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Turn 28

Turn 28 is now finished. Map below. You can see that the Ruhr bridgehead has expanded a bit [8D]

The Canadians arrive to deal with the bridgehead over the Sambre river. It cost me 600 VPs to active this corps. Expensive but worth it ...

Miserable Canucks! I shall crush them as I crush this paper cup!

Hnnnh... Gnnn... Argh...

Turn 31

Well, my excursion over the Ruhr has come to an end since the Germans have flooded the dams via a Theatre Option. Desperate times call for desperate measures ...

This is a theatre option completely implemented by house rules. After a bit of confusion I realised that it what it means is that I cannot maintain my "engineer bridgeheads" in the super river hexes. Now while I might well have been able to maintain the offensive without these (I have two intact road bridges) I felt that it was in the spirit of the game to withdraw.

I think the game may now largely degenerate into something of a static slug-fest for a while. Except for the far west of the map where, judging by his movements, Terminus still has some sneaky plans.

We shall see [:)]

Sneaky plans? Moi?[:'(]

Turn 32

As a special treat, and if you are not Terminus, you can see the entire zoomed out map at the link below. It's a 6mb file ...

http://cornucopia-networks.co.uk/images/big-rundstedt.png

Turn 33

The blizzards have come. Shock is at 70% for both sides, and about the same proportion of my units have gone orange. So there will not much activity for a while ...

As we enter this quiet period, the score is saying "significant defeat" for the Allies. About 4,000 points worth. So, although I would say I am probably "winning", there is much ground to recover in the next 67 turns.

I feel quite comfortable if you want to surrender, Cruft...[:'(]

Never [8D]

Turn 47

Well, as predicted we have had several turns of inconsequential slugging it out in various areas.

However, as of about now I am finally in a position to start doing something about the German's westward over-extension.

In particular, the trusty Canadians are trampling on the FJ at Charleroi. I am very pleased with these troops, even though they have cost me 1200 VPs to keep on the map.

The biggest problem is that I'll shortly lose the 6th SS Panzer Army. The Hitler Jugend division is about to go bye-bye because of the verkackte Canadians, but lots more holes will appear in my frontline in a few turns.

Well, the black-clad cowards of SEVEN Waffen SS divisions have now ponced off to Hungary. Not just the 6th SS Panzer Army, but every single SS division on the map, plus the supporting brigades and battalions. Poof! Teleported away...[:@]

EDIT: Cruft and I have discussed the possibility that this might be a bug in the scenario. Another might be that his Theatre Recon is 450% as of last turn...

6th SS panzer army OOB for the battle of the bulge

But at least you can be glad that your allied opponent is a Montgomery type, and not a Patton, otherwise he would have attacked at the base of your bulge and not at its end, and that could have really thrown you into dire straits, because with your expanded salient I don't think you'll have to many reserves left [8D]

I admire the speed at which you are able to play this game, our game is still in the opening phase, so nothing new to report on that from my side.

Yeah well, as I've told Cruft more than once when he's commented on my speed, I'm not a very good player...

"Montgomery type"? LOL. I agree I am naturally a bit cautious but it's more down to where I see a tactical opportunity. Since this is my first ever large PBEM game I'm still playing very reactively. Up until about now the Americans haven't been able to do anything much, whereas the highly expensive Brits and Canadians have.

As to speed, well, I actually find I can process turns a lot quicker when there is not a massive gap between them. You actually remember what you were doing [;)]

Hence, my lack of skill keeps things moving along quickly... It's just gone Turn 55, and I've dropped from "Significant" to "Marginal" victory. Only going to go downhill from there, methinks...

ORIGINAL: Captain Cruft

"Montgomery type"? LOL. I agree I am naturally a bit cautious but it's more down to where I see a tactical opportunity. Since this is my first ever large PBEM game I'm still playing very reactively. Up until about now the Americans haven't been able to do anything much, whereas the highly expensive Brits and Canadians have.

Well, thats what I ment by seeing strategical opportunities, you took the Monty approach, the way it was done historically, stopping the german advances and than slowly pushing them back, which is the more costly and slower but also more secure approach, while the Patton style is a bit of a gamble, if it succeeds it will lead to a major victory, basically trapping and destroying the entire german forces in the salient, if it fails you can be in a worse situation than before. [:D]

Here is your situation overview and what i mean by Monty/Patton style, pink would be Monty, turquoise Patton.

The turquoise approach might be tried yet, if Cruft decides that he thinks the shoulders of the salient are weakly enough held. They aren't...

The battle rages on. A very large number of miscoloured (i.e. green and brown) icons are marching inexorably east-wards. The objective now is to avoid having my forces surrounded and annihilated piecemeal.

Turn 57

The Allies are advancing in many areas now. Definitely "Monty mode", but it still feels good.