One Step at a Time

[Phoenix100]

So, for anyone who is interested, I put together a little scenario where the objective was Nijmegan (since Arnhem was a bridge too far...). I landed all the Brits on the Nijmegan drop zones, tasked them with taking the road bridge and the 82 with the rest (including the rail bridge). Kept everything else as was.

I thought, before I ran it, that I would quite easily sieze the Nijmegan bridges. The scenario allows more points and a total, glorious victory if, that having happened (Nijmegan being siezed easily), we all push on to sieze Arnhem, up the little road across the polder.... I thought this would be a bit harder.

See the pic below. This is end of Day 1. It's been instructive. I think, depsite all the force I have available, that it's going to be impossible to take the road bridge. I will have to try to get quickly across the rail bridge, I think, forge a little bridgehead there and make an attempt from that. But the Axis has flooded everything down through Arnhem unimpeded and it looks pretty scary. Now I see why it might be nice to have paras up at Arnhem, blocking the route down.....

[wodin]

When you look at the screenshot you sometimes wonder about congestion and if you could really have that many units in such a small space..a problem with it not using hexes with stacking rules etc. I see nearly 15 units on the bridge alone!!

Maybe somethings needs to be coded into the game that limits the amount of units that can occupy say the 100m squares or whatever it is the game sues under the hood.

[miya]

I like the idea of commiting two divisions in the Nijmegen area.
Some thoughts come to my mind, i would like to share.
Perhaps one of the divisions should be tasked to secure Groesbeek heights, the second division will secure the city with bridges and the northern river bank.
Second thought, commit the 101st and 82nd in Nijmegen and send the british Paras to the Eindhoven area, thus keeping the Americans together.

[Phoenix100]

Yes. Probably very sensible real world considerations Miya - keep the US together, don't mix the nationalities. I just drew a line more or less down the middle. the brits get the East - all of the Grosbeek heights and the crucial SEP on DZ N, right through to the Highway bridge. The Yanks get from Grave up through the railway bridge. I'm sure your idea is better. I'm not sure either will result in a win because I can't see how I'm going to take this bridge even with 2 divisions! When the brits drop on Arnhem - especially if they actually block the Arnhem highway bridge sth of the bridge (as is possible if you concentrate on getting them across via the Arnhem rail bridge) - then they hold up a mass of Axis forces hell bent on getting down through Arnhem to Nijmegan (the forces you see in the pic above). Without that blocking move it really is difficult.

At least it's not as bad as in the HTTR days, Wodin. I recall seeing masses of units actually in the river all around the bridge span....

It's schematic, I guess we must think. But you're right - in the pic above there are maybe 1,200 men plus all the vehicles actually on the bridge. It's a big enough bridge for that, in real life, but would they do it? Nice target. And indeed, I will bring arty onto them. But in RL I'm guessing they might have been worried about jabos.

Street view pic below, looking across the bridge from the sth.

[miya]

I see it is a major problem if nobody blocks the Germans north of the river Waal.

Have you played until scenario end ?

What about adding a new reinforcement schedule. I think of something like the Coup de main scenario we know from the old HTTR. Drop one battalion of paras near the north end of the bridges. Perhaps that will improve things for the Allies.

[Phoenix100]

Haven't played any more today, no.

I have put together 4 'coup de main' variants, in fact (because I too loved that [and other] alternatives in the original HTTR), and played them a bit too. Much easier to win. In one I made a new airdrop SEP, in the polder near Elden. That way it's quite easy to stem the flow of armour at Arnhem, and hold until relieved. If you keep only the original SEP, miles away, then it becomes a very interesting fight. Not certain either way, because even though you can stem the flow initially, you very quickly lose supply. Question is then whether you can get XXX Corps across in time. From playing through many variants of the Nijmegan, Arnhem Operation - if this game is really worth anything in terms of history - I'm convinced that the Operation would have been winnable (if very costly) if they had had shorter lines of supply, if they'd somehow managed to drop supplies into Osterbeek, for example (as they did, with poor accuracy) in greater quantity, or if they had set up a drop zone for supply in one of the many possible areas sth of Nijmegan, but much closer in than the actual drop zones. Even dropping the troops so far out I think they could have then got to Arnhem in time. Because the map has crucial choke points the overwhelming strength of the Axis is not so great an issue, even on the number of divisions they put in. But keeping those divisions in supply is a nightmare, especially at Arnhem. Just not enough men to maintain such a huge cordon.