View from the Other Side: Q-Ball (Allies) v Gunnulf (Axis)

[Q-Ball]

Greetings! I don't plan to do a full AAR, but I know Gunnulf is writing one that is already on 2 pages. I thought it might be helpful to get some notes from the other side. So far, I think this one is a mixed bag for me.

We are on turn 7 so far.

Landings:Our initial landings were the 3 British landings on Sicily, and 2 re-directed US Landings to the SW corner of Sardinia. I have one more landing in reserve, confidential for Op Sec reasons.

I feel like a full landing on Sicily is overkill, and the British landings are plenty to establish control ashore. Sardinia is necessary to landing anywhere near Rome for aircover; needed to be secured.

The initial plan was to clear these islands, and begin preps right away for a landing around Civitavecchia in September, fairly standard stuff.

Sicily:On Sicily, the island is cleared save for the Northeast corner, where the Italians plus at least 2 PzG divisions are holed up. Not really anything unusual; I did hit a speed bump when Palermo held an extra turn, but overall, I cleared the points I wanted to. I don't plan to attack the Germans head-on to clear the island; either they'll leave soon, or I'll wait for the Italian surrender. There's no point in grinding attacks just to get a couple hexes closer to Messina. I pulled all the Invasion TFs by turn 6, as supplies are coming ashore fine in the captured ports.

Sardinia: This one is much more interesting, as Gunnulf decided to heavily contest Sardinia. This was a mixed bag for me.

The resistance did put a wrench into the landings schedules, and forced me to change plans. Right now, there is the 90th PzG, an FJ Division, and a Mountain Division on the island, plus a German HQ. There is a line of forts behind the main line; probably 40,000 Germans total. I rushed ashore enough to capture all ports save for Olbia.

This represents an opportunity, however; I've cut supplies to Olbia, isolating all units on the island, and I'm bombing the 3 airfields he owns. He is flying supplies in, but we are running Air Superiority intercepts over the path to the sea in front of Olbia. Basically, I've committed alot of airpower, and forced Gunnulf to do the same.

My objective now is to grind the LW down, and capture the 3 divisions on Sardinia. While the timetable will be short-term thrown off, in the long term I think that's going to pay dividends. He is losing upwards of 300 planes a turn, most of those LW now because the RA is pretty much toast. Losing the mountain division in particular will hurt, since you really need it to defend the Italian mainland.

Air War over Germany: Not alot to comment on here; I'm bombing all the usual targets, and netting about 15 points a turn right now; I should be able to push that to 20. Outside of VP targets, I am focusing on the Panther factories in Duisburg and Nuremburg, as well as vehicles. A damaged factory cannot expand; so I figure hitting the Panthers over and over will permanently keep 1/2 his Panther production out of the game. Later, I will bomb the PzKw IV factories in Madgeburg and Steyr (once I have bases in Italy).

I noticed Gunnulf is basing his fighters somewhat forward; I am running air superiority missions to try to shoot down as many fighters as possible.

[Helpless]

Thanks for the inside. It is always interesting to hear it from various perspectives.

How fast morale of your bomber groups is recovering? Do you have to rest them?

[Q-Ball]

ORIGINAL: Helpless

Thanks for the inside. It is always interesting to hear it from various perspectives.

How fast morale of your bomber groups is recovering? Do you have to rest them?

All Bomber groups require periodic rest. I am only bombing 2 days a week, but still need to keep groups at rest. Probably 40% of Bomber Command is resting at any one time, due to the nasty flak over the Ruhr. For 8th AF, the ratio is less, maybe 20%. I fly anything at 60 morale or higher; 59 or lower, and they rest for a week.

I used to bomb 3-4 days a week, but found cutting back seems like a good trade off; operability is higher

[Q-Ball]

Turn 11: I am assuming that Gunnulf is keeping everyone up to date on what the Allies are up to. We landed in Southern Italy. You may ask why?

Well, I misplayed the whole sequence. I had a landing planned around Rome, but with the resistance on Sardinia, I chickened out and prepped a couple TFs for Southern Italy, where I could provide aircover. To compound the problem, I also screwed up the prep by leaving a TF that was prepping out of port, which erased the prep and set me back a couple turns. DUMB!

So, this is going to cost me Rome for the time being, and that has to be considered a German victory. We'll have to make it up in France. The silver lining is that we did capture 20,000 Germans on Sardinia, and more importantly the Luftwaffe took alot of losses trying to keep supplies open. I would have bagged more if my recon didn't fail me on Olbia (Gunnulf told me the port repaired enough to ship units out)


Air War:

This is the one area where I think things are going well. We're above 20 pts a turn, and kind of running out of fat targets to bomb; at this point I am working over previously bombed areas. I am keeping the Panther plants from expanding, and if I can keep that up I'll start to work over the Vehicle factories too, beyond the big one is Cologne which BC is keeping bombed out.

The LW has had alot of losses, Gunnulf only recently pulled his fighters back from Spitfire range; before that, we were flying Air Superiority missions to chew up more fighters.

[Q-Ball]

Turn 19, November 1943:

Just some random observations, I'm sure Gunnulf is keeping everyone up to date, but some items from my perspective:

1. He did really well to keep me from invading north of Rome. He's also done really well with some selective counterattacks. The Cassino Line is impregnible, unless he moves some units off it, but at the moment there's no chance I can crack even a hex of it. He can hold it as long as he wants to.

2. HOWEVER, I think he made an error in leaving Naples undefended. I occupied it, and I think Naples is a pretty important port, and worth defending if you are the Germans. I was going to fight my way into it if I had to, but guess I don't have to.

Overall, I'm not 100% happy with the Italian Campaign, but we'll be fine; it's just the VPs for Rome. The landings I did make were on rail lines on purpose, so we are building enough supplies in the heel now to support bombing operations on Romania, which will commence when the rain clears (it's about to).

AIR WAR:

I think things are going well in the air, however. I am netting approx. 20 points a turn in bombing until last turn, when I was hit with a -5 on U-Boats; we will take care of that. I am getting about 20-22 bombing points a turn outside of U-Boats, and I've been able to keep the penalty at -1 a turn until now.

So far, I am targeting HI, OIL and FUEL, just to harvest points. I am targeting Panther plants somewhat. I will start hitting Vehicles and Pzkw IV next Spring, because those are two items the Reich will run short of, particularly vehicles. BC is bombing the Vehicle plant in Cologne just because they can, but once I get to 1944 I will pay more attention to the plants in Antwerp and Paris (9th AF), and Mainz and Zwickau.

Gunnulf continues to fly fighers over Italy, so we continue to run Air Superiority missions with P-47s. They are doing a number on the RSI units, but also getting Bf-109s. He has lost over 2000 LW Fighter planes, I'll get an exact count, but I know it's over 1400 BF-109 and at least 500 FW-190s. I expected the LW to disappear from Italy by now.

His results improved when he rested some fighters, but I think he's still basing them too far forward. I am getting intercepts with Spitfires over the Ruhr; last turn, we shot down 18 Me-410s over the Ruhr. I have found those planes are really good vs. Bombers, but get chewed-up by single engine fighters.

[Q-Ball]

May 13, 1944

I haven't posted in awhile, but we just landed in France. The initial landing is on 5 beaches around St. Malo, in Brittany. I had all 4 Para Divisions prepped for spots adjacent to the beach, and I think all 4 are going to drop on empty hexes, which is a break. 3 of those hexes are light woods or bocage, which will limit Gunnulf's ability to counterattack the Paras. The 4th drop should isolate St. Malo, meaning that port should be an easy capture.

Landing in Brittany has one big minus; it's pretty damn far from Germany. Why did I land there, then, you may ask? In short, room to maneuver.

I should be able to secure a beachhead large enough to get HQs and other units ashore. Odds are, Gunnulf is not going to try to defend to the west of the beachhead (which is risky), and will mostly abandon the Peninsula. That should give me some easy ports and infrastructure early. I anticipate he may build a front at the neck of the Peninsula; that would still allow me to get alot of the Allied army ashore and killing Germans before the end of May.

Finally, Gunnulf is no doubt aware that I landed 5 Beaches, when I should easily have 3 more ready to go...somewhere. Won't reveal the plans, but safe to say they aren't going to sit in England. Also, with the spread I have I should be able to immediately pull 2 or 3 of the landed beaches to also start preps for elsewhere.

Initial intel shows some concentration of troops in Normandy, but not a ton in Brittany. Rain is forecast next turn, which isn't ideal, but overall I think we can get a large beachhead established and start the battle of France.

[Q-Ball]

May 20, 1944

D+ 1 week, and everything is going well so far, other than I would like to be causing more damage to German mobile units. But other than that, things are going smoothly.

10 Infantry Divisions plus 4 Para Divs were in the first wave, and this turn they, plus some units brought over to wait on D-Day, accomplished the main objectives.

We cleared the two ports, which will auto-repair next turn as they are size-2 and under and next to TFs (this is one reason I like this spot; while St. Malo is small, it does repair immediately, unlike a larger port).

We also reached the other site of Brittany, and it looks like there is a German Army Corps trapped on the peninsula. He could probably sail them out via Lorient, maybe, but can't be a good thing. I also captured Rennes, which is important to get repairs started on the Railyard, and establish our first inland depot here.

Next Steps:

It appears the Germans are forming a line to the north along the Bocage, and to the east along a river just west of Le Mans. That's almost more space than I can handle at the moment, though we are bringing units ashore as quick as I can.

I also need to clear a major port; probably Lorient, but depends on how heavy the defenses are. We may go St. Nazaire.

[Q-Ball]

June 10, 1944:

After the initial landing, Gunnulf mostly withdrew to a line along the bocage and Mayenne/Loire rivers, which you can see in the shot below. I've been busy getting supplies and troops ashore, and because the line is so long right away, it's not been easy to concentrate forces.

We've engaged in some battles to the East; I am purposely targeting Tank units. I want to get those worn down now, because I know Panzer units are at their strongest when fresh, and it's all downhill from there as morale reduces, and as irreplaceable AFV losses occur. I have no idea if he's short of Medium tanks, but Germany is always short of SP Flak and SP Artillery, so those losses are always permanent.

We haven't taken a major port yet, but because St. Malo and St. Breiuc were taken and repaired right away, I am feeling less urgent to do so. We will probably at least take a crack at St. Nazaire, but I don't need all 3 ports in Brittany. All are heavily defended.

In the meantime, we are repairing rail, getting units ashore, and accumulating supplies, including a depot in Rennes, in preparation for Breakout. I know supplies for him are an issue, because he's been air dropping supplies to the Panzer units along the Mayenne River west of Le Mans.

I have a plan for breakout, but more on that later....

Italy:

Gunnulf is attacking Tortoli mostly unsuccessfully, though he has killed alot of Allies there (and many Germans too). What is surprising me here is that he remains in Southern Italy. Keeping me out of Rome was a good show in his part, but at some point Southern Italy becomes more of a burden than asset. That time is nigh, I think. He has to garrison N. Italy, and probably is keeping troops around Rome, since he knows I have free TFs right now prepping for landings somewhere. At any rate, he has strong forces along the Cassino Line, including 2 Panzer, 2 PzG, 2 Para Divisions, 2-3 Mountain, and other units. It's powerful, and way more than he needs at that line. I hope to exploit this by putting max pressure in France.

[Q-Ball]

Air War Update:

We are also shifting the focus of our Air Campaign. Up to now, I have focused on VP targets, with some AFV/Vehicles mixed in; mostly plants that are easy to get to. I am scoring 11 points a turn right now, but I know that's about to go down in July again, so the opportunity gained from bombing HI, OIL, and FUEL is about to reduce. I've never seen Germany run out of fuel, so bombing that for combat purposes isn't really fruitful, though I have been anyway.

I am shifting primarily to AFVs, with Vehicles as a secondary target. Below, you can see a AD Box; this directive has most of the AFVs the Wehrmacht needs, including 26 x PzKW IV, all STUG III production, and 3/5 of Panther production. The other Panther plants, in Duisburg and Nuremburg, I've been bombing all game, particularly the one in Duisburg, which has NEVER expanded. 15th AF is keeping the PzKw IV factory in Steyr a pile of rubble. I plan to up the tempo and basically terminate production of these core Tank models--Panther, Panzer IV, and STUG III.

[Q-Ball]

June 24, 1944:

Breakout?

So, here is the plan I had cooking for the Breakout. Last turn, I rested most of my armored units and planes. This turn, I deployed them all, with the secondary landing I had planned around Le Havre.

5 beaches are landing; 2 of them are only Brigade-sized, but I am taking the risk that there isn't enough back there to prevent the expansion, and between that and the paras I think I am probably right.

The paras landed during my combat phase, because I was close enough that they were able to. We landed on top of 2 infantry Regts in one spot, but were able to push them aside.

Concurrent with that, I punched a hole in the line near Argentan, allowing 4th Armored to drive through and contact one of the Para units, as well as where the beachhead lands. That corridor around Argentan, additionally, is very high interdiction; I didn't expect to cut-off Normandy but rather leave a narrow corrider that units would have to flee through, but instead I was able to close it.

What Next?

Gunnulf has a decision to make. There are 7 divisions in Normandy that are now isolated, including 3 mobile ones. I think the Mobile divisions might be able to make it out; certainly, he can re-establish contact with the rest of the Wehrmacht and make me re-seal this another turn. I think, however, most of those units are going to be toast. If he tries to stay and save them, it may make it worse.

He can probably cobble a line together from Dieppe to Rouen, along the Seine, and restablish something if he decides the part ways with those units in Normandy

[Q-Ball]

July 1, 1944

Beachhead Linkup:

Turn didn't go quite as I had hoped; I wanted to break=out into Picardy, or at least begin to, but the need to clean-up some items meant our advance was limited.

LeHavre held out on 4 direct assaults; this was the big problem, because I need to clear that port in my rear before I can really move much further. All the forts are gone, and the last attack JUST missed, so I should be able to clear this, but this prevented any attacks toward Dieppe.

The other problem was the Normandy pocket was broken, though I expected that; I re-sealed it for good. Gunnulf had spread the units out, which was the right thing to do that turn, I suspect though he'll now pull back toward Cherbourg and make me chase those units and launch a major effort toward the port if I want to take it. I'll have to think about whether I need it, because he could stack 2 Panzer Units in the port and that would be freaking impossible to destroy, even if they are isolated. I would really like the port, but it might take a huge diversion if he puts the Panzers in the city. The pocket, in total, is 4 Infantry Divisions, the 2nd and most of the 21st Panzer, and 3rd PzG division.

Further south, the depot at Rennes is already distributing supplies, and the fall of Nantes, plus capture of Angiers, will make it easier to start getting supplies into Central France.

[Q-Ball]

Aug 12, 1944

The Battle of France looks like it's coming to an end. Gunnulf did a general pull-back along the line. We trapped and destroyed 2 FJ Units in Amiens, and in general have pressed along the front. We also landed in Southern France, though by the time we did, Aug 5, Gunnulf had evacuated everything up to Nice.

So, I think he's pulling back toward the German border. Next turn, all the hexes in SW France should flip over, as we made contact with the Dragoon landings.

Supply:

My supply situation is mixed; I actually have plenty of of supplies on the Brittany beaches and ports, and we're starting to accumulate stockpiles at LeHavre. Getting it inland is a little different story. We do have depots at Orleans and inland, but they are not stockpiling yet.

Alot of my mobile units, though, have less than 35 MPs, due to fatigue and truck issues, so we need some rest in order to get them up to speed again. Tough, when there is fighting to do.

Bombs:

I really don't have a strong sense for how the bombing campaign is going on the AFVs. I saw my first PzIVj this turn, and have seen only a handful of Panther Gs. So I think it's working?

[Q-Ball]

Nov 18, 1944:

Gunnulf declassified the first few pages of his AAR, and it's really well done! I can't really compete in that regard, but I am confident he is providing tactical updates on what's going on this one.

Overall:

It is November, and we are approaching the Rhine between Dusseldorf and Koblenz. Overall, that's not too bad, I should be able to get over when it freezes at the latest, leaving a couple muddy months to hopefully get deeper into Germany. Additionally, we are past the West Wall from Saarbrucken o Trier, so I should be able to clear the West Bank of the Rhine down to Mainz; this will offer more places to potentially cross.

The Wehrmacht is holding together; they have taken some licks, I haven't counted but we have pocketed at least 15 divisions, with another 6 or so currently stuck in ports in the rear, including 2nd Panzer. His Panzer formations in particular seem depleted; I've routed several units with head-on attacks due to depletion, particularly 9ss, which is completely toast.

At this point, heavy rains are coming, and rather than continue attacks, I am probably going to rest everyone and accumulate some supplies before the ground freezes again.

Supply:

Attached is a map showing supply. We are getting enough supplies to front to keep up attacks, but we are not at full capacity, and Allied mobile units are at reduced MPs. We are kind of running on a shoestring.

The problem isn't supplies in France; there is plenty back at LeHavre, and stockpiles are slowly moving forward. There are now surpluses as far east as Lille. The issue is the immediate supply at the front. It takes awhile to repair railyards and get things flowing. Hopefully a turn or two of rest will restore some supplies.

I maybe should have taken Walcheren Island, to clear Antwerp; I decided not to, as I had all the Channel ports and the beaches near LeHavre were already stockpiling supplies. Maybe something close would help, who knows....

Bombing Campaign:

We've basically stopped bombing most German industry, since the VPs really drop off. Bomber Command has swiched 100% to unit bombing; a carpet bombing run will ususally kill 2000-3000 men and pretty much make one hex a easy take. 8th AF is intensively bombing AFVs; I have been doing this for months, and I would love to know the impact. Judging by losses of newer AFVs like PzIvj and Panther G, I think it's having an impact; I haven't seen alot of those models. According to my RECON (which is not 100% accurate), I have been keeping all Panther, Panzer IV, Stug III production in RED for months.

[Q-Ball]

12/2/1944

After a turn of rest, really good progress by the Allies. We halted all operations to let supplies catch up and everyone rest, and it seemed to work. Once the ground froze, we made excellent progress.

Italy:

Brief panic hits Allied command as Gunnulf nearly cuts off a US Infantry division along the coast. He didn't quite have enough to follow the attack by occupying the hex, so we escaped. That's good, because my forces are so thin in Italy, a rescue would have been difficult.

Nice move, though I also wonder if the units attacking near Pescara would be better off on the Rhine. In my last game as Germany, I had only the thinnest and worst units in Italy, maybe 5 divisions or so barely hanging on.

Rhine:

Speaking of the Rhine, we are over. It only took 4000 FBs flying in that box, every RAF bomber Unit bombing in carpet formation, etc. 4 times the planes in 2 hexes as are left in the whole Luftwaffe.

Two hexes for now, it will take 2-3 turns to slowly pry enough space to really maneuver. We need to cross above Cologne to get that city, then cross above the Ruhr. We are approaching the Ruhe where we surrounded a couple more units.

Further South, i have been attacking into the Saar with less success.