Snatching Victory from the Jaws of De Feet

[larryfulkerson]

2clicks ( Andrew ) and I thought we'd try a game of Overlord '44 with me as the Allies because Andrew hasn't played all that many games yet and might feel overwhelmed with the Allied side whereas the German side is relatively easier. I'm coaching Andrew, is my understanding, so this AAR is open to him from the start. I'd really love it if you readers would post your advice about his situation and what he should try to do next etc., So as to help him so we can all learn together. I picked this scenario because I thought it was a short, simple scenario and it appears that I got caught by the old bate and switch again. There's something like 200 turns. Well, we don't have to play the entire thing if Andrew doesn't want to.

Here's one panel of the situation briefing and you can see that the Americans have a slight shock advantage at the beginning of the game. I assume it will decrease as time passes and that there won't be nearly so big a shock difference. It's been so long since I've played this thing I don't remember any more....all the details. I remember Caen being one of the keys to the progress of the Americans. So my advice for Andrew is to hang onto Caen as long as you can because it's got swell defensive properties and the Allied Lines can't progress very far with the city in it's rear. It's a great place to anchor one flank of your defensive lines.

I notice that the scenario begins on 05June44, one day before the real thing and I'm guessing that the scenario is trying to simulate the night-time landings by the paratroopers the day before the sea landings happened. That and maybe one turn's worth of aerial bombardment. As I recall the Allied INT missions were murder on the movement of German units.

[larryfulkerson]

I've got less than 200 units so the turns will probably go fast unless I slow down and post stuff in the AAR and go into detail and explain stuff etc. There's 51 aircraft units at my disposal and I daresay that I don't think the Germans have that many. I've got a vague memory of them not having any planes at all. And yet I've got fighter groups. I'm probably going to end up using them as recon/free range INT.
I'm going to follow the red green yellow rule for my units health policy and try to keep them stocked up with supplies to at least 50% at all times. This is an older scenario and may not work just right with TOAW IV and we may need to tweak the scenario and restart but I hope not.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what it looks like at game start and I was startled to see that it's half-day turns. So this will have a tactical feel to it. I hope Andrew likes what he's been given so far.

[larryfulkerson]

I've been moving units according to the OOB order and I've come to the aircraft and I found them all set to INT even the fighters so I'm leaving them that way for now. I need to drop the paratroopers yet and I need to re-position the boats for better support and then we should be done for this turn.

[larryfulkerson]

I think for the June 5 turn I'll just pound the German CD guns a couple of times and I'm going to leave the planes on INT and save their supply for all the INT they are going to do this afternoon so I've moved everybody and I'm ready to pull the trigger and then ship the moves to Andrew.

[larryfulkerson]

I shot the ships at the German CD guns for two combat rounds and then called it quits. We will have to interogate Andrew to see what the losses were.

[2clicks]

No pictures from me I'm afraid.

So for a small start this seems quite big! Inital plan for the germans is to focus on the objectives which area at the south of the map. This should keep me away from the big naval guns and close to my supply. Moving is terrible as everything that moves get blasted by allied aircraft. However since I'm new to this its nice having no planes to think about....

Ive thrown a few sheels about but not really doing much until there is more shape to the attack. Im going to try blow bridges and genreally slow down and harrass the allies as much as possible. I'm unable to move most of my units at the start and I'm also aware that they will lose the 150% supply if i do so most will keep tucked up for now. Looking at the senario overall the germans don't have much chance to "win" but slowing the advance and stalling if possible would be best. Hopefully I can provide a bit of resistance.

The allies opening bombardments did very little luckly to my troops. The air attacks are much worse. ANy advice for not getting everyone mowed down on the roads would be great.

In my mix of styles of being over cautious and then blind panic knee jerk reactions I've tried to attack the airborne at pegaus bridge area in the hope of blowing it up and causing problems there so I can hold Caen.


2clicks

[hingram]

I tried this one and Elmer kicked my American behind. Badly. The Germans were marching through Washington DC by turn 14. The Brits are doing pretty well.

[larryfulkerson]

I'm setting up the attacks and some of the stacks are getting ashore without a problem at all. Most of them are going to have to fight their way ashore.

[devoncop]

ORIGINAL: 2clicks

No pictures from me I'm afraid.

So for a small start this seems quite big! Inital plan for the germans is to focus on the objectives which area at the south of the map. This should keep me away from the big naval guns and close to my supply. Moving is terrible as everything that moves get blasted by allied aircraft. However since I'm new to this its nice having no planes to think about....

Ive thrown a few sheels about but not really doing much until there is more shape to the attack. Im going to try blow bridges and genreally slow down and harrass the allies as much as possible. I'm unable to move most of my units at the start and I'm also aware that they will lose the 150% supply if i do so most will keep tucked up for now. Looking at the senario overall the germans don't have much chance to "win" but slowing the advance and stalling if possible would be best. Hopefully I can provide a bit of resistance.

The allies opening bombardments did very little luckly to my troops. The air attacks are much worse. ANy advice for not getting everyone mowed down on the roads would be great.

In my mix of styles of being over cautious and then blind panic knee jerk reactions I've tried to attack the airborne at pegaus bridge area in the hope of blowing it up and causing problems there so I can hold Caen.


2clicks

Hi both

Andrew , both AAR's I have seen on this one had a lot of action around Pegasus Bridge...if you can manage to defeat the Airborne units at Pegasus Bridge then blow it I think it will really help down the road.... its a big if though

As far as the interdiction goes all I can suggest is moving any flak you have with the few units you move but to be honest this scenario is taking place in "Interdiction Central" so its just a case of gritting your teeth...[;)]

[larryfulkerson]

About the interdiction I would suggest you sort the OOB list on icon type and then scroll down to the AA guns and move those guys first so that the enemy's INT missions will be expended on your AA guns instead of a more valuable unit. After a couple of units get moved back and forth several times the INT missions may taper off and cease after a while. Maybe. You'd get more moves back and forth with your AA unit if it's embarked on the rails but I'm not sure it still fires as an AA gun if it's embarked. I'll have to do some tests to find out for sure.

[larryfulkerson]

MikeJ19 did a whole AAR on being the germans in this scenario I believe:

tm.asp?m=4462914

[MikeJ19]

Hi Guys,

I did not play this scenario, but I agree Pegasus bridge is very important. If you can hold it and keep the Allies to the far side of the river you remove a threat to Caen. I had a lot of fun with the other scenario and played it twice - once for each side.

2clicks, the bocage terrain is your friend. It will help slow down the Allies and you do not need to deploy your better units into it. In the other scenario, it is the battle for Caen that is key. As the German, most of my powerful units were committed to defending the approaches to Caen. Having not played this scenario, I'm not sure of the victory conditions, but if you can hold the British and Canadians back, you should do fine.

As your AAR progresses, I will add my 2 cents.

This is going to be interesting.

Have fun,

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: MikeJ19
Hi Guys,

I did not play this scenario, but I agree Pegasus bridge is very important. If you can hold it and keep the Allies to the far side of the river you remove a threat to Caen. I had a lot of fun with the other scenario and played it twice - once for each side.

2clicks, the bocage terrain is your friend. It will help slow down the Allies and you do not need to deploy your better units into it. In the other scenario, it is the battle for Caen that is key. As the German, most of my powerful units were committed to defending the approaches to Caen. Having not played this scenario, I'm not sure of the victory conditions, but if you can hold the British and Canadians back, you should do fine.

As your AAR progresses, I will add my 2 cents.

This is going to be interesting.

Have fun,

First of all let me be the first to thank you for your advice and insight. I'll look into the Victory Conditions to make sure but I think it's based on objective points held. Terrain occupied I think. I have a vague memory of the Allies having 0 points and the Germans having the max for a side which I think was 220 points at the beginning of the game. The Germans don't have to do much to win besides hamper the Allies at everything they try to do. Slow down his progress and prevent the most VP's from going to the Allied side. Too bad you don't have any planes yet. I'm wondering if there are to be any Axis planes at all. There's the airfields for them. Complete with AA guns and everything.

With all the INT missions making things difficult for the Germans I think I would be tempted, before I moved anything else, to move my AA units back and forth until all the INT strikes taper off. They would be among the best targets for those strikes in my opinion.

[larryfulkerson]

On the west side beaches the Americans got almost everybody ashore and they are almost ready to push north. I'm wondering how beneficial it would be to drive west and cut off the peninsula first and THEN drive north so as to trap the Germans in the north half. I need to connect the west beaches with the rest of the landings to the east before too long. There's a second wave that's going to land and I need to clear out the beaches to make room for them.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the rest of the beaches and there were problems in some places and an easy breeze in other places. British units are ashore and ready to push south and the Americans are having problems getting everybody ashore. The second waves are probably going to have to be delayed because of a lack of room for the additional units on the beaches. Some of the ships are red already and the battle has only just started.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the condition of the planes. There's a lot of them that need rest this turn because of all the INT that was flown during Andrew's turn. I'll have to be careful about assigning direct missions because there may not be enough CS to cover all the attacks. So I may have to prioritize the battles. Most important battles to get the CS and the rest of them either postponed or proceed without support.

[larryfulkerson]

I've discovered that the German CD guns like to shoot at my floaters unless and until I move them one hex at a time.

[larryfulkerson]

The British beaches are seeing the most progress as they are pushing further south, clearing the beaches of mines and barbed wire and booby traps as they go. They have set up a command post, a hole in the ground actually, and they are stringing the wires for the telephones and they have radio contact with the ships offshore and there's three runners left for the commander and things are clicking along. Things seem to be going well. But on the American side there's lots of resistance and they are still crammed into the small beachheads they made on T1.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's how many combats there were this turn. They are counting the many many times that the CD guns shot at my ships.