Autumn Fog Playtesters Thread

[larryfulkerson]

Hey Steve: I loaded the Plan Martin variant scenario ( Autumn Fog )you sent just now, thanks very much by the way, and I got a message that I'm using the wrong equipment file. Is that a major problem? Should I try to fix it? If so, how do I fix it?

[sPzAbt653]

The scenario uses the standard equipment file. I think you may be getting the message because you didn't restart the program before switching scenarios, I think.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: sPzAbt653
The scenario uses the standard equipment file.

According to the equipment editor manual the standard equipment file is supposed to live in the graphics directory. I did a search of my graphics directory and found no *.eqp file in there so I guess I must have moved it, deleted it, renamed it or something.

I would appreciate it muchly if somebody would email me a copy of yours.

Thanks ahead of time.

ps. please send it to larryfulkerson2002(at)yahoo(dot)com

[sPzAbt653]

The standard equipment file is 'hidden', so you don't have to worry about it, it's there. I think I heard mention that this is 'unhidden' in 3.4 in order to avoid confusion.

[larryfulkerson]

Oh.  Okie dokie.  I restarted TOAW and opened Autumn Fog and no error message.  Cool.  We're in business.  Thanks for clearing that up.

[larryfulkerson]

So Patrick ( AbnormalMind ) and I have started a PBEM game of Autumn Fog and finished turn 1 already and I've build a moves map that shows his moves.  It's in motion and it's big ( 3.2 M bytes ) so I can't post it here but you can find it at the following url:

http://www.mediafire.com/?zezyjz1zmoz

His forces took some rather large losses to gain about 7 places across the Our River and force the Allies back.  Not so much progress in the north part of the push where the terrain is rugged and the Allied arty is plentiful but more toward the south the terrain is more open and the Allied arty is sparse to nonexistant and his progress was more to his liking I bet.  Plus there are less defenders in the south so he'll probably make more progress there than anywhere else he's pushing units.  I notice that he's bringing his arty along with him.  Not a lot of German tanks so far....maybe they will appear in turn 2.  My turn 1 units were in reorg or retreat status so there wasn't much for the Allied player ( me ) to do during turn 1 except put most of my units on 'ignore losses' setting....they are probably going to get destroyed anyway.  And this all happened during the first 1/2 day.

[sPzAbt653]

Nice! Turn 1 went off without any glitches!

That's a great screen shot Mr. Fulkerson. Even though it is large, it still downloads quick, and it can be zoomed in to focus on particular areas. Thanks!

Patrick, feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions about movement, bridge building, rivers, etc. I think it's all explained in the scenario briefing, but sometimes I wonder if it is clear enough. Thanks!

[larryfulkerson]

It's turn 2 and Patrick is still pushing hard toward the Butgenback depot and Malmedy.  Let me qualify that by
saying most of his progress was in the southern part of the push where the terrain is more open.  I blew some
bridges but couldn't reach the important ones so he's got river crossings across the Clerf river too.  I made
a half-hearted attack but he didn't lose anything and I did so I quickly quit doing that and just dug in.  

Some of my units retreated to the west intending to swing north at some point and join the fight again.

Yes, I realize that the moves map below gives away intelligence to Patrick but we're playing for fun and not
cut-thoat so it's all good.  I noticed that he didn't fly his airborne and offered to do turn two again.

You can find the turn 2 moves map at this url:  http://www.mediafire.com/?mwmddk0d24c

[Abnormalmind]

I haven't peaked at your links, so your intel is safe.

I informed my esteemed opponent (Larry) that the 1st and 15th armies would not be forced into activation. sPzAbt653, I am being extremely aggressive. The 15th Fallshchirm Division can't dislodge the 2/109th 3/109th or 3/110th infantry. The assaults bounce up against their fortified positions at the crossings.

Larry is blowing bridges fast, and trapped some of his own forces east of Clerf...

[larryfulkerson]

Turn 3 is finished. Patrick has a unit near Bastone already and is still pushing hard. Some dozen of my units came out of reorg long enough for me to move them to better positions, I blew some more bridges but I suspect that won't slow him down much. Still no sight of any Pazer tanks. The moves map is about double the size of the previous ones so now it's about 7M bytes big. You can find the moves for turn 3 at this url:

http://www.mediafire.com/?jnyemyyzdmt

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: Abnormalmind
I haven't peaked at your links, so your intel is safe.

Please feel free to look at the maps, it's just a friendly game. Just don't remember what you see. LOL

ORIGINAL: Abnormalmind
Larry is blowing bridges fast, and trapped some of his own forces east of Clerf...

Those trapped units were in reorg and couldn't move but for the sake of military necessity the bridges had to be blown trapped units or not. They would probably be eventually destroyed anyway. Besides we're talking about maybe five smaller units, infantry if I remember correctly.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the minimap moves movie from turns 1 throu 3

[larryfulkerson]

Turn 4 is ready to publish and Generals Gavin and Taylor are bringing their troops forward. The Patton unit has arrived on the map...maybe his troops are close behind. Bastone is almost overrun. The Robertsville depot is in danger of being captured. Houffalize is toast. La Roche looks to be next stop for the SS mechanized corps. I'm loosing units left and right.  The movement map is about 5M bytes big and can be found here:

http://www.mediafire.com/?xijk0kzy0zz

[Olorin]

Correct me if I am wrong, Autumn Fog is Model's Small Solution, the same as Rundstedt's Plan Martin , only without the north pincer? If so, where is the XII SS Korps deployed?

[sPzAbt653]

ORIGINAL: Olorin

Correct me if I am wrong, Autumn Fog is Model's Small Solution, the same as Rundstedt's Plan Martin , only without the north pincer? If so, where is the XII SS Korps deployed?

XII SS Korps is in the Roermond area, just north of Aachen and at the most northern part of the scenario map.

The way I understand it, Rundstedt submitted Plan Martin, and Model submitted Herbstnebel (Autumn Fog) independently. Martin was a two pronged attack on Aachen. Model was more concerned with the US Forces located around Aachen (about 12 divisions), and decided to have several divisions in reserve (in order to react to how the US divisions were deployed) and to forgo the northern pinzer.

In this scenario, the German player can choose Autumn Fog, Martin, the Grand Slam, or a drive on Metz (based on Theater Options) that direct the additional divisions to the chosen area.

If playing the Allies against a German PO, the PO will choose which plan to use, so the Allied player will not know the objective initially.

[Abnormalmind]

I'd hate to have been the engineer who flipped the detonator switch on those bridges.

[cesteman]

So where's the scenario located? I can't find it so I think it was created after the last update. Thanks.

[sPzAbt653]

So where's the scenario located?

File sent. It's in playtesting, so if you try it out, please let me know how you are playing (pbem, solo) and what you think.

Thanks!

[larryfulkerson]

Turn 5 is ready to be published.  Patrick's push continues.  It feels like his second wave has arrived and is being used in the center of the map.  He has several really big units and can cross rivers easily so even though I've gotten a lot of reinforcements lately, his push may continue on westward for some time yet.  You can find the moves map at this url:

http://www.mediafire.com/?zilmjdgyzui

[larryfulkerson]

Turn 6 is ready to publish.  The push continues some more.  Although it has stalled in some areas it excels in others.  Patrick says it's getting harder and harder to make any progress and the grinding phase may have started.  This is where the Allied units are starting to stop retreating and are forming front lines here and there.  It's way way too early for the Allies to start pushing back however and I predict that the push will continue for another turn or two.  You can find doc # 6 at this url:

http://www.mediafire.com/?nmzwtyzdmiu