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larryfulkerson -> RE: Adventures with Brian In Italy (5/10/2018 7:48:51 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: MikeJ19
Larry,
You are flying. Even after reading your AARs, I must admit I do not know that much about the Italian campaign, but it seems to me that you are making great progress.
Thanks for your kind words. I'm a student of military history especially the east front and I know next to nothing about the Italian campaign and I'm just playing by the seat of my pants here. I went back to the basics and just apply logic to the current situation and do what needs to be done in the order it needs doing. First comes the recon of all the ports to find a weak spot, an open port, that would be best, no losses getting ashore. Or use the method of landing a paratrooper on the port to instantly own it, providing there's no enemy unit in the hex when you land. It's iffy. Do a recon by air unit first to make sure it's empty. To do that select one of your combat air units with a range big enough to reach the area you want to test and just hover the mouse cursor over the candidate hex and if the cursor turns into a "target reticle" then there's at least one enemy unit in that hex but if it doesn't change to a target then it's open for occupancy.
Another example would be the use of paratroops to leapfrog to important locations it would be great to own like bridges ( to drop them in the river perhaps ), road intersections, rail hubs, airfields, whatever is important to your opponent. After they have done their mission for that location, it's best to move them somewhere important to your opponent and at the same time not close to the original DZ because there may be enemy units enroute and you don't want to be there when they arrive.
Another thing that's helpful is being able to drive your ship unit into empty ports to convert them to friendly control. I did that at Anzio and it helped a great deal. I flew in a paratrooper unit to the empty hex and his zone of control converted the other port hexes to friendly control and all of a sudden I'm fat on ports. It made floating a division into that AO very easy. The unit that captured the supply point at Anzio had sailed from Reggio and had but a single MP left after he arrived but I needed that supply point very badly so toward the end of my turn after all the other battles were conducted and there was nothing else to do for the turn I attacked with that 1 MP unit and he advanced into the hex just fine, replacing the Axis security force unit, but burning all my rounds and the turn ended. Just like I thought it might.
I'm not through with Anzio yet. Brian has railed a lot of troops down that way and I expect a counterattack or two, unless he's been building his Gustav Line already. That might be a good idea for him to start that bad boy because I'll be there soon. I have earmarked another division, the 8th Indian Division to sail to Anzio at the earliest opportunity, probably some of them in the next turn, and the rest of them the turn after that. Also, the US 1st Armor Division is rolling at full speed north on the coastal road from Naples and they will be at Anzio within a turn or two. I'd like to connect the hexes from Taranto to Reggio to Naples to Rome and points north just to provide an LOC for supply flow and then position the RR engineers at Rome and start repairing going north.
I'd like to conclude mop up in the south within 10 turns or so in order to use their services around Rome. From Rome I'd like to build a line clear across the width of the peninsula to seal off the south from the rest of Italy so that the supply for the Axis units south of Rome, the remnants, will be minimal. And then send two or three low-budget divisions to clear up all that terrain in the south to eliminate the possibility of surprises. I don't like surprises. I'll send the Free French and the Brazilians and the group from Morracco, etc.
quote:
ORIGINAL: MikeJ19
When you capture ports, does that modify the supply rates/sources? It would make sense if there was an increase after a couple of weeks.
There's no supply associated with the port itself. I captured one of the little ports on the east side of the peninsula down south, one of the unnamed ports, and there was no supply at all there when I quickly checked to see how long I could loiter there. Not long it turned out. There's tricks that the scenario designer can use to adjust the amount of supply coming from a supply source, or spawn a new supply source somewhere. I venture to predict that few scenario designers will monkey with the values of their supply points, but I can see how the port should increase in capacity with the passage of time to simulate the increase in efficiency as procedures are learned and shortcuts are found and the new guys learn their jobs, etc.
quote:
ORIGINAL: MikeJ19
I had problems with units in my Normandy campaign being stuck in garrison mode for almost the whole battle. I understand Brian's concern.
All the best,
I think I understand what you mean. Years ago there was a version of FITE that had the Soviet units as far east as Orsha in garrison mode and they could only "wake up" if they were attacked and that kind of hampered the human Soviet player greatly. There was nothing for the Soviet player to do the first two turns. There were voices that begged for a change and eventually we got a FITE2, thank you very much by the way. FITE2 is one of the bigger scenarios and I'm constantly getting lost on the map but it's a fabulous game. I eventually got irritated about having to constantly orient myself before moving units and dropped back to D21.
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