(12-13-2020, 01:17 PM)CountryBoy Wrote: I've always enjoyed reading AARs and thought I would finally try one myself. The scenario is the campaign game in Normandy '44, which is a scary 750 turns long! 

I am playing as the Axis, with my opponent Iley fighting to liberate France. 

The optional rules we are using are shown below:



Unfortunately it only occurred to me to start an AAR once we were already underway, so I only have images from Turn 14 onwards. The previous 13 turns covered the Allied landings and saw me trying to form a defensive line. The Allies were able to get off the beaches fairly easily.

So Turn 14, it is 10:00 am on the 7th of June 1944. The situation around Caen is as below:



The British have covered a fair bit of ground over the past 24 hours or so, with just a few fortified positions holding out near the beaches. The 21st Panzer Division is forming a defensive line some 7km north of Caen. It's not a bad unit although they are only B morale, but much better than 716th Infantry Division, which is also in this area, all morale E.

The grey units are the 12th SS, which are moving to take up position to the west of 21st Panzer. This is the strongest unit I have at the moment, being A morale.

Further west is Bayeux, where Allied progress has been slower, as shown below. You can see the 12th SS on the right of this image, with the 352nd Infantry on their left flank (a C morale unit), who are digging in around Bayeux.




Further west again, around Omaha Beach, the Allies have made the least progress. The 352nd makes up the bulk of German resistance here, although they are thinly stretched.



Further west again, around Utah Beach and the Allies have gained a lot of ground. I had to pull back in order to try and form a defensive line. Plus the paras of the 82nd and 101st simply chew up the low-quality German units. Carentan is still in German hands although the US 4th Infantry Division is there in force. There is a bridge immediately north of Carentan which I have not been able to blow, which will become a problem later on. German defenders here are the 709th and 243rd Infantry and the 91st Luftlande. All pretty poor units, although there are some higher quality fallschirmjager around Carentan.




The jump map below shows the overall situation. The German defensive line is taking shape, although it is pretty thin in parts. I have units digging in furiously all over the map and reinforcements on the way, but I'm very short of quality troops at this stage.



In terms of VPs, the position as at the end of Turn 14 is as below. Allied losses are high, given the damage they took storming the beaches.

(12-13-2020, 01:17 PM)CountryBoy Wrote: I've always enjoyed reading AARs and thought I would finally try one myself. The scenario is the campaign game in Normandy '44, which is a scary 750 turns long! 

I am playing as the Axis, with my opponent Iley fighting to liberate France. 

The optional rules we are using are shown below:

(12-15-2020, 06:38 AM)Plain Ian Wrote:

(12-13-2020, 01:17 PM)CountryBoy Wrote: I've always enjoyed reading AARs and thought I would finally try one myself. The scenario is the campaign game in Normandy '44, which is a scary 750 turns long! 

I am playing as the Axis, with my opponent Iley fighting to liberate France. 

The optional rules we are using are shown below:

Very nice maps and outline of the game so far. So this is #30x - Normandy Campaign (6 June - 19 August)_Alt. The unit graphics do not look Gold but you've maybe modded them?
It looks like they are the Default Options? You are also playing without FOW? It will be like playing a very large board wargame. 

I've never played the Germans but when playing the allied side I've always tried to combine my companies to form big battalions as soon as they are off the beaches. However with the Alt rules they do suffer excessively. Good morale German units are probably better off remaining as companies and rotating them as Fatigue rockets. 

Another AAR to watch. 

Ian
PS before you take snaps can you toggle on Disruption.

(12-15-2020, 07:49 AM)CountryBoy Wrote:

(12-15-2020, 06:38 AM)Plain Ian Wrote:

(12-13-2020, 01:17 PM)CountryBoy Wrote: I've always enjoyed reading AARs and thought I would finally try one myself. The scenario is the campaign game in Normandy '44, which is a scary 750 turns long! 

I am playing as the Axis, with my opponent Iley fighting to liberate France. 

The optional rules we are using are shown below:

Very nice maps and outline of the game so far. So this is #30x - Normandy Campaign (6 June - 19 August)_Alt. The unit graphics do not look Gold but you've maybe modded them?
It looks like they are the Default Options? You are also playing without FOW? It will be like playing a very large board wargame. 

I've never played the Germans but when playing the allied side I've always tried to combine my companies to form big battalions as soon as they are off the beaches. However with the Alt rules they do suffer excessively. Good morale German units are probably better off remaining as companies and rotating them as Fatigue rockets. 

Another AAR to watch. 

Ian
PS before you take snaps can you toggle on Disruption.

Hi Ian,

I'm pretty sure it's just plain Gold, although I am using Jison's mapmod.

We are using FOW - the reason you can see so many Allied units is that I have quite a few units stuck in bunkers and pillboxes behind Allied lines. I'm not sure if this is the Alt version, I will check next time.

As the German player I have had to keep my units company-sized as I would otherwise not have enough units to form a front line.

I'll try and remember to turn disruption on next time.

Cheers,
Justin

(12-16-2020, 08:01 PM)CountryBoy Wrote: Ok, next update. I've jumped ahead to Turn 16, 2pm on the 7th of June 1944.

General thoughts:

So far it is not looking too good. The poor quality of the German troops makes it difficult to hold a position for any length of time. I am trying to focus on building a double defensive line: an initial line of troops dug in, with a second line two hexes back. The plan is that when the first line is disrupted or pushed back, to leapfrog over the second line and begin digging in, leaving the second line as the new front line. A bit like this:



Note the two defensive lines, separated by a line of empty hexes. This allows me to pull back to the second line without leaving a defensive position for the Allies to occupy.

Not much change to the jump map, still focusing on building a consistent defensive line.

(12-17-2020, 07:57 AM)Plain Ian Wrote: That's a nice idea. I guess it works when fighting in Field terrain as your units should be able to pull back 2 hexes in one go? Elevations and low quality might screw this up? In Bocage the movement cost won't allow this but then Bocage gives you -50 protection.  

I checked and was surprised to find that even Field gives -25 protection. Forest is -35 and Orchard is -30. That hopefully keeps casualties down when using the Alt fire rules. Yes the allies cannot stay too long stacked in Clear terrain.

I use Jisons mod as well for Bulge. Makes it a bit easier to look at all those wood/forest hexes and towns jump out a bit more. Unfortunately it takes awhile to get used to Fields and Bocage being quite similar in Normandy 44.

(12-17-2020, 08:57 PM)ComradeP Wrote: Nice AAR thus far!

Those optional rules should be challenging to play with.

The Allied air forces are only limited by the air strike limit (if there is one) and the air unit availability percentage, but not by weather.

The various alt rules make it difficult to form stacks to defend, even if you would have the men to do so. As soon as more of your forces arrive, I'd expect the scenario to turn into a bloodbath.

No delayed disruption reporting also hurts, as a player can immediately assault after noticing units became Disrupted from (in)direct fire or air strikes.

The lack of artillery setup should be an advantage for the Allies, though I'd expect the percentage is generally pretty high to begin with.

The lack of supply helps both sides defend difficult terrain where supply would normally be limited. Having the same supply level all over the map feels a bit odd.

I also like to put a non-fortified hex between lines, ideally placing the attacker in a position where it is in a Clear hex.

What are the Improved/Trench values in this scenario?