Bitter Victory Sicily Jorge Axis Larry Allies

[larryfulkerson]

Jorge asked me for a game and I said yet so this will be Jorge as Axis and me as the Allies in a game of Bitter Victory Sicily 1943 and this is the original set up. I'm supposed to invade to start the game and this is what it looks like before anybody has moved. I'd like to land close to the right edge of the south coast because that's where the coastal road is leading north to Messina. I'll put the Americans on the left side of them to protect their left flank.

[larryfulkerson]

I moved all my units north ending adjacent to the beaches, sitting on top of one of those beach engineer units and did one combat round of bombardment with the ships and planes on the CD guns and units that I could reach, dropped the paratroops and then called it a turn. So Jorge loads it up and he's in charge of the Allied units for some reason. So we're going to restart and see if we can't get a good game going here.

[larryfulkerson]

I just got some moves from Jorge just now and I'm just about to watch the replay but first the game engine wanted me to be able to review all the battles, in this case 6 different instances of a furball with some German or Italian squadron getting liquidated. Or evaporated, whatever.

[jarraya]

Why, you ask, would anyone go up against Larry as the Axis in this scenario?! That's what I've been asking myself too. But here we, gonna see if I can give him a run for his money and make taking this island a nightmare for him. Or at least a slightly bad dream.
I won't be checking this thread so as not to get any unfair "intel".
Good luck!

NB - the Axis don't really have a first turn other than some a/c to change mission on. I guess this is to simulate the surprise of the amphibious assault on Day 1.

EDIT: got a note from Larry. He's ok with me reading and posting here so I will add some updates.

[larryfulkerson]

The Americans are starting to get ashore and the ships are firing supporting bombardment volleys and the planes are swooping in with their firepower. I think this might be doable.

[larryfulkerson]

And the British are starting to get ashore and attempts are going to be made for the ports in this section of the beach. Units are disembarking into mid-waist-high water and slogging northward toward the beach. The Italians aren't putting up much of a fight.

[larryfulkerson]

Okie dokie....I've made my first pass through the OOB and I think I've moved everybody and given everybody a mission and now I'm going to start my second pass through the OOB because I invariably miss somebody. There's some floaters on the west side still out to sea....I could move them closer to the beach now. I've subdued the CD guns because none of them fired during their turn. I was afraid of the counterbattery fire that might come from the beach and it turned out that there was none.

I dropped the paratroops close to the beach to keep any German or Italian reinforcements getting at the folks trying to land and I'm making a multi-stack attack on the ports...I need to gain at least one of them to land all the floaters. I suppose I COULD leave them at sea one more turn but that would sap their readiness some more and I'm guessing I'm going to need then next turn for the counterattacks that are surely going to be mounted by the defenders.

[larryfulkerson]

Hey you guys: I need your help with this next unit I've found. The scenario briefing is suprisingly brief on the explaination of the shore units and I'm not sure what to do with them. Suggestion was made to break them into three pieces and spread them out along the beach and I'm not sure I understand the reason for that. What happens if you don't?

[larryfulkerson]

I'm through my second time through the OOB so I'm ready now to pull the trigger. Most of these attacks are on the port defenders and the units I can reach from beach hexes. Once these guys are gone the way is north for the mountains.

[larryfulkerson]

The attacks are done, light losses, and Allied units are streaming ashore through the port(s). I've got more wor4k to do yet to get unfettered access to the port on the west side, but progress is being made.

[jarraya]

So Larry is firmly onshore now and extending his beachhead. Meanwhile, my Italian troops are still sipping their coffee, most of them not having come out of reorg yet. However, I did manage one good blow delivered by the Regia Aeronautica to a stack of landing ships, carrying some the US 45th ID.

I only managed one round before I failed the proficiency check!

[larryfulkerson]

Hey Jorge: Your Diplomatic Pouch message got truncated and I don't know
what it said. For
the diplomatic
pouch we have
to type really
short sentences
else they get
truncated.

[larryfulkerson]

This turn sees the introduction of General Bradley and General Patton in Africa. I was half asleep when I was doing this and dug in Bradley where he was instead of moving him to an airfield first. Patton got moved to an airfield where I can fly him to Sicily next turn. Bradley is going to take an extra day unless and until I get some more sea cop.

[larryfulkerson]

Okie dokie....I may have detected our first scenario bug. There doesn't seem to be any supply on Sicily for the Allies at all. Anywhere, except in Africa and on Malta etc. I'm seeing a couple of blue dots and I'm wondering if that's supposed to be a supply point or something. I'd best check the scenario briefing again to see if I can find where the supply is supposed to come from for the Allies. Otherwise we may have a busted game here.

[larryfulkerson]

All the units that can move are moving north off the beaches and inland to meet the Italian and German defenders. Much pushing and shoving is going on. I've captured two ports but there's still no supply anywhere. WTF?

[jarraya]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

All the units that can move are moving north off the beaches and inland to meet the Italian and German defenders. Much pushing and shoving is going on. I've captured two ports but there's still no supply anywhere. WTF?

Larry, you'll get supply in each of the major ports that you capture a couple of turns after you capture them. You can see where the supply points will be by the numbers [PC:600] in the water near the ports.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: jarraya

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

All the units that can move are moving north off the beaches and inland to meet the Italian and German defenders. Much pushing and shoving is going on. I've captured two ports but there's still no supply anywhere. WTF?

Larry, you'll get supply in each of the major ports that you capture a couple of turns after you capture them. You can see where the supply points will be by the numbers [PC:600] in the water near the ports.

Oh.....Okie dokie.

[jarraya]

OK, just got my turn off to Larry and I have to say that was single most frustrating turn I have ever played in this game. Basically the Allies own the skies, and even at night it was impossible to move a single unit without getting attacked. Interdiction was ridiculous.
Then I think I discovered a bug. At the start of the turn I set all my a/c to Air Superiority and when I went to select one of the a/c I found this:



For some reason, with the Air Assistant OFF (I double checked) all my units were set to Rest.

Has anyone seen this before?

[jarraya]

So I couldn't move without getting evaporated, which means I didn't get many moves in or a counterattack like I would have liked. However, they did lose a lot of a/c, which gives me hope.

[jarraya]

I did manage to strike one significant blow and score 25 VPs! That's gotta make a very interesting scuba diving site in the future.