Adventures in Italy

[devoncop]

Thanks for the encouraging words hingram...they cheer me up no end [:D]

[devoncop]

12th November 1944

Geneva falls and the route from the West coast of Italy all the way to the French Riviera is open. A quick check confirms that every bridge West and South of Milan has been blown by Luftwaffe flak units detailed to perform this task as they pulled back.

The Milan garrison awaits allied armoured columns which are expected before the end of the month.

The blocking forces in the central mountains East of Florence continue to hold off Allied tanks and the FJ in Florence itself still hold on.

Larry continues to send more and more Allied bombers from Italy to the Genova area and it is likely a fearful aerial bombardment on the units holding the triple defence lines South of Brenner Pass is on its way....

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: hingram
I hate to be the bearer of bad news but you are a LONG way from Brenner Pass. There is only one rail going in. The passage to the left has no supply. I managed to take Brenner but it was slow going. The passage to the left was probably a waste of time but the Axis did have to defend it. You just have to shuttle units in and out on that tiny road. Once I started the push, I was able to bring in fresh units by rail and take out the depleted units.

Hint: Infantry can cross the mountains between the two passages. You'll need lots of infantry because the armored units cannot attack units in the mountains. You will have Axis units in the hex next to you and you can't attack them.

I saw they updated the scenario so I am going to start over again. I need to work on understanding deployment and supply.

Thanks for the heads up hingram dude. I've already figured out I can't win, it's too far away and the odds of me getting through his MLR's is slim even with the airpower. I'll concentrate on the passage with the rail, given your report. I'm going to switch the RR engineers working on the mountain passes to working on the rails leading north from Savona. The mountain passes are traps. Supply traps.

Those people in and around Rome, between Rome and Florence, are wasting their time. I'd best seal off the bridges with a skeleton staff and send everybody else to France.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a cut and paste of the territory that I need to cover yet from where my units
are currently. There's mo way I can get through all of that in 48 turns or so. But
I'll keep going because there may be one chance in a thousand still.

[devoncop]

15th November 1944

Torino is captured by the Allies having been abandoned by the Germans and Larry ticks up a few more VP's.

The attacks in the Florence area continue but the few troops in the mountain passes hold their own and there are some valuable lessons from this phase for when we swap sides.

It will be interesting how Larry and Brian's MP game goes with the new patch...

A new Infantry regiment helpfully arrives in Bologna and another behind one of my defence lines near Brenner Pass.I

All my artillery capable HQs have now been evacuated to regain strength so the Allies have an easy time this turn.

Bridges between Milan and Brenner are now going boom...

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what it looks like in T143 and you can see how the Allies are moving north,
spreading out, converting hexes, trying to stick mostly to the roads and rails.
I've moved the RR engineers that were working in the mountain passes to Genova to
put them to work on the rails leading north to Milan. I've heard from Ian that he's
got at least three MLR's and the first one is centered on Milano. So that's where
I need to go I suppose.

[devoncop]

Hi Larry...

I think you need to put the information 're Milan from your Military Intelligence chaps as something created in the common rooms at Eton after one too many bottles of Bollinger..[;)]

There may be troops in Milan but it certainly isn't anywhere near my first resistance line...the geography around there would require far more troops than I have available to man any sort of line....

You have a bit further to march beyond Milan [:)]

[devoncop]

19th November 1944

After gallant resistance from the 870th Grenadier Regt in the central mountains against sustained assault by US armour the US troops forced their way through .....though despite only having a single 50mm AT gun and a dozen panzerfausts managed to knock out 15 Shermans.

Elsewhere a dribble of reinforcements continue to bolster the defence lines and bombing was heavy from Allied air.

Florence was finally overrun and Milan is expecting allied troops at any moment.

[devoncop]

22nd November 1944

US 1st Armoured spearheads are now closing rapidly on the Brenner defences having reached the blown bridges across the River Po at Piacenza, only 25km from Cremona and 50 from Mantua where the rail line head due north to the pass.

As Larry indicated, almost the entire Allied effort is now from the west and south west with little more than token mopping up and skirmishing with blocking troops in the central valleys.

I only have a couple of bridges that have some impact on supply in the north and we are in a traditional routine of Larry blowing them and my guys repairing them each turn I will pile them with Flak as the Luftwaffe Flak bridge blowers finish their jobs and at least see if I can't bring a few planes down

[devoncop]

26th November 1944

With December fast approaching there is no sign of Christmas spirit from Allied bombers and interdiction was the heaviest for some time. There was another attempt to blow the newly repaired bridge at Brenner Pass but fortunately it failed this time. Both Engineering and flak resources are despatched to keep supply for the defence lines optimised.

No contact with Allied troops in Milan as yet and it may be that Larry has decided to bypass the city completely on his race to the Pass.

The strong 155th Infantry Division arrives in the next couple of turns which will be extremely welcome but there are also some withdrawls due so I need to keep concentrating !

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what's going on around Milan right now. I'm finding it somewhat difficult to
get units across the river due to the broken bridges and I've found that some of
the infantry units have a small engineering cap and I'm using them to see about fixing
the bridges. The supply levels are low and I've put all the RR engineers on the
problem and we should have some supply shortly. There have been several withdrawls of
various aircraft units and my air force doesn't have the punch it once had. The mission
to bust the bridge in northern Italy last turn failed and Ian has plans to put some AA
units there. D'oh. I'll have to pick another spot to worry about.

[devoncop]

29th November 1944

Larry blew the bridges in my rear again this turn so I had to repair 'em again [:)]

I notice the number of bridges blown around Milan has absolutely crippled supply in the city so the garrison, such as it is, will stay where it is and when they run out of bullets then its adios...

I think it was hingram who predicted that supply would be Larry's biggest enemy and however my resistance lines do when the Allied troops reach them I am starting to see what he means. Northern Italy is absolutely riddled with destructable bridges which makes the supply corridors very fragile.

My first line is a few km north of Trento so Larry is not that far away but there a lot of blown bridges still to sort out for his engineers.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what it looks like with 45 turns left. There's no way I can make it all the
way up to Brenner's Pass with all these broken bridges and German resistance. It's
the broken bridges and the low supply holding me back. Ian should be making notes of
this for the next game where he's the Allies.

I'm guessing the moral of the story is to invade Italy further north, closer to the prize.
The initial invasion of Italy should be somewhere close to Rome if possible. The Germans
don't have very many anti-ship planes, only the Ju-87's, and there's only a few of those
I'm guessing. And CAP flights could be based on Sardinia and Corsica to protect the sea-
borne troops somewhat.

I'm shifting to the save-the-friendlies mode where attacks will be minimized unless there's
a good AR ratio and losses will be minimal.

[devoncop]

That is interesting Larry.

Maybe you want to agree a draw ?

I am happy if you want to and equally happy to see it through. I don't want you to think the slog is a chore....

[larryfulkerson]

Hey Ian: you might want to edit your post to embed the picture in your post.

[devoncop]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

Hey Ian: you might want to edit your post to embed the picture in your post.

It's okay Larry I was trying to get a screenshot added but it didnt work as I wanted had to unembed it again...only me being a techno idiot again....nothing to see here [:)]

[sPzAbt653]

I notice the number of bridges blown around Milan has absolutely crippled supply in the city

Blown Bridges shouldn't have that much of an effect. Are you using New Supply Rules and/or New Bridge Rules ?

[devoncop]

sPzAbt653 :

Sorry but Larry set the game up so I am not sure but I am sure we must be using New Supply Rules as that is pretty standard I think.

I will wait for clarification.

I can tell you the supply in central Milan is an unhealthy "0" and gets to about 3 when you get about 40 km (8 hexes) east. By way of contrast the supply in Bologna (also with numerous bridges blown but less crossings until a fuunctional rail line) is in the early 30's.

[devoncop]

3rd December 1944

In a moment of jubilation the newly arrived Flak gunners on the northern most bridge not only save the bridge from aerial destruction again but manage to down 2 B26 Marauders and 2 B25 Mitchells in the process.

It has also been pointed out that switching from a wooden to a concrete and steel bridge may also have helped its longevity[;)]

Elsewhere the Allies inch forward and multiple rail engineers are spotted sailing in the direction of Genova..

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: devoncop

sPzAbt653 :

Sorry but Larry set the game up so I am not sure but I am sure we must be using New Supply Rules as that is pretty standard I think.

I will wait for clarification.

I can tell you the supply in central Milan is an unhealthy "0" and gets to about 3 when you get about 40 km (8 hexes) east. By way of contrast the supply in Bologna (also with numerous bridges blown but less crossings until a fuunctional rail line) is in the early 30's.

Here's the options we're using for this game. And we can't change them now.