Manhay Crossroads

[cmill1978]

For those who have played this scenario, how have you fared?

I am having a difficult time holding Manhay once the allied forces become somewhat organized and attack from the north. How have you handled this scenario?

[DanOppenheim]

I've played this scenario far too much. Like you, I quickly found that holding Manhay and Grandmenil to be almost impossible after the Allied reinforcements get into play, as their artillery firepower quickly becomes overwhelming. I've been through many different plans since then, most of which have been upset by the damn sneaky AI. There's eventually too many of them, they've too much armour and artillery, and the main objectives we're supposed to hold are deathtraps. I've tried going to the exit straight away, but that requires considerable force as there's usually a lot of allied hanging around it. Getting bogged down in a firefight that far from support is never going to end well. One problem that hit me a lot in my earlier games was that leaving *any* gap to into your rear areas means that you'll quickly be infested. I've had them come from the north, down through the southern gap in the woods and, in one particularly "oh sh*t" moment, straight through the woods. Once they're into the rear then I find that's pretty much game over.

I've started going for disruption, which involves holding the road objectives to the north and north west. Unfortunately, getting to the objectives in time generally means moving fast, which tends to fatigue the troops rather badly, which means they're easy to crush later on. I think the only way to get better than a draw in this scenario is to prevent the Allies from getting organised and from moving freely.

I'm about to have another go at it. I'm going to see if I can hold the three northern road objectives in force and have a couple of companies hold the deathtrap towns on their own. I'll station a battalion in the woods south of Manhay to provide a reserve and to prevent infiltration of our rear. The southern access point will be held by the flak and AT companies. When the rest of my armour turn up I'm going to send them west through the woods at La Fosse, with the intention of them getting to the exit and crushing anything they find there. If I have time I'll swing them back up the road to the westerly road objective, which should hopefully give me a way to get some infantry to the exit point.

[vj531]

DanO

How did you strategy work out?

I have just been totally crushed playing the Axis side on on Friday [&:]

Any new ideas?

[DanOppenheim]

Hello!

To be honest, I don't think my strategy worked out to well when I tried it, but it's so long ago now I'm not able to say exactly how it went. However, I did just have another go, which is the first time since the patch. My basic plan was as follows:

* Split the Panzer battalion and send the companies to the Grandmenil-Erezee Road, To Momont and To Werbomont objectives.
* Send one each of the Pz Grenadier battalions after them, but stop the one heading to the To Werbomont objective at Manhay.
* Secure the southern pass with the flak and AT units.
* Sit the Pz Gren regiment HQ on the Odeigne objective with the artillery
* Send the Div HQ to the To Baraque de Fraiture objective
* Send the engineers to the Grandmenil objective

I was hoping to cause disruption to the Americans and particularly to their artillery, as well as keep my troops out of the death trap that is the Manhay-Grandmenil valley and hopefully give them some cover.

When the other Pz batallion turned up I wanted to split them and send them to support the different objectives. The remaining Grenadier battalion would be used however seemed fit, considering how late they turned up.

Result? I managed a draw with my 41 VP to their 36. I only had the Odeigne and the Grandmenil-Erezee Road objectives and managed only 5.9 points from the Destroy The Enemy objective. The Allies had totally secured the Manhay-Grandmenil valley again and were threatening my rear. The two battalions that were at Manhay (I sent the reinforcement battalion there) were both totally destroyed as were the engineers at Grandmenil. I almost made the To Erezee exit objective, but set off far too late and was stopped by an annoying artillery battalion. I had a bit of a silly moment and sent the AT and Flak to Freyneux and got a good kicking from the units dug in there.

The start went well enough as all enemy within the valley surrendered or routed, although I was pushed back from the To Werbomont objective. I was pleased to note that an artillery unit surrendered though! The To Momont objective was quiet until the third day, although the troops there suffered from the same non-stop artillery bombardment that the rest of the division had to endure. My first mistake - again! - was to put anyone in the valley. It's just horrendous being stuck out there in plain view and with little cover. There's no rest and if the unit moves out of any cover its in it's just bombarded until it's destroyed. In future I'll send the battalion I put in Manhay to support the tank company at To Werbomont. That highway needs to be secured along its full length. My other mistake, in my opinion, was to split the reinforcement Pz battalion into individual companies and attempt to get them to the objectives across the valley. In future I'd probably send a couple of companies north to sit covered in the forest to the south of Manhay to intercept anyone coming through there and the rest of the battalion through the southern gap to the La Fosse area to intercept anything coming through there.

I might have other thoughts but it's really late for me and I'm yawning away here so if I did they're all gone.

Hope that helps!

[vj531]

Thanks for the great reply.

Your result is excellent as this is one of the very hardest scenarios IMHO.

I got such a kicking in this scenario I moved on to try the Dinant scenario but that is no easier. I've been playing BftB now for ten or so solid weeks, and am going to give it a short break to recharge my batteries or if I'm being more honest to lick my wounds. I played Cracking the Goose Egg, Battle of the Roadblocks, Greyhound Dash, briefly Manhey and now Dinant all one after the other over the last four weeks. Had a couple marginal wins but mainly got my ass kicked, of course playing the axis in all.

I will start over with Manhey in a couple of days! I will let you know how many VP's I loose by DanO.

thanks again for the reply.

[DanOppenheim]

I ended up having to send nearly a hundred AFVs and the reinforcement battalion to the secure the highway, but I finally achieved (marginal) victory. Whoop! [:)] I even managed to exit a few companies. Getting in amongst them with everything I had really helped.

[DanOppenheim]

And here's the state of the battle for the highway. Note that I'd lost several companies in that area by then, but I'd managed to inflict quite the cost.

Now to sleep and to dream of that promotion! [:)]

[vj531]

Well done!

Classic tactics for this game! Once you have the Allies in the open they must go down, if you are to stand a chance in winning.

Looks like you only lost the two objectives 30 minutes before the end! Bad Luck


Good result!

[wodin]

Best I managed for the scenarios was a draw.....well done