Situation at the end of ANZAC turn 6.
TF-Main, in the north, has taken the two 20-pt per turn victory clusters and is now going to re-supply with ammo and consolidate the position before attempting the next phase of the advance. So far losses have not been very heavy.
TF-2, in the south, has seized the southern 20-pt per turn victory cluster on the southern map edge and is attempting to hold against repeated enemy counterattacks. Ammo is starting to run low and all the ammo trucks are with TF-Main. This was a calculated risk I took prior to the battle (I foresaw that ammo might be a problem in the south), but I felt that any ammo trucks I assigned to TF-2 would be isolated and vulnerable. I’m counting on TF-2 to hold on in the face of adversity.
GENERAL COMMENTS
1. This battle has been going much easier than I anticipated. I attribute this mainly to several errors in the Italian defense. First, evidently the computer AI has set all ranges of his defending units to 1 hex. This has so far proven disastrous for the AI because as long as I can spot enemy units at 2 hex range or greater, then I can not only maneuver my units to advantageous firing positions I also get the first shot. This has proven an enormous advantage so far for Group Andrews. Second, the AI has chosen to deploy a majority of his AFVs stacked with his infantry and spread out. This means that I can tell how big the stacks are when I spot an AFV even if I don’t spot the infantry in the same hex (I have my spotting % reduced to 70% per the FlashFyre template). And this means that if and when I kill the AFV in a hex, then I am suppressing all the nearby infantry. And this means that after I do this several times in small area, then all the Italian infantry is suppressed so much that they cannot effectively close assault my advancing forces, even if I don’t spot said Italian infantry until I’m right on top of them. This has also proven to be an enormous advantage and has kept my losses relatively light so far. Third, the terrain that the AI has chosen to defend is very favorable to my attack since the map is broken by a series of ridges and valleys into small “compartments”. This means that the Italians cannot support a given “compartment” using fire from nearby “compartments” due to the broken terrain. Thus, so far the Group has been able to overwhelm the Italians “compartment” by “compartment”, so to speak.
2. So far, Italian fire support has been limited to off-map 75mm howitzer fire. I’ve seen no Italian mortars, no Italian heavy artillery, and no Italian aircraft. The Italian 75mm howitzer fire has proven as ineffective in stopping the Group as my light mortars were in stopping the Italians in the previous battle. I am not complaining.
3. SPECIAL NOTE: For those of you who have never tried the Enhanced PBEM/Long Campaign Mod, there is no “willy meter” (the asterisk * that lets you know whether enemy has seen you). Having no “willy meter” takes a lot of getting used to, and if the Italians in this battle had been handled differently by the AI, then I would be having a far more difficult time of it.
Now, on with the battle.
