Red Thunder II 1988, Matt Nato, WP larry

[larryfulkerson]

Matt and I thought we'd try the scenario: Red Thunder II 1988 and see what it's like. I'm the WP player and Matt is the NATO player and this is what the map looks like just before anybody moves. I'm studying the map to look for choke points and key bridges to drop and places to establish a roadblock, etc.

[MikeJ19]

Larry,

I'm playing this as NATO against the computer. It will be interesting to see how you approach this one compared to the AI. I bet you do better...

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: MikeJ19

Larry,

I'm playing this as NATO against the computer. It will be interesting to see how you approach this one compared to the AI. I bet you do better...

And..............
So don't leave us hanging....how's it going? What's happening? We wanna see pictures.

[MikeJ19]

Larry,

Okay, I will start posting once I figure out what to do to counter the WP plan. I still have not come up with my first moves. I'm having too much fun playing Fulda 76 with you!

Have a good day!

[larryfulkerson]

This is what it looks like just after the first combat phase. None of my attacks worked so I'm obviously going to have to apply more firepower to my targets. One-dots isn't going to do it, this one is going to need two-dots at least sometimes three-dots is going to be needed. I think I can afford the losses better than Matt can. That's the theory.

[larryfulkerson]

This is what the battlefield looks like after four combat rounds. Some of my attacks were sucessful but most of them were fizzles. My special operators dropped some bridges and are camped out on the rubble defending what's left. I didn't see any enemy CS helping out the ground units. But I did see a large amount of INT going on. I put all my fighter-bombers on AS as well as the dedicated fighters in order to squelch the INT if that's possible. I haven't seen any ships yet. I've flown the special operators so far into enemy territory that I'm not at all sure I can save them. But they knew what they were getting into when they signed up. When this is all over I'm going to build a huge concrete wall around Amsterdam and I'm going to make Mexico pay for it.

[larryfulkerson]

This is what the battlefield looks like at the end of Matt's T3 moves. I'm not sure what I should do now. I'm playing this by the seat of my pants.

[MikeJ19]

Larry,

You have made more progress than the AI has in my game. Knocking the NATO forces out of Berlin helps.

Have fun,

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: MikeJ19
Larry,

You have made more progress than the AI has in my game. Knocking the NATO forces out of Berlin helps.

Have fun,

Hey there Mike...I'm glad to know that I'm playing slightly better than the AI. That's encouraging I must say. I'm optimistic.

Here's a close up of the situation right now in the middle of the battlefield. I've got attacks scheduled because I'm trying to save my airborne unit stradddling a bridge in the Soviet backfield. I'm not sure what he's doing is helpful any longer. I think it's time to try to get him out of there.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what I'm going to try to do. Matt tells me that some of his REFORGER sites were populated and so I'll have to deal with more Allied units and I'm hoping to get across the river and block them somehow. Also, there's a chance to do a right hook and drive into the backfield of the northern group of Allied units. That would cut off their supply and make them vulnerable to destruction. I'm wondering if they would pull back really quickly or would they stand their ground heroicly.

[larryfulkerson]

This is what it looks like just before I pull the trigger for the fourth combat round. I've made a tiny amount of progress this turn so far. And I'm hoping to see more progress yet. My aircraft are mostly yellow. A lot of my troops are red. Most of them are worn down to 3/4 strength and I no longer have any SSM's. About 1/3 of the aircraft are in reorg. When I was moving units I would invariably be interdicted by Matt's INT and that made it problematic to move my units. The supply levels are between the teens and about 20. Evidently I'm not going to be able to save my airmoble troops deep in enemy territory. I'm wondering how much difference they made to the war effort. I don't have any RR engineers and as a matter of fact I don't see much in the way of rail on the map anywhere.

[larryfulkerson]

New moves from Matt; and this is a zoomed out view of the battlefield now. I'm having to use three-dot attacks to get the Allied stacks to move backward. That means that I need to rotate the units to put the fresh ones on the front row. Lots of them are red already. I'm surprised that my paratrooper unit straddling a bridge in the Allied backfield is still alive. I would have thought that Matt would have cleared that bridge and fixed it by now. I got my money's worth by dropping him there I believe as it has held up a lot of traffic and made moving north or south problematic. Lots of my planes are yellow but I'm flying them anyway. I don't have any RR engineers so I'm going to try using the regular engineers to repair the rail.

[MikeJ19]

Larry,

You are way ahead of the WP in my game and I'm heading into turn 7. There are no railroads in this scenario...

Your supply issues give me hope in my battle that the WP is about to slow down, partly from lack of supplies.

Have fun,

[larryfulkerson]

New moves from Matt and I've paused the combat playback to report what's happened so far. Matt is moving the French east to the right flank and it seems that my blocker isn't blocking very much as Matt is moving LOTS of equipment forward. I'm wondering if I can get a helicopter to move my blocker somewhere else more detremental to the Allies.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: MikeJ19
Larry,
You are way ahead of the WP in my game and I'm heading into turn 7. There are no railroads in this scenario...

Your supply issues give me hope in my battle that the WP is about to slow down, partly from lack of supplies.

Have fun,

The further west the WP goes the worse the supply situation becomes. I'm actually going to have to repair some rail I guess. It's at least giving the RR unit something to do besides be a minor ferry or something. My planes aren't putting out much in the way of resistance. I can't check the planes yet since the combat replay hasn't run it course yet, but I'll bet that most of the planes are in reorg and 90% of the rest of them are yellow and 90% of what's left is red. That's the state the last time I had a chance to look.

[larryfulkerson]

So I dismiss the new turn administravia and this is the news panel that I'm presented with. I've won some kind of naval battle and it's hindering the Allies significantly. That's a good thing. I'll take it. I'm wondering what kind of difference that's going to make on the battlefield however. Matt has moved a lot of new fresh equipment to the front lines and I'm going to have to break them in too. My guys have been moving and shooting since the beginning and they are starting to get worn down. Lots of them are red. I'm going to have to slow down the operational tempo and rest at least half of these guys. No moving will cut down on Allied INT strikes. I need to start repairing the rails anyway.

EDIT: Yeah, it just occured to me that there are no rails. I guess I'll repair bridges instead.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the condition of my lone blocker deep in enemy territory. But it's full of supply, surprisingly. I'm guessing I've been dropping supply to their drop zone and didn't know it. Or maybe they brought that much with them and I haven't moved them since they landed. They have been there about two turns now. I gave some thought to starting a mini-war with the unit but figured that the blocking it's doing is more important than sending it on a suicide mission. They can do very little damage now I recon.

[larryfulkerson]

I thought it prudent to check out the supply situation and I found a couple of areas that may be having some kind of supply blocking problem. The levels at the right edge of the map are lower than the areas in the middle and I think that's strange and deserves to be investigated. My overextended supply threashold is 8 and I'm already getting into those kinds of areas. I'll have to back my units out of there.

[MikeJ19]

Larry,

Well done on the naval battle. In my game, NATO won the Battle of the Atlantic and not until the 28th. As the NATO player in my game, my supply issues have faded - except in the area North of Kiel. Your supply picture is confusing. Remember, that just because a unit is in a hex not that has lower supply than the overextended number the effects are not felt right away...

Your progress is much better than the AI is making against me.

Have a good day!

[mdanz]

WTF happened to the navy?
Yikes..