Hispaniola 1947 AAR

[ernieschwitz]

11th of November 1947,

The AI seems very confused about what i am doing. It is trying to build a new frontline north of Port-Au-Prince, as far as i can disern, and it´s pulling troops from Port-Au-Prince, while my troops are there, standing at the gate. Also it seems to be reacting to the "sideshow" going on in the north.

It sent it´s lone fighter on a strafing mission again against my armoured cars, and with the same results again, nothing. It tried a few attacks here and there, but nothing really worth mentioning. Even the attack by the american troops in the jungle north-east of Neiba was repulsed... It did use it´s artillery to flatten one of my units tho, but thats all the positive words i can say about the AI, on this turn...

Here is how it looks.

[phatkarp]

Great AAR!

[ernieschwitz]

11th of November,

I use my soviet forces and some of my Dominicans to attack the depleted american forces. A lone SFT (probably 10 men or so) retreat, and reach the shores of Hispaniola. A suicide attack on the Haitian Capitol reveals that he is indeed reinforcing it, so he may be making many small units instead of big ones, that are heading to the front lines.

I decide to move my artillery to Neiba, and from there it shells the american artillery, 2 rifle are lost on the american side. I also decide to try and encircle the artillery, so it will not get supplies this next turn. I am sacrificing a rifle unit for this purpose. Also i move the soviet infantry into position to attack the artillery next turn. Once i am rid of that artillery i am sure i can grind my way towards Port-Au-Prince, blasting units one at a time.

In the north i take a chance with my remaining fuel and attack Cap-Haïtien, with my armoured cars, and take it. I move infantry units towards it, but in my haste i am afraid i might have opened myself up to a setback. The road to Monte Cristi is open, should the AI choose to take it.

I also play my last action card. Inspire the people. This is the fifth time i have played it, i won´t get it any more. I instead decide to use all of Santo Domingos production on Synthetic Oil. I am getting 40 a turn... This might be a bad investment, i will try and find out... Maybe i should keep the level at some 20 oil, and then produce rifles with the leftover production.

Anyway here is the situation at the end of my turn.

[Vic]

great read!

by the way.... did you ever consider a congo scenario? you could call it "heart of darkness" and make it a little bit more grim then this rather jolly banana atmosphere

best regards,
Vic

[lion_of_judah]

I would like to see someone do the Congo civil war ( I may even tackle this) of the 1960's, do not remember the exact date. I know WW2 are everyones favorite, and so with out upsetting everyone and not meaning too, I would love to see more scenairos on wars after 1945.

[ernieschwitz]

ORIGINAL: Vic
great read!

by the way.... did you ever consider a congo scenario? you could call it "heart of darkness" and make it a little bit more grim then this rather jolly banana atmosphere

best regards,
Vic

But i like this rather jolly banana atmosphere Though I might take a stab at it... seems like it would be a little harder to do. Already giving thoughts to how i could do it though...

ORIGINAL: lion_of_judah
I would like to see someone do the Congo civil war ( I may even tackle this) of the 1960's, do not remember the exact date. I know WW2 are everyones favorite, and so with out upsetting everyone and not meaning too, I would love to see more scenairos on wars after 1945.

The problem with doing more recent scenarios is that you

1). have to do something about the SFTs. That could be solved by waiting on the Bombur mod i think. It should go up to the 60s, unless bombur has other plans.

2). risk irking someones feelings. Thats why i prefer doing "what if" kind of scenarios. Plus there is the added bonus of not having to follow any historical events... which makes it more fun imho.

Thanks, both of you, for reading the AAR

[blastpop]

Good replay and scenario!

How much did Vic pay you?... [;)]

[ernieschwitz]

Absolutely nothing, blastpop.

[ernieschwitz]

I´ve been away for the weekend. Seems like a long time of no playing... anyway, here is the continued AAR.

1947, november 12th

The Haitians try their best (which just isn´t good enough) to break my initiative. An airstrike is launched against the infantry marching from Santo Domingo to Neiba, with no effect. Also the artillery, that is now almost surrounded shells one of my soviet infantry units, and does some damage, killing off 1 SMG. Several small attacks occur too. The rifle unit near Cap Haïtien is attacked, but beats back the attack with no losses. The garrisons in Santiago and La Vega are both attacked, but repulses these attacks fairly easily.

After the enemy movements and attacks are done, this is how the map looked.

[ernieschwitz]

12th of November 1947,

The first thing i do is try to take out the american artillery. I move the soviet infantry unit that is in Neiba northwards, up the road, to where the american artillery is located, i then bombard the artillery with the soviet artillery, and then initiate an attack from all sides. The effect of all this is pleasing. 2 out 3 artillery pieces is lost, and the americans are forced to flee into the jungle.

I then complete their encirclement by moving troops in the center of the island to connect with my forces in the south. Now the americans are isolated and surrounded. They will get no supplies at all. I think that now it may be safe to ignorre them and just continue onwards towards Port-Au-Prince. With that in mind, i move around alittle. Then i think, i might need to push them back a step further from the road, so they don´t stop my supply train... I notice thats also the hex where they have an armoured car parked.

In the north near Monte Cristi i decide to surround the unit trying to advance on the town, and attack it. The attack goes well, no losses to my side, and several to his, but he doesn´t retreat. Near Port-Au-Prince i need to withdraw my forces, as they are getting no supplies. I also attack the stragglers, from the surrounded americans, from a few turns back...

Here is how the map looked after my moves.

[ernieschwitz]

13th of November 1947,

Once again the Haitian airfoce strafes my marching column from Santo Domingo to Neiba, but this time i have losses, 4 riflemen, none-the-less. Other than that very little is going on. There is an assault on La Vega, which is easily defended against.

I begin planning my moves. But first, here is a look at the map as the turn began.

[ernieschwitz]

13th of November 1947,

I begin with shelling the enemy HQ located in the jungle north-east of Neiba. I surmise that if this HQ does not exist, the destruction of the units under it (all the americans, trapped in the big pocket), will be worse off. I then assault this HQ with what i have nearby and move troops up to attack it later as well. The results are favorable.

I then use the rest of my fuel to attack the militia unit trying to cut off Cap-Haïtien from Monte Cristi, and that attack is a roaring succes. Armoured cars on fields against poorly armed militia = No contest. I then move troops up towards Hinche, and hope very much to take it next turn. As far as i can tell, it´s undefended.

I also move my soviet infantry up to the frontlines, and hope to get a path straight to Port-Au-Prince this way.

Finally i assault a hex in the south and force back the small scale offensive that the Haitians had started there...

Here is how the map looked at the end of the turn.

[lion_of_judah]

This is a very good read. Question, have you noticed your oil supply decreasing by anti-supply via sea lanes or just by your moving your armoured units and attacking.

[ernieschwitz]

ORIGINAL: lion_of_judah
This is a very good read. Question, have you noticed your oil supply decreasing by anti-supply via sea lanes or just by your moving your armoured units and attacking.

I have not experienced losses of Oil via anti-supply. So its just been by moving units i have had it decrease. There has been some interdiction done by air, but that has only been of regular supplies.

[ernieschwitz]

November 14th, 1947,

A few things happened during the AIs turn. The Haitians decided to block the supply going from Santo Domingo, over the land route to Monte Cristi by moving a unit near the road, thus blocking it by gaining ZOC. Also the Haitians tried to sneak closer to Cap-Haïtien, i expect my armoured cars will once again have to show what they are made of.

An infantry unit, quite a large one at that, is heading throught my line, and south of the Soviet infantry, towards Neiba. I will try and stop it.

Thats about it. Here is the map of how things looked as i opened the turn.

[ernieschwitz]

November 14th, 1947,

Apart from one attack, all my planned attacks went well. I began by moving my artillery out of harms way, and then bombarded the infantry that had moved forward towards Neiba. I then moved one of my soviet infantry to Neiba, so he won´t take that city easily.

Then came the bad attack. There is a unit of Militia blocking the road between Cap-Haïtien and Monte Cristi. I decided to attack it from both sides with my riflemen. I lost 3 riflemen to 0 of his militia. Just bad luck i guess.

The unit of militia that had neared Cap-Haïtien also got what was coming to it. With only 10 Oil left, i decided to attack with my armoured cars. The militia panicked and all of them died.

In the center, south of Hinche, on the road towards Port-Au-Prince, my Soviet infantry were facing a unit of Engineers. They made short work of it, and one of the units, even advanced and took another shot at it. By the time the engineers had retreated, only 2 of them were left.

Also i attacked the HQ located in the jungle north-east of Neiba. Only 2 staff officers remained, at the end of that attack. I expect to have that HQ eliminated soon.

Here is how the map looked at the end of the turn.

[lion_of_judah]

If I do not have victory points in cities, will the AI still play a good game or do victory points need to be placed. I see that this scenairo has them and so are they needed?

[ernieschwitz]

ORIGINAL: lion_of_judah
If I do not have victory points in cities, will the AI still play a good game or do victory points need to be placed. I see that this scenairo has them and so are they needed?

The AI uses victory points to determine which things are worth defending. So, they are needed. You can even set a hex to have higher VPs for the AI, than for everyone else. I think that in the old WaW, the AI got alot of VPs assigned to each maginot hex, to make it fight for them.

I use VPs for other stuff too. Among other things, use it to determine if/when Haiti should play the US blockade card, and there is an event that will trigger a US/Soviet intervention if certain VP conditions are met.

[lancer]

G'day,

After reading your excellent AAR I downloaded the scenario and fired it up. Surprisingly tricky with the small units, low recon values (constantly surprised by moving into a hex and finding a bunch of bad guys) and difficult terrain.

I like the sugar resource and the card options too.

Having been to both Santa Domingo and Port-au-Prince I can understand why nobody had big armies or much in the way of well trained troops. The three things I can best remember from Port-au-Prince were scavenging pigs (everywhere), voodoo worship (almost everybody) and AIDS (rampant). Not an ideal source of recruits.

Well done.

Cheers,
Lancer

[lion_of_judah]

wondering if there will be anymore updates for this thread, would like to know who won and what strategies you used and how you were able to get replacements to your units. Right now I'm playing against the AI+ for a second time, being that the first time I surrendered after 10 turns. Now I have been able to hold the line somewhat.