Few questions (Operation Husky-specific)

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Few questions (Operation Husky-specific) - 3/10/2015 5:50:02 PM

SADrone

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I just bought WitW and have been having a good deal of fun so far learning the ropes with the Operation Husky introductory scenario (using the 1.00.21 beta). I've got a few small questions though that are bugging me:

1.) What should I be doing with the Provisional US Corps under General Keyes? I know the historicity behind it, but its use to the scenario is beyond me. I thought I might take the 2nd US Armored Division and the 9th US Infantry Division (which both report directly to the 7th US Army and not a corp-level HQ between them) and stick them to the Provisional HQ, but I apparently can't. When I try to change the HHQ on the 9th US Infantry Division, for example, I'm told that the old valid HQ's for it are: 15th (AAI) BR Army G, AFHQ, and the 8th BR Army. So what use is this HQ counter?

2.) What is the "smart" way of using paratroopers? In my very first game, I dropped the 3/1st BR Airborne Division and the 3/82nd US Airborne Division on their default target hexes on Day 1 (after setting my amphibious landings), and both of them apparently lost their battles in the drop hex and were destroyed. Is using Airborne just a risky gamble? The formations only have a CV of 2 (or 4 for the British 1st Airborne), so I don't really see them surviving much.

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RE: Few questions (Operation Husky-specific) - 3/10/2015 6:55:35 PM

marion61

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With paratroops, don't drop them if you can recombine them into a division. They don't scatter as much and they usually take the hex dropped in if it doesn't have any combat units in it. If it has combat units in it, a brig/regt won't win except in ex-stream and rare cases. A division don't have good odds of taking a hex either, but the two british airborne divisions have better odds.

Also an airborne Division can retreat into an open hex if it gets a retreat result. A brigade/regiment will surrender.

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RE: Few questions (Operation Husky-specific) - 3/10/2015 7:02:40 PM

LiquidSky

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A corp HQ can hold 5 divisions. (10 command points, 2 cp's per division) If you need more command, then bring it along to Sicily and give them something to fight. Otherwise, just leave it in Africa to await withdrawal.

Divisional paratroopers will always win against an empty hex. And they never drift. Broken down into regiments, they can/will drift...and if they lose a combat, will be destroyed. Mastering the art of paradrop is a very useful skill to have.

After a drop, paratroopers will automatically generate interdiction in their own hex and surrounding hexes...which means they could potentially deal out a lot of damage to enemy units that just walk up to them...even if the paratrooper dies in a subsequent combat. They will also block german units from reaching your beach.

In the initial Sicily landing, you don't really need to do the drop as the Germans aren't going to rush your beaches...unless you're Meklore. But he is just insane.

I find the best use for them is to drop them (a division) adjacent to an invasion hex, as they help the invasion combat, and give you a hex to advance inland. They can only drop within 8 hexes of a supplied hex (unit?) or to a hex adjacent to an invasion. (regardless of range, well..within range of the air transport)

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RE: Few questions (Operation Husky-specific) - 3/10/2015 8:44:43 PM

SADrone

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Awesome, thanks for the good info re: paratroopers. Some followup questions after I just ran through Operation Husky again (I've yet to get anything better than a draw, though I came within about a dozen VPs in the last game):

3.) How do I crack Messina? I've tried everything I can think of to prevent the Panzergrenadiers from just holing up there with an ?=X defensive value stack -- I can't seem to get troops around Mt. Etna fast enough to try to encircle them, otherwise they just pull back and fortify the city. In my last game they holed up there for the last two turns, while I had both hexes against the city filled with 3-counter stacks of my best troops (and both hexes behind that filled with more troops in Reserve for the reserve activations). I tried to assault the city, which had a level 3 fort, and the defensive value was something ridiculous like 3000. I still haven't got the air force control mastered yet, but as far as I could tell, I was bombing the heck out of Messina, thinking that would help. Taking Messina seems to be really the only way to get anything better than a Draw in the scenario, unless you somehow manage to take every other victory point hex with very few casualties.

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RE: Few questions (Operation Husky-specific) - 3/10/2015 10:16:59 PM

marion61

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1st thing: Thanks Liquid, as Sheldon says "my mother had me tested".

Cracking Messina takes some preparation. First you need to bomb the ports at the ferries into dust. 2nd set up naval ad's to cover the area and deny them supply by sea. If you have some spare TF's you can for go the bombing parts and just park two of them in the ferry hexes. The only bad thing is that you will take heavy damage to the TF's but A: they block the port access and units can't get in or out, nor supplies. B: TF's provide naval gunfire support. Don't put the TF's in the hex till your ready to assault it.

You should have your most experienced units, with armor in reserve behind them, set Tactical AF to have plenty of ground support, and your hq's should have amble arty and your attacking infantry and armor should have su's in them. 3 each. You should blast Messina down in a turn or two. And at least one ground attack mission on the hex to disrupt as many elements as possible before attacking.

< Message edited by meklore61 -- 3/10/2015 11:19:01 PM >

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RE: Few questions (Operation Husky-specific) - 3/12/2015 9:08:12 PM

SADrone

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Thanks for all the advice. I just ran through Operation Husky once more, applying things that I'd learned from here and from a bit more playing around.

T1 I launched my amphibious landings as normal. British XIII Corps and XXX Corps were going to advance up the east side of the Island, Gen. Bradley and the II US Corps were going up the middle, and Patton's 7th Army armor/two infantry divs ran west to loop around back on the north side of the island. I consolidated the British Airborne brigades into a full division, and did the same with the 82nd Airborne. I reset their targets for the two hexes immediately west/southwest of Messina with the intent of having them drop in, camp out, and block any Axis retreat off the island. It worked spectacularly.

My Airborne siege of Messina + massive ferry bombardments (and a turn or two later, I remembered to just station 2 amphibious TF's on the ferry hexes instead), and all Axis forces on the island were totally cut off from retreat. I captured Messina on Turn 4, and spent the rest of the time cleaning up the Panzergrenadiers who put up a hell of a fight to the bitter end in the mountains just west of Mt. Etna. By Turn 6 I had shattered or forced surrender of every Axis formation on the island. In the end I walked out with an Allied Major Victory at 1162 VP's to 513.

I felt accomplished. I still feel like I'm absolutely clueless when it comes to air stuff (WOW does running interdiction cost me a lot of planes!), but I feel like in that respect I'm making some small improvements.

< Message edited by SADrone -- 3/12/2015 10:10:29 PM >

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RE: Few questions (Operation Husky-specific) - 3/13/2015 5:03:36 PM

HMSWarspite

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Dont try and learn it all at oonce. Nowyou have done Husky ground pretty well, rerun it. Repeat your ground war but no experiment with ADs. What a/c did you have interdicting? and where? Given your tactics I doubt if you needed much interdiction as you had the Ge isolated anyway. Or did you mean NI? What level of AI were you on?

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