Operation Sledgehammer ’43

[TankBushido]

And in the South of France, the defense disengages as well, forming a line in the Alps.

[TankBushido]

Turn 50:
I hit the half a century mark in turns and things are really moving now on the ground. In the South of France, I surround the ports to the west and start running north. Nice is taken in some hard fighting.

[TankBushido]

In NE France, I capture Brest and expand into open space. I punch through his line again and threaten encirclement of 7 divisions just south of the Seine on the north coast. The SS Panzer division trapped north of Caen surrenders.

[TankBushido]

Turn 51:
Happy times as I advance almost without resistance. I’m picking up a lot of city points as well as territory this turn which always feels good.

In the South of France, my vanguard pushes up the Rhone valley and takes Lyon. There are minimal blocking forces in the Alps which makes it look like that I have a real chance to break into the Po Valley in northern Italy. Are there more forces just across the border in the other garrison zone? I keep expecting the AI to pull forces from Central Italy to shore up other areas, but he still has 20+ divisions still on the Gustav line. My remaining forces are pushing ashore; North Africa is totally tapped out, so if I need reinforcements I will need to pull them from other theatres.

[TankBushido]

In Northern France, I fan out and start grabbing territory. The paratrooper in the port in Brittany proves tough to dislodge; I need that hex to connect my rail line from Brest to the rest of the continent. And the SS Panzer division is still looking strong in Granville. I push up to the Seine River and make a crossing east of Le Harve. I make a few attacks on a weak stack on the west side of the river, but don’t have enough movement points to try to push across anywhere else.

[TankBushido]

Turn 52:
On a rainy day at the end of June, the Canadians march into Paris and liberate it from German rule. There was much rejoicing and celebration in the city. But the war was still near, the Germans look to be staying and fighting in Picardy. Le Harve is surrounded and the only St. Malo and Granville remain in enemy control in Brittany and Normandy.

[TankBushido]

In the South of France, Toulon is taken. I make contact with a security and infantry division on the Italian border along with fortifications.

[John B.]

Exciting times! Do you plan to push into Northern Italy to cut off the troops south of Rome?

[TankBushido]

I do hope that I can break into the Po Valley. My immediate focus is taking Marseilles and then I must decide where those two corps will go. I think I will send them both north into France for the push into Germany. I think cutting off the forces on the Gustav line is not very likely (little to no chance); there is just too much ground to cover to cut them off and there will be plenty of time to pull them out. I suspect if I get even one hex in Northern Italy that the AI will kick into full redeployment mode and block my advances while retreating to the Gothic line. Italy is a dead end, in my opinion. Great for picking up some victory points and getting airbases for bombing the Romanian oilfields and targets in Southern Germany, but not a good use of ground forces.

[TankBushido]

Mid-term review:
It’s a year into the campaign and about the half-way point, so I thought it would be a good point to pause and reflect.

This is my first campaign. There is a learning curve on this game and it has immense depth. I’ve been taking a very casual approach to this game and haven’t dug into much of that detail, sacrificing detail for speed of play. I’m impressed with how playable it is on that level. You do have to have a basic understanding of invasions, supply, and command & control, but the game has been very enjoyable and playable at the “pushing counters around” level without the micromanagement.

The AI does a passable job handling the air operations, with some exceptions. It recons better than I do and does a decent job with strategic bombing and interdiction (although I was never able to get it to bomb V-weapon launch sites). The fault in the AI comes in understanding where your area of attack is. Multiple planned invasions confuses the AI. It isn’t up to the task of Island hopping, keeping invasion beaches under the air umbrella, or understanding the situation when multiple different invasions are planned. In France, it handles a narrow front fine, but when the front extends out, it doesn’t anticipate your axis of attack and will often provide air coverage over isolated units rather than the main front. I wish you could just tag a hex/area that could inform the AI to “focus air operations in this area”. When I was island hopping from Sardinia to Corsica to Southern France, the AI was constantly setting air directives over Central Italy. All are easily remedied by moving target hexes around, which isn’t hard, just time consuming. I wish it did it out of the box.

From a strategic standpoint, Operation Sledgehammer has been successful. I was able to invade France in 1943, take Cherbourg, and hold it until spring. I was able to breakout in June and am driving east roughly two months ahead of historical progress. I think I’ve made the mistake of diluting my main attacking force in France. I have four corps on cleanup duty in the west taking ports and reducing the SS Panzer division in Granville. And I probably should have transferred a corp or two from the Mediterranean to France. So I think my push east may be underpowered, but I’m going to quickly remedy that over the next few turns. Even so, that error should just reduced my two months ahead of history to one month ahead of history, which is still a good place to be. My main targets going forward will be focused on getting to the Ruhr as fast as possible and taking Antwerp on the way.

I’ve been focused more on the flow of the game and learning in the play through, but I should mention the crisis in victory points as well. The early invasion gives the Axis double victory points for V-weapons in early 1944, so my victory point situation has been deteriorating since the beginning of the year. Before I took Paris, it had ballooned to -1266 and I was losing 8-15 per turn. Part of that was the problem mentioned before of the AI just not hitting V-weapon launch sites, but also poor weather, strategic bomber focus on invasion support targets, and the double V-weapon points contributed to the problem. Also, since I haven’t been micro-managing things and been a little aggressive in my attacks, I’ve taken a lot of VP losses from unit losses. Regardless, I need to get to Germany and take German cities quickly make up some ground on the VP front. I’m playing catch up right now.

[CaptBeefheart]

TB: Thanks for the summary. One aspect of the game I found challenging is supply, especially in France and Belgium. How is that coming along? Could you show us a screenshot with active rail lines and depots?

Cheers,
CB

[TankBushido]

As I mentioned earlier, I had my troubles with repairing rails early in Sicily and Italy, but finally figured out the rail repair units. Depot building has been a little confusing because sometimes I'll look at the details of a location that should be able to house a depot, but I can't build there. I think it comes down to two things: I just can't build a depot in a hex on the turn you capture it and I can't build a depot on a hex where the rail line is damaged? You can see my rail net in France. I have a main line extending out and have started to a string of depots. The 1st CA Army HQ (with 4 supply priority) is sitting on the priority 4 depot has all of the Corps HQs in the eastern facing front attached to it. I'm building another line from Brittany that I will connect to the main net and create a secondary spur that goes further south.

The supply organization method seems pretty simple. Have supply flowing into a port (the bigger, the better), extend the rail line from that port to the front, build depots as close to the front as possible, and set priorities high for both the depots and HQs you want to receive supply.

[CaptBeefheart]

Thanks for that. Looks like a cleared RR route to Brest would be in order.

Cheers,
CB

[TankBushido]

Turn 53:
The cleared railroad route from Brest is coming soon enough as the Germans in the way are being reduced. The turn starts out good. That pesky 9th SS Panzer division finally surrendered at Granville. I can now rush that corps east to bolster my front lines.

[TankBushido]

On the main front, I punch a small hole in the line. I need more troops to make more sustained progress. I have too much in the rear areas right now and have lost critical mass.

[TankBushido]

In Southern France, it feels like the Twilight Zone. First let’s start with the forces advancing up the Rhone River valley. Over the past three weeks, they’ve travelled from the French Riviera all the way to within sight of the Belfort Gap without encountering any Germans at all. They’re only 100 km/60 miles from Germany. There is still a war going on, isn’t there? Maybe West Wall is a myth too and there is nothing standing between us and Berlin.

[TankBushido]

And as the mainly Free French forces continue to inch their way their way over the Maritime Alps, we are blocked by a lowly security regiment and a mountain regiment? Where the heck are the German forces? Meanwhile twenty odd divisions are laagering in Central Italy getting drunk on stolen Italian wine. Can’t somebody get on the phone with General Kesselring and tell Uncle Albert that he’s got a crisis developing in the Po Valley. If I walk into Turin unopposed, I’m going to have my air force drop postcards from the city with a message of “Enjoying my vacation in Turin. Wish you were here.”

[TankBushido]

Turn 54:
Vanguard units from the South reach the outskirts of Nancy and finally make contact with a German unit. There is a war on after all. I’m being cautious with this force because supply is still lagging way behind and they can be outflanked easily. I’m content to just be a threat to the German southern flank.

[TankBushido]

I’m able to surround a panzer and infantry division near Amiens in France and with a new corp on the line, I’m positioned for a bigger breakout next turn as the German line is looking really brittle. My troops from the south have forced the Germans to stretch their line quite a bit.

In the rear areas, St. Malo finally falls, which allows me to rush another corp to the front lines. The rail line from Brest is linked up with the other line going east.

[TankBushido]

In the South, I’m out of the mountains into the hills. I can see the plains of the Po Valley stretched out below. Marseilles is still being reduced. I’ve made a change of plans. After I capture Marseilles, I’m going to send one corps north and one corps into the Po Valley to capitalize on the opportunity there.