Roosendaal AAR! Or Come read me!

faded glory · July 1, 2002, 00:52

accounts taken from both sides after the battle

If its too long and your to lazy to read, bah for you. Theres pictures at the bottom.

This is an AAR about a Massively Mplayer Online Game Ive been with for a few months. Its called World war2 online. Its a persistent 3d world devoted to replaying world war2. On any given night, there are about 5,000 + people on operating aircraft, tanks, boats, or just plain with a rifle, pistol or SMG. Reusing the same virtual equipment and battling over historical cities..it takes much organization, which is why people like me keep coming back. Theres a real rush when playing this game. Currently this battle takes place in the battle of france, near a town in holland called Rosendaal in1940. The Germans are rolling up the South and have captured Sedan and french forces are historically, falling back. The AHC, or Allied High Command (The guys who allocate resorces, deploy divisions and plan attack. Who ultimately are in charge of most the units on the battlefield) have ordered "Operation Rennissance" An attack that if it works, should reach Eindhoven..

There are Squads, Mega Squads and small Squads. THere are also Divisions, each Division has about 12 squads. Most squads have 50+ men, there are 19 Allied Divisions. The BEF squad I was with (or, British Expeditionary force) this night, the BKB or Black Knight Brigade operates in Holland, Just on the border with belgium. They are a huge unit and alot of responsibility for Antwerp not being shelled is on there shoulders.

It was a long night. The British forces, and the 204 members of the Black Night Brigade had been hammering away at Kalmouth only finally taking it. Then the call on the Radio came through, the order was to form up and that we were going to attack the germans at Rosendaal Netherlands. And to meet and assemble Forward base near Kalmouth. The call went out all channels, CiC asked the 111th RAF squad to be prepared to take off from Antwerp to provide air aupport in the Blen Mk IV's and Hurricanes. A call was also sent out to assemble odds/ends like AT and AA guns at the FB. When we had all assembled it was one hell of a sight. Almost 300 people looking down the road towards rosethdaal, a single, well placed bomb from a stuka could of killed 40 of us. THe 64 player viewing limit was kicking in if we looked at too many people. So we decided to not wait around for the Luftwaffe to find us or before we all lagged to hell. Alot of the BKB veteran players Brought along the tanks from all over Belgium. When Col. b2k counted we had amassed some 50 A-13's Cruiser tanks, 7 matilda's, 6 Bedfords full of about 80 infantry and a few more bedfords towing AAA and 2 pounder guns. So we had lots of people involved in this attack.

The attack

We figured it would take us 20 minutes to reach rosendaal from the FB, so we called in the 111th to break off some Hurricanes to get atleast temporary air support over the battlefield. Since the Allied high Command had gave ok to start Operation Rennissance and had promised us this air support.....they agreed and took off. We Headed out, we could see about 7-10 hurricanes above flying cover. Just barely, they were above the cloud tops but you could make them out. As soon as we began moving we ran into some difficulty. The plan was to break off into 3 groups and attack from the South, west, and east. If we could. Some people were confused but eventually after 5 minutes, they had the idea and sqauds/battaltions began breaking off the main group for there assignments. Ironically, at the same time, a very large German squad (116th PZ "Windhund") had been redeployed in the area by the German High Command to make a counter attack on Kalmouth and were actually assembling inside the city Square and had no idea about us coming. Almost 100 german players.

About halfway towards Rosendaal we were spotted and strafed by an ME-110, however, for unknown reason. The pilot player of the ME-110 never reported our presence. So suprise was still on our side. About 4 miles up the road we ran into the first sign of resistance....a lone Panzer 38T had thought it was a good idea to scout out Kalmouth maybe? What was he doing there? Who knew... but he had pulled off to the side of the road to stupidly fire at some virtual sheep in a farmers field...Big mistake! he never made it home. Myself and Ggandalf destroyed him before he even spotted us. We procceed on to the city with no real resistance except a lone sapper who looked lost. On the approaches to the city we had been ordered to halt until all 3 groups were poised to attack. This posed a problem, if we were spotted...german defenders could spawn in and dig in. We complained that we should attack, but HC refused and said we were already several cities and hours behind schedule, so better to be sure we can take the town instead of getting cut up piecemeal. After all, Operation Rennissance called for the BKB to strike and take Kalmouth, Rosendaal, and several other towns on the road to Eindhoven, where there the AST and several several other large squads were already driving northward from Paal Belgium. The goal was to of course cut off and end up surrounding Eindhoven with 2 Giant Pincers.

So we sat and waited, after about 5 minutes an AI MG spotted us and began to pour Machine gun fire on our now parked column about 40 feet off the road and less than a mile from Roosendaal. We took it out, but this alerted the defenders of Roosendaal, who at that moment were heading out to attack kalmouth, they quickly paused sensing somthing was up. They then began sending out scouts which not only found our position, they also succeeded in finding the other 2 pincers. From Axis player accounts, Some 4 88's and 10 37mm's were brought into the city and placed around it and some 20 tanks destined to attack kalmouth halted. Lone Wolves spawned in to help defend. The BKB, with 2 of the 3 attack columns ready to attack, decided to begin despite the 3rd which ran into 1st SturmGrendadier German Squad at a farm house adn were engaged in fierce fighting which could be heard in the distance. There estimated time arrival was not known, so the green light was given and we started up our attack.

About 40 Infantry in our column dismounted from the Bedfords, they would be first into the southern side of the city to try to get a foothold. There was a Church and some apartment blocks to take cover. But little did we know some of the german division had dug themselves in there, so as the BKB infantry approached ggandalf gave the order for the AT and AAA guns to begin pounding the city. At this moment 111th Blen strike team arrived just in time to drop 3 Blen loads on the City Center. However defenders were alerted and more spawned in. As soon as BKB's infantry on the south pincer was spotted a hail of bullet began flying from the city. The infantry forces in the west had even worse luck running into some 7 Panzers and Halftracks/opels full of infantry. Ggandalf told us to get the A-13's and Matilda's up into the city asap before there was no infantry left. After making some headway and getting a hold on the south part of the city, we ran into heavy resistance on Roosendaal's Main ST. There were some 2 88mm ATG set up on the approaches to the german army base and several 38's and PZIII's and even a MkIV stashed in allys along the street.. At first We lost a tank, he despawned we could figure what hit him. And again, Klera, the only Matilda in our unit was then taken out. We knew it was an 88. So we proceeded with caution finally loosing another 3 A-13's before we decided to pull over and let the Blen's take out the 88's. This they did, and damn well too. 2 88mm's and 14 infantry were killed during Prangs lone bombing run. This cleared the road for a bit , but the army base had to be taken and soon. RAF Hurricanes had reported Opels loaded with AT's of reinforcements heading in and infantry. So we had to make it quick. Gandolf, I, and Rjicks began to drive down Main street with some infantry behind us clearing out the buildings we went past. Lots of defenders in there apparently, in one church in the middle of town redneck2 swore the germans were having some sort of pray meeting, or it was the locations of the Windhund Command. As he and Slocum entered the building 6 germans were completly caught off gaurd and killed, the only germans offering resistance was the sniper in the belltower and the Sub Machine Gunner on the stairs. Anyway as Ggandalf and I continued down the Road we ran into lots of pulled over german tanks. It became a point blank fight alot of the time. Some 3 German tanks were taken out before reaching the AB walls. By the time the Germans got wise called a massive HE-111 strike. Figuring the city was lost and this could stop the attack. About 15 HE-111's flew over the city and completely leveled it. The HE-111's flew to high for the Hurricanes, however the 2 Hotchkiss AA gunners we brought with us saw them but were unable to take out enough of them. The city had been leveled so bad, most of the buildings were gone and most of the german/BEF infantry killed. But the tanks lived. Heavily rattled, ggandalf I and several infantry pushed towards the cities Army base of the city, the source of the german resistance. The other tank had to despawn due to mechanical issues of He-111 bombing. After coming across one more tank, a 38t that fought tough but in vain we reached the AB, and the dreaded Bunker. Nobody knew how much krauts were in there...but after our eastern strike force met up with us. Abotu 10 troops decided to storm the bunker encountering one German who was left behind to gaurd the city flag, apparently most fought and died. Assuming the GHC (German High command) decided the city was no longer worth fighting for. With the city leveled, and sadly our attack broken, we lost most infantry and tanks in the attack. we were unable to continue pressing on Eindhoven. Monday was coming and most of us had to work. So the atack couldnt procceed as it was already 1:00 am where I am in Wisconsin. So I left, and B2k posted a simple "Operation Renissance, stalled" on the Allied High Command forum. Not good news. But it was understandable, the Germans had repulsed the 3rd Canadian and AST's assault also. It was one hell of a fight. One I will remember.

Conclusion

While Operation Rennissance was a large failure it did provide us with valuable expierence. Unfortunately with the overall picture, the French were being wrapped up in the south and several days later, Brussels would fall and the Siege of Antwerp would begin as the axis would once again throw the allies back into the sea.
However, if anything was gained, the BKB would employ much of what it had learned at Rosendaal for future attacks.

Pictures below!

Hey most of you wondering why I posted this here. I was bored, I also get a free month if I recruit someone to world war2 online

Heres the site btw
World War 2 Online

faded glory · July 1, 2002, 00:54

BKB forces come under fire from AI MG and AI AT

faded glory · July 1, 2002, 00:55

l33t BKB troops wait for the other spearheads to get into position

faded glory · July 1, 2002, 00:57

With the infantry bogged down, we were asked to move in. The ruins of Rosendaal can be seen in the center-left. The BLens had already cleaned house. Damn shame the Sun had come up, suprise was lost

faded glory · July 1, 2002, 00:58

.

faded glory · July 1, 2002, 01:02

The eastern attack that never arrived......from the air

faded glory · July 1, 2002, 01:06

Approaching Rosendaal while Hurricanes strafe the city

faded glory · July 1, 2002, 01:09

This flamer thought he could kill me from the side. Fortunately the A-13 is a little faster than most german loaders. me and Ggandolf riddled his ass with about 30 AP rounds

faded glory · July 1, 2002, 01:13

Who's left? 15 infantry, 3 tanks, 2 AT guns and an AA..... Out of what??

faded glory · July 1, 2002, 01:54

Oh found a shot from the air, about over the north side of the city where theres like a park. Tho clearly, you can see the SOB 37mm and Pz 38 moving south.

Ok im bored. Im goign to sleep.

faded glory · July 1, 2002, 21:25

Big thanks to 'Stiener79' who signed up and reffered me! I got a free month of gameplay! If you read this or one of the others in the many forums this is in give it a bump and tell me who you are

alva · July 2, 2002, 01:19

Has it become stable?, when ww2 came out it was filled with bugs and crashed about every 6.32 seconds.

Does seems tempting to try it out.

faded glory · July 2, 2002, 01:43

"Has it become stable?, when ww2 came out it was filled with bugs and crashed about every 6.32 seconds.

Does seems tempting to try it out."

Ya, but you still get shitty CDT's every once and awhile. But rats have said they devoted 100% of there time to fixing these now. So, whatever. The new cap rules made things awesome. It used to be 1 man in a truck sneaking behind the lines. Now it takes a shitload of effort. Here are some more pics senator1 took of us.

faded glory · July 2, 2002, 01:45

somewhere assembling.

faded glory · July 2, 2002, 01:49

As for graphics, there revamping the whole thing soon. They started with 1.6. Also this game sucked when it first came out, Its fixed now. Its alot better... Somthing to consider. I want this game to survive, I dont think there will be another like it so large. Most games are small sized. 36 players in each room.but this, there is no room or lobby. Just a virtual world with lots of people.

faded glory · July 2, 2002, 01:51

most bugs have been eliminated. Clipping is still possible if you work on it, but the flying tanks, fall off map, and infantry walking across the english channel is no more.

faded glory · July 2, 2002, 01:52

There was that 110 and Stuka I said in the AAR. Wierd, he bombed us but he never told anyone about our column

Victor Galis · July 2, 2002, 04:14

Tell me, does the game follow the real course of the war, or if the German players really sucked, would it be possible to hold France for a lot longer?