D-Day to the Ruhr

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D-Day to the Ruhr - a West Front monster scenario depicting the Allied Invasion of North West Europe beginning with the D-Day Invasion of June 6, 1944 and culminating with the capture by the Western Allies [WAllies] of Germany's Ruhr Industrial Region. We will be playing the WAllies vs. the German Programmed Opponent [PO, aka Elmer].
The scenario is not in your main directory, it can be had here:
tm.asp?m=4378627
I'll be using the Graphics Mod found here:
tm.asp?m=4378126

The Jump Map:

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A very important Scenario Rule. Allied units in the Red may not move or attack. Orange or Yellow Allied units may move but not attack. Light Green or Green Allied units may move and attack. The game engine can't monitor this, so it is up to you to remember!



These Restrictions are for ground units only (Air and Naval units are exempt). See the 'Supply State Restrictions' section in the Scenario Document.

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We'll refer to the briefing every now and then. There is a Scenario Document included in the zip, which can also be accessed by the Documentation Button in the Scenario Briefing in game. At first, a few important items:

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See the note at bottom left, I'll be doing the main invasion in this area of Northeast Brittany instead of the historical Normandy area. Initial objectives will be the five beaches [Excluded on Turn 1], with the goal of getting the two minor ports [Red Stars] as quickly as possible. The ultimate objective is the Major Port of Brest, which is some distance to the west.
Red/White Circles are German Supply Points. Blue/White Circles are Allied Supply Points [these don't come into play until June 8th so we will cover them then].

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The WAllies assault forces are all arranged in southern England, they have six assault divisions and their accompanying naval support units.

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This is a complex scenario and it took me a while to figure out how to be successful over the first couple of turns so I thought it might not be a bad idea to provide an outline that might help out others. I am glad I did because I haven't played this in several years and I can't remember any of it. I'm not trying to tell anybody what to do, its just if you haven't played this one before the first couple turns can be a lot to handle and the outline might help.
I'll be using the '2D Huge' map view for most of this AAR. We won't see as much but what we will see will be clear and easy on the eyes.

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Highly recommended - a couple of new Options that make the game much more realistic to play:

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Step 1 complete at the US assault beaches.

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Step 1 complete at the British/Canadian assault beaches.

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I can't remember if it is better to stack up all the naval units in one hex, or if it is better to spread them out. I'll go with the historical deployments, the Allies had the supporting ships arranged by their ranges [rocket ships and destroyers in close, battleships out further].
US Task Force U is shown in position here, US Task Force O will move up to similar positions, and the British Task Forces will move up to similar positions in their zones.
Its quite a few naval units to move. If you hit 'CapsLock' they will move faster.

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Now scroll up to England where there are four bomber groups [one bomber group pictured below]. As suggested in the inset from the briefing, I will bomb for four rounds, two bomber groups will hit one target each, the most important targets first [in this case the Red Iconed Coast Units because they have the longest range and generally stronger guns]. Each bomber group will hit its target at Limit Losses, meaning the bombings should only last two rounds, after which I can evaluate the results, then hit them again to get the four rounds in. [This is just a suggestion, you can do what you want, TOAW is very flexible].

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The results are pretty good I guess, the Coast Guns took some casualties. Only three rounds were spent instead of four, which really has no matter here. The bombers are all down to 60% Supply [inset], and if I continue to use them they will not recover to 100% for next turn. So I will leave them for now, that's my choice, you may choose different.

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Now we'll have the Naval Units do some bombardments. I'll go heavy at the Red ones again and see what kind of results I get for the first two rounds. But I'll also hit some of the blue ones, including that island in the shot below because I think I'll hit it with the 1st Special Service Brigade to see if I can eliminate it.
by the way, the point to all this is that the Coast Guns will be able to fire on turn 2, so any of my units in the water and within their range will be in trouble.

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This shows the Naval Bombardments only. A few of them came to nothing. I guess I'll have to concentrate a little more next turn. The naval units are only down to 70% Supply and I've only burned half the turn. With five rounds left I could do some more damage but I want all my ships and planes to be at 100% Supply to start the next turn so I will end it.

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Turn 2 - I have plotted Naval and Air Bombardments, and now will make the Airborne Assaults. There is a section in the Scenario Document concerning Airborne units. There is a Scenario Rule that Airdrops are restricted to the initial drop hex and the six surrounding hexes for each formation. Note that there are 'Pathfinder' units for each formation that may be dropped first. Use them if you want, I don't.
The US 82nd and 101st AB Div's will target these two areas, I think for obvious reasons.

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The British 6th AB Division targeted this area and the drops went ok even though two units went into reorg. The US drops also went well although all of the US Paras went into reorg.
Now the Amphibious units will disembark and begin attacking.

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The US assault went very well, with all units getting ashore. There is 60% of the turn left so a little more damage can be done.

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In the Br/Can zone there are mixed results, all of the beaches were taken but not all units made it ashore. The 1st SSB had no luck taking the island. For the time being any reinforcements from England [Blue Circles] will linger outside of the Coast Gun range. They will usually take heavy casualties if they try to get to the beaches until they are cleared.
Some of the naval units went below 50% supply so I will stop those from firing until next turn, but don't forget the bombers, they leave at the end of this turn so use them up!

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Down to 20% of the turn left, all of the ground units are out of movement points, so the few bombers with a few bombs left will drop them and the turn will end. The US zone looks pretty good. Next turn we've got to link up with the paras in the north and also concentrate on eliminating coast batteries so that reinforcements can land safely. Hopefully no German units can reach St. Brieuc so that we can capture it without a big fight.

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In the Br/Can zone things also look fairly good. Many of the coast guns were eliminated, including the one at the port of Cancale. The paras are linked and that area looks secure, but the Canadians didn't really do much to block any German movement into the area from the east. We'll see how much of a problem that creates.