Red Rd 2 Rob v Marco

[Rob Carpenter]

Well no repositioning allowed so not much to do.

Put NAI's out to the open flank.

My intent is to launch the inf Bdes in spoiling attacks, and to try and draw off his combat units. Delay, Delay and Delay some more.

A Lack of Ahelo's is a big change from last time :(



Well the first turn would have been a bit of a shock to him, he has launched a Div assault on my right, he has forced out 1 Inf bde (Ave Moral, about 155 losses) but suffered significant losses to 2BCT/4ID (6%) and A and B Sqn 1/12 Cav (about 10% each). This was because of a lack of prep and firesupport.

He also launched an attack with a mech Bde that also suffered 10% losses.

So a good first turn!

Still a bit early to tell what he is doing.

I'm going to try and "peel away" from him to let him penetrate, while maintaining combat power to threaten his flanks.

Cheers

Rob

[Rob Carpenter]

Well now I have 3 Divs attacking, as you can see he has routed out some more of my guys, for less result on my part this time :( Although I did savage an Ahelo sqn quite very badly.

Moving my armoured units and building up the log for my counter attack.

Cheers

Rob

[Rob Carpenter]

Suffering a bit of a hammering this turn, but have hurt some of his reccon sqns, one lost 20%.

As you can see he has made a significant penetration, savaging a MRL Bn in the process :( But I have two reinforced armoured brigade, one on either flank... lets see if I can hit him before his reinforcements arrive!

I need to stop him, but not much to block him at the moment while I do the attack.

Cheers

Rob

[Dr Zaius]

That's a fairly deep penetration much earlier than I would have expected. Interesting.

[Rob Carpenter]

Well a couple of factors.

The mines were cleared quickly.
The Inf Bde didn't have a fort.

Elsewhere the obsticles have been the thing that has stopped him

Plus I wanted a penetration like this... thats why the two "real" combat brigades are where they are... now i just have to execute properly.

Elsewhere this turn should see his forces streaming over the frontier :(

Cheers

Rob

[Rob Carpenter]

Well the big news today is my surrounding of his lead brigade paid off!!!!

The BCt surrenderd without even a fight (it was facing 2 Armd Bdes and a Mech Brigade coming from 3 different directions).

Some of my inf bdes also surrendered, but they were badly beaten up.

My inf counterattack is going well, already pushed in his flank guard, he will have to move one of his combat fromations back to help.

He is savaging my AD assets, probably wants to unleash the Ahelos. My deapth AD is fine though.

Those bomber units pack a punch though, and take a lot to disrupt.

I have retailiated with a chem strike which caused 10% cas to one of his bdes.

Losses are 16% to him and 15% to me, but he still has a 40 point combat edge.

Cheers

Rob

[Rob Carpenter]

Not much happening, another inf bde (mine) surrendered... I savaged a few ahelo units, but they also sacaged some inf bdes.

Elsewhere I've moved most of an inf div into his rear area... interseting to see how this goes :)

Cheers

Rob

[Rob Carpenter]

Some swirling battles going on now, his armoured units are advancing deep, but he has not adequetly defended his flanks and some of my (understrength) inf bdes will be causing him headaches. 1 Bde touched up to ahelo units on the ground, an AD coy and a HQ... pity it had broken morale and about 60 % losses... it didn't do a lot but will force him to react to protect his rear.

I have two inf bdes attacjking deep into his rear noe, with a supporting HQ and log element.

Stoping his main attacks is hardr, I've resorted to chemicals, one strike causing 9% cas to a bde and an ACR regt... I'm repositioning my forces now to try and bite off another bde.

Cheers

Rob

[Rob Carpenter]

well here we are at turn 8.

As you can see he has advanced with his main bdes... but they have out run his support and I'm now throwing in flank attacks. I've severely molested the ACR Regt and should do more next turn.

If if turns around to come back then I have a div just off the screen that will attack down, if he doesn't turn around he risks loosing a lot.

I have also touched up his ahelos again, they have suffered significant attrition with no real impact on the game.

The key for the game has been the employment of the chemical weapons and him advancing to far too fast.

Down south he is trying to stop my advancing BDES with Marine Coys.... that will slow me done but not stop me.

His arty has caused the most damage to my units, it has been verey effective. Fortunately he has disperesed their efforts over lots of units (many which were of no threat to him) som my main units have survived (although 1 bde has suffered a bit).

Now I just have to keep doging his main units (which REALLY hurt when the come into contact!) and go for his log units.

He is now about 46 combat points behind, I've suffered 20% losses (mostly inf bdes) he has suffered almost 30% (mostly combat units and ahelos).

I'm now feeling confident, but when he gets more air support in a few hours he has a chance to turn it around if he can concentrate on my main units.

My plan to use the inf bdes offensively is really paying off now.

Cheers

Rob

[Rob Carpenter]

Well things have gone very well this turn.

see turn 9sml.jpg

Near OBJ OSIRIS my armoured Bde attacked 2 log bn's and two MRL coy's and caused significant casualties, he has no combat units near by, and I have a Mech bde that is following up.

Too the right side of the picture a Mech Bde and an Armd bde has touched up (made it rout back) one of his BCT's (its now at 45% strength) hammered a MRL coy and an MP coy.

He is pushing convoys to his forward TK Bdes, I'm goping to try and catch them... I think he is very short of supplies.

Now see planning.jpg

It shows how my pincers have almost closed around his forward two Bdes. That is my intent for the next two turns

His forward two bdes really hammered one of my armnoured bdes, but it doesn't really matter, I need to keep in contact so he can't break free though.

Down south my inf div is still advancing unmolested on a wide front, I may break the bdes out to cover more ground soon.

Losses are now 21% red 34% blue, I have a 74 point combat advantage.

It will be very hard for him to turn this around now.


Any comments? getting lots of hits.

Cheers

Rob

[Rob Carpenter]

This shows my inf div in his rear area, very spread out but not much opposition :)

Cheers

Rob

[Dr Zaius]

I know it's early, but how do you feel about the scenario? Was it an interesting situation for you? I know the scenarios we are using for this tournament have not been playtested all that extensively, so balance could be an issue (although it sounds like both players have a fighting chance from reading your descriptions). On the other hand, these scenarios are somewhat cool are neither player knows what to expect and fog-of-war plays a major part.

[Dr Zaius]

This shows my inf div in his rear area, very spread out but not much opposition.Did his main ground maneuver brigades do a lot of damage to the RG brigades?

[Rob Carpenter]

Scenario Balance is always hard!

I think its close to being right, I'm really hurting from a lack of arty and ahelos (and airsupport). It makes it very hard to gerenate the required combat power. But I also still have an uncommited Division. Maybe some low grade "allied" troops would have helped protect his flanks.

For me the chemical weapons were the key combat multiplier.

My RG bdes were savaged (lost 2-3 surrendered now, maybe more). I have about 3-4 combat ineffective, and only about 4-5 effective ones left (now mostly in his rear though!).

I think I have played well in this game, and Marco has made some big mistakes. Primarily he has not synchronised his battlefield effects. Whenever his combat brigades find mine I get savaged, its only when I get a rear attack that I get somewhere (and even then loose almost as much as he does.).

He has lost almost all his ahelo's for no effect, if that had been played better then things would be very different (even if he had not used them at all!).

I was not looking forward to the outcome of this one as I felt it would be a walkover for him...

I just had a look at the ORBAT via the OPORD tool, I definately think the combat power is there if its used correctly.

How are the other games going?

Cheers

Rob

[Rob Carpenter]

Well I loose 3 inf bdes, but force a marine Bde to surrender, plus two FSB's and roger his Tac Hq, severely molest the Corps HQ, Corps Log, Corps HQ defence and numerous other units. Also severely touched up another ahelo unit.

I failed to stop the resupply convoys to the front two armd Bdes, but I did hit them with chemicals, they loose 10% each.

He has culminated, he still has offensive capability but he has no flanks and now I'm pushing mech units into his rear. i just need to keep out of the way of the front "flaiing fists" of his armd bdes and I should do OK.

He has suffered 40% losses (I'm at 27%) and my combat advantage is heading towards 100 points.

The game is effectively over.

Cheers

Rob

[Rob Carpenter]

Well marco came back a bit this turn.

First he focussed his arty quite well. One of my decent Bdes surrendered because of it :(

The armd bde that did all the damage to his FSB's etc also surrendered, I let it get too far out of C2 and it was faced with 3 enemy bdes in the area... plus it was worn out from all the fighting it did.

I droped obsticles on his lead armd bdes, he has them overlaping and the one obsticle caught both of them. It is now cleared and he nas broken contact, so I'm in trouble here (but he is sending them back towards his rear at the moment).

I've commited the two republican guard divisions forward.

Its a new day and allied airpower will be back :( I expect to hurt over the next few turns as he clears up some of my broken bdes, but by then I'll be back in strength.

I'm confident of victory, but lots of hurt yet to come for both of us!

I have to be careful not to culminate too far forward where his arty can hammer me.

cheers

Rob

[Rob Carpenter]

Some more comeback :(

Lost an inf bde, and had an armd bde roughly handled by his two armd bdes...

Next turn should be interesting as I come in the back of his rear, plus I've almost got my arty in range...

Cheers

Rob

[Rob Carpenter]

Well I have the en armd bdes on the ropes now, a rear attack has broken his morale.

Once these have gone I'll be very confident.

I'll hammer them with SCUDS and two MRL bns, and attack from three directions.

See pic.

Cheers

Rob

[Rob Carpenter]

The blood letting is continuing, he has lost 3 more bdes (both those armd bdes are now gone). and now has about 3 beaten up brigades that are running away fast.

My forces have also suffered losses, especially the inf bdes who are very susceptable to arty.

I've just about culminated, need to rest and refit.

All the objectives are mine, he has lost 53% and I've lost 41%.

Still trying to clean up some rear echelon troops, but time to pull back.

Cheers

Rob

[Rob Carpenter]

Well game over, Marco did a great job of slowing my pursuit, even though just about all his combat units were broken.

Looking back the critical moment was hitting his lead units with chemicals, and allowing him to penetrate (couldn't really stop him!) while coming in both flanks.

A great game, and a very different outcome to what I expected!

Cheers

Rob

[Mompariglia]

I'll add a couple of lines just to explain my conduct. My plan was to divide Rob's front in two with a dash to Denver by 23rd ID, and to establish a defense before his armoured units could arrive. TF Bulldog and TF Razroback had to take Chicago and later Houston in order to protect the right flank, while 4th AD had to protect the left and maybe to take Memphis depending on the conditions. My problems started when my two TFs failed to take the first fortification south-west of Chicago due to an incredibly stiff resistance of the defenders. Then I met Rob's armoured formations which I expected to encounter after 6-7 turns, and that destroyed my isolated brigade. Fourth AD did its job taking Memphis, but the loss of a brigade and the exhaustion of the two TFs rendered my situation critical since the first stages. In general I undervalued the strength of the enemy and I asked too much to my yankees.
M

[Mompariglia]

I confirm I'll not participate to the third round. Next week I'll leave for a long journey in the Middle East and for Eritrea, I'll come back in late October. Ciao a tutti and good luck with the third round. :nuts:
M

[Dr Zaius]

Someone needs to submit a WARS report for this game.

[Rob Carpenter]

Ack.