Matrix Games Forums

Hi!
I’m a newbie with some thanks and questions. A quick intro: I played the classic Avalon Hill board games as a kid, then did TOAW in 98 for a couple of months before putting it away b/c of time management issues… heh. I got TOAW III with the 3.4 update. Sorry for the length of the post
First off, thanks to the Oberst and Curtis, among others, for great material for newbies!
Sooo. After doing a little tutorial work, I started Cherbourg 44, seemed like a good set-piece. I had all advanced rules on including high supply b/c it is an older scenario. My plan was conservative. Punch one hole per division, erode the defense from those holes, dig in elsewhere trying to keep reserves fresh for the slog through the bocage. Air units were spread between all three missions. Attacks went OK on the flanks.
Come 2nd turn - ????
I had several ships sunk (something that did not happen at Cherbourg historically) and all of my units suffered a large drop in strength, including those who did not move. I know supplies go down b/c of storms, but…
Thanks for your patience! So my questions are:
Is the newbie getting basic game mechanics wrong?
Is this b/c the scenario is a “classic”?
Could a bad install do this?
Are there other things like this lurking in other older scenarios?
Should I stay away from non-updated scenarios?
Apart from this, my experience has been great with the tutorials and tooling around the other scenarios. Thanks!

Keep your ships out of range of the German coast batteries. Its possible that you won't be able to spot some of them, so its a good idea to move your ships off to a safe distance when the end of a turn is nearing. That way they will be out of range from the German guns during his turn. Note that some of the German guns have ranges up to 13 hexes. [:@]

At this half day scale, every 2nd turn is considered a night turn, which will cause all units to operate at 33% strength. [:@]

All in all, I do not think you're doing too bad.

This is a classic scenario, but I do not think that's the problem here -

first, as spzAbt653 writes, get your naval units out of range BEFORE the turn ends. Those coastal artillery units have a long reach. (Look at the bottom right hand corner for sea hexes safely away.)
If it helps, I've lost the USN and RN totally, repeatedly in this scenario.

second, read the scenario briefing - again. It states that the Allied supply gets cut (storms) early on; welcome to your Normandy vacation ! (Soooo, I'm not sure about setting high supply ON; I played this on 3.2 with high supply OFF, and won vs PO (eventually), so it's doable. Are you playing with New Supply ON or OFF ?
Allied supply is restored in later turns as storm damage is repaired, so there's hope there.

I do not think your problems are other than a new-ish player playing a well-designed (if older) scenario. (Although supply, 3.4.202, may cause me to change this opinion.) I recommend you stay with the scenario, and your strategy - oh, and move those ships when the round is 50% or so used up, the last half flies by quickly.

Another suggestion - for this scenario - is to watch when you want to slog around a hex versus pound a hole through it. Remember supply just got chopped.

As for other things lurking in older scenarios -- it varies from scenario to scenario, and from player to player. I do not like to trash a scenario in public - especially if someone published it 4, 6, 8 years ago - it's the best that could be done at the time. However, I do privately gripe and whine (and get the best advice in the world, "Don't like it ? Make a copy and mod an improved version yourself.")
But if a new guy were to post, "Gee, I was playing XYZ and it has really been updated. What to do ?" you _may_ find others maybe have tweaked an improved version but not published it.

HTH

Thank you both!

Ahh, good to know about the night turn reductions. I remember reading about that for the air units, but missed the rest obviously.

Damn potent shore batteries... I will watch out

I'm playing with high supply on as I read that older scenarios underestimated supply consumption.

I expect the challenge here will be to preserve enough strength to crack the inner lines.

BTW, I tried to attach the JPGs for you folks earlier but was told the file was too large.

Thanks for the help, and I look forward to sticking around!

Thanks again for the advice. I was able to get a "significant" victory over Elmer. One challenge was maintenance of aim - it was tempting to squander resources chasing down those 1-1 holdouts.