D-Day to the Ruhr

[sPzAbt653]

The German attacks have made a little progress, but I think they have been stopped. Below is their deepest penetration. In the Blue Circle the Br 50th ID has held firm. To the south and southwest the 15th Scots Div has taken the brunt of the German assault and has bent but not broken. Especially the 44th Bde, which suffered some horrific attacks for several turns. It is down to 36% of its authorized squads. The Br 49th ID is just moving into the area to reinforce, while further north four Arm Div's [Br 11th and Guards, Can 4th and Pol 1st] are streaming towards Antwerp. Maybe this will cause Elmer to halt his attacks.

[sPzAbt653]

But no, he keeps on attacking. And he got a double turn. But now I see during his turn that he is moving a lot of units back towards the West Wall, so maybe now it is over, except for the units that he will leave engaged at the front line.

[sPzAbt653]

Supplies finally begin trickling into the Antwerp area. I've been worming my way around the city with elements of Br 11th, Can 4th and Pol 1st AD's, but haven't been able to make any serious attacks due to the lack of supplies.

[sPzAbt653]

Overview.

[sPzAbt653]

Now the Coast Guns at Breskens and on Walcheren Island have to be cleared. I know if I move my two remaining ships into the area that those Coast Guns will get eliminated by firing on them. I don't know if this is a faulty scenario setting or a game engine thing, but it doesn't seem right so I won't do it. Those guns will have to be eliminated by ground troops as they were historically.

[sPzAbt653]

Some locations in the Breskens and Walcheren Island areas have Badlands Terrain. These can only be entered by Foot Movement units, so be aware of this when cleaning out these areas because there are only a few Allied units that are Foot Movement capable. The Special Service Brigades and Parachute Units are examples of Foot Movement units.

[sPzAbt653]

I'm going to try to speed up the capture of Walcheren Island with an Amphibious Assault by the Br 52nd ID. The 52nd has withstood the Coast Battery's shelling on its approach and will have to take more punishment during the German turn because it cannot assault on the same turn that it moves. The Germans have a Supply Point at the Gold location, and I only have two Foot Movement units in the area to assault these Badlands hexes that remain German occupied [and blocking Allied access to the port of Antwerp].

All three brigades of the 52nd were subsequently wiped out, having to sit defenseless against ten rounds of Coast Battery shelling. If there was an Anchorage Location on Walcheren, the Amphibious Assault could have taken place on the same turn that the 52nd moved. It's an aspect of TOAW that I don't think makes much sense. To offset this nonsense, I moved my two remaining ships [the HMS Warspite and HMS Roberts] into range and the Coast Battery's were in turn wiped out. It all seems very silly, but what can we do ?

[sPzAbt653]

Ok, so twenty days of mine clearing, then things will get much better. The next Supply Priority switch is due in a couple of days, so the US 12th AG will now be given priority so that it can move towards the Rhine.

A quick word on the overall Allied Supply situation. A reinforced US division [like those represented in the scenario] consumed 600-700 tons of supplies per day, 650 tons per division to fight effectively. Cherbourg's daily average was 14,300 tons in November. Antwerp's tonnage capacity was 40,000 tons a day, excluding POL. These facts partly explain the reason for all of the supply rules and regulations in this scenario.

[sPzAbt653]

The US 12th AG is moving forward along its entire front, lead by the Cavalry Groups and followed by the Armored Div's on the next turn [to avoid the Hex Conversion cost and consequent Supply and Readiness cost]. They are running into resistance near the West Wall along the whole front.
Wallendorf was the site where the US 12th AG historically first breached the West Wall on Sep. 14th 1944. However, as priority at that time had been given to Operation Market-Garden, this breach was not exploited.

[sPzAbt653]

Some good news and other stuff. The Supply Level has gone up to 56 from 40. More units can be brought in, but all of those available are US units and as the 12th AG is losing Supply Priority next turn, none of these units will be released [they would arrive in Garrison Mode]. Better to leave the Supply Level high and wait to bring in those units when 12th AG has priority again.

[sPzAbt653]

I'm still pretty far from the Rhine. Actually depressingly far, considering it is February and there are only 89 turns left. I know that the AG supply restrictions will be ending but I'm not sure when so I checked the briefing, but it doesn't really say. So I looked into the scenario dump and it says that Antwerp becomes 'fully operational 55 days after mine clearing begins'. The briefing does say that the AG supply restrictions end 'approximately' 25 days after that. So that means 60 more days until all AG's are available at the same time. That'll be the first week in April. For now, we continue to advance one AG at a time.

Koblenz on the Rhine is in the center of the Black Box, and you can kind of see on the map where the Rhine runs northwest from there into Holland, and south from there to the Swiss border. The Ruhr is in the Green Box and on the east side of the Rhine.

[MikeJ19]

Steve,

As I catch up with your game, wow. I really like how the supply situation is controlled in this scenario. Thanks for taking the time to explain things for us. I am seriously thinking of trying this game soon.

All the best,

[sPzAbt653]

In previous TOAW versions the amount of supply received was capped, I think at 50, but for IV units can now receive all that they are eligible for. In this shot, the artillery unit ended its turn at 85 Supply, and started the next turn at 148.

[sPzAbt653]

Devers' 6th Army Group was given Supply Priority for two weeks in order to secure the southern flank up against the Rhine, and the US 36th Inf Div gets the battle honor of being the first to cross the Rhine. Historically, the 36th fought in Operation Torch, then in Sicily, then in Italy, then in Operation Anvil, then advanced from southern France to near its current in-game position, and then into southern Germany.

[sPzAbt653]

The 21st AG has lunged forward to the Rhine and the Br I Corps has captured the crossing at Duisberg and entered the Ruhr region!

[sPzAbt653]

But the 21st AG is holding a long line and has no units available to continue the push into the Ruhr. Supply Priority has to be switched to the 12th AG so that it can take over some of the 21st AG's positions. Also, giving priority to the 12th AG will allow a lot of fresh US divisions to be brought in [the US currently has ten ID's and five AD's ready to be released]. This will provide some flexibility in operations.

[sPzAbt653]

Overview. Another month to go before all three AG's will be available at the same time. The US 12th AG has a huge area to take to reach the Rhine [Green Circle]. Maybe that will take a month, plus it will take some time to bring in a lot of US Div's and get them into the line. Then there can be a combined effort to take the rest of the Ruhr, and the scenario should end.

[sPzAbt653]

The Supply Level is huge, Supply Priority will switch to the 12th AG next turn, I will take the 2nd AB Option at this time, and will start bringing in US units from the long list it has of units ready to deploy. The AB units can't be dropped for seven days and I have no real plan on how to use them, but I'm thinking that in seven days they can be used to reinforce/expand a US bridgehead over the Rhine, or to assist in getting one. It all depends on what Elmer has in the way.
The 21st AG has taken a little more of the Ruhr. It will go into Garrison and now will hold its positions. Elmer has been making some good attacks south of the Ruhr but hasn't done much in the Ruhr area itself.

[sPzAbt653]

The best news we could have in this scenario [other than winning]. The Supply Level is down to 69 from 91 due to bringing in units, and I will mention that if you bring in too many units [like I did] they will sit around at their port of arrival waiting for sufficient Rail Capacity to move them to the front [there was only enough to Rail one AD or two ID's per turn]. With Antwerp at full capacity, the Rail Cap is increased to 13000. With the Supply Radius increased to 15 [from 2], supplies are pretty much no longer an issue.
There is also Air Cap this turn [from picking the Airborne Operation TO seven turns ago], so time to pick a target.

[sPzAbt653]

The point of having to pick the Airborne TO's seven days before they are possible is to force us to do a little bit of planning. I'm going against that by picking a target now, but I think it's ok for us to do that. How the Allies picked and planned Market-Garden with only seven days warning seems incredible, but they had lots of practice as they canceled Airborne Operations about every week due to events outrunning the plans. By way of a little in-game compensation, I will drop the Para's before any other moves are made.
So I am looking at this area just south of the Ruhr. The US XIX Corp by coincidence has 'Remagen'd' the Ludendorff Bridge, and the US V Corp has reached the Rhine at Koblenz. Airdrops in the three highlighted areas probably have a good chance of sealing off the entire area and allowing US forces to build a strong bridgehead over the Rhine. From there they can move north to the Ruhr [although at this point the US is sufficiently far enough away to be out of the involvement in capturing the Ruhr].
If I understand the Supply Rules, all three AG's will be free of restrictions in twenty-five turns, and the last Supply Priority TO will happen in seven turns. That gives the US seven turns to make hay with the Airborne bridgehead, after which priority will shift back to the 21st AG, at which point I think they can finish off the Ruhr and win the game.