Bob Flemin' AARse I (Husky as the Allies)

[Zorch]

ORIGINAL: parusski

ORIGINAL: Red Lancer

Hold on - is your success going to be based on my expertise. Am I on trial here? [&:]

In my defence I refer your Honour to the Handbook page 4 and the aim and format - especially the small print disclaimer in invisible ink at the bottom which explains my life story including why I do scenario design, test co-ord, graphics, manuals - in fact anything to hide the fact that I love war games but am not a good player. Failing that bribery - I promise to lobby for inclusion of Warspite as a named ship in any future development of the game engine. [:)]

Your expertise will remain respected. Warspite1 must have a scapegoat for his bumbling.

Aye! [:D]

[Gilmer]

Easy is easy. You'll do fine. I was a little hazy on the follow on units as well. Let's see if you run into the same mistakes/messups or if you figure it out a lot quicker than I did.

[wadortch]

Hi all

The video tutorials and players guide are very well done and sufficient to get WITE experienced players into the game quickly? Watch them and read them and you will be on your way.

I have played the Husky scenario as Allies and Axis againxt the AI at normal settings. Minor victory for Axis I played Allies and minor win for Axis when I played the Axis.

AI is good!

[warspite1]

Well that's not a great start....

I was moving the US II Corps HQ to a position off western invasion beaches - when I got a "Transport Sunk" notification!

The remaining transports have arrived in position but a look at the summary at the bottom of the counter (compared to that in the video) confirms that damage was high; I've lost circa 1,500 men, 15 Artillery pieces and 9 tanks.

The same happens when I transport the XXX Corps HQ (although I notice this happened in the video tutorial too).

The British XIII Corps seems to escape unscathed. Fortunately HMS Warspite was providing close support to that convoy and managed to knock 300 Axis aircraft out of the sky (and sink at least a dozen U-boats)....

The US 2nd Armoured Division has a transport sunk from underneath it. They lose 11 tanks, a couple of pieces of artillery and about 600 troops.

Finally - both the British 8th Army HQ and the US 7th Army HQ arrive off the beaches - both unscathed.

[zakblood]

it may take 3 years to build a ship,
it may also take 3 centuries to build a tradition,
but in only takes one idiot of a captain or in the wrong place to sink her[:D][;)]

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: zakblood

it may take 3 years to build a ship,
it may also take 3 centuries to build a tradition,
but in only takes one idiot of a captain or in the wrong place to sink her[:D][;)]

warspite1

Oh yes - and I am that idiot

[warspite1]

It's all happening thick and fast.

I launched a US and UK airborne drop with a regiment from the US 82 Airborne and also a Regiment from the 1st British Airborne.

That should be airborne brigade for the British surely?? Edit: that must have been a mistake in the tutorial - it says brigade in the loss report.

All the messages flash past quickly - but I see that British are destroyed in their landing attempt [&:]

There then follows a lot of battles (that also fly past quickly - too late I see there is a pause button available).

I am then presented with a Ground Losses summary:

[zakblood]

water is like air, unsupported attacks will be costly, support for both is needed, so sims a real life war and battle tbh

[warspite1]

Not sure why there is a difference between current turn and total - I thought this was the first turn??

Anyway, before I can survey the map, I have the Air Directive Form pop up again at the start of turn 2.

I keep Amphib support ON as there are still units off the beaches that need to be landed. I remove attacks on railways to none and concentrate on air superiority and ground support.

[warspite1]

The position at the start of turn 2 has seen the Axis forces retreat - one poor unit southwest of Gela either could not move or is fighting a valiant rear-guard action.

It looks like the remnants of the 3rd British Airborne Brigade have got back to Malta for some R+R.

[warspite1]

Having lost a ton of aircraft its clear that, even on Easy, I need to understand what the hell is going on with air missions.

I have sought air superiority as a key requirement - which seems to make sense. I want this over the beaches where follow-up troops will be unloading, and I want this in the area Catania - Enna, where my units will be advancing too.

The map detail below seems to confirm that I have this.

[warspite1]

For Ground Attack, the whole of Sicily was being targeted. I decide to make the area more concentrated in the hope that this helps.

[warspite1]

I guess I need aircraft closer to the action so look at Chapter 8 of the Handbook (Airbases and Moving Air Groups).

Pressing on F10 gives me an overview of the various airbases. Each has a number on it so I best see what these mean.

[warspite1]

So I click on the airfield at La Sebala in Tunisia and see that this has 10 Air Groups - mostly containing fighter aircraft that may be better off in Sicily given their short-range.

[warspite1]

In F10 mode I decide to transfer a load of fighters to the newly won airfields in Sicily by clicking on the units on the right hand of the screen and then right-clicking on the airbase I want to transfer to.

[warspite1]

Right then, lets see what happens. I press Execute (F12). No idea what just happened there [&:]

I was looking at the losses appearing on the screen in the right hand corner and I seemed to be inflicting more losses on the enemy than they were achieving.

However the Summary has just appeared and..... I have somehow lost another 101 aircraft to 2 enemy.... Okay.

Some help would be appreciated here guys!!

[warspite1]

...anyway, pending getting some assistance (hopefully) I continue with the Allied movement phase, and bring over the US 9th and British 78th Divisions (but there are insufficient Strategic Points to unload them).

The Canadian 1st Division is ordered to take the port and airfield at Catania. They destroy a couple of units on the way and enter the port, claiming the depot there too.

The British 50th and 5th Divisions are ordered to the west of the town and the 51st Division (supported by the 1st Special Service Bde) cover their left flank.

The British land their HQ's in each of the three ports they have secured, but Syracuse has insufficient capacity to unload XXX Corps.

To the west, in the American sector, I continue with what is turning into "General Goofy does Sicily" by launching what I assumed would be a straightforward attack by the US 45th Division against the Italian Napoli Division. The Italians hold...

Not dispirited by this, the US 1st Division pushes on and captures Enna supported by the 3rd Division.

The US Ranger Regiment passes through Agrigento and pushes on up the south coast heading west to try and capture the airfields in the West of the island.

[Jim D Burns]

ORIGINAL: warspite1
Some help would be appreciated here guys!!

Check your fatigue levels. You groups are probably set to fly every day and are piling up fatigue. Go to the highest level air HQ and click the doctrines button on the unit icon.

Set missions to fly only every other day. I set my strike missions for days 2, 4 and 6 and recons fly on days 1, 3, 5 and 7. Then I up mission percentages to 30 except recons they only go up to 25. Finally I set default altitudes to 22k, recons stay at 30k. Once your all set, use the set all function at the bottom of each column to give every other air HQ in game the same settings.

Finally you need to click the AI directives button on the top and set your directives up. Turn everything to none, and then set air superiority high everywhere you can. I turn on ground support in the med to medium and also turn on ground attack in the med for strategic.

Tactical in the med then hits airfields, units and ferries at medium. Strategic in the med hits railways, railyards and interdict.

Tactical in the north hits airfields, strategic hits whatever industry I want to go after at medium and I leave subs at low no matter what else I hit.

I see very good results with these settings. You just need to remember to click the ‘set air directives’ text every turn on the top left once everything is set up so new missions get created and put in the mission queue. Otherwise your planes will fly the same missions over and over each turn as the old missions stay in the mission queue until you click the 'set air directives' text to set new missions.

Jim

[warspite1]

And so a summary of that turn and it's er..confusing.

Ground losses for the Allies are considerably higher than the Axis, but when I switch to the Air Losses, the Allies are suddenly looking in much better shape than previous reports indicated was the case [&:].

I think more reading is required here....

[Jim D Burns]

ORIGINAL: warspite1
I think more reading is required here....

Don't forget there is an axis air phase too, so his losses may be a result of you defending against his attacks. And ground support losses occur during both sides attacks in the move phases.

Jim