Operation Sledgehammer ’43

[TankBushido]

Turn 24:
More weak defenses on the German left flank so I continue to push, taking St. Lo and the hex SW of it. I try to eliminate the surrounded defenders, but they hold. I ship over another armor division and armor brigade from England in order to beef up my reserves.

[TankBushido]

Turn 25:
I attempt a breakout at the hex SE of St. Lo. I take the hex and armor exploits into the hex but are then stopped by a battered German infantry division with 2 defense in three attacks. Lesson for me that the armor just can’t do it in the dense terrain. I need infantry to totally clear the way. I was hoping to encircle the German armor units covering the line at Bayeux, but no dice.

[TankBushido]

Turn 26:
Time to rest; just in time for Christmas. There is a huge blizzard rolling in from the Northeast, so it’s time to halt operations in France and take a breather.

[TankBushido]

Turn 27:
I pull back from the encirclement around Naples and shore up my line a bit. I’m certain under committed here and a bit thin on reserves. Note the 26th Panzer division on the Gustav line (which I’ve circled) looking menacing.

[TankBushido]

Turn 28:
The Germans heavily reinforce the line in France and beef up their defense.

[John B.]

Thanks for the AAR, this is very interesting. I'm eagerly awaiting embedded screenshots.

[TankBushido]

Thank you for reading and commenting. Waiting period is over so all screenshots are now embedded for easier reading/viewing. I'm a couple turns ahead of my posting, so I'll drop a little tease on the upcoming SNAFU in Corsica. Things are not going well with my island invasion.

[John B.]

I see the screen shots now. Very nice! Eagerly await news from Corsica.

[TankBushido]

Turn 29:
The sitzkrieg in the Med is finally broken by an invasion of Corsica. Two divisions invade on the Eastern shore with four divisions and HQs units ready for the follow on wave.

[TankBushido]

Turn 30:
This turn and the next highlighted for me that I’m still a newbie at this game. I’ve been reading the rules as I’ve been playing and slowly been picking stuff up and improving my game as I go. One example is that over the last ten turns I’ve been struggling with supply depots. I was trying to build forward depots, but when I went to the hex detail the option wasn’t there even though the hex was not in enemy ZOC and it was a town/city hex on a rail. I finally figured out that the rail line wasn’t repaired. I thought the automated construction units were doing repairs, but they were just doing my priority repairs. So I finally figured out that I need to ship up the rail construction units from North Africa and I was slowly able to repair the rails enough to build some forward depots in Italy. It only took me 10 turns to figure it out, but I’ve been handicapping my forward units by not having an optimized supply network.

In Corsica, my units expand the beachhead. I meet resistance almost immediately off the beaches. I’m not sure why I don’t have higher intel on those adjacent German units.

[TankBushido]

Turn 31:
This turn I experience another gotcha; this time with the air AI. Like my last invasion, no supplies come onto the beach this turn. I’ve been telling my air marshall to provide support over those beaches and he’s assured me that the beach will be covered, but for two turns no air support has shown up over Corsica. After the first turn, I thought maybe I just forget to send the order, but after the second turn in a row I had to investigate. Turns out the AI air marshall was dutifully providing air support over the wrong invasion site; he was sending coverage over a planned invasion on the Adriatic. So, I cancel prep on that invasion and hope I can salvage the situation in Corsica. I had additional troops in Sardinia to bring it but with high German interdiction in the waters surrounding the beaches, I keep them in port. I’ve already had lots of transports sunk due to poor coverage over the sea lanes. Hopefully, with new orders the AI can restore coverage over the right beach next turn.

[TankBushido]

Turn 32:
Fed up with air marshall, Eisenhower himself travels to Corsica, hops into a fighter plane, and leads a fighter air squadron to cover the beaches. That seemed to scare the German Luftwaffe away and supply starts flowing onto the beaches again. More troops land to consolidate the position.

In Italy, Salerno is taken and the Germans attack across the line, but the line easily holds.

[TankBushido]

Turn 33:
In Corsica, I push north and south of the beachhead and capture the port of Bastia in the north and shatter the defenders in the south and push next to Porto Vecchio.

In Italy, Naples falls. Germans continue to attack across the line to little effect.

Defenders in France look formidable with three divisions stacked in almost every hex along the line.

[TankBushido]

Turn 34:
Progress continues on Corsica without much resistance. Two more ports are taken and only Ajaccio remains to be cleared. The disaster of several turns ago is becoming a distant memory.

[John B.]

looks like alls well that ends well on Corsica!

[TankBushido]

Yeah, it's turning out okay in the end. I had to manually create an air directive; the AI just wouldn't do it, even after I removed the planned invasion in the Adriatic. It was just focusing all air forces in Italy. It did land fighters on the beaches so maybe it was using them for interception, but there was certainly no air superiority directive created.

[TankBushido]

Turn 35:
Rain comes to France and with it heavy mud. But the fact that the snow is over given me hope that spring will come soon and with better weather I can begin my attempts for a breakout.

Operations in Corsica coming to a close as I close in on the last units. Probably only one or two turns left.

[TankBushido]

Turn 36:
Cold air and light snow in France. Still waiting for the weather to clear.

Ajaccio is captured on Corsica with just one German unit still isolated on the island. I’ve started to prepare invasions for the South of France near Cannes.

[TankBushido]

Turn 37:
Light rain and heavy mud in France. With the Corsican operation wrapped up, it’s just a wait for good weather at this point. Troops in France ready to attack the front and I have my secondary invasion in Brittany at full prep with follow-on forces ready to go.

[TankBushido]

Turns 38-39:
Bad weather, I can feel the clock ticking down and the lack of progress is frustrating. No operations or attacks. I’m resting the air force. My bombers haven’t had good weather to fly so I’m taking high V-Weapon VP losses every turn.