Practice battle 1[Nathan,SeeJay,UnLucky,Adam]

[Heiko Alkema]

Sorry to ruin everyone's day but Adam and I have come to an agreement on a new way of picking your unit compositions to keep this firmly in the realm of "training". A big part of battling on IO is making the best of what little you've got and to introduce that here we're going to set a CP budget for each player.

Each NCO will be alotted 80CP to be spent however he chooses.
Each CO will be alotted 100CP to spent however he chooses.

Squads/Platoons will not be recognized in the count. 6 Pvts (1 Squad) will be counted as 12CP instead of 8. Please inculde your unit comp in your first post with CP costs attached. Have fun boys.

[Matthaeus Hinrichs]

Map
Mortar and crew 40 (grey)
One MG 25 (black)
One SGT. 15 (pink)
Ten PVT. 20 (Red)

OOC: Heiko, the mortars are just beginning to fire on the trench. Just a heads up to you and everyone else, the mortar rounds will not fire until the end of everyone’s post. That goes for you too Wilhelm.

The trenches were deep and very much filled with dozens of men as the smoke of the mid morning war filled air began to roll out of the area. 2nd LT. Matthaeus Hinrichs knelt in the shallow artillery pit next to his mortar crew awaiting there to be a strike. Matthaeus had known there to be resistance in the trench across them but has heavily unsure whether or not it was there and ready to fight. He had ordered the day before to have his engineers and a few privates place some wire in front of their trench to make it hard for there to be a charge on their positions.

Matthaeus looked to his mortar crew and then lifted his binoculars up to his face, finally able to see the trench across from his men’s position. The smoke had cleared and Matthaeus was struck with a bit of horror as he saw the enemies’ numbers. ”Shit….” Matthaeus mumbled under his breath before turning to his mortar operator and saying ”There are dozens of men, ready to fight across from us. I don’t like our chances”.

Shaking his head he lifted up the binoculars and began to bark out coordinates to the mortar crews before yelling out ”Load the guns and ready to fire! We have enemies across from our position ready to fight.” Matthaeus knew that he had to get some bombardment onto the other trench so he finally turned to the mortar crews and asked them ”Are your mortars ready?” Matthaeus got the answer he was looking for from all of them as they began to load the mortars. ”Good, now fire on those coordinates I gave you. Give them hell!”

[Wilhelm Schaefer]

1 Mortar and crew (40)
1 MG (25)
15 PVT (30) Not quite a platoon but I needed people to fill the space.
Total CP=95


Wilhelm had been watching from the adjacent trench when the rows and rows of wire had been laid across the barren land. Sure it would have been easy to just storm through and be over it all, but he had wanted to wait, to see exactly what they were up to. He wanted to know just how far they would go, especially when he could match them, man for man, gun for gun.

Wilhelm didn't need binoculars to see their numbers, to see their mortars, but every now and then he liked to call one of his men over, peer down their scope and count the occasional bob of heads above the trench. He crouched down again, and twisted to yell back at the mortar crews and the radioman.

"Sie! Halten Sie Ihr Auge auf sie. Der Minutenzeiger sie offenes Feuer, ich will uns das Feuer zu erwidern." He shouted, gesturing over at the opposite trench. He had his men spaced out along the front of the trench, along with the medics and engineer. He had given orders to the medics to be on their guard, and to keep their pistols ready and loaded. The engineer was armed with a flamethrower, and put near the front.

Suddenly several blasts shattered the silent morning as the Mortars began to fire, and Wilhelm quickly turned back at the mortars and shouted the command to fire, pointing at the other side. His own mortars went off, the blasts almost deafening.


Translations--
"Sie! Halten Sie Ihr Auge auf sie"...--You! Keep your eye on them. The minute they open fire, I want ours to return fire.

Map

OCC: Getting some image troubles on my end, my map is only loading about half the time, but I think I fixed it.

Nevermind, fixed it.

[William Luther]

Blue: Luther
Red: Pte 6 (12CP)
Black: MG (25 CP)
Pink: Sgt (15CP)
Teal: Sniper (20 CP)
Green: Cpl (7CP)

49 CP


Standing against the wall of the mortar pit, Luther appraised the new Leutnant he had been tasked with babysitting. One eyed, he appeared to have slept through half of infantry school as he tried to organise mortar fire on a close target, barely a hundred metres away and he was trying to direct fire from a grid reference.

Luther faced the top of the trench, looking to the sniper stood there. Wordlessly, a scrap of paper was passed down, pencil scratchings showing the location of the enemy positions. A rough sketch of the shape of the trench with a few brief measurements, made from the view from the sniper's scope. He nodded, satisfied with it and walked over towards Hinrichs, grasping the man's shoulder and directing him to one side. “Sir, your suggested fire mission is impractical for this range. Watch, I'll organise something more appropriate.”

He left before a word could be said, crouching down next to the mortar team's commander. “This is the enemy position, we're here, they're there. We suspect mortars are located here, possibly here.” As Luther spoke, he pointed out locations. The mortar commander nodded, and the rest of the team moved in to their positions, knowing what was about to happen. Luther out the map on top of a box of ammunition, weighing it down with a mortar shell.

Straightening, Luther called out strongly, so men in the trench could hear and pass on the message. “Standby, danger close mortar fire!” As soon as he said it, the NCO's in the trench began calling to their men, ensuring helmets were on, men were safely inside the trench in case something went wrong. Even though the mortars were scarcely five metres back from the line, accidents could happen, and this would almost certainly draw retaliatory fire.

Pulling a grease pencil from his pocket, Luther circled the suspected mortar pit. “Fire mission. Range, one zero zero metres. Angle, 003. Entrenched target. Windage, light, north-westerly. Friendly units in the area.” Very quickly, the team commander adjusted the the angle of the mortar and quickly consulted the sheet of paper encased in plastic that served as his reference. He shouted out loud, so anybody could stop him if he made a mistake. “Range, one zero zero. Angle eight three four zero, charge one.” His No. 2 checked, and verified out loud as the angle of the tube was adjusted. He pulled out one bag of charge and placed it in the mortar as number three readied the shell, holding it over the tube as number one and number two checked the mortar was bedded in, dirt was piled over the base to make sure the mortar didn't jump. If shit hit the fan, the mortar could end up firing vertically, which would mean the explosive round would fall straight down on German lines. If that happened, a lot of swearing would take place as everybody ran out of the way.

Final checks were made. “Direction zero zero three!”
A response call as made by number two, “Direction zero zero three!”
“Elevation eight three four zero!”
“Elevation eight three four zero!”
“Charge one!”
“Charge one!”
“Three rounds, standby, standby!”

Three rounds were held over the muzzle of the mortar, ready to be thrown down together. When the mortar kicked off, they would fall in line, the top slightly further ahead. From there, adjustments could be made. The sniper would be in charge of that, as Luther turned to the Leutnant. “I'll signal when we're ready for the fire.” Grabbing the Panzerschreck of the ground, the lone AT weapon available to the platoon, Luther moved to the front of the trench. The covering fire of the mortars would provide a perfect opportunity to make holes in the barbed wire. As soon as he was stood behind the firing step, Panzerschreck ready to fire, he shouted backwards. “READY!”

He took a final look, left to right. German infantrymen were ready behind cover, to either take part in a charge, send fire, or to just take cover. Two machine guns sat with overlapping arcs, and the German soldiers stood with bayonets fixed. Boards were by the feet of some men, large pieces of wood capable of pushing down enough barbed wire to force a path over. With the high explosive rounds of the Panzerschreck, designed to penetrate the armour of tanks, Luther would be able to clear a path through the worst of the barbed wire in the middle.

Map

[Christopher J. D'Dario]

(OOC: Nothing special, bit rushed. Sorry for the late post, I didn't see that this had started.)

2xMG 40CP. = Green
2xCorporal 7CP = yellow
13xSoldats 26CP = orange
D’Dario = white

Total 80CP

Christopher reached up and pressed his hand against the packed dirt of the trench, loose bits of the dirt fell away as he traced a smiley face into the wall with his finger. He looked up the line to the row of men beside him. Seventeen men all up, including two machine gunners armed with Breda 30’s and two Corporals who would lead two squads of four, all armed with a Carcano M91’s and all with bayonets fixed under the barrels. He smiled at his men, they all looked like they where ready to push back the Allied invasion all on their own. He waved the two machine gunners over to him and came across quickly, but kept low so their heads couldn’t be used as sniper targets.

‘Set up on either side of our line, we need the wire to be gone before we can charge. Give supressing fire to the Germans but when we charge cover us only.’ His men nodded and moved off to their positions, as they left Christopher reached out and touched the man next to him on the shoulder. ‘Deluna, take my MG42 and move a bit further down the line, Supress everything that moves.’ He said as he hefted the weapon up and handed it to the young soldat, who took it with a small smile and felt the weight of the machinegun. He had used it before and knew it how to use it well enough, still with a smile on his lips Deluna moved off, cradeling the MG42 like a child. All his men knew how much Christopher loved that weapon, he looked after it better then he looked after himself.

He looked back at the smiley face he had drawn in the wall and wiped it away with a single brush of his hand and called out to his corporals, ‘When the wire has been cleared take the flanks and follow me across, we will probably only have a small window of clear ground but once we’re through spead though the enemy trench and don’t stop until they are all dead.’ The corporals both nodded and returned to their squads. Christopher looked at his own four men. Fifteen soldiers total to storm a line held by an unknown number of enemy troops. It would be interesting to see just how this little engagment panned out.

He pulled his Beretta M1934 from its holster and pulled the slide back in order to load a round into the chamber, with his pistol ready he armed his left hand with his issue knife. Things would get close and bloody in the confined space of the trenches, and he didn’t need a large cumbersom weapon slowling him down. As the motar fire began everyone huddled against the wall of the trench, looking behind him he could see the long thick boards that had been cut specificaly to let infantry cross over wire fences, but Christopher hoped the motars would do the job for them, whoever was carrying one of those boards would be a sitting duck for enemy fire.

Map

[Heiko Alkema]

State of the troops:

Group Hinrichs

The quarl between Hinrichs and Luther in front of the mortar team has put a noticably uneasy air of tension among the troops on the southern side of the field and negitively affected their morale. The mortar team, unsure of who's orders to follow, have made the adjustments ordered by Luther to appease him but are looking to their officer, Hinrichs, for confirmation before firing.

Morale: Moderate - Anxious
Awareness: Alert

Group Schäfer

The northern soliders are more more confident in their command and stand ready to act on any further orders. The mortar team has not fired as the opposing mortar hasn't either, but are ready to return fire if/when the enemy begins a strike.

Morale: Good - Ready
Awareness: Alert

Next Post: Hinrichs

[Matthaeus Hinrichs]

[[OOC: Sorry for the wait guys, been busy lately. Blue Rectangle is where the Barrage happens.]]

Map

Matthaeus listened to what the Senior NCO said to the Mortar team. He was screaming out the orders with a bit of anger in his voice. Matthaeus was surely unsure on what he should do except go along with what the man said. After all he did give out better coordinates of the trench across from them. It wasn’t too long after wards before Matthaeus nodded and turned to the Mortars and yelled out ”Listen to him. He gave good orders.”

Before long the NCO also readied himself into position to blow the wire. Matthaeus knew that this would go against his plan so he yelled forward to the NCO ”No wait! Do not fire on the wire let them attack, They cannot pass without being killed.” Matthaeus had a plan to play defensively on this one as the wire was in favor of them.

Matthaeus then scanned his men in the trench before shouting out one more order ”Fix your bayonets!” Matthaeus then quickly turned to the Mortar team and said ”Fire on the coordinates now. Give them hell!” Soon enough the boom of the Mortars filled the air and Matthaeus jumped a bit with everyone.

[PuNk! ™]

Moderation Post:

[/b][/center]

Heiko is required to close this thread, if he is happy to close the thread on behalf of Adam's request (Matthaeus Hinrichs) and doesn't wish to carry this training thread on or hand out additional warnings for inactive posters and continue.

The choice is yours.
~Danny[/color]

[Heiko Alkema]

Moderation Post

Closed as per requested.

Matthaeus Hinrichs - 2CP

Wilhlem Schaefer- 1CP

William Luther - 2CP

Christopher D'Dario - 2CP

- Heiko