Looking at the hex the allies attack just south of the above example its even more of a walkover. Similarly its a fresh VG division and a rested Pz Div well dug in. But here he paddles across with only 270 casualties, presumably when a couple of boats collide... Looking closer though this difference is here there are 32 unit bombing missions, thousands of 4E bomber sorties causing 3500 casualties before H-Hour. Overkill for sure, but none of the other 11 successful crossings needed similar support so this is just icing.
So what went wrong and what do to? I had hoped to put up a fight here but thats clearly not happening. If we can't hold a fortified line behind a major river in winter with 2 fresh divisions then we certainly won't hold anywhere else. It strikes me there are maybe a couple of problems, both of which maybe have their roots in too much of the mechanism being rooted in WITE. In this case though seems the river is not frozen, though at some point it would have. But this just doesnt happen at all often in western europe. I lived in Prague for 4 years through winters hitting -30c and the river never froze, 3 years living in the swiss alps were less cold and the rivers certainly didnt freeze. Doing a bit of research and since records began in 1780 the Rhine has only frozen 14 times out of 237 winters, and then usually briefly. Its just too wide, too fast and not cold enough. However in this case I don't think its frozen, but remains an issue in my humble opinion. But further to this western armies just werent equipt to fight big offensives in winter. Patroling, skirmishing, counter-attacking a broken wacht am rhine offensive yes, but not a big offensive of their own. In Tunisia in 42 the front was stable through winter, likewise in Italy in 43 and again in 44/45 the line barely shifted forward from dec44 until Op Plunder and Op Varsity crossed the Rhine in 45 after much preparation and the largest airborne drop in history. Logistically, equipment, training, mentality; the western allies were just was not playing the same sport in winter as the soviet army.
However, rant and gripe over, its a game, Qball is working it well and all of a sudden he is 4 months ahead of the historical timeline and we have no hope of holding him anywhere else. I'm curious to see how long and how difficult we can make it, but as said if we can't hold him with fresh troops here in winter dug in behind the Rhine then I'm a little out of ideas. I can only apologise on behalf of my pixeltruppen if the war ends rather quicker than we vainly hoped. Now where did I put the key to the bunker...?
Both certainly have the ability to radically change the nature of a defensive situation. The carpet bombing was tried of course but with mixed results to say the least. If it's a regular thing now till the end of game I'll be a bit peeved but will have to suck it up. But I do feel strongly about the frozen river and general winter issue. For the allies winter and the onset of snow should reduce the tempo and their ability to mount offensives considerably.
