AAR - Operation Garden Final Phase

[simovitch]

I'm going to playtest the alpha version of this HTTR expansion scenario and let you all follow along. This one is hot-off-the-press and I have no idea how it will pan out.

Here's the situation - I have to clear "The Island" of Germans and secure the Arnhem Bridge, and the area along the river South of Oosterbeek to put some justification to Monty's great offensive, and allow the remnants of 1st Para to escape back across the River. The game ends the day before the historical evacuation of Oosterbeek took place and I have chose not to include the Oosterbeek battle in the scenario because it has little impact on the situation at hand and I don't want the German AI doing funny things with the 9 SS Panzer Division who are busy containing the pocket. Plus all those extra unit will slow down the processing speed.

[simovitch]

The Jumpoff... looks easy enough, what with both the Irish and Welsh Guards Groups to play with. What looks like a column of SS in Regimental strength is coming in from the northeast so I better make my way up the highway quickly so they don't get in the way. I'm going to let Cook's 3rd Bn/504 PIR rest up a bit from it's assault the previous day and push on with the Guards.

My reinforcement schedule tells me that the Polish Para brigade will be landing near Driel in a few hours, and elements of the 43rd Wessex will be joining the battle near the evening. Piece of cake.

[simovitch]

4-1/2 hours in and making some progress, I guess. The Germans are reacting quickly to my advance. 2 Brigades of the 43rd (Wessex) division are crossing the Nijmegen bridge while both the Irish and Welsh groups are on The Island and in the thick of it.

[simovitch]

Meanwhile 2 Bn's of the Polish Parachute Brigade have landed along the south bank of the Neder Rijn. Historically they both went for Driel, but I sent one Bn to Elden, south of the Arnhem bridge to block the German reinforcements. The missing 3rd Bn had to turn back to England and landed in the 82nd Airborn drop zones a few days later.

[simovitch]

As dawn breaks on Day 2 (D+5 of Market-Garden) I find myself disappointed with my advance so far. I definitely need to get to Elst today and hopefully clear Oosterhout on the left and Bemmel on the right.

The Poles ran into some enemy resistance up north at Driel and Elden. By splitting my forces I probably don't have enough now to clear and hold either of them, but for now I'll wait and see what the day brings.

[Deathtreader]

Hi,

Looks great!! Can't hardly wait...........

I like the way the ingame scenario briefing pops out over the map. Presumably this is part of the next patch?

Rob.

[simovitch]

Sorry Rob, it was a cut and paste graphic job only because I couldn't fit the whole summary on the Game UI.

[nicwb]

It does look very enticing Simovitch.

I see that part of the objectives include the North & south ends of the Arnhem Bridge plus a the Driel evacuation point - does this mean that the scenario includes elements of the British paras to be rescued ?

[simovitch]

nicwb, the game ends the day before the historical evacuation of Oosterbeek took place and I have chose not to include the Oosterbeek battle in the scenario because it has little impact on the situation at hand and I don't want the German AI doing funny things with the 9 SS Panzer Division who are busy containing the pocket. Plus all those extra unit will slow down the processing speed.

Dawn on Day 3. I actually did everything I planned to do on Day 2, but I really need to get to Elden and the Driel evacuation zone because the Poles are out of ammo, as can be seen from the black boxes. That's what I get for setting and leaving them to max ROF. I'm attempting to withdraw 3rd Bn from Elden but without bullets I don't think they will get far. I never said I was a good player of the game![:D]

I also need to secure the Objectives that I own so I can start collecting those occupation victory points that get less and less with every minute.

[nicwb]

Thanks for the patient reply Simovitch - esp when I consider how dumb the question was - I'd forgotten what you'd written in your first post.

In my own defence I was very distracted by the impressive screenshots.

[wodin]

Looking very good indeed...

[simovitch]

Dawn on D4, the last day of the scenario, and I think that at least the southern approach to Arnhem bridge is within my grasp. Elden and the highway checkpoint must fall though, and I need to get at least some token forces to the Arnhem Bridge to negate some of the completion points that the Germans are likely going to get.

So far this scenario is turning out to be a good one; fun to play, challenging, and following historical timelines more or less. The polder is a real hindrance to motorized movement, keeping most units road bound.

I have made a few tweaks to the scenario balance for both sides but not a whole lot. I confess that with the developer tools I can pop over and see what the enemy is doing at any time but I don't let that influence my game and I do it maybe once per day just to see if the AI is doing anything weird.

Now, on to final victory!

[simovitch]

The German Line was just too strong and my poor tired Armoured Brigades could not force the line in time to make a difference. My casualties were also high, and the Germans get big points for wearing down the Allied spearhead.

There are some things I could have done better, most notably the management of fatigue and cohesion. The difference in quality between organized troops and those lacking cohesion is fairly significant. Units will loose cohesion on long marches to the front, so you can't just throw them into the enemy lines with a move order like I tend to do more than I should. That's why the reorg before an assault, and thus the selection of a good FUP is so important.

I'm going to make a few more tweaks (and fix Monty's sig), play it through once as Germans, and then release it to the beta testers.[:)]

[emerson]

So... Is this release getting close? After playing BftB i'm finding it really hard to go back to HttR for my Market-Garden fix...

[Tophat1815]

Status update?

[OlegHasky]

Hands up for the work.
I am just wondering if you intentionally wanted to cover your work with a warm, tempting defeat. Or was is just your natural painfull playout. [;)]

As it appears to me. The Garden sector is the one, that bftb do not streach to its best.
It is serving all the CO/AA limitations and paradoxes in a daylight.

The classical turn-based monster "DB series" still hold the gold in this one.