WDS Blog post - Scheldt '44 Play Test

[Plain Ian]

Assaulting with E morale units? This game is not for the faint hearted. Never mind with some more .303 bullets they get up to D. 
I'm a bit surprised that men in wooly scarves rate the same as trained soldiers though? No wonder they were brought along in the attack. 



Worrowski? Interesting looking unit. Not regular Wehrmacht? What's the back ground?

Plain Ian - 

The Canadian divisions in Northwest Europe took disproportionate casualties in the summer of '44, such that attrition outpaced the training of new infantrymen. The situation came to a head in late September/October as Canada was running out of trained infantrymen. The Canadians continued to replace losses (sometimes very quickly) but with men with insufficient or no infantry training (often drawn from service units). The poor training of the Canadian infantrymen definitely impacted the course of the campaign and at least partially accounts for a few battalions being all but wiped out in the assaults around Woensdrecht. The Quality D rating in the Canadian infantry reflects this. It should be noted that Canadian artillery, engineers, etc. are rated Quality C as these arms did not suffer nearly the same rates of attrition. There are certain British divisions in a similar situation.

Battalion Worrowski is a Luftwafffe unit.

ComradeP - Made the change in the map tonight. Thanks for spotting that!

-Mike P

I understand why the Canadian troops have low ratings but I'm still surprised that irregular forces have such high quality factors? Any chance of showing the backs of the units so I can see the factors?

I apologise if you think I was being flippant or funny about the units.

[Xaver]

Thank you a lot for the AAR, very interesting and with all the info added in thread i think this title is going to be fun to play, more i read about it more remember me Budapest45 with both sides lacking in general quality to keep machine working, diference is that here looks like both sides lacks reserves, not only germans like in Budapest, manage magre resources is going they key to success. select where and when fight to dont waste them.

I dont think Soviets be specially good in attack per se.... they simple concentrate a lot of units in a reduced space and is possible move forward using blood and guts... and tons of arty  but when you play early east titles without the masive concentrations from 1944 titles they suffer same problems than Commonwealth, more if they are not guards divisions because they are D and not C quality units... apart airpower is more present in west titles and could help german player decide leave a position.

Terrain is going to play a very important role... this is not a soviet division pushing Romanian lines to open a hole for T-34s and even a hole simple could made you find behind a new wall to jump.

I think average quality in german side is going to be C but presence of D-E units is going to be a pain in the ass in certain areas and play the role of bomber moving B units to improve defense in certain D-E units hot areas could made high quality units wasted in reactive actions and not creative actions, specially when move units to deal with local problems looks painfull with all the wet terrain.

This is going to be a great add to PzC serie and made me think in what can offer us Mr Prucha in future... another dark battle in the west? in the east? west+east (Berlin45) or maybe Poland39?   

Thank you for the info, could be interesting see more of this beta test AARs, apart fun to read show why things are like they are thanks to test in beta.

[Mike Prucha]

I understand why the Canadian troops have low ratings but I'm still surprised that irregular forces have such high quality factors? Any chance of showing the backs of the units so I can see the factors?

I apologise if you think I was being flippant or funny about the units.

Hey Ian,

Certainly didn't think you were being flippant or funny at all! I should have probably explained the reasoning for the morale values for the resistance fighters as well. In reading Canadian war diaries and intelligence, time and again I've found references praising the Belgian and French resistance fighters for their willingness to endure the same hardships and dangers as the Canadian soldier, this despite their material shortages. Now when assigning morale ratings we're basically trying to weigh two concepts, both the training of the unit and its enthusiasm/elan. The two aren't always the same - you could have an otherwise well-trained unit that for whatever is reluctant/unenthusiastic and vice-versa. In the case of our irregulars, we've chosen mostly D ratings as this seemed like a good balance between these considerations. There is one company of irregulars, Group Harry of the Antwerp MNR/NKB, who are rated at C as their exploits were quite remarkable and they played a critical role in securing the Antwerp docks. I don't have the game pulled up to take a screenshot of the back of the unit card, but I will say that the disparity in firepower between the Canadian regulars and resistance irregulars is substantial and the Canadian infantry company/battalion is most definitely the more powerful unit.

EDIT: One more thought - While in the minority, there were a fair number of resistance fighters who were veterans of the 1940 campaign (and therefore had at least some training or even combat experience) who had either escaped captivity or had been released. The Belgian AS/GL in particular tried to recruit men who had fought in 1940 and its leadership was principally composed of officers of the old Belgian Army.

-Mike P