RE: Panzers, rückwärts! Gunnulf (GHC) vs QBall (WA)

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All Forums >> [New Releases from Matrix Games] >> Gary Grigsby's War in the West >> After Action Reports >> RE: Panzers, rückwärts! Gunnulf (GHC) vs QBall (WA)

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RE: Panzers, rückwärts! Gunnulf (GHC) vs QBall (WA) - 1/28/2017 7:49:38 AM

John B.

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I continue to enjoy this AAR thank you for the effort you put into it. And, it sounds to me like you are doing much better than historical. It's August 1944 and you still hold Paris, Antwerp and Rome! From the look of things you may hold Italy until the end. Any chance of a bulge offensive to retake Naples? :)

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RE: Panzers, rückwärts! Gunnulf (GHC) vs QBall (WA) - 1/28/2017 4:55:09 PM

Gunnulf

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I have made a couple of efforts to break through and overrun the Foggia airfields but never been able to break that line so far. You are right though, a Bulge type counter-attack if we have spare troops might be interesting. Italian winter mud might make it difficult. I'm definately going to bear the thought it mind though...
That said while Italy does look relatively secure he clearly withdrew a TF here for some nefarious reason and I suspect its not the last invasion we'll see and he might yet force us to retire to the Gothic line (or beyond...) before the war ends. We'll no doubt find out before too long. Not sure where he'll find the troops for a big effort though.

In France we deliberate a while as 162 Turkoman Div has trouble keeping up due to Zoc blocking. Its a 68 Exp division so we are loathed to abandon them but after much reflection we decide on a clean break. Its not us, its him. QBall often puts a premium on going for zoc blocks. This time I decide to abandon, but up north its generally meant I have retired much slower in order to save units. Without these zoc-lock tactics likely we'd actually be fighting on the doorstep of Antwerp rather than Lille. Pros and cons I guess but sometimes I think its worth encouraging/allowing the enemy to run maybe.

Anyway, the centre and south have broken contact and are pretty much where we intend to resist a little, up north we edge back and will break contact if we get a chance.

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RE: Panzers, rückwärts! Gunnulf (GHC) vs QBall (WA) - 1/28/2017 11:03:13 PM

Gunnulf

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Turn 61 - 26 August 44

Still close fighting in the Lille area but we just about maintain enough mobility to break contact without leaving any units behind and draw back to a temporary position just in front of Antwerp. The fighting will reach there the first week of september (historically fell 4 Sept) and Paris just fell (historically 25 Aug) so kudos to the designers and play testers. After thousands of decisions on mine and QBalls parts (ok, mostly his, I'm just reacting) and millions of calculations we are pretty much bang on the money timescale wise. I was pretty sure it would go worse for me after the second landings particularly but we are just about holding it together. Breaking contact for a moment is not before time as after months of fighting and relentless air attack 9 SS Pz breaks and routs, now sent back depleted with just 10 tanks to refit (Arnhem sounds a nice peaceful spot...). Of course battle will join up immediately as Qball closes up again but for the first time in a long time we can see the whole line start to form up on ground of our choosing. Lets see how that plays out...

Of note in the screenshot you will see Festung Walcheren is nearly dug in with 3 divisions. We expect an assault from the sea before too long, no doubt a successful one but no sense in making it too easy for him. Antwerp too is a level 4 fort we prepared last year on a whim but its not to much benefit really as not easy to form a contigious line, the Albert canal isnt going to cut it even if we spent 24ap fortifying the rest of it. Maybe we'll try that another time if we are feeling flush. Better to expend effort on blocking access to the river for as long as possible I think.
The Maas line is taking shape and should be ready to do some heavy lifting by the time the fight reaches it. And so there is the the tour of the northern flank.

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RE: Panzers, rückwärts! Gunnulf (GHC) vs QBall (WA) - 1/28/2017 11:21:35 PM

Gunnulf

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On the subject of Paris, it took 6 divisions and a medley of multi-national brigades with over 2K guns two assaults to reduce the 343 ID we left behind (plus as you see, randomly an Italian Marine battalion attached while this division was down south).
162 ID we were forced to ditch on the the retreat is set upon like army ants on a henchman in an indiana jones movie. But it will slow a few units another week to deal with them, though in this case I'd rather have the division than that slight delay. At least Paris was denying him the ability to put a depot at that critical junction.

Otherwise you can see that 5 Pz Army (orange) and 19 Army (tan) are now formed up in relatively good order on ground of our choosing. Still a delaying action before the Rhine but we can keep him west a little bit longer hopefully on this line. We receive our first batches of Volksgrenadier IDs and Pz Bdes which we start to plug into the ORBAT. A critical point is likely to be the Belfort gap no doubt and that will be tough to hold against determined attack but no points to spare for forts. What is good news is the Pz Bdes and decent terrain allows us to send a few mech divisions to rear depots to refit for a week or two at least. A rare luxury indeed.

Finally of brief note as expected Marseille falls on the second week to an even larger attack of 160k men and 2.8k guns though they extract some further Allied loses. Not too bad an effort for a regiment of security troops and a schnelle bicycle brigade. We partly regret not using a full division but 2 weeks delay is good enough and Toulon is still outstanding, but Marseille and its level 9 port is clearly the jewel in the crown.
We continue to run naval patrols off the coast but now he is paying attention the best we can do is contest rather than isolate the sea route to his beaches and before long it won't matter when Marseille starts to accept ships.

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RE: Panzers, rückwärts! Gunnulf (GHC) vs QBall (WA) - 1/29/2017 6:45:28 AM

Gunnulf

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Turn 62 - 2 Sep 44

1st Army slides into position around Antwerp and the Albert canal. Just a temporary blocking position to delay the Allies reaching the Maas line too early. The only real fighting across the whole front are the assaults on Boulogne and Calais. Dunkirk is no doubt next. Actually also for the first time since May the skies are clear of allied fighter-bombers. Mixed emotions about this as clearly he is doing a bit rest & relocate prior to a next phase onslaught! We take our own opportunity to send the battered Panzer divisions to depots to refit.

15th Army completes its move into the forward line of the Ardennes forest. No doubt this will be a quiet sector as everybody knows you can't attack through here...

Down south 5th Pz & 19th Army remain where we last saw then, aside from a bit of a re-org incorporating a few shiny new VG divisions. The only problem is as he has not closed up yet we can't see where the next blow might fall so next turn we need to start getting more active with recon flights. This turn we establish 6 bases along the front to begin these ops.

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RE: Panzers, rückwärts! Gunnulf (GHC) vs QBall (WA) - 1/30/2017 1:38:52 PM

GeneralfeldmarschallWalterModel

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Logistics look to be a real issue with War in The West.

Have you played War in The East?
If so how does it compare in your opinion?

Nice report.

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RE: Panzers, rückwärts! Gunnulf (GHC) vs QBall (WA) - 1/31/2017 10:22:02 AM

Gunnulf

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Logistics certainly key for both sides, quite rightly so, and we are starting to see a squeeze of vehicles take effect. Not so much of an issue for the mechanised divisions when we were crawling backwards a couple of hexes per turn, but now we have rested them and need then to counterattack the lack of vehicles is hampering mobility. More on this later.

I played my fair share of WITE and of course they are very familiar in many ways mechanically. The air war in WITW is a huge improvement, if the old WITE air mechanics was just bolted on it clearly wouldn't have worked. Its functional, easy to understand and efficient in dealing with the detail if you want, or the AI directives do a decent job if you let them, though almost certainly most will enjoy tinkering. In terms of scope and replay-ability there are plenty of angles for the allies to take. 3 PBEMs as the Axis has seen each game take a quite different direction. But of course unlike WITE you don't get the same ebb and flow of the GC. As the Axis you are on the strategic defence and even tactical offensives are very limited. That said you could argue that most WITE games are quite binary unless you get a autovictory then as the axis you are always going to be on offense, then switch to defense though of course its much less linear with the soviet winter offensive of 41. But WITE covers a much longer period. If WITE covered the same time period of July 43 to the end then the Soviets would be exclusively on the offense too. Both games are great for sure, when this first came out I wasn't able to put much time in so sat on the shelf for a while but certainly enjoying it now.

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RE: Panzers, rückwärts! Gunnulf (GHC) vs QBall (WA) - 1/31/2017 10:33:38 AM

Gunnulf

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Turn 64 - 16 Sep 44

Last week not much action and was working hard so not much update but this week the allies, well rested and replened leap into action. In the northern sector they break into the defensive lines in 2 places; As expected east of Antwerp the line on the Albert canal is too weak to hold against determined assault and the Canadians get across. This is our signal to leave, except a garrison will hold out in Antwerp for another week to cause a nuisance, partly as they can't move anyway so that makes our decision for us. Another reminder to budding Allied commanders - sometimes it pays to leave a door open to escape and actually makes life easier :)

But also in the forest in 15th Army sector a massive attack involving 3 US armoured divisions breaks the line, but disturbingly 2 further armoured divisions pile in to push deep into the rear, too strong for us to dislodge so we will have to reconstitute the line. Hopefully we can attrit the allies here a bit at least as we retire back to the Seigfried line.

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RE: Panzers, rückwärts! Gunnulf (GHC) vs QBall (WA) - 1/31/2017 10:58:45 AM

Gunnulf

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In the centre of the front the Free-French break into the line at the bottom of 15th Armies forest bastion, and in 5 Pz army sector the 11th Br Arm and 2nd FF Arm Divs follow up on a breakthough to get over the river. In both cases we launch a local counterattack causing 500-1000 casualties but ultimately with the allies holding to their gains. The former incursion we might be able to contain a little while, the latter certainly not. However for a quite long front line we can be relatively happen to have only lost 5 hexes. So far...
We continue to run recce to try to keep an eye on large buildup behind the lines but the main effort still seems to be the northern sector which is the only one that receives any air support.

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RE: Panzers, rückwärts! Gunnulf (GHC) vs QBall (WA) - 1/31/2017 11:09:24 AM

Gunnulf

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In the French-Italian Alps there has been a bit of a scramble for position as we try to occupy the forts before the allies reach them. Luckily we had already identified and allocated a number of divisions and security regiments for the task but it takes time to jockey them into position and due to a mistake on my part QBall was actually able to reach and destroy the fort in the pass before I re-occupied it, luckily without the movement left to occupy the spot and I had a division and panzer brigade close by to seal the line there. Otherwise that might have changed the dynamic of the whole line. While without a rail line he would struggle to get supplies through long term I'm sure it would have been enough to threaten to turn out the defenders to the south. As it is now I think (touch wood) that we have enough allocated to hold the line until such time as other events might force us to leave.

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RE: Panzers, rückwärts! Gunnulf (GHC) vs QBall (WA) - 1/31/2017 10:06:21 PM

Gunnulf

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Turn 65 - 23 Sep 44

Headline news this week is a long awaited Allied landing in central Italy, in the bay above Civitavecchio, slightly south of my best guess for where he would come. The first wave is 1st & 5th Br infantry coming off the ramps, with 1st Airborne Div and 2nd Airborne Bde. The latter lands on 1/362 Regt with a flak battalion and is defeated but everybody else gets ashore. Plans found in a wrecked glider lead us to expect 1 Br Arm Div & 78 Br Inf Div in the second wave, but the edge of the map is a bit charred and there of course might be more.
I know he knows we are stretched and probably expects this will lead us to evacuate the Gustav line back to the Gothic. He's probably right but in the immediate term we can probably box this in to avert disaster. On email QBall comments that he doesn't expect we have a Panzer Korps in the Rome area but in fact we do have 15 & 90 PzGn Divs to the north and east, and 3 PzGn Bdes around Rome with 4 Infantry divisions spare. These perhaps should be on the Seigfried line but I felt confident being stubborn here would force him to divert forces back to Italy. Our other logic was the Gothic line is 9 hexes long and easy to defend while the Gothic line is 13 hexes wide and maybe not so easy to hold. We'll pull back before long but if we resist a little longer he might have to put more forces over that beach that he originally hoped.
OR...it could be a complete disaster for us obviously! Time will tell...

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RE: Panzers, rückwärts! Gunnulf (GHC) vs QBall (WA) - 1/31/2017 11:07:51 PM

Gunnulf

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While we are down in the Med the other news is we began a bombing campaign against Marseille. We have plenty of well trained bomber crews so they might as well earn their beer money. QBall has about 80 fighters on duty but looks like while half of them missed the port and hit the city on day 2, and couldn't find Marseille at all on day 4 they did a reasonable job on day 6. Recce at the end of the week puts the damage at 58%, whether thats true or not we'll never know but last turn damage reported was 14% so seems likely this is progress. its not going to win us the war, but maybe it will have a small impact on the chain somewhere. Toulon and Nice also remain in our hands so far, the former he can take anytime he can muster the troops, the latter is probably secure so long as we hold the Gothic line.

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RE: Panzers, rückwärts! Gunnulf (GHC) vs QBall (WA) - 2/1/2017 12:28:12 AM

Gunnulf

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On the northern flank we are on the Maas line now, although he has yet to put in an assault on Antwerp, likely as its looking pretty strong with about 58 defensive cv so maybe the time invested in that fort paid off in the end. Once he can spare 100k troops no doubt its toast but i guess the Allies are plenty busy and until he can clear the island approaches he can't use the port anyway.
Further downstream the Allies do force a crossing and a bridgehead is formed but only 2 armoured brigades and a cavalry group are on the far bank and I think we can dislodge them on this occasion so we throw in XXV Corps. Nervous reports come in about massive allied ground support missions but ultimately the 3 battlegroups from 3 different allied corps put up a rather disorganized hasty defense and are pushed back with heavy losses. Whether we can hold this sector a further week remains to be seen. Some bad weather wouldn't hurt the cause.

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RE: Panzers, rückwärts! Gunnulf (GHC) vs QBall (WA) - 2/1/2017 12:49:03 AM

Gunnulf

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Its clear that the centre of the line has become the Allied main effort, its now receiving much more share of the air power (up from nothing) and that makes sense as it looks the weakest spot. Further south the Belfort gap is looking relatively secure since the very fresh 4 FJ div turned up from the Italian front.
However 5 Pz Army is looking shaky, and the SS Pz divs are looking particularly impotent. I had a couple of them on refit for 2 weeks in a good depot but they didnt draw any vehicles and in one case they have about 5% vehicle ToE and correspondingly lack the mobility to launch deliberate attacks. I think we need to pull these right back lest we lose them unable to retreat. In the meantime the infantry and fresh panzer brigades will have to stem the tide until we reach the main defense line and every re-inforcement will plug in here.

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RE: Panzers, rückwärts! Gunnulf (GHC) vs QBall (WA) - 2/1/2017 1:00:09 AM

Gunnulf

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Going full circle this is where we are left at the beachhead once everybody has moved. He is boxed in for the moment but it obviously all depends on what shows up in the second wave whether I leave the Gustav line immediately. You will notice though 1 US Arm Div on the southern flank, eagerly waiting with sabres drawn to ruthlessly cut down poor retreating German infantry so we do need to put some thought into the evacuation plan here if/when we execute it. The troops at the beachhead should be able to delay for a little while at least but its a long march and getting clean away to a railhead will be tricky for sure. I need to have a condor moment overnight before we hit end turn...

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RE: Panzers, rückwärts! Gunnulf (GHC) vs QBall (WA) - 2/3/2017 11:03:07 PM

Gunnulf

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Turn 66 - 30 Sep 44

Things looking reasonable stable on the beaches (Allies 1 x Arm Div, 4 x Inf Div, 1 x Abn Div, 1 x Abn Regt versus 3 x PzGn Div, 1 x Mtn Div, 4 x Inf Div, 3 x PzGn Bde) so we take a momentary pause on the Casino line, probably just temporary but it doesn't seem like a necessity to run full-pelt for the hills just yet. The mountains and swamps are not quite so secure as the previous fortified line, but the Allies are not exactly in overwhelming numbers either. Maybe he'll halt, maybe he'll fight and lose troops, either way is a bit of a win so long as we don't fall apart but everybody is pretty fresh. Cautiously we might hold out to the winter mud...or not. No real benefit as Rome not so important now, but more to see if we can, and of course to frustrate QBall a little bit.

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RE: Panzers, rückwärts! Gunnulf (GHC) vs QBall (WA) - 2/3/2017 11:04:43 PM

Gunnulf

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The northern sector is relatively stable now as the Allies schwerpunkt is well and truly shifted to the centre, aside from and assault and capture of Antwerp that doesn’t put up too much resistance in the end. But festung Walchern is looking fairly secure so far so the port remains useless. In other news the Allies cross the Maas SW of Aachen again and this time 15th Army misses out on pushing them back across, as expended though its relatively close run thing.

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RE: Panzers, rückwärts! Gunnulf (GHC) vs QBall (WA) - 2/3/2017 11:07:58 PM

Gunnulf

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Otherwise the main action is in the centre where 5Pz Army again takes the brunt of the assault with 42 Jaeger div left cut off. A favourite move of QBall but it doesn’t come cheap as we had the flanks here fairly well loaded in anticipation. Overall this turn, including the routed 2 Abn Bde in Italy losses are heavy with -12 US losses and -23 Other Loss VPs for overall -16VP. If we can do even half that regularly we’d be happy. This series of assaults does see us pull back behind the Moselle river, aside from a single outpost, and the Ardennes to the north. No doubt he will cross of course but for a while we get some reasonable defensive terrain the length of the line and still some depth before the seigfried line and the Rhine. But also there are still 43 more turns to hold out which seems like an awfully long time obviously :)

Elsewhere Marseille gets bombed again and recce suggests damage at 58% so maybe we are damaging the port as fast as he can repair it. Or intel is wrong. The Belfort gap looks solid, as does the Franco-Italian alps.

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RE: Panzers, rückwärts! Gunnulf (GHC) vs QBall (WA) - 2/7/2017 11:05:39 AM

Gunnulf

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Turn 68 - 14 Oct 44

The Allies continue to eat into the German lines but on a relatively narrow front around the Ardennes. Of course wherever they choose to focus the air power and the tip of the spear there is not too much to be done to stop this but at least the advance is still relatively limited. I have to still wonder whether supplies are a minor or major constraint. As per my previous reckoning he has considerably less port capacity than historical while at the same time operating a significant number of divisions diverted from the Med theatre. Looking at the big picture in Brittany he chose St Nazaire (4) over Brest (6), but is also missing out on Cherbourg (5), Bordeaux (7), Toulon (5), Nice (5) and while he has Marseille (9) my recce after last bombing suggest 68% damage so its almost certainly operating at half capacity. All told thats about 425k tons less than historical capacity per week, certainly not insignificant. But if it was seriously constraining him surely he would put some resources into taking an extra port somewhere? Antwerp (9) is his but until Walcheren is cleared its blocked obviously and there are 3 divisions here dug into level 3 in polder terrain generating some very high defensive CV values. He can take it but it won't be cheap.

A brief look at the air situation, the bombing of the Reich continues but generating less VPs than before due to modifiers. The bombing tends to be more focused and likewise we tend to run 6 AS directives over key cities rather than intercepts. This keeps our losses lower from stray interceptors wandering everywhere but of course we miss some bombers too. We do have 1500 german day fighters left, and 300 axis allies, and fuel levels look ok so no indication that things will fall off a cliff just yet. Famous last words... Damage to HI/Oil/Fuel is about 33% and manpower pools are at 32K. Not huge but something to draw upon. What is low is vehicles in mechanised divisions. While damage to factories is a modest 19% then plenty of divisions have just 5% of their needs which rather sucks. We have been careful throughout to ensure depots cover the front within 3 hexes, even if this means setting one up for 1 or 2 turns, then clearly vehicles is the pain point and not sure there was much else I could do about this, as clearly by design its meant to hurt.

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RE: Panzers, rückwärts! Gunnulf (GHC) vs QBall (WA) - 2/7/2017 11:14:22 AM

Gunnulf

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Down south the Allies continue to probe in the Franco-Italian alps and have taken out a couple of forts. We need to throw more troops in here to avoid a drama. I had allocated troops to cover this but antipated he would shield rather than attack due to supply problems. It will be winter soon but so far he is inching forward and we need to respond.

Otherwise also he looks in danger of breaking out of the beachhead before too long. I had hoped we might hold until the winter mud but looks like we should play it safe and plan to get out of dodge while we still can. Still, by holding Rome 5 months longer than historical and forcing him to bring back a couple of Corps to achieve this breakthrough thats about as good as we can hope for, especially given that on page 1 of this AAR we were seriously concerned we would lose Rome in september 43 and already be fighting on the Gothic line.

So, the big question is; Should I stay or should I go now? If I go there will be trouble. And if I stay it will be double... Sheer stubborn mischief is the main thing keeping me around Casino really and a dangerous sense of curiosity. Its very possible just a single brigade landing unravels everything.

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RE: Panzers, rückwärts! Gunnulf (GHC) vs QBall (WA) - 2/7/2017 4:19:07 PM

Gunnulf

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Well, after much coin-tossing, studying chicken bones, and chain smoking of cigars we decide its time for 10th Army to march north. We would stay longer but there are 7+ Allied divisions in the Civitavecchio beachhead and at some point they will break out to the north. Its been emotional to say farewell to the foxholes and bunkers that have been home for a year. Some had very nice sofas, arm chairs and stoves that have to be abandoned, everything more easily movable like the chandeliers and wine have been shipped ahead to the next line. The big risk is an aggressive follow up but it seems like only 1 US Armored Div is really available to put the retreat at risk. An orderly retreat is oft quoted as the toughest military operation but we try to achieve it by pivoting LI Gerbirgs corps back towards Rome while LXXXV Corps covers to the east one week longer as 305 Div had the furthest to go and could at best reach that corps flank. Fingers crossed for phase 2.... QBall should be overjoyed at least. But if he really wanted it earlier he could have fought for it :)

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RE: Panzers, rückwärts! Gunnulf (GHC) vs QBall (WA) - 2/8/2017 8:21:19 PM

John B.

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Probably a wise choice. Don't count on miracles until you really need to. :)

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RE: Panzers, rückwärts! Gunnulf (GHC) vs QBall (WA) - 2/11/2017 12:05:23 AM

Gunnulf

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quote:

ORIGINAL: John B.

Probably a wise choice. Don't count on miracles until you really need to. :)

There was an almost overwhelming curiosity to see how long could hold, but I think while I can contain the beachhead for a bit we can't for too long. Depending on how you calculate it I think the city VPs we avoided getting scored against us from Siena to Rome were probably worth about 170 or so for 1944 to date and every turn longer is something like 38cp/12? (Not sure current multiplier, not got the manual open) so certainly worth pushing my luck a little bit, but not to the extent that I blow it and give him an open goal to bust through to north Italy and hoover up those cities.

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RE: Panzers, rückwärts! Gunnulf (GHC) vs QBall (WA) - 2/11/2017 10:39:08 AM

Gunnulf

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Turn 69 - 21 October 44

First a look at Italy as thats quite simple. Now 10th Army is (probably) in the clear then 14th Army rolls back the perimeter and the whole Army Group look to stage as orderly retreat as possible. Probably good timing as the beachhead now contains 9+divisions so he was poised for a breakout for sure. Mission accomplished to draw more units back to Italy at least. Particular attention to the passes to try to make sure he doesn't cut across the spine but at least in the mountains already the mud is starting to appear. The Italia brigade 'volunteers' to stay behind in Rome. Holding out here another week for an few extra VPs and diverting the pursuit a bit is probably worth the losses.

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RE: Panzers, rückwärts! Gunnulf (GHC) vs QBall (WA) - 2/11/2017 11:00:59 AM

Gunnulf

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In other southern news the Franco-Italian passes look a bit more secure as the rebuild 6 FJ show up. Still not going to be able to take this sector for granted though but at least the majority of his mountain troops are strung out here and unavailable to pressure the Gothic line. The Luftwaffe continue 'Fall Zwiebel' against Marseille but adding railyards to the target list. End of week recce reports the port at 74% damage and 70% for the railyards which is satisfactory if close to true. No idea if this is contributing to problems, it really doesn't seem like it but it can't hurt and our losses are fairly light.

Meanwhile Allied losses from bombing the Reich and interdiction continue at a similar pace as they have recently. Much more overall from operational losses than anything our fighters or flak achieve I think, but he does tend to ride they fairly hard. Our fighter losses are higher than trainees coming into the system but the boost from new gruppes that appear and get disbanded and assimilated keep the total day fighter above 1.5k so far...

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RE: Panzers, rückwärts! Gunnulf (GHC) vs QBall (WA) - 2/11/2017 11:14:31 AM

Gunnulf

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The real danger is in the centre of the North west frontier. With disappointing ease QBall cracks the seigfried line like its not even there and is into Germany for the first time. Its still on a fairly limited front from a crisis perspective but he also makes gains north of the Ardennes too, though we hold a couple of attacks. We need to take a moment to think about what to do here next. The Rhine is still behind us but we are not filled with confidence that will hold long so would rather delay pulling back here. Too much stubbornness will see his armour flood through this gap though and start getting encirclements. We have saved 50+ APs ready to build a line on the Rhine and nows probably time to get started on that though really we need a few units to dig that in. However whatever we do he will always be able to pick a point and throw everything at this and get across somewhere. We have to keep reminding ourselves that we are actually supposed to lose obviously :)

Suggestions welcome. Scribble them on the back of a ration box and send to OKW at Berlin.

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RE: Panzers, rückwärts! Gunnulf (GHC) vs QBall (WA) - 2/11/2017 11:56:42 AM

EwaldvonKleist

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quote:

Suggestions welcome. Scribble them on the back of a ration box and send to OKW at Berlin.

Wait for the "Wunderwaffen" of course! There is no doubt they will turn the war.
Thanks again for this entertaining AAR.

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RE: Panzers, rückwärts! Gunnulf (GHC) vs QBall (WA) - 2/12/2017 6:10:09 PM

Gunnulf

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quote:

ORIGINAL: EwaldvonKleist

quote:

Suggestions welcome. Scribble them on the back of a ration box and send to OKW at Berlin.

Wait for the "Wunderwaffen" of course! There is no doubt they will turn the war.
Thanks again for this entertaining AAR.

Ah yes, the wonder-weapons the boss keeps mentioning. The only thing so far we wonder about the wonder weapons is when they will show up... :) We have about 50 operational Me262s over Berlin which do ok, but otherwise its really down to the plucky lansers with a panzerfaust and a tot of schnapps that is holding this show together.
Oh, and the weather machine which this time we turn the dial to heavy rain, and magically the bombing stops!

Turn 70 - 28 Oct 44

Heavy rain stops the allied air, not a single bomb is dropped for the first time in ages. The fighting on the ground is fairly limited too. Only 4 attacks in the Pfalz sector and one of those is held. No doubt this is still the danger zone but at least its still limited. Allied supply crunch? Only QBall knows and when I probe he keeps stum calling Opsec, quite rightly.
We are forced to roll back the line in Alsace but into good defensive terrain and all eyes are definately on Pfalz for now. The defences on the Rhein are started and we manage to siphon off divisons from 1 Army to help dig them in. They will certainly be needed before too long I think, but, fingers crossed should hold until spring. Maybe...

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RE: Panzers, rückwärts! Gunnulf (GHC) vs QBall (WA) - 2/12/2017 6:16:27 PM

Gunnulf

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In Italy the pursuit starts, and the Allies reach the gates of Rome, but no fighting yet. I'll be surprised if it doesn't fall next week. But the heavy rain is forecast to hit Italy next week and with it almost certainly heavy mud. We could probably hold south of the Gothic line if we wanted but I'm not sure there is too much benefit really.
No further probes on the Franco-Italian alps sector and seems like we are going to be settling in for winter before too long.

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RE: Panzers, rückwärts! Gunnulf (GHC) vs QBall (WA) - 2/14/2017 3:44:55 PM

Gunnulf

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Turn 71 - 4 Nov 44

A few dangerous developments in the ardennes sector. Clearly his logistics are allowing widespread attacks still and he was just taking a pause to catch his breath. A two pronged attack from north and south temporarily isolates a few divisions in the pocket but its pretty loose and all but 1 division will probably be able to break out with relative ease. Also an assault southeast of Nijmegen pushes back 18 LW div and the allies manage to get 27 Br Arm Bde across but will just 2CV strength its pretty easy to counterattack out again. 600 allied casualties on the way in and 1000 casualties on the way back make it a nice tally in an already fairly costly turn.
The allies inch the line eastwards both sides of the Maas but again at a cost with a couple of deadly holds, 2 assaults and 2.4k casualties alone to push back Pz Lehr. Its all one way but slowly and we are buying time for Hauck Korps to dig in on the far bank of Rhine, and of course the weather is getting progressively worse in our favour.
Finally the allies press home a bloody attack east of Maastrict against 21 Pz, which is pushed back at a cost of another 2k+ allied casualties. This does endanger the troops defending the riverline to the north so no doubt we need to re-configure this too.

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