Script for CMFI: No Mans Land PVP (Patreon)

No, this is not the War Room. I couldn't nail down exactly what to do and Unremarkable Sunray (https://www.youtube.com/@unremarkablesunray) and I finished a game at the weekend, so it made sense to pivot in that direction while I could still remember what happened.

So, the War Room gets pushed again... but I think this is going to be worth it! I'm halfway through the video now, hopefully I'll be able to get the rest of the footage sorted and release today, on schedule.

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CMFI No Man’s Land

Welcome back to Combat Mission Fortress Italy, where it’s 1943 and I am taking the Germans out against Unremarkable Sunray’s Brits.

What we’re playing is a quick battle with a bit of a twist. Conventional quick battles involve two players fighting over the same set of objectives in a way that creates a lot of predictability. When both players are trying to be on the same X at the end of the battle, both players are interpreting terrain and courses of action from the same perspective.

The twist here is that we’re not playing with set ground objectives. A bit like the Platoon Patrol series, we have a map with a variety of landmarks. We have areas A-E down the centre to occupy, then three spot heights on either side to touch.

The game itself is a tiny quick battle, which gives us enough points for an infantry company of some description and some attachments. The idea is that we pick our force, randomly select a letter objective and a number objective and then have at it for thirty minutes.

When the time runs out, we evaluate, use the endstate forward line of troops to adjust the deployment zones and progress to a follow-up game where we can build off the situation the original randomness created.

That sounds a lot more complicated than it is. Hopefully, it’s going to give us a string of linked games with a lot of interesting tactical dynamics that you might not get in a one off conventional quick battle.

Force Selection

Setting this in 1943 certainly puts some quotation marks around the ‘interesting’ in interesting tactical dynamics if you’re the Germans. This is a time period where the very effective infantry antitank weaponry capabilities of German forces in places like Normandy is not yet present. There are no Panzershrecks or Panzerfausts, so I’m going to need to get my antitank from somewhere else.

Infantry

First though, I need to pick my infantry company. This is super easy for the German Army in CMFI’s July 1943: there were only Panzergrenadiers on Sicily, so that’s what we’ve got. A dismounted company with the usual regular experience and no modifiers weighs in at 750 points. I’ve only got 1174 to spend and this is the floor of my compulsory options.

You do get a lot for your money though. In this period, the Panzergrenadiers have 12 man squads, each with 2 MG34s: with 3 squads per platoon, that’s six GPMGs at platoon level, plus a small horde of riflemen. On top of that, we have a weapons platoon with four tripod mounted MGs and a pair of 81mm mortars. There’s a lot of combat power here.

Transports

There is a mounted option for the company: no halftracks, but they do come with trucks. The trucks in question though are restricted to the Protze 70… this is a fancy truck design, but at least in CM you can only fit 9 men in the back. That’s not very convenient for 12 man squads: each platoon comes with 6 trucks and the infantry are pretty jumbled up.

I could swap them out for Opel Blitzes, which can carry 19 passengers… but transports are eating into my points budget and I have some other bases I need to cover here.

The nail in the coffin for the trucks is the terrain. My deployment zone is up in the north-east corner of our map, this is a wooded area with one road leading out of it. That road is totally dominated by Hill 56, which is on the opposite side of the map not too far from the enemy setup zone.

If I was in that corner, I would absolutely bumrush a tank or something up to Hill 56 and lock down that road on Turn 1. Even if I sent a platoon down there lightning fast, sending the transports back to pick up more troops is going to be really risky… and that assumes that I’m even going to need to go in that direction anyway. If my objectives are all on the other flank, all that wooded terrain and the bare exposed hillsides are going to really limit my options.

So transports don’t seem like a solid investment. It’s not a huge map, the infantry can walk.

Anti-Armour

Instead, I need to use those points to bring along some anti-armour capability. Specifically, I need something that can kill Shermans.

The two problems I’ve got here are that I only have 424 points to spend and that we’re on Sicily in July 1943. That narrows my own tank options down to Panzer IIIs, Panzer IVs and Tiger Is.

The Panzer III is nice and cheap at about 190 points, but IIIM with the 50mm gun is going to struggle to score penetrations from the front and I’m not too confident in the stubby 75 on the IIIN. And that’s before we factor in how vulnerable the Panzer IIIs are.

The Panzer IV is more capable, with the long 75, but it’s also fragile and with all 3 available marks hanging around 245 points, I’d only be able to afford one. That’s no good: being one mistake or stroke of bad luck away from losing all my AT capability is not a place I want to be in.

The Tiger definitely reduces those risks, what with the heavy armour, and the 88 can certainly deal with anything that might come my way… but it’s even more expensive at 379 points. That’s a big, big chunk of my remaining budget for something that is super capable right up to the moment it isn’t. One broken track or one hit on that muzzle break and I’m back at square one.

Whatever I bring, I need at least a pair for some redundancy. STUGs suffer from the same pitfalls as the Panzer IVs, whilst lacking the turret and being mysteriously expensive.

Antitank guns are certainly an option: the PaK40 has got the reach and penetrative power to ruin a Sherman’s day. But it’s also difficult to manoeuvre and in a situation like this, where I have to advance up the map, it’s going to be both slow to deploy and slow to get out of trouble if engaged. Assuming, of course, I can actually find a good position for it.

That leaves us with tank destroyers, or mobile AT guns. There’s only one option here: the Marder II. That’s essentially a PaK 40 on tracks for 138 points. A pair costs 276 points: so just a little bit more than a single Pzr IV. They have their own problems- no machinegun, open crew compartment, no turret, very light armour- but they seem like the best choice.

More Mortars

That leaves me with 148 points to spend. I’ve got infantry and I’ve got anti-tank… the other part of the tripod is artillery. Most of this is too expensive and I’m not sure calling in fire missions is going to be very practical. The mix of terrain and uncertainty about enemy objectives is going to pose a lot of problems.

Direct fire mortars, on the other hand, are considerably more flexible. The Panzergrenadiers already have an organic 81mm section with two tubes. Adding another two gives me four and I can allocate one to each rifle platoon for the rapid application of high explosive or smoke, plus one in the rear.

They cost 51 points each for a total of 102 and 46 left over.

Leftovers

There’s not much you can bring along for 46 points. TRPs are always useful though- even if it’s not clear exactly where Unremarkable Sunray might go, I know that that Hill 56 overlooking the road is an important position. It’s a prime spot for an FO team or a tank: a TRP up there is going to both let me direct mortar fire on it quickly and give my two Marders an edge if they get a chance to engage something up there.

TRPs are 30pts each, the remaining 16 went towards bumping up one Marder and all of the HQ units to veteran.

Objectives

Loading into the map with Force Selection out of the way, the next step is to roll up my objectives.

My Occupy Objective, the area I need to be sitting on and controlling at the end of our 30 minutes, is the North Bridge. That’s… pretty convenient. The woods in the deployment zone flow downhill almost all the way there on either side of Point 47.

My Touch Objective, meanwhile, is Hill 56. That’s… less convenient. Although it’s on a straight line from my setup through the North Bridge, it’s a long way away, the direct route covers a lot of exposed ground and I’ve already identified it as a position I think Unremarkable Sunray is likely to take.

So immediately I’m considering Hill 56 as an additional objective. It can be ‘Phase 2’ after a Phase 1 of securing the North Bridge.

Plan

In terms of planning, I’m intending to keep things relatively conservatively. Apart from the Marders I’m entirely foot mobile here, if I find myself out of position I’m going to be slow to react: grandiose manoeuvres are not the order of the day.

I’m going to send my infantry forward with two platoons up and one back. 1st Platoon is going around the left of Hill 47 and down to the stream where they can continue onwards to the south or pivot right towards the village and the North Bridge.

3rd Platoon is going right around Hill 47, through the woods down to the road where they can carry on to the village or swing right towards the Logging Camp woods.

Each of these forward platoons has one of the HMG sections and an 81mm mortar in tow for direct support and/or to set up in favourable positions along the way.

2nd Platoon is hanging back behind Hill 47 as a reserve, one of the two remaining 81s is going forward to set up on Hill 47 straight away, the other is lurking on the left edge of my deployment zone with the Weapons Coy HQ, which gives them a radio connection if I need some indirect.

The Marders are out on each flank: Marder 1 on the left, with the veteran crew, and Marder 2 on the right. If I was Unremarkable Sunray, I would get some fire support or observers up on the high ground outside his deployment zone as soon as possible, so the Marders are waiting for anything to peek over Hills 57-1 and 56 and hopefully get the drop on them.

The Company HQ is going to hang around in the woods doing HQ things, I forgot about the TRP during deployment so it’s going to spend the entire battle in my setup zone. Wasn’t that a good use of points.

Kick Off

It takes the leading platoons a good six minutes to reach the bottom of the hill, by which time I’ve spotted a good amount of enemy activity.

Unlike me, Unremarkable Sunray has brought some trucks along. Judging from the succession of spots, it looks like he dropped smoke on the road beneath Hill 56 on Turn 1, then sent a Stuart and several trucks full of infantry down it.

That takes them off onto my left flank somewhere and while I could potentially have engaged the passing traffic with the Marders, they were focused on the ridgeline above the road, out of position with no line of sight. That ridge is still a major concern for me, but I’m not seeing anything up there and now I also have to factor in the potential for that Stuart to have crossed the South Bridge and gotten up into the hills on my left.

So Marder 1 reorients, heading into the woods of my deployment zone where it can cover Hills 57-2 and 57-3. After a few turns, the trucks head back. They look like they’re empty, so all their passengers are presumably on my left.

I’ve got a couple of the HMGs set up now- on Hill 47 and in the nearby woods- and try to shoot up the British vehicles as they make the return dash. It’s a long way though and they don’t seem to make an impact.

Despite that, it’s clear that Unremarkable Sunray has sent forces on to my left, so I start to filter 2nd Platoon through the woods after 1st to reinforce that flank.

Phase 1: Contact, The Sherman

By this point, 3rd Platoon has spread out at the corner of the road. There’s a low ridge in between the village and the logging camp. 3-1 crosses the road and heads along the right side of it to screen that flank, while 3-2 starts to advance around the left side, down the road towards the North Bridge, detaching a two man scout team to head up to the crest and get a better view.

From there, they spot a Sherman. It’s set up next to a dilapidated building near the road- with the building on one side and one of the small hills near the village on the other it’s got a pretty good keyhole onto the low ridge, as well as the freedom to move forward and potentially start engaging the area around the North Bridge.

That’s a problem-in-waiting, but there’s also an opportunity here. We both know that the core of the other’s force is an infantry company and that leaves a finite amount of points for attachments. I’ve already seen some trucks and a Stuart that will eat into those leftovers… it seems reasonable that I’m only facing a single Sherman. If I can knock that out, I’ll gain a significant advantage.

So I order Marder 2 down the road to join 3rd Platoon at the low ridge. Predictably, I get an infantry spot on the top of Hill 56 the instant the Marder moves off. I order the 81mm mortar on Hill 47 to target the summit and force them off.

The Sherman engages some of the infantry teams I sent up on to the low ridge- that’s obviously not fun for them, but it does imply that the tank has area fire orders that will focus its attention in specific directions. That might give me some openings for Marder 2 to pop up and engage.

So we get five minutes of cat and mouse where I’m shuffling my infantry teams about on the low ridge, the Sherman is trying to engage them and I’m peeking the Marder over the crest to try and get a shot. Neither side is very successful: somehow all the infantry survive and the Marder never makes the spot.

Meanwhile, 1st Platoon has followed the stream down to a bend where there’s a footbridge and a house. I’ve split them down there and lined the teams up across the valley: the potential for enemy infantry to be further downstream in the direction of the South Bridge has been confirmed by a brief spot. I don’t want, or really need, to go further in that direction in order to secure the North Bridge.

That basically involves occupying at least the close side of the village. Some of elements of 3rd Platoon are already there. 3-2 has left its scouts on the low ridge and pushed up to occupy the Church across the bridge, supported by one of the HMG teams setting up in a house where they can enfilade the north edge of the village.

3rd Platoon is getting a bit spread out now though: they’re in the village, on the low ridge, in the edge of the Logging Camp woods and back across the road at the corner. 2nd Platoon is coming down behind 1st, so I’m thinking of diverting them into the centre to secure the North Bridge and the village, which would give me a more cohesive hold on my objective.

Phase 2: The Railway Huts, the Valley

Before I make a decision on that though, I get fed up of trying to deal with the Sherman. The main problem with trying to engage it is the house it’s hiding behind, so… I decide to knock it down.

I switch the Hill 47 mortar from targeting Hill 56 to lobbing shells at the house and order Marder 2 to join in. It’s at this point that I realise I’ve being a little too cagey with the tank destroyer’s pop up attacks: I haven’t been going forward far enough for the Marder’s gun to clear the crest of the low ridge. So it doesn’t actually engage the house, and may well have failed to spot the Sherman earlier, because it’s too far back to see or fire over the crest.

The 81 knocks the building down on its own, but not before the Sherman drives off to the left and I lose sight of it.

I’ve been seeing a little activity on my right during this period: a few glimpses of more trucks to begin with, before some infantry appear on top of Hill 52 and more consistent spots appear at the railway huts to the north-west.

Those spots are mostly made by a scout team I’ve split off from 1st Platoon and sent up to establish an OP on Hill 57-3. Getting eyes on my far right wasn’t the real intention there- I was really aiming to try and spot the missing Stuart and whatever else Unremarkable Sunray has sent over the South Bridge.

So I’m only slightly surprised when, while the Sherman house collapses in the centre, a load of enemy infantry contacts crest the ridge next to the railway huts. They start taking some potshots at Marder 2, which had been rear-on to that direction with the crew exposed a few turns earlier.

Some of the MGs from 3rd Platoon return fire and we have our first proper contact on our hands.

I can count two bren gunners and a 2in mortar team up there… I feel confident rounding that up to a platoon strength element. Presumably, Unremarkable Sunray sent them round there to enfilade the low ridge while I was busy focused on the Sherman.

I have plenty of firepower to respond to this with though. 3 of the HMGs on Hill 47 and its lower slopes open up, along with the 81 attached to 3rd Platoon, firing from the low ridge, and the 81 attached to 1st Platoon, which is just setting up in a new position downslope of the Hill 57-3 OP.

The Brits take a couple of casualties, but pull back in the same turn, which indicates they were ordered to disengage. They disappear back over the crest towards the railway huts and the service track, long gone before the mortars get the range.

They could easily bug out from there- thanks to the trucks they’re plenty mobile, but that same mobility means Sunray could pop them up again anywhere. I was probably lucky to get away without any casualties of my own and while my fire support was on point with a quick reaction, I’m even more inclined to send 2nd Platoon into the village and allow 3rd to concentrate on the right flank.

Phase 3: The Valley, the Tanks

By now we’re just over halfway through the battle. I’ve got a toehold on the North Bridge… I don’t think I’m going to get over to Hill 56. I’m leaning left with my infantry platoons and could in theory try to push down the valley to the South Bridge, then cross the stream and work my way along the edge of the bog towards the hill.

But that’s a long way, there’s not that much time left and I’m pretty sure Unremarkable Sunray has at least an infantry platoon backed up by a Stuart and a Sherman in the way.

That doesn’t mean I don’t want to try the valley. I know there are enemy troops in there somewhere, if I can force them back I’ll be able to consolidate my hold on the centre. It’s also an area where the Sherman and Stuart will find it difficult to intervene and my money is on the Panzergrenadiers in an infantry-only fight.

So 1st Platoon starts to move forward in the wood. I’ve essentially got a chain of fire teams across the bottom of the valley, with 1-1 and 1-3 to the left of the stream and 1-2 to the right.

They make contact at about the ten minute mark. A scout from 1-1 gets shot and a firefight quickly erupts. The scouts got engaged from a British fire team relatively far forward- it looks like there might be more further back, but line of sight is patchy. We’re in a wood- some soldiers can’t see more than a few metres, others can see and engage across the entire contact.

1-1 immediately reacts. I’ve already got them split into assault and base of fire teams- the base of fire opens up with its two MGs to suppress the lead enemy while the squad leader takes the assault team in to finish them off.

The other two squads come up on line to support, though 1-2 gets engaged from an enemy section across the stream to their front.

There are casualties on both sides: I manage to wipe out the lead enemy team, but lose 4 men in the process, including the scout that triggered the contact.

It’s hard to say who’s got the upper hand after the first minute, but the Brits start to bug out. That exposes them to fire from the panzergrenadiers, but saves them from getting mortared. My 81 on Hill 47 is out of HE by now, but the other three can draw direct line of sight into parts of the wood and I’m able to bring them into the fight in short order.

It looks like Sunray pulls back to the top of the valley side in front of 1st Platoon, where we trade a bit more fire until I can adjust the mortars and force them off the crest.

I’m pretty satisfied that this has cleared out the valley and secured the flank of the village, which 2nd Platoon has been steadily occupying. They’ve taken what look like a couple of random spotting rounds, but no real resistance.

My main concern as the valley fight winds down is what the British armour is doing.

I’ve suspected for a while that Sunray’s Stuart and Sherman have crossed the river and could potentially fall on my flank via Hill 57-3. That’s why I’ve got an OP up there now- and probably should have had one there much earlier- they’ve been joined by one of the medium mortars, but there’s no antitank capability.

Unless those enemy tanks get close enough for infantry to mob them, the Marders are the only way I’m going to deal with them.

So Marder 2, down by the Low Ridge, has reoriented to cover the crest of the 57-3 ridge- staying hull down with spotting support from 3rd Platoon- and I’ve sent Marder 1 up onto the slope of 57-3 itself. This was principally to get into position to quickly exploit any opportunities revealed by the OP, but also put the tank destroyer in position to dominate the road running under Hill 56 to the South Bridge in case Sunray tried to use it again.

Instead, the OP picks up the two British tanks moving forward.

They take some potshots at the OP and drive the surviving soldier off the summit while I reverse Marder 1 all the way back to the map edge where it can hopefully enfilade anything coming over the crest. Between the two TDs, that makes a kind of crossfire on my side of the ridge… it sounds clever, but Marder 1 is really vulnerable to getting bumrushed and Marder 2 will be on its own if the enemy doesn’t come forward far enough.

As events pan out, I actually bring Marder 1 forward to try and engage the Stuart over the crest. It had been engaged the OP, but moves off on the same turn leaving Marder 1 hanging. The light tanks heads off towards the map edge after the Sherman, which is popping up hull down on the crest to engage the OP 81.

The mortar team takes a few casualties, but luckily the Sherman is too far back to see Marder 1, which is distressingly close. As I quickly reverse the Marder back down the slope towards the treeline below to get it out of trouble, the Stuart pushes over the crest on the map edge and hooks back in.

Speed and some dead ground on the ridgeline prevent Marder 2 from spotting either tank and I’m incredibly lucky I moved Marder 1 forward because the Stuart would have run right into it. I’m doubly lucky that the dead ground exploited by the light tank also stops it spotting the Marder before it reaches the safety of the woods too.

I say ‘safety’- the Stuart starts to prowl along the edge and I don’t fancy the Marder’s chances against it in a close range fight where the fast, turreted Stuart is going to be much more reactive than a fixed gun tank destroyer trying to rotate on its tracks.

So Marder 1 edges even further back into the woods. It does have a little support though. I’d been moving the weapons platoon HQ up towards the OP- given that they’ve got binoculars and a radio- and I’ve diverted them across to help out Marder 1.

That puts them directly in front of the Stuart as it advances. The light tank is focused on the mortar team though and they’re able to force the TC to button up with some small arms fire. Apparently not spotting the HQ team, the Stuart rolls right past them, allowing them to close assault and actually immobilise it.

The tank definitely notices them after they’ve been chucking hand grenades at it. The turret turns and machineguns the platoon leader and radioman, but the Stuart has stopped right in front of Marder 1.

The crew make the spot, put a 75mm AP round straight into it and brew it up. The surviving crew bail out and run off into the woods where the 4th Platoon XO actually manages to take one down with his pistol.

After this, the Sherman reverses off the crest and disappears, and there aren’t any major actions in the remaining few minutes.

I try to expend the rest of my mortar ammunition on any targets I can spot in depth while more spotting rounds land in and around the village, but nothing decisive happens.

Endex

When the timer runs out, Combat Mission returns a minor victory for the Germans. That’s pretty meaningless because we’re interpreting things to different standards in this battle.

In terms of casualties, I’ve lost 13 men, mostly in the valley and up on Hill 57-3. Unremarkable Sunray has sustained 22 plus the Stuart. So a slight edge in my favour attritionally speaking, but not a significant difference.

My objectives were to occupy the North Bridge, which I’ve done, and touch Hill 46, which I have not done. His were to occupy the South Bridge and touch Hill 52, both of which he did achieve.

So my battalion commander might be very angry with me for not doing what I’m told, but we’re not done yet. This first meeting engagement is just setting the stage for the next battle. And I think I’ve gotten myself into a very strong position for follow-on operations.

That’s partly why I’m not going to do a lot of post-battle analysis: we’re only getting started here, I don’t to give the game away just yet and on top of that, the plan is for Unremarkable Sunray and I to get together and have a conversation about what happened. So there’s that to look forward to.

A huge thank you and a shout out to Unremarkable Sunray, this has been not only a lot of fun but it’s really interesting to approach CM like this, with a lot more uncertainty and persistence than your average game. He is of course, another CM youtuber: go and check his channel out, it’s full of great stuff.

That is it for now though, we’re going to have to decide where we go next but I think we have a really good base to build off here. If you’d like to see these videos early and support the channel, you can do so via Patreon and Youtube memberships. Whether you do or not, thanks for watching and I’ll catch you in the next one.