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Scenario: Charge of the Centaurs---Multiplayer
Italian Side: Yakstock
Greek Side: 06 Maestro

Order Delay: Painfully Realistic
Historical weather
Standard replacements
Normal Supplies

The Greek mission is simply to prevent the Italians from attaining any deep penetrations into Greek territory. The obvious goal of the Italians initial attacks will be to capture bridges, road junctions, and perhaps a few hilltops. If they can be held within 15 to 20 kilometers of the border, it would be considered a great Greek victory.

Most of the Greek VIII Infantry Division is present on the map at the beginning of the battle. There are large reinforcements arriving in a few days, so it seems safe that the Italian offensive will be easily contained. I am aware that the Italians have some AFV’s and have an advantage in artillery. However, the Greek Army has good defensive ground; it is/was believed that the Italian forces would be worn down while pushing past (certainly, not through) the various strong points.
I was considering the possibilities of a counter attack for a day or two and then something completely unexpected happened; a significant Italian force had pushed its way around the Greek right flank. This had some profound effects on the rest of the battle.

The 1st screen shot is of most of the operational area. It shows my initial intentions, which happen to partially coincide with the starting deployment. It is a rather large map, so I removed the units for a better view.
Each marked area with orders represents at least a BN. The main line to the south is mostly unmanned, however, there are large reserves available to build the line (or so it seemed). The blue arrow in the North West area was a brilliant scheme to threaten the Italian supply base. It actually reached the areas it was assigned to, but whatever headache I caused to Yakstock, I am sure I was on the losing end of that operation. The units that participated in that raid (recon Bn) were cut off and little use to me for the remainder of the battle.

Although I took about 15 screen shots of this game, I’m not sure if I can use most of them. I may need a different picture compressing program. Anyway, I have enough to give a decent picture of this very intense struggle. I will add to this AAR gradually until it’s complete.
Feel free to give comments/advice on my operational methods or on graphics.

These are the opening positions of the Greek forces. Yakstock attacked very strongly on the eastern section of the front. Italian units pushed right through my forward Bn in the area. Although one axis of Italian advance was held up in the eastern N/S valley, I had to withdraw because of Italian unit getting around my right flank.

The yellow line shows the approximate front line on day 4.

The actions during the 1st 4 days were very intense. The Italian units plowed right into some strong points in the North East area. In this picture, I’m trying to get sufficient force together for a counter attack to stop the Italian advance long enough for me to extract forces which are nearly trapped in the central sector.

Day 5, 5 am

The Italian attacks on the right have tapered off. The Greek position is some what stronger; supply is flowing to the north central front. Two or three Italian battalions have been force to withdraw, giving me an opportunity to strike elsewhere.

Unfortunately, the Italians have come on very strong on the main road in the western area. My defenses are being overwhelmed in what I thought was a very secure section. I have reserves, but they are deployed in the last line of defense-I hesitate to put them into a counterattack-perhaps my biggest mistake.

Day 6 am

The situation is still stable in the East and central fronts, but I was crumbling in the west. I decided, perhaps belatedly, to commit some strong reserves in an effort to save some units cut off and to keep the main road open to the east. I delayed this attack until I could have use of a victorious and available Bn from the eastern sector. In hindsight, this was an error. I should have attacked a day earlier, or not at all. As it was, I rocked some of Yakstock’s units, even destroyed a couple, but they did not fall back very far. And in doing so, I severely disrupted my prepared main line.

As things cooled down on the 6 evening of war, I had a chance to look into the situation of why some units just were not following instructions anymore. After a brief visit to my own HQ I discovered what had happened. Some out of control operations officer was trying to run half of the division.

Take a look at the command load for the VIII Division.

Day 8 am

The Greek counter attack in the west has been called off. It has ended in somewhat of a disaster. I still have hope of avoiding defeat, but the last 24 hours has been a real eye opener. There are a lot of Italians, and they do have some tanks the my units have a real hard time with.
I am also feeling the pain of losing some of my artillery. Some units were cut off by Italian motorized units-I did not expect them to rush so far so fast.

These are a few units that were by passed about on day 2. The area in along the main supply route for the Italian forces. I had some hope of drawing off some of the invaders by this interdiction move. I would like to think that it caused Yakstock some grief, but they were driven back rather quickly.

This is a view of the Greek right flank. This is the same area of some significant successes 3 days earlier. Do to my redirecting units to the west to attempt a victory there, and the constant and growing pressure from the Italian forces in this area, my position has become desperate here. Part of the situation here is that I still have some sizable forces cut off in the north. There has been desperate fight here nearly nonstop as I tried to open an escape route, and Yakstock did everything he could to block me.

Day 9 am

The end is near for my brave troops cut off on the central portion of the front. It is clear that none will escape, by this route anyway. There will be one more effort and then they will withdraw to the north with whatever is left.

This is the end situation in the critical south western area. The division HQ is near the front and I’m concerned about some supply units. So far, there have been no reports of Italian units infiltrating to the rear. The fighting was very tough. Yakstock pushed forward through some very intense and long lasting artillery barrages.

It was at this last stage that I lost a big objective. I could see the victory meter going down. The slaughter of a regiment during this time was having a visable affect on the victory meter, also.

There will be an eliminated unit display map at the end.

Day 9 2300 End

This is another view of the central and eastern front.
The units north of the highlighted unit are all that's left of 2 regiments.

Day 9-End

This is just south of the above shot. The Italians in this area are in bad shape.

The overall finale positions.

There are a few more crosses under the objectives-as it should be.

Here we are at the bitter end. The losses appear rather high, but there were kill zones with no escape. This is a rather large scenario, but is manageble. There were surprises every day. Yakstock kept me on my toes-next time I won't leave the smallest canyon uncovered.

This was both a challenge and a pleasure (and educational).

Well done.
 
As far as I know, anything different than a decisive defeat against Yakstock is worth a victory.  [:D]
 
What about you Gary ?  How did it go for you ?
 
Regarding the illustrations, I like them.  Especially the first five, with the pictures layer.
 
Cheers,
 
JeF.

Way to go 06 Maestro! [&o]

Yakstock looks like he had somewhat of a morale challenge with his Italian warriors. Nice AAR, Maestro. Thanks for sharing.

ORIGINAL: JeF

Well done.

As far as I know, anything different than a decisive defeat against Yakstock is worth a victory.  [:D]

Cheers,

JeF.

Thanks. In the end, that was my impression. He is certainly a very agressive (and competent) player/commander.