Return to St. Vith: A Command Ops Mini-AAR

[Fishbreath]

Return to St. Vith: A Command Ops Mini-AAR

I've always had a fondness for the Airborne Assault/Command Ops games, ever since I saw a review of Red Devils Over Arnhem when I was a but wee lad and thought to myself, "That looks fantastic." To date, that fondness had been the creepy-stalker sort no doubt familiar to our contingent of visual novel and dating sim fans, but I've recently crossed the boundary between less money/more sense and more money/less sense on the $100-wargames scale.

Command Ops: Battles from the Bulge is a real-time, not-hex-based operational-level wargame. Scenarios usually span from 48 hours to 10 days, maps run ten to a few dozen kilometers across, and the units under your command range from divisions to brigades, each potentially modeled all the way down to a platoon level. Three mechanics conspire to force you to play your hand like a battlefield commander might have done. The first is orders delay, which simulates the time it takes for an order to percolate from you, the highest-ranking commander on-map, down to the tip of the spear. Orders can take up to two hours to reach their destinations if you're not careful with your attachments, detachments, and the like. The second is the overloaded headquarters mechanic, which increases orders delay when a headquarters has too many units beyond its normal count attached. The third is the excellent AI, which makes it possible to order a battalion to make an attack and trust that the battalion commander will employ his companies without screwing it up too badly. Long story short, it's a complicated game, and one I haven't gotten into beyond playing the tutorial in a previous installment I borrowed from an old college pal. That changes this week! As a potential prelude to future AARs, I'm going to be posting my experiences working through the Battles from the Bulge tutorial.

It's set during the closing stages of the larger battle. This scenario is somewhat speculative, in that it posits an attack on St. Vith from the south as part of an encircling maneuver. Here's the map:

The grid is 1km squares. I'm the American side, by the blue label: Combat Command A of the Seventh Armored Divison. It's a brigade-sized formation, including the 35th Tank Battalion, the 51st Armored Infantry Battalion, and the 1st Battalion of the 318th Infantry Regiment, plus a supply depot, two self-propelled artillery battalions, and an anti-air battalion. My opposition for the moment comprises elements of the 17th Volksgrenadier Division, which the briefing calls one of the best German infantry divisions on the Western Front. More of the 17th Volksgrenadiers will be arriving from the north about a day into the scenario, and panzer elements are en route from the west, expected around day 2. Combat Command B of the 7th Armored Division is headed my way on day 2, along with the divisional headquarters, and Combat Command R will be along early on Day 3.

I have four objectives for this battle, which I labeled (the red numbers) backwards. Objective 1 is St. Vith, which intelligence claims is currently undefended, and which I start losing victory points for if I'm not there in 24 hours. Objective 2 is the Breitfeld crossroads, and I should have that at 0200 Day 2. Objective 3 is the village of Lommersweiler, which I'm expected to capture by noon. Objective 4 is the bridge at Steinebruck, which is an immediate goal.

Here's a detailed view of the southeastern corner of the map and my forces:

1. The 51st Armored Infantry Battalion, which is probably my heftiest unit: two armored infantry companies, an assault gun platoon, a mortar platoon, a tank company, and an engineer company.

2. 1st Battalion, 318th Infantry Regiment. Pretty bog-standard: a headquarters element, three rifle companies, an AT gun platoon, and a mortar platoon.

3. 35th Tank Battalion. Three tank companies, one of the 51st's armored infantry companies, and A Troop of the 25th Cavalry Reconaissance Squadron.

4. Headquarters elements, including the AA battalion and the two field artillery battalions (one of which is in the 35th's circle).

Around Stenebruck, intelligence (of course, the enemy contacts on the map are generally only accurate by purest chance) suggests there's a reinforced battalion, and roughly the same in Lommersweiler. My plan is to form up all three battalions for an attack on Steinebruck. The 1st Battalion of the 318th Regiment will move along the north road after that, and hopefully should reach Breitfeld early, while the 51st and 35th Battalions will make use of brigade artillery support and the good tank terrain to empty out Lommersweiler.

 

[Eduardo X]

I got this game on sale a few years back and had a fantastic time in the few scenarios I actually finished. One, in which the Germans began their surprise attack, saw a platoon of mine get encircled. I tried for days to get it some help, as they were low on ammo and dying quickly. I snuck battalions, platoons, artillery guns, tanks, anything. Nothing worked; the germans pounded it.
But it held, the whole battle. With no ammo, no reinforcements. And I held off the German attack, pretty much thanks to that one platoon.

 

[Fishbreath]

Alright. I'm not going to get to play tonight, but it never hurts to have a detailed plan:

1. The 51st Battalion and the 35th Battalion will assault Steinebruck from the south, starting as soon as possible. The 1st Battalion will move through at the base of the hill to the east of Steinebruck, from which it will attack the German flank 90 minutes after the mechanized attack begins.

2. Once all three battalions have crossed the bridge, the 51st will continue along the north road toward the Breitfeld crossroads and take up a blocking position north of the Y in the road.

3. The 1st and 35th will make an assault on Lommersweiler. The 1st will remain to defend the village and the crossing, while the 35th will press the Germans north toward the 51st.

4. The 35th and 51st will probe Breitfeld. If it's lightly defended, they will take it.

That should cover the first day. It's an aggressive plan, but as a mechanized commander, I think that's par for the force (zing). It would be ideal to be in defensive positions in St. Vith before the German reinforcements arrive.

 

[Fishbreath]

And we're off! In this post, I begin my attack, and I also use 'brigade' interchangeably with 'combat command', which would cause any officer of the period to shake his head at me for being old-fashioned. I'm also using the <battalion>/<regiment> notation for the 1st Battalion of the 318th Infantry Regiment. Already, I have a correction to make: as astute readers may have noticed, the order of battle in the interface flatly contradicted my claim that I'm the 7th Armored Division. I am in fact the 4th Armored Division. The 7th held St. Vith during the first German attacks, and were the ones to retake it historically. The 4th Armored Division was historically involved in the relief of Bastogne, which accounts for the fact that Combat Command A is about 30% understrength on average.

In this scenario, orders delay ramps from 0% to 100% over the first hour, so from nil to more than an hour for orders percolating down from brigade HQ. The first few minutes are, therefore, obviously an excellent time to give orders, so I did.

I directed the 1/318th to move to point 1, then form up for an attack at 10:00 a.m. I then gave the order for brigade HQ to attack across the bridge; the headquarters staff picked point 2 as its form-up point. It's shielded from view of any heavy weapons in Lommersweiler by what I clearly should start calling Hill 3.

By 6:45, the leading elements of the mechanized attack are getting into place. A Troop of the 25th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron is only about four hundred meters from the nearest German troops, but Hill 3 and the gloom are in the way. Notice that A Company of the 35th Tank Battalion is selected, with its footprint (the while lines), command line (the blue one going to the 35th Bn HQ; green lines go the other direction, but A Company has no represented subordinates), and task (the gray movement line and the arrow). Once it finishes moving, it'll reorganize and begin to attack.

At 7:40, it's dawn, and the attack is beginning to take shape. The 1/318th's rifle companies are in place, and its headquarters has taken up a safe position from which to direct the assault. The mortar platoon is headed that way too.

This is a good place to mention the first poor choice my subordinates have made. C Coy/51st Bn is a bit far ahead, because it's trying to go around the woods to its west and take position roughly level with the 489th AA Battalion. This is because I left the attack formation to the discretion of the brigade HQ staff, and then because the 51st Battalion's commander chose something too wide for his sector. The little blue square on C Company's unit card means that it's taking cover, thanks to fire it received moments before.

Fast-forward a bit to 10:35. The mechanized forces have met the Germans and are engaged in forcing them back. I issued orders to make this a moderately aggressive action, so rather than rush ahead and take unnecessary casualties, the brigade is using its overwhelming superiority in armor to steadily push the Germans off the objective. The 1/318th is in a standard assault formation, and is now on the march toward its objective on the far side of the river. It's a minor river, so infantry can cross it but the tanks will need the bridge (the thinner line to the north is a stream, which the mechanized forces can cross just fine).

Notice the red square on B/51st Bn's unit card: that means it's under fire and taking losses (yellow means just under fire). Notice also that C/51st still isn't in place, having been delayed by enemy contact when the sun rose. It probably would have been smart of me to change the 35th Battalion's orders, but I hoped that C/51st would be able to sneak past before they were spotted.

Which brings us to noon. Some of the German forces have retreated over the hill north of Lommersweiler to the marked crossroad. The attack continues apace, with the Germans forced back across the bridge but still able to defend it. I have a German Panzerjaeger company selected; it still has many of its guns, but its headquarters (the German unit with the red 0, symbolizing routing/recovering and no combat strength, respectively) is presently incapable of issuing an order for it to fall back. I don't know what its formation is, but it's still firing intermittently on those units it can see, which suggests it's in a defensive box.

In the next hour or two, I expect to complete the push across the bridge. The 51st will keep the pressure on, while the 35th and the 1/318th will assault the town.

---

A final note on orders delay: some of the early Battle of the Bulge scenarios give the Americans a 16x penalty on orders at the start. At that point, orders to large formations are probably more quickly achieved by bypassing the headquarters units beneath yours and commanding the lowest units directly.

 

[Fishbreath]

I'm not dancing with joy at my progress so far, but I'm not cursing the incompetence of my subordinates either. It's a small victory, but it's a victory.

Below, it's 12:16 p.m., and you can see that I'm checking the line of sight from the Panzerjaeger company by the bridge. Although it does have a great line of fire to the bridge, I think I'd have put them further back so they could direct fire across the bridge, too. On the other hand, the table of equipment and supply for this company suggests it's a line infantry company with AT guns, rather than a formation with AT guns as its reason for being (the AT platoon in the 318th is an example of the latter type).

The attack continues, slowly pushing the Germans back to the north and east of Steinebruck. A/51st has secured the objective (by being part of the American forces on the bigger side of the 10:1 ratio required in the objective area). I get victory points if I hold it at the end of the scenario, plus victory points for occupying it between now and then.

45 minutes later, the Americans have crossed the bridge in force. A weak force of Germans has fallen back to Lommersweiler, while the 1/12 Panzerjaegers have retreated north with the battalion headquarters. I go ahead and order the brigade to attack Lommersweiler; the 51st Battalion will be detached to pressure the Germans to the north.

The 51st gets under way very quickly. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for the brigade; the force delay (the time for an order to the brigade headquarters to percolate all the way down to the companies in the field) is 66 minutes, and it's going to take between one and several hours to form up the 1/318th and the 35th tanks.

An hour and a half later, the brigade is still waiting to get its attack going: largely, I admit, because B/318th came under fire when it was moving to its forming-up point, and I was forced to move the FUP back to Steinebruck proper. That forced the brigade HQ to replan its attack, which added another layer of orders delay, which means it's surprising they're even on the move here at all.

That Panzerjaeger company surrendered just a few minutes later, and other elements of that reinforced battalion are falling back out of sight.

At 6:30, the brigade attack is still forming up. The 51st has pushed the Germans back comprehensively, and has now taken up defensive positions.

That brings us to 7:00, where the brigade's attack is looking imminent (in the next hour or two). Hopefully they'll clear the town quickly. I'm tempted to give the 51st orders to rest now while the 35th and 1/318th are active; that should make them fresh for a potential push on Breitfeld later tonight. Combat Command B and 4th Division HQ will arrive at 2:00 a.m., so if the 51st and 35th can't secure Breitfeld alone, I can bring CCB's line battalions up to help. Now, if you'll indulge me for a moment...

If Breitfeld can be taken, or if it's not likely to be the source of a serious counterattack, I might task CCB's mechanized battalions to a bit of an end-run: once I've taken Lommersweiler, I'll have a clear run to the east-west road running from Maspelt to Grufflingen. I can have CCB take the Grufflingen-St. Vith highway and be at the latter before morning hits. That would give me two battalions in defensive positions around St. Vith, and worst-case I'd have to secure Breitfeld with two mechanized battalions and an infantry battalion (probably reinforced with a company from the 1/318th). The benefits of being in St. Vith in front of the German reinforcements seem to outweigh the risks.

 

[Fishbreath]

'Grufflingen' is a great name for a town.

 

[Fishbreath]

I find myself continually revising my expectations of how long things take in this game; it's 9:45 and the attack still hasn't started. Of note is the German infantry company in the woods northeast of 1/318 HQ, a leftover from the battle for Steinebruck. I could push into the woods with the 1/318, but that would delay the attack even further. The German infantry company is down to one-third strength, so the battalion HQ's deployable weapons should be sufficient to hold them off.

The attack still isn't ready, and the German infantry hasn't left, so I order brigade artillery to put some fire down on them. The graphics don't quite communicate the tree-shattering force delivered by a 105mm HE shell, but I'm sure you can picture the splintering oaks and the craters chipped deep into the frozen ground.

Finally, at about 11:30, the attack begins. B/35 leads the way; the armor is assigned to the southern sector of the town, and the infantry and armored infantry to the north.

Half later, the leading elements have reached the edge of the town and come under fire. Intelligence suggests we're facing an assault gun company and a light flak company.

A/25 (the 35th's recon squadron) and the brigade AA battery took heavy fire from the flak company, and ended up in a rout. The main body of the attach has arrived, and B/318 and C/318 have enough AT guns and bazookas between them to worry that assault gun company.

It's now 2:00 a.m. on Day 2, and divisional headquarters and Combat Command B have arrived. CCA is a heavier formation (three battalions, against CCB's reinforced two), but CCB is all motorized: a tank battalion, an armored infantry battalion, an armored engineer company, an armored reconnaissance company, an AA battery, and a 155mm field artillery battery. For now I order them up to the 51st's resting position.

With CCB en route to take up the 51st Battalion's blocking positions, the 51st joins the attack on Lommersweiler, attacking from the northwest. Half an hour later, the attack begins.

At 4:30, Combat Command B begins to reach its positions; I order it to advance on Breitfeld. Once Combat Command A has cleared Lommersweiler, I'm going to attach the 35th Tank Battalion to Combat Command B, and that will be the unit I use for the first push on St. Vith. The 1/318 and the 51st Battalion will remain attached to Combat Command A; the 51st will hold Lommersweiler, and the 318th will hold the bridge.

The German forces are now fully revealed: there are no assault guns at all in the northern sector; instead, there are two infantry companies. In the south, the light flak company turned out to be another panzerjaeger company, a dangerous formation, but one badly outnumbered here.

The fighting in Lommersweiler goes steadily, if slowly, in my favor. Curiously, CCB, on its way to Breitfeld, finds some units that had previously been defending Lommersweiler: the infantry company has been beaten down to about 40 men, and this is the first time I've seen the mortar platoon. C/10 takes the opportunity and puts them under fire.

8:00 a.m. sees Lommersweiler nearly in American hands; the panzerjaeger company and one infantry company are proving to be more stubborn than the rest. The presence of two infantry companies in the woods to the west may present another mission for 1/318 after they've had a few hours' rest. Combat Command B is forming up for its attack on Breitfeld about a kilometer south of the city, although they're already taking mortar fire. On top of that, the German reinforcements are likely on the way to St. Vith already; if they have time to dig in in the city, things could get pretty tough.

 

[Fishbreath]

I return to Return to St. Vith! When we last left the heroic 4th Armored Division at 8 a.m. on day 2, it was securing the town of Lommersweiler and pushing north toward Breitfeld and the crossroads there located.

Over the next hour, Combat Command B begins to get into place south of Breitfeld for the attack, while Combat Command A continues the arduous task of evicting the Germans from Lommersweiler.

By 9:35, the Germans are on the retreat, and I order the 35th Tank Battalion to push them up to the north, where they can be brought under fire by Combat Command B. Two German companies are sneaking through the forest to the north of CCB headquarters. It'll throw off CCB's preparations if they bring the road under fire; this is why I should really learn to set the pathing to 'covered' or 'safest' for the first leg of an attack.

About half an hour later, I get my first taste of the reputedly devious AI. Combat Command A HQ comes under attack from German infantry coming down the east road. The German reinforcements, arriving from that direction, detached some units to poke at an obviously-exposed flank of mine. Well played. The 1/318th Battalion rushes to the rescue, while I queue up some artillery bombardments.

At this point, Combat Command A isn't really a combat command anymore: all of its subordinate battalions are under direct divisional control. The 35th tanks is on the attack, and the 1/318 and 51st Battalions are defending the flanks.

The Allies in general but the Americans in particular were possessed of great logistical prowess. For that reason, I don't feel bad ordering supply-eating rapid-fire half-hour artillery bombardments, especially when they result in German units routing.

At 11:34, another artillery bombardment begins, this one, from all three division-level batteries, targeted at the probable German forming-up point. North of Lommersweiler, the 35th Tanks begin their push, discovering the unit labeled 1012: a detachment of StuGIII assault guns. Fortunately, my Shermans should be able to handle those, and the detachment is badly worn down anyway, with only three vehicles remaining. I'm not too worried about the 35th Battalion, so they'll push on unaided.

For an hour or two now, the handful of German infantry companies in the woods have been harrassing CCB as it attempts to form up for its assault. This artillery bombardment doesn't work, because friendlies are too close; if CCB needs an artillery strike, I'll let them call it in themselves.

At 2:10pm, I can, however, do something about the Germans. The 35th Battalion, exhausted though it is from its two and a half days of hard fighting so far, should be more than enough to hold off the German infantry while CCB gets in order.

It's only ninety minutes before A Company, 35th Tank Battalion is engaged with the enemy. Around Steinebruck, the 1/318 beats back an attack to keep the objective secure. By now, the German forces north of Lommersweiler are in bad shape. The 6/27 makes the occasional push, and is almost immediately forced back by the 51st.

Finally, at 5:00pm, the 10th Armored Infantry Battalion/CCB is back on the move; CCB has wasted most of the day trying to get into attack formation, but the relief from the 35th Battalion has freed them to move. Throughout the day, several airstrikes that would have been helpful in freeing up my troops to move have been cancelled owing to the light snow that's settled in over the battlefield.

Winter means it's dark at 6:00pm. The 35th Battalion is bunkered down and resting onl about a hundred meters from the German infantry in the woods, which is doing about the same thing, while Combat Command B advances on Breitfeld.

The push continues, with B/24 Company (engineers attached to one of CCB's battalions) taking very heavy casualties on the leading edge, about 30%. For a little while, we'll hold the Breitfeld objective, but C/8 Company's task is to take up a blocking position along the Breitfeld-St. Vith road. Once they leave the objective circle, it reverts to German control.

Here's how things stand at 9pm: B/24 has orders from above to withdraw, while the remainder of CCB struggles to take the German 5/27th company under fire in the snow and darkness.

Overall, the 4th Armored Division has pushed maybe eight kilometers in about 40 hours. Against opposition I'd call that respectable progress, but at the same time I'm sure I could do better if I had a better idea what I was doing. Obviously, there are some aspects of warfare that never change, but I've never had to deal with the timing on this fine a level before.

CCR arrives at about 7:00am on Day 3. If CCB has secured Breitfeld by then, I may have CCR take the highway into St. Vith from the southwest, as I considered doing with CCB before it was obvious that I'd need CCB to make the push from Lommersweiler to Breitfeld.

 

[Fishbreath]

Prepare yourselves for a wild 17 hours, over the course of which I make multiple decisions that almost immediately turn out to be about as wrong as wrong decisions can be, endangering not only the lives of my troops, which as a tactically forward-thinking but morale-wise quite cavalier Second World War general are less important to me than the fact that I may have, through general sloth and specific failings in command, rendered my objective out of reach on the time scale that this scenario allows.

When we last left the heroic 4th Armored Division, it was thusly arrayed:

As you may recall, I gave B/24 Company an order to withdraw, which caused CCB to replan its attack. The Germans were lost to vision in the darkness, and so I decided to reattach B/24. Regardless, some of CCB popped off to the south to rest a bit more peacefully.

Fatigue is becoming a problem among CCA and CCB, which have been driving hard for more than two full days. The Germans pull further back, though, and so Breitfeld is mine.

In what could be my worst call yet, I decide to let my troops rest, rather than pushing to the southeastern part of St. Vith while the Germans are presumably asleep. Little happens until about 4:00am.

At 3:40, CCB regroups for its second attack.

And retakes Breitfeld. Hold onto your hats, folks: from now until maybe 2:00pm, there aren't many minutes where there isn't shooting going on.

The German infantry company moves back into place, cutting off C/10 from supply (indicated by the red line). The T in the road just south of Breitfeld and just east of the rail bridge is critical here; the German company can fire on it, and that's where my trucks would probably be routed.

As of 6:20am, there's no sign that the snow that started yesterday will let up today, which is unfortunate. Low-intensity fighting continues around Breitfeld, and north of Lommersweiler, two German companies attempt to break out and get back in supply (I suspect their headquarters is in the vicinity of Schlierbach and Rödgen). Unfortunately, the 35th is in the way.

Dawn breaks, and brings with it CCR (the division's reserve brigade, which historically found itself fighting quite frequently in most divisions). It brings another 320 tanks and armored personnel carriers to the field, plus an artillery group.

Since CCA and CCB have the situation on the Lommersweiler axis well in hand, I send CCR up the Grufflingen-St. Vith highway to be the left hook.

With the 35th Battalion as the anvil, I order the 51st Battalion to make an attack as the hammer, which should eliminate another two German companies from the table. Visibility remains mediocre as the snow continues to fall.

To date, I've been fairly timid with the divisional artillery park I have down in the southeast part of the map, but today ends that. I order up a 40-minute bombardment of the 5/27 Company, the only one in close engagement with my forces around Breitfeld.

Meanwhile, fire from the 35th and the general lack of anywhere to go has led to the destruction of 3 Company/12 Panzerjäger Battalion at the hands of the 35th Tanks. The 51st forms up and gets moving; they'll shortly come into contact with the company north of Lommersweiler. Along the road into Lommersweiler and out of it to the southwest, you can see elements of CCR on their way to the western highway.

At 8:40, the heavy artillery bombardment knocks 5/27 out of Breitfeld and buys CCB some valuable breathing room. The 35th Tank Battalion has new orders to move north and aid in the defense of the Breitfeld crossroads, while the artillery shifts its fire over to the concentration of German troops to Breitfeld's east. Another half an hour of fighting knocks the 6/27 Company out northeast of Lommersweiler.

Reconnaissance reveals that I'm not going to beat today's German reinforcements into St. Vith. I believe I'm facing about a brigade and a half of German soldiery, and even as beaten-up and fatigued as they are, that's a formidable force for my three brigades to handle. The gray unit chits I've been facing so far are regular Wehrmacht, while blue are Luftwaffe or Airborne and black is SS (in this case, an SS Panzer division).

 

[Fishbreath]

The 51st gets orders to move up to Breitfeld. For those keeping track at home, that means that all of CCB and CCA's motorized battalions are either at Breitfeld or on the way (the stalwart 1/318 is holding position at Steinebruck; letting Germans into the rear that way would be unfortunate). They may be able to make a push on St. Vith from the southeast. In the meantime, the leading elements of CCR begin to take fire from the Panzers on the southwest St. Vith road.

In preparation for an attack on St. Vith from the southeast, I tell the 10th Armored Infantry Battalion to defend Breitfeld proper, which should secure the right flank. A few minutes later, I give CCB, the 51st Armored Infantry Battalion, and the 35th Tank Battalion orders to attack St. Vith.

As the Panzers on the southwest road begin to cross the open ground toward the highway, I realize that CCR's present forming-up point along the highway isn't going to cut it. I order CCR to form up north of Galhausen instead, where they'll be sheltered from the Germans by some forest and the hill to the west. I also switch the order from 'quickest' to 'covered'; that will force the Germans to close to ranges where my Shermans can penetrate their armor. Also, more artillery.

The 8th Tank Battalion, on the northwest edge of CCB's sector, comes under fire from St. Vith as they begin to move along the road. I'm alright with that; CCR will be poking its nose up in that direction shortly, and given that the 8th Tanks have only seen a few companies, I'm not particularly worried. Or rather, I'm not particularly worried by the Germans in the triangle between St. Vith and my two main forces. The brigade to the northwest could be bad for CCR if it remains strung out in road column for too long.

Turns out, in a very few minutes, it's not just those few; rather, it's at least a battalion and potentially more.

There are a number of very worrying trends in this next picture, taken an hour and a half after the previous one: it seems as though most of the SS brigade to the northwest is moving in on the attack, and CCR hasn't quite bunched up yet. Much of the 8th Tank Battalion has routed, and the forces coming up the road to join the attack are now opposed by German infantry companies moving through the forest.

Not much changes over the next hour, except that one of the companies in the woods has been identified as a tank company, which the 51st will have to do something about. As normally seems to be the case, I find myself wishing for another battalion or two.

Anyway, let's catalogue the unforced errors I've made:

1. Doing nothing overnight.

2. Continuing to send CCR along the southwest highway even after reconnaissance revealed enemy troops in that region. It probably would have been smarter to send CCR along the track that heads up to Galhausen instead, even if it would have been slower.

Some of this is my fault, but I maintain that some of it is on the game, too—I wish there was a line of sight tool that didn't take current conditions into effect. Sometimes I would like to know if it's even theoretically possible for an enemy unit to fire upon mine.

3. Failing to make progress quickly enough. This one is partially on me and partially on a bug with the current version of the Command Ops engine: units are prone to halting and re-deciding what to do when they're in contact with the enemy, which slows combat down well below the speed it should be going, and in particular prevents units near the enemy to move in the way they should be. There is, at least, a patch coming soon.

 

[Fishbreath]

About fifteen minutes later, the situation remains precarious: D/37 Company is attempting to surrender, but apparently incapable of actually doing so. The company of Panthers southeast of Breitfeld is joined by another, lurking in the forest along the track east of Breitfeld, and a company of Tigers.

This seems like a good place for some pontificating on how exactly to kill German heavy tanks with American weapons. This would be much easier if I were playing the British in this scenario. The storied Ordnance QF 17-pounder, armament of the Sherman Firefly, the M10 Achilles (another conversion of an American vehicle to add a better gun), and the curious home-grown Archer. All three were produced in decent numbers, and owing to their armament, all three served with distinction during the European campaigns.

Unfortunately, the American situation was a little more muddled. The standard Sherman mounted a medium-velocity 75mm gun, which was sufficient against early-war tanks in North Africa, and relatively evenly-matched with the Pzkw IV. Against late-war forces like I'm facing now, it's insufficient. A tank company (or at least a tank company at the strengths at which they've been provided to me) consists of five M4s with the 75mm gun, two M4s with the same gun and much heavier armor, and three M4s with the M1 76mm gun. This last was actually a reasonably capable gun—firing high-velocity AP ammunition at one kilometer, it had performance similar to the QF 17-pounder (firing armor-piercing capped ballistic capped ammunition; that is, an AP round with an armor-piercing cap, topped by a ballistic cap) at 915 meters. Unfortunately, with the more common (to my understanding) APCBC round, the M1 gun could only penetrate about 90mm to the Firefly's 130mm, and those 40mm made all the difference.

Now, the Americans do have another option: the 90mm gun mounted on M36 tank destroyer, which was roughly comparable to the fabled German 88. I do actually have three companies (possibly the whole?) 704th Tank Destroyer Battalion, all equipped with the M36 and the 90mm. Unfortunately, they're all attached to CCR, and I don't feel comfortable detaching them at this juncture.

Although I'm at least somewhat confident in the ability of the 35th Tank Battalion and the 51st Armored Infantry Battalion to handle a single company of Panthers between them (that's a decent number of Shermans with the 76mm gun), I'm not so comfortable with the ability of the 10th Armored Infantry Battalion, currently assigned to hold Breitfeld, to handle a company of Tigers and a company of Panthers. That leaves pretty much one solution, and I'm sure you'll agree it's a very American one: artillery. At my divisional artillery park south of the Steinebrück crossing, I have more than 80 guns, some the M1 155mm Long Tom, and some others 105mm self-propelled howitzers. They're currently engaged in a fire mission against about 20 tanks, and I think that's a pretty good ratio. Even if it doesn't actually kill the German tanks, it will go a long way toward keeping them buttoned up and disrupting their communications.

The bombardment knocks one tank company off its position, and the Panther company on the southeast road advances. That infantry company in the woods, which moved on the units recovering from routing south of Breitfeld, came under fire from the units which were not routing.

The Panther company is identified as part of the 1st SS Panzer Regiment, Joachim Peiper's command.

Six minutes later, the Panther company is routing with 50% casualties. I guess the Shermans were sufficient. Northwest of Breitfeld, B/8 Company runs into a Pioneer company, which has a lot of bulk for an infantry company. Fortunately, it's limited in AT capabilities.

I'm not letting up with the artillery bombardment on German positions east of Breitfeld.

Dusk arrives. The artillery continues to fire. B/8 Company got itself involved in a brief but intense firefight with the 3/1 Pioneers. The latter took about 40 casualties, but B/8 retreated as well. That put them under fire from the Tigers and Panthers to the east, and the loss of half their force turned the retreat into a rout.

To the west, CCR continues working its way north. The flak company to the northeast of the leading elements of the 37th Tank Battalion can't stand up to the combined weight of tank destroyers and tanks currently in contact with them.

CCR is taking the covered path to Galhausen, from where it can organize an assault on St. Vith tomorrow, along with elements from CCA and CCB; CCB now has orders to defend Breitfeld overnight. Once CCR has moved up to its new position, I'll organize the attack.

As night falls, here's the situation. The 35th Tanks and the 51st Armored Infantry are moving up toward Breitfeld, while CCR continues working its way up to Galhausen.

It does appear that I'm experiencing the halting bug. According to the official forums, it occurs whenever a unit comes under fire and wants to engage in response: the calculation for whether or not to make an attack is hitting a debug code path, wherein it's always assumed that the attack is across a river. This obviously makes the attack much less likely, and leads to tons of spurious halts, which really slows combat down. I'm not sure this is sufficient to explain away all of my failure to make progress, but I'll at least claim it's the cause of some of it.

That brings me to 8:00pm. CCR, no longer under fire or in sight of the enemy, has begun to move forward at something like a regular pace, and the reinforced CCB has the 51st and 35th up into Breitfeld.

 

[Fishbreath]

Hold onto your peaked caps, fellow armchair generals, it's a wild ride from D3 2000 to D4 1500, and it ends in a way I certainly wouldn't have predicted at the start.

The story begins fifty minutes after the last update ends. With darkness and snow veiling the Germans from the 4th Armored and, more importantly, the 4th Armored from the Germans, I decide that the time for bold action is now. CCR has orders to defend north of Galhausen, while CCB (comprising the 8th Tank Battalion, the 51st Armored Infantry Battalion, and the 35th Tank Battalion) receives orders to gather its strength around Breitfeld. The 10th Armored Infantry Battalion, an organic (that is, permanently attached) subordinate of CCB, has independent orders to defend Breitfeld.

That leaves the tracks southeast of Breitfeld dangerously underdefended, so I raid the stalwart 1st Battalion, 318th Infantry Regiment. A Company and the battalion AT platoon are detached from the defense of Steinebrück and sent north, to the edge of the forest just south of the south Breitfeld tracks. Between them they have about 130 men and a pair of 57mm Guns, M1, which aren't particularly scary AT armaments, but should serve to at least give Panthers and PzKpfw IVs pause.

The Steinebruck defenders are mostly under divisional command, which is inefficient and gives the on-the-scene headquarters very little control over the defensive arrangement. I place the 1/318 Bn HQ in charge. It commands the two of its rifle companies without other orders, its mortar platoon, and B Battery of the 489th AAA Battalion. My concern about holding Steinebrück is lessening; reconnaissance hasn't revealed any German probes in that direction lately. That said, I'd be reticent to reduce the defenders there to anything much less than a battalion; letting any German force of significant strength into the rear would be catastrophic at this point, and would torpedo any shot I have at St. Vith.

Day 4 arrives with little fanfare. The 94th Armored Field Artillery Battalion spots some German forces along the southwest St. Vith road, which seems a bit odd to me. I wouldn't have expected them to stick around there, except maybe to prevent an assault along the southwestern axis. Some units trickle through the woods southwest of Breitfeld, and the sounds of minor skirmishes echo through the night.

Remember how I said something about bold action before? This is where that happens. CCR and CCB will attack St. Vith from the south and southeast, in a left and right echelon to make the shape of the overall assault wedge-like. The divisional artillery park has been moved up to the road north of Steinebrück, where they will be on call to provide barrages throughout the day. Orders go out at 2:41am, Day 4.

Counting the artillery battalions (they're currently attached to CCB, which is inflating its count; I detach them later for the purposes of targeting their fire more precisely and another reason which will become clear when it happens), 3,740 personnel are taking part in this attack, including 485 armored fighting vehicles (although that includes some half-tracks and other non-tank vehicles).

As more tanks reveal themselves in the Breitfeld woods, I decide that A/318 and the AT gun platoon may not be sufficient. A/35 Tank Bn and B/35 Tank Bn should be sufficient reinforcement, so I grab them and shuttle them down to the road south of A/318.

By 3:41am, orders have filtered down to brigade commanders, who have made their own plans and are passing them along to their subordinate commands.

About half an hour later, CCR and CCB are both on the move. CCB has taken some admirable initiative and sent forces through the woods to the north, rather than along the southeast St. Vith road as I instructed originally. CCR is going to attack along the highway after all, and has already encountered some German resistance just north of the forest to the east of Neundorf.

Both CCR and the elements of CCB's 8th Tank Battalion have uncovered more enemy forces.

Given the way the roads looked yesterday, it's a great surprise to me that there are no German forces east of St. Vith. The leading elements of CCR's attack meet additional unit, including one I'll talk about more in a few pictures.

Some Germans sneak into Breitfeld from the south, bringing CCB headquarters under fire and removing the objective from my control. The town itself, while a much better defensive position, is largely outside the objective circle. The remaining elements of the 35th Tank Battalion and the whole 10th Armored Infantry Battalion get orders to re-secure the objective. To the southeast, the blocking force along the road south to Steinebrück engages a company of PzKpfw IVs and Panthers.

 

[Fishbreath]

At 5:30am, I happen to notice that CCR has engaged not just any unit, but Peiper's headquarters—that is to say, the highest-ranking unit on the map for Germany. It's an incredible piece of good luck.

The situation around Breitfeld has deteriorated somewhat, in that the German forces around are somewhat greater than they were before. Three companies (one a Panther company) sit between CCB HQ and Breitfeld, which is bad both because it involves a major headquarters being under fire, and because the Germans are neatly interrupting supply columns to Breitfeld.

Peiper's HQ routs with 25% losses. This is a massive win: until it's finished recovering from its rout, every subordinate unit will be stuck doing what it was doing when Peiper and company scarpered.

East of the river, the Germans managed to be pretty sneaky through the darkest parts of the night. Counting Breitfeld at the front line, they snuck a battalion and a half or so through various holes between it and the Steinebrück strongpoint.

At 6:30am, CCR has begun to push out from the forests into the fields south of St. Vith.

I've been ordering artillery bombardments on the German positions as CCR and CCB uncover them, but I haven't been taking pictures of those. It seems unnecessary.

As dawn breaks, I lose the Lommersweiler objective. CCA HQ hasn't spotted any German units, but I really need all the objectives I currently have for the final reckoning to go my way (note that the win-loss indicator in the interface has tilted away from me). B/318 Company and B Battery/489 AAA Bn form up to retake the town.

Ijust thought this picture was beautiful: so many of the German units between CCR and St. Vith are either retreating or routing.

At least one company is advancing on Lommersweiler. CCA HQ is more than capable of holding its position against company-level opposition, and the two companies on the way over should be able to push back.

Breitfeld continues to be a key point. The force at the T in the road remains unbroken, but A and B Companies, 35th Tank Battalion, have orders to clean up the routing Panther company.

A very curious situation occurs in Neundorf. The 37th Tank Battalion HQ has chosen that as its location, a decision made before the concentration of SS forces northeast of it were known. Somehow, despite the presence of a company of assault guns, some engineer companies, and an armored infantry company it has forced to retreat.

I can only speculate as to why the headquarters hasn't been wiped out. It's possible that German battalion has orders not to move, and that Peiper's HQ has not been able to reorganize and issue new orders. It doesn't seem likely that the German supply center is on the far side of Breitfeld and is being interrupted by combat east of St. Vith, but I'll allow that as a possibility. I'm just glad that a strong armored battalion, crucial to my attack, has not been thrown into disorganization.

Day-for-real breaks at 8:00am. 9:00am sees CCB fighting off the assault on the Breitfeld crossroads, and bringing the units attacking from the north back to the southeast St. Vith road. I can't fathom why they abandoned their commanding position to the east of St. Vith, but my subordinates have made their choice, and to modify their orders would be a big delay against only moderate gain. CCR crosses the rail line south of St. Vith, which I'll call a milestone.

In fact, the German forces around Breitfeld are badly depleted. The pictured Panther company has lost twelve of its thirteen tanks, largely to handheld AT arms and 57mm Guns M1, and the company to the southeast has been reduced to two working tanks.

At 10:00am, the Germans have been pushed back to the outskirts of St. Vith. Breitfeld has been recaptured and re-secured, and enough of the 1st Battalion, 318th Infantry Regiment has moved over to Lommersweiler to retake the objective. I am inordinately pleased to report that this, along with the heavy losses inflicted on the Germans in the march to St. Vith, has moved the win/loss indicator in my direction.

An hour passes, seeing more of CCR reach the southern St. Vith rail line. It's not obvious in this picture, but 8th Tank Battalion, CCB has begun to move northwest toward St. Vith.

The Germans have two companies at Lommersweiler, more than B/318 and B/489 can reasonably handle. I detached most of the rest of the 35th Tank Battalion and sent it south to help out (I believe the sum comes to an armored infantry battalion and a cavalry reconnaissance troop).

By 1:30pm, the Germans have fallen back into St. Vith proper. CCB (which, at present, is the 8th Tank Battalion and CCA's 51st Armored Infantry Battalion) has charged up the southeast road, and should help CCR make progress into the town.

Half an hour passes, and CCR and CCB have met up.

2:20pm sees CCR surging past the rail line. An obvious strong point lands an artillery bombardment. The 37th Tank Battalion HQ is still improbably unscathed.

News from Lommersweiler, twenty minutes later: hopefully, this attack will finish off the remaining German company here. I'll probably leave one company in Lommersweiler, send the 1/318 line units back over to Steinebrück, and reattach one of the armored units to the 35th.

Yet another airstrike has been cancelled because of bad weather, which is making my job much harder than it has to be.

Which brings me to 3:00pm, fifteen hours from the end of the scenario. CCR advances toward St.Vith on a broad front, with CCB on the right flank. In the last hour or two, the artillery batteries have mostly reached their fatigue limits, though the 94th Field Artillery Battalion (attached to CCR) is still firing.

I honestly never expected to be this close to St. Vith at all, much less with enough time left to potentially take it. I attribute my unexpected success to two main causes:

1) Starting the attack early. Using the cover of darkness to mask my movement, a trick that's been around since the beginning of recorded military history, only occurred to me four days into a battle where poor visibility has been a problem for at least 48 hours, which doesn't say a lot about my talent as a general. By doing so, I got a large force into position to attack without encountering anything that would prevent it from moving freely.

2) Happening upon Peiper's HQ. I can't take credit for this, and unless one of my subordinates is luck incarnate I don't think any of them can, either. Paralyzing the German command structure just as the full weight of my attack was beginning to land almost certainly aided CCR in pushing the German defenders of St. Vith back to the city center. This is good luck, and probably the first honest good luck that I've had in this engagement.

I feel a bit strange doing postgaming now, though, since I'm so close to the end. Tune in next week or so for the exciting conclusion to Return to St. Vith!

 

[Fishbreath]

Fifteen minutes after we last heard from the 4th Armored, not much has changed. The 66th Armored Field Artillery Battalion has orders to lay down fire on the concentration of units around the city center, but has run out of ammunition.

The TO&E for the 66th is kind of interesting. The obvious bulk of the unit comes from the 105mm Howitzer Motor Carriages M7 (which you probably know as the Priest via World of Tanks), but it's got an impressive amount of organic transport capacity, and although 200 carbines, M1 isn't a great deal of infantry firepower, it's probably more than sufficient to hold off small-scale attacks.

Anyway, according to Wikipedia, all the US armored divisions involved in the Battle of the Bulge had three motorize artillery battalions, which gave them "unparalleled" mobile fire support. I buy that.

Obviously, another fifteen minutes isn't enough to make much progress, but it does give me a useful window in which to comment on the boundaries of the St. Vith objective: the villages to the southwest and south serve as convenient visual references, as do the vees in the road to the west, the highway to the north, and the rail line to the north-northeast. I'll call the edge of the industrial district west of city center the eastern border. Or rather, I'll suggest you do that; I can just pop on the indicator whenever I feel the need to check, but I don't usually take many screenshots of them.

D Company of the 37th Tank Battalion, the one that was nearly obliterated on the highway south of St. Vith yesterday, has recovered from its rout and attempts to surrender, and, by spearheading the attack on the western flank with a mere two M5 Stuarts, is demonstrating a great deal of pluck.

At 4:00pm on D4, A Company of the 704th Tank Destroyer Battalion has reached the city center, and elements of the 25th Tank Battalion, the 53rd Armored Infantry Battalion, and the 8th Tank Battalion are nearing the objective line.

Lommersweiler sees ongoing light fighting, with the elements of the 318th Infantry Regiment and the 35th Tank Battalion still trying to knock out the 2nd Company of the German 27th Fusiliers.

40 minutes later, a significant portion of CCB and CCR have made it into St. Vith proper. 7th Company of the 27th Fusiliers lurks in the forest east of Breitfeld, but it hasn't made many aggressive moves while I've been able to see it.

A twilight chill settles over the hills and forests of the Ardennes. Some of the CCR's units, including C/704 TD Bn, make their way to the southeast of St. Vith to help plug that flank. The fighting in the city center remains heavy, with US forces engaging at least two German headquarters units.

In Lommersweiler, the combined detachments from the 1/318 Battalion and the 35th Tank Battalion push 2/27 Fusiliers back to the west.

Nightfall comes at 6:00pm, twelve hours to scenario end (at which point I am judged by my superiors, no matter how close I might be to absolute victory). The American forces in St. Vith, led by A/704, begin to drive a wedge into the German contingent defending the northern edge of the town, while a smaller force pushes around to the northwest.

The concentration of German forces in the northern part of St. Vith looks denser and denser. I order the 35th, including its units detached to the south, to reorganize and move up to St. Vith.

This is as good a place as any to make the point that the appearance of passivity I've given thus far in this installment isn't that exactly: rather, I gave my orders early this morning, and modifying orders to CCR or CCB would take longer than I have to spare.

A few minutes later, C Company, 37th Tanks, to the northwest of 25th Cavalry Recon Squadron HQ, has finally recovered from its rout. In doing so, it has soundly beaten up on the infantry gun company that was right next to it.

Snow continues, of course. It's still below freezing temperature, although I wouldn't necessarily call that freezing in a figurative sense. Nor is it a major issue; its biggest effect is on fatigue recovery, and between now and the end of the scenario, the troops won't have time for that anyway.

The 37th Tank Battalion makes a flanking maneuver, while the heavy fighting in the center of the town continues. Having an overwhelming superiority in units is handy; it means that the German forces are more consistently under fire, which saps their fighting efficiency.

The 35th Tank Battalion, while making its way up the road, encounters a German company in the woods, which it promptly forces to retreat. This may be the 2/27 Company that had previously retreated from Lommersweiler, or it may be another. Either way, expect some supply disruptions overnight; it's very difficult to find units sneaking around in the dark and snow, so some supply columns might run right into them.

8:30pm arrives, and there isn't much to report. The 37th Tank Battalion pushes ever further north, the company the 35th Tanks bypassed is identified as the 5th Company, 27 Fusiliers, and a greater weight of forces arrives in St. Vith.

Once again, little to say an hour later. The 35th Tank Battalion reaches St. Vith, while the 5th Company, 27th Fusiliers pushes forward to menace the road. Two companies from the 10th Armored Infantry Battalion are tasked to push it back.

Just before 10:00pm, the balance of forces tips to the American side in St. Vith. The objective is, at least for the moment, ours.

In other news, supply columns returning to CCA's base from the front line suffer moderate losses, as I suspected might begin to happen.

 

[Fishbreath]

The 37th Tank Battalion HQ, from its place in Neundorf, prepares to move up to St. Vith... except they forgot about the two companies of heavy tanks just to their north, and ended up having to fall back. Now that the enemy force is on the map, the 37th should path around them.

St. Vith remains in American hands. The 704th Tank Destroyer Battalion, although its units are split up among CCR's battalions, is proving to be a major factor in this battle.

St. Vith falls out of American hands in the next ten or fifteen minutes. The Germans must have units sneaking in to the north and east. Notice also that elements of the 10th Armored Infantry Battalion have forced the surrender of the 5th Company, 27 Fusiliers, which is one fewer supply disruption to worry about.

The 53rd Armored Infantry Battalion receives orders to attack north of the St. Vith objective. In doing so, they'll push the Germans further away from the objective and bring the force ratio more in my favor.

St. Vith has been recaptured, but it won't stick; a few minutes after I took this screenshot, it's lost again. The 37th Tank Battalion HQ knows enough to dodge the heavy tanks, now that they're marked on the map. It's now Day 5: six hours to go.

An hour later, the big story is transport column losses. Fortunately, this is happening in the last six hours of the scenario. That's a bit gamey; I doubt my superiors would look too kindly on my glossing over of losses to the supply lines just because I'm close to my current objective. Fortunately, they're not real, and they don't mind in this artificial scenario.

Another hour goes by, and the 35th Tank Battalion, which has been involved in nearly every major fight during this four-day battle, receives orders to once again go on the attack, pushing northwest from St. Vith's city center.

It's now 3:00am, another hour after the last picture, and the scenario ends in three hours. The 35th Tank Battalion is engaged with the forces to the north, and the 8th Tank Battalion now begins an attack to the east to widen the American perimeter. Even in this zoomed-in view, three gray crosses marking surrendered or defeated German units can be seen.

The town comprises three terrain types: town (the denser sort at the very center), village, and industrial (south of the two German units on the east road). Fortunately, they're all roughly the same for armored units: they're hard to navigate and present major obstacles to accurate fire.

The push to the north achieves some ground, while the 8th's push to the east meets lesser successes. Successes in the north prove to be sufficient, though, as I retake the objective at 4:59am, with one hour to go.

Another 30 minutes sees steady progress to the north and slight gains (but no losses) to the east. At this point I'm willing to call it.

And indeed, I am correct to do so.

There are a few things of interest to pull from the post-battle screen (and, for that matter, the revealed map in the background, but I'll get to that).

1. I missed a better-than-marginal victory by a few scant points, I think, and if I'd been a bit faster to St. Vith I could have had it.

2. Personnel losses favored me. I suspect this is because much of my early progress featured my tanks against German infantry. AFV casualties were more even, but given the German prowess in that respect and the fact that I was attacking, I'll take it.

3. A lot of German units ended up merging, and even once you discount those, seven of them were eliminated entirely. 233 personnel losses came from surrender, while only 4 came from bombardment and none from air strikes. In fact, German aviation and American friendly fire did better than American aviation, which is eyebrow-raising. Too, German bombardment proved more effective than American (although I submit that the American bombardments were more effective in blunting attacks and driving off defenses).

4. 11 members of D/37 Company managed to surrender before they were relieved.

Hitting that Review Final Situation button gives me a map with everything revealed. Handy.

On this one:

1. In the mess of counters at St. Vith is Peiper's HQ, which answers the question fo where that went.

2. The reason the heavy tank battalion southwest of St. Vith never moved is finally clear: the unit with the half-filled circle symbol is Peiper's Kampfgruppe base. Having a full brigade enemy brigade close to it must have spooked him; without it, his forces would have almost instantly been in bad supply shape. Such is the fog of war: if those three companies had attacked a few hundred meters east, they could have seriously thrown off my attack.

3. Speaking of supplies, the unit I thought was 7th Company, 27th Fusiliers was actually a division-level base, practically unprotected. That would have been nice to knock out, if I had known it was there. Such, as I just said, is the fog of war.

4. The stubbornly persistent 2nd Company, 27th Fusiliers was the cause of my supply disruptions. A/318 and the AT platoon didn't even notice it there through most of the night.

All told, I'm willing to take my marginal victory. Given my early blunders, even making it to St. Vith at all was fortunate. Hitting Peiper's HQ completely by accident and keeping the 501st Heavy Tank Battalion out of the fight by appearing to threaten Peiper's base probably won me the battle, and that's probably the greatest endorsement of this game I can give. This fictional scenario played out like so many real ones: a force moving at nighttime stumbles upon the enemy, engages them, and throws them into disorganization, and one commander, units perfectly placed to halt his enemy's steady advance, refuses to act because his intelligence is poor.

Thanks for reading. I probably had as much fun writing about this encounter as I did playing it. As a coda, I'm hoping for the patch to fix the halting bug to land before about December 20th. If it should, watch this forum around Christmastime for

The Battered Bastards of Bastogne: A Command Ops Christmas Special

 

[Fishbreath]

It's not going to be that much longer before I begin composing the Christmas special. Return to St. Vith featured the end of the battle; the Christmas special will feature the middle. If you're hankering for more Command Ops goodness, I recommend this AAR from the official Matrix forums, which covers the opening phase of the battle in the vicinity of Bastogne.

 

[Fishbreath]

Edit: the post that was here belonged in the Bastogne one.

 

[Fishbreath]

Good heavens, I put that in the wrong thread. Why did nobody say anything?

 

[Eduardo X]

Good heavens, I put that in the wrong thread. Why did nobody say anything?

Didn't want to reread the whole thread to figure out wtf was going on.