Pelton( Axis) vs carlkey58 Axis Victory Resigned

[Peltonx]

At the Southern France beachhead nothing changes.

[Peltonx]

The Gustov Line holds vs 2 attacks.

[Peltonx]

Turn 66 VP’s this turn: -14 Total: 337
Troop ships lost: 412 Cargo Ships Lost: 1950
Carlkey gets a break though, but II SS Panzer Corp plugs the hole for now. An attack is made on the beachhead but fails.

[Peltonx]

Turn 67 VP’s this turn: -11 Total: 326
Troop ships lost: 413 Cargo Ships Lost: 2002
XIV Panzer Corp holds vs 2 attacks.
Southern France nothing happens and The Gustov Line holds vs 1 attack.
Over the next 9 turns 16 divisions and 6 brigades arrive + bad weather, I just need to hold the lines for a few more turns and I be able to pull out panzer divisions.

[Peltonx]

Turn 71 VP’s this turn: 0 Total: 310
Troop ships lost: 417 Cargo Ships Lost: 2092

Weather was very poor or poor last 4 turns so no combat or bombing, but this turn WA’s manage to pocket 3 units.
The reserve Corp plugs the hole.

Its VERY important as Germany to always have a reserve of 3-6 PD/GD’s.

[carlkay58]

I am starting to move too late for the victory in this game. I am fighting for a draw. I did finally get a handle on my SU shortage - I am not used to playing with HQs locked and it changes Allied SU assignments (no assignments across water). Made it hard to get the SUs to the combat units but I got it working now so I am starting to fight my way out of Brittany. Other surprises are in store though.

[Peltonx]

ORIGINAL: carlkay58

I am starting to move too late for the victory in this game. I am fighting for a draw. I did finally get a handle on my SU shortage - I am not used to playing with HQs locked and it changes Allied SU assignments (no assignments across water). Made it hard to get the SUs to the combat units but I got it working now so I am starting to fight my way out of Brittany. Other surprises are in store though.

Only 23 turns left better make it asap, bad part is I have gotten 10+ divisions the last 3 turns with more on the way and I don't need them at the front so no matter whats in store I have allot more bullets to shot myself.

If the WA player sits back and does nothing then Germany has 250K + men in manpower pools and 500k + armaments so one turn of poor weather and all the divisions receive replacements aka back to full strength.

Hard to get things moving when Germany has more then enough manpower to fight high tempo for 10-15 turns and there are only 23 left and most will be crappy weather.

At some point when I know I can't lose I will start attacking all across the front and pick up VP's very quickly.

[carlkay58]

We should be pretty close to that point now. I have learned a lot during the game though and will improve in the future.

[LiquidSky]

You can move SU's across the water by picking the HQ that has the SU.....click on it, and change it's HQ. You can move stuff from England to Sicily that way. But you can only send it to an Army or higher HQ.

[carlkay58]

Ah, the push rather than pull method. Thanks.

[Peltonx]

Turn 73 VP’s this turn: -8 Total: 291
Troop ships lost: 417 Cargo Ships Lost: 2145
2 attacks and 2 holds and very poor weather. The lines will hold.

[carlkay58]

I resigned this game. Too many mistakes on my part through out the game and there really are not many things to test and figure out from here on out rather than skew things in the strategy fields because of my earlier mistakes. I did hold on playing the game to prove that I could have busted out of Brittany if I had not made some of the mistakes in the earlier game, but once that was done I did not see any reasons to waste our time playing out what would not be a normal game situation.

Major Mistakes:
1. Early moving up the air groups onto Sicily and then southern Italy without realizing the captured and new airfield had supply priority = 0. This effectively removed over 50% of my air power in the MTO for the first 15 turns and then almost 90% from turn 15 to 29 when I discovered what was wrong with my AFs.

2. I should not have transferred the 1 CA Army and the V US Corps from England to the MTO for the Italian mainland invasion. It was too many troops and I did not have the naval assets to keep them supplied or even move them properly. This stressed out the naval assets and increased my naval losses to extreme levels.

3. My mainland Italian invasion was definitely in the wrong place. With the air situation from #1 happening, there was no air support for the invasion. I did not have a good chance at capturing a regular port and with the number of troops I invaded with I was going to need at least two. I did, however, help put to rest the idea that the Allies can just push a major invasion into central Italy and crush the Axis. Despite having a decent invasion and capturing a good beach head Pelton was able to use the LW and his troops to push me back into an untenable situation. My navy just could not support the invasion on that scale or location.

4. I am not used to playing with Locked HQs. I could not get the SUs through to the Corps HQs and units like I am used to. There is an earlier post detailing my troubles and the answering post that showed me how it should be done - a major learning experience for me. Also learning that Support Level 3 does not do it in WitW (unlike WitE) for the Allies. I now set the Support Levels to 9 for the Allied HQs whether I am playing with Locked HQs or not. I was able to get the SU situation under control and start to move the line in Brittany before I resigned. This shows that I could have done that during the early summer months if I had known then what I know now. This would have kept the game close and competitive.

5. The VPs make it look like I was doing well. They are as high as they are because Pelton goofed up the garrisoning in the first turn or two and gave me around 200 VPs just from that. I also benefited from the additional Bombing VP awards because of improper divisors for the Allies (probably twice what I should have been getting). This shot me up to around 420+ VPs for a while before I started to get things moving. This game should have been going to a Major Axis victory, something that I considered playing out the game for a data point, but then realized that the above had made this sample an unlikely result and therefore a bad data point for balancing the game.

Overall a great learning game for me and I thank Pelton for playing me. I hope to play him again in the future when the versions advance further. With the latest changes in Naval Interdiction, fixing the airfield Supply Priorities, and the other changes, the newest playtest version is almost a completely new game in some aspects.

[Peltonx]

Thanks for the game bro, mybe this fall we can try it again.

[Flaviusx]

Can't you manually unlock all the HQs via the CR? That's what I always did in WITE.

[JocMeister]

Well played carlkay/Pelton. And thanks for a very informative and well written AAR. [:)]

[carlkay58]

Flaviusx - I did unlock the HQs via the CR - but then found out that the SUs are not automatically transferred over water in version 1.00.11. So I updated to version 13 but Pelton stayed on 11. Unfortunately all of the Western Allied logistics phase (which includes transferring the SUs) is done on the Axis side of things in the server games now so Pelton's version ruled and I did not get the SUs to perform properly. The server version is now 13 so that problem is gone.

These things still work well but you cannot 'pull' SUs across water in WitW. So you have to go to the main HQ and 'push' the SUs to the units you wish them to go to. No real problem - ONCE you know that is how you do it! As I said, I know how to handle them properly now and showed that I could push through the Axis defensive lines once I had everything sorted out properly.

Another item where I made a mistake is the Allied FB assignments. Once Pelton had trashed his LW against my Italian invasion, I should have reassigned the Typhoons, Hurricanes, and P47s from Fighter to Bomber trained. By the time I remembered to do that, it was already July 1944 and I had done the Brittany invasion. I got those air groups back about the same time I had gotten the SU problem sorted out and was able to start cutting holes in the Axis line and moving ahead. If I could have done that in June 44 rather than late Sep 44 it would have been a different game.

[Flaviusx]

Thanks for the tips there. Taking notes.

[JocMeister]

Pelton, perhaps a stupid question but I often see you splitting up IDs into regiments. Why is that? Fort building?

[Peltonx]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

Pelton, perhaps a stupid question but I often see you splitting up IDs into regiments. Why is that? Fort building?

Yes fort building and helps prevent breakouts. If a stack gets pushed back it has to go into 2 hexes and not one + the fort level.

Also 1 hex off invasion beaches helps to deter para drops and units from away can jump right into a fort hex and the following turn start hitting the beach or help contain.

Forgot reserve mode also

[carlkay58]

JocMeister - WitW requires both sides to use breakdown units. Unlike WitE where there are more than enough divisions to form your line, WitW has more room than units. Regiment/brigade units have their place in low action parts of the line. There is also reduced attrition and the ability to rotate the units for refitting and recovery. Regiment/brigade level units also react better in Reserve mode. The Axis probably require the breakdowns more than the Allies - but the Allies will need to breakdown in order to concentrate sufficient strength where they wish to attempt the breakthroughs. There are also many areas in WitW where the breakdown units work as well or better than divisions. Defending in Italian mountainous terrain rarely requires more than a breakdown unit backed up with some decent reserve units.

Both the Axis and the Western Allies have a higher proportion of their armies mechanized than in WitE. This means that a 'hedgehog' defense (units spaced one or two spaces apart relying on ZOCs to slow down the enemy's advance) does not work in WitW. Too many units will be able to flow through the line. Yes breakdown units may be able to be forced back easier than divisional ones, but WitW includes the combat delay MP cost which will slow down the advance of units through combat hexes.

In my game against Pelton my Italian front was all breakdown units through the bad weather. I was not going to attack and it lowered my attrition losses significantly. Between the weather, fort levels of 3, and the terrain, their defensive values were sufficient to hold the line. Pelton did do an offensive through a portion of the line, but the sides of the breakthrough held and I was able to counterattack and destroy his spearhead.

With the new paradrop penalties, having breakdown units in Reserve/Refit mode one or two hexes behind the line or coast are very good on the defense. Reserve activations will insure that even a vacant hex will attrite the paratroopers and weaken them to the point of possible destruction in your next turn. Breakdown airborne units will probably be destroyed.