Case Yellow Olivier34 Allies vs Keunert

[Keunert]

Olivier gave me permission to comment here and read his aar. i just sent him the French turn of May 24th, so we are almost a week in front of this aar. Like he said i was boasting that an average german player, not making too big mistakes should win this scenario. he took the challenge and now i am sweating and trying to live up to my promise. it's a fun and intense game so far.

I currently play two games, both against experienced and talented players, Barthhead and Olivier. the two games are very different. Oliviers approach is new to me, i never saw the allied standing that deep in their territory. as a consequence i did not manage to build any noteable pockets. the french and british losses are alarmingly low. on the other hand this tactic also gets me close to a lot of his VP locations early in the game. Compared with the game against Barthheart i advance faster against Olivier but his losses are a lot lower. will be interesting how this trade off will play out.

my approach usually is to stick with Manstein and concentrate the Luftwaffe over Kleist's armygroup. (as guessed by Olivier). this works best if the allies chose to defend in the open terrain south of Brussels. With Oliviers lines further back the Luftwaffe wasn't able to hit much, but i did look out for any armored units and tried to attack them as hard as i could. Oliviers 1A & 7A lines of defence in open terrain will be the first obstacle. they will get all the love from the air and after that the tanks should be able to break through.

Attacking units has two consequences: obviously inflicting losses but also reducing readiness and lower their action points. lower readiness will reduce their combat effectiveness and lowering their action points will give them less mobility and less combat rounds during fights. so attacking an armored unit in heavy woods did not inflict a lot of losses on his armor but was effectively keeping it away from counter attacking.

[olivier34]

I will write tomorrow what happend until the 24th of May. After that my AAR will be close again to you Keunert because I have some brilliant plans for the end of the game [:D]

[olivier34]

19 May, the Allied decide to cancel the Dyle plan ! I thought it would last until the 20th...a great new because things are turning ugly [:(]

[olivier34]

19 may,
I don't know what I should have done to build a better line of defense. My arty just in the rear is maybe a bad idea. They did not fire back during the assault of the germans. Only after but if I make them fire, they won't be abble to escape...If stacked in the main hex targeted, they would have fire back during the german arty, right ? (counter battery fire) but in the main hex they would have been hit by the air strikes...I will test that and see...

[olivier34]

19 MAY

[olivier34]

19 MAY overview
Belgium has received a new division. Netherlands morale is at 41...

[olivier34]

20 MAY
Losses so far : 4 % german, 20 % french, 6 % british.
A new french division + one straggler unit. Belgium morale at 46, Netherlands at 40 still in the fight !
I have lost a lot of fighter planes. the air war has been won by the germans. I could have kept my air assets in the rear with no interception on...don't know if it would have made a difference. I tried to concentrate it instead in two places.

[olivier34]

20 of MAY
the calm before the storm

[olivier34]

20 MAY, I have to think a few moves ahead...If I could by the end of May hold the Somme, Noyons and Reims...

[olivier34]

20 MAY after my moves
Forgot to say that the 2A sector has been blody this day. 4 german attacks, only one were my troops did hold. Again near Montherme, an attempt to cross the Meuse. I had to reinforce here to keep the retreat path of the 9A open.

[olivier34]

BEF, hurry up
That was part of my plan, moving the BEF around the 20th with the goal to close the road to the channel to the panzers.

[olivier34]

21 May.
Belgium morale 45, netherland 37 [X(]. Utretch has fallen.

[olivier34]

21 MAY

[olivier34]

21 may
2A sector. My DLM2 won't have attacked here at least one time...[:@]

[olivier34]

22 may I think that I forgot to say that Netherlands had capitulated. They will have at least kept part of the 18 german army occupy until now.[8|]

[olivier34]

22 MAY
I don't see how I will stop my opponent to be near the Somme before the 8 of June. Any thoughts would be helpful ! [:(]

[olivier34]

What if I had launch two counter attacks the 21th...Did I miss something. I opened the turn again. Here is what I could have goten :
To get a concentric bonus of +40%, I have a stack of 186..too much (I usualy avoid that).
The germans hold the position despite some losses (Keunert told me around one thousand men and 20 tanks).But we see in the last screenshot that now my units are in a very weak position.

[olivier34]

Same here. The DLM2 launch an attack, does some damage (even a panzer rgt retreat) but is unable to push back the opposing force. Maybe with a card to improve their morale, things could have turn differently. I hope that in DC2, with the editor, we will be abble to do some testing but the really cool thing of this game is the uncertainty of a battle until you push the button.

[Barthheart]

ORIGINAL: olivier34

22 MAY
I don't see how I will stop my opponent to be near the Somme before the 8 of June. Any thoughts would be helpful ! [:(]

It seems I have taught him too well.... he is presently smashing through my French and British lines as well without much chance of stopping him....[&:]

[olivier34]

Hi Barthheart,
Keunert told me he was playing a game with you as the Allies too.If you are the one who taught him how to play the german as he does, you must know something that we could do ![;)] or does it mean that there is clearly no chance to win this scenario ?
A question about your game. How is the air war doing ? Have you tried to save your fighters, keep them in reserve for the final round ?
Have you been abble to counter attack in some way ?