1st AAR: Operation Market Garden

[GaryChildress]

Forget basic tactics! No cover fire, no smoke. We've got a bridge on the other side of the map to get to. [X(]

I'm charging straight through town and then sending a single team across the foot bridge to the other side of the river to try and take both sides of the bridge simultaneously.

[RD Oddball]

Good luck. It's a long way and lots of LOS to your troops from the town. If the German BG is sufficiently depleted it may not be too much of challenge though.

[GaryChildress]

OK. Deviation from plan. Don't ask me why but I just had to take out the German flak cannon on the far bank of the river. So I brought up my 3 60mm mortars to do the trick. Precious time is ticking away and the Allied commander is obsessed with the tactical picture and not the strategic. [8|]

[GaryChildress]

Lesson #1: Never deviate from plan when the clock is ticking. You guessed it, resistance in the town was VERY light and the bridge blew right up in the faces of my men again. The Allied commander of the operation has been demoted to driving the company mail jeep now.

[GaryChildress]

How can I be so stupid? [:@] I didn't think the bridge would be there when I got there anyway and it turns out my troops came VERY close to getting there in the nick of time. I learned my lesson with that one. Don't give up before you give yourself a chance at victory.

[GaryChildress]

ORIGINAL: RD_Oddball

Good luck. It's a long way and lots of LOS to your troops from the town. If the German BG is sufficiently depleted it may not be too much of challenge though.

I'm playing "Line" for both sides. I thought I would meet more resistance in the town. However, now I realize if I had just neglected the flak cannon and just charged wildly up the main street of the town I might have made it in time.

[GaryChildress]

OK. Lessons have been learned. I CANNOT AFFORD TO LOSE ANOTHER BRIDGE. This time I stacked my BG with rifle teams and rifle (MG) teams. I don't want any slaakers who will hold down the pace of my rush.

No tactical considerations whatsoever. We're going straight up the guts with no smoke, no cover fire and we're going to take this bridge!! I didn't even include any mortar teams. This is it. Operation Market Garden is turning into Operation Major Mistake. Veghel looks simple enough. It's a straight dash through open country to the bridge. It isn't that far and I have a LOT of men. Surely I can grab at least one bridge. [:@]

[GaryChildress]

This is it! I need a bridge! The set up is simple. One rifle (MG) team will provide cover fire from the 4 story windmill if necessary. EVERYONE else is going for the bridge.

[GaryChildress]

On your mark....get set.....CHARGE!!!

[GaryChildress]

TICK....TICK......TICK....

My charge has met some resistance from the far side of the river. My men are starting to break ranks and seek cover.

[RD Oddball]

If you select a group of units then ctrl+1-9 you can assign one of those numbers (1 thru 9) to that group for quick selection. Then when you hit that number one time that you assigned to the group, the entire group is immediately selected. I use it to keep pressing the guys to attack. Because movement points remain relative to their location you might have to make a few adjustments to the movement destination but it can sometimes make the difference in pushing to say.. capture a bridge? [;)] Every time they tell you "we're under heavy fire" you can say "nope I'm sorry you need to keep moving fast for the bridge even if it means you're likely going to die." [:D]

If you work this group selection back and forth between your other important units (tanks, AT guns, mortars, MG's) you can juggle a quick succession of orders pretty quickly and keep pressing the attack forward while co-ordinating mortar and MG's fire near simultaneously.

[GaryChildress]

Things aren't looking great. But there's still a hope! The bridge hasn't blown yet. I just need to get my men to keep pressing the attack. Most of them are too busy seeking cover though. [:(]

[GaryChildress]

SUCCESS!!!! I just need to clear the other side so that my men aren't sitting ducks on the bridge.

[chiroho]

ORIGINAL: Gary Childress

Things aren't looking great. But there's still a hope! The bridge hasn't blown yet. I just need to get my men to keep pressing the attack. Most of them are too busy seeking cover though. [:(]

Great excitement here! When playing this map as the Germans, I put most of my squads in the Koevering building short of the bridge, and they basically got massacred by the attacking American forces - they were just able to close the building too quickly for me to shoot them down.

However, I've held the map for the next two battles with just one Ersatz squad and an leMG34 in that one building across the river - they're able to shoot up any American attacks short of them reaching the bridge, killing enough guys in each squad to destroy their morale.

Thanks for the great reports here!

[GaryChildress]

First objective complete. Now to hold the bridge and get those krauts out of the building next to it!

[GaryChildress]

There's a bloodbath going on at the house. Fortunately for us it's mostly the Germans who are getting slaughtered so far. I think it's safe to say that I have the bridge. The Germans are in no situatioin to get it back. [8D]

[GaryChildress]

Battle over the Allies control the bridge and several other victory points. While I was rushing the house on the other side of the bridge I also ordered a couple teams to storm the village to the left of the map. I knew I had the bridge. The next thing I needed was some breathing room to set up for the next battle! [X(]

[GaryChildress]

ORIGINAL: chiroho

ORIGINAL: Gary Childress

Things aren't looking great. But there's still a hope! The bridge hasn't blown yet. I just need to get my men to keep pressing the attack. Most of them are too busy seeking cover though. [:(]

Great excitement here! When playing this map as the Germans, I put most of my squads in the Koevering building short of the bridge, and they basically got massacred by the attacking American forces - they were just able to close the building too quickly for me to shoot them down.

However, I've held the map for the next two battles with just one Ersatz squad and an leMG34 in that one building across the river - they're able to shoot up any American attacks short of them reaching the bridge, killing enough guys in each squad to destroy their morale.

Thanks for the great reports here!

In this map the Germans might have stalled me longer if they had set a team in the Koevering building along with the team in the 2 story building across the river. However, they were concentrated around the 2 story building. They almost broke my charge, however, two brave teams rallied to get back in the action. I had to do some clicking like a madman to get them to stay on target. From now on I'm not going to mess around with mortars and MGs when storming a bridge. There just isn't time to set up a nice neat tactical attack "by the book". Once I secure the bridges then will be the time for the mortars and MGs and zooks to set up for the enemy counter attack.

[GaryChildress]

ORIGINAL: RD_Oddball

If you select a group of units then ctrl+1-9 you can assign one of those numbers (1 thru 9) to that group for quick selection. Then when you hit that number one time that you assigned to the group, the entire group is immediately selected. I use it to keep pressing the guys to attack. Because movement points remain relative to their location you might have to make a few adjustments to the movement destination but it can sometimes make the difference in pushing to say.. capture a bridge? [;)] Every time they tell you "we're under heavy fire" you can say "nope I'm sorry you need to keep moving fast for the bridge even if it means you're likely going to die." [:D]

If you work this group selection back and forth between your other important units (tanks, AT guns, mortars, MG's) you can juggle a quick succession of orders pretty quickly and keep pressing the attack forward while co-ordinating mortar and MG's fire near simultaneously.

I know about the ctrl+1-9 bit. I usually use it to quickly select my mortars to fire. I hadn't really thought of using it to keep the attack pressed easier, though. In any case I managed to get some of my teams through by a lot of clicking like a madman. [:D]

[GaryChildress]

This will probably be the last installment for today. Now that I know how to capture a bridge I'm going to try my luck with a BIG bridge, the one at Grave. There are three (3) victory locations on it to capture before the Germans blow the bridge. Also the Germans have two flak cannons in their battlegroup which can do some real damage. AND my battlegroup isn't a full one. We'll see how well I have learned from the past.

First thing is first. I take out all the zooks and mortars and just go with rifle and rifle (MG) teams.