Pelton vs meklore61 Turn 72 VP: -617 Axis Victory Resigned

[Peltonx]

The great retreat begins.

47 turns left, now its all hexes to Berlin and turns to Berlin.

I just need to trade space for VP's, hopefully I have enough in the bank.

WAs land in Holland, but I have 6 strong PDs near by.

[Peltonx]

We start with drawing on the Brittany Front, the key is not letting to many divisions get pocketed as with WitE.

I would like to have a front that's 3-4 hexes deep when I get to Germany so I cant lose many divisions

[Peltonx]

South

[Peltonx]

So far so good. I should have a line 2 deep built before I get close to Germany + my 2 deep front line.

I also have a good buffer of VP's

Forgot to take a picture, but in Holland I was able to route a few stacks of units. I hold the ports so the invasion has become a prison camp.

[marion61]

Yes, my invasion was a mistake. I should have retargeted when I saw those forts, and when I bounced off one invading I should have pulled out, but that's life. Live and learn. Another thing is that I was strapped for troops trying to put it together and maintain an offensive in France. That's why most of it was made up of regiments and brigades. 9th Army just started coming in, and if I'd held off till they had arrived I probably would have had better luck. I really had no reserves to follow up with, and it was just an all around bad decision.

I've learned a few things this game, so next time it won't be so easy.[8D]

[Peltonx]

ORIGINAL: meklore61

Yes, my invasion was a mistake. I should have retargeted when I saw those forts, and when I bounced off one invading I should have pulled out, but that's life. Live and learn. Another thing is that I was strapped for troops trying to put it together and maintain an offensive in France. That's why most of it was made up of regiments and brigades. 9th Army just started coming in, and if I'd held off till they had arrived I probably would have had better luck. I really had no reserves to follow up with, and it was just an all around bad decision.

I've learned a few things this game, so next time it won't be so easy.[8D]

Alls you got is you will not be so easy next time?

You can do better then that.

[Peltonx]

Big Picture.

10th Army in Northern Italy has pulled back to the Alps and have received 4 fresh infantry and 2 MT divisions.
Several lines are being dug.

On the Holland front most of the WA's have left the beaches, 14th Army will keep all its divisions in Holland.
The SS Panzer Corp has been moved back into reserve for rest/refit 50 miles to south west.

1st Army is tring to hold Paris for as long as possible.

Across the rest of the Western Front a general pull back of 10-20 miles per week is still the general rule until those units reach the stop line.

Only 33 turns are left.

[marion61]

How about, next game I'll let my actions speak for me?[;)]

It's been a good game, you handled the situations I threw at you well, and maintained your lines without losing too many men.

Overall I think that skipping Italy was a mistake on my part. I should have taken Rome in 43 so I'd be getting more city points. Not taking those cities in Italy hurt my score a bit. The good thing about Italy is not having to take it while losing massive casualties. Casualties have been light as neither of us committed much to this area.

Invading from England in 43, is not really all it's cracked up to be either. It can be easily done, but unless you land close you probably won't get a good break out. Allies really don't have enough units for open field fighting in France in 43. Once I'd gotton onto Brittany, I was running out of troops, just to maintain the lines from all those high CV Panzer units. Hell, I even built forts behind my lines!

Once I'd managed to start breaking out of Brittany things have eased up, but my Canadian and British manpower is about dry. I'm going to have to disband some units soon as those units are the best I have. I've disbanded most of the light flak units, and soon I'll probably disband a HQ or two since I have plenty of US hq's still sitting around.

On the air front, I'm still trying to find the happy balance between bombing points, and ground attacks. I'm losing 10-20 points a turn (from not taking Italy I lost alot of city points a turn), but as I take cities, it's getting better.

One thing I can say for Brittany now and Normady is, that once you start to break out into that clear terrain, the axis casualties from interdiction go up significantly. According to my battle reports, FOW on, he's lost in the neighborhood of 300k troops in the past 6-7 turns. Most of that was retreating thru my interdiction and retreat interdiction from attacks. The bad thing about Brittany is that it's so far away, and it takes a few turns to really get a good break out. The first few times I attacked the wall at Brittany, I had every unit on the front in reserve mode. One attack went in with over 200k men attacking at Rennes. I've only managed to pocket about 4 divisions since I broke out, so he's retreating very well. I'm just making it expensive to withdraw thru the interdiction.

My game with Qball has really helped me with this game. I hadn't really had to use my ground forces much before that game, and I wasn't very proficient with them. I've learned how to reorganize them, not push them and make too many hasty attacks, and how to manage my reserves. Also it's a matter of focusing in just a few area's or one area, to achieve your goal, then put them back on refit for the next advance. I know when we get to Pelton's next stop point it's going to be tough.

My main strategic blunder was when I shifted too many armored units from Brittany to assist in the invasion of Southern France. I thought getting out of Southern France, I would need those armored units. That wasn't really necessary, and I left the Brittany front a little short of armor. Hind sight's 20/20, but now that I've connected the two fronts, I can shift the armored units anywhere I want.

Invading in several places is really not that great a strategy. The allies only have so many units, and in order to achieve a breakout you have to have enough units to get it done. Three fronts was all I could really handle, with Italy having a skeleton crew, the invasion in the Neatherlands was just doomed no matter what. Against what he had there, there's no way I'd broken out of that mess with the few divisions I had. Allies just don't have enough units for all that real estate.

It ain't over till the fat lady sings![8D] Or the VP's sing, however you want to look at it.

[carlkay58]

Brittany as an invasion site is really only good if the Western Allies have captured the Channel Islands. The airbases there are great as staging bases along with making great fighter bases. Without them the distance is just a tad too far for good air coverage and air coordination.

Normandy has that darn bocage and all of the historical baggage that goes with it. But it is a peninsula with a good port (Cherbourg) and is good defensive terrain vs those pesky Panzer Corps.

The problem with the rest of France is there are no natural flanks and it is hard to get some depth to allow a build up for a breakout.

Invasions have to be concentrated and well planned. Yes the Allies can make a few small invasions here and there, but unless you have some major ground forces able to get to them and help out they will go nowhere and become POW camps.

[LiquidSky]

The Channel Islands are awesome for much more then Brittany. You can paradrop within 8 hexes of a supplied unit/(hex?). You can completely isolate the Cotentin peninsula with para brigades on the turn you hit the 'invade' button for Normandy.

And all, that lovely bocage will protect your units from the German Panzers until you have sufficient strength to break out.

[Peltonx]

ORIGINAL: LiquidSky



The Channel Islands are awesome for much more then Brittany. You can paradrop within 8 hexes of a supplied unit/(hex?). You can completely isolate the Cotentin peninsula with para brigades on the turn you hit the 'invade' button for Normandy.

And all, that lovely bocage will protect your units from the German Panzers until you have sufficient strength to break out.

+ if you get held up you can do a 2nd invasion near Brittany or La Harve.

I have managed to figure out how to break the Holland and Denmark I win buttons finally.

[marion61]

FORTS!!! [:)]

[carlkay58]

When the new terrain hits (polders) in Holland it will help both sides defensively - which translates to a real pain for the Allies to break out. Between polders being like bocage AND all of the rivers in Holland it will be real difficult to drive the Axis back.

Denmark is more interesting. I have always wanted to try a Danish invasion to see how it would go but I never have. The distance is just too far for me I guess. Very hard to get any air cover while being within easy striking distance of the LW.

[marion61]

Once polders are in the game, I'll probably never try the Neatherlands again as a landing site. To confined, and not conducive to armored attacks. I think that's reasonable for that area, as surely the Germans would have flooded the area to keep the allies from advancing quickly.

[Peltonx]

Turn 66 Turns left: 30 Hexes to Berlin: 53
Manpower Pool: 124,000 Armaments Pool: 74,000
The weather is finally bad so I start disbanding units, no point in doing it before bad weather because they would get killed by interdiction. Hopefully last turns 4 pocketed units will be the last.
For meklore to get a draw he needs to score a +11 VP’s per turn with 30 turns left.

[marion61]

I don't expect to win this one. I just want to look good losing![8D]

[marion61]

Well as the conquest comes to a close for France, I'm pretty sure The Lone Wold Regiment cannot hold out against the concerted allied attack on Paris. I'm sure they're scratching their heads saying, "WTF"![:D] I'm about a month late in taking Paris, but I have up to Dijon and northern Italy early. Won't be enough to get a minor victory, so I'm really just shooting for a draw.

[marion61]

View around Dijon. I managed to trap 3 PzGrn Divisions and an infantry regiment or two with my push last turn. The combat in the hexes above those divisions was probably clogged with a big hex combat delay and they couldn't escape, and interdiction. I didn't expect to catch them, but I'm glad I did. Less of them I have to worry about later.

[marion61]

This is Italy. We peeked inside Venice, but no attack this turn. Overall my casualties were light compared to his losing another 47k men, mostly from interdiction.

[marion61]

These are the casualties this turn. I got me a bunch of King Tigers that turn!