Verdun – is it done yet?

After I got home, the Allies were heavily over populated so I decided to play German and headed for Verdun. Having seen what happens when Allied armor gets up above Axis armor, I persuaded the guys to get up to the top of the nearby hills.

 

Driving my Stug 3G up that hill was a nightmare, allied bombs rained down around me, but I made it up in one piece. I got to trade rounds with an M4A2 and an M3A3, both of whom clearly thought that Axis tanks were easy kills after their hilltop massacre at Dun. But this time it was their rounds climbing the gravity well and bouncing harmessly off the correctly angled frontal armor of a 3G. The M3A3 was even brazen enough to turn side on to me. My round was already in flight, encountered the Stuart's armor at the perfect angle, and sent the turret flying.

After disabling the M4, though, an allied bomber finally made mince meat of my crew, bbq of my engine and sent my rollers rolling.

I spawned in to the West AB and for the next 3 hours fought one of the most exciting battles I've been in for a long time. The Allies were securing hill top positions around town, they eventually captured the east armybase. And they mustered tanks around the AB ready for a roll-in. The Axis must have had a squad working Verdun, because they had dozens of guys just lying low, waiting. As soon as the first Stuart started rolling into the AB, it dissapeared in a cloud of smoke grenades. The first three tanks into the AB lived a very short lifespan, and all the cover on the hills could only fire randomly and ineffectually into the clouds below them.

The Allied infantry were impressive tho – determined, dedicated, cunning and persistent. It was only ever a sure thing we were going to lose, but every time the Allies almost secured a position in the AB, out came the smoke.

Just when the Axis started to think they'd won, someone managed to get a 6lber up on the hill nw of the AB, and an MSP near it, and someone else a couple of CMLE38s on the road west of the AB. All the concussion made aiming anywhere impossible, and between the three of them they slaughtered us in the AB.

Well into the 3rd hour, we started getting small trickles of supply from earlier FB runs, and the East AB had been recaptured and guys were ferrying infantry units to the river and RTBing them to the West AB. I managed to snag a sapper and ducked out of the east exit. There, waiting, was a Stuart. As I placed my satchel gift on the back, I noticed he had two EI with him, both of whom seemed too surprized to bother shooting at me, so I planted my second satchel on his left track and ran infront of him, hit salute and was taken out by my satchel along with the M3 and two of the rifleman with him.

After a while the armor stopped trying to get into the AB, and started being more fussy about using the hill, but it was too late. Allied infantry were making determined and furious attempts to gain the west AB. Zulualfa and I were desperately trying to gain the west most depot. I lost track of the number of times I was knifed. This was probably when the Allied armor should have tried to move up, but they were having none of that now so their infantry were unprotected, and all those LMGs and SMGs who had laid low and gone to ground began to make mayhem of it… I saw at least two guys who stayed tucked away in a position for atleast an hour waiting for these final pushes.

Finally, after 3… maybe 4? hours, I sat back. Verdun was liberated. I mopped my brow and realized that I was drenched.

The ferocity and determination of the Allied attack. Wow! I'm hoping that the assault was as much fun for you guys as it was being so thoroughly destroyed by you. It was *so* close, it was literally saved by the smoke. If the Allied armor hadn't gotten antsy so early and had stayed on the hills, they would have decimated us. But instead they came down into sapping range. I'd been about to bail when I realized that there were no-longer 5 tanks on the hill firing into the ab, and that 2 or 3 of them were sitting right outside the AB wall instead. "I guess I'll try one sapper". And I got me a juicy, scared and confused, smoke-blinded M4A2 for it (although he reversed and I failed to get out of range of my own charge, didn't even see it coming, hehe)

Awesome fight. Damn this game rocks when it chooses to.

Best of all. I did all this with the new test executable. It's playable! I hope it fixes the CTHLs/CTDs for all the folks that have been suffering with it since 1.23. We'll no doubt be looking at a few last issues with it tomorrow but I hope tomorrow or Thursday will be patch day – tomorrow is the better choice cause thursday is con day!

After the main battle seemed to be over, I headed back up the hill and spotted for ronjermy in his Tiger for a while. We both spotted an EI heading around the hill, lost vis on him, and we were watching a Stuart heading around that way too. Ron decided to relocate while I was watching with a sniper rifle from the church tower, and as he started to move I spotted a glimmer of brown. This guy is good. I yelled at Ron to reverse, but he'd just hit the downward slope of the hill, so he was going forward. I took a shot at the EI, who ducked into cover and dissapeared. I relocated.

I watched carefully and this EI was good. He was heading after Ron but he had a good sense of where I might be. I took a second shot, but missed, and I relocated. Ron cycled the full way around and headed back towards me. No sign of the EI, but I hadn't had one for a while. I was looking for the Stuart again when I caught another glimmer of brown. And then the "clink" of a satchel. Before I could warn him, Ron was a bbq. "Avenge me!" he cried.

Being alone in the abbey at the top of the tower was suddenly a bad idea. So I scooted back down the spiral staircase and out front into some berms. I scanned slowly and carefully and just as the north most building was going out of view… A glimmer of brown. I swung my gun back round and fired. But I only winged him.

I had a good idea how this one was thinking, so I ran straight to the door he'd dissapeared in and crouched outside. I waited a moment to get still, and listened intently. I could hear footsteps. Very slow. This guy is good, and he's hunting me too. Step. Step.  For several minutes we danced around the buildings, but I never got sight of him, only heard his footsteps and then… I heard footsteps coming up behind me and it was ron again. We widened our circles looking for the glimmer of brown. Nothing. Another tiger was rolling south towards us, we knew the brown would be over there, so we headed that way too. Ron and I were covery each other as we tried to warn kingc of the sapper, ron turned and fell dead gurgling "behindyou!"

I ran into the berm he'd just fallen in and ducked, and a shot rang out barely missing me. I figured the brown had to be making for the lumbering tiger, so I crawled to the edge and THERE HE WAS! I tried to bring my rifle up, but an earlier accident with the stairs in the tower had winded me, and my aim swung wildly, only starting to settle just in time to see the muzzle flash…

Ron and I legged it frantically back up the hill. We saw kingc's icon dissapear over the top of the hill, and heard him throttle back. Just as we both crested the hill he came to a stop and Ron and I simultaneously yelled "NO DONT STOP SAPPER". Clink. Clink … kupBOOM … kupBOOM … sizzle.

Apparently his last satchel took him out too. Very nice work, Grider ;) (Note for Grider's buddies: yes, he was the guy hunting me down in the above write up)