Foothills of the Gods-Allied Side

[06 Maestro]

Day 4
21:30

The northern approach has been hotly contested all day. You can see the location of where a few allied units decided to quit the fight. The bridge has bee lost, but the AT unit, one infantry coy and the engineers put up a great fight. What was notable was the intense German artillery barrage all around the bridge long before it was observed (I think). In any event, by the time the German recon showed up, my defending units were badly suppressed, and fatigued.

[06 Maestro]

Day 5
06:00

The overall situation is not looking to great for the Allies at this point. I have some hope that my intense arty barrages have had some great effect. I know that the Germans have suffered considerable losses.
The big question is, do the Germans have enough energy to push another 16 km during the next 17 hours.
If I could have extracted even one of those Bn’s from the hills, the Allied side would be in a much better position. As of now, Allied arty is in direct fire mode-I, I, just can’t go on, but I must.

[06 Maestro]

Day 5
16:00

This view is of the primary German approach from the north. Since dawn there has been relentless pressure by the German forces pushing my units back out of the hills-and the last real obstacles. Although 2 Allied Inf Bn’s did not reach their battle positions in time, they have been instrumental in holding up enemy forces by a counter attack from the north.

In view of the very bad position I have found myself in, there is only one hope-cut the German supply. I am hoping that the German units in the spearhead are low on supply already and any further reduction will slow them to a crawl.

[06 Maestro]

Day 5
1900

At this time the situation is appearing quite bleak. German mobile units are approaching the key passage point south which will enable them to cut off an Allied division.
Again, my only hope is they are short on supplies. I have some reason for hope in that the main supply road north is cut at two locations.
At least I still have my supply dumps near at hand.

[06 Maestro]

It looks like the Germans have won that little race.

[06 Maestro]

Day 5
20:00

Although a few Allied units were lost defending the eastern approaches, the German Advance has been held in check. No doubt German units have suffered heavy casualties here as well as on the northern approach.

[06 Maestro]

Day 5
23:00 (End)

This is an after “End” shot of the AO. FOW is no longer in effect. There are a small number of additional units that are still off the map.

As you can see, this is a very easy area to defend. It is also easy to fail in the mission of withdrawing your Allied force out towards the south. The road/trail network is tough on both sides. If you are inclined to try this operation as the Allied side, my one advice would be don’t dilly dally on day one by fighting in forward positions. Those are good positions, but there will be plenty of time for fighting in good positions back in the passes. I fought in the Northern engagement area for almost 24 hours-it looked good for a while. When it came time to move south, I found some units were already worn out and some low on supply. Due to relentless pressure from Yakstock, I repeatedly found myself loosing units due to being cut off.

[06 Maestro]

And here is the final tally. At the beginning of this scenario I thought I would attain a major victory. By day 3 I was hoping to avoid total defeat. As it is, I am quite happy I got away with a draw. Yakstock did a great job in continually hammering my positions until they gave way. It just took him too long to break through. He was about as close as you can get to a victory; German units were exiting to the south for about 2 hours prior to the ending. Why more didn’t exit I don’t know, but I will real soon-I’m off to German AAR territory.

This scenario gets a thumbs up from me- as does my esteemed (and tough) opponent.

[Arjuna]

What an enjoyable read. Well done and congrats. A draw against Gary is worth several wins against most others. [&o]

[Yakstock]

Maestro - Great AAR - what a blast reading it after the game. This really adds to the fun of the game (although it does stretch the time). You played very well and I too felt happy by the end to just pull off a draw! Very nice scenario and great game. Playing against a human opponent - especially one as good as Maestra is very exciting. Until we meet again...

[06 Maestro]

[font="times new roman"]Gentlemen[/font]
[font="times new roman"][/font] 
[font="times new roman"]Thank you both for your comments.  This was indeed another challenging operation.  Once again I learned a few things-it’s good that this lesson ended where it did. [:)][/font]

[Agema]

This one is interesting, I played as allies against the AI Germans. I had the same problem as Maestro: if my forces were pushed off the road, they had real trouble escaping. The AI happily shelled some of my poor companies into ruins on the hillsides, as they were too exhausted to escape. I also had to take a whole battalion down that route on the far west, but luckily they were in good condition as they were cut off rather than pushed back in combat, and even managed to add something to my defence near the end.

I realised quite early on that whilst the Germans can infiltrate some annoying little units down odd pathways, they are massively dependent on those major roads. Initially I tried using lines of units spreading either side of the road to pour in fire, but I found if the Germans pushed through the centre, the flank units were effectively doomed unless my defensive line also had paths they could escape down.

I also held the Germans off in the east, but almost failed in the north as my blocking points fell faster than I'd hoped, although in the end I just squeezed through.

[06 Maestro]

I just re-read this AAR and decided to give it a bump-with only a little shame.[:)] This was a great fight against Yackstock in a great scenario. It is a big scenario, but it is worth the time.

I'm looking forward to trying out version 2.