For your consideration: Europe44 v6.1

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All Forums >> [New Releases from Matrix Games] >> The Operational Art of War IV >> Mods and Scenarios >> For your consideration: Europe44 v6.1

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For your consideration: Europe44 v6.1 - 5/13/2021 2:05:26 PM

governato

Posts: 1079
Joined: 5/6/2011
From: Seattle, WA
Status: offline

The Europe 1944 scenario is now available for TOAW4, playable both against the PO and a human opponent via PBEM. The latest version of the scenario and scenario description will always be available here, on the first post of this thread. This is an updated version of the one originally designed for TOAW3. Please feel free to ask questions, share comments and send "end of turn' files as they are very useful for testing.

HERE IS THE PDF FILE WITH GAME DESCRIPTION

HERE IS THE SCENARIO FILE

Map scale: 32 Km
Turn: 1 Week
Start Date: June 22nd, 1944
Scenario length: 46 turns from June 22nd to early May 1945. Additional 14 turns if the �Long Game� option is activated ( if the Allies fail to occupy the Ruhr region by April 1945).

Units scale: Mostly Corps, with additional Armored divisions and Heavy Panzers Battalions.

How to install: just place all files (pdf, scenario and image file) in the Scenarios subfolder of your choice. The pdf file contains a detailed description of of the scenario.

This scenario does NOT use a special eqp file.

(last update to v6.1 May 12th 2021 )

Historical Notes: June 44 marked a turning point for the War in the European Theater. The opening of the long awaited second front and the start of the Operation Bagration on June 22nd (3rd anniversary of the Axis attack to the Soviet Union) spelled the beginning of the end for the short lived Thousand Years Reich. About 10 million men, 20 thousand planes and tanks would fight over an area that spans from Italy to the North of Finland and from Normandy to Romania. The fight lasted almost another year with the unconditional surrender of the Axis powers to the Allied forces after the disastrous defeats in Russia and Normandy, but also after several failed Allies offensives that had the potential to end the war well before the Winter of 1944. The many operational choices available to the players makes this historical campaign an almost ideal scenario for The Operational Art of War. What if the Western Allies had focused on the Italy campaign rather than invading southern France? What if they had landed in Greece, or the Balkans? What if Hitler had ordered an earlier retreat
from Norway, Italy and the Balkans, freeing almost half a million fresh and experienced troops? What if the Ardennes Offensive had been only a limited (and far less costly) operation aimed at regaining the line of the Siegfried Wall? What if the Luftwaffe had tried a decisive operation to cripple Allied air forces based in Europe? As a last and very hypothetical scenario possibility what if Germany had started mass production of the revolutionary tanks, jet fighters and electric U-boats in time to stall the Allies before the conquest of Berlin and the Industrial Rhine/Ruhr region?

The emphasis of this scenario is on playability and operational choices rather than on details at the tactical level. The number of units has been kept to a relatively small number for a scenario of this size (about 500 per side). Individual Armored divisions and heavy SS tank battalions have been maintained as separate units. This version of Europe44 includes several of the design improvements made possible by the upgrade to TOAW4 and takes advantage of the flexibility allowed by support squads to model the flow of supplies to
different theaters. It also models much better the crippling effects of Winter weather on supply and air operations (this was inspired by the game Great War in The East by Matrix, where weather plays a major role). The scenario has several Theater Options. Some are available for a limited amount of turns, most of them offer unique opportunities to the players, but often come with some downsides associated with diverting resources from one theater to another. For example Operation Anvil (the Allies landing in Southern France) permanently cuts
supplies to the Italian theater. Players are advised to read these short notes and still be ready for some surprises. A small number of house rules are recommended.

- support squads in HQs to regulate the flow of reinforcement to individual theaters. As an example if the Allies player choses to implement Market Garden the HQ of Patton's Third Army is replaced with a new one with 70% of its assigned support sqauds missing. This has the effect of cutting supplies *just* to the Third Army, effectively stopping its drive West until sufficient supply squads come in as replacements, which usually takes a few weeks.

- Instead of having a Red Army infantry replacement rate proportional to the guns and tanks output, manpower replacement rates for the Red Army are more realistically linked to its advance West. As certain key locations are conquered, then large cadre infantry units are disbanded, filling the infantry replacement pool. This also has the desirable effect of giving an incentive to the Axis player to defend Romania and Hungary, instead of rapidly withdrawing to the Reich.

These and other features are fairly transparent to the user and should make for
more realistic play.

This scenario takes advantages of a few features of TOAW4 that allow designers to better model changing supply rates not only in time, but in different areas of the scenario. Two key features are placing supply points on the map through events AND having an individual supply rate for each supply point. Here is a short description of what I did in 'Europe 1944', where the challenge was
handling how the US and UK armies brought supplies to the front.

- Modeling the supply network from the Normandy Beaches: I placed a 100% supply source on the coast. This supply point is NOT connected to the railway system, it will give strong supply rates only to the nearby hexes. Cherbourg is connected to the rail network and has a supply point (at a 25% level) which will then bring low level supply as far as the repaired rail network will extend. Use of the Rail Repair unit is crucial.

- Ports: Calais, Brest (with a probability check), Cherbourg and Antwerp are supply points connected to the rail network. The Allies will then receive more supply as they liberate them, with Antwerp the ultimate objective before crossing the Rhine. Allies supply will also improve with the capture of Danzig, which was a base for German submarines.

Attachment (1)

< Message edited by governato -- 5/13/2021 2:19:53 PM >

Post #: 1

Scenario notes Europe44 v6.1 - 5/13/2021 2:13:50 PM

governato

Posts: 1079
Joined: 5/6/2011
From: Seattle, WA
Status: offline

- Supply squads: attached to HQs units they regulate the amount of supplies for each formation: (nominal rate) X (fraction of supply squads over maximum allowed number) = effective supply rate. To model the fact that Operation Market Garden reduced the amount of supply available to the US 3rd Army its HQ is replaced with a new one with only 30% of the maximum allowed number of supply squads. This means a low resupply rate until enough replacements arrive to the the 3rd Army HQ. Remember a unit should not be moved in order for it to receive replacement squads!

-Supply units: both the Axis and the Allies receive Supply units (they boost supply rates by %50 around them). Some have limited Railroad repair capabilities. Use them to bring extra supplies to some part of the front. German HQs are cronically low on supply squads, BUT disbanding some of the smaller formations will put more supply squads in the replacement pool for larger units. This allowes the Axis player to model a possible restructuring of the Wehrmacht. Historically a large number of small formations was preferred, which gave more flexibility at a tactical level.

- The Allies Player will receive additional static supply units or supply points when major ports on the western theater are captured, namely:

Brest (19,29)
Antwerp (40,36)
Le Havre (29,34)
Cherbourg (26,32)
Pola (44,65)
Sibenek (46,71)
Marseille (23,57)

Some supply points are subject to delays and a probability check to activate. Many deliver less than the full supply rate. Antwerp, Cherbourg and Calais will take some turns to get to their full supply potential, but only Antwerp will deliver 100% of the supply rate (Cherbourg only 25%, Calais %40). It is then vital for the Allies to capture Antwerp as soon as possible and repair the railroad network around it. The supply point on the Normandy beaches is NOT
connected to the railroad system so it will deliver supplies only up to a few hexes away. As historically happened, and until the port of Antwerp is liberated and repaired, the US and UK armies will draw minimal (a few per cent) amount of supplies once close to Germany. The increase of supplies from the liberated ports is described with a series of events that replace each existing supply point with a new one with a higher supply rate (a nifty TOAW feature).

German Fortresses (Festungs) and supply: This is a interesting use of
supply points that I do not think is being used often enough in scenarios: In 'Europe 1944' the Axis player has many supply points across the map. Most deliver MUCH less supply than the global supply rate (down to 1%). This is a TOAW III feature which I used to model the possibility to leave units behind in fortified areas as historically happened in Latvia, Prussia and the coast of
France. These units will only be able to defend, but they can survive indefinitely behind the frontline without withering away as they would if they were out of supply. The Allies will have to actively attack to get rid of them! This is a great way to use Volskgrenadier units (that have AT+ squads) for delaying actions. To allow an element of surprise, rather than post a list of these 'Festungs' I encourage the Axis player to find them directly on the map, or check Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_World_War_II_strongholds

The Strategic Bombing Campaign: Air Units on Garrison

Those units are bombers and fighters based in UK for the Allies and a large number of fighter planes stationed in major German cities for the Werhmacht. Europe44 models the bombing campaign over Germany in an abstract but effective way: air units in garrison mode are controlled by the 'Air Assistant' (which can be toggled on and off by the player, the players can also set the loss tolerance of those units). The air units on garrison contribute to Air Superority (100 over 270 points for the Allies at the start of the scenario) and to interdiction and supply levels as well, usually reducing the Axis supply by 2-3 points. On top of that, planes controlled by the Allies player that are set on Combat Support will have to occasionally fight some of the Axis 'strategic/on garrison' fighters when on missions deep in German territory. Last but not least, this approach makes it simpler to manage the plane replacement rates (based on historical production rates) without having to worry much about what fraction of bombers and fighters should be devoted to direct air support for the ground
troops. Overall it is a simple approach with some limitations, but it works.