Group Anders Long Long Road

[vahauser]

Battle #1
Canadian Advance vs. Vichy French Delay, near Oran Algeria
8 November 1942
Situation at the end of Canadian Turn 6

A) During the course of Turns 2-6, my support recon units discovered two MG Nests, another Fuel Dump, another Gun Casement, and several VF infantry squads. A total of 7 enemy units in 5 turns. My mortars were able to suppress each of them, one after the other, allowing my core units to attack and destroy them safely. My advance continued smoothly until. . .

B) Wild Bill Surprise #1. On Turn 4, two enemy Stukas and two enemy Me-110Ds attacked in the main sector. The good news is that they went after support scout cars and jeeps. More good news is that my AA units managed to shoot down one of them and damaged two others. Although the damage the enemy airstrikes did was minor, if I didn't have AA units and if my troops weren't deployed as described in Tactical Tip #1, then this Wild Bill Surprise could have been a very unpleasant one indeed.

C) In the south, my mortars managed to force the crew of the enemy gun casement discovered on Turn 1 to bail out. The crew was eliminated, but. . .

D) Wild Bill Surprise #2. Mines! Ugh. Whether I wanted to or not, now my advance must slow to the rate that my recon and engineer units can sweep ahead and clear movement lanes for my armor. The mines do seem limited to areas around fixed positions, such as forts and fuel dumps, but I cannot count on that. This is Wild Bill, after all. I am extremely thankful that I have some engineers in my core.

E) The support Churchills continue to be wonderful spearhead units. Enemy units have so far been scattered and few. My core has so far been able to efficiently eliminate each enemy threat as it is discovered.

Next Battle Report at the end of Canadian Turn 11.


Screenshot of the end of Canadian Turn 6 (main sector):

[vahauser]

Screenshot of the end of Canadian Turn 6 (south sector):

[vahauser]

Tactical Tip #2
Keeping Weak Units Alive.

I often expose weak units to enemy fire. How do I keep them alive?

The answer is fairly simple in both concept and application: In general, turn off all weak weapons in all weak units (per the screenshot below).

The concept is that only the killer units keep their weapons turned on and active. This usually means that my core combat units are the primary killer units. Artillery (core and support) naturally keeps their guns turned on. But trucks and jeeps and recon, etc. turn off their weapons. In this current battle, even my support Churchills have their 6lbr guns turned off and only their MGs active (there is another reason for this, not related to this topic, that will be discussed in a future Tactical Tip).

How does turning off weak weapons keep weak units alive in battle? Two reasons.
Reason 1) It means that only my killer units get to shoot op-fire. This is good. Wasting pistols and carbines, etc. in op-fire shots means less damage to the enemy, which in turn means less survivability for weak units. I often turn off my halftrack MGs, too, if they are armed only with a single AAMG or less for the very same reason. I don't want my weak units using up my precious op-fire shots. Only my killers kill, everybody else are just support for the killers. I can have a force of 150 units (like in this current battle) and only 50 or less of them are actually doing any shooting and killing. The other 100+ units are only there to help the killers. And they can do that best by turning their weapons off.

Reason 2) Every time a weak unit shoots, it exposes itself to enemy retaliation. This is not a good way to keep weak units alive. If the enemy shoots at a weak unit that has its weapons turned off, then not only can my killers retaliate, but the weak unit (say a recon patrol) will go to pinned status which in turn makes it harder for the enemy to kill. But if that recon unit shoots back, then the enemy can continue to fire back at it with a much higher percentage chance to hit. Better to just have the recon unit go to ground immediately, which lowers the enemy chance to hit. And it can do this best by turning off its weapons.

I often put my support units in harm's way. But even though I send them into perilous situations, I can normally keep a high percentage of them alive, in all but the most intensely hostile environments, by simply turning their weapons off and letting my killers do the fighting for them.

Tactical Screenshot #2

[Alby]

ORIGINAL: FlashfyreSP

I can tell by the names of RiunT's units that he's not using Enhanced. [:D]

Plus the Icons, roads and terrain, are all the "old" ones..
[:D]

[Alby]

ORIGINAL: vahauser

Battle #1
Canadian Advance vs. Vichy French Delay, near Oran Algeria
8 November 1942
Situation at the end of Canadian Turn 6


B) Wild Bill Surprise #1. On Turn 4, two enemy Stukas and two enemy Me-110Ds attacked in the main sector. The good news is that they went after support scout cars and jeeps. More good news is that my AA units managed to shoot down one of them and damaged two others. Although the damage the enemy airstrikes did was minor, if I didn't have AA units and if my troops weren't deployed as described in Tactical Tip #1, then this Wild Bill Surprise could have been a very unpleasant one indeed.

D) Wild Bill Surprise #2. Mines! Ugh. Whether I wanted to or not, now my advance must slow to the rate that my recon and engineer units can sweep ahead and clear movement lanes for my armor. The mines do seem limited to areas around fixed positions, such as forts and fuel dumps, but I cannot count on that. This is Wild Bill, after all. I am extremely thankful that I have some engineers in my core.

[:)]
This is why these type campaigns are much more fun and challenging..

[azraelck]

I remember this campaign now. Back when I first started playing, an enemy airstrike or two pretty much wiped out my entire force. The second time through, it was my switch to Linux that ended it. I'll have to start it up again when I get SPWaW working in WINE.

[vahauser]

Battle #1
Canadian Advance vs. Vichy French Delay, near Oran, Algeria
8 November 1942
Situation at the end of Canadian Turn 11

A) At the end of Turn 6, two of my southern tanks had driven onto a minefield even though I did not realize it at the time (if you look at the southern Turn 6 screenshot, the two lead tanks near the southern victory hex have driven onto a minefield unknown to me at the time). The good news is that when I unloaded my engineers in an adjacent hex, they spotted the mines before I tried to drive the tanks out of the mined hex. I was able to clear the mines during turns 6 and 7, and the tanks were able to drive away safely. Whew.

B) In the north, one of my recce troops (east edge of the screenshot below) intercepted a French truck convoy after it had dropped off some reinforcements on Turn 10 (on the main road near the northern victory hex). The reinforcements were promptly suppressed by mortars and attacked by my northern combat force.

C) Also in the north, a platoon of enemy S-35 tanks supported by some cavalry attacked my northern flank on Turn 9. But my two platoons of core tanks knocked them out almost immediately. My snipers and LMG teams took care of the surviving crews, and my core M5A1 halftracks took care of the cavalry.

D) In the south, a platoon of enemy S-35 tanks supported by some VF Legionnaire infantry attacked my south flank also on Turn 9. My tanks in the south have had a hard time hitting their targets and I am still fighting against this counterattack.

E) So far, my losses have been very light. And the combination of: recon find, mortar suppress, and core kill, has been very successful. In addition, the scattered nature of the enemy forces has allowed me concentrate my firepower against individual targets for the most part. The only real threat so far has been hidden minefields. But sweeping ahead with recon and engineers have kept my tanks alive and fighting. At this point, I am advancing at the rate of 1 or 2 hexes per turn with my main combat units (after sweeping with recon and engineers) in the main combat zone around the airfield.

Next Battle Report at the end of Canadian Turn 16.

Screenshot of the end of Canadian Turn 11 (main sector):

[vahauser]

Screenshot of the end of Canadian Turn 11 (south sector):

[vahauser]

Tactical Discussion #3
Optimal Core Size.

It has been suggested in another thread that a large core might be superior to a small core in this campaign. My Canadian core in this campaign consists of 86 units in 33 formations.

Personally, I would prefer a smaller core whenever possible. Here are my reasons:

Reason 1) Core Kills. There can be at most 400 enemy units in any battle. The smaller my core, then the greater number of kills per core unit is possible (I don't have to spread the core kills among many core units). This means that a small core will gain experience much faster than a large core. Which in turn means that a small core will become better and more efficient killers faster than a large core.

Reason 2) Core Composition. My core began this campaign with 2100 points and 86 units. This works out to about 24.4 points per unit, which is not very strong. However, if I had been able to buy a core of, say, 50 units, then that works out to 42 points per unit, which is much stronger. And that would mean that my smaller core would be composed of stronger killers right from the start.

Reason 3) Campaign Build Points. Wild Bill is not always generous with the number of build points he provides between battles. A large core means that I might have to fight the whole campaign with some units that I never get the chance to upgrade due to lack of available build points. But a smaller core means that my chances are much better that every unit in my core will get a chance to upgrade at some point in the campaign.

Conclusion. I believe that a large core is actually a disadvantage for the human player. And that players looking for a greater challenge should have to choose a large core. Players choosing a small core are actually giving themselves an advantage and the computer a disadvantage. This is just my opinion.

[P.S. I think that the 86 units in my core is pretty large (given the 2100 points I had to spend), and so I think the computer has an advantage against a starting core of this size.]

[vahauser]

Battle #1
Canadian Advance vs. Vichy French Delay, near Oran, Algeria
8 November 1942
Situation at the end of Canadian Turn 16

A) Wild Bill Surprise #3. Germans! At the end of Turn 11 a platoon of German Pz-IIIMs attacked out of the cornfield to the southeast of the final victory hex. Using APCR ammo they quickly knocked out one of my support Churchills. So much for my thinking the Churchills would be invulnerable this battle. Calling on every artillery unit I had I was finally able to zero in on the Germans by Turn 13 (took 2 turns to zero in because I had to predict ahead due to my 0.4 artillery delay). But my artillery was finally able to suppress the Germans and using core tanks on the flanks and infantry from the front I was finally able to defeat the German attack. It basically took everything I had to stop the Germans. A nasty surprise indeed.

B) The southern French attack was finally defeated at point-blank range by the end of Turn 12. My southern tank platoon then headed into the main sector to help with the German panzers by attacking from the south flank.

C) At this point in the battle as far as I know there is only one enemy unit left on the battlefield (a German PZ-III just off the east edge of the screenshot). All available units in the area are engaged in eliminating that last enemy unit.

D) Elsewhere, my engineers are clearing mines around the final victory hex and my recon units continue with their sweeps.

E) As far as I know, the only core unit I’ve lost so far has been a recce infantry patrol which got caught in a firefight near the final victory hex (it retreated into an enemy-occupied hex and was lost).

Final Battle Report coming soon.

Screenshot of the end of Canadian Turn 16 (main sector):

[Alby]

I wish you wouldnt zoom out so far..
[:(]
too hard to tell anything

[vahauser]

Alby,
 
You raise an excellent point.  I find myself of two opinions regarding screenshots.
 
Opinion 1) Zooming in requires more screenshots, which in turn requires more space (and scrolling) on the webpage.  Also, leaving the screenshots zoomed out does not give everything away to players who aren't sure that they want complete information regarding the battle.
 
Opinion 2) Zooming in provides maximum detailed information.
 
Here is a possible solution.  If several people express a desire for more detailed information, then I could still take the zoomed out screenshots along with one or two zoomed in screenshots of special interest.  I'll leave it to the rest of you to decide.

[Alby]

Zoom in
[:D]

[vahauser]

Battle #1
Canadian Advance vs. Vichy French Delay, near Oran, Algeria
8 November 1942
End of Battle Report

A) I knocked out the last German tank on Turn 18 and the game ended on the following turn.

B) The 6-lber guns on my tanks are too weak. I need something stronger as soon as possible.

C) As of now I plan to reorganize my core formation by formation until I have the equivalents of: 1 A0; 1 company of tanks (5 troops of 3 tanks and an HQ section); 1 company of engineers (12 engineer squads); 1 company of infantry (12 squads of infantry); 2 platoons of mortars + 1 platoon of 25-lbers; 6 ammo boxes; 3 forward observers; 23 miscellaneous support units; total of 86 units. This is subject to change over the course of the campaign. But for now, it is my current goal.

D) Hereafter, by popular demand I will include a zoomed-in screenshot or two with each situation report during battle.

E) I’ve concluded that five turns is too long between situation reports during battles in this campaign. Five turns between situation reports (turns 1, 6, 11, 16, 21, etc.) works fine in Generated and Long Campaign battles since those battles are longer than the battles in this campaign. Hereafter, I will be posting situation reports every three turns for the remainder of this campaign (turns 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, etc.).

Screenshot of the Battle Report:

[vahauser]

Core Reorganization for Battle #2

A) Following Battle #1, I had 244 build points to spend after repairs. The difference between this campaign and a Generated or Long Campaign is that post-battle build points may not be accumulated. Use them or lose them. And since Wild Bill has almost certainly taken this into account, my bet is that he strengthens each successive battle to account for this. Thus, pressure is put on the player to use post-battle build points wisely.
B) I converted 3 jeeps into 3 ammo boxes (105pts), 2 Light AAMGs into 2 mortars (56pts), and 3 snipers into 3 engineers (81pts), for a total of 242 points (2 points lost). I now have my goal of 2 mortar platoons, and I am close to my goal of 1 engineer company (11 out of 12 squads), and plenty of ammo boxes to handle the fact that I am playing with Reduced Ammo ON. I’ve chosen to use 6 units out of my 86-unit core for ammo boxes. I don’t know if this is a wise choice since I could have used those 6 units (and the points spent on them) for something else. But that is the pressure that Reduced Ammo ON places on the player in this campaign. [Note that this pressure is not felt in a Generated or Long Campaign since the computer also suffers (especially its artillery) from Reduced Ammo ON.]
C) I renamed my mortars ‘Core Mortar’.
D) I put the 3 new ammo boxes into their own formation.

Core Screenshot for Battle #2 (page 1):

[vahauser]

Core Screenshot for Battle #2 (page 2):

[vahauser]

Core Screenshot for Battle #2 (page 3):

[vahauser]

Support Forces for Battle #2 (800 points, all Canadian):

3x Inf Recon groups
3x Bren LMG sections
3x 3” Mortar sections
3x 6-lber AT sections
1x 17-lber AT section
1x M5 Halftrack section
1x White Scout Car section
8x Scout Jeep sections

Deployment coming soon. . .

[vahauser]

Battle #2
Canadian Meeting Engagement vs. Germany, near Bizerte, Tunisia
6 March 1943
0800 Hours
Hazy Weather, Visibility 18
18 Turns

THE PLAN:
This time I’m fighting Germans instead of Vichy French. The Germans are tougher opposition. And as I discovered in Battle #1, my tanks cannot beat the German tanks in a toe-to-toe tank duel. So I will have to use terrain and maneuver to get flank shots and ambushes.

Studying the map, I predict that the German main force will be in the north since that is where most of the victory hexes are. Also, even if I do nothing, the Germans will advance and converge on my victory hex once they have captured all the other victory hexes. And this fact (based on my knowledge of the way that the computer conducts meeting engagements) gives me an advantage when developing a battle plan.

Knowing Wild Bill, I expect to be outgunned and outnumbered in this battle. I must plan accordingly.

My plan is:
A) Push recon units into forward positions where they can act as early warning of German activity.
B) Create an ‘Artillery Carpet’ where I predict that the Germans will advance through. Initially, I expect that this carpet will be located near the central victory hex along the road. And since I’m not allowed to pre-register any target hexes (I’m only allowed to pre-register target hexes in assault and defend missions), then I’ll have to wait until I actually have information on where the Germans are before firing. And since I have a 0.4 delay time, I’ll have to predict where the Germans will be a turn in advance. [As an aside, actually this is kind of fun for me, since it challenges my ability to ‘think’ like the computer.]
C) Create a ‘Gun Line’ and ambush sites that the Germans will move into and I’ll get the first shot(s). This is the real ‘do-or die’ aspect of my entire plan. If my first shots are effective, then I should win this battle. If not, then the anticipated superior German firepower and armor will give them the advantage.
D) Stay on the defensive until the German advance has exhausted itself. Once I’ve determined that the German advance has been defeated, then I will advance with my force.

[Alby]

No peeking at my Long Long road thread...
[;)]