Sicily to Brenner's Pass ( Brian and larry )

[larryfulkerson]

I see by the border graphics that Brian has advanced in the mountains past my MLR
pair and that means he can get into my backfield and cut off everybody from their
supply source and destroy them. Should I move them or not? I'm leaning on leaving
them there. Moving them would just cause losses from the INT and leaving them here
would delay the fighting further north of here. Decisions, decisions.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what it looks like right now. Brian is almost out of the mountains on the
east side. I've positioned some tanks to contain the Allied units exiting the
mountains.

[devoncop]

I think you made the right decision there Larry. He has relatively low number of troops going mountaineering and you have stronger forces in reserve around Rossano along witht e Panzers you have moved. I really dont think any encirclement would hold and his supply would be atrocious.

Courage mon brave !![:)]

[MikeJ19]

Larry,

I agree with Devoncop. I think you have the forces to deal with the units he gets through the mountains, also they will be tired and not well supplied. It would be a shame to pull back...

[larryfulkerson]

I just now figured out that a tank unit is supposed to spawn on Sicily and the Allies
own that bad boy. I'll never get that reinforcement. I wish there were a way to get
it off the list. Disband it while it's still gestating or something.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the front lines in T107 after I have moved everybody.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the front lines in T110 and it's changing slightly each turn.

[larryfulkerson]

Brian is making some progress. I regret that I can't retreat. The INT would kill
all the units before they got very far.

[larryfulkerson]

Part of my problem is the lack of airpower and that's because there's no airfields
in the terrain just north of my MLR's anywhere. Preferably along the coasts. Like
Taranto. I need a lot of Taranto's in the circle I've drawn.

I'm going to have to sacrafice my two existing MLR's and build new ones further north.
I'm thinking as north as maybe Foggia or so, maybe not that far. Lemme study it out
and I'm open to suggestions.

[larryfulkerson]

157 hexes is the range of the longest range bomber I have in the inventory and it's
not quite sufficient to reach from Taranto to the battlefield. D'oh. I'm thinking
of putting drop tanks on the bombers. No, wait, in-flight refueling was developed
back in the 1920's...I'll see if I can't put in-flight refueling in the training
curriculum. WITE has a provision in which the airfields can move so you can
put it as close or as far from the front as you need it. Which depends on the type
of plane based there I guess. I wouldn't know, I like to put everybody right up at
the front until or unless my enemy starts up with the airfield strikes, then I move
the bombers back to safety. I have a hard time determining where the safety zone
starts tho.

EDIT: My bad....that color of range arc means there's fighters at the base the
bomber is also at. The range arc of the bomber extends off the bottom of the map
which means I need to trim the bombers for where they are parked. I'm thinking
that my fighters still can't reach the battlefield. I'd best check that out.

[devoncop]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

Part of my problem is the lack of airpower and that's because there's no airfields
in the terrain just north of my MLR's anywhere. Preferably along the coasts. Like
Taranto. I need a lot of Taranto's in the circle I've drawn.

I'm going to have to sacrafice my two existing MLR's and build new ones further north.
I'm thinking as north as maybe Foggia or so, maybe not that far. Lemme study it out
and I'm open to suggestions.

I hesitate to advise you Larry given how well you are doing in our game but I would be wary about pulling back as far as Foggia airbase...if you lose the airbase I believe you lose a large number of air squadrons (from memory all Italian Air units)...It is worth checking....The alternative is to stack your short range fighters at Foggia airbase and your bombers much further North so they match the southern reach of the fighters....if you can coordinate that reach with your MLR....that is perfection[;)]

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the front lines in T113. So far so good.

[MikeJ19]

Be very wary of those Canadians. They pack a punch.

[larryfulkerson]

I got about 15 units as reinforcements and they started in Northern Italy and railed
down to the ocean coast and were intercepted twice in northern Italy. The front lines
haven't changed a whole lot except for the light screen around the mountains.

[larryfulkerson]

T116 November 2, 1943:

New moves from Brian who broke my easternmost MLR line and then the playback ended
so the first thing I do when I get control is to move one of my Sea INT Stuka's to
Taranto and the other one to Salerno just in case there's an Allied invasion in the
works. I need to find a good spot for last turn's reinforcements...they are still
in northern Italy and I need to move them to a good MLR spot somewhere around the
area north of Salerno maybe. Let me study it a bit more. I'll post what I find.

[larryfulkerson]

Brian attacked on the eastern MLR toward the end and gained a hex but I reinforced
the defenders and I'm callng it good. These pase turns have been mostly more of the
same and progress for the Allies has been painfully slow. So far so good.

[larryfulkerson]

The first thing I do when I get a turn is to check the deployment of the aircraft
and I've just discovered that I haven't been checking the planes in a while and
I need to trim their range to fit the front lines again. The theory is that the
smaller footprint that the range arc covers means better coverage overall. So I
trim the range to cover the area I want and not the entire map.

[larryfulkerson]

I thought I'd start parking the tired planes at Foggia because it's got a good supply
level and it's a little bit further out of the aerial traffic than Taranto. I need
to see if I can't find them some AA units, maybe some ground security because of
Brian's paratroopers.

[larryfulkerson]

Sorry, I forgot to take a parting picture of the front lines.

[larryfulkerson]

Brian broke through my defenses in the west so I'm going to let the east go as
well to make it balanced on both coasts so he can't get behind my lines. My units
are fleeing north on foot. I can't chance an air strike by going by rail. It seems
like rail movement gets interdicted more often than units on foot / truck. I'm going
to set up some more MLR's somewhere up north away from his planes. Make him repair
a lot of rail, that kind of thing.