Larry Fulkerson vs. Telumar

[Telumar]

As some of you might have seen, Larry posted his turn one in the public AAR section. Unfortunatly i still haven't received my copy of the game, so i couldn't open the file he sent me and am not yet in action. He was so kind to send me a pic from his turn end (from the allied side).
It seems that his opening was not that agressive as Jamiams. I will comment the situation and outline my plans from the west to the east.

1.) The Cotentin peninsula
I think it's possible to build a defence line south of Montebourg - Quineville, maybe using the bocage terrain south of Montebourg, the weakest spot then would be the open terrain hex south of Quineville, which may be needed to be backed up with an armour battalion in tactical reserve behind it, if possible. To counterattack towards the bridge over the Merderet, west of St.Mere-Eglise, will require carefull planing as the 'Zone of Control' of the Para Bn northwest of this bridge will prevent a fast advance as bypassing is movement points intensive and risky. The infantry unit on the most southern bridge leading over the Merderet will blow it and dig in behind the blown bridge.
It seems that one parachute battalion of the 82nd AB is in reorganization or reserve (indicated by the orange bar under their unit type symbol). This is a invitation to counterattack :devil: : They are probably not dug in, so i will raise hell upon them...

2.)Carentan
One armoured cavalry unit has made it across the bridge, i think my FallschirmJägers are capable of throwing this unit back and even retaking this bridge to blow it.
The bridge over the Taute river. I doubt that a counterattack would be successfull, even with using the art. unit from around Grandcamp and the Ost Bn from Isigny as this area is in reach of the allied navy's guns.
I do not plan to reinforce the peninsula with forces from the south, i will use these forces for the defence of Carentan and St.Lo/Torigni only as this area is quiteVP intensive. He can have Cherbourg if he wants, but he will need more for a victory..

3.)South of Omaha beach
Retreat, bridge blowing and creating a net of ZOC's (to deny the enemy to manouever freely) will be the agenda for the coming days until enough reinforcements arrive to hopefully stop them. There is a good line of defensible terrain reaching from the bocage on the southern side of the canal near St. Jane de Daye down to the hills northeast of St.Lo and then hooking along the ridge towards Balleroy. Most part of this line will be in bocage or hills behind rivers or canals which will add to my defensive strenghts and also reduce the attacker's strength as he must attack from a river hex with 70% strength.

4.)Bayeux
Bayeux is a lost case anyway. It is a huge gap that Larry surely will exploit. In my last game (in COW) i was able to get the allies to a halt in the hills between Balleroy and southwest of Tilly-sur-Seulles, i think it will take this course here, too. Note the area south of this line contains several 'peak' hexes which should give a good bonus to my artillery and if iirc the artillery hasn't necessarily to sit on these peaks. (the manual says mountain peaks within observation range of the combat location increase effectivness of long range fire)

5.)Caen
Luckily for me the brits haven't made it across the hills north of the city. This gives me three defence lines i can use to fall back. The first directly on the hills, the second one in Caen itself and the third one south of the Orne River, all lines in good defensible terrain.
It will not be easy to get through the paras of 6th AB to Pegasus bridge but i will, must try it with armour from the 21st Panzer.
The area west of Caen is not that worrysome as it might look like. The 12.SS Panzer will reinforce this are on turn 2. I plan to establish a line roughly from Carpiquet to Moyers-Bocage; hopefully i find enough infantry for the first line so that i can back this line with armour on tactical reserve, mainly in the open area. I've chosen this open area because it's out of reach of the bourgebois ridge and protects the western flank of Caen. The Odon river is too near to the ridge for my taste. However, if Caen will have to be given up, i will have to put this line behind the Odon but still keeping the hills and the forests around Moyers-Bocage.

Attached is the link to Larry's AAR thread and the pic of his turn end. Btw, he got eight combat rounds.

http://www.xtreme-gamer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=43085

http://img135.imageshack.us/my.php?image=alliedturnoneendwa8.gif

[Telumar]

Here is the file Larry sent to me. Forgot to attach...

[Telumar]

Zut alors, here is a victim of the überheavy cheat prevention! :o I was unable to save a .sal from the end of my turn as i ordered a Panzer battalion to attack on my seventh combat round and forgot about the cheat prevention which brought me back to the desktop after saving as a .pbl ! All i can offer is a short summary and toaw3's automatic screenshot from the end of my turn.

In general i was adopting General Staff's split-up tactics, though to an extent i never did before in toaw. The real hot action took place at Pegasus bridge and Carentan. At Carentan i was able to push his paras back and to blow the western bridge over the Douve river but couldn't move onto the eastern bridge as the ZOC of Larry's isolated recon unit prevented that.

The Panzer Regiment of 21st Panzer counterattacked towards Pegasus bridge and threw back the entire british forces south of it but was also not able to finally get the bridge. I was left with 20% of the turn remaing in front of the bridge but couldn't move onto it because the retreated and beaten Paras were still in the back of my Panzers (->increased MP costs). The last desperate attack to force them to retreat another hex ended the turn, otherwise it would have left me with 10% and 3 MPs remaining which would have been enough to take and blow the bridge.

Interdiction was moderate, with 4%.

http://img58.imageshack.us/my.php?image=twintelu01teyp3.jpg

Note: The screenshot reminds me of installing the small2d version of my graphic mod..

[Telumar]

Silly me!!! :crosseye: The game does it automatic... Call me a newbie.. :cry: Well here it is.

[Telumar]

Larry sent me his second turn yesterday. He didn't achieve much, Bayeux still holds, he didn't get across the ridge north of Caen and in the Cotentin and around Carentan he just made slow progresses southeast of Valognes, but still he hasn't reached my HKL in force. But he crossed the Aure river with armour, which will hopefully have a hard time ahead with my Landsers in the bocage, though i doubt that this line there will hold very long. He counterattacked at Pegasus bridge and forced one of my Panzers to retreat while the other one took heavy losses but held its ground - i don't know about his losses, but can imagine they've also been significant.

Due to his attack i went over to the defence east of the Orne river. My Fallschirmjägers were able to take the second bridge north of Carentan so that both bridges are now blown, but i made a blunder in sending a Korps HQ onto a bridge to let my FJ disengage without penalty; it turned out that the HQ didn't have enough MPs left to evacuate the hex... But at least i was able to force his cut-off recon unit to surrender.
I've been further reinforcing and consolidating my lines, 2nd SS Panzer has taken position on the western flank of Caen, but the area between Foret-de-Cresigny and Villiers-Bocage is still a single big gap. Fortunately, the first units of the Panzer-Lehr will be available in this region next turn.
Ah, i was able to sink (or severely damage and thus force to retreat to England) one battleship and three destroyers of the royal navy.:freak:

Edit: I had a strange feeling doing the turn with 10% enemy interdiction and being hit by no single plane !!! Q.: Bug or luck?
Edit2: It's worth to take a look into the weather report: Overcast, moderate precipitation - that would explain it.

[Telumar]

Good News:

http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/3605/interdictionandweatherre6.jpg

The weather is again in favour of the germans !

Larry's turn:
Again he didn't make significant advances, also he had an early turn end - maybe caused by one of the dug-in Panzerjägers. Montebourg fell and two german companies have been encircled south of it. The defence line at the Aure river has suffered significant losses, especially the eastern part of it. Bayeux has been attacked, but still holds. One of his armour battalions made it onto the ridge north of Caen. In general all lines held.

My turn:

In the Cotentin i continued digging in with the invaluable help of my engineers, a good part of the line is now in fortified status. I started a small-scale rescue/breakout operation for the encircled units south of Montebourg, which was partially successfull, also i retook Montebourg with a small PzJäger company - all this was possible with the LA/MS setting plus direct fire support. An enemy ferry-bridging unit has been forced to retreat from the western bridge at Carentan and german Fallschirmjägers have blown the bridge. The ferry bridging battalion didn't lose enough ferry-bridging teams to lose its major fording capability; looking forward for his next attempt to cross the river.. ;) Here is the situation at the end of the turn:

http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/8826/cotentinandcarentanoj0.jpg

Now to the weakest area: Vire River, Aure River, Bayeux. I decided to let my line stand another turn. First, i think i can buy an additional turn and second, i don't know yet how to come out 'alive' - still there is no second line further south to absorb retreating and routed units. IMO a retreat in the current situation could not been carried out in good order. On the other hand, it won't get better over time... let's see.

http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/1742/virebayeuxol5.jpg

Caen:
Substantial reinforcements arrived this turn. The first units of the PanzerLehr Div arrived southwest of the city; they have been sent to the hills around Balleroy. The line Moyers-Bocage - Carpiquet has been strenghtened by more units of 2nd SS Panzer, while its two Panzer battalions have been used to counterattack. NW of Carpiquet an enemy armour Bn has been beaten back and north of Caen the enemy armour has been thrown back to the plains, also a british engineer comany had to abandon its position on the Orne river. After the counterattacks the Panzers have been split-up and incorporated into the defence. Once enough reinforcements are available i plan to take them out of the line to build a fire brigade.
After my initial counterattacks on the east side of the Orne proved the enemy 's defence to be weak i decided to go a second time for Pegasus bridge - but again ended up one hex south of it. Though i think this has a good psychological effect, i think Larry didn't expect that (me, too..). Here's the situation at the end of the turn:

http://img154.imageshack.us/img154/5629/caenuh0.jpg

I hope you newbies can extract something of value from that.

First, early turn ends are an ugly thing - Larry's troops lacked artillery support and defensive deployment, which enabled my drive to Pegasus bridge and blowing the western bridge at Carentan.
Second, regarding interdiction, he told me he let his air force rest - they were down to 33% readiness. This could be due to the bad weather in the previous turn, where they all were up. So, better rest your airforce during bad weather turns.
Third, allied armour is no match for german Panzers, if used properly. But don't get too bold. Attacking with the 21st Panzer's Panzers in the red health was a bit risky; i feared they could evaporate. Luckily they didn't. :halo:

[Telumar]

The allies have captured Bayeux and Isigny this turn, but didn't achieve much on the other fronts. Now that both cities have fallen, i think he is trying to outflank the Treviers position from both sides.

The weather is a bit better than last turn, hazy and occasional precipitation, but still no interdiction!

Cotentin:
The german forces west of the Merderet have suffered heavily, but still they hold. I have consolidated the line again. Montebourg has fallen and he gained some ground west of Quineville. Again, counterattacks unbalanced the allies, but, sad but true, also led to an early turn end for me. (at 40% left) :o

Carentan:
He now tries it on the eastern bridge, but german counterattacks have been too weak to retake it.

Centre:
Still an area of concern. I put some units out of the Treviers area to stop, or at least delay him from advancing down from Isigny. The few reinforcements at hand (from La Haye - a Regt of 77.Inf) have been sent towards St.Lo, while some Ostbattalions have been dug-in opposite of the bridges leading from the north to the St.Lo area. The eastern flank has been reinforced by the Panzer Lehr. I couldn't built cohesive lines on the flanks; my intention is to hold him at least one more turn and to begin with abandoning the Treviers area the next turn, when the 17.SS PzGren begins to arrive. It's risky, hopefully everything will work out. See the attached pic from that area.

Caen:
2nd SS Panzer's line has been extended to the southwest and the Panzer Lehr has now a line covering the entire ridge east of Balleroy. The two Panzer Bns of the division are held as a reserve at Balleroy and Villiers-Bocage.
No attacks have been made at Caen itself.
In his turn he had taken the forest hex south of Pegasus bridge. This time his defence seemed to be strong enough to withstand my Panzers, so i decided to take them out of the line after the first combat round and to let them rest. Again on the defence there.