Part 9: Operation Torskblast: Finale

Operation Torskblast: Finale



One of the strangest mechanics in Steel Panthers is that if a unit gets pinned or buttoned, you need to manually make an attempt to remove the suppression points on that unit. I don't know why they couldn't have handled such a thing automatically, which would have been both better for gameplay and realism.

In any case the attempt succeeds, allowing Lundgren's tank to chase off the remaining HQ member.



Meanwhile, the forces attacking our frontline are just about spent. There seem to be about half a dozen Carl Gustav Recoilless Rifle teams attackin from the shadows though, and a plan is drawn up to deal with them.



Our freshly rallied tank charges the flank of the Norwegian Homeguard Company. Not only does this expose them to fire from multiple sides and cut them off from both attack and retreat, but it draws a lot of the dangerous Carl Gustav fire. One of the AI's shortcomings is that it is obsessed with buttoning armoured vehicles even in situations where attacking said vehicle is suicide.



For a tremendous majority of this match, the only threat to our units has been this single MG3 Section. If the AI is bad with other units, they are devastating with Machineguns. It can be difficult for a human to read into the games calculus of what hexes will provide the most concealment or the widest arc of vision, but the AI understands it perfectly. This is how it places certain units so that they can shoot you but you can't see them at all.



The Norwegians are finally starting some flanking maneuvers, though. They send one or two Squads of infantry up through the north but they swiftly get cut down by sniper fire.

You will notice to the side of this screencap that the Lvkv 90 has been dispatched. This was due to an absolute fluke shot (4% accuracy) fired by the last Recoilless Rifle team alive.



As for some good news. The Norwegian frontline is utterly smashed at this point. They respond to this turn of events by doing something very smart and something very stupid.



A burst of .50 Caliber gunfire from the south indicates that the Norwegians have in fact been launching a diversionary attack this entire time. In the same turn that their forces to the west have been destroyed, a new force comes from the south, and the front of the battle swiftly turns facing.



Speaking of the forces to the west, the MG3 Section opens fire at the back of the frontline tank, revealing its exact location. I'm baffled that it managed to stay hidden there. Regardless, it is cut down by our own machineguns both in the infantry formation and on the Strv 121.



Here is the stat screen of that which has caused us so much trouble!



Now that that's been taken care of, we can now focus on the force to the south. Now that the Norwegians are actually making use of strategy, maybe this match can finally begin!



Or maybe they just wanted to get in one last kick before surrendering to us.




Not only did we lose surprisingly few of our units, but the Norwegians tended to focus their fire so that most of the units that are still alive are at full strength. Hell, the only reason we lost as many people as we did is because the Norwegians rushed us and sacrificed over half of a rifle company in the last 2-3 turns of the match!





The same cannot be said about the Norwegians. The Rifle Company is the only formation of theirs that did not get completely cut down. The huge majority of their force has been wounded, killed, captured or otherwise destroyed.



The Steel Panthers engine uses a very arbitrary system for determining the extent of a victory. Rushing the victory points and losing enough people to end the match is not only a strategy in this game, it is the strategy.

However, such things only matter if you're playing a campaign. We won, we won hard, and we are fully aware that we won hard!

Meanwhile, we should begin discussing our next match, if it's going to be Soviet Union vs NATO 1980 (as enough people seemed to agree on), might I suggest another 2000 point match? It would be a fair bit larger than this one because it uses the same point amount with cheaper military technology from 3 decades ago.

Also, if you want to sign up for a formation; just submit your name in the next couple of days.