Just another AAR

[Kaldadarnes]

Josh - 16 heavy arty 3 and probably 40+ arty 3. experience? most of the guns have been in action pretty much continuously for the last 6 months so definitely 60-70+.

They dissolve enemy infantry, the main problem is moving them...

[Kaldadarnes]

Next turn Feb 24

12 corps race South and break into Wuhu – a great start to the turn, 1 corps are also closing in rapidly and will be able to release 12 corps for the next push South shortly. They are also clearing supply lines south towards 2 & 9 corps reducing their reliance on a single bottleneck bridge near Fuyang.

10 corps keep driving West but they need engineers to get across the rivers and marshes. Supply is also starting to become an issue with no railways behind them –basicall they need to break through the forces to their front so that they can be supplied through Fuyang.

9 and 2 corps keep pushing on Penghu, the bridge is now up so supply is assured.

I start moving the 13 corps motorised artillery up to support 9 corps. Due to stragglers in the jungle and the lack of good roads they’ll have to go on a long loop round to the North. They’ll take a few turns but if there is to be heavy fighting then I’ll need all the guns I can get my hands on.

Hippy index – 38% (despite capturing Wuhu)



Wuhu captured, now 12 and 1 corps will pincer in on Weifang whilst 9 corps drive to Penghu

[Kaldadarnes]

Mar 3rd

DoM forces pull out of the gap between 1 and 2 corps fearing another pocket.

In the North 10 corps continue to push, but the river and a complex of marshes is really slowing them. Engineers are at the river so hopefully the situation will improve next turn.

Meanwhile 9 and 2 corps sweep forward like a rising tide. Guns are rushed up to shell Penghu and in the ensuing assault we successfully take the city. It’s another fine victory right on schedule. The mechanised infantry’s pace across rough ground is invaluable in this kind of fight – with the non-motorised units of 2 corps are half a dozen hexes to the rear, the few halftracks they have allow these rushes.

12 corps sweep out into the wide open spaces, cutting DoM in half, like a welsh winger (but without the mutton chops sideburns)…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJNbH_nzo9M

However, 1 corps have to be drawn off to protect their rear. There is a profusion of factories in the North churning out guns and armour still and threatening a counterattack towards Fuyang.

Hippy index – 42%

[Kaldadarnes]

Mar 10

Counterattacks against Penghu are repulsed with ease but there is a big build up on the road through to Xingtai and Macua (what I will call the Xingtai gap). However, 9 corps are equal to the challenge, pushing forward into this gap and successfully breaking through the weak infantry, hammering the rear area units, overrunning artillery and HQ units.

12 corps are held by the river north of Weifang, but engineers are now closed up and will bridge next turn. From the East 1 and 2 corps are closing on Weifang as well and manage to get across the river in a couple of places. It’s getting a bit scrappy but I just keep pushing forward with whatever, whoever I can find.

Oil supplies are becoming an issue, 85k barrels a few turns ago, 50k barrels now! – I prioritise train building, and my fat controller (nice graphics by the way lancer) directs oil to be priority shipped. There’s enough to keep my forces moving but I just need to ship it.



Pengui has been captured and 9 corps are ripping through the enemy forces en-route to Macau (SW down the road). Meanwhile Weifang is being ridly encircled with tanks from the north and west, and mechanised forces from the south and east. Engineers are at the river to the north and will allow my heavy guns passage in the next turn

Hippy index – 45%; progress is good, but is it quick enough?? I still expect a tough fight down to Macau and Xingtai.

[Kaldadarnes]

Mar 17

9 corps continue to drive down the road to Macau hard and do further damage to artillery and HQ units. The DoM rear echelon is dissolving. 2 corps push up behind as far as they can in support and also towards Weifang. I think 9 and 2 corps are going to bear the brunt of the final offensives. 13 corps artillery is still driving hard to reinforce , but it’s having to go the long way round (via Gabr) as the jungles have not been driven through with a road yet.

A nice little landmark as my southern jungles are finally cleared of SE & DoM forces – will also secure my southern oil flow from interference.



Andrew Arlington congratulates his men on the successful eradication of the last stragglers in the Southern jungles – well done chaps.

Hippy index – 46%

[Kaldadarnes]

Mar 25

Oil situation is sorted – a further 15 trains were moved to the transport pool last turn (with 50 to go this turn). Various blockages have now been cleared by militia units, and the prioritisation of my supply network to shipping oil has seen a 150% increase in weekly oil shipments to 25k barrels from just 10k last week.



Rawhide!

9 corps manage a stunning coup de main, seizing Xingtai off the line of march. DoM forces were holding it lightly and they pay the price. I am pleased to see that it is one of the original Ennis garrison units, that was assigned to 9 corps right back in the early parts of the game, that takes the city. A long road they have travelled!

Meanwhile 9 and 2 corps armour race towards Macau with artillery haring down behind them – 13 corps guns are catching up fast. Macau is now only 4 hexes away. Generally, Macau’s geography is going to start working against it – the same jungles and mountains that shield it from attack will render supplies and reinforcements unable to move in or out. 10 and 1 corps are already seeing a slacking in resistance - it now feels like a mopping up exercise

Further north Weifang is treated to all that is best in contemporary pyrotechnics – viz. a brutal shelling of the city that reduces it to rubble. The follow up attack takes the city but not easily and 2 brigades have all but been used up in the assault. Still the objective is secured as planned.

Hippy index – 45% - a slight dip on the news that Xingtai has fallen

[Kaldadarnes]

Quick map update as at the end of the turn - Xingtai and Weifang are now in my hands, and 9 corps are closing on Macau. Support from the North is arriving as well with only a single DoM formation blocking the road. The Götterdämmerung moment is surely not far off

[Josh]

ORIGINAL: Kaldadarnes

Josh - 16 heavy arty 3 and probably 40+ arty 3. experience? most of the guns have been in action pretty much continuously for the last 6 months so definitely 60-70+.

They dissolve enemy infantry, the main problem is moving them...

Those are the killer stacks in this game. Heavy Arty lvl 3 with high exp is a real killer, they dissolve opposing Inf units out in the open. In fact they are so good I consider them to be a little gamey, almost too good to be true... on the other hand massed Artillery really was that good in WWII.
You can use horses for regular Artillery but for the heavies you'll need Halftracks ...and they use oil. Lots of oil.

[Kaldadarnes]

Next turn – Mar 31st to the gates of Macau

We are at the gates of Macau! 9 corps and a few odds and ends of 2 corps are closing fast. 12 corps try to push down from the North but are blocked by a well constructed and entrenched DoM division with plenty of anti-tank and field artillery strength. 12 corps suffer heavy armour losses and retire, elements of 1 and 2 corps try an attack as well but are also repulsed, and with heavy losses. It looks like 9 corps is going to have to capture Macau itself. Still, 13 corps artillery is almost there in support.

Hippy index – 51%

Next turn Apr 7th

More troops and artillery race to Macau, I shell it with everything I can and attack – but the defense is still too strong, and my Action points just not enough to sustain the assault! One more turn surely, especially as the 14 corps heavy guns are now in range. I count around 40-50 artillery units (of which 25% are heavy guns) now in range.

Hippy index – 55%

Josh - this one is for you, the massed artillery pounds Macau

[Kaldadarnes]

Next turn – 14th April

It is over – Macau is reduced to rubble and the assault goes in. Even with the artillery bombardment the fight is still tough, but only one outcome is possible. Fittingly it is another of the original Ennis garrison units, who have fought all the way with 9 corps, which occupies the city. From the London Protectorate’s capital to the DoM’s – right across the map. Not intentional, but for some reason this pleases me. I’ve developed an emotional attachment to a selection of pixels…

Anyway, with Macua in my hands, the war is over. Sweet, sweet victory. Where did I put that Cigar?



9 corps infantry move through the rubble of the Macau parliament building as the last act of the war is played out

Hippy index – irrelevant, but within 3 turns I reckon I would have had to end the war, so I’ve cut it close!

[Kaldadarnes]

So what happened?

The initial defence was challenging but successful with Brighton holding longer than expected and the Aurora garrison actually going on the attack. It is a reminder that the power of well sited, comprised, organised and entrenched defence is huge in this game. But for the heavy artillery and the loss of supply, Brighton may well have held out indefinitely. The fact the Brighton held meant that the centre of my line was never in too much danger allowing me to focus on my flank where the battles were more fluid. The defence also meant I could maintain good attrition ratios. I estimated that I needed to run at least 3:1 to stay in the game and a 4:1 Kill/Loss ratio to win the attrition battle, and this was not far off in the end.

The battle in the South East in the first 6 months (around Hull/Hamadan) was confused and difficult. This was the area where I really felt the challenge of Lancer’s officer mod as initially there were not enough HQs to effectively focus units around – so I ended up with a lot of scratch forces, and a heavy preponderance of defensive/infantry formations. On other areas of the flanks I struggled to make headway against strong opposition an (abortive attacks against Gazvin, and slow progress against the troops isolating Aurora are good examples).

Eventually promotions and upgrades to raw and oil allowed me to raise and maintain some offensive/mixed formations such as 12 corps and 9 corps and that enabled me to go on the offensive. I successfully pulled off a couple of encirclements near Hull and Aurora which gave me the initiative over SE and these led on to the much larger encirclement with 9 and 12 corps linking up around Hyberbad. This in turn opened the way for 12 corps to race down to Baghdad, effectively ending the war for Saud Empire.

The captured territory fed my offensive with new units from the captured factories, PP from the captured cities and, most important of all, Oil. The experience of these early victories also transformed my commanders and men with both 12 and 9 corps (in particular) becoming fine, well led formations, more than a match for anything the enemy could throw at us.

Once SE was defeated, DoM had lost their ally and it was never really going to be a contest, but…they maintained huge pressure on my central front and it was only when their offensive against Aurora failed, and 3 corps started to turn their flank that they really started to crumble. Then it became a race against time to capture as much DoM territory as possible before the peace party settled. This we achieved with 12 & 9 corps at the forefront - the key was the rapid follow up of successful encirclement operations, never allowing the AI to reconstitute a defence line – it was a challenge as the bulk of my army marched on foot so my small number of mechanised infantry units became key (as per the early months of Barbarossa) but their performance was excellent. The whole war lasted little more than a year.

-------------------------

In the words of Trevor MacDonald “And finally…”

A brief note of praise to Vic and ATG:

In every game I play, I end up with a different story at the end of it; this time it was the heroic defence of Brighton, the calamitous loss of Hull, the oil supply crisis, the relief of Aurora, the huge encirclements near Hyberdad and Hamadan, the lightening seizure of Baghdad, the brutal attrition in the defence lines in front of Aurora, and the final battles on the road to Macau.

As writing up the AAR in detail took a while, I’ve had other games on the go in the background, in which I’ve had lengthy struggles for air superiority, huge bomber raids, massive see-sawing armoured clashes in the desert, grinding battles through forests and mountains. I’ve constructed massive and complex defence lines; built war industries from the ground up, and created huge transport networks to enforce my advantage…and still lost.

All that from randomly generated land maps (to be honest - I’m still getting to grips with land warfare). I’ve never played a game where every single time I fire it up I need to think differently about how to win. It’s just awesome, unbelievably awesome. And just when you think you’re getting the hang of it, the community gives you another challenge, be it Lancer or another with mods, one of the many scenarios, PBEM, or even an update from Vic; or you can just turn up the AI to 11.

Yeah, there is stuff I’d like to see added (no on who plays this game lacks a wish list) – but I bought this game on a whim about a couple of years ago (jumped straight into ATG, never touched the previous versions), and haven’t played anything else since (in “play per pound” terms the best £19.99 I ever spent).

Finally, it’s been a pleasure writing this AAR; I hope you enjoyed reading it, and thanks to those who have given feedback/answered questions – it’s always great to know people are a) reading and b) enjoying what you’re writing. It’s taken a while I know, in fact – I’ve only managed to write up one “game” week per “real” week – tip from the top: your computer game habit will really take a hit when you have kids.

K.

[ironduke1955]

You really love your Artillery, I believe in some states 155cm guns are allowed to marry, step to far in my opinion. A counter to artillery is Air Ground attack dive bombers fighter bombers and all the other models and types. I guess the AI did use airpower but not effectively enough to create a real air war, the outcome of which would seriously effect the ground war.

[Josh]

"...A brief note of praise to Vic and ATG:

In every game I play, I end up with a different story at the end of it; this time it was the heroic defence of Brighton, the calamitous loss of Hull, the oil supply crisis, the relief of Aurora, the huge encirclements near Hyberdad and Hamadan, the lightening seizure of Baghdad, the brutal attrition in the defence lines in front of Aurora, and the final battles on the road to Macau.

As writing up the AAR in detail took a while, I’ve had other games on the go in the background, in which I’ve had lengthy struggles for air superiority, huge bomber raids, massive see-sawing armoured clashes in the desert, grinding battles through forests and mountains. I’ve constructed massive and complex defence lines; built war industries from the ground up, and created huge transport networks to enforce my advantage…and still lost.

All that from randomly generated land maps (to be honest - I’m still getting to grips with land warfare). I’ve never played a game where every single time I fire it up I need to think differently about how to win. It’s just awesome, unbelievably awesome. And just when you think you’re getting the hang of it, the community gives you another challenge, be it Lancer or another with mods, one of the many scenarios, PBEM, or even an update from Vic; or you can just turn up the AI to 11.

Yeah, there is stuff I’d like to see added (no on who plays this game lacks a wish list) – but I bought this game on a whim about a couple of years ago (jumped straight into ATG, never touched the previous versions), and haven’t played anything else since (in “play per pound” terms the best £19.99 I ever spent).

Finally, it’s been a pleasure writing this AAR; I hope you enjoyed reading it, and thanks to those who have given feedback/answered questions – it’s always great to know people are a) reading and b) enjoying what you’re writing. It’s taken a while I know, in fact – I’ve only managed to write up one “game” week per “real” week – tip from the top: your computer game habit will really take a hit when you have kids.

K. ..."

Well, I couldn't have said it better myself. Compliments to the developer of this gem. [&o]
I'm playing with the latest patch and it's like banging my head against a wall, an AI wall. Feels like I'm relearning the game, better balanced AI units, better AI Artillery units, AI amphibious assaults, and so on. I've been playing this game for years now and the AI is *once more* giving me a tough time, it's damn hard to beat LOL. Oil shortage is giving me headaches, Ore shortage is giving me headaches, AI Artillery is making my hair grey [:@] Great fun I say [:D]

And to the writer of this AAR... [&o] Thoroughly enjoyed it, thx for writing it.