recall, winter's finally gotten to us.
The main objective here is to capture Smolensk. A city by the river, lot's of resistance is expected.

We have ten turns for major victory, which should be just enough.

Anyways. first new recruits stand for review.

Garf managed to reach friendly lines and is eager for more commie blood.

Derper volunteered to drive the captured KV to victory

Eager to prove himself.
How appropriate, having his rapeface on.

Second new face for this misssion, Nex replaces the fallen Bee.
Nothing to write home about, equipment stays the same, cause there aren't really any alternatives to the PSW.

Men, deploy your panzer!

No sense in dividing our Kampfgruppe. The objective is straight ahead.

Looks quiet, but without doubt, Smolensk is crawling with Ruskies.

Recon, I require intel.

Initial recon shows limited resistance along the way.

Moving in southwards. Will scan the southern secondary.

Get to it. We'll see if it's worth it to deploy the fallshirmjaeger.

Hidden Movement.

Our scouts are harrased by enemy fighters.

Damage report. No casualties.

Kommand, permission to hunt down the Yakovlev.

Granted.

Enemy incoming. I see KV supported by Katyusha.

They halted. Didn't attack.

Shame. Wouldn't mind taking a few potshots.

Mwanwhile, Katz locates the Yak.

Fucker is tough, nearly got him.

Verpisst! Got away to the airfield.

Following target.

Figters leader, proceed with caution. Enemy AA presence is unknown.

The pitiful excuse for the counteroffensive is quickly being dispatched...

Artillery kommand, the Katyusha is silenced. Panzers proceed to mop up.

Zerstoert.

I have intel on the southern secondary. Minor enemy presence PaK and mobile AA.

Permission to stike, kommand?

Negative. Besides. You will be needed elsewhere

We could have taken it with some bomber support, eventually, but that'd take at least two turns.
And our bombers will get shot up, meaning another turn without air support.

Derper draws first blood. Te KV2 dies.

And we opt to deploy the Fallshirmjaeger north of the main objective, not the best position, but anything better is outside the oprational range.

Guess it's walking time.

We will secure our flank and strike from the woods.

Current situation is as follows. We cautiosuly approach the city. Defending force is presently unknown.

The good news is, Katz finally managed to nail the Yak at the airfield. What I learned (And raged about) from enemy movement, friendly AA does not assist air units attacked from the air. I have no qualms about exploiting this feature.

Moving out to refit.

Serrated is assisted by the luftwaffe in rooting out some infantry marauders threatening our flank.

Commence probing attacks.

The enemy has foolishly exposed their artillery units.

Moving in for the kill.

Enemy binkers spotted.

This is some hot shit here!

Scheisse. No way we're going around them this time.

Probing city defenses.

It appears drunken ruskie soldiers are standard issue guardsmen in these lands.

Go figure. With this kind of weather...

Dammit to hell. Heavy infantry resistance encountered. Requesting infantry support.

On my way.

Negerkok, cannot maneuver with these bunkers around.

Fuuuu!

We're being pushed back. Wee need more space in there.

The sitrep looks like this - we have a clusterfuck.

Luftwaffe, ready to assist.

Kommand, we will be needing assistance for this.

Konfirmed. We are authorising additional stukas for the siege of Smolensk.

Eklektyk reporting in. Ready for bunker-killer duty.

Gut. I was getting over my head here.

Targeting bunker eins.

I need some breathing space here.

Don't worry old man, I'll take over.

A risky assault, but it felt good.

Withdrawing to regroup.

In the meantime, the auxilliary tank commander is assisted by Nex in flanking the city.

We caught some enemy with their pants down.

They're attempting to cross the frozn river. Opening fire.

They're attempting to cross the frozn river. Opening fire.
Tod kommt for you now!

Nex also receives a commendation for the service to the Reich. It increases his spotting range.

You've got to be shitting me... tell me there's chocolate inside.

Meanwhile, Fallshirmjaeger exit the woods and circle the city. This KV is well positioned to receive a good beating.

Fuck yea. In case you were wondering, the attack was promising, but they did almost no damage.

Stay tuned for more.

 

[Hellraiser]

It's getting chilly in here. Goddamn Russian winter.

 

[eklektyk]

It's getting chilly in here. Goddamn Russian winter.

and soon will be geting warmer in Vallhala

 

[spectre]

During enemy turn, our Fallshirmjaeger is bothered by the enemy AA ground attack.
The AI knows how to utilize veteran orders.

And some more punishment comes Azira's way.

He's still standing though.

Aand JaKo is hit by enemy AA. Still, he proceeds to assist in mopping up the rear.

We gather our forces togther for a final push. Some of the bunkers are out of the way, unfortunately,
there is still not much space to maneuver. F.e. Hellraiser has yet to see some frontilne action.
Cassidy poistions the 88.

Fully entrenched. Ready to open fire.

Sitrep shows clusterfuck again. Some defenders were pushed out of Smolensk. Our Recon units will attempt to mop up assisted by Luftwaffe.

Derper's KV moves to the frontline. Our regular panzers seem a bit too fragile for the job right now.

Chasing out the enemy AT units.

No other panzer fit for the job it seems.

To preserve the honor of the Panzer divisions, Carius maneuvers to the enemy behind, relieving the Fallshirmjaeger somewhat.

Nex and Gondolin seal off the possible escape routes.

The airfield is taken.

Proceeding to encircle the enemy.

Cut their supply lines. Isolate und ausrott!

With eklektyk's assistance, HooDoo clears another bunker in our way.

And we take the city. No treat this time.

Next turn. You may have noticed the ridiculously overstrengthened 57mm...

I actually didn't kill it last turn and the motherfucker took our auxiliary panzer with the assistance of the bunker.
Granted, that PzIIIG was weakened, but as you can see the III series has armor issues.

Four turns remain. Thankfully, we're nearly done with Smolensk.

Azira assisted by Gondolin wipe out the enemy AA.

That was long overdue. Luftwaffe can now render full assistance.

We wipe out th last defenders.
Serrated nailed a lone KV on the river

Open fire. Smoke them out or make them sink in that river!

Killed by Garf.

HooDoo takes the city in the meantime.

Next thing we torch that goddamnt bunker over there.

Hellraiser joining the fun.

Verdampte, Kameraten, you left nothing for me to kill.

Finally, Nex finishes off the ZiS after a prolonged chase.

And we're done with Smolensk. No treat from the fuhrer for the capture.

You did gut, Soldaten.

But we need to push more. For das Vaterland, Onwards!

Two turns remaining. Doable.

Shouldn't be much resistance at the final Objective, but I'm not taking any chances.
A small task force is relagated for a probing attack on the NE objective (Anus + Carius). If it's feasible to capture it, they'll be assisted by the Luftwaffe. FAllshirmjaeger at at the ready to assist our attack on the final objective, or the secondary, if feasible.

Focke Wulfen scouting the objective. We see minor resistance.

Proceeding to eliminate enemy MiG

Dang it. It'll prolly refit next turn.

Next turn, Nex ambushes enemy conscripts trying to meet our offensive.

Scouting objective.

Damn, there's lots of them over here.

We overstretched our line a bit. I wanted to neuter some of these tanks so we get a clear shot at the objective.

Aaaand this is what happens.

Judeneger! Lost contact with die pioniere.

And we sure as hell going to need them here.

Carius reporting. The airfield is taken with little resistance.

Not much happening here, only a few peasants playing guardsmen.

We'll bring down fiery death on them, see how the commies like it.

We'll take this!

Meanwhile, near the southern objective.
HooDoo's sacrifice wasn't in vain. Enemy artillery is now open for attack.

We silence the AA first. This'll allow the Fallshirmjaeger to assist us in our glorous work.

Fallshirmjaeger are deployed and with the route to town open, we quicjly take it.

Behold, our new tank commander Vaarne.

We're done here. Luftwaffe moving to assist the Kapfgruppe at the northern objective.

Ausgebombt. Panzer kommander, proceed!

And we're done. Smolensk yields 2000 potato for the Vaterland.


Debriefing

This one went good, but, again, could have been better. With hindsight, again, it would have been better to deploy a small task force to take one more secondary objective. We could easily afford one more tank, as it got pretty crowded near Smolensk.
Good thing HooDoo got lucky, we don't really have any spare infantry commanders to take his place. I'm making a mental note to watch the infantry if there's enemy arty around.

 

[spectre]

Standby for next mission.

Scheisse, Scheisse, Scheisse. All this work, and for what?

Doesn't matter. We'll have our revenge.


It appears our ofensive was halted. Not so much thanks to the Red Army, but the horrid winter.
Oh well, we did our duty as true Aryans.
Now we grit our teeth. Make the commies run.

At least the Fuhrer didn't dissapoint with the medals.

What we have here, three objectives, 10 turns again.

A'ight, so to the barracks we go...

We have lotsa lotsa lotsa new toys. Purdy shiny toys. Imma gonna hug em, and cuddle them forever and ever.


Ahem.

Carius is our most experienced panzer commander, so naturally he shall ride the new Pz IV to glory.
The combat stats are getting awesome, the 2 range is pretty good, but nothing to drool about, as the damage output diminishes a lot with range.
Still, we may be able to fire potshots at inferior KVs.
Note that the armor value stays at 10. It's still pretty fragile.
Other members of the tank crew get an upgraded version of the III:

Derper stays on the KV.

Cassidy gets the new Marder. Still slightly inferior to the 88 stat wise, but at least it should be able to perform in a similar matter. And it's sef-propelled useful for chasing down stragglers.

Time for the new faces.

Vaarne just joined our task. He was born to ride the StuG, but a PzIV is fine too.


We also ask the Fuhrer for some more air support.

and we get von Ulm.
and welcome on board.

I somehow forgot to crop this one and couldn't be arsed to reupload.
Anyways, here's eklektyk, who we already know, but somehow he wasn't properly introduced.

Seems the man really looks up to the Fuhrer.

More importantly, our Air force just received a new Stuka.
And it is made of awesome and win.

In fact, everybody's gonna go and grab one.
Wat's their secret?
Regular bombers only have 3 fire orders. The 87G has four, making it 25% more awesome than anything else we have.
It also tastefully rapes heavy tanks.

As an experiment, our artillery force switches to the lower caliber gun.

This may seem daft, but study conducted among the Aryan Madchen shows that 10,5 is actually better for anal penetration,
which pleases Anus to no end.

That, and it has 4 fire orders, which will be useful for suppressing multiple targets. Last scenario we had auxilliary support artillery, this time we go in alone, and we need those extra shots.

Unfortunately, reich engineers fail to deliver in the artillery department so we make do with what we have.

The map looks straightforward. We'll be splitting our troops again, but the main assault will go norhtwards.
There's a lone airfield directly up north from our positions. Unfortunately, it seems it's outside the range of our Fallshirmjaeger.
We are also pleased to notice a change in the climate.

Troops are deployed in an orderly fasion.

 

[Hellraiser]

Good, the commie scheiss-panzer was getting on my nerves. That thing lacked the grace of movement and elegance of superior Vaterland Panzers. At least the superior Deutsche Technologie of Wunderbaum saved me from the god awful smell.

 

[eklektyk]

BUMP [just in case]

and heres hoping for clear skies and no rain ...

 

[spectre]

Our first objective is Rostov.

The terrain is difficult, lot's of streams and the like.
I need some recon what's down that road, make sure we're not walking into an ambush.

I am flying north. We'll see if there's enemy presence in that airfield.

No enemy detected Kommand.

Hmm. Tempting, but that's outside the paradrop range. We'd have to proceed on foot from the dropzone.

No time for this. And the runway is not really significant.

Intel down the road shows enemy is prepared to greet us. KV1C, T-60 Recon vehicle and a ZiS 30 AT form the first line just past the river.

Then we have bunkers, ATs, AAs, Gott knows what else.

Forwards. There's work to be done.

The first line of defence falls quickly with the aid of Luftwaffe and concentrated artillery fire.

Vaarne, Carius and HooDoo score kills.

Damn, the untermensch KV was tough.

During enemy turn, Carius is bothered by enemy aircraft.

Oh no you don't Kunte!

Permission to give chase.

Ah, first blood vor das Vaterland.

I've scouted the enemy positions on Rostov. They've got everything.

Panzer, flank that artillery.

Our Panzers take positions.

We will go over them like fat Jude through Strudeln!

I will screen the flanking forces. They won't see us coming.

Aand, perfect opportunity.

Komm to daddy, kommunist schwein!

Begin the siege!

I take the AAs, you take the arty.

Out of reach. We'll have to hope the flanking maneuver works out sehr gut.

We're bothered by enamy aircraft again.

One tough mutter...

Need a hand?

Aircraft is down.

Normally, I'd have to chase the Yak to the aircraft again, possibly running into more enemy aircraft.
With two fighters in the field, we can quiclky chop them up, and while Katz refits, von Ulm stays to guar our column.

I'm near the arty. It's well dug in. Requesting assistance on this one.

Happy to oblige.

The AA is down. Moving in to assist.

Kommand, I report, artillery is destroyed and the airstrip is ready to be taken.

Firing potshots at the enemy infantry.

That felt good. Look at them run.

The siege continues.

Luftwaffe reporting, we're out.

Blast that bunker. We cannot resupply at Rostov airstrip yet.

Sitrep time.

Rostov is only a matter of time now. We will have to split for the secondary objective. It seems to be close, but the terrain is rough.
Fortunatly, the other Main Objective is close by. We should pull this off and still have plenty time for the secondaries.

Kommunists counterattacking!

Brace yourselves Soldaten. Fuhrer protects!

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

For every ten Russians, we shall send in one Hitlerjugend!

 

[Johnny the Mule]

I wonder if winning by normal victoly but taking all the objectives is more prudent.

 

[spectre]

We can take them!

Withdrawing to reassess my position.

Oh shit!

Anti tank proceeding with counter-attack.

Assistance would be p. cool.

Artillery rendering assistance.

I got them cornered.

Damn you, stealing my glory again!

Luftwaffe mopping up.

We're shot up but still good to go.

Look at them run.

Okay, this is not funny.

Oh fu...

[static]

NOOO!

RIP Vaarne. You brought no dishonor to your family name.

Mutter Fickern, you will pay tenfold for this!

Schweinhund cannot bring him down!

I'll take it from here.

This calls for a cigarette.

Majestic, you know Jacob Schmidt about majestic.

This is MAJESTIC.

Justice is served.

Despite being badly shot up, eklektyk swoops down on the enemy bunker.

And it surrenders to our pioniere.

Rostov is fully taken.

We should decide how to split our Kampfgruppe.

Derper will lead the strike to the south.

Aw fukit, this KV is so shot up it can barely move.

They will be assisted by Hellraiser, Anus and Serrated.

The rest of the force moves to capture the next objective along the road.

Cassidy's Marder and Gondolin flank the city. There's some minor resistance.

The T34 is vulnerable like Katz. Shelling it.
With some assistance of the Luftwaffe, we encircle the defenders.

Only a matter of time now.

Meanwhile down south.

What the...

Oh shit oh shit oh shit.

We have to break that monstrosity.

It shrugged off the 88!

Requesting Luftwaffe assistance!

This is stuka. Dropping my load.

This is stuka. Dropping my load.
It's done. Now for the artillery

That pesky...

 

[spectre]

Commerical break.

I wonder if winning by normal victoly but taking all the objectives is more prudent.

Not really. If we win the major, the game allows us time to take the secondary objectives until the turn limit expires.
However, it seems that we take a score hit for doing so. Of course, there is a chance for random specials so it kinda evens out.
I didn't test this extensively truth be told, cause I never bothered about the score anyways.

Otherwise, I believe a major vic influences the next scenario selection, we also get one more promotion medal and additional roster slots, so it's worth the effort

Also, this is Panzer General, you will never win by taking your sweet sweet time with the objective, from experience, if you don't focus on winning fast, you'll quickly bog down and run out of turns (I mean, the regular turn limit).

 

[Gondolin]

Damn you, stealing my glory again!

They see me scoutin', they hatin'! Motherfucking backstabbers.

 

[Hellraiser]

Zat soviet scheisse better not shoot up mein neue panzer!

 

[Johnny the Mule]

Ah, I thought its game over after you drive onto the last major objective.

 

[spectre]

Wait up, Imma test something.

Flying low like this...

Yep, the barn buster veteran order works. The AA is forced to play by the line of sight rules and cannot hit Katz.
Unfortunately, it's not enough to kill the 7.6cm

Show off. You know it's gonna refit right back?

Wait up, Imma test something.
At least it won't fire.

Moving to the north.

Scouting objective

Hmm. That'll be tough.

RAAAA!

Psychic shells the defenders to Oblivion(tm)

And the town is quickly taken.
Garf receives the much needed Blitz commendation.

We position ourselves close to the objective, ready to swoop down.

Aaand...

Nice of you to komm.

Filthy drunken untermensch.

Two turns remaining.

Get a move on, we don't have time.

Back down south.

We refit our Panzer and Pioniere. The Artillery is swiflty dispatched.

And a fucking recon tank blocks our path. No pioniere to clear it. Oh well, next turn.

Back to the north again...

Take the objective. Time is wasted!

We encircle the enemy and fire away.

The luftwaffe assists.

Haha, no AAs, ist das Himmel?

Yep. It is heavan. Anyways, the city defenders fall quickly to combined arms.

Gondolin sees an opening and takes it.
Much deserved.

South again.

A lone Katyusha approaches our rear.

Leave it to rott in its own piss. The objective comes first.

Zat looks like a Familienwagen.

IT is blasted out of the way. An opening is created.

Serrated mops up.

And the bjective is taken. Great. One more tank leader.
Sigh.

The Kampfgruppe pushes on to the airfield. The demoralized ruskies offer little resistance.

Wunderesame!

Derper busts the Katyusha.
South is officially purged.

We scout the first secondary objective.

Recon flight shows little resistance. Two partisan units.

Moving in to take the objecitve.

Roger that. You're authirized to use all the fire support you'd like

Stukas and artillery are probably overkill at this point, but the partizans have plentiful strength. They quickly are sent to their holes cowering in fear.

We have them supressed. But killing them, waste of good ammo.

The objective is quickly taken afterwards. We pull an AT leader. Better.

Scouting final objective.

A lone consript stands in our way.

Yep. We're almost done here.

Not much to say, Psychic supresses, eklektyk supresses them some more, and garf takes the objective.

Good stuff this time.

Aaand we're done. 2090 potato still, even though we racked up some good kills.
Perhaps that's because we took our time after capturing the majors, but the extra promotion and AT leader was worth it.

Debriefing
Everything went as planned. The soviet counterattack was painful, but that's war.
The additional fighter pilot is a godsend, allowing us to quickly hunt down any offending aircraft.
The PzIV are pretty cool as well, unfortunately, their armor is lacking,
coupled with low strength... well Vaarna paid the price for that.

Our artillery force needs reinforcements, it seems. Switching to the 10,5 seemed a good choice, we
can quickly supress all the stuff that gets in the way with it, and I don't see any dramatic decrease in forepower.
However, even with 4 attacks, we need at least one more. 2 Artillery pieces per kampfgruppe whenever we split sounds good. No rush though. Our bomber force is quite formidable, so we make do for now.

Still, they're susceptibe to AAs, and there's always the risk of bad weather.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Send regards to Dresden.