1943 GC: Loki (Allies) GloriousRuse (Axis)

[loki100]

T65 – 23 September 1944

Rain across N Europe and light mud in some sectors.

Well given last turn's losses, VP situation not too bad



Air power badly reduced due to low morale so concentrated on a few choice targets.

In Belgium, Ostend fell (level 3 port so will take a while to repair) and 1 US/2 Br attacked towards Brussels.

Attempt to gain 3 hexes on the city failed in two major tank battles.




So some substantial gains but I really need to rest my armoured formations.



To the south 3 Army trying to force the Moselle around Nancy. Further south 9 Army continues to exchange hexes with the German motorised brigades.



Small breakout by 1 FF



More gains in Italy. Bologna is liberated, gain a bridgehead over the Reno and surround Ravenna.



Not exactly suceeding in bringing my losses under control.



Not much on the destroyed list – guess its useful to have removed the 'Meyer' formation – I suspect that was lost in the fighting around Brussels.



Random image is a well hidden British tank in Belgium:

[John B.]

Was there a tank in your last random image? It was so well hidden I could not see it.

Thanks for your response to my questions. I guess the other one that I had was whether the Germans see any sort of uptick in their replacement rate that would allow them to build up divisions for a Wacht like lunge.

[Joel Billings]

They do get an uptick in replacements and a bunch of reinforcement units in late summer 1944 (VGD, tank brigades). Up to the players to figure out how best to use them. From the manual:

Whenever Paris is allied controlled, Free French manpower production is doubled (including liberated French population centres that produce manpower for the Free French). In addition German manpower production is multiplied by 1.5 from the time Paris is allied controlled until the end of 1944.

[loki100]

T66 – 30 September 1944

Most of NW Europe now rain and light mud. According to the forecast due to stay much the same next week.

Despite last weeks losses, VP chart makes better reading, pity that some v-weapon sites seem to have repaired.



German air offensive against my railyards in France (good choice) and back to naval interdiction off S France.

Useful targets but heavy losses for the attackers (especially as their bombers were unescorted and I had a lot of FC on auto-intercept protecting Paris), including quite a high pilot:plane ratio.



Strategic missions now almost all about v-weapons and tank production. 8 AAF hits the Baltic again (I'm just repeating this as there are good secondary targets in the region) and Hannover. BC reports German fighters on its usual Kassel-Magdeburg sweep.

15 AAF reported fairly heavy fighter concentrations.



Bordeaux taken, which will help with the wine supplies. Usual hex flipping around Lyons by elements of 9 Army. Helped now as I am starting to connect with the partisan revolts giving me large corridors of hexes.

3 Army using the Moselle as a defensive line as it re-organises, Verdun surrounded but will go over to the defensive till the supply situation improves.

1 FF expands to the east as the Germans pull back and moves into position around Toulon.



In Belgium, Bruges, Ghent and the collection of cities around Lille are all liberated.

Around Brussels, 1 US/2 Br seeks to make small gains with a view to an attack in the next few weeks.

However, they run into a nasty reserve reaction.



I lack the capacity to really stretch the defense so after a bit of thinking decide its best to pull back and refit. More infantry are arriving which will ease the demands for my armour to hold the line. In turn that will make multiple attacks more feasible and basically (yet again) wear out the Pzrs.



In Italy, Ravenna taken, supported by naval gunfire. First attempt to break out from Bologna fails.



Rotate the attacking forces and second attempt clears the Reno giving me a decent bridgehead and a threat to all the cities in Emilia-Romagna.



Despite a couple of defeats, ground losses not too bad that turn.



Supply situation is easing a little. Mainly by reducing demand so that units don't send too many of their trucks away. US 3A is in the worst state but that will improve as I gain a few trains. Good that the main offensive force (21 Br AG) is gaining what it needs.



Which might make more sense set against the OOB table. Note I have a lot of damaged tanks, which was one reason why I didn't keep on pushing around Brussels.



And a rough overview of the entire front. I'm not sure what to do with 1 CA. Most likely redeploy by sea to the NE but if there is a strong German force in Marseilles I may link it up with 1 FF.



Digging around with the supply information. The '8' key can be useful, even when all it tells you is that 3A and 9A have major problems given the length of their road supply – and that is before German units keep on cutting up the network.

[loki100]

T67 – 7 October 1944

Mostly rain and light mud but annoyingly the Po valley is heavy rain and light mud, so I lose my airpower on that sector.

Looks like it will be much the same next week.

For the first time in a while the VP chart goes positive, mainly as I've clearly suppressed the v-weapons again.



Luftwaffe carries on raiding my depots in France.

Not able to bomb into S Germany so most of 15 AAF sent over Toulon, in the north main commitment was to bomb a road open into Luxemburg.

Strategic bombing is a VP hunt – manpower and HI in the Ruhr, Fuel and HI around Hamburg and Berlin.

Ground war in S France as complex as ever but Toulon was shelled and bombed into a quick surrender.

Beyond that between my armoured cavalry formations and the partisans, most of the south should flip to my control next turn.



In Belgium offensive starts with 2 British launching overwhelming attacks to clear out the German front line (trying to ensure that there is no reserve reaction), followed by exploitation to pin possible German reserves.

1 US then launches the single largest attack of the war and clears Brussels – with surprisingly limited losses.



Reinforcements starting to arrive (no need to leave the 1 CA formations in the south) and 3 Army starts an offensive into Luxembourg, protected by substantial interdiction.

That puts 10 US Armoured 20 miles from the German border,



In Italy, exploit the freedom of having finally broken out around Bologna. Ferrara is added to the list of liberated cities and the start of a hint of a possible pocket – in any case the Germans need to abandon their defensive lines.

The Po is a major barrier but I have plenty of targets to the south and can effectively pick my chosen crossing point – when I'm ready.



My losses are up compared to last turn but have two major cities for my efforts.



But am starting to face a few problems with manpower, all the smaller Allied factions cannot really replace their losses and the British are reaching the end of their active reserves.

[John B.]

Loki & Joel,

Thanks for the answers! I'll return to my silent lurking now as I enjoy this AAR a great deal.

[loki100]

T68 – 14 October 1944

Well it may take a little while to reach Germany after all



Despite that, another +2 on the victory charts.

Weather is a problem, in the north its now heavy rain but only light mud. So in theory one more turn of operations but without air cover. In practice, I need to let stuff rest and refit. So apart from some limited attacks by 3 Army to get a better starting position when the rain ends, no action in Belgium.

Better news is that Italy and S France is back to clear weather.

So decide to use my airpower mostly in Italy to see if I can exploit my current opportunities but some of 15 AAF attacks tank production near Prag. This was not a good idea as it was at range and under-escorted – a rare win for the Luftwaffe – especially as I missed my actual target.

Really should have used them for tactical bombing.



On which subject was wondering where this lot might be lurking:



S France, still taking control of the Rhone valley, assault formations moving up to attack Marseilles next turn.

Only really active sector was Italy. A couple of unwelcome holds due to 116 Pzr (this despite it being heavily bombed) but made some useful gains, still the possibility of a small pocket. To help this, stripped my defences in the centre and managed a small breakthrough.



Losses a bit inflated by the German counter-attack on 3 Army and some shipping losses (since UK Coastal Air is grounded).



So in view of their first encounter, here's the inevitable random image:



Hadn't noticed, but they have clearly been around for a while – I've shot down 4 of them (or they could have been operational losses), 2 this turn and 2 last.

[loki100]

T69 – 21 October 1944

VP up to +4 (its rather good when I am forced to stop attacking), weather mostly rain/light mud and forecast is for much the same next turn. So might as well see what I can gain before the really heavy rain turns up.

Both BC and 8 AAF attack Berlin/Stettin and 8AAF flies higher than I have done recently (you can't push BC much over 22,000'). Lets see how well the Me-262s cope with lots of allied fighters and out of their comfort zones.

Tactical air in Italy and France is mostly hitting chosen targets (including the defenders of Marseilles). In Belgium, after a couple of turns of resting have almost all my tactical air power. So heavy interdiction in preparation for a renewal of 3 Army's offensive and to see if I can force the Albert Canal. Where identified, suitable targets get directly bombed.

The assault on Berlin was effective in terms of direct results and, partly, in triggering A2A combat.







Some interesting differences there, I suspect the 8 AAF raids were too high for whatever German fighters were in the region (I don't believe they otherwise would only target BC) but at the level of reported results, BC was clearly the more effective.

My new playmates clearly didn't want to take any chances.



After being bombed into the ground by 15 AAF, the defenders of Marseilles were quickly overwhelmed.



So the overall situation in S France, still an odd war going on between US armoured cavalry formations and German security regiments.

Not shown but repairing a rail line from Bordeaux to Dijon (probably take another 3 turns) which will ease supply to 9 Army and now the main combat formations of 1FF are freed up, it'll be a quick job to secure the Rhone valley.

In turn that will be 3 major ports (and decent rail capacity) pushing supply to the drive into S Germany.



Italy, unit bombing failed to find 116 Pzr so my hope is its pulled back to refit. Compensation is substantial interdiction over the location of their possible tactical reserves.

8 Army drives towards Parma and effectively cuts off Modena (still not sure how much of a pocket I'll actually manage). 5 Army deploys to see if it can cross the Po – might need a substantial investment in AP for motorisation to concentrate against a particular weak spot.

German units south of the Po are often routing on defeat, suggesting low TOE or supply problems.



3 Army starts its offensive by taking Luxembourg city and exploiting along the Moselle – reaching the German border, but an attempt to take Ettelbruck failed stopping any hopes of a pocket (I only had one >45 MP armoured formation on that sector).



9 Army slowly building up with fresh and refitted formations and, at the very least, 3A is pinning substantial German forces but I suspect that 9 and 11 Pzr are fresh enough to do some damage to my spearhead.



1 US attempt to reach/cross the Albert Canal was frustrated by some FJ formations that just held off the first attack – resulting MP penalty left me relying on a hasty attack (as I was keeping my last very mobile unit back for exploitation).

Spent an age thinking about committing 2 British but the problem was not firepower but MP. In the end they struck east towards the Maas and managed to cut the Liege-Namur link.

I Canadian filling in on the northern flank and relieving command load on 1 US.

Suspect this spearhead is less vulnerable than 3A as recon suggests they are mostly facing infantry.



Overall losses were relatively light but still running down my tank stocks.



And finally, a US M-18 on a suspiciously sunny day:

[loki100]

T70 – 28 October 1944

VP at +3 (& no v-weapon losses), weather looks like mud/heavy rains for next week, so best to use my strategic bombers to ensure the v-weapons stay out of use for 3 or so turns.

All of S France now under my control apart from the remaining dispute with the German security units along the Rhone valley.

Main difference to last turn was a lot of German fighters trying to interfere with my bombers.

Bomber Command hit targets in S Germany despite all this unwelcome attention.



8 US repeated last turn's raids, this time attracting more attention over Berlin but not on the Baltic.




Only managed to destroy 2 of the Me-262s despite all that effort.

S France, Avignon and St Ettiene taken

Italy, 5 Army forces the Po at 2 points, 8 Army takes Reggio Emilia, still can't close the pocket to the south, I suspect there is some supply in Modena but they are now reduced to a narrow corridor so resupply must be increasingly difficult.



On the main sector, trying to refit and rest but equally looked for some final gains to give better starting points for the next offensive.

1 CA cleared German units back from Brussels (so that becomes a depot) and reached the Scheldt.

Elements of 1 US and 2 Br pushed NE towards the Albert Canal – this will ease the process of taking Antwerp and starts to explore crossing points for the Maas.

To the south 3A consolidated its hold on the Luxemburg-German border. It now has a few depots and a couple of rail links so the hope is to push the MP of its armour up.

I'm prepared to make a major effort around Bitberg as it avoids the need to fight my way over the Maas. Since it looks like there are 4 Pzr divisions on that sector this seems to be a mutually shared understanding.



Ground losses not too bad.



Not exactly the clearest map but may give some overview of my rail and depot net. Basically the western ports are functioning and using their rail cap to bring supply up to around Paris. To the east, I have the start of a good rail net but still a bit low on rail capacity.

As examples the rail line to Mons is using 5000 tons of freight but that along the coast is under 4000. Behind 3 Army, Reims is getting 5000 tons by rail but the other depots much less.

To the south, there is a rail line moving across the centre from Bordeaux and another from Paris to Dijon but 9 Army is still very reliant on Orleans. Issue here is lack of rail capacity as much as non-repaired lines.

My guess is it will take 3-4 turns to clear the Rhone valley, at that stage supply will start to arrive on the 9 Army sector (as will the bulk of 1FF).



OOB, note I still have a lot of damaged tanks, allowing them to repair will help a lot in the next phase.

I have 3 US armoured divisions pulled back to Paris for a major refit after they were badly beaten up in German counter-attacks.

For the moment, I am getting 1 Armoured division every other turn so this is manageable – in the end I will hit the problem of not enough competent generals to make the best use of all my armour,

I'm still keeping some airborne units prepared for possible drops, it will be a matter of luck if I have picked the right spot but for the moment its useful. Most are now actually just fighting as regular infantry and the airborne corps are all configured with artillery etc.

[loki100]

T71 – 4 November 1944

First thing is the weather was far better than I expected – rain and light mud over the key sectors.

Overall I have been very lucky with the weather – no doubt this will balance out at some inconvenient stage. Looks like normal combat operations will be feasible in Italy next turn.

VP score up to +6:

Bulk of the strategic air war is a repeat of last turn, traded A2A losses at more or less 1-1, including one more Me-262.



In Italy, managed to take Mantova, but more importantly, sealed the Modena pocket. That should yield the equivalent of 7 divisions.

If I can expand from Mantova to the foot of Lake Garda that cuts the rail supply to everthing to the west, including the units still in S France.



S France, Valence falls, Lyons next turn. Mountain brigades carry on oozing over the Alps.

3 Army enters Germany – I'll take that 2-1 as compensation for all my recent 1.9-1 holds.

This time I have an armoured reserve with almost 50 MP.



That bit of good luck was quickly balanced out. 2 British tried to get around what looks like strong German forces on the Maas by cutting off Namur.

A series of holds stripped out my MP and added to the costs of moving forward – Namur is cut off but not properly encircled and I suspect the narrow gap will get filled in next turn.

1 Canadian cleared the west bank of the Scheldt.



At least despite the holds, my losses are not too bad.

[loki100]

T72 – 11 November 1944

VP chart makes good reading, just have to hope the v-weapon production doesn't restart while I am away.



Weather is heavy rain, heavy mud in N Europe, light rain and light mud in S Europe.

So the only air operations are in Italy, I'm starting to feel I'm running out of targets for all my level bombers but its too early to shift a batch to around Paris.

Managed to surround the FJ division at Namur – that can have a few turns cut off before I deal with it.

Started to digest the pocket at Modena while British tanks reach the foot of Lake Garda. Even if they are driven back that has cut the last rail line to the German troops in SE France/NW Italy.

Only other action is the capture of Lyons, 1 FF starts to deploy for the offensive into S Germany.



My losses are back up – again some units moving from the UK were hit due to the lack of naval air.



Destroyed unit list, nothing that valuable lost by the Germans but I doubt I'll see much of that again on the front lines.

[loki100]

T73 – 18 November 1944

Have to say my opponent has been unlucky with the weather – its mostly flipped to rain and light mud (some areas of heavy mud but they are localised). If the forecast is right then next turn is even better – clear cold skies.

My enforced rest means the VP chart moved to +12.

So lots of tactical bombers to hand, including my new A-26s (which I think are far more useful than the various 1943 US 'A' series) with their often very useful mix of a lot of bombs and rockets – so for a LB formation these are very versatile.

Running out of imagination for the Strategic air war so 8 AAF goes for Baltic and Magdeburg regions, BF over Munich, 15 AAF back to Steyr.

S Germany sees a lot of A2A combat, ending with almost 200 German fighters shot down. 15 AAF only managed a single raid – had forgotten they have problems when the Alps are covered in snow. I'll transfer it to France soon as I don't need it in Italy for tactical bombing, along with Malta command to give air support to the planned offensive into S Germany.

Italy, clean up the pockets, limited drive west towards Milan and add Parma to the liberated list. Keeping some units deployed defensively as I think there are still 2 powerful Pzr divisions on this sector.



Situation in NW Italy. French mountain troops slipping over the Alps, just gambled on dropping a US paratroop regiment as that will hinder their retreat. Doesn't look like a lot of units but I suspect most of what is there is now doomed.



I hate 1.9:1 holds, especially when I don't really have the assets to repeat and exploit (if I win a second time).



Actually I did have the means to repeat and exploit so that gives 3 Army a second hex in Germany, it also means I've cleared the wooded terrain on the border and its now clear almost to Bonn.

Supply for 3 Army now pretty good, next task is to improve the situation of 1FF/9 Army.

That combined with small gains for 2 British actually sets me up well to bypass the problem of forcing the Maas.



1 Canadian starts clearing the Scheldt but failed in its attempt to start to flank Antwerp to the east.

1 US was committed towards the Albert Canal, no dramatic gains but again creates a few options going forward.

Large block of 2 British left to rest – I am a bit cautious of some sort of German offensive to use up the Pzrs.



Losses not too bad.



Army supply chart. Basically the 'northern' armies (1CA, 1 US, 2 Br, 3 US) are now ok, I'll start allowing demand to rise by putting more corps to higher priority. To the south 1FF is doing ok (its drawing supply up the Rhone) and 9 US has a major problem.

In Italy, basically ok, 8 Br has a few problems but it is the army worst aligned for the depot system.



Random image has to be my new plane? A-26s in action.

[loki100]

T74 – 25 November 1944

Would appear the Germans bombed my rather opportunisitc paratroop into the ground – something like 31 missions?

That reduced my VP gain to +2.

Again, not much originality in the bombing campaign.

A lot of the Luftwaffe seems to have been committed to disrupting my interdiction missions, I have plenty of fighters so need to organise better escorts.

SE France – Nice captured. In Italy, 8 Army presses west, 5 Army is on the defensive.



I may have mentioned how much I hate these results?



Even so, 3 Army takes the first German town (Bitburg) while 2 British adds to the pressure south of the Maas, and clears out Namur.



On the northern sector, 1 Ca completes the process of clearing the Scheldt and almost surrounding Antwerp. 1 US makes a small – but potentially very useful gain over the Albert Canal.



Ground losses not too bad given the amount of combat.



Destroyed unit list – the FJ and Mountain divisions are of some value but most of that lot has little real impact.



edit: the lost British brigade group was a disband, I've a few low ToE units from all the antics in the south and I'll disband a few to release manpower and equipment to other units (they'd take a long time to refit).

[loki100]

T75 – 2 December 1944

First impression is the Luftwaffe really doesn't like my supply depots.

One odd effect – and I presume this was deliberate – was the Me-262s escorted their recon missions not the bombers.



Overall they took fairly heavy losses but again this is a good use of the Luftwaffe – certainly more creative than I can manage at this stage.



VP situation, will have to pay attention to the v-weapons again.



So 8 AAF shifts to v-weapons that I may have missed, BC attacks the launch sites at The Hague and a series of unit attacks. 15 AAF is now well settled into its new Paris offices, so I send all its Liberators on a fishing trip for the Luftwaffe, the rest bomb in support of 3 Army.

And the German units around Belfort wake up to a new sound overhead ...

The fishing trip only netted 55 planes but there was also a lot of A2A combat. V-weapon hunt mostly failed, so need to review that for next week.

Given the lack of bombers on the destroyed list, I assume I mostly hit fighter bases. In this respect, I later found most of their bombers located around Eindhoven.



NW Italy, British tanks almost reach the Swiss border, letting the armoured brigades push deep into Piedmont while French mountain units cross the Alps.

Overran a large collection of Axis planes when I took Bergamo.

I've misunderstood the secondary value of Milan, as it is also a German NSS, I assumed this rule was triggered:

V1.00.07 – 19 December 2014
Rule Change - Whenever the Allied player controls a German Nationality National Supply source, the following rules are in effect:
a. German units that are destroyed will not return to the game.
b. Units withdrawing are no longer required to be at 75% TOE strength before they are withdrawn.
c. All frozen German units will unfreeze in the next German logistics phase.

But reading it carefully, has no effect, its not a German nationality hex. So of the list, its most likely it will be Essen or Frankfurt that triggers this effect. By which stage it will have no practical effect given its likely the German ability to generate new combat elements will be close to 0 in any case.



Finally enough of a supply build up to allow an offensive towards Belfort-Mulhouse by US 7A and 1FF. Initial goal was to beat up the Pzr brigades in the front line – what happens now depends on if the Germans have a local reserve. If not then those infantry in the front line could become vulnerable to encirclement.



3 US makes substantial gains despite one heavy defeat, 2 British really botched taking a rough hex south of Eupen, but it makes it possible to cut the last rail link into Liege next turn. Between the two, that helps make the German line on the Maas redundant.



1 Canadian carries on its amphibious operations, crossing over into S Holland, probably of more importance is it also surrounds Antwerp.

US 1 Army draws off German reserves by attacking from Hasselt (the 2 holds), allowing the armour to break through. Given that the Germans have 1 SS, 9 SS, 26 and Pzr Lehr all on that sector I expect to see US 2 armoured badly beaten up next turn. But if they are doing that, they are not somewhere else.



Given the amount of combat, again losses not too bad.



So, lets have a picture of some aquatic Canadians

[loki100]

T76 – 9 December 1944

VP gain back down to -2. Weather conditions snowfall (so some loss of bombing efficiency) and light snow.

Does seem my opponent doesn't like Canadians, couple of counter-attacks on the 3 Army sector, this was the worst, compounded by an inept performance by my fighters.



Overall the Luftwaffe is far more active than I wanted, despite the RAF doing their best to interfere.

That level of activity carried on into my air phase but they took fairly heavy losses for their efforts.



Italy, small skirmishes as I try to clean up in Lombardy and Piedmont. Milan should be taken next turn.



Belfort offensive generates a pocket, suspect the Germans will be able to open the encirclement at Belfort itself but the 2 divisions cut off to the south are probably doomed.



Despite the German attacks on 3A, managed gains on that sector. 2 British pushing up the east bank of the Maas



To the north, Antwerp falls, 1 US follows up the German retreat



At least my losses are down – should help with the VP.



Overview of the supply situation, only 9A and 1FF really having problems.



Random image of the week – lets have some French soldiers in the snow

[loki100]

T77 – 16 December 1944

If I recall, aren't the Germans meant to make a major offensive on this turn?

Bad news for my Czechs



VP back up to +6 as my Dutch gains feed in. Weather is mostly snow/snowfall, next week the skies should clear. What's left of my strategic bombing is all around hunting down the v-weapon production, the bulk of my strategic assets are now hitting identified ground targets.

Italy, reaching the end of the main campaign, Milan fell, should be able to take Turin and Genoa next turn, then need to do a major re-organisation. There are some useful VP targets in NE Italy, but I have other uses for the better formations from this sector.

Air commitment pared down as Malta and 15 AAF are now in France. I'll strip down Tactical Air once this phase is over.



1 Canadian (which has no Canadian formations attached) carries on making gains in the Netherlands, 1 US forces the Maas after a diversionary attack drew off the German reserves. 2 British mostly rests – in part as I now need to clear Liege to free up my MP so as to be able to exploit any gains.



3 Army rests, bit low on MP and I'll gain more from the clear skies next turn. Germans retreat from the Moselle so 15 Army follows up, other attacks just clearing my flanks (& improving my supply routes).



9A and 1FF makes some gains in Alsace (& make a complete mess of over-running the surrounded German units). Lack of MP and the snow limits options so I suspect the units at Belfort will escape.

The rail lines on this sector are a real pain to deal with as the nearest crossing of the Rhine is Strasbourg but the rail to that runs up the Rhine (thus in likely ZoC) so this becomes a bit of a deadend. In general this is a tricky sector due to the supply issues but wanted to secure it on the Rhine (if I can).



My losses are back up, so I presume -ve VP next turn. One thing (and it may just be luck) is the German tank losses are increasingly turretless – if so my assault on their medium tank production may just be paying off.



Destroyed unit list looks impressive, but again nothing that will really hurt them but the loss of 3 divisions will slightly weaken their ability to fill out the line on quieter sectors.



Random image – problems in getting your Sherman tank into the garage?

[loki100]

T78 – 23 December 1944

Lost my bridgehead over the Maas. Also the FF units around Belfort were driven back.

On the basis of those air losses, I need to alter my assignment of fighter cover. I've been sloppy about the allocation of my FB-F (not least a number are working as FB*).



Despite the losses, VP chart looks good, basically that is all the cities in NW Italy feeding in as well as almost all of France – the only German held cities are Metz, Colmar and Strasbourg.



As promised, skies clear over most of the front. Looks like the same again next turn. Strategic air focus now just on v-weapons, everything else is assigned to some form of tactical operation.

Again Luftwaffe very active, but my re-organisation of my fighter deployment and allocation prodiced a bit of a massacre with over 310 German fighters shot down – admittedly for heavy losses for me.

Tables show air losses at the start of turn/end of my air phase. So that included over 100 Fighters and 200 German FB. I lost 300 F/FB but many of those would have been on GA missions. Also lost around 200 LB.

Many of these were from Bomber Command for its raids around Kassel which ran into heavy fighter cover.



Italy/SE France. Genoa liberated, Turin surrounded, have identified all the units I want to pull up to France. French Alpine troops start to clear coastal rail towards Imperia. I'll ignore all those alpine defensive units apart from the ones that block the cross-Alps rail line from Turin to Chanberry. Repaired this will pull a bit more supply into Alsace.

8 Army trying to seal off the last exit route and then need to think about whether its worth any effort pressing on into Alto Adige. 5A commences a low key offensive into the Veneto, there are enough VP cities here to justify some effort/losses. At the least, its clear terrain and anything the Germans now place here is not defending the Reich.

Of course it doesn't help that all my tanks are up in the Alps.



Alsace-Lorraine, take Belfort and Metz. I'll need to rest on this sector now but have reached the German border around Saarbruecken. Again this has drawn off some German mobile units, in this case 2 SS Pzr, 90 Pzr Gr and elements of 3,15 and 29 Pzr Gr.



3 Army renews its offensive and its lead tanks are only 10 km from the Rhine.


Some of the battles were costly, but for the first time even a full Pzr division being committed as a reserve is not enough.



To its north, 2 British took Liege and cleared more of the east bank of the Maas.



In conjunction with this, 1 US retook the bridgehead it lost last turn and added another. Maastricht is cut off but not properly surrounded but its now clear terrain all the way to the Rhine (apart from Aachen).

1 Canadian carried on in the Netherlands, thats the Maas line now disrupted and can prepare to force the Weal and break out towards Den Haag.



Losses much lighter than I'd have expected, winning seems to be good for limiting my losses. Includes the equivalent of 2 destroyed German divisions. I'm starting disbanding a few independent brigades to push the manpower and equipment into my divisional units.



Manpower situation for the active pools. British are now out of manpower, smaller factions need some care. I don't have much of an admin pt pool (all those motorisation decisions) so not going to be easy to fund a large scale disbanding but I'll get rid of some formations.



Overall supply situation. 1FF and 9A struggling but that will ease as I improve the rail net behind their sector. Of the northern armies, only 1 CA has any issues and that is down to a lack of port in S Holland at the moment so its all going via ferry. Airdrops are keeping 3A well supplied.



There are a number of odd rail links in E France/Rhineland which can lead to some gaps. The main problems are in the south where there are a few dead-ends. But 3A is also in a problem area. Basically I can't push its depots past Luxembourg till I have one of Trier or Aachen. The captured airbases are the only way to offset this.

Which leads to a competition as to which will be the first German city or urban hex captured?
Aachen or Trier? Or given the terrain perhaps Moenchen-Gladbach or Bonn. Saarbruecken is vulnerable but I need to re-organise in the south to make this feasible.

[Sardaukar]

Good ops, good AAR.

[8D]

[loki100]

thank you, glad you're enjoying it.

Especially as the Allies this is a game that rewards planning and some care in force allocation etc

[GloriousRuse]

A German Interlude: Amerikaners (and maybe a few others) At the Gates

The long battles of late ’44 draw to a close. With the Maas line breached in force and Aachen soon to fall, at best there are a few more weeks before Loki is in place to execute an early Varsity/Plunder up north. The French/German border is in better shape with the Moselle line still constraining the logistics flow heading to the Ruhr, but with Belfort underway there will be an inevitable displacement to the south Rhine in the near future. Meanwhile, Italy has all but collapsed. No doubt there will be a final series of battles around Venice, but between the Alps and Uncle Joe an allied advance into S. Germany or Austria seems unlikely.

Other than numbing amounts of bombs and hordes of Shermans, how did we get here?

THE ENEMY
As I was planning this stage of the fight, I assumed Loki would be forced by ports and rails to throw his main effort at the low countries axis of advance. There was nothing I could do to change that decision, no matter how much I might want to, but I could try to frustrate it. I figured he could sustain one other major attack avenue – most likely a thrust south of the Ardennes, as it would support any offensive through the Ruhr in ’45. Unfortunately, I couldn’t rule out him forcing the Moselle and then making a rapid push into the central Rhine region which would turn the entire Rhine line early.

As for Dragoon, I figured Loki would pull a pretty standard land and expand operation. I also figured couldn’t do anything about that without diverting massive forces into a supply poor region at risk of being cut off from two directions.

Italy, there was hardly anything to say. He was going to battle north. I had to try to stop that. There was a moment when I thought about a southern Bulge, but after calculating I would need 18 divisions - 6 of which had to be heavy – that dream died.

THE PLAN

With that in mind, here was the plan:

Along the low countries axis of advance, I wanted to fight three battles. A short delaying action near Lille, a pitched defense to deny Antwerp as long as possible, and a set-piece fortification fight along the Maas. The idea was that the fight at Lille would let the fight near Antwerp occur in the fall, with lots of good heavy rain and mud. That in turn would seriously delay the logistics and forces needed for a serious offensive over the Maas, drawing the WA into the Ardennes for yet another fight. In short, I wanted Loki to have to fight laterally through all the worst terrain for every easy open terrain advance he made. The armor and strong infantry forces would get the open terrain fight, while weaker formations would use the time to dig successive local lines in the Ardennes.

In the center sector, a panzer corps was put together and tagged to act at the central reserve, to be held back until Loki clearly committed to his second major axis. If he went along the bank of the Moselle and Northeast, the goal would be to a make a grinding battle from bitburg onward with infantry and armor while secondary forces held the Moselle to interdict rails and made sure Luxembourg, Verdun, and Sedan were the closest viable depots that could feed the attack. If he went hard and south, the plan was to pivot around Trier and use each minor river line as a barrier while digging in behind the Rhine – the panzers would act as keystones and reserves, with one small force dedicated to hitting the flanks and cutting supply if the opportunity arose.

Dragoon and Italy had no clever plan. I brought down two panzer divisions in case Loki skimped on Dragoon, but soon realities in Italy forced them to re-deploy. From there the plan became “fight hard, fight long, die well.”
The LW had another plan. Besides the expected strikes on Dragoon, it would conduct harassment bombing on railyards. Hopefully to slow supply and, more importantly, stop Loki from converting every single airplane into a fighter bomber. This was originally intended for the north, though events would show the channel ports were more than sufficient for that sector and lead to re-assignment.

The fighter corps I wanted to use with the final series of battles around the Maas underway, committed in force to degrading Allied tactical air to slow the advance to the Rhine. I figured they could go a month before needing a refit. A strong fight from December to January would hopefully see them relieved by the greatest LW pilot of all, snow.

It’s not like they could stop or even slow the allies bombing the Reich anyhow, so I might as well get some tactical effects.

THE OUTCOME

One of the more frustrating parts of playing the Germans is that even when you put together a not-terrible plan, it can’t really break the WA plan. Now granted, that is an observation coming from a player who by any objective standard is…well, have to admit it when I’m looking the facts on the ground in the face…not very good. A less charitable appraisal might use different adjectives. Perhaps someone with more talent has a different experience. Still, for me, it holds true.

This was a case in point. Everything I fundamentally wanted to happen, happened. It just didn’t matter much. Which either means I picked the wrong things or I did them poorly.

The Lille delaying action was a mixed bag. On one hand, it did buy a couple weeks and allowed some initial digging in the Antwerp belt. On the other, I’m not sure simply running away wouldn’t have still cost the WA a couple weeks based on rail repair. Maybe Loki knows. For those few weeks, the heer was in a prime killing zone for allied airpower.

The Antwerp line has to be judged a limited failure. I failed to understand the relative importance of Burssels vs. Antwerp, which helped drive that. Brussels, it turns out, is more important than Antwerp in the short term due to it’s ability easily rail in channel port supplies. Antwerp is more of a necessity in the long game. I lost Brussels early, no doubt giving the northern WA essentially limitless local supply, in part because I just treated it as another strongpoint. I then only managed to keep Antwerp closed into early December – more than enough for it to be fully operational and supplying the WA all the way to Berlin. The only upside is that we generally managed to slow the allies down and prevent the Maas operations until now.

The Maas-Ardennes combination did what it was supposed to. Cause a secondary fight in bad terrain away from the faster routes to Germany. No complaints there. A rare bright spot, though given Antwerp is functional and the Maas is breached and turned with plenty of time to get into Germany proper, it doesn’t appear to have actually delayed the WA any at the strategic level. It may just be one of those fights you have to have regardless, because all the other options are worse.

In the Bitburg Corridor, again, the plan worked. We managed to keep the allies slogging for every hex, and keep the lead army running on trucks only supply. Again, it didn’t really matter. They’re on the banks of the Rhine now. The question will be if they turn south to open their supply lines, or if the northern thrust will simply connect them to Antwerp. I do wonder if I should have started this fight further west, but other than that I’m not sure how I could have affected the outcome. Again, I should caution readers that doesn’t mean there wasn’t a way – just that I couldn’t find one. Which should call attention the part where my skills are…lacking.

Dragoon and Belfort, not much to say there. Loki had a pretty easy time of it with no difficult fights or changes to schedule. That’s to be expected with a shoestring front, but it doesn’t mean it was a good thing.

And Italy was a disaster. While that’s been on the cards ever since I botched ’43, I could have allocated forces more judiciously here. More than one panzer division was placed in RESERVE behind lines really weren’t that important in the low countries, and I pissed away at least one FJ division for results an infantry division could have gotten in Namur. In a resource starved mountain fight, one more panzer division and one more FJ division could have done serious work.

The one bright spot was the LW. I daresay the only reason Loki isn’t already fighting for the Ruhr is because for the month of December his airpower wasn’t a guaranteed win over the open country in front of him. It was still deadly, but more in the “break one position” way, and not in the “the entire army is ruined Cobra breakout style” way.


LESSONS

Strategic Force Decisions Have to be Made
Up until this point in the game, most of the German’s force ratio decisions are made for them via the garrison system and the imperative to actually be able to defend France. But after the breakout occurs, you should probably pause and make a deliberate decision on how much combat power needs to be sent to Italy, where it can have outsized effects in the good terrain, versus being committed to what is inevitably a giant delaying action in NWE. I misjudged this ratio because I never really paused to look at that, and ended up with elite units providing comfort and little else in some places when they could be causing serious problems in the Rimini breakout.

Don’t Count the LW Out
It is conventional wisdom that the LW is destroyed by this point in the game. It’s actually not. It just has zero chance of winning over Germany as a whole. And it can’t last long or conduct broad front operations tactically. But it can pick one or two points and fight, even win, and that can buy a little relief. If nothing else, the value of making the WA use their fighters as fighters rather even more Jabos is greater than the value of shooting down 4 out of 900 B17s on a raid for some target in Germany.

I Mentioned Elite Units Are Important, Right?

This only gets more true. The regular infantry that were once “OK” are steadily declining in value at the same time the Allies land ever more armor and heavy infantry. Which means your decisions on how to hold are ever more focused on where you can get panzers, FJs, and the occasional infantry unit stuffed with powerful supports. Losing one is not to be undertaken lightly.

Port Defense

I touched on this earlier, but defending the garrisoned ports can impose a high price for minimal cost. I did not. Even one regiment – and really, how long does one regiment last in the field battles – can force Corps sized assaults. Which means that instead of the WA having a Corps resting and getting ready to replace their attack formations on the line, it is attacking ports. Which means there will be a break in operations somewhere. Plus it delays logistics, which is always good.
Side Note: XXV, LXXVI, and LXXVII Corps is Probably Where All Those Historical Bulge Support Units Are. You Can Find Them There. Not In the New SS Corps.