Adventures in Italy

[larryfulkerson]

I moved a couple of squadrons to Corsica and Sardinia so that my INT strikes up north
won't suffer so many losses. Also, they cover the beaches at possible invasion sites
up north. I've got divisions and ports enough to launch about three divisions at a
time and the Salerno area has at least that many ports so it's possible to do an
invasion near Rome.

Also, I'm scanning the Foggia area because I can get rid of the entire German air force
by capturing Foggia and I'm wondering how hard that would be. That's enough to give me
air superiority for the rest of the game and it's a strong incentive to go for it. It
would make for a shorter game.

[larryfulkerson]

At least I got two combat rounds this turn. I'm in the process of clearing the
roads and rails leading away from Reggio north and south. The RR engineers have
been busy and the rails are repaired from where the German roadblock is to below
the southernmost port on the west coast there. I moved some fighters and bombers
to the mainland, mostly fighters to get the shorter ranged aircraft in action
still. There's some Spitfires and Hurricanes that don't have all that much
range and I want them at the very front so they can play too. I put some
P-38's on Corsica and northern Sardinia and they have the longer range for
the air coverage of a lot of Italy and especially the invasion beaches just
south of Rome. Patton did a lot of "end runs" landing more and more north
to go around the Germans and that sounds like a good idea. I'll have to
try that.

[devoncop]

I have had to scrape together a couple of battalions from Rome and send them to reinforce the meagre port defences
further southP
Replacements are very slow and within a turn or so I also lose 1st FJ Parachute Divn.

An abortive attack on US airborne in the South West is stopped by Allied Air intervention.

[larryfulkerson]

T35 and this is what the face of war looks like right now. I found a way around the
German units on the west side. I'm bypassing them for follow on forces to deal with
and I'm zooming northward. On the east side I've pushed the German roadguard off
the road and out of the way so I can zoom zoom on the east side. I'm hindered by
broken bridges but I've got two engineer units in the group that can take care of
that. The planes are in great shape and the clearing of the smaller islands is
continuing. Corsica is almost clear and Sardinia isn't far behind. I think I can
make this work.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what the supply levels look like

[larryfulkerson]

And a parting message for Ian:

[devoncop]

Nice encirclement of the delaying force by Larry there.

In truth the 1st FJ are being withdrawn this turn anyway so it isn't too bad.

I have had some excellent news. Just when I was worrying about the lack of assistance from Berlin the Venice battalion of the Etna Division has shown up complete with bicycles.

Needless to say the request for some bloody Panzer Divisions ...ideally some with the odd artillery piece...has been immediately withdrawn

[larryfulkerson]

I spent the turn moving troops north, Americans on the west side and British on the east. The British
troops unfortunately have chosen the route that has the least supply and they are having to save up
enough supply to move. The rail isn't very close and the regular engineers are almost useless in
repairing the rails but there's a dedicated RR engineer group and they almost always do so I can
usually count on 1 rail hex per turn sometimes two.

The Americans are pressing north and have captured several more ports on the west side and the
advance continues.

[MikeJ19]

Larry,

I love the maps that you are using, especially that they show so much info. Which mod are they from?

Have a good day,

Mike

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: MikeJ19

Larry,

I love the maps that you are using, especially that they show so much info. Which mod are they from?

Have a good day,

Mike

I think it's the Telumar TOAW IV "boardgame" look that you can find here:

tm.asp?m=4442672

[larryfulkerson]

The 14th is both withdrawing and spawning next turn. That's how scenario designers
swap aircraft types in a unit. Which is good news. Those early model P-38's didn't
have nearly the range I need from a fighter. The P-47's are nearly luseless except
for point defense. Same for the early model Spitfire, Hurricane, and one more that
escapes me right now. P-40 maybe. And the range of the aircraft I'm receiving is
289 which is up there with the bombers which means they can get escorted to Rome, etc.
That sounds like the P-51 right off the top of my head. The late model P-38's have
a long range too so it could be P-38's, late models. I'm not sure. Let me check a
few things and get back to you.

Okay, I checked out the range of the P-51 ( 241 hexes ) and the late model P-38 ( 289 )
so it looks like it's going to be late model P-38's for the new type. Cool. I can
use 'em.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the supply situation right now. On both sides I have traveled as far as the
supply levels will support so I'm having to call a halt to the parades and collect
the troops at the ports. Time for another invasion somewhere else while the rails
get repaired down here.

[larryfulkerson]

Hey you guys: I was looking around for a good spot to invade and I discovered
quite by accident that you can do recon by mouse cursor still. I though that
perhaps that had been fixed but I guess not. Select one of your aircraft units
so that you can scan further and mouse over likely lurking places. Some players
may consider this "gamey" but I say there's nothing preventing both players to use
it. It's just one more intelligence tool in the tool bag.

[larryfulkerson]

I moved my smallest ranged fighter unit ( Hurricane IID's ) to the northernmost airfield
I have right now and a bunch of stuff showed up near Napoli and Salerno. Hurrican's have
a small recon value evidently. I looked it up on the unit display for that unit and it
said 3% recon ability. Cool. I'll have to remember that in the future when I need some
quick recon. Just fly one of your paratroopers to an airfield somewhere where there's no
enemy troops nearby and then follow up with fighters of some kind that have a recon value
and all kinds of stuff might pop up. Both units might ought to leave town next turn for
the procedure's high survival value.

[larryfulkerson]

I just now proved for myself that the pieces of a unit suffer a drop in proficiency
from the unit as a whole. I found a piece and scaned it. Then put the regiment
back together and then scanned that. Proof.

[devoncop]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

Hey you guys: I was looking around for a good spot to invade and I discovered
quite by accident that you can do recon by mouse cursor still. I though that
perhaps that had been fixed but I guess not. Select one of your aircraft units
so that you can scan further and mouse over likely lurking places. Some players
may consider this "gamey" but I say there's nothing preventing both players to use
it. It's just one more intelligence tool in the tool bag.

Hi Larry

That is really interesting...I don't consider it gamey at all. Even at Arnhem the Allies had pictures taken by recon planes of parked up heavy vehicles...just that Brit High Command chose to discount their importance not realising it was 9th and 10th SS Panzer Divs sent for rest and refit

Re the new naval invasion proposed the only restriction is it can't be north of Salerno I think so you have LOTS of choice unfortunately !

Thankfully the relatively strong 10th Army has now become available with several decent Jager regiments and some desperately need artillery. I have already managed to rail a Nebelwerfer unit in to the lines on the West coast and really need more artillery to combat what will be a sledgehammer when Larry reaches my lines. Increased aircover is sent to the area around Salerno and Taranto as I am getting more convinced one of these locations is where Larry will aim for next...

[larryfulkerson]

The new 14th Fghter Group with the late model P-38's arrived in Tunisia and I flew it
to the northernmost airfield I have and I was delighted to discover that it covers
part of Foggia airdrome and of course Taranto and perhaps Salerno as well. Lot's of
coverage. I'm disappointed in the proficiency of the unit and if this were WITP-AE
I would replace those pilots, all of them, with better ones. Because you always want
to pair your best people with the best equipment for the best results.

I've got a Free French group that has a couple of units with mountain movement ability
and I've been using them to clear out the mountainous area in the toe of the boot just
to give them something to do but I think I may have found a rounte through the mountains
that would suit those mountain units almost perfectly.

I've got all the paratroopers parked at an airfield to take advantage of opertunities and
to build up their supply for the next series of drops. I like them to have 150% supply
when they leave the airport. I'll have to check out the paratroopers and see what shape
they are in right now. I'll give you a full report.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the aircraft losses so far. Not too too bad. Also, I've just noticed to my dismay, that I don't have any
heavy bombers, no B-17's no B-24's. D'oh.

[larryfulkerson]

In order to try to stem the flow of reinforcements into southern Italy I need to break
some bridges and this turn I've chosen the RR bridge at Pesaro and it's probably
recognized as an important bridge, perhaps, because Ian has parked some mountain
infantry there, I suppose to share it's AA resources with the bridge defense, which
in this case is nill. I need to get all my bridge busting done quickly, in a turn
or two, because Ian is going to notice all his bridges going down and start parking
AA units at the survivor bridges. I have no idea how many engineers Ian has but I'd
like to keep them busy.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the bridge situation. Too bad there isn't just one main bridge over a river
somewhere that I can just keep dropped as he repairs it, that will stiffle the flow
of any kind of traffic across it until maybe he protects is with some AA...then I
leave it alone. But there's not such a bridge and I have to find the avenue's Ian
might use to move his units. I'm going after the rails first and then the roads if
any, across bridges. Stem the flow.