Decisively Beating the AI

[Harrybanana]

Having retreated the enemy armour the next step was to continue attacking it to push it out of the way. It is usually best to first use the armour furthest away and/or with the least MPs. In this case that was 11th BR which I had broken down the previous turn. I moved them into the hex I had just captured, recombined them and performed a hasty attack. As can be seen below I got lucky and routed the defender.

[Harrybanana]

The final step was easy, moving my remaining 2 armour divisions to capture Bari and seal the pocket and then moving my inf divisions to occupy the hexes my armour vacated. If I was playing a human opponent he probably would have attacked my weakened 2 CA or 11th BR Arm to break the pocket; but I was reasonably confident that the AI would not do this. Or even if it did I as not too concerned.

[Harrybanana]

Meanwhile I pushed the "Invade" Button for the 5th Army invasion and moved the follow up units into position behind the beaches. I only had enough transport to drop 3 paratroop brigades/regiments. On Tunisia (below) I realized I didn't have enough Port capacity to unload my 2 infantry divisions and accordingly rushed a regiment here.

[carlkay58]

All air results (bombing and air to air) are LIES! With Fog Of War (FOW) on do not rely on any battle report in any form. The only thing you can rely on (I think) are the graph reports.

[Harrybanana]

ORIGINAL: carlkay58

All air results (bombing and air to air) are LIES! With Fog Of War (FOW) on do not rely on any battle report in any form. The only thing you can rely on (I think) are the graph reports.

Thanks Carlkay, I suspected this but was unsure. This AAR can be educational for me too.

[Harrybanana]

Turn 9: Aug 28, 1943

Not much to report this turn. 5th Army landed in the Foggia area and this time both invasions were successful. Otherwise the Germans withdrew and started forming a new line from Caserta to Termoli. A few units were left screening my advance from the beaches, but since I could not surround them (my armour was still coming ashore) I left them alone. You know how sometimes a fly will land on your computer screen (or whatever) and you start saying to to it under your breath "Don't move, don't move" while your hand slowly reaches for the rolled up paper with which to squash it. Well sometimes this game is like that. If you can't surround units it is perhaps better to just leave them alone and not scare them off while you maneuver for the big blow next turn. In any event here is the screenshot of Italy before moves.




I am not sure why all those hexes in Western Italy flipped to my control when I didn't have any units there. Something to do with supply I guess. But the result was that I isolated some more units in the Boot. My plan at this stage was for 5th Army to advance up the East Coast while 8th Army crossed over the Apennines and advanced up the West Coast. I wasn't sure yet on which coast my main assault would be. This would depend on the enemy dispositions. Meanwhile 7th Army would be prepping for the invasion up the coast.

Oh yeah, the other thing I recall doing this turn was once again attacking that big stack of isolated units with several of my inf divisions. But once again they repulsed me. So even after several turns of isolation without a depot they are still pretty potent.

[Harrybanana]

Here is the shot of Corsica. I would finally be able to land one regiment this turn.

[Harrybanana]

Turn 10 : Sep 4, 1943

Again not too much to report. The Germans ran away so no more units were isolated. I just continued to advance over empty ground. In Corsica I was able to land a full division, soon I would be able to begin my conquest of the Island. Meanwhile I continue to prep and rest 7th Army for the next invasion. Below is the screenshot of Italy prior to movement.

[Harrybanana]

For those who are interested here are some of the Information Screens.

[Harrybanana]

Another thing, which I perhaps should have mentioned before, is that if you have your aircraft set on manual upgrade don't forget to check every few turns to see if you need or can upgrade certain air groups to newer aircraft. The most obvious one is if you have air groups using a certain model of aircraft but you have run out of aircraft of that model in your pool and you are not producing anymore. Sometimes though you will want to upgrade air groups to a newer/better model of aircraft even if you do have lots in the pool.For example, you will probably always have a lot of P40s but they should be replaced by the superior P50s and P47s as soon as you have the latter in sufficient quantities. In deciding which aircraft to replace and what to replace them with you should use the "Compare" feature. Since changing an air groups aircraft type will use up all of it's movement for a turn a good time to do this is when an air group is "Resting" anyway.

Below is an example. You can see that I have only 31 Spit IXs in my pool, I have 341 in air groups and I am not producing anymore. The Spit IX is a good plane, but unless I change some of my air groups to a different model I will soon not have enough Spit IXs to replenish my losses. You can also see that I have several options to choose from. I have lots of Hurricanes, but they are best used as a FB and all my Spit IX air groups are being used as fighters. I could change some of my Spit IX air groups to Hurricanes and then change their training to bomber; but instead I decide to switch a couple to the Spit XII. The Spit XII is not much, if any, of an upgrade over the Spit IX. I have circled the most important attributes required of a good fighter. Of these I understand that Speed is the most important and the Spit XII is actually slower than the Spit IX.

[Harrybanana]

T11: Sep 11, 1943

In Italy I finally managed to attack and destroy that big stack in the Heel that had been isolated for several turns. Every man of them deserves the Iron Cross. On the Front lines I spotted a unit that was obviously weaker than it's displayed CV as shown below circled in red. Even better Recon indicated that the fort behind it was unoccupied. If you get a chance to destroy an unoccupied fort do so. The displayed CV of unoccupied forts is almost always much greater than it's actual CV. I will even have armour units (which as you know I am reluctant to use in attacks) perform hasty attacks at unfavorable odds against unoccupied forts. In this case of course it was likely that the motorized brigade would retreat onto the fort, but it would be much weakened by my first attack and the interdiction (not shown) it would have to retreat through. The end result was that my armour was able to capture the fort hex thus unhinging the Axis line.

On the West Coast the Br 11th Arm (circled in purple) moved around behind Naples, broke down to brigades and surrounded the City. Finally, with the liberation of Foggia and it's airbases I was finally able to rebase a significant portion of Tactical AF onto mainland Italy.

[loki100]

ORIGINAL: Harrybanana

T11: Sep 11, 1943

In Italy I finally managed to attack and destroy that big stack in the Heel that had been isolated for several turns. Every man of them deserves the Iron Cross. ...

I must confess I almost dread pocketing a FJ unit as they are so tough to actually eliminate. If you can, set up an air directive with 'unit' just for that hex. At the worst that will generate disruptions and they may struggle to recover if cut off. From something Morvael said in WiTE, a lot of 'disruptions' are the very lightly wounded who can often be patched up and returned to the front with speed (which is why disruption feeds into fatigue), but this may be less feasible if you have no safe place to set up field hospitals etc.

WiTE is going to be very different with this slower approach to pocket reduction in place. Reducing a large 1941 style encirclement is going to be quite a commitment of units and time

[Harrybanana]

I was "unit" bombing them periodically. In fact on the turn I finally destroyed them almost all of Strategic AF was carpet bombing them. Tough Buggers.

[carlkay58]

Harry - after the Italian surrender there is a chance that southern Italian partisans will flip control of a hex over to the Allies. If the hexes are isolated, they flip right back to Axis control (except now the railroads and industries are trashed). Taranto is a favorite area for the partisans to flip if it is left unoccupied by the Axis.

[Harrybanana]

ORIGINAL: carlkay58

Harry - after the Italian surrender there is a chance that southern Italian partisans will flip control of a hex over to the Allies. If the hexes are isolated, they flip right back to Axis control (except now the railroads and industries are trashed). Taranto is a favorite area for the partisans to flip if it is left unoccupied by the Axis.

Is this just for the turn of surrender, or for the rest of the game? Guess I will have to read this section of the Rules before I play the German side.

[Harrybanana]

Turn 12: Sep 18, 1943

After performing recon and reviewing the map I decided that my main effort in Italy would be on the East Coast. Accordingly, 4th CA Arm was transferred to US VI Corps now commanded by Omar Bradley. Recon had revealed that there were 2 unoccupied fort hexes on or near the East Coast and I was hoping to destroy both of them. In the end I only managed to destroy the one on the coast (Vasto).

[Harrybanana]

On Corsica I was finally making some headway, isolating a German regiment and landing another division.

[Harrybanana]

Turn 13: Sep 25, 1943

The German Ai continues to offer me opportunities on the East Coast. This turn in the form of another weak unit for me to blow through. It did mean moving through enemy zones of control directly into other enemy zones of control,but my armour was still receiving pretty good MPs each turn. I now had 4 armour divisions on the East Coast which advanced pretty much as shown below. I can not recall now why I did not also attack the 2 units displaying the 4=4 defence on the coast. It would have been better if I had (even though then I would not have isolated them) as then I would not have used up as many MPs and gas advancing with my armour. Maybe I did attack them and was thrown back, I can't remember.





For Newbies, please take note of how I have broken down a couple of my divisions in the centre into brigades. This way I can cover a large portion of the Front with fewer units. Depending on the situation this may not always be advisable against a human opponent.

[Harrybanana]

It is only over the past couple of turns that I finally started bombing the railyards and ports north of the Front lines. I don't do anything fancy, just pick a hex about 7 to 9 hexes north of the Front line in Central Italy and have my Strategic AF bomb ports and railyards in a 9 hex radius. I perform this as a Ground Attack AD rather than a City Bombing AD. But be sure to have your Recon Air groups performing Strategic Recon of Ports and Railyards rather than non-strategic. The reason for this is if they perform non-strategic Recon I don't think the results they send back are as accurate. But I am not sure of this, so if anyone knows please post here. In any event, below is the setup of my AD.

[Harrybanana]

On Corsica I caused the isolated regiment to surrender and began making my way to the next target/port.