ACHTUNG! Codex! Let's Defend Kharkov, in 1943 (FAILED!!!)

Moar pages! Moar updates! Der Führer demands it!


Ve vill krush der zoviet scum!

Where we left off. Maybe if we're lucky nobody sees that infantry unit to the east and it won't get attacked, allowing us to live for another turn.



lol no



Well this is it for these guys. I've got the one gun that can't move, and the three crewmen without a gun. The gunless guys sit in a farm house, hoping to ambush an APC or something. The gun will just sit outside. Who knows, maybe it'll get lucky.



Good GOD



They pass in front of his sight, past the two buildings there, but he doesn't get a shot off before the larger building obscures them.



They close the ground without tanking any fire. Schell fires a shell (Ha-Ha!) into a building with no one in it. I can't tell if he somehow tried to shoot through the building to hit the 76.2mm, or if he's just being careful. Hard to say.



Regardless it seems to have worked, because this asshole on the gun panics and runs off, leaving the gun unmanned, even though he wasn't really under fire yet. Fucking coward. He'd be shot if only we could afford the bullet.



Now it's up to two brave men, held up in the farm house to fight off the Nazi hordes.



They exchange fire nonstop and actually live for several minutes, but eventually an APC with a decent cannon on it begins shooting up the house, and that's that. At least they died fighting, unlike so many of our buddies.



Alright so this is our infantry getting attacked by mechanized infantry. We're full strength, but have no gun, no ATR, and we can't dig in. But inspired by our success last update against the lone tank defending the town, I've decided to attempt to replicate it. Basically, we'll all take cover in the houses on the same row, opposite of wherever they're advancing from. When they finally get close, whoever is taking fire will remain in his house while someone in the back will leave his house and sneak around to attempt a run-by potatoing.

This is it. If this unit gets fucked, it'll probably just be game over, and we'll never get to see our tanks engage in epic battle against the fascist scum. So this time, there will be no retreat and no cease fire. It's do or die.



(only picture I could find that actually had the words on it, sigh)



After I start the mission I spot this vastly superior position. Fuck's sake. I just looked around for houses, saw the first set with two rows and went for it. But that's so much better it's ridiculous, especially if they came in by the roads.



Here they come. I've seen at least 4 APCs.



They're advancing now with their infantry outside the APCs, so I call in this gnarly rocket artillery strike. It's short and fast, not sustained like regular artillery, but it covers a rather large area with small explosions.





Appears to be hitting a little too far back.



Oh dear, that thing in the front there is a Marder. Tank destroyer. Not nearly as great as the StuG III, but something I'd rather not see just the same.



It takes some minor damage from a rocket, but nothing bad enough to slow it down.



The artillery strike was okay I guess, but it could've been much better. I probably should have saved it.



By now I've pulled the two squads that were in the line of houses visible to the Germans on their advance back to the other line, so none of us have been spotted so far. At least I don't think so. They turn right onto the road in between the two rows, and it turns out there's some asshole who instead of being in a house is just sitting prone right in the middle of the street. If he fucks this up...



They stop right before him. I think we're fucked...



Lawd, nope. They keep driving. Think that's close enough. Open fire!



Guy in the road is dead now. Some molotovs and grenades are thrown. Some hit, but don't do any real damage. Many miss.



This is going to be a problem. If that Marder doesn't get fucked, it'll eventually just bring down the houses all around us, like the big bad wolf, if he had a 75mm cannon for a snout.



Some of the APCs begin flanking us. We have troops in most of the buildings down this side of the road, so many potatoes are thrown. Most miss. We're getting pretty unlucky. The ones that do hit are having no effect.



Like so.

I tried to have Hoffman leave his house and flank around as soon as the APCs showed up, but it turns out this fucking coward, who is in range of a commander and has suffered no losses, is panicking, and I can't control the squad. Even if his panic is cured it doesn't really matter now because that APC has already taken up position along the route I intended him to follow. He'd just get fucked now. Plan has failed.



The infantry is coming around the opposite end, apparently unsupported by any APCs. The squads I have over there open fire.



The Marder's crew appears to have taken some hits, but it's still functional. It puts a round into that house, then drives up close to it for some reason.



Despite the bombardment, Car has only lost two men so far. We haven't inflicted any real losses, but we haven't taken any either, and at least the APCs are in potato range this time.



Heh, their air spotter moves up and gets shot. That's pretty silly. Also we've yet to actually see any Stukas this whole campaign, primarily because most of the decisive battles took place at night and they won't fly at night. But here was a good chance, and yet there's nothing. Too bad. Or good, really.



The Marder begins to drive away, but an APC with a cannon on it rolls up to take its place.



It completely exposes its totally unarmored back, but no hits are scored on the crew. Well, no new ones.



One of our houses is now pretty much fucked due to Marder.



More failure. Volosin appears to be panicked as well. Some of the troops leave their houses to attempt and escape. It doesn't end well. And another potato misses another APC. We've yet to actually destroy one.



Volosin's got 6 casualties now. 3 men left.



Losses are piling up elsewhere as well. Volf, who has been stalling the infantry advance with the assistance of the commander and artillery spotter, now has 5 men down. The German infantry has taken some losses, but not enough. I should have saved that rocket artillery for now. That whole area is full of mostly immobile krauts just waiting to die.



And speaking of dead Comrades, Kaster picks up right where the Marder left off and pumps shells ceaselessly into Car's position until such a time as the house is fucked and everyone is dead.



Meanwhile Hoffman is still panicked, having only one casualty, while brave men like Car and Volf fight to the death for their motherland. What I wouldn't do for a commissar or blocking battalion. I wonder if they were simply not present here, or if Graviteam didn't have the balls to implement them. Sort of like how Paradox doesn't have the balls to put slave labor in Hearts of Iron.



The Marder tries to complete the flank, presumably to go help the infantry out, but is finally stopped on the way. The machine appears to be okay, but the crew is dead.



More bombardment from that asshole. Not that it matters, he's only shooting a squad now that's been useless since the beginning.



Volf is now reduced to two men, but he stubbornly refuses to surrender.



Some krauts try to get close under covering fire from their pals, but the first of them pay with their lives. But sadly two people can only shoot at so many people at once, and others eventually make it up close.





They toss a few grenades, but Volf LIVES. This is now our only functional unit. And the clock is ticking down. But we haven't surrendered? Could it be? Could the Germans be retreating before two brave sons of Russia!?



NOPE

The unit is broken. We've failed.



At least they took more casualties than at the last APC rapefest. I wonder if they can pull some dudes from reserves to man the Marder, since according to this the vehicle is perfectly fine, just the crew is dead like I suspected.



Our casualties. Sadface.

Head hanging in shame, I hit the next turn button, fully expecting to see Axis victory and having to hear creepy music play to a Hitler speech.



!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



It is time...

Traffic was a bitch. So did we miss anything?

Don't let the death of the patriots who sacrificed their lives to buy time for the arrival of reinforcements end in vain. Forwards against the enemy!

I hope Frank the III makes an appearance. Best russian name ever.

IF you survive, you might be able to recover your routed squads. At least two other squads of yours are still on the map, as far as I can see.

To understand just how badly I've fucked up this operation, one need only look to the "historical backround" pick in the last update. Apparently, in real life, as the tanks tried to come to the rescue, the Soviets still held Sokolovo. Me? Every unit I have is either destroyed or running like a bitch, with the exception of the newly arrived tanks. I don't control anything. The Germans still have 11 functional units. Facts need to be faced. There is no hope of retaking enough important squares to achieve actual victory. What we can do is use this tank platoon to run around and, hopefully, devastate as many mechanized units as possible before the tanks finally catch up to us. Obviously, APCs won't stand up very well to T-34s. They'll be pushovers if we can catch them alone.



To that end I head East, vaguely recalling getting attacked by a mechanized unit there. Then I remembered I was also attacked by armor in this general area, in that fight in which I burned up the one Panzer III then accepted the cease fire. Brilliant. I don't attack, since I'm pretty sure he's going to attack me.



WELL! That's that I suppose. I'm pretty sure this tank unit is Panzer IIs and IIIs. Panzer IIs are pretty much pushovers for T-34s. Panzer IIIs are more dangerous since they feature a real gun, but are still generally inferior. Thing about tank fights, though, is that luck plays a considerably factor. Sometimes you can get shot up and keep fighting. Other times, you'll take one hit, get caught on fire, and that's that. And they won't have any difficulties spotting us, even though it's becoming dark, since they have two units of APCs with them. This creates all sorts of problems, such as them flanking me with infantry to attack close range while the tanks keep me busy frontally, or the APCs that have cannons doing the same. All in all, we're completely outnumbered and outgunned and I reckon I've once again completely fucked up, and this operation will be coming to a close.



Here we are in Mirgorody again. I agonize over deployment. The first time we fought here, we sat in ambush in the forest, not bothering to move until I saw the tanks run far in the wrong direction, then re-emerged to capture the key point and slew the lone defending tank easily. This appeals to me here because I'm so outnumbered that the prospect of fighting a divided enemy sounds like my only hope. I could also put the square that's off the operations map to my back, ensuring I can't be flanked from that direction, then setting up my infantry forward as spotters, while my tanks stay back and be bigger, tougher anti-tank guns.

But that'd also kill the mobility of my tanks, sitting in the forest like that. It'd probably also lead to a great deal of dead infantry. I have another idea.



What I've done here is set up infantry in four corners around me to act as spotters against any incoming tanks or APCs. My tanks will sit in the middle until the enemy is spotted, then, being more mobile than shitty AT guns, will drive over to the enemy all at once and shoot them. This will be effective if they approach piecemeal or from different directions. It will be incredibly ineffective if they approach in a giant blob. It's tough to say. I've seen the AI do both. But even if they approach all at once in the same direction, we can attempt to use the houses as cover as much as possible, to inflict some casualties before we go down. The infantry will have hold fire orders so as not to get spotted and owned.

Let's DO THIS



That burned out Panzer triple and accompanying corpses, by the way.



It doesn't take very long for Mavrinskij to spot a tank coming his way. It's not really that dark out.



I move the tanks over. So far, we've got one Panzer III and one Panzer II. A few pot shots are taken, but they all land very short. Rage. Learn to shoot cunts.



The first shot that connects with Rahm owns his track. Excellent.



I was pretty nervous at this point. We temporarily lost sight of Dultz it would seem, and absolutely nobody was firing at him. He got two shots off that both connected and did some "equipment" damage. I probably would've killed myself if I lost a tank over something so ridiculous.



But two shots is all he gets.



They get shot up very badly, very quickly. Dultz, being on fire, is done for. Rahm's weapon no longer works, not that it'd matter if it did since we're all in proper hull-down positions, and his 20mm gun isn't going to penetrate anything.



The crews try to escape. Will they make it!?



No prisoners, bitch.



Now we've got that RUBIN asshole spotted. I've hated that guy since the moment I laid eyes on his fucking stupid name. He's approaching Mavrinskij from a different direction. Currently, the houses he's in are blocking the shot of our tanks. Need to move into position.



The enemy had meanwhile called artillery in this general area. We've had no real casualties so far, but Borisov's tank gets de-tracked by a lucky hit. Brilliant. He may be able to repair, but they probably won't start til they think it's safe.



Once again we have a Panzer II and a Panzer III approaching from this side, but also some APCs it would seem.



Rubin manages to get some shots off, but they miss. Probably hit a house or something.



The tyranny of Rubin has ended. Fradl drives into the forest, which makes it very difficult to shoot him. But by the same token he can't really shoot us.



Not sure where this guy came from, but there's a Panzer II right in our midst. He's heading towards Malchanov. Not really a big deal to be honest. It's not likely that he'll spot any infantry without infantry support himself, and he's not heading in the direction of our tanks so he won't get any juicy shots on our assholes.



Also Borisov's crew is now attempting to repair the track. It takes awhile, but he could easily be back in this fight.



Meanwhile Fradl's flanking maneuver fails. He's spotted and shot through the trees.



Over here this Roth guy is getting awfully close, but...it doesn't get into potato range and drives off on the trail through the woods.



Also multiple APCs are spotted coming from the exact opposition direction as the guys we're fighting now. They're not really close yet, though, and we've got business to take care off in our current position before we can jet.



Hordes of infantry try to make progress but are continually shot down by the tanks' machine guns. This is why we've never bothered attacking anything. Infantry out in the open just gets slaughtered by armor if it's not supported, and if we don't have many guns to counter it, then APCs are essentially the same as tanks for this purpose, if not WORSE because the can spot you more easily.



Crap. Those dudes are getting close and they're attacking in force. I'm worried that they may see and attack Borisov before his tracks are repaired.



Our work over here is pretty much done. A heavy APC is spotted, very far away, but I decide not to worry about it. It's pretty far even if it decides to come over here. We score a hit on it but don't bother finishing the job. More pressing matters. Also, the reason it's so light in some of the screenshots is because for some reason it becomes light whenever I pause.



Time to go! If they keep attacking, I'm confident Mavrinskij can handle the remaining infantry.



They've spotted Lanin by now and have inflicted a few casualties. Hold on pal, we're coming.



Hello friends! Also German artillery appears to be landing in this general area, which is good really. Might get some friendly fire.



Burning APCs, coming up.



This guy was de-tracked somehow, and he's sitting next to Lanin's house, firing his machine gun nonstop into it. The casualties are mounting. He doesn't have a cannon fortunately, but communism shacks can't withstand even lower caliber fire.



We actually take a hit at this point, from Fritz. His APC has a cannon on it. I tell everyone to focus on him rather than take any chances.



Bam. With him out of the way, the rest of these fools will get mopped up easily.



In other news, Borisov is back in action and we've been offered a cease fire! Well, I guess I'd better take it...

LOL JK

I'm going to hunt these fuckers into extinction. We may never have a victory like this again.



I get one of my tanks to go right over to the APC and save Lanin's squad.



It takes like four shells for some reason, during the firing of which he was still laying machine gun rounds into the house, but it's finally toast and we can begin mopping up this mess of infantry and GAYPCs.



Oh hay, look at this. Apparently, some infantry slipped by Mavrinskij and is heading down the road past Molchanov now, to an unknown destination. They got very close without seeing him. TOO CLOSE. Open fire!



Roth drives back, and eats a potato this time. No effect.



He's moving to support the ambushed infantry squad, and in so doing exposes his backside to my tanks. I begin moving them over. The infantry is mostly dead now anyway.



Dude's totally gonna die in one shot.



Or not. He actually manages to turn around and return fire.



Without being attacked by the tank, Molchanov has killed almost all of the enemy infantry without taking a single casualty.



We're now firing point black at Roth. Every shot penetrates, but we don't manage to inflict any real damage. It's getting strange.



Now he gets really close, and for some reason not only do we not do damage, but we just stop hitting. He manages to get a few side shots in on us with his 20mm cannon. I start sweating. His cannon is weak as shit, but we're also extremely close and I had difficulty initially getting my tanks to face him directly, so he was hitting the weaker side armor.



Like this. Fuck.



Okay, now we've got a guy flanking him. He'll surely die now.



Or not? The man just eats shell after shell, point blank, without abandoning the tank.



God FINALLY. I wish these screenshots accurately conveyed just how long that took. Shit was ridiculous. I want to say it took 20 shells to take this fuck down, and he's only a Panzer II. This is like that things I was talking about.



Also, I had Borisov run off on his own to intercept a commander APC that I had spotted trying to escape. Job done.



Suddenly Borislov is fired at. Turns out it was that heavy APC from the beginning. Rather than turn and run, I decide to close some ground and destroy it. Should be okay. A few good hits are scored, but it's not dead yet. I have the other tanks start heading over, when I turn back to see that for some weird ass reason Borisov has turned and exposed his side to the enemy. What? He should've just been sitting still.



I didn't see it happen since I was ordering the other tanks, but Borisov takes a hit and abandons the tank. FUUUUCK. Victory was almost flawless, and then pow. Lose a tank to pure fucking bullshit. To APCs no less. I raged.



Two of the tanks take forever, and another one arrives on the scene alone. I pay attention to him constantly so he doesn't turn away. Soon the first heavy APC goes down.



There's a few more APCs left undestroyed, but they're going to have to stay that way because the enemy retreats! VICTOLY!!!



Our casualties. Lanin's squad ultimately took 7, and he's now broken. One of the others took 3, probably from artillery, and we lost a tank. Borisov's saga is a sad one, and it really, really takes something away from what is otherwise probably my greatest Achtung Panzer battle ever. Let's look at the Germans.



The tank and recon units are broken, dead, gone forever. The one unit to survive is the mechanized infantry.







And these are the survivors. One APC with accompanying infantry is broken, and so is one heavy APC. Another APC survived but lost all of its infantry. I'll take it.



Back on the operations map, two of our lost units resurface. We have control over the one to the north, but the bottom one is AI I believe.



We replace Lanin's broken squad with another tank, and Borisov's busted tank with a tank as well. That's the extent of our replacements for this unit. Anymore tanks lost are gone forever. On the bright side, next battle we'll have 5 tanks on the field.



Remember Jaros? He's alive, but has a whopping one rifle squad under his command. I have no replacements to give him. Against mechanized units, he'll still be useful for calling in artillery and killing off their infantry, as he so successfully once did during the tragic battle of Sokolovo.



This is the AI unit. I don't have much hope for them. They're encircled so they can't replace their numerous losses and ammunition shortages, but at least they'll temporarily distract some of the German units, and hey, they may even do some damage before they die.

I'm torn between what to do now. I can't see very far on the map, so I don't know if there's any German units in range to assist these fags up north. My problem is that I really want to attack the mechanized unit and destroy them, one on one, but doing so may screw me because there's no way that Jaros isn't getting attacked by those tanks. It also may screw me because the Germans may be able to bring up units to assist the mechanized infantry, which'll then pit me as tanks at night, obliged to go on the offensive rather than repeat what I did last battle. Yet the prospect of easily crushing another German unit without losses is tempting. What to do? Well, that's for next update.

Woot. Tanks really turned the tide. Hope you can make a miraculous comeback victory.

Fun game. I still fondly recall toppling over a tree when my Marder backed into it. The tree proceeded to fall on the Marder, killing the exposed crew.

Still, it's being held back by its cumbersome interface and controlls and a lot of little niggles and glitches. Good luck with the LP. As the Soviet player you basically have to be a true ubermensch and win decisive victory after decisive victory to even stand a chance in most ops.

Hell yeah, two units destroyed! Well done.

I'd argue to save your infantry squad. Every soldier you have will increase your chances.
btw, what's the status of your other routed squads? Any of them worth recovering? Or are they all so fucked up as well?

We return.



My tank unit can only move one square in either direction. If I was going to ditch the infantry and attack the mechanized unit, I'd head east first, hoping to avoid any confrontations with tanks while I take out more gayPCs. Since it's pretty much inevitable that the tanks are going to attack Jaros, I decide to stay and see what's up.



This works out quite well. Instead of going to help the tanks, a mechanized unit heads south to assist another mechanized unit that's been attacked foolishly by our AI pals. As if they have a chance. We now only have to deal with a single tank unit. If we can crush them there'll only be one real tank platoon to deal with left. I don't know what the fuck is gonna happen to that AI infantry.



I go to deal with the tanks first. I anticipate them approach from that enemy square we're facing, right onto the key point here. In the upper right you can see a road leading from the enemy square into ours, right onto said key point. I have, therefore, positioned the infantry next to the road for potato ambushes. Frank is part of Jaros' unit, so he's on his home square and can be dug in, so he's right next to the road. Our tanks are held back so far because I want the enemy spotted before they do anything. There's also the question of which tank unit this is. It could either be the Panzer IVs we haven't seen yet, or the two APCs with the four StuG IIIs. I think I'd prefer to fight the StuGs now, because if I had to guess I'd say they spot things even more poorly than tanks at night, possibly giving me room to maneuver around and kick the shit out of them. Like I mentioned many posts ago, StuGs have very tough frontal armor and a 75mm gun that penetrates pretty hard. Shooting it out with them at range really isn't an option. They need to be flanked not only to hit their more vulnerable armor, but also because being assault guns/tank destroyers, they don't have a turret. Their whole vehicle has to face whatever it is they're shooting. That's something we'll have to try to exploit.



They offer a cease fire immediately. Frank waits in ambush next to the road.



First thing we spot is an APC. Some time passes, and strangely, nothing else is spotted. I have flares on the way to better enable us to see what the fuck is up. If we get lucky, the flares will fall right on enemy vehicles, allowing our own tanks to see them quite easily while remaining invisible to the enemy. I'm a little annoyed though, since he's not approaching from the road, and he's not a tank. I don't want our infantry spotted. This also means we're fighting the StuGs.



I begin moving the tanks over in an attempt to kill these fools off before they discover the infantry positions.



Some flares descend and the rapefest begins. Nothing else is spotted. I think he's really alone.





Lawd

Before long most of the infantry is dead and the APC is destroyed. I move the tanks back into their original position and cancel the flares. But nothing happens. A few of the surviving infantry stumble upon Frank's dugout and get killed. But after waiting for another few minutes I get bored and decide to begin attacking key points to draw them out. They could be anywhere really. I just hope we find them before the time runs out.

http://a.imageshack.us/img440/4533/snap1249.jpg

We're following the retreating enemy to Anna 3 now. I let the infantry take the lead as spotters and call in some flares ahead of time. I have the infantry advance in a line because of the way the houses are set up. If there's a tank defending, then ideally it would be a repeat of the time I fried the Panzer III in Mirgord...whatever the fuck it was called. Since it can only be on one side, some units will take fire while others will be covered by houses, allowing them to get in close for a potatoing.



Suddenly a StuG is spotted heading towards Anna 3 from the road to our left of it. Zooming in, I see that it doesn't turn to face us, but instead continues on it's way. Perfect. I order our tanks to charge.



One long range side hit already. It's possible that I should've ordered them to hold fire til we were closer, to lessen the possibility of them turning to face us and kicking the shit out of us.



But it works out. That one shot set the thing on fire. One down already.



Oh dear, a shot flies right over one of our tanks. One of them, at least, has assumed a hull down position. Things could get ugly but it's too late to back down. CHAAARGE!!



Several more good hits are scored. The best thing we could do apart from completely destroying them is take our their tracks, preventing them from turning. Then it's just a matter of getting around them and they're helpless. They really seem intent on getting to Anna 3 for some reason, despite the obvious danger. I'm guessing they lost sight of us temporarily, causing them to revert to their course.



Turns out one of them actually got through and is now heading down the street into the town. Excellent.



The rest of the StuGs aren't going down as easily as the first one. We begin taking fire. Fuck. Any one shot from the cunts could definitely take out one of us. My damn tanks really need to charge up close and get around them.



Fuuuuuck!



He's fortunately managing to move around finally, so he should be safe soon. But that just means Kundanetov is in trouble.



Meanwhile our infantry heroes from the last battle swarm the StuG in the town.



God this asshole is like that Panzer II. He takes shell after shell.



The other StuG is dead, so all 5 tanks concentrate on this guy. Except for Udovenskij. I think the crewman that died in that tank was the loader. I'm having a hard time making him shoot.





Over here, even though so far as I can tell, the StuG isn't on fire or even badly damaged, the crew abandon it. The enemy is retreating.



But this guy is STILL ALIVE.



It's okay, they're broken.



We took a few infantry casualties, but it's fine in my opinion. Whatever reduces the chances of losing a tank at this point is perfectly acceptable to me. Also our tanks are slightly damaged. One of them has a messed up track apparently, though I didn't see any of them immobilized.



Look at that StuG in the middle there. The crew is all dead, but on the right the circle is green. That means the vehicle is perfectly intact. The game will now considered it "captured." Except that I never seem to be able to use captured equipment. It'd be fucking BRILLIANT to have a StuG at my command. Anyone know how to go about making that happen?



I guess the real life Jaros took that "not one step back" order really fucking seriously.



This isn't something we've had to deal with yet. The column with the gun icon has a circle under it, and the circle has a number. That's the man hours it'll take to repair the tank. On the bottom is how many you have available.



Now all the tanks are under repair except one. They're pretty minor, so I hope it's cleared up quickly, because I don't think they can be used while they're under repair. Or maybe they can. I forget.

Also I had the AI retreat. No sense to me in making them die needlessly attacking when they can keep tying up units for a few turns.



Also wow, what the fuck is this? Another one of the AI's lost units resurfaces, RIGHT IN SOKOLOVO.



And although they have no guns, they're not even that beat up. I am shocked. I have no idea what to do right now. There's a hard turn limit, and we're approaching it. It'd be nice to hold Sokolovo at the end. But there's so many possibilities. First off, the unit I have holding Sokolovo is not likely to survive the turn unscathed. Should I retreat and give the town up again, but possibly saving the unit, or do I stand my ground? The tanks are two turns away from being able to assist, and on top of that three of them are under repair. Do I attack the APCs next to us? It's night time, and they're dug in. That has potential to end really, really poorly. And remember, since the Axis controls most of the map, they can move around it much more quickly than I can. For all I know those Panzer IVs will show up at any moment. And once again there's the threat of encirclement. If I move Jaros and the tanks south, a kraut might come and cut us off from supplies and reinforcements, since they still have a serious advantage.

Oh, and that unit icon southwest of the dudes in Sokolovo are engineers. They'll have flamethrower tanks. Not very good in open tank battles, but against infantry chilling inside houses, they're murder. I doubt we'll be able to defend against them.

And yet there's a glimmer of hope. They have only one real tank unit left. If we can break them too...they'll have nothing that can reliably stop 5 T-34s. Could it be that we may end up holding Sokolovo at the end of the operation? Even if we do, though, be advised that since the Axis controls pretty much the rest of the map, they'll still probably considered victorious. It'd be an excellent moral victory for us, however.

What to do...

Everything's coming up Ruskie!

Popamole Version of the same battle

Not really because it was the last WW2 FPS without both health regeneration and sticky cover and a decent FPS, even if quite linear and a little short-lasting.

Now I remembered why "Kharkov" was not unfamiliar to me.

You should do a German LP next. Be the one with the power of stug (and blessed Panzer IIs)

Cassidy said:

Popamole Version of the same battle

Not really because it was the last WW2 FPS without both health regeneration and sticky cover and a decent FPS, even if quite linear and a little short-lasting.

Now I remembered why "Kharkov" was not unfamiliar to me.

Click to expand...

Since you're playing the Soviets and it seems like you're on the offensive, that's probably the Soviets retaking Kharkov during Operation Star. What we're playing happens right after that, the German counterattack and encirclement of Kharkov, called the Third Battle of Kharkov. Also, watched the whole video, because when the guy mouses over a friendly troop it displays its name. I think I saw a Private Han, but no Lieutenant Frank. Blasphemy.

anus_pounder said:

You should do a German LP next. Be the one with the power of stug (and blessed Panzer IIs)

Click to expand...

Meh, the reason I'm playing Soviets now is because like a true ubermensch I've already completed the German campaigns. I don't recall whether or not I've mentioned it in the LP, but the Germans won this battle. Since the devs went for hardcore realism, that means winning as the Germans is considerably easier than as the Soviets. So much so that, well, it's just easy really. It'd be a steamroll. Not interesting at all to LP. Especially since it seems I was born to command tanks. Plus, knowing my luck, my Panzer IIs would all burn in one shot.

Anyway this probably needs to be bumped abit. Pages are huge enough without squeezing four updates with enormous screenshots onto one page.

So here we are.



I decide to move the tanks and infantry south, hoping we won't be attacked while the tanks are still in repair. We're running out of turns, so if we want to hold Sokolovo at the end of the operation, now's the time.



Our dudes in Sokolovo are about to get gang raped by 105mm artillery, two mechanized units, and flamethrower tanks. Our dudes in the southwest are still tying up a mechanized unit. Good. I retreat them both, since they don't have any actual hope of victory.



what the FUCK

FHZDHZDFGZDFg

nevermind that the infantry that was attacked is gone. I was fucking expecting that. BUT WHERE ARE THE TANKS? Look up north. They got magically sent back into fucking reserve somehow. I stared at the screen in disbelief, then alt+tabbed to see if I could find where the game keeps saves. I couldn't. I then took a look to the forums to see if I could find others with a similar issue and a possible fix. I couldn't. So that's that really. I can't do this without tanks. I rage end the next few turns until the campaign ends. It's too bad, too, because Hans just turned up. Hans is manly as fuck, and apparently he survived.





The Panzer IV platoon ends up way down south. Wonder why. Makes me fucking rage all the more, because I'm fairly certain we could have brought a great deal more pain to the fascist scum.



The final campaign stats. This doesn't look completely disastrous, but like I said I don't believe it counts lost men and materiel from units that have been broken in some way. Just the same, even with the last turns fucked up, the Germans paid quite a bit for that victory. Though in the greater context, it's still a huge Soviet defeat because it allowed Kharkov to be encircled.

And so another LP has been brought to its knees at the height of its drama by bugs. In its defense, this is literally the second real bug I've ever encountered in the game, unless you count the tank flipping over in the trench for no reason. So third bug I suppose. Yet, since the game features no save function, it was a devastating bug because I couldn't revert and avoid it. We just lose. Just the same, everyone go buy it so Graviteam gives me money for being a good advertising plant. If you're an elitist grognard, that is.

I'm feeling a tad burned out by LPs at the moment, but to anyone interested, the SH 4 LP will most likely be getting resurrected one way or another. Other than that, I really have nothing I'd like to LP, largely because I only like to do games that I feel have been unjustly ignored by most of the Codex population, and aren't RPGs or adventure games. The only two I'm playing at the moment that fit that bill are Black Shark and Steel Beasts Pro PE, both of which I am completely shit at. Black Shark would make for a poor LP I feel since screenshots wouldn't really show off how the flight model is. It's something that'd require video, and my internet isn't up to it.

As for Steel Beasts Pro PE, it has no campaign and would suffer in the continuity department. But just the same I'd like to throw it out there, that if anyone else happens to own it, we should consider doing AARs of multiplayer sessions, with multiple people controlling the same tank. What it lacks in update to update drama, it'd make up for in comedy and the novelty of seeing multiple people fuck up their duties in the same vehicle. Anyone? Bueller?

Good LP nevertheless.

Thanks for this LP.
I'm not a fan of strategy games, so it's nice to watch someone being raped instead of me.

Awesome rapefest is awesome.

Thanks for taking one for the team, you're a true patriot.

Thanks for the LP. Your defense had some great moments and drama!

all in all thanks for this high quality LP, i might have picked-up the game, but that panzer refusing to yield to the sabot rounds from 4 t-34 at close range was too over the top, I would have punched the screen in all likelihood

this is what happens to a tank, if it's hit from close range,and i am not talking about 10 meters. I know that because if a war breaks out I'll probably be conscripted as a tank commander .



or this


bah that game needs more realism.

Nah, that's what happened with tanks which got hit at close range in wars fought after WW2. Arms technology and tank shells got more lethal fast. There is a rather rare short clip out there of a German panther being hit three times at close range by a US wolverine. Most shells slam through it and while it's incredibly violent to watch the tank doesn't explode or disintegrate. It catches fire and the German crew members who survived so far can be seen jumping out with one poor guy falling back in the fire. The rest get machinegunned. It actually looks quite like what happens in this game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZUX7z9JnkM

Anyway, neat LP. Winning as the Soviets is nigh impossible but you gave it a good shot. You basically can't afford to lose any guns or tanks to the enemy in most encounters to stand a chance. Brutal.

Oh well. Its good to know that the SH4 LP isn't dead.

It's lame it had to end because of a bug. Oh well, good LP