Aachen-West Wall 1944

[Chuck10mtn]

Hey Smedley,
If they want to play a 2X2 game I'll play the gerries with you. Nothing better than a arty barrage on the allies 1st thing in the morning. So if you want or need a partner give me a shout .
Chuck

[Smedley]

Hi Chuck,

Sounds good. We'll teach those damn Amis a lesson! How dare they attack the Fatherland!

Hey Dan,

We have a team! Send Chuck and myself the files.

Rob

[Chuck10mtn]

Captitolist amis think they own everything, time to draw a line in the dirt. Grant us victory or grant us a honorable death, surrender is not a option.


Chuck

[Dan Caviness]

ROFLMhairyAO
Alright you two....we got us a game...I'll zip and send you both the game files. We'll get more information exchanged in the emails...and thanks!

FYI...the Smed'ster is only trying to kill MORE of me since he's already using bulldozers to haul the bodies out at Borisov...

Regards,

Dan

[Dan Caviness]

Hello everyone.

Turn 10 REPORT

First I'd like to send a BIG thanks to kernelt and to Von Luck for their work on the version 1 of Aachen West Wall. As noted earlier I had some release problems with it and those are being tested currently in our version 2 team game.

We are 10 turns in and starting to reach the wall, but only just. This game, using bridge builders and other new units available in the 1.04 OOBs, has pointed out a few glitches in the new system. Rather than ask Jason to fix everything, as is my wont, I believe after this test I'll be replacing some of them to fix it by design.

Until such time I ask players to consider not taking advantage of the M29 Weasel's ability to move artillery across blue water.

I also request players to not take advantage of an apparent code glitch (or whatever) that allows you to load some of the Allied heavy and Axis heavy rail artillery for ZERO APs. Take the turn, assume it's 100 APs, as I believe it should cost.

These are only requests, suggested ROEs as it were.

The game moves quickly. A mobile armored cavalry and armored infantry corps for the Allies practically gaurantee the determined Allied player can push hard while still west of the Schill and Scharnhorst Lines. We are fine tuning the Axis release times to insure they won't be able to push through the Lines themselves.

I accidentally added some of the Stuart "Satan" Flame tank variants, and was (thank you dawags) reminded they do not appear in the European Theater. Those are removed.

While the Allies set up nicely for a 2v2 team game with two Corps to divide, the Axis forces are a bit more labyrinthine. I will be adding two fictitious Axis Corps command structures to facilitate 2v2 game play and this may become a seperate scenario designated specifically for team play.

Other tweaks suggested by our team game and originally made by Von Luck/kernelt have been made including some additional cover and a first pass at making the wall more negotiable to the Axis defenders by eliminating some minefields and incorporating some removeable blocks that engineers can choose to remove for access. I do wish to note these difficult passages come in handy later when the Allies are trying to force the lines however. It's a fine line.

Most changes are going to await the completion of our test game and will involve fine tuning releases, morales, smoke and ammo availability.

Chuck and Smed are just now reaching out with the long guns on their Panthers and TD's to start keeping us head down. I've noted the new artillery tables continue to pile up disrupts on armor, but in this case the artillery is mostly heavy or medium weight, and this seems about right to me.

This is not a detailed action report, just a quick Turn 10 assessment.
Really more of an acknowledgement and thank you to the guys who are doing the work.

Regards,

Dan

ps: Those testers would include Von Luck, kernelt, smedley, Chuck10mtn, and dawags.

[Dan Caviness]

Turn 40 REPORT

Overall this one is proving quite the meatgrinder.
I'm not saying that like it's a bad thing...

As most are aware, Rob/Chuck/Dale and myself are playing a 2v2 teamgame.
Dale and I are the Allies.

The XIX Division (Dale) up north is currently trying to hold on to what it's got against a determined (Rob) German counterattack utilizing a big portion of their reinforcing armored KG's. The terrain up north has proven hard to take, dare I say "chessboard", and now we shall see if it proves equally hard to recapture.
Our test has proven valuable with two skilled players going at it tooth and nail up there. Between Dale and Rob it's been like two pit bulls on one chain.
While Dale has taken the entire Scharnhorst (westernmost line of the West Wall complex) through the northern area he has discovered that only buys you so much. The region between the Scharnhorst and Schill lines has proven a no man's land, and Rob continues to take a heavy toll on Dale's efforts to advance.
I take two tylenols before watching the replays...

On the Southern front where my VII Corps is, the early parts of this scenario were a little tame due to the Aachen Municipal Forest and the amount of work needed to negotiate it, Chuck and I have managed to warm things up the last ten turns or so and the pace of destruction there has at least equalled what it happening up north.
We are fighting it out for the city of Aachen. The Allies now own ~2/3rds of the city and it's rubble, but appear to be slowing down the last couple turns as the 243rd VG Division is making their stand in some tough hexes. Charlemagne's Cathedral/Crypt is now holding services in English...but the Hotel Quellenhof still accepts only deutschmarks...
Chuck's been a real sport playing against the designer in that maze.
The city is proving an interesting place to manuever, with paved roads from most city or suburb hexes running into trenched rubble, unassaultable special buildings with escarpment hexsides, and another panzerfaust unit around every corner.
There is no easy hex in the entire city, but the roads do allow you to at least entertain the notion of going deep into enemy lines and attempting captures or takeouts with subsequent assaults. Of course, you need to pay the butcher's bill to send those forces deep, and I've lost some quality armor doing just that. Make that a lot of quality armor.

I'll let Chuck/Rob/Dale weigh in on their end, but just wanted to let everyone know I'm thrilled with the way the scenario is playing.

Our pace has been pretty quick, and we should get this one wrapped up soon.

My thanks again to the H2H area and helping me get into contact with all the great members who have helped and continue to do so.

Regards,

Dan

ps: Remko and Pat are finished with their test game, and I believe it ended a draw. My thanks for their help also.

[Dan Caviness]

Hello everyone just a quick note to let everyone know our playtesting on this has halted. Does anyone know if JVK got deployed? We haven't heard from Jim in some time and he usually gets right back via email/pm/whatever.

Regards,

Dan