RE: Yet Another Sicily t BP Ian Allies me Axis (Full Version)

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hingram -> RE: Yet Another Sicily t BP Ian Allies me Axis (6/12/2018 5:33:33 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: devoncop

Thanks hingram.

The capture of Trieste is fairly soon but in fact the rail line to the front is almost complete so supply at the front is not bad.


True but you have to defend it from any rogue units that may appear. I was able to defend the Trieste line with a single Italian division and some Mech units. Meanwhile, the long line from Anzio got busted in 3 different places before I could get the Trieste line up. Plus the rail units aren't doing anything anyway and idle hands are the Devil's workshop.



devoncop -> RE: Yet Another Sicily t BP Ian Allies me Axis (6/12/2018 6:07:48 PM)

18th October 1944

Another turn of big German losses from shells and bombs but no territorial gain.

The 715th Division's entire Grenadier regiment turned up at San Stefano 200Km behind the lines on the West coast. Thankfully the NZ Division's armoured brigade was in the process of being railed up the coast and luckily was able with naval support to totally destroy over 120 Infantry squads as the Grenadiers were wiped out for little loss.

More artillery destruction at the Brenner Pass lines and even without this turns casualties the VP level ticks up to 69 as German losses mount.

The Cremona Combat Group close to within 50km of Trieste.

The scenario suggests that given the current position the Allies would be best advised to continue current practices rather than throw troops against the dug in armour and infantry Larry has in front of the Pass for now....






larryfulkerson -> RE: Yet Another Sicily t BP Ian Allies me Axis (6/12/2018 6:37:15 PM)

Here's the front lines currently. I've got the arty backed up so that they just cover the front line and no overlap so as to stay out of the range of the Allied arty. He's probably going to rain bombs down on my arty to silence it. Maybe I should just put the arty on the second line back and take advantage of some of that counterbattery fire to take out some Allied tubes. What to do?

[image]local://upfiles/16287/CD765ADE46244B5AA6A52DCA5FFD6297.jpg[/image]



devoncop -> RE: Yet Another Sicily t BP Ian Allies me Axis (6/12/2018 7:47:05 PM)

21st October 1944

After more bombardments that hit some heavy artillery and FJ being brought to the front and the front lines the US Armoured and 10th Indian Division assault the front lines but fing there are considerable fresh reserves behind that pile in and cause moderate casualties including a dozen or so Shermans...

The rail line at San Stefano has rail repair units working on it to restore supply and The CBT are at the gates of Trieste which is only occupied by a small security unit.

VP's were at 69 but may have been damaged by Allied losses this turn (though the Germans suffered also)

hingram : My rail repair units are anything but idle but I totally see your logic.
Once the main line is repaired they are off to Trieste..!



devoncop -> RE: Yet Another Sicily t BP Ian Allies me Axis (6/12/2018 9:59:16 PM)

25th October 1944

Will the broken rail in the south affecting supply further North for another turn the Allies return to their bomb and she'll strategy causing heavy losses to both infantry and armour units Larry has just moved up.

As a nice bonus a community of JU87's turned up at the North East airfield within artillery range and was decimated.

On the downside the expensive attacks of last turn has reduced VP's to +67....a useful lesson...



devoncop -> RE: Yet Another Sicily t BP Ian Allies me Axis (6/13/2018 6:29:41 AM)

29th October 1944

With still one turn before supply is restored up the west coast rail line to the front another turn is spent with bombardments and shelling. Gratifyingly the losses to the Germans have pushed VP's back to 69 at the start of the turn and this is improved further as Trieste ids stormed by the Cremona Battle group. In line with "expert advice" the rail line from Trieste will now be made top priority [:)]

The main line takes further heavy punishment from Divisional and Corps artillery on the western fork whilst Brazilian and US Divisional artillery hits the eastern fork. Three units operating behind Allied lines are destroyed in north west and north eastern Italy after making a nuisance of themselves again...




devoncop -> RE: Yet Another Sicily t BP Ian Allies me Axis (6/13/2018 9:49:44 AM)

3rd November 1944

The rail line south is fully repaired so I will be checking supply levels next turn in the hope they have jumped back up.

With the German losses and the capture of Trieste VP's are now at 79.....just one tantalising point off moving from a "Marginal" to a "Significant Victory".....

The German lines are pummelled again by the hard working artillery and air bombardment and a couple of infantry units evaporate.

I notice Larry had gathered some armour just behind the front lines......is a counter attack coming ?




larryfulkerson -> RE: Yet Another Sicily t BP Ian Allies me Axis (6/13/2018 5:23:02 PM)

Ian has been bombarding my front rank and I suppose whatever arty he can reach and so far there's been no ground assaults so it's not too bad. So far so good.

[image]local://upfiles/16287/D81C8E401F9A4BE38B0B8F26788A7AC6.jpg[/image]



devoncop -> RE: Yet Another Sicily t BP Ian Allies me Axis (6/13/2018 5:38:58 PM)

5th November 1944

The rail line repair has recovered supply to the front and heavy bombardments continue to cause heavy German losses such that VP's have now moved to 81 and into "Significant Victory" territory which I am very happy with.

Even the most cursory view however ...disregarding any information from the intimidating screenshot above indicates to me that any deviation from the current strategy to one of bombard and assault will succeed only in causing major Allied losses and thereby losing VP's so for now at least the tactics will continue.

I am ticking up 1 or 2 VP's each turn doing what I am so I am wondering how practical it is to just cause so much attrition to the Germans that the Allies can get to an "overwhelming victory" without launching expensive assaults ... ?

Hingram? Is that possible?





larryfulkerson -> RE: Yet Another Sicily t BP Ian Allies me Axis (6/13/2018 6:04:07 PM)

Here's the current situation. Ian has been bombarding my units for about six or seven turns now and still no assault. One wonders if the attack will be soon.

[image]local://upfiles/16287/0A8B42FA55A34D4C99975BE122010B77.jpg[/image]



larryfulkerson -> RE: Yet Another Sicily t BP Ian Allies me Axis (6/13/2018 6:10:11 PM)

In the Diplomatic Pouch I broached the idea of me conceeding
the game at this point. We can keep going, it's not a problem
I just wondered how Ian would take it if we just declared Ian
the winner and went to a different scenario. Just a thought.



hingram -> RE: Yet Another Sicily t BP Ian Allies me Axis (6/13/2018 6:57:41 PM)

At this point, the situation for the Germans is hopeless unless the supply lines can be cut and even that will only slow the inevitable. The German strategy to keep the Allies from Brenner can be interesting but Allied air power and artillery is just too much.

I'm listening to the CBS broadcast from Jan 1 1945 and they have quit talking about the Italian Campaign altogether. There is some speculation about a Balkan invasion.



devoncop -> RE: Yet Another Sicily t BP Ian Allies me Axis (6/13/2018 7:47:45 PM)

Game ends !!!

Myself and Larry have decided to save any readers the toild of another 40 or so turns of bombardment bringing to mind the Somme and agreed to end at this point.

It has been a real honour to play Larry over the two games and he has taught me a lot.

As far as this game goes I think Larry was guilty maybe of treating me with too much respect by taking such powerful German units off the front line after Salerno and Taranto fell and defending so deep. As those familiar with the scenario will know the supply situation for the Allies was so dire that as a result of this policy I only had some exhausted recon units sweeping into abandoned cities and through two fortified lines towards Milan and Bologna.

He defended Sicily particularly stoutly and I was lucky to be able to get ashore on the mainland at first attempt. This can make a big difference as we found in the reverse fixture.

Thanks to anyone who was reading and hopefully catch up with Larry and the rest of you soon !

All the best

Ian

(Now off to read the Pacific war epics Larry and Warspite have going on [:)] )



larryfulkerson -> RE: Yet Another Sicily t BP Ian Allies me Axis (6/13/2018 8:35:50 PM)

Ian did a bang up job clearing Sicily and it happened pretty much like I thought it would. I thought maybe I could cause some trouble by assaulting his supply points and Ian handled that well indeed. Coming across the channel into Reggio was a good idea because of all the reinforcements you get from occupying certain hexes around Reggio. Plus, it's a great place to invade because of all the support you can muster across the channel. And the landing at Taranto was a brilliant touch and opened another front to the war. It was a great idea to do that. It was at this point that I pulled back a bit too far and didn't leave enough buffer for victory points etc. I should have fouoght over the river crossings around maybe Florence or slightly further north. I gave some thought to manning the Gustav Line briefly but Ian was advancing so fast that I felt it would be brushed asside like a light screen. Then I thought about maybe manning the Gothic Line and somehow never found enough units to do that AND the Brenner Pass MLR too. And then Ian brushed through that area and made the point moot.

The situation we found ourselves in at the end there: Ian has won fairly on victory points and objectives, etc. His bombardment of my lines was getting hits that were less than my ability to replace the losses, etc. So short story: he was getting nowhere fast. He would bombard, I would shuffle units. Rinse and repeat. He and I discussed it and I brought up the idea of my conceding the game because of all the losses that would result if we continued with the procedure so far being used. I volunteered to surrender. Ian thought that was a good idea I suppose.

Ian is a good opponent. I like the way he plays. He's got instincts for the game. We've made plans to play something else sometime. I'd be really interested in seeing the AAR for anybody he plays.

Right now I've got a really bad case of "victory disease" from the playing of my PAW games with warspite1 ( Rob ). I want to play the Allied side really bad because when Thomas Harvey and I were playtesting PAW it didn't matter which side Thomas played he always beat me. Badly. So I have yet to play a game of PAW in which I won. That's my memory of the situation anyway. It's not that Rob and I are going to do the "best 2 out of 3" it's just that we really like this scenario and are willing to play both sides in two simultaneous games, posting AAR's for feedback and advice and so on for either or both of us and mostly just to have fun.



MikeJ19 -> RE: Yet Another Sicily t BP Ian Allies me Axis (6/13/2018 11:22:13 PM)

Ian and Larry,

Great job. I have enjoyed watching your discussions and battles. Thanks for taking the time to share your experiences.

All the best,



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