World War II Online

How does this game play? ***Warning long read***

I would like to recount one mission I had a few days ago to give an insight on how this game is played (sometimes). As you all know, the game world is one freaking huge map with no zones. Well a few days ago the French forces mounted an attack on Sedan. I and 2 of my squad members joined this attack. I was interested in playing a good tank mission so I recommended that we try that.

Sedan lies on the Meuse River. The river approaches the town from an east-west direction then when it reaches the town the river cuts south. The river splits the town in half running north-south. This town has an army base (major spawn point) on the west side and east side. The majority of the city is located on the east side.

Further to the east, the terrain rises up to foot hills that over look the city. These hills extend to the north where the Ardennes forest begins. To the south, the river extends to other cities miles away. To the south west, there are good hills to over look the town. Finally To the west, the main road rises up to some small foot hills and is cluttered with tree lines. Approaching from the west is difficult since the defenders can sit on the west side or east side of the river and have a commanding view of any vehicle that approaches.

Well the call went out to all French forces to concentrate on this attack.  3 of us from my squad spawned at the 104th Anti Tank brigade from the Charleville forward base (our major spawn point located 4000 meters from town) This forward base is located on the south end of the Meuse but west of town. The normal approach to town is to head east where the defenders will see us approach.

All 3 of us spawned the M10 tank killer. The attack was just starting so the enemy would have panzer 4s, Stug3s, and 88mm Anti Tank guns available to defend with. The best strategy would be to flank around, approach from an unexpected direction to pick off these tanks from range. The M10 is the best French vehicle to do this because of its 76mm main gun. Since driving a tank straight down the road into town is the best way to test the Germans anti-tank defenses (and getting killed quick from an unknown source) I decided to take my squad the long route to cross the river away from town and climb the north hills and enter the Ardennes forest. This would give us the element of surprise and also hide our movements from the ever present Luftwaffe overhead.  Note the M10 is an open top tank that can easily be killed by any enemy aircraft by just strafing the crew in the turret. It's only defense to this is a browning 50 cal machine gun that is mounted to aim up and behind the tank.

After a long drive up the hill and in the forest I positioned us to be in the trees at the edge of the north slope looking straight down into the town. During our drive the French forces had secured 2 critical buildings in the west side of town and were pressing the attack at the army base. We sat and watched the infantry battle from 1600 meters away.

When the opportunity presented it's self, we fired a few high explosive shells at German AA or AT guns that were within the army base. No enemy panzers or 88mm guns were visible at this time. The initial enemy tanks must have been dispatched from the armor group located in the south west hills.

From out of no where, the ground in front of my tank exploded. Over voice comms, I quickly said, "Someone spotted us, move back." I changed positions to the driver spot and started the engine and slammed into reverse to go back into the trees. A second shell exploded near me and then a third rang off the tank armor as I entered the protection of the woods. That was close. I moved us further east in the trees then moved south to crest the hill to look down on the town again.

We were spread out at 50 meters apart when we broke the tree line looking south. I had spotted a German panzer way off in the distance on the south east side of town. He was firing south west (that’s how I saw him, muzzle flash) most likely at our armor on the south west hills. From my commander's position, I pointed the range finder at him and it read back 2200. That's a 2200 meter shot at the side of the tank. Switching to the gunner position, I lined up the enemy tank at the 22 mark on the gunsite and let fly. The first shot hit the tank square. He immediately exploded. Hehe, 76mm armor piercing high explosive shell (APHE) is not very healthy. At this time one of my squad guys noted German infantry in one of the church towers. He put several 76mm high explosive shells into that church tower, and got 2 German snipers ala Saving Private Ryan.

We sat at that spot for a bit longer looking. By this time the French controlled the west side of the town. The bridge in the center of town was still up and the infantry were fighting it out for control. Any friendly tanks that tried to cross the bridge were cut down by anti tank guns embedded into the buildings in town. We didn't have any view on those defenders from the north hills. Before long a second and third tanks in the south east became visible and we dispatched them. I decided that we should continue the flanking move and head to the east hills where we can get a good look at the Germans defending the bridge. We moved in the back woods away from town heading east then at a point turned south. Before leaving the cover of the trees I had us stop and listen. We heard a moving panzer approaching from our south east. It must have been someone re-supplying the attack from a town miles to the east. I was the first to spot him. A panzer 4g moving to the same area I intended to go. I put a few rounds into him at 800 meters, which got him.

The 3 of us left the cover of the trees and entered a foothill open plain area and we continued on south. Ahead was a small rise and beyond that was the east road that leads into the town. I had us stop and listen again. We heard the engine of an enemy tank ahead. Most likely a good German tanker has positioned his tank on this east hill to look down at the attacking French on the west side. Over voice comms, I said we should approach that small rise and get a look at that guy to blow him away. We moved slowly to the small crest hill and scanned over. I immediately spotted a PZ4g sitting in a bush row looking west close. Like 400 meters close. Since I had several tank kills already, I told the other guys to take him out. As the 2 of them started shooting, one squad guy yells over voice, "second tank, STUG, he's firing". I hear several shots come from him and a tank I could not see. The 2 of us who didn't see where this STUG was scanned the terrain for him. "I'm dead" came over voice comms. "I can't seem him.....o damn I'm dead too" said my other squadie. I just then spotted the Stug. He was well camouflaged. I could only make out a small top section of his tank and the silhouette of his commander. He was firing at me as I was lining him up. I only got 2 shots off before I was killed. I must have missed on both shots.

So in that 51 minute mission, we 3 bagged a total of 3 PZ4Gs, 1 PZ3H, 1 PZ38t, a flak gun, 2 snipers and 1 Stug (the one that killed us all). This does not count the amount of damages that we caused when we fired HE shells into the defenders. Somehow when my squadie first fired on the Stug, one of his shots must have penetrated the Stug and killed the driver/engine but left the gunner alive. Since this is critical damage, the kill gets awarded even though the Stug could fight on.

Not a very good mission in my opinion. If the 3 of us made it to the east slope, we could have turned the tide for control of the bridge since we would of been in position to fire down at the defenders from behind them. During the whole time of this mission, a lot of people from both sides were participating in the battle both on the ground and in the air all around the town. Take note, there were no boundaries keeping us boxed in.

Later