Sicily to Brenner Pass 43-45

[larryfulkerson]

I've been playing D21 for years now and I finally beat the Soviets so now I need a different scenario to beat. I've chosen "Sicily to Brenner Pass 43-45" which is found in the WW II - Mediterranean folder. The game starts with the Allies having a weak foothold on the island of Sicily and loads of aircraft and troops based at Tunisia and Malta and so the first task is to clear the island of Sicily of enemy troops and then leap across the gap to the mainland of Italy. There are German and Italian troops on Sicily and in Italy as well. I've decided to invade somewhere beneficial to the max. That means I need to do a map study to determine the best place(s).

temp.jpg (240 KiB) Viewed 1987 times

[larryfulkerson]

There's only 2 ports on the island and Gela is one of them. The other one is at Messina on the NE corner of the island. I don't own the one at Messina but I have captured Gela so I'll use that port to get my troops ashore quickly. Forget the map study...this is the path forward.

test.gif (1008.64 KiB) Viewed 1978 times

[larryfulkerson]

It's still T1 round 1 and here's a list of all the Allied aircraft and as you can see some of them are yellow already. I suppose they flew during the interturn phase and some of them were damaged. I intend to stand down all the yellow ones because I'm a stable genius. My plan is to grab all the airfields on the island so I can move my aircraft closer to their operating area(s). Plus that will help shield my troops from Axis airstrikes. Or any Axis CS missions over the island. There are rails to fix on the island so I'm giving shipping priority to the RR engineers, regular engineers and ferry troops ( usually Pontoon units ). Then the infantry then tanks then arty then HQ's then anything else that needs to sail the first turn. The idea is to capture the port at Messina ASAP before very many of the Axis troops on the island can escape to the Italian mainland. I could position some ships between Messina and Italy to prevent any Axis sea movement but that would bring them in range of the Axis LBA and therefore would be a dangerous move because most of my fighters can't reach quite that far to give CAP to the ships. Another reason to grab all the airfields on the island ASAP.

temp.jpg (680.75 KiB) Viewed 1943 times

[larryfulkerson]

It's still T1 round 1 and here's a view of what's going on incountry. The 1st, 3rd, and 45th US Infantry Divisions are spread out on the beach and now need to move out to form a screen for security while the reinforcements land at the port. Fortunately there's some nearby airfields to give a place to park all the fighters that I will move there to provide a CAP for the defenders. There are at least two rail lines that need to be extended outbound from the port.

temp.jpg (668.76 KiB) Viewed 1926 times

[larryfulkerson]

It's still T1 round 1 and I've started moving units beginning with the US 45th Infantry Division and I decided to uncover the roads and rails while I was spreading out I discovered an Italian infantry Regiment in the city of Comiso so I started a surround on the enemy unit. I don't have enough boots on the ground to finish the surround so I will either have to divide my units into pieces or get some more people on the beach.

temp.jpg (319.55 KiB) Viewed 1908 times

[larryfulkerson]

It's still T1 round 1 and I found a couple of Ranger Bns with the contingent so I moved one of them west to uncover the road and rail line heading west and the other one I started moving NE from Gela and ran into a rather stout German armour Bn. the 10th Armee's 508 Hvy Pz Bn, so I need to send some nearby infantry regiments his way to support him.

temp.jpg (502.67 KiB) Viewed 1905 times

[larryfulkerson]

It's still T1 round 1 and I moved a lot of fighters to the island. Also, I moved a British recon unit north along the coastal road and discovered another Italian infantry unit in the city of Augusta. It's a smaller unit but I'd rather not attack it with my recon unit, so I'm going to tackle it with a bigger British infantry unit.

temp.jpg (451.77 KiB) Viewed 1896 times

[larryfulkerson]

It's still T1 round 1 and I have moved everybody and I'm ready now to pull the trigger for the first combat round. I don't expect a lot of change or destroying any of my targets outright....I don't even expect any of them to be displaced. We'll see.

temp.jpg (407.12 KiB) Viewed 1887 times

[larryfulkerson]

It's now T1 round 2 and this was the only combat that caused the enemy unit to displace. So maybe I can RBC that Italian unit backward a hex or two. I'm going to chase it with my units of course, especially my arty unit will support as long as it can. I'm going to cut off the use of the arty unit when it reaches 60% supply.

temp.jpg (346.44 KiB) Viewed 1884 times

[larryfulkerson]

It's now T2 round 9 and this is the condition of the battlefield at the end of T2. The Germans and Italians have moved a lot of troops to twart my advance and now the advance has come to a screeching halt. I now have a lot of resistance to contend with. I have driven a recon unit further north along the coastal road and I expect the enemy to react to my probe.

temp.jpg (432.7 KiB) Viewed 1873 times

[larryfulkerson]

It's now T3 round 9 and this is the condition of the battlefield at the end of T3. I managed to capture 3 enemy airfields up north but the rest of the battlefield stayed almost the same as last turn. The Italians made a good breakthrough NW of Licata and I've had to scramble to find enough troops to try to block it from moving any further. I need to find a way to get rid of him. I may have to pull back the troops at the far west because they are out of supply now.

temp.jpg (506.29 KiB) Viewed 1870 times

[larryfulkerson]

It's now T4 round 1 and I see where the British 51st Infantry Division has been withdrawn from this AO and there's been an introduction of some arty and some small units, all at hex 136,254 which is the port of Gela.

temp.jpg (409.61 KiB) Viewed 1832 times

[larryfulkerson]

It's still T4 round 1 and this is what it looks like just before I execute the first combat phase. The 15th PzGren Div has broken through my lines and threatens Gela. I've put together a ramshackle group of troops to stop him from going any further and I anticipate a major problem getting rid of him.

temp.jpg (468.45 KiB) Viewed 1802 times

[StuccoFresco]

It's still T4 round 1 and this is what it looks like just before I execute the first combat phase. The 15th PzGren Div has broken through my lines and threatens Gela. I've put together a ramshackle group of troops to stop him from going any further and I anticipate a major problem getting rid of him.
temp.jpg

Well if the Grenadiers don't take Gela it seems easy to cut them off advancing west with that armored unit of yours.

[larryfulkerson]

Hey there StuccoFresco dude. I decided to produce a python tool for us to use to change the colors of our units by producing a new *.COL file for any scenario desired and hence now I've got too much on my plate to continue this contest. So this AAR will stop here. Sorry if you wanted more. I'm convinced that a RECOLOR tool is more important so that's what I'm working on now. I've started a thread concerning it and you can find that here:
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 4&t=396759

[StuccoFresco]

Hey there StuccoFresco dude. I decided to produce a python tool for us to use to change the colors of our units by producing a new *.COL file for any scenario desired and hence now I've got too much on my plate to continue this contest. So this AAR will stop here. Sorry if you wanted more. I'm convinced that a RECOLOR tool is more important so that's what I'm working on now. I've started a thread concerning it and you can find that here:
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 4&t=396759

No problem man, I'll just reread one of you other AARs, they are so good they never bore me.