Normandy 44 Bunkers

[Aetius]

Having played the begginings of the Normandy campaign twice as the allies in the last three to four months I must say I must echo some of Gordon's opinions.
In my first campaign (with the previous Alt version) I couldn't get out of Omaha despite having taken 4 or 5 positions in the first day. Omaha was liberated on d+2 by the 7th Armoured, not on time to save US 16th Infantry which was completely wiped out.
In the later attempt (with the more recent Alt version) I was more successfull, but only because I sent the rangers from Point-du-Hoc to the beach to create a ZOC for my units of the 29th to get out. Omaha was then literally rolled up from the west to the east, as I captured only one or two other positions.
My complains don't go to the time of the release of the germans, however, but for the engineers which arrived disrupted. My opponent skilfully concentrated his fire on them and it was some turns before they could undisrupt and blow up the ditches. In one case I only managed to blow it up on the night of the 6th. The germans then gained valuable time and reinforced the pillboxes with many units, making them hard to fall. Assaults are not that effective with the alt rule, and the americans have a dificult time disrupting B quality units with so little hard attack capability.
I have even more complains about Sword beach, which was a relatively easy beach with the comandos reaching the other side of the Orne at about noon. That is completely undoable, as I usually break out from the beach only late in the afternoon. As to even threaten Caen in the first day, that is out of the question.
Also, the many garrison units that were inserted to give Antitank positions some ZOC imediatly abandon those positions and head for the beach pillboxes.
Being about turn 55 now I have cleared the whole of Cotentin peninsula of german units, and am fighting in Cherbourg. That was partly consented, but I believe german landsers are too fragile and carry to little firepower. From what I read in "Overlord" or "Beyond the Beachhead" german infantry companies managed to have more firepower than the americans, and the unit ratings in the game are the other way around. Outnumbered during the whole campaign, the germans also need to have more quality only to be able to stand their ground; else, with fatigue acumulating, C units become E very fast. For that reason i would suggest to improve the quality of the landsers by one level, the way it was done for the 352nd: 709th from E to D, 91st from C to B, 243rd from D to C, and so on. A side effect of this would be to make the landings harder, and they are close enough already. So some pillboxes could be downgraded to bunkers and these reduced back in their defence capability.
I also would like to say that these comments should not mask the fact that this is a brilliantly developed campaign. It is being very fun to play, and I will do it again. I can spend a whole day hammering at a single Bocage hex to make progress (and sometimes don't), and that only after costly assaults: very historical. And the very low initial allied supply level inhibites artillery operations very effectively.
Well done.

Rui[/i]