Patience -it's all in the Game

[Aetius]

I had hoped that a community of like-minded history buffs would be a good place for me to relax and burn off some negative emotions, but in fact it has had the opposite result. Now that I have thoroughly and probably irrevocably destroyed my own credibility, all I can do is apologize for wasting everyone's time.

No hard feelings on this, Jamie. I mean it.
The idea of using these games to burn off negative emotions may really not work, IMHO. I have got out of work after an hectic day more than once to arrive home and find out that my opponent had broken my carefully planned attacked with heavy casualties or that a defensive line I thought was near perfect was completely shattered. Situations like these add to everyday's stress, not the other way around.

I won't trouble you again.

I don't think this is really necessary, even though you may have a hard time finding opponents in the near future. Didn't Foch say that it took 15000 casualties to train a Major-General?

But let me build up on the patience theme. This is the situation down south in the second night:

So, KG Walther is in a tough position but some elements may still save themselves.
More importantly, the allies are, in the second night, still fixed in the Eindhoven area and negotiating the congestioned hexes. Further north there are two bridges that must be built to get to Nijmegen, as all the bridges over the Meuse and the Meuse-Waal canal have blown.
After that, the allies will have to force the Waal, a 1km water obstacle, behind which the 10th SS and all its artillery are furiously entrenching themselves. And the unblocked Arnhem bridge means that the germans can disengage some forces from the fight around Oosterbeeck and send them south if needed.
And this is the historical campaign game: bad weather will set in and it will take some 30 turns for the paratroopers a Arnhem to receive aditional reinforcements from the air.

I think anyone who has played this campaign can tell that the germans are the ones in a stronger position here. Simply put, they are winning.
The irony of it all is that had he kept at the game some time more instead of being so upset because two D quality battalions from KG von Tettau lost half their strength in an assault he might easily have won, particularly with the battlefield skills he has shown, which are considerable.

Bottom line: be patient. Play these games through. Don't expect to win or to lose a 100-turn campaign in the first 10-15 turns. Even if you do, you are learning after all.

Rui