SITREP

[GoodGuy]

Thanks GoodGuy. All good advice. I have already ran full system scans with ESET and Malwarebytes. My credit card's been stopped by the bank, so it won't matter now. But I don't leave CC details on sites I purchase from anyway. But I will change my password on Dell. Thanks.

Use Trendmicro's free online scanner (if it's still up) and see if it finds anything. A local scanner and an external scanner, that's the best combo. Just don't let it clean (the cleaner can be harsh) anything if it finds something, they have removal instructions.

 

[Kensal]

Had a run through of the first day of St Vith tutorial scenario on the beta, playing Axis, to see how the AI dealt with its attack plans. It all looked good. No HQs or artillery units wandering into the combat area and the US artillery spent the whole day hammering away at Lommersweiler and Steinebruck in a way that wouldn't have happened in the previous build (and very effectively). While the Axis was able to hold off the US assault on Steinebruck until about 8pm, with darkness the US armour was able to close in and ejected them.

One point I have made before and will make again, is that the night attacks by the AI appear to be the default - and appear to involve units that have been engaged during the day. Afaik night attacks were not the default option during WWII, and units that have been engaged during the preceding day would presumably need the night to rest and refit. Night attacks are also I feel unrealistically effective - if they were as effective in real life as they are in Command Ops they would have been the default option.

So delighted with the new build - seems to work really well. At some point in the future, it would be good if the issue of night combat operations could be addressed - perhaps reducing the AI's propensity to use them so as to allow AI forces to rest and refit, and making them less effective.

 

[GoodGuy]

One point I have made before and will make again, is that the night attacks by the AI appear to be the default - and appear to involve units that have been engaged during the day. Afaik night attacks were not the default option during WWII, ....

But some nations trained and performed night attacks either extensively (eg. Japanese infantry, the Imperial Navy), or they performed night attacks regularly - without prior training (US Army Rangers in Italy, Russian Rifle units - eg. at the fixed fronts in the Southeast during the first half of 1942, during the defense on the Crimea/outbreak attempts in Sevastopol, etc.). The basic idea was to overcome a superior (regarding weapons or personnel) enemy force or to boot an enemy unit occupying an advantaged position in such night attacks. The Japanese made night attacks part of their doctrine and codified approaches in their infantry training manuals, and the classified "Red Books" outlined advantages and dos and don'ts to higher echelons.
The Germans made excessive use of battlefield illumination techniques to counter Russian night attacks/raids, which was so effective that many of these Russian (human wave) attacks (at night) failed or even ended up to be total disasters, where entire Bns got wiped out. Afaik, the Russian night attacks were rather the result of pure desperation (and of being afraid of political officers/higher echelons) than the result of deep strategic thinking. According to what I've read, the night attacks were often ordered where multiple day attacks had completely failed or where German artillery had denied any offensive movement.

... and units that have been engaged during the preceding day would presumably need the night to rest and refit. Night attacks are also I feel unrealistically effective - if they were as effective in real life as they are in Command Ops they would have been the default option.

While superiors tried to let their troops get some rest, quite some engagements/developments in the field dictated less friendly sleep/rest schedules. Many units didn't have the luxury to get a full night of sleep.
More than often and during major campaigns/battles, soldiers just got 2-4 hrs of sleep, before they had to get ready for action or march again. (German - and British?) Tank crews usually had a backup driver, so that at least the driver, the gunner and either the radio op. or the loader could get some sleep. This way the vehicle could still redeploy - while the commander kept being on the watch, until another (halfway rested) crew member could take over. It wasn't uncommon that tank crews hardly got any sleep for some 20-24 hrs (or even more) when they performed deep pushes into enemy territory, though. Except for the loader(s), none of the crew members had to perform manual labor, and the Germans still had their tank or aviator chocolate ("Panzerschokolade", "Fliegerschokolade" - with Pervitin = Methamphetamine), or personal Pervitin stocks (just like many grunts) sent by relatives, after it was made a prescription drug. And Allied (especially US) units had access to Benzedrine (Amphetamine) throughout WW2.
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/04/the-drugs-that-built-a-super-soldier/477183

 

[ioncore]

But some nations trained and performed night attacks either extensively (eg. Japanese infantry, the Imperial Navy)

Yes. In my playtests vs Japanese AI I find it (very unhistorical) avoiding night combats at all costs. What we need is probably some kind of Service-level estab settings that would adjust night ops combat modifiers. May be even Commander-level and Unit-level settings, but that may be a too much granularity.

 

[Kensal]

These examples don't change the fact that the vast majority of combat during WWII was conducted during the day - particularly in the western theatre of operations. Tanks in particular were in difficulties at night without any night vision optics. I think the Germans developed an infrared device to put on their tanks but that was very late in the war and I am not sure they were very effective.

 

[GoodGuy]

Yes. In my playtests vs Japanese AI I find it (very unhistorical) avoiding night combats at all costs. What we need is probably some kind of Service-level estab settings that would adjust night ops combat modifiers. May be even Commander-level and Unit-level settings, but that may be a too much granularity.

It should be part of a nation's doctrine. For instance, the Germans switched to night attacks on larger scales when they were trapped in pockets, or hrs before they were surrounded, or when they had to attack across rivers during their retreats, starting in late 1943. This could involve a regiment, but also an entire division (eg. the 134th Infantry Division crossing the Beresina river to break out of their bridgehead on the 19th of December, 1943, and taking Knyschewitschi (sp?), where it then secured the flanks of the 16. Panzer-Division; the ID ended up in the Bobruisk pocket and was annihilated in July 1944, though), and - in some pockets - even the bulk of several divisions.
If I am not mistaken, quite some of those breakout/break-off attempts were conducted at night, because Allied artillery immediately hampered such efforts if attempted/conducted in plain daylight.
The willingness to consider night attacks should be linked to the year and be controlled by a percentage, maybe.
For instance, the number of Japanese night attacks increased on some islands when their units started to starve or when territorial gains could not be achieved, which was the case when the Allies advanced in the Pacific.
On Guadalcanal, and on the contrary, the Japanese started night attacks on Bloody Ridge (the Lunga perimeter guarding Henderson airfield) from the get-go, during the 2nd Japanese ground offensive. The thought there was that the Allies had roughly the same amount of troops (~6,000) on the island and that they could be quickly booted with night attacks, which was a serious misconception, as the Allies had 100% more troops (deployed on Guadalcanal and on Tulagi), and some arty pieces zero'ed in on the slopes.

 

[GoodGuy]

These examples don't change the fact that the vast majority of combat during WWII was conducted during the day - particularly in the western theatre of operations. Tanks in particular were in difficulties at night without any night vision optics. I think the Germans developed an infrared device to put on their tanks but that was very late in the war and I am not sure they were very effective.

All armies used flares and searchlights to illuminate battlefields. British units provided additional battlefield illumination by reflecting searchlight beams off cloud layers, so that the lights didn't pose easy targets. The Russians used searchlights to illuminate the battlefield in front of the Seelow Heights (which backfired, due to the appearance of thick fog, which perfectly silhouetted the attacking Russian troops for the Germans).
The increasing use of tripwires (linked to flares) by the Germans in 1943 and 1944 made Allied night attacks/patrols quite difficult, in the European theatre, especially in Italy.

The British CDL searchlight tanks ("Canal Defense Light") were used when the Allies crossed the Rhine in '45, but they had been available in France in August 1944 already. EDIT: The CDL tanks were actually developed/meant to blind/shock German troops in sectors where Allied troops encountered difficulties or failed to make progress, it seems like they were rarely used, and that the remaining CLDs (other CDLs had been converted back to standard tanks or their crews had been directed to reg. tank units) were just used to illuminate/cover the crossing of the Rhine in '45, it seems.

Artillery and mortar units could be and were instructed to illuminate large areas with their illumination rounds, on all sides.
While it was easier to plan and execute operations in daylight, and while most major operations were conducted in daylight, a number of large-scale operations started at night, especially the German breakouts of late 1943 and 1944 in the European theatre and the Japanese operations on the Pacific islands. Generally, troops and tanks weren't restricted to pure daylight operations.
The British XXX. Corps' attack at El Alamein started at 22:00 (British time), the preparatory artillery fire started 15 mins earlier and lasted more than 5 hrs, with British units dashing towards and through the first German lines, all through the night.
You might want to read up on battlefield illumination.

The US carrier Enterprise introduced night strikes (bombardments) in the Pacific after their torpedo bombers had been equipped with night radars, in February 1944. British bombers flew at night exclusively, hitting German cities with the aid of their terrain radar equipment (which was also used by the US at day, to be able to drop bombs on their targets from above the cloud ceilings, avoiding enemy AA). Before the introduction of the terrain radar, the Brits solely depended on their Pathfinders, who illuminated the target area with parachute flares, and where then the following (second group of) Pathfinders marked the targets (usually civilian quarters) with lines or crosses consisting of green and red flares (with extended burning time) that landed on roofs or streets.

EDIT: Once HE bombs and aerial mines had removed the roofs and roof tiles, incendiary/phosphorous bombs/sticks were dropped by the next waves, which created massive fire storms inside the cities, quite often.
Hitleryouth boys were often employed to guard attics and roofs of the (important?) buildings, their job was to pick up the incendiary sticks and put them out or throw them on the streets.
The burning cities then delivered more than sufficient illumination for the following bomber waves.
The Germans invented that bombardment sequence and executed/tested it on British cities, by the way, the British just refined the method, when they fought back.

IR: The IR-devices issued to select tank (Panther) units for combat evaluation were very effective, there are several reports where such Panthers destroyed entire groups of idle Russian tanks without any losses in their own ranks. The devices just came too late and had not hit full serial production, at that point, so they weren't available in numbers. The issuance of something between 18-24 IR devices and the corresponding IR lights (mounted on APCs) seems to be halfway documented, additional single devices (or devices from the known batch) may have been used in South Germany, there are some reports that US tanks got attacked by single Panthers at night.

 

[Dave 'Arjuna' O'Connor]

SITREP Friday 11 Dec 2020. Another week's flown by. I am at the tail end of the attack code overhaul but it's still not finished. I am determined to finish this by the end of next week. Fingers crossed.

FYI the new code will assess the need to assemble before advancing to the FUP. If so, it will create an Assemble task and a MoveToAssembly task for those units not nearby to the assemblyLoc. The assemblyLoc and the reserveLoc are now determined using the approach route generated for the assault and FUP. Previously the reserveLoc was done independently. This way the reserve won;t be heading off by itself, but rather following in the wake of the assault force as it heads for the FUP. I have added smarts to hive off all units that start near to the objective, FUP, reserveLoc and assemblyLoc. They each get their own force group and we create a separate neaby defend task for each of them. They end up being merged back into the assemblyTask, FUPReorgTask, reserveTask and assaultTask as the main force moves through the various stages. So this should avoid unnecessary moves away from the enemy only to come back forward again. You will see more tasks in an attack plan as a result. While it is more complex it is more realistic and efficient. It should also see forward elements maintaining the pressure on the enemy.

 

[Art Hall]

sounds great Dave!

 

[Seb3brv78]

That looks quite promising, thank you Dave!

 

[Dave 'Arjuna' O'Connor]

SITREP Wed 232 Dec 2020

Hi all,

I have not managed to finish off the attack overhaul in time for Xmas. I am taking three weeks off and will be back working mid January. Hopefully we'll finish it off late January and release Bradley at Bay in February.

I wish you all a safe and happy Xmas and I for one am looking forward to a much better new year. All the best,

Dave

 

[ultradave]

Aren't we all. Have a great holiday season, rest up. I'll be doing the same. Here's hoping for a happier new year!


Dave

 

[Grognerd]

Yes, take care you and your family!

 

[Art Hall]

Merry Christmas Dave, take care and we will see you next year!

 

[BlackJaguar]

Have a safe and happy Merry Christmas everyone.

 

[nelmsm]

Enjoy the time away. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and yours!

 

[panzerpit]

Merry Cristmas and Happy New Year to you and the rest of devs team. Hava nice, quiet and safe holidays.

 

[Jones]

Merry season Dave, family and all here.

 

[Seb3brv78]

Have a good holiday, and Merry Christmas!

 

[col.sanders]

Merry Christmas Dave and Your Team!