Arhem Campaign

[BK6583]

I did a search for info and advice about this campaign and didn't find too much and what I found didn't answer the same questions I have. I've read and reread the strategy guide and Markshots' tips but I'm still getting really frustrated. I've tried the Arnhem Campaign three times now as the Brits. The good news is that on the 3rd try I learned enough to take the Arnhem Road bridge and get the bulk of them entrendhed. The bad news is that in doing so they were pretty shot up. On this 3rd go around I'm at D-5, 1900, and my paras are just getting ground down to nothing and XXX Corps is slogging up the main road. For those of you who have pulled out a victory as the Brits, what in tarnation did you do? I simply don't know what else I can possibly do to improve the attacks and advances of the paras and XXX Corps. Before I start a 4th game and potentially experience more frustration, I need some tips.

[MarkShot]

Well, I played it pretty much only once. From my notes (file time stamps), I see that it was over two years ago. {These days, I am keeping much better logs of my games.} But here is what I posted for scenario feedback in the beta forum on 07/29/03.

Arnhem - The Historical Campaign (Allies, Painful)

A decisive victory! (Sort of my first play through as the first effort I aborted in Day #5.) However, I made a few mistakes in the last 24 hours (which were compounded by order delays) and as hard as it is to believe, I seized the main objective only minutes before the end of the scenario.

Too much happened to try write an AAR.

However, I will try to briefly summarize some key points.

(1) Despite whatever I did, it didn't seem that it was possible to accomplish very much until Day #5. That's when my arty, armor, and motorized infantry began to arrive. Prior to that, it seemed the best thing to do was to try to dig-in and keep out of trouble. I did try to block off various road junctions in the early days. I think that was effective, but only for a day or so. It seems that a Bn blocking a road will slow down the AI, but it will find a way around. If the battle had only lasted two days, then maybe the road blocks would have had an impact.

(2) Around the middle of the scenario, I used most of my para and glider troops to take the Rail Bridge.

(3) For the 5th. to 9th. day, I pushed on Arnhem from three different axis of attack (South, East, and West). I would see progress from midnight to the mid-morning. At night, my movements were harder to spot and allowed me to close with the Germans despite their massive arty and ammo depots. In the morning, I had my own arty support until it would be exhaused by noon. After that, I would be battered and thrown back.

(4) On the 9th. day, the noose tightened around Arnhem and perhaps German artillery was somewhat disrupted in the city.

(5) On the final night, I got in contact with all my commanders. I told them that tomorrow would be the big push: do or die. Every available unit was to push into Arnhem. As soon as artillery support ran out, any security detail for the fire bases would be added to the attack. Arty batteries would relocate at various points along Hell's Highway to secure it with whatever small arms they had available.

(6) Despite some confused and overly zealous orders (like giving up the Rail Bridge) on the final day, the raw drive of the troops carried the day.

---

Okay, so what did I think of the "grand" campaign? Slow simulation speed aside, it was not my favorite. I like scenarios with some finesse and art. Despite my efforts to be clever, the scenario devolved into a contest of brute force and savage determination. Although it was satisfying to win and say that I have joined the club of AA veterans, the victory did not come with a great sense of pride. In fact, perhaps there was even a little shame to have issued orders that relied on the desperate pleas of maximal effort from my men, since I had after nine days failed to arrive at any better plan.

(screen shots follow)

[MarkShot]

I think my game was with a pre-release version of the scenario and there were some tweaks made by Steve Long after that. Basically, this always happens ... if I win, they think there must be something wrong with it and they start looking for bugs in the OPFOR AI or ways to rebalance the scenario!

I was able to dig up the screenshots from the beta forum too.

[MarkShot]

Final map ...

[MarkShot]

Final numbers ...

[MarkShot]

Sorry, I cannot offer you any more insights. I still have HTTR installed on my desktop system, but Dave would have my hide if he found out I was playing HTTR instead of testing the new COTA build that he just deployed yesterday.

Good luck!

[BK6583]

Markshot,

Thank you - this was most helpful. Different question regarding the "Fire" command. I have always left this to the AI. However, I had an experience with this that's left me very confused. In my Arnhem Campaign, an SS Pz company of 12 MkIVs bore down on several sherman tank companies as well as assorted recon and AA units. I watched in shock as two tank companies routed and this Pz company just sat there blasting away. Now my confusion. That Pz company was the only unit in very close proximity. I checked LOS and saw that all of my Brits could see the Pz company. Just for the heck of it I manually ordered every Brit unit to "Fire" on that Pz company with "Aggro" and "Losses" set to max and fire on "Rapid". Well in short order that Pz company routed with 6 MKIVs having been destroyed. Why didn't the AI do that?

[BK6583]

Markshot,

I know you're feverishly testing but I had another question about a situation that's beginning to drive me nuts and it concerns AI employment of mortars. In a game the size of the Arnhem Campaign I got really tired of manually firing all of my mortars so I "Reattached" them. I've done this several times during this campaign and the result is always the same. The AI then proceeds to redeploy them. In this last iteration, my para mortars were occupying good terrain safely entrenched. As I said, I got tired of constantly bombarding with them so I "reattached" them so they'd go back to "On Call". Well, the AI then redeploys them, which wound up moving them in harms way in the LOS of the Germans and I lost a crap load of mortars. What am I missing here in terms of game mechanics? Is this an AI 'glitch'?

[MarkShot]

I have an excuse for not testing COTA at the moment as my laptop is in the middle of doing its weekly backups which will run for 3-4 hours.

You probably know this already, but it is a common point of confusion (and wish list items), all AA commands apply to locations on the map and not to units. So, you don't really ombard or [F]ire on units, but rather locations.

To be honest, I only tried the [F]ire command in the last two weeks for the first time. There is currently some discussion by the testers as to whether anyone actually uses it. Here is what I understand the purpose of the command is: you know/suspect that enemy units are in a town or woods. However, you don't have any spotting reports yet. So, just like bombard, you hit the area with direct fire to suppress the defenders as you advance on the location.

Now, going back to your specific example, you have introduced more than one variable into your test. You have both the [F]ire command and ROF=HIGH, since you made it sound like previously your units were at the default ROF=NORMAL. According to Steve Long (and this may only be arty fire missions - you can check ROF rates in the Scenario Editor), but I thought the ROF settings were like 0.25 X, 1.0X, and 2X. So, the ROF setting could well have been the factor that made the difference as opposed to the [F]ire command.

You didn't state whether you are playing with order delays or not. However, I believe the ROF parameter can be changed on the fly without incurring additional delays.

You can easily set up arty and mortar fire bases and switch between bombard missions, on-call support, and standing down (resting) very rapidly. There is no need to attach guns and mortars to get on-call support unless you only want them to provide direct support to the attached force only.

See my tips thread above (page 1). It is, in fact, the very first tip I cover in this thread. Page 2 goes on to further discussion of mortar fire bases and when to micro-manage mortars versus leave them as part of the organic force.

Good hunting!

[RayWolfe]

ORIGINAL: BK6583
I got really tired of manually firing all of my mortars so I "Reattached" them. I've done this several times during this campaign and the result is always the same. The AI then proceeds to redeploy them.

I never take charge of my mortars only the arty and then not always. However if you reattach units and want then to stay put, you must give the reattach order and then a [defend] "in situ" order to the parent unit. Otherwise you have the potential of not only the mortar but other units moving to what the AI considers to be a better position for the larger group.
Ray

[BK6583]

Markshot,

I apologize in advance but I'm just not getting this switching from manually controlling arty to "On Call" - even after rereading your tutorial. If I don't reattach mortars, what specific keys do I use to switch them to "On Call"?

[MarkShot]

(1) Bombard capable units always go "on call" when ordered to defend.

(2) In the game options tab, there is a check box that says what a bombard capable unit does after it concludes executing a bombard task. Check the box and it will rest (meaning not on call) after bombard. Don't check the box and it will defend (meaning on call) after bombard.

(3) So, check or uncheck the box as to whether you want or do not want on call fire.

(4) Force the unit to switch between rest and defend, by issuing a 1 minute bombard command directly on top of its own position. The bombard will not fire (friendlies in the way) and after 1 minute the unit will either assume the rest task (not on call) or the defend task (on call).

---

That's as simple as I can make the explanation. I hope that helps.

[MarkShot]

Load up any scenario with a mortar or arty unit and just play around with the check box and the bombard command and you should how it all works.

[MarkShot]

So, did you get the mortar thing figured out?

[BK6583]

"So, did you get the mortar thing figured out?"

Markshot,

First I'm impressed! You're in the middle of beta testing yet you still take the time to follow up with one of my previous emails. The short answer is that I'm not sure as I've been getting home from work too late this week to really devote some time to experimenting with mortars. I did change every mortar from rest to defend, but I didn't have the time (with orders delay) to play on to see what happens. My experience to date seems to indicate that one needs to take control of all mortars right from the start - (in this Arnhem Campaign, I attribute the loss of 60% of my mortars to AI mismanagement). By that I mean I deploy them on the map with defend orders - when I do this, the mortars go where I told them to and in fact do go "On Call". What I've subsequently discovered is that if I order a "Bombard", whether using your "1 minute" technique or to actually bombard an enemy untit ("Rest after bombard" is enabled), they no longer remain "On Call". What I want to explore further is what happens when "Rest after bombard" is not enabled. Tahnk you for your extremely prompt replies and attention!

Bob

[MarkShot]

ORIGINAL: BK6583

What I want to explore further is what happens when "Rest after bombard" is not enabled.

Yep, when not enabled, do the 1 minute bombard-self and they will switch to defend (on-call) after that.

I am in the middle of playing a COTA scenario with about 9 Bns. I am leaving all the mortars with the organic AI and just managing the arty units (about 7) myself. {I only mean positioning them as fire bases, but I am still leaving them on-call for the the fire missions themselves.} It's working pretty well.

My thoughts:

(1) Yes, I may suffer some mortar casualties like this. However, the mortars really are short range indirect fire weapons. Given a very fluid situation it is not unreasonable that they may encounter the enemy directly as the enemy surges forward or while the mortar units displace.

(2) The mortars are doing a better job of supporting their widely dispersed organic battalions this way.

(3) A lot less work on my part to coordinate things and more timely displacing by mortar units since additional order delays through micro-managing are not introduced.

(4) When you have to displace waiting for night fall is the way to go. You can get by an enemy who may be as close as 1km where during the day time even at 10km, they may be calling in arty on you. Also, the withdraw command has been working pretty well for me by leaving a rear guard security unit behind.

[akileez]

For those of you who have pulled out a victory as the Brits, what in tarnation did you do? I simply don't know what else I can possibly do to improve the attacks and advances of the paras and XXX Corps. Before I start a 4th game and potentially experience more frustration, I need some tips.

Hi... remember me [re; 82nd tips a while back].
Well here's how I won twice quite handily as Brits in the big Arnhem campaign.[no, that's a lie- it was very touch and go for the first 6 days]
Send 1 or 2 Glider pilot companies to Elden - the village south of Arnhem. Sneak them south of the Rhine by day 3 or 4 and entrench them at Elden. This mightily screws up any German reinforcements moving south to meet 30 Corps when they arrive. 30 Corps will then fairly easily slice up alog the highway through Elst and up to Elden at which point a brief but vicious fight may ensue as you relieve the battered Glider Pilot companies still holding on doggedly [hopefully].

Hang onto the Railway bridge so that a significant portion of 30 Corps armour can cross there and aid the Airborne troops in that sector if a major fight is ongoing at the road bridge.

Pic below is the forlorn attack by C/Glider Pilots who I thought would be massacred ifthey even did succeed in their blocking tactic. See the next post for what happened later on at that sector.

[akileez]

ok here's 7 hours after the above pic [Day 5 , 6 pm ]. 30 Corps arrives;
ps. That big blob of SS formations you see south of the Railway bridge was totally obliterated within 12 hours [30 Corps arty/ armour/ infantry / Poles and Brit Paras holding onto north end of Railway bridge... what a massacre!

[akileez]

Final result;