West Wall - Holland 44

[MikeJ19]

Here we are three days later...

[sapper32]

Still enjoying your AAR MikeJ19 it looks like your doing well, How are your infantry squad levels doing ? I see in the breifing doc it says that the Commonwealth are short of infantry replacements has there been any noticable shortages so far,

Cheers

Ian

[MikeJ19]

Ian,

Thanks for the support. I found the initial stages lots of fun. Right now it feels like a slow slugfest. Hopefully, I can clear the Islands and get back to advancing. The supply challenge in this scenario is something that I have never really had to deal with, which makes it interesting.

My units have not taken too many losses and I usually do not check the Inventory and Replacements log that often. Thanks for the prompt. As you can see below, I have lost around 16% of my rifle AT squads and it will take about 16 turns - without any more losses - to replace them.

I scrolled through the losses and the biggest surprise to me was my losses of airplanes. I have lost almost half my Spitfires and Typhoons. They are being replaced, but slowly.

Now, I'm not sure what the impact of this is. Most of my units are orange or yellow at the moment due to the very low supply situation and this has stopped most of the action.

Thanks for the question.

Have a good day,

[MikeJ19]

On the morning of 11 Oct, it is once again cloudy, but no rain is in the forecast.

The focus of the last couple of days is the continued push into the Walcheren Islands and the mopping up of the pockets of Germans in the SE.

I have managed to get a couple of brigades into the region South of Rotterdam. I’m not going to push farther until the supply situation improves. Which means that I need to finish off the Germans in the Walcheren Islands. This is going to take time as the coastal artillery units are so far much more difficult to destroy. I sent in the 101st to assist by taking out the supply source on the SW island. One of the coastal units is only reachable by artillery fire and airstrikes. So, that one will take a long time to destroy..

I’m going to pull a couple of divisions back from the front to a place with higher supply in the hopes that they can recharge and then I can launch them when the supply situation improves.

Int sources tell me that the Germans have just lost the 9th SS Pz Div – which is awesome news.

[MikeJ19]

In the last week not much has happened except on the two flanks. The Canadians, with the help of the 101st, have cleared most of the islands. I’m guessing not all of the Walcheren Islands as I got no notice that Antwerp would be open in two weeks. So, I‘m moving them North to clear the last island of Germans.

On the other flank, I have killed off all the German units that were in the SE corner.

Otherwise, all my units have not moved. There has been no German reaction to the two bridgeheads South of Rotterdam. The Germans continue to move a lot of units, but conduct almost no attacks.

Hopefully, my supply situation will improve in a couple of weeks, once Antwerp opens up. If it does not, I’m not sure what to do...

[ChuckBerger]

There's no such thing as "Walcheren Islands"... Walcheren Island is the westernmost island, the smaller island close to it is North Beveland, and the peninsula to the south is South Beveland. Looks like it's mislabeled in the scenario, so hardly your fault!

It's all correctly labelled here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of ... ov_44).jpg

Nice AAR by the way, enjoying it!

[MikeJ19]

Chuckberger,

Thanks for the info and the link!

I'm glad you are enjoying the AAR.

Have a good day,

[MikeJ19]

Although the scenario notes says that Antwerp opens two weeks after the Islands are captured, I got a note today saying that the port is up and running! Whew, it has helped my supply situation right away, although not as much as I was hoping...

Now I can get on with liberating the rest of Holland.

[MikeJ19]

The supply situation has eased, but is still not great. But such is life. Planning resumes in the Army HQs on next steps.

[MikeJ19]

Time to head North!

[MikeJ19]

The attack has started ...

[MikeJ19]

Early success!

[MikeJ19]

A close up of Rotterdam

[MikeJ19]

Time for the 2nd Br Army to join the fun!

[MikeJ19]

The battle rages on

[larryfulkerson]

How's the supply situation? How about a screenshot. Great AAR.

[MikeJ19]

Larry,

The supply situation sucks. Even with Antwerp in play, I have no real supply North of Eindhoven. I brought some units South to build supply, but they lost it moving forward. I do not know what I can do to improve the supply, there are no railroads so I can not try to build them to bring it forward.

On the bright side, this scenario has no overextended hexes, so the lack of supply does not result in desertions.

Here is a screen shot.

I'm glad you are enjoying the AAR. I think this is an interesting scenario and I'm thinking about ways to make it work a little better. I think it would be a good challenge to fight this one using the overextended supply rules. But, there would have to be changes to the supply situation for the Allies. I have copied the scenario editing rules and am going to print them out and study them to see if I can figure out how to change the scenario without ruining it.

[MikeJ19]

Here is the bird's eye view

[MikeJ19]

The battle around Nijmegen

[larryfulkerson]

I have copied the scenario editing rules and am going to print them out and study them to see if I can figure out how to change the scenario without ruining it.

I've hear some scenario designer's say that modding scenarios is as much fun as playing the game. You need a playtest after making changes and you can gauge whether or not your change is working and adjust if not, etc.