Some neck, some chicken

Some neck, some chicken (Full Version)

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John B. -> Some neck, some chicken (8/14/2020 7:30:36 PM)
Well, I really can't get enough of the British Empire so here I am defending the West against the Nazi onslaught. In the opening turn RB attacked in Holland and Belgium and there seems to be a mysterious appearance of armor coming over the river at Sedan. Heavy casualties are reported on both sides up and down the front. I abosoltly promise that I will not use historical hindsight to rush troops to prevent a German breakthrough at Sedan. If I happen to concentrate there then the only logical explanation is that I'm a better general. :) The plan is to have Holland hole at at the Hague, Amsterdam, Rotterdam. They have a chance of giving up on turn two so any losses they cause are a bonus. As Brussels goes so goes Belgium so that's their job. The French are moving to the front. The sound of exploding bridge resonates across western Europe. [image]local://upfiles/39741/BC930C71CDDE4083B95BCD97FFDC8310.jpg[/image]

John B. -> RE: Some neck, some chicken (8/24/2020 12:30:16 PM)
Turn two the craven Dutch give in. What's a little terror bombing anyway. This nets the Germans 100 VP and is not entirely unexpected. French move reserves up and I've decided to let the BEF just sit and accumulate supplies and, hopefully, pull itself together a little bit. [image]local://upfiles/39741/7DCD1CF58BCF423FB3468A2B603BC4AC.jpg[/image]

John B. -> RE: Some neck, some chicken (8/24/2020 12:32:52 PM)
Turn 3. THe Germans push to the gates of Brussels. The Belgians take heavy losses but hold firm and Brussels is still in Allied hands. The French move up and get two divisions into the city and reserves are behind the line. The British continue to resupply and hold together but don't seem to have improved much. Lots of German bombing and two German furballs wipe out allied air units No allied attacks. I don't think these would really get me anywhere at this point. The only upside is that the Germans in the front lines look just a little tired. [image]local://upfiles/39741/006CEC73FF6E4FBB93D68873496CC34D.jpg[/image]

John B. -> RE: Some neck, some chicken (8/24/2020 11:26:24 PM)
Turn four and almost all of the fighting is concentrated up near Brussels. The Belgian troops have been steadier than expected while timely reinforcement from french divisions set to tactical reserve seems to have saved the day. Not much on the Sedan front. This is fine with me as my troops dig in. Meanwhile, the Brits seem to have figured out that if they never actually resupply and never organize themselves then they're never going to have to get into the fighting. :) [image]local://upfiles/39741/4E445984FBFD4E3B883F3FF520E14C71.jpg[/image]

John B. -> RE: Some neck, some chicken (8/27/2020 10:48:39 PM)
Turn 5 saw the Germans attempt, and fail, to take Brussels. They had one attack with no allied casualties and some losses on the German side. [image]local://upfiles/39741/1DCB59FB3FF84B1080EEE55BF6A93463.jpg[/image]

John B. -> RE: Some neck, some chicken (8/27/2020 10:49:21 PM)
Overall there have not been a lot of German attacks in the game. And, thus far the allies seem to be holding their own. [image]local://upfiles/39741/7C3B0838A07049AEACC83B277513557C.jpg[/image]

John B. -> RE: Some neck, some chicken (8/27/2020 10:50:09 PM)
Allied losses thus far. Not too bad (but I don't know if Dutch units that surrendered are included in these totals). [image]local://upfiles/39741/47EA2C014E4445FF8D523357925D71D4.jpg[/image]

John B. -> RE: Some neck, some chicken (8/27/2020 10:50:37 PM)
More allied losses. [image]local://upfiles/39741/07BD776E329D440385AB70CAFFF7C1A0.jpg[/image]

John B. -> RE: Some neck, some chicken (8/27/2020 10:51:10 PM)
And tanks. Hardly any tanks lost thus far. [image]local://upfiles/39741/4DF9DD9B0B8940B8ABB6E63E2F260E2C.jpg[/image]

John B. -> RE: Some neck, some chicken (8/27/2020 10:55:16 PM)
Happy to keep city fighting around Brussels for as long as I can and to use and many Belgian troops as I can. I've identified 5 panzer divisions fighting up there so I think RB only has five more such divisions lurking somewhere. The Brits are making progress in organizing and resupplying. RB may be pushing through the Maginot line in the south. It's hard for me to watch the replay so I'm not sure. Right now the French army continues to be released so they are slowly moving to the front and taking some air interdiction along the way. Trying to keep reserves behind the front and units in Tactical reserve (I'm honestly not 100% sure what the difference is) but the reserves seem to have prevented some German victories thus far. This turn I did two bombardments that caused a few German casualties and the Belgian division retook an empty Namur just to be annoying. :) [image]local://upfiles/39741/728464F09759400E93DBFDE71B95E516.jpg[/image]

John B. -> RE: Some neck, some chicken (8/29/2020 5:55:14 PM)
We've got another turn under our belts and RB is continuing the grind in Belgium trying to take Brussels and he has pretty much pushed through the Maginot line (helped by my lack of attention to that front) but failed in his attempt to take Metz. Starting this next turn there is a chance Belgium will surrender which would really open things up in Flanders. The Brits are getting rested and taking replacements so they should be in position if the dam breaks up there to try and hold back the Germans. In the Metz area there were a lot of French divisions behind the lines that have now moved to the front and I continue to dig in near Sedan. Assuming the Belgians don't quit right now I have to say that I think the game is proceeding pretty nicely. No allied attacks yet, just some bombardments on his over stacked hexes. [image]local://upfiles/39741/055D8326CC7C47578FFE257B5EDD9C1E.jpg[/image]

John B. -> RE: Some neck, some chicken (8/29/2020 5:56:08 PM)
Here is where the VP hexes are compared to the front line. [image]local://upfiles/39741/E9A9135A0FF3463E8477A754556CAAD8.jpg[/image]

StuccoFresco -> RE: Some neck, some chicken (8/29/2020 11:53:40 PM)
I don't know, if the belgians vanish it doesn't seem easy to plug the resulting hole in the front.

John B. -> RE: Some neck, some chicken (9/5/2020 6:09:20 PM)
Thanks for the words of encouragement given that the Feckless Belgians just announced that they are packing it in. :) But, the Brits are now well rested and so moving into Flanders. I'll have to see how it all turns out. The Germans did not make much progress this turn. Both Brussels and Metz held but if Belgium is leaving then Brussels is doomed. I did launch one counter attack that beat up three German divisions right around Brussels so I hope that can slow things down a bit. Otherwise, I basically did some bombardments and moved up more reserves. [image]local://upfiles/39741/4A7FAAC5006D44188CC0123E41A21F63.jpg[/image]

John B. -> RE: Some neck, some chicken (9/25/2020 12:10:05 AM)
The game is still on, there was just a slight pause for other things. We are at the half way point and I can't say I'm too disappointed. There is a meat grinder going on at Metz with France currently in possession of the city and the Germans have finally taken Brussels. But, given that by this point historically the allies had already been split in two and Dunkrik may have happened (I'm too lazy to look it up right now) I'm not too disappointed. The game says I'm only winning a marginal victory. We shall see. This screen shot is from the start of the allied turn. I did a bunch of bombardments and roughed up a German division that had advanced too far past Brussels. The Brits are deployed and ready to take over when the Belgians disappear. [image]local://upfiles/39741/F10B6F30D97F47F4BB5E5D3FD918F0E1.jpg[/image]

John B. -> RE: Some neck, some chicken (9/30/2020 10:15:49 PM)
Almost all of the action this turn was in the vicinity of Metz. RB took a few more hexes of the Maginot line but held off all attacks in Belgium. Interesting choice. Metz is the prize down there. I tried to push the Germans away from one of the hexes he has next to Metz but, only two out of the three German infantry divisions retreated and, sadly, I took my units out of fortified mode for the attack so we'll have to see if he's too weak to push my troops out of the city. [image]local://upfiles/39741/FD0874F7583A4E618B9A03BA67248A89.jpg[/image]

StuccoFresco -> RE: Some neck, some chicken (10/2/2020 7:19:48 AM)
How do the individual combats go? Are the Germans able to win fights or are you able to match them evenly?

John B. -> RE: Some neck, some chicken (10/3/2020 6:11:30 PM)
Hi Stucco, based on a non-scientific analysis it seems to me as if the allies have the slight edge on the individual combats. Here are the results from the latest turn. This was more lopsided in favor of the allies than I've seen usually. [image]local://upfiles/39741/D856EC5D8F0840BD8678BCF6C8876A63.jpg[/image]

John B. -> RE: Some neck, some chicken (10/3/2020 6:12:41 PM)
Then, during my turn I had a couple of very nice attacks that pushed the Germans back in a couple of places. However, at the very end of the turn I pressed my attacks and took some heavy damage. [image]local://upfiles/39741/C8F9AB31CDC04BBA908F35556AE0D155.jpg[/image]

John B. -> RE: Some neck, some chicken (10/3/2020 6:13:35 PM)
Infantry and artillery losses to date. Nothing too awful here. [image]local://upfiles/39741/8658A888124446BD90CCF8E0227D716E.jpg[/image]

John B. -> RE: Some neck, some chicken (10/3/2020 6:14:30 PM)
The lesson that will be taken home from this war is to not be in a 50 mm mortar crew. :) I wonder if the Dutch and Belgian forces had a lot of those. [image]local://upfiles/39741/2623E08D07484075B89D8C2B57761294.jpg[/image]

John B. -> RE: Some neck, some chicken (10/3/2020 6:15:43 PM)
Big losses in very light tanks. Again, I wonder if this is from the Belgian and Dutch forces. [image]local://upfiles/39741/D4572AF160404D5987FD30F0A0B61E6D.jpg[/image]

John B. -> RE: Some neck, some chicken (10/3/2020 6:17:01 PM)
Heavy allied air losses. If you walk onto the airstrip and see you've been assigned to a Gladiator it's time to report to sick call! [image]local://upfiles/39741/31DE3C50C9174A24825CCB23B1A81DF1.jpg[/image]

John B. -> RE: Some neck, some chicken (10/12/2020 9:37:34 PM)
We're about 2/3rds of the way through the game and it is really a redux of WWI. Lots and lots of dead people and the lines don't seem to move very much. RB made a little bit of headway but at very heavy cost. And, I tried to dislodge the German armor division that is far into the red in terms of its readiness, but it took a licking and stayed in place. [image]local://upfiles/39741/10A8FAB147E1440DA80D04B98BBEC3E4.jpg[/image]

StuccoFresco -> RE: Some neck, some chicken (10/13/2020 7:37:51 AM)
Looks like you are in a good position for now. Generally speaking, how did you halt the Panzers?

John B. -> RE: Some neck, some chicken (10/24/2020 5:04:23 PM)
Hi SF, Sorry for the delay in responding. The game continues we just continue to pound on each other. I'm not sure I did anything magic to stop the panzers. I think RB spent a lot of time attacking the cities of Brussels and dividing his attentions between there and Metz and I"m happy to be in trench warfare since my army is bigger. The fact that the BEF could rest up and get to nearly full strength before I sent them into the line was also helpful. But, it's not done yet, as it stands I only have a marginal victory.

John B. -> RE: Some neck, some chicken (10/24/2020 5:05:25 PM)
A lot of dead Germans from RB's turn. They are starting to feel the time crunch and pushing. Metz is the one big prize they are next to and it continues to hold out. [image]local://upfiles/39741/27E11D91F9524E2F874CBB25FF65BD95.jpg[/image]

John B. -> RE: Some neck, some chicken (10/24/2020 5:06:10 PM)
Situation at the start of my turn in the north. [image]local://upfiles/39741/35E675787CD1408898BC2FFEEDB569E0.jpg[/image]

John B. -> RE: Some neck, some chicken (10/24/2020 5:07:34 PM)
And in the south. Nothing much happened in my turn. I dug in and did a bunch of bombardments. Might as well rest my guys and dig deeper and the burden of attack is still on RB. But, my center is a bit thin and there is a 20 VP city there that RB might be able to grab before the end of the game so I have to watch it. [image]local://upfiles/39741/2C6C30A0EA124E77AC920C52AB06C20E.jpg[/image]

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