Combined arms night combat highlights (video)

[Lemonade]

Some highlights from a desperate push towards the Soviet pocket holding trapped 320 Infantry Division near Taranovka.
German Taranovka Operation February 12-13, 1943. It's turn eight, if I remember correctly, so only two turns are remaining until the end of operation.
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2516431B5CA8E138

[Dane49]

Very nice,after watching your videos I decided to play a few night quick battles myself.

[randall.flagg]

Your video settings make me sad.
To get a better frame rate in bigger battles I had to turn down shadows and turn off the tracer light over ground effect.

[Dane49]

I originally bought the 1st game Kharkov 1943 from Amazon for $5 and liked it so much that I purchased APOS shortly there after back in March.Unfortunately,I deleted the Kharkov 43 game after purchasing APOS believing that all the same campaigns that were in Kharkov 43 would be in APOS also.My question though,does anyone recall or still have the 1st game,and if so I was wondering if there is a campaign scenario about a SSLAH battalion (according to George Nipes book about the 3rd battle of Kharkov) that failed to take and secure Taranovka on Feb.16-17,1943 and after suffering many casualties and over 100 wounded got cut off and surrounded by the 185th Russian rifle division in the village of Taranovka and couldn't retreat for fear of having to leave their wounded behind and decided to hold out till they were either overrun or rescued.Fortunately for them they were rescued by a company of armoured infantry from the Der Fuhrer regiment and were able to transport their wounded out and retreat towards Novaja Voldoga.From my understanding not all the campaigns from the original game were ported into APOS.

[Lemonade]

Thanks for positive feedback about the video.
Randall, I have a lot of slowdowns on bigger battles too, so you're not alone. Frankly, most of the time my frame rate does not exceed 15-20. Sometimes even worse if things get real dense. Those two recorded ones were relatively light, with only several platoons participating in them.

Dane, I've looked it up, but unfortunately there's no such operation in APK43. What we have is:
German Taranovka operation March 02-03, 1943 (Kharkov counteroffensive),
Soviet Taranovka operation March 02-03, 1943 (Kharkov strategic defense operation),
Soviet Taranovka operation March 05-06, 1943 (Kharkov strategi defense operation),
There are also two Sokolovo operations and one River Mzha.
Mod TRM also comes with two operations, one from which is Taranovka, but it takes place on March 02-03, 1943 so I don't think it's what you're after.

[Dane49]

Thanks Lemonade,my curiosity was peaked about this video of the 320th German div. fighting in Taranovka on Feb. 13 which sounded like the same battle that Nipes describes that the SS battalion fought on Feb.16-17,and I'm a little confused as to what unit actually fought this battle and when.It's my understanding(according to Nipes in his book on the 3rd battle of Kharkov) that on Feb.13 the 320th div. was fighting for its survival around Zmiev and Krasnaya Polyana during this time.And the APOS DLC campaign places them there as well during this time also.

[andrey12345]

The path to the west from Zmiyev passes through the Sokolovo, north Taranovka, Rakitnoe areas, along the river Mzha. From the east, north and south of the Red Army was advancing, the Germans retreated to the west and southwest. To retreat from the Zmiyev area to the west in the direction of passing at least one of these areas is difficult.
Although the literature there is mention of various different maneuvers, dates for early APOS operations may be other. But the general retreat vector is approximately the same.

[Dane49]

Thanks, Andrey.If I understand you correctly.What you are saying is that the entire 320th German Division was not in the Krasnaya Polyana-Zmiev area during this time,and that some elements of the 320th division retreated into the Sokolovo, Rakitnoe and Taranovka  districts.The Nipes book does not go into detail on the 320th division,since the books' main focus is on the SS and Grossdeutschland operations during the 3rd battle of Kharkov and only mention other German units when they affected or involved Grossdeutschland or SS units.Unfortunately,this is the only book I have on these battles and wish I could find more books in English about the battles around Kharkov in 1943 that go into greater detail.3rd battle of Kharkov is a very interesting campaign.

[Dane49]

A couple night videos I posted on YouTube-  

[randall.flagg]

Lemonade, whats Mod TRM?

[Lemonade]

A couple night videos I posted on YouTube-  

Holy smokes. AI was very dedicated in his attempt to send your platoon to kingdom come. I like the short, silent pauses between some of the shell strikes. Very nice video with a lot of suspense and the atmosphere of uncertainty.

Randall, sorry for using abbreviation. It stands for Total Realism Mod for Achtung Panzer: Kharkov 1943.
It can be found here: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?471703-Total-Realism-Mod

[Dane49]

Yes,the AI distracted me with the bombardment.I thought it was getting ready for an all out assault on my defense line,but instead it infiltrated my almost defensless left flank and went on a land grab foray.If this would have been a campaign game,I would have spent the rest of the morning cleaning out the intruders behind my lines before they entrenched themselves.