Sicily to Brenner Pass Revised

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what it looks like after my moves. It seems that the battle is going to be waged mostly in the NE corner of the island.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's where everybody is at the end of T5. The front line is getting longer and longer. I've already run out of units so I'll have to refuse
my flank, my left flank, if he manufactures some more units and it looks like I'm going to get outflanked.

[Petey]

Ok Turn 144 and I'm finished. Just a little bit of mop up left, but I've finished turn scenario with a strategic victory. Great game, lot's of fun. Here is the strategic situation:

[larryfulkerson]

Turn 144 and you're finished ALREADY. That's amazing. Way to go dude. What are
you going to play now?

[sPzAbt653]

Thanks for the input Petey. The scenario goes to t191, but I don't expect anyone to take that long, but this in 144 turns is good. You haven't actually broken the last line and reached the Brenner Pass though. Can you maybe post a shot of the current victory level ?

The Allies had several 3 month pauses as they advanced up the boot, to reorganise, get supplies, and try to get thru the various defensive lines. I don't want to build those into the scenario by using cease fires, who would want to play that? So instead, we can expect to beat the 191 turn thing fairly easily.

One day if I have enough time to play this several times I would like to build in VP's for getting thru sooner than t191. But, I might forgo that if I can get Rick to make a new map, then I can do a whole new scenario at a smaller scale using all this experience to make a mini-monster scenario. [:D]

[Petey]

Actually I'm going on a trip for a week+/- so I probably won't get a chance to play for a short while. After that I don't know what I'll play next. I will still be following your postings on a daily basis however.

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

Turn 144 and you're finished ALREADY. That's amazing. Way to go dude. What are
you going to play now?

[Petey]

Yes when I get a chance over the next few days I will post a shot of the victory level and my thoughts about the scenario. If I didn't have to travel I would have continued to play on.

Thanks again Steve!

ORIGINAL: sPzAbt653

Thanks for the input Petey. The scenario goes to t191, but I don't expect anyone to take that long, but this in 144 turns is good. You haven't actually broken the last line and reached the Brenner Pass though. Can you maybe post a shot of the current victory level ?

The Allies had several 3 month pauses as they advanced up the boot, to reorganise, get supplies, and try to get thru the various defensive lines. I don't want to build those into the scenario by using cease fires, who would want to play that? So instead, we can expect to beat the 191 turn thing fairly easily.

One day if I have enough time to play this several times I would like to build in VP's for getting thru sooner than t191. But, I might forgo that if I can get Rick to make a new map, then I can do a whole new scenario at a smaller scale using all this experience to make a mini-monster scenario. [:D]

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson
Turn 144 and you're finished ALREADY. That's amazing. Way to go dude. What are
you going to play now?

ORIGINAL: Petey
Actually I'm going on a trip for a week+/- so I probably won't get a chance to play for a short while. After that I don't know what I'll play next. I will still be following your postings on a daily basis however.

Hey Petey....you might want to get into a PBEM game.....it's a lot more fun than fighting Elmer. Just a thought.

[larryfulkerson]

This is the positions of everybody at the end of T6. I'm trying to outflank Klaus on the NW end but the supply level there is really low
and the units I'm moving are already tired and almost out of ammo and Klaus seems to always have one more unit to put up on the line.
I don't have much of a reserve that isn't already committed somewhere so I'm going to have to strip the line to scrape enough units
together to make up a reserve. I'll probably need it before this is over. This looks to be a long term committment for the two of us. So
far so good.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a zoom up of the front lines at the beginning of T7. German counterattacks were scary but didn't evaporate but one unit of mine.
I can't afford to lose units like that. There's precious few of them as it is. I've got some British units moving north in the middle of the
map and I intend to try to outflank Klaus on the westernmost end if possible. I'd hate to do this WWI-style.

[Petey]

PBEM yes I'm interested

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson
Turn 144 and you're finished ALREADY. That's amazing. Way to go dude. What are
you going to play now?

ORIGINAL: Petey
Actually I'm going on a trip for a week+/- so I probably won't get a chance to play for a short while. After that I don't know what I'll play next. I will still be following your postings on a daily basis however.

Hey Petey....you might want to get into a PBEM game.....it's a lot more fun than fighting Elmer. Just a thought.

[Petey]

Ok, I was able to get in a few more turns before I hit the road. I was able to capture the Brenner Pass objective on turn 174. Those last 15 or so turns up the valley were tough. The Axis put up a real spirited fight. It went one hex per turn. Capture a hex, build a rail line, rest the units, repeat next turn. Employed more artillery than ground troops. The US 10th Mountain Div came in handy. Steve asked for a picture of my victory results; it's attached below. If there is something else let me know.

I think as it is it's a great scenario. I realize it's tough to get Elmer to cooperate. It is missing the "slog up the boot". The problem of course it that frequently elmer allows himself to be surrounded and defeated in detail. This deprives him of troops to establish defensive positions later. Perhaps you (Steve) could quickly reconstitute destroyed Axis units or even bring into the Axis OB duplicate units to replace destroyed ones (as this is a solitaire scenario). The poor Allied supply really helps slow down the advance; perhaps this can be made worse for the Allies. I mentioned before penalizing the Allies for losses. If this is not practical perhaps reducing the Allied replacement rate. Elmer seems to do a lot of bombardment; I think a better use of his artillery assets would be CS, as this would impact the Allies in there attacks. On a negative note there are a LOT of Allied units. Divisional units, Corp and Army assets, Allied contingents, air force units, etc. While this certainly is a MAJOR source of the charm of this scenario it get to be a significant unit management chore after a while. Perhaps you could fold some of these assets (particularly the anti-tank units) into the maneuver units. They'd be task organized that way any way. Hard to be in the role of Army Group commander Gen Clark and worry about where a divisional recon company should go. Perhaps that would be too much work.

Overall a fun scenario and history lesson. Many thanks Steve!

[sPzAbt653]

Excellent review Mr. Petey. [&o]

... frequently elmer allows himself to be surrounded and defeated in detail. This deprives him of troops to establish defensive positions later. Perhaps you (Steve) could quickly reconstitute destroyed Axis units or even bring into the Axis OB duplicate units to replace destroyed ones ...

I can't reconstitute them quicker, but there are mirror formations. Currently, when Elmer retreats to another position he leaves some units behind. Those get surrounded and destroyed, never to return, while the mirror formation takes up the new positions. So far this hasn't worked very well due to the Partisans interfering and Anzio always being open, but the latest versions have changed those so hopefully we will get better results.

The poor Allied supply really helps slow down the advance; perhaps this can be made worse for the Allies.

This was done with v2.5 by way of reducing the Allies Sea Transport from 25,000 to 10,000. That reduces the Transport Asset Sharing that influences supply.

I mentioned before penalizing the Allies for losses. If this is not practical perhaps reducing the Allied replacement rate.

I've played the Loss Penalty game in another scenario and don't see where it has much effect. Reducing Allied Replacements is always a possibility but takes a bit of reasonable review. I can do this with your example if you feel like sending me the .sal file from the end.

Elmer seems to do a lot of bombardment; I think a better use of his artillery assets would be CS, as this would impact the Allies in there attacks.

I agree but I don't think there is much I can do about it. Elmer throws shells most every round in other scenarios. It's wasteful, generally doesn't affect his enemy, and greatly lengthens his turns. On the other hand, I don't think we can come up with a reasonable solution for Ralph to implement. I mean, we can't tell Elmer not to ever shell.

On the Task Organised units, even though I heavily modded this scenario, I left most of the unit organizations the same. But I am a big fan of less units. RCT's and KG's will definately be done in the larger version.

[larryfulkerson]

It's really interesting to read about Petey's experience and the synopsis that followed. Good stuff all around.

Klaus has suggested that I separate out the PBEM game from this AAR into it's own thread. That thread is here:

tm.asp?m=3560733&mpage=1&key=&#3560733

I'm continuing the game in that AAR. This AAR is for development of the scenario in solo play.

[Petey]

Steve:

Do you have any other scenarios you would like me to play test?

ORIGINAL: sPzAbt653

Excellent review Mr. Petey. [&o]

... frequently elmer allows himself to be surrounded and defeated in detail. This deprives him of troops to establish defensive positions later. Perhaps you (Steve) could quickly reconstitute destroyed Axis units or even bring into the Axis OB duplicate units to replace destroyed ones ...

I can't reconstitute them quicker, but there are mirror formations. Currently, when Elmer retreats to another position he leaves some units behind. Those get surrounded and destroyed, never to return, while the mirror formation takes up the new positions. So far this hasn't worked very well due to the Partisans interfering and Anzio always being open, but the latest versions have changed those so hopefully we will get better results.

The poor Allied supply really helps slow down the advance; perhaps this can be made worse for the Allies.

This was done with v2.5 by way of reducing the Allies Sea Transport from 25,000 to 10,000. That reduces the Transport Asset Sharing that influences supply.

I mentioned before penalizing the Allies for losses. If this is not practical perhaps reducing the Allied replacement rate.

I've played the Loss Penalty game in another scenario and don't see where it has much effect. Reducing Allied Replacements is always a possibility but takes a bit of reasonable review. I can do this with your example if you feel like sending me the .sal file from the end.

Elmer seems to do a lot of bombardment; I think a better use of his artillery assets would be CS, as this would impact the Allies in there attacks.

I agree but I don't think there is much I can do about it. Elmer throws shells most every round in other scenarios. It's wasteful, generally doesn't affect his enemy, and greatly lengthens his turns. On the other hand, I don't think we can come up with a reasonable solution for Ralph to implement. I mean, we can't tell Elmer not to ever shell.

On the Task Organised units, even though I heavily modded this scenario, I left most of the unit organizations the same. But I am a big fan of less units. RCT's and KG's will definately be done in the larger version.

[larryfulkerson]

Now that you mention it Petey there IS a scenario that I would like to reccommend. It's War in the Pacific v2.9 and I'm in
communication with the origijnal author and he said go for it so I've been modding it by adding a lot more supply points. That's all,
so far, that's been changed. Thomas Harvey, the original arthor says he's going to spend some time this summer modifying it to make it
more "accurate" and I wish him well. I've been playing against the Jap AI and it's been a blast so far. I'm attaching it to this post so you
can download it if you'd like to take a look around and maybe push some units around a little.

[sPzAbt653]

Steve: Do you have any other scenarios you would like me to play test?

I don't think I have anything right now. Shortly there will be a German player version of StoBP.

Because of the different versions, I've renamed the one we've been using, it now has an (A) in the name to denote it is the Allied Human version. The start up screen now looks like this :

[Petey]

Steve:

I've downloaded your StoBP 2.7(A). Thanks. I am always confused as to which supply settings, new rules, etc. I am supposed to be using for each scenario. Which are they for this?

As a suggestion it would be very helpful if you included this information on these settings in the text file you include in the scenario folder in the zip download.

Again, thanks.

[sPzAbt653]

This is an old scenario so it doesn't use any of the newer rules. Obviously, none of the older scenarios were designed with the newer features, so no reason to ever play with any of them.

For the newer scenarios I like to think designers would specify that they designed a scenario for a certain rule or option, but that may not always be the case.