Bulge 16.01s alt

[Plain Ian]

Well, A/B quality or not, the Germans do have to drive around a lot in costly (in terms of MP's) weather conditions, so they're likely to suffer from breakdowns even though it may not look like it. What are the parameter data breakdown values for the campaign?

Parameter breakdown is set at Allied 10 and Axis 12. I must admit that I have noticed allied units 'disappearing' when I start to move them so yes you are right the Germans will be suffering a bit more than me.
I did try to calculate the chances of Peipers King Tigers breaking down from moving 1 hex per turn in Woods and it was reasonably high at 33%. Will have another go at working it out.

Artillery is never truly strong in PzC, aside from high calibre rocket artillery. Artillery units are good for trying to disrupt units through small numbers of losses, but they're unlikely to kill anything by themselves. The historical situation of artillery causing most losses will generally not occur. Direct fire and assaults are more costly to both attacker and defender than artillery fire.

I think artillery not being strong enough is a common complaint on the Blitz. I would be happy if they kept the losses the same BUT made Disruption MORE likely. A bit like Air Interdiction. That way artillery would slow down or prevent enemy movement and attacks, rather than kill every last one of them. Making them more vulnerable to ground fire as well.

It's surprising how well air units perform, they must be using a different calculation of defender strength because a Stuka unit causes far more losses than a Nebelwerfer unit even though they have similar soft attack values (at least in Panzer Battles, not all OOB's based on the McNamare values actually use the same unit values for some reason). A good 6 plane A quality Stuka strike on defenders in clear terrain can kill 20-30 men, a 6 Nebelwerfer barrage can be considered good if it kills 6 men or so.

Yes air strikes are devastating. Especially Air Interdiction. My experiences from playing Sicily left me traumatised as the Allied player. I didn't move by T mode during daylight.
Thats the effect I want.

[Haplo_Patryn]

The only pain at the moment is using Photobucket.

Thanks for the AAR. Will try to read them on my tablet.

Using public folder from Dropbox now, a lot better than Photobucket. Photobucket change the resolution of the screenshots. Dropbox is free and doesn't change anything and is very easy to use.

Nice AAR btw.

[Juan Manuel]

Congratulations on the AAR. I follow with interest

[Plain Ian]

Turn 39 Allied

Just finished my turn and mailed file back. Results below.



I played pretty carefully and minimised my losses while inflicting a reasonable amount on the Germans. The German gun losses hopefully are Werfers, and the 4 vehicles were, 1 Pz IV, 1 StuG and 2 armoured cars.

Total losses for Turn 39 look a lot better now.

Won't have much time for maps tonight. Will post tomorrow night.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 39 Allied – South



Main events –

Artillery plots and results are shown on map.

2-12th of 4th Inf Div engaged the disrupted Pz Lehr grenadiers and inflicted moderate losses. Unit has 545 men (71% effective) and Morale B. Enemy defensive fire was triggered (twice) but was weak. 609th TD Bn has joined 2-12th rather than risk fire from the other Pz Lehr unit beside Boevange.

Bekerich – D/3 TNK CCB 10th Armoured destroyed the Pz Lehr recon unit here. 2 Armoured cars destroyed.

4th Armoured was able to rush forward heavy tank elements (704th TD Bn and 37th Tank Bn) towards Boevange using the open road.

10th Arm Inf (CCB/4th Armoured) makes slow progress and 1-319th of 80th Division has been held back from rest of Division just now.

CCA/CCR 4th Armoured have arrived and are just off map. If I keep the Bekerich – Boevange road clear next turn I should have 2 more Armoured Inf Bns and 2 Tank Bns in the front line.

19th Tank Bn has given up watching the bridge and moved over as reserve at Boevange.

54th Arm Inf has pulled back to join the 2-8th and 11th Tank Bn has taken its place for the expected heavy artillery attack next turn.

HQ units plus disrupted units continue to move west.

Overall my defense is still weak in infantry. Best units are 2-12th which is down to 71% effectivity and 2-8th which is 489 men and 63%. 55th Arm Engineers is next best unit with 488 men (88%) and Morale C.

Sorry map is a bit crowded.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 39 Allied - Bastogne



There wasn't really much action here. The hardest part was working out what the best hexes were for retreating to. I spent a long time planning best moves.

I moved the 1-502nd and 3-502nd into separate hexes. They have one more hex to reach the woods and some protection.

705th TD Bn (101st Airborne Div) and 14th Tank Bn I have kept together and stacked with the 1-504th. Streams will slow the stacks retreat, but it should also help since I don't think the German can cross a stream and have enough MP's to fire as well.

2-423rd (106th Div) left adjacent to Pz Lehr Panther Co. I suspect he moved the other Panther Co he had here, behind it to make sure he had a retreat path. This probably means he doesn't have much in support here.

F/2-424th diggin in. This is just a delaying unit.

2-506th fired at the stack to its north. NO defensive fire whatever even though there are 3 units in this hex. (See German T39 map further up) An amazing 44 casualties inflicted. (-6/-16/-22) An A Class unit with 703 men (93%) and soft attack factors of 8/1.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 39 Allied - Trois Ponts



Not much to see here again I'm afraid. I don't have much artillery here so I'm hoping to inflict my losses on the German by ground fire. I targeted the spotted hex and took out one gun/werfer?

Both Tank Bn's of CCA/CCR (17th/40th Tank) positioned in the south to face the infantry of the 116th.

2-117th held its position and fired at the 116th Grenadier unit opposite and killed 28 men. Unfortunately return fire Disrupted the A/T unit and killed 2 men in revenge.
He will inflict severe losses next turn with his artillery and probably target the A/T unit.

No sign of movement from Liernieux, but I know the 560th VGD is down there.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 39 Franchorchamps



I've just made defensive moves here again, which means I fell back one hex.

Only artillery fire to see here, I can't risk firing as I won't be able to move.

This area is a bit mixed up with units from 4 different Divisions here. (1st (blue)/30th (salmon)/7th Armd (green)/3rd Armd (yellow)

I don't think I am strong enough to halt him but will probably stand at La Gleize for at least one turn.

I've highlighted all the main armoured units I have in this area.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 39 Allied - Elsenborn



Last map. of turn. Operation Exodus in full swing.

2-16th (1st Div) and 823rd TD Bn (30th Div) moved into blocking positions.

D/743 TNK left out to delay the enemy.

254th Engineers unfortunately have been given a suicidal order to hold Sourbrodt. I don't usually do this but I didn't think there was much point in trying to save the unit.

I've selected best units I have to defend the line whilst I move everything else north or north west.

I think the armour (F) will come under severe artillery and ground attacks next turn as this is the key point!

[Plain Ian]

Turn 40 Results



I'm a bit behind. I will try to bring things up to date as I have just received Turn 41 results.

Turn 40 went reasonably well. Michael captured Trois Ponts (500 VP's) but didn't quite reach his usual record of 500 US casualties. He did get 13 vehicles which I think were mostly tanks.

I played carefully and made a respectable score as well. In terms of Men lost we were pretty close with 433 US versus 452 German.

The tide has not turned yet.