RDOA Historical Campaign

[Mr.Frag]

Anyone here win as the Brits?

Playing as Germany, I completely destroy the Brit paras days before any help shows up.

Playing as the Brits, I destroy myself equally well

I personally fault my use of terrain (just haven't learned the effects well enough to exploit it yet to get around the germans quick enough).

[JJKettunen]

Attached is the situation on day 7, 0430. It ain't pretty. Note that I started the historical campaign only with demo experience, and had played mostly with the Germans before.

[Mr.Frag]

Well, you have me baffled, was that with command delays at realistic? Historical supply and weather?

[JJKettunen]

Originally posted by Mr.Frag
Well, you have me baffled, was that with command delays at realistic? Historical supply and weather?

Yes, yes and yes. What you mean baffled? The situation looking too good?

Edited to that it is indeed a better situation than historically was the case, but my Paras are just melting away, and I'm not sure how to use 30th Corps, tired after clearing the southern side of the bridge, most efficiently in a river crossing situation.

[Mr.Frag]

The situation looking too good?

Beyond good! The reason I asked is I don't see very many + marks on your map from units being eliminated in the area you trimmed the map to.

As the Germans, I held everything except for waypoints from Elst south. I would have gone for them too, but I was awfully tired and my pillow was calling out to me so I let the few grunts have the night off in Elst

Everytime I play, I end up building a collapsing pocket around the 1st Airborne and forcing them into the open ground near the rail bridge after preventing them from going above me then simply waiting for mass eliminations and surrenders.

By the time the day 2 drops land to help the day 1 drops, it is a lost cause for them and they just add to the mess of corpses.

[Kevinugly]

Well Mr. Frag, I think you've run into the historical problem of not sending in enough troops to achieve all of the objectives. My personal preference is to aim solely for the road bridge on day one. With luck you should be able to take it and hold it in some force. You should then be able to use the re-inforcements on day two either to bolster your defensive cordon around the road-bridge or have a go at the rail bridge. It's a tough scenario to win though, you might be better off trying one of the 'what if' scenarios to get a better idea of the British troops capabilities. That's what I did anyway although I still find winning the historical game a real challenge. Have fun:)

[Mr.Frag]

Maybe thats the problem, read so much history, I can't help myself but to commit the same mistakes

[Arjuna]

I second Kevin's strategy advice.

The British paras are lightly armed troops, better suited to defending covered terrain than to assaulting dug in enemy positions. Yet the scenario calls on them to attack initially, seize the primary objective and then defend until help arrives.

So initially they are on the offensive and the first principal of attack is CONCENTRATION - ie hit them with all you've got on a narrow front. Historically, the Brits committed the cardinal sin of dividing their force and it proved fatal.

As a rough guide, the Br Para Bdes will have a tough time defeating a dug-in German Bn of reasonable quality. With some arty support they can just do it. The AL Bde is better, because it has more heavy weapons. So logic dictates that if you suspect the Germans are going to have more than one battalion of good quality troops in Arnhem by the time you get there, then you are going to need more than just one Bde.

It's not rocket science and the British Abn Div commander historically knew that there would be more than one battalion. So the only conclusion one can draw from this is that he either put his head in the sand and tried to ignore the intel provided him or he had some misguided notion of the capabilities of his own force. Perhaps there was an element of both. The Brits were cocky. The Paras were itching to get into the fight, come what may. There was an air of overconfidence at all levels. Maybe they just did not believe the intel. I suspect they didn't want to believe it. It's a fairly common symptom - see Norman F Dixon's book "On the Psychology of Military Incompetence" page 147 where he says about the intel "This was the moment to reassess the risks involved. But since these ugly facts did not accord with what had been planned they fell upon a succession of deaf ears."

Even if you had discounted the intel about the SS Pz Div rebuilding in Arnhem, experience would still dictate that given a 12km hike from the DZ, the Germans could have reacted with at least a motorised Bn or so from other areas. It was folly to split the force and this is very well simulated in AA.

[Mr.Frag]

Yea, I was trying to do too much with the poor guys, once I threw them straight into the town, live was a lot nicer for them, but it was still a rough fight. Had the Rail bridge not blown, I'm not sure how things would have gone ... I do need to work on my armor as you'll see with the attached totals, I really mauled them :rolleyes:

[Arjuna]

I think you will find that in HTTR armour is much better handled. It will now stop and fire further back rather than rushing to the objective. So it tends to spend more of its time firing and suffers less losses.

[Mr.Frag]

Would telling the armor units to defend with the highest AGGRO level set have a similar effect Dave?

[Arjuna]

Order them to Move with max Aggro is the closest you will get in RDOA. Remember that the settings for a Defend task apply when the force is at the objective, not on their way to it.