INVADE? Need advice....

[Baelfiin]

Radagy asking about Bomber Command during the day.
withing fighter range it seems ok, I don't know if I have the guts to send them on a deep penetration raid with no escorts.

[Radagy]

I guess it's more a matter of endurance rather than guts.
Weren't british bombers much lighter than american ones?

[Baelfiin]

News Report from the Front
German forces launch offensive to cut off American Spearhead.
Chaos in the American lines as Panzers break through
Monty Vows to slash his way through the German lines to rescue trapped American allies ...

[Baelfiin]

Now what do I do?

[marion61]

And Patton said "Let my armor pour forth, be fruitful, and multiply!"

[Nico165b165]

Where's Monty where you need him ? And this time, it's more than one airborne division [:D]

German counter offensive seems to be running out of gas. You should be able to repulse Grossdeutshland and 719th to keep a 3-wide hex supply line.

Then it's a race of time. If you can relaunch the offensive to the Adriatic, the Germans are totally screwed. Can the 8th army be of any help ? Those Germans between Ancona and Anzio will have a hard time riding through tough terrain, interdiction and poor supply. Can Monty catch them first ?

[Baelfiin]

ORIGINAL: Nico165

German counter offensive seems to be running out of gas. You should be able to repulse Grossdeutshland and 719th to keep a 3-wide hex supply line.

Then it's a race of time. If you can relaunch the offensive to the Adriatic, the Germans are totally screwed. Can the 8th army be of any help ? Those Germans between Ancona and Anzio will have a hard time riding through tough terrain, interdiction and poor supply. Can Monty catch them first ?

It looks like I have a couple of options:

1- pocket the german pincers for destruction next turn. This would make it hard to keep pushing to Adriatic.

2- Vaporize the pincers and keep pushing to the Adriatic. Both german spearheads have been in hard fighting for the last month, so I am betting they are worn down. Armor could keep pushing east but who knows what fresh troops may be lurking in the snow?
Radio intercepts say that there are a lot of troops being withdrawn from the eastern front, so running into them at the wrong time could leave me more strung out.

3- Consolidate gains and firm up my supply situation. I really need to clear up some rail lines so I can get Depots farther into the interior of Italy. One armored division sucked up all of the freight that I had managed to airlift in, there is no way I can support 4 or 5 armored with a bunch of misc cavalry.

4- 8th army is too far away to do anything to help 7th army, he is busy being hailed as the Liberator of Italy.

[RedLancer]

Alternatively don't push into strength. Push up the western coast of Italy towards Genoa. It will make his whole position untenable. In a race north you will win as the terrain is better.

[KWG]

What infantry regiment and armor division are holding holding the corridor?

[Baelfiin]

No real decisions to make in the south
More German interdiction here would have been PITA but luckily for 8th Army the Luftwaffe is elsewhere . . .

[Baelfiin]

ORIGINAL: KWG

What infantry regiment and armor division are holding holding the corridor?

Here are the allied units after the air phase.
more crap showing up to the north east.. might get ugly

[Baelfiin]

ORIGINAL: Red Lancer

Alternatively don't push into strength. Push up the western coast of Italy towards Genoa. It will make his whole position untenable. In a race north you will win as the terrain is better.

I thought about that, but most of my armor is on the wrong side of the pincers. Trying to cut off all those Germans south is very tempting...
The more I think about it, it seems bashing the pincers down and trying to continue to the coast is the way to go.

[marion61]

+1

[Baelfiin]

Lots of hard fighting at first in the mountains, but the German lines crack, there is nothing behind them to stop my last two tank units from slithering forward.

I made a boneheaded mistake and neglected to naval air the ports, it might have helped to cut off southern Italy.

Invaded another hex by Rome to give me another port, I am afraid I will run out of supply.

[whoofe]

i think he can still make you pay dearly prying those infantry units out of the hills and mountains. don't get too overconfident

[Baelfiin]

I blame Meklore61 for all overconfidence [:D]

Looks like I lost a couple tanks unless I can get some air to fly . . .

[Baelfiin]

VP's So far

City VP starting to pick up now that I am liberating southern Italy.
Turn 15 is when the City VP fix went in for our game for the people that were wondering what it was going to do.

[Baelfiin]

Yeah I am an idiot

[marion61]

[8D]You can't blame the strategist, he did mention something about mud a few post back!

ORIGINAL: meklore61
You'll have mud in two turns, and the axis get a crap load of reinforcements in Nov. and Dec. It's not so much his rail system you need worry about, it's his existing air forces. Against a human opponent, you'd be in trouble imho. The invasion around Crotone is already outflanked by all those bases around Taranto. Most importantly is Corsica. None of your air bases are expanded, and I'm betting the ports are still damaged (Sardinia looks good tho). So your air forces to cover two separate invasions down here is no where near sufficient to do this with out having to pull from Tac Air and 15th AF (or England). If you haven't destroyed axis planes on the ground, then your not ready. My two cents.

One more note: 3 invasion beaches is not enough for a successful landing, close to bad weather time, and into his air cover, even with naval control. You can be easily stuck on those beaches, being boxed in by by axis units until the weather breaks again in spring. He only has to maintain 10hexes to hem you in there, and one unit can be attacked from 4 hexes. It won't last long.

[Baelfiin]

ORIGINAL: meklore61

[8D]You can't blame the strategist, he did mention something about mud a few post back!

ORIGINAL: meklore61
You'll have mud in two turns, and the axis get a crap load of reinforcements in Nov. and Dec. It's not so much his rail system you need worry about, it's his existing air forces. Against a human opponent, you'd be in trouble imho. The invasion around Crotone is already outflanked by all those bases around Taranto. Most importantly is Corsica. None of your air bases are expanded, and I'm betting the ports are still damaged (Sardinia looks good tho). So your air forces to cover two separate invasions down here is no where near sufficient to do this with out having to pull from Tac Air and 15th AF (or England). If you haven't destroyed axis planes on the ground, then your not ready. My two cents.

One more note: 3 invasion beaches is not enough for a successful landing, close to bad weather time, and into his air cover, even with naval control. You can be easily stuck on those beaches, being boxed in by by axis units until the weather breaks again in spring. He only has to maintain 10hexes to hem you in there, and one unit can be attacked from 4 hexes. It won't last long.

That's my story, I am sticking to it!