Burns vs. Flaviusx

[Michael T]

I have to ask, why on earth did the allied player remain on his ships an not land?

[Flaviusx]

Was wondering this myself, tbh.

Maybe he's hoping a second round of airstrikes will clear the area for him?

[Jim D Burns]

22 October 1943

Germany continues to push towards Moscow taking another hex in the rain.

Disaster at Sardinia. Due to bugs (at least I hope its a bug, if not its very bad design) and map errors it looks like the entire landing is doomed. Had no errors or bugs existed my plan would have worked, as I easily forced the retreat of an Italian unit dug in in the mountains that had similar strength to the German in Cagliari.

Those same bugs prevented me from counter-attacking the Italian navy other than by land based air, so it is free to do as it pleases for another turn rather than be destroyed as should have happened.

Lessons learned:

1. The hex southeast of Cagliari, even though it presents as a beach, is not a beach. This screws up my entire landing forcing me to unload units one hex west (see green arrows pointing to alternate unload beaches) of their planned beaches and I am unable to attack Cagliari.

2. An entire fleet stack is apparently affected by any action of any unit in the stack. So for instance if you unload a troop onto the beach, the fleet, even though not selected during the unload, uses all its actions for all other units in the hex, even other troops you wish to unload.

3. Because of lesson 2, fleet invasions are too bugged to be useful in the face of opposing forces, since any stack is limited to only a single action no matter how many or what kinds of units make up the stack.

And before anyone asks, I wasn't allowed to send my damaged ships to port or leave with any ships for that matter, the mere act of unloading one troop ended all actions by anything afloat.

On the bright side, the allies got Portugal this turn.

[Jim D Burns]

ORIGINAL: Michael T

I have to ask, why on earth did the allied player remain on his ships an not land?

Wasn't allowed to, they loaded in England, sailed to Algiers and waited for the airforce to leave. When I moved to the beach, the invasion button could not be selected. I now think it's due to the bug I document in my latest turn, I moved the fleet first then the troops, so the fleet stack probably cancelled the troops unload button as soon as they entered the fleet stack hex. Naval invasions are seriously bugged. Or rather naval stacks are, it needs major work.

[Flaviusx]

Well, the good news is, I'm pretty sure you are going to take Cagliari, notwithstanding these SNAFUs.

The bad news is the weather cleared up in the Med and one of your 4 task forces got entirely destroyed by Axis airpower which finally found their targets. The remnants of the Regia Marina assisted.

[Jim D Burns]

ORIGINAL: Flaviusx
The bad news is the weather cleared up in the Med and one of your 4 task forces got entirely destroyed by Axis airpower which finally found their targets. The remnants of the Regia Marina assisted.

Right but had the bugs not existed I'd have taken the prize 2 turns ago and suffered just minor fleet loss and no troops sunk at sea.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

5 November 1943

Another possible map issue rears its ugly head this turn. Neither US infantry unit on the southern beaches can advance off their beach... I guess it's possible ZOC costs may come into play here, but that seems unlikely.

That left the lone British Corp backed by the entire US airforce to attack Cagliari and the hex held.

[Michael T]

There is no bug. You need to use 1 op to move and 1 op to land. So you need to be within 24 hexes of the target beach at the beginning of your turn.

[Michael T]

I agree the mechanics are a bit fiddly but they do work once you know how.

[Flaviusx]

Axis air power blasts the UK Cardiff corps on its beachhead down to nubs, but the land assault on the beach fails to clear the remnants. It is literally showing as a 0-5 unit for me.

Italy and Germany both manage to land additional units in Sardinia unimpeded by allied air power, despite it being clear. If I can actually get away with this one more turn, I'm going to rotate the German garrison out of the port and replace it with a fresh unit. If.

German paratroopers arrive in Italy and need a turn before they are ready for an airdrop. I'm not even sure if they have the range to reach Sardinia, tbh.

The German garrison is itself hanging on by the skin of its teeth. The allies can throw everything they've got at it with air each turn.

[Jim D Burns]

19 November 1943

Blizzards in Russia, nothing to report.

Cagliari is finally taken, though it's been so long in coming, I doubt my beleaguered troops can hold on another turn. A recently arrived Italian unit is pounded by my two units trapped on their beaches. I found it odd they can attack the hex but were not allowed to advance into the hex last turn.

It looks like almost the entirety of the German bomber force has arrived in theater now, I do not hold out much hope for this invasion staying ashore. I'm actually kind of surprised I was even able to take Cagliari, but I don't think I'll be hanging on to it.

[Jim D Burns]

ORIGINAL: Michael T

There is no bug. You need to use 1 op to move and 1 op to land. So you need to be within 24 hexes of the target beach at the beginning of your turn.

Yes there is, all of the invasion hexes were easily within 24 hexes of Algiers. The problem is the supporting fleets sailed from Oran and Gibralter (too many troops to stack them with the combat ships as there were only 3 ports available that could refuel such large stacks) and I moved them first. So any troops that entered a hex with the fleets, immediately used all remaining actions because of the fleet stack BUG that uses the actions of every unit in the stack.

Try it for yourself, move a fleet into a port hex with a unit aboard a transport present, then try and move the transport, its actions will be zeroed out. It gets worse, if you undo the fleets move the transports actions will still be zeroed out.

Jim

[Flaviusx]

I am not sure if this is a bug or working as intended. It's confusing because of the stack mixing.

As allied intel suspects, Germany has heavily reinforced the theater with airpower. All 4 tac bombers from Russia are now in Italy. (No dive bombers. They haven't got the range for this work. I am having problems using the Italian dive bomber for this reason.)

Between the German and Italian air the remaining 3 allied corps on beachheads are entirely wiped out by airpower alone. They have an HQ left plus 1 corps on Caglieri itself and are heavily outnumbered by the Axis ground presence now. One Italian corps and the German garrison are cut off and down to remnants themselves.

The hardened veterans of the DAK panzers arrive in North Sardinia with orders to restore the situation. The paras, as I suspected, do not have the range to reach Sardinia by airdrop.

Italian morale stands at 62(56). They are on the brink, but it appears that the allies need one more objective to do the job.

[Flaviusx]

Hmmm. It doesn't look like taking Sardinia moved the needle at all in terms of morale. But it should.

Apparently morale is tied to locations with either production or manpower centers only. So Cagliari does not qualify even thought it *is* a VP objective.

[Michael T]

That is not an invasion bug. It's a fleet movement bug. It's being fixed this next patch I think. It's easy to avoid if you are aware of it.

[Jim D Burns]

17 December 1943

With German panzers on the island, I withdraw the last US surviving unit, the VII Corps. The debacle at Sardinia taught me one thing, don't land until you have overwhelming air superiority, Germany is simply too strong. The only thing that's going to keep allied units ashore is MASSIVE air power.

Nothing else much to report.

[Michael T]

I think this game is beyond the Allied player now. You might be better off conceding and spending your time on a new game. Try your luck at German.

[Jim D Burns]

ORIGINAL: Michael T

I think this game is beyond the Allied player now. You might be better off conceding and spending your time on a new game. Try your luck at German.

Not a chance I would never punk someone like that (though I understand there are many punks in the world), my opponent has earned the right to see the game to the end. Besides there is much left to learn.

Jim

[Michael T]

Well when faced with this kind of scenario I will offer a resignation. The opponent may or may not accept it. I don't consider that being a punk. Just common sense. But it was just a thought. The hostility was uncalled for. I won't make any further comment in your AAR. Good luck.

[Flaviusx]

Your call, Jim, and I wouldn't mind a mirror match here. There's plenty of stuff you did I will be stealing, btw. I think your initial French defense and British layout is perfect. Yes, including not sending the BEF to France. Especially after seeing all these people losing ports to coup de mains.

You never gave me any kind of freebie like that.