Race for Bastogne

[johnasl]

D5 17:00
Day 5 drawing to a close. A tremendous amount of action with both sides taking a pounding. Nothing subtle going on around Bastogne, it's an entire Panzerkorps colliding with strong enemy forces. It's a truly amazing sight to watch it all unfold.

The FJ troops are in position to retake Assenois the following morning. I am a little worried that I may have difficulty getting all the points for the Exit objective. There is not much time left.

[johnasl]

D6 06:00
Morning of the last day. The weather has turned cold -1C and the ground is now frozen. I've highlighted the Bastogne objective. It has a very large radius which makes it difficult to take and hold. My troops are trying their best to take control but it's a tough assignment. I decided to send one of the FJ Bn's to assist with the task. He's been ordered one of the few outright Attack orders I've given the entire game. We only have 12 hours to go and I want the 20pts from Bastogne.

[johnasl]

D6 12:00
Only 6+ hours to go. I have exited a few units, but only .8pts worth so far. I continue to assault Bastogne but can only make slow progress. I've changed many of the orders to "No rest" to get the fatigued men to give it one final push. Below the picture the FJ Bn is assaulting Assenois to try and retake that objective, but no luck so far.

[johnasl]

D6 18:29 - Final
So it ends. A long and bitter struggle, but a Decisive Victory! I finally captured Bastogne at D6 15:41. I had to eliminate every single unit inside the objective perimeter. I could only get 1.9pts off-map. For some reason some of my units would not exit. They were unattached combat units and HQ's with no subordinates. The only thing I can think of is that one of the American AT units was also inside the Exit radius so maybe that prevented them from moving off-map.

Here's the final aftermath. I've turned on the Fatigue view. Both sides were exhausted after 6 days of combat.

[johnasl]

Model Approves
Here's the final assessment. Notice the 78 units surrendered!

Overall a very exciting scenario. I now have a 2 game winning streak having won scenario's #5 & #6. The overall game/engine continues to impress me. It is very enjoyable and very detailed, without being overwhelming. I can easily jump right back in if I've been away for a few days. The last game I played in the series was Fire Brigade, so I cannot say how this compares to its more recent predecessors. I do know that I like it and have already played it more than the vast majority of war games I own.

edit: It may be worth noting that that I did not have any CTD's during the entire scenario. In fact now that I think about it I have not had any CTD's since the first scenario I played which was many hours ago.

[Arjuna]

Nice AAR. [&o]

BTW FireBrigade was not done with this engine. It was released in the late 1980s/early 90s. We started developing this engine in 1995.

[johnasl]

Thanks Dave. Also, thanks for making it a little clearer how old I must really be. [;)]

edit: And thanks for making a game worthy of spending my limted free time playing!

[PirateJock]

Thanks for the AAR Stryker - enjoyed reading it and see what you planned and what actually happened. Where you off to next?

[johnasl]

ORIGINAL: PirateJock

Thanks for the AAR Stryker - enjoyed reading it and see what you planned and what actually happened. Where you off to next?

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it. Have you had a chance to play this one? I'm curious how others have done on their first attempt. Next on the list is #7 "Nobody Comes Back", although I'm probably going to take a break and wait for the patch before starting.

[simovitch]

I noticed the AI sent the 506th to the Bois Jaques near Foy (without scripting.)[:D] Although I don't see 'Easy" Company - looks like it met it's doom there.