This game was played before I knew the German dispositions from Chad's excellent AAR in another thread.
Maneuver warfare consists of achieving the objectives by neutralizing the enemy’s ability to fight, as opposed to outright destroying him by concentration of force as proposed by Clauzewitz. One important aspect of maneuver warfare is to get inside the enemy’s so-called Boyd cycle, which means that the enemy cannot react fast enough to counter our actions.
So first let us look at the map. The ultimate objective is to exit enough units from the bottom right corner of the map, but we can only do that if we can get through the enemy who is determined to stop us.
If you are like me, when you first look at the map you have no idea where to begin making a plan, so the Clauzewitzian temptation is to look at the nearest enemy grouping and to start by launching an attack in that direction. Here there are three paths to the enemy, and three objectives: Amenimes on the right, Beffe on the left and Hill 400 in the center between them. Since we know that the German forces have the mission to stop our linking with Patton, it is probable that we are equal in strength or stronger than they are, so there is little risk of a devastating enemy counterattack if our early initiatives fail. So a reasoable plan could be to launch attacks along the three objectives, with the idea of adjusting our attack depending on how it works out. But we shall not do that. For an excellent AAR on how to do that, read the AAR by Chad in a nearby thread.
What we shall do is work out a plan starting from the end: the main objective is to exit some units at the bottom right corner of the map, so how do we get there? We see from the map that there are only two ways to get there: along the river trough Amomines and Dochamps, and down through the center through either Magoster or Amonimes, then through Devantave and Laidprangeleux. So it becomes clear that our route will be either Amonimes or Magoster, then Devantave-Laidprangeleux or Amonimes-Dochamps. If possible we should control both routes, since it gives us extra degrees of freedom (not to mention extra objectives). It is also possible to detour through Beffe, but this is undesirable because it must go through too many enemy concentrations.
Since this is a 3+ day scenario, we should scout out the enemy before we decide on where to commit, based on the principle that if you don’t know where you are going, you are unlikely to get there. Now as Chad has pointed out in his exellent AAR, Hill 400 in the center is an excellent German position to cover both approaches to Beffe on the left and to Amonimes on the right (here right and left refer to the map). Our plan should take this into account. We do not know where most of the enemy are, and whether or not they have reinforcements, so we have to take this into account too.
If I were the German commander, I would carry out a flexible defense along the two routes I have described above, but the Germans may have other ideas and other orders, so I cannot presume that.
