AAR - Joe's Bridge

[Grotius]

I had yet another exciting game of HTTR playing as the Allies against the German AI in the 12-hour scenario "Joe's Bridge." I played on Realistic Delay. Spoiler alert! Don't read if you don't want to spoil any surprises in this scenario.

I decided to try an overly-complex three-pronged assault on the main bridge, Joe's Bridge. (I decided to ignore the secondary targets, the bridges crossing other parts of the canal.) I figured my infantry batallion would make the best use of the zinc factory SE of the target, so I ordered them to approach the bridge from the SE and form up in the factory for the assault. I put my main tank force, the 2nd Irish Guards, on the main road and ordered them to attack directly from the south. I ordered the 3rd Irish Guards HQ and its supporting units, including a couple armor squadrons, to swing around to the left and approach from the west. I was rather pleased when the three detachments arrived at more or less the same time.

Resistance was only slightly tougher than I expected, and I gradually drove the Germans off the bridge onto the north bank of the canal. As night fell, the only resistance I could see was to the north. By now my Guards HQ was very tired, and I ordered it to bunker down right on the bridge itself. In retrospect, I probably should have ordered it to sleep south of the bridge, but with order delay I was worried that would sop up two or three hours of precious sleeping time. So I had no forces on the south bank of the canal. My forces on the north bank settled in for a surprisingly quiet night of rest. The only apparent resistance was well the north.

At dawn's light, I woke the Guards HQ and ordered it, finally, to move south of the bridge. As it did so, it spotted lead elements of a German force counterattacking from the south. None to soon, the HQ and especially its supporting armor units dug into defensive positions and repulsed the attackers. I woke up the 2nd Irish Guards (my infantry batallion) and ordered them to join forces in the defense of the southern approach. I enjoyed watching my squadrons of seven Shermans and a dozen armored cars duel with a platoon of PzKw IV H's. We lost more tanks, as you would expect, but we also killed one or two panzers, enough to send the platoon into retreat.

Meanwhile the Germans mounted an attack from the north, so at once juncture I was under fierce attack from north and south at the same time. But my guys were thankfully well-rested, and the enemy never got within my defensive perimeter. As the scenario ended, we had firm control over the bridge, and we won a decisive victory -- 100 to 46. The Germans got points for the secondary locations and 18 points for Allied units killed. (I like the way VPs are capped at 100, BTW. It forces you to think about denying points to the enemy, not just racking up points for yourself.)

I really enjoyed this short scenario. My one criticism is that in this, as in one of the tutorial scenarios, I found the AI better on defense than offense. I guess that's to be expected; offense requires more movement and coordination. The AI's attacks often seemed piecemeal and uncoordinated. On defense, though, it was tenacious and tough.

[Grotius]

My first effort at a screenshot. I hope I cropped it so it's small enough not to screw up the formatting here. This shot shows the climactic stage of the battle, in which I was under assault both from the north and the south. There were in fact several units to the north, but they had disappeared from my intel report at the time I took this.

[Cage]

This was the first scenario I played, huge fun on painfully realistic order delay. I can really relate to what you went through Grotius [:)]

I made two mistakes [8|] I didn't realise that I needed to potentially take the 7 VP bridges! I was too focused on the main targets to pay attention.

Second was I moved a 17 pounder troop on move order only to a blocking position in the woods along the main highway past Joe's bridge, as a backup to an already dug in infantry company. When they came under fire they bugged out to quick, I should have micro managed their resistance to casualties.

I successfully took and defended the main objectives, the brunt of the work performed by three blocking positions outside the main target area. Each position was an infantry company plus anti-tank gun support. I had to launch one armoured sweep to reinforce one of the positions.

Blocking positions were the main southern crossroad, trees north of the bridge along the highway and the village (groote barrier) south west of Joe's bridge.

I did have a fourth position blocking access from the three bridges near Neerpelt. It was a great moment in the game when I finished the battle and they hadn't been under attack, the fog of war is so excellent to make you waste troops defending an area that is not moved through.

End result...

Axis...Men 90...AFV 5...Guns 6

Allies...Men 735...AFV 2...Guns 21

Decisive victory.

Cage.