Sicily to Brenner Pass - Mike1984 v. Desert

[mike1984]

I didn't know the entire Wehrmacht was made up of strange visitors from another planet who came to Earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men.

[clulessbutwise]

I am having same problem with my opponent were on turn 20ish his lines are a bit further south and twice as long but every time i break through or attack with heavy forces next go i get pushed back or lose alot of men and material. I have put i done to the mass of german artillery behind the german lines. I have come up with a plan but im not telling in case my opponent reads it[;)].

[sapper32]

I see your units have a lot of very bright red stacks,they must be taking a lot of casualties for not a lot of gain,your opponents stacks appear to be more green and yellow,this is a problem ive had playing EA strong defenders in good defensive terrain[&:]

ORIGINAL: mike1984

I didn't know the entire Wehrmacht was made up of strange visitors from another planet who came to Earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men.

[desert]

Turn 30 - August 8, 1943

Two attacks this turn:

Between Adrano and Catania - two Pioneer btns and two understrength Italian regiments were attacked by the Br 5 and 50 IDs; both sides took heavy losses, but the British seem to be really weakened, I'd estimate at least 30% casualties. One of the Italian regiments retreated down the line, so I reinforced with the 129 Pz Btn

Same spot as last turn - only the Gr Reggio PzGren Btn held the line, and I reinforced it with 115 Pz Btn (had retreated last turn), the still understrength 1 PzJgr Btn, and the fresh 76 Pz Korps HQ (not its intended use, but it's such a big unit that I couldn't help it)

My defense was bolstered recently by powerful German artillery brigades on both ends of the line.

The 31 Calabria Div, just in from Corsica and embarked on trains NE of Santo Stefano is missing about a fifth of its combat elements. When I moved it last turn I didn't incur any interdiction strikes, so I bet it was hit by that 5-unit stack of artillery he has SW of San Fratello...

Now comes the attack - the SS Sturmbrigade Reichsfuhrer has assembled at Adrano. It's Gren and PzJgr Btns have crossed no-mans land and are attacking the Br 5 ID's Recon battalion. To the north is the firmly entrenched Ca 1 ID around Troina and to the south is the Br 1 Abn Bgd and the depleted 5 and 50 IDs. Right now I just want to test Allied strength in the area and the forcefulness of their
reaction tomorrow.

Attack - I lost 29 planes, 2 armored cars, 2 StuGs...they lost about a platoon, 3 armored cars, 5 planes......

I had more planes, but almost all of them were divebombers. When facing state-of-the-art American fighters, they just crash and burn. It may be that even with better ground forces I will be pushed back by the Allies through sheer air superiority. I have less than 500 airworthy machines left.

[mike1984]

...

[desert]

Turn 31 - August 9, 1943
 
Well, this is interesting.

The same hex near Adrano was attacked by the British; they failed. Their armored brigades seem crippled.

The Americans, on the other hand, pulled back nearly everything they had. Only a thin screen of battalions and recon companies remains. This is clearly a ploy to get me to abandon my trenches and waste my men on heavily supported fortifications - doing so would bring the rest of the US forces crashing into my line and obliterating everything in their way. Aerial recon has already spotted a few of their staging grounds around Nicosia.

One hex NW of Troina has a recon company and some mortars, so I'll send in a few dozen Pz4 and see what happens.

Attack - a tank, 27 bombers and a dozen fighters for a platoon, 6 mortars, a load of trucks, and 9 fighters

I'm just going to attack some more, **** it.

Attack 2, same unit - 5 tanks, 50 bombers for 2 platoons, 2 tanks, 5 mortars, and 3 bombers 

Annnd dug in right next to a stack of airborne guys. The hex it originally attacked from is defended by 2 "battalions" of Italians.

[mike1984]

...

[desert]

Turn 32 - August 10, 1943
 
Now the Americans are completely gone, this is very suspicious. I sacrificed an Italian HQ to find out what's going on.

Also, that hex got attacked by the British again. The losses for two of my units were catastrophic (one seems to have evaporated), but reinforcements were close at hand. The screenshot includes a glimpse at the state of some of the Brits.

[mike1984]

...

[Veers]

This was touched on before, but attacking from red and orange lit stacks is really pointless, and you would likely have more success and less losses if you attacked from green and yellow lit stacks, Mike,

[desert]

Turn 33 - August 11, 1943
 
Same hex attacked. This battle is probably Operation Husky's most crushing for the Allies. I'm pretty sure one of their brigades has evaporated. On my end, the PzGren regiment in the hex fled at 1/3 strength. A full-strength (recently reconstituted) It Eng Btn was reduced to literally 1 squad. The rock of the line has proven consistently to be the 129 Pz Btn and its StuGs. They are unbending. Their 90% proficiency is probably the highest of all my land forces.
 
The Americans have set up another screen opposite my line. The HQ is still alive, separated from friendly territory by a few kilometers of road. Unfortunately, it's been routed and I won't risk troops to reestablish contact.
 
This seems like a good time to make an equipment analysis, the last one being for Turn 22. I have lost 900 Light Rifle Squads, which make up the Italian infantry. Since game start, I've only produced about 500, and some got locked up in reconstitutions on the other side of the island. I am, of course, critically short on Heavy AT Rifles and 47mm AT guns (key components of the Italian regiments); only 1 of each is produced each turn, and I've lost 213 and 604, respectively. I'm fairly short on German 75mm AT guns, of which I only get 2 per turn. However, I've only lost 77 so I've been able to stay afloat. 100mm howitzers (chiefly Italian) are produced by 1s as well, so the It 213 Coastal Divisional Arty north of Catania is still understrength.
 
Now for the meat of it - tanks and planes. In Turn 22, I had 21 Semoventes and 53 German tanks destroyed. Now, it's 60 Semoventes and 160 German tanks. So in 11 turns losses tripled. In Turn 22, I had 580
planes destroyed and 500+ operational. Given the results of recent aerial battles, you will not be surprised to discover the situation has changed. Now I have 480 or 490. 850 have been destroyed. Suprisingly, AS is 5/3 in my favor this turn.

[mike1984]

It only gets worse for me, folks... you ain't seen nothin' yet. Wait until you see what's going on in Turn 45, which we've just played today. This scenario has one big flaw, and it's a lack of breakout options for the Allies. My biggest mistake so far was that I didn't just race right up to Messina. It's the only anchorage hex on the island, which is much more critical than I thought. Desert has decided to bring reinforcements en masse to the island, making it his fortress. But as I mentioned, there is no way for me to utilize an end run (like Patton did historically at Brolo to break the real-life Etna Line stalemate), or even present Desert with the threat that I might just load up a division or two and cut him off at Reggio di Calabria or somewhere like that. This scenario gives the Axis no incentive whatsoever to evacuate Sicily, especially since the Axis player doesn't even lose his sea lift until after I capture the toe of Italy! How crazy is that? But, this is why I wanted to play this scenario. After this is done (if I'm not first destroyed on Sicily) I want to explore some tweaks to make this scenario a little more interesting.

[clulessbutwise]

I agree that there is no way for the Allies to make the landings behind the German lines like they did historically but if the German player attacked the Allied beach heads like the Germans historically did then it would be a different game. Also the landings at Brolo were not that much of a success if the Germans hadn't decided to retreat from Sicily before the landings happened then who knows what might of happened.

Maybe all it needs is to add some places for the allies to land in Northern Sicily, but then some people would use them to invade mainland Italy before the Sicily is secure which the Allies probably coudn't of done without first taking an island off the coast of Italy being it Sicily, Corsica...

If the scenario started with the Allied forces in North Africa and player could pick were to invade to keep the Axis player guessing is an option also.

[mike1984]

I have some ideas for how to prevent the Allied player from having too much of an advantage. I'm thinking about adding an exclusion zone east-west across the map, dividing Sicily from the rest of Italy. The zone would be removed around the historical time the Allies invaded Salerno. But that's just one of the ideas.

Turn 34 presently...

[mike1984]

Ok folks, I'm probably going to change the way I write this AAR. You see, at first I thought it was working for me, but it's become cumbersome and annoying to post the stats, thoughts, etc. all in once image. So over the next few turns it will change a bit. Just a heads up.

As for Turn 34: He's obviously not taking the bait, which sucks for me. I was really hoping to catch him out of the trenches and in the open. I'll give this a few more turns, but then I'll have to abandon it.

[mike1984]

Time for a push...

[mike1984]

And now 35

[desert]

Turn 35 - August 13, 1943
 
An attack NE of Troina by Canadians and American airborne troops. Other major battles in the usual hex and N of Catania.
 
I don't like this constant pressure he's putting on my line down there.

I'm afraid he's going to go for a combined American-British assault that will shatter my right flank. If that's the case, then I should immediately attack the screen he left behind, but I can't work up the courage to do so.
 
I bombed the British in Catania and took out a company.

[mike1984]

Just a heads up for the turns ahead, I mistakenly deleted a couple of the slides. So, between Turn 37 and about 46 or so, there will be a few slides missing.

This slide was just more of the same. Attack by the British that was brutally repulsed.

[desert]

Turn 36 - August 14, 1943
 
The British are literally putting everything they have against that one hex.

I'm going to attack some of them with the Herman Goering Pz Reg.

Attack - 11 tanks and 23 planes for 40 squads, 43 tanks, 11 planes, etc.

Two armored brigades retreated towards Catania. This should seriously disrupt the British attack plan.