Ray of Hope (Allies)

[shang]

Day 4, 01:26. The assault on Hamrun is on with full force now. There's an enemy flak battery guarding the road, which is really giving trouble to the infantry advancing from Marsa, but the companies from 2/3 should flank it soon. At this point, we're basically rolling over the enemy and I suspect most of his troops are in Valletta or further to the west.

[shang]

Day 4, 04:07. 8-CO runs into some light armor at the Ta Kali Airfield, and have to take cover. Even light armor is a formidable opponent to the commandos who don't carry any AT weapons. Therefore, I send the 2/6 from Sijuwi to help capturing the Airfield. Thay are armed with Boys AT-Rifles, so they should easily take on the light tanks. This move will lead us pretty open for an attack from the southwest, but I don't think the enemy has enough forces in that direction to mount any serious offense.



At the same time, our final wave of reinforcements lands in the beaches of Marsa Scirocco. The Malta Invasion Group HQ mostly consists of tons of AT-guns, flak batteries and artillery. Lots and lots of artillery..

[shang]

Day 4, 07:26. The enemy is retreating from Hamrun, and I'm starting to prepare for the attack on Valletta. 2/4 and 2/7 will support the assault from Birgu and main force will be chopped up into small combat groups mixing infantry and armor. 3-4 combat groups will assault Valletta directly, and the rest will advance towards Sliema and Fort Mahoel.



The crazy total amount of artillery we have should make storming Valletta rather easy. It's a cramped up space, so all the enemy defenders will be bunched up tight and will have nowhere to run from our bombardment.

[shang]

Here you can see the current bombardment missions that are underway. Valletta is not a pleasant place to by at the moment.

[shang]

11:35. The enemy forces are in disarray, and hastily retreating deeper into Valletta. 2/6 has routed the light tanks at the Ta Kali Airfield and is taking positions to defend it, while 8-CO is falling back to Zebbuj to keep watch there. In birgu, the troops have manned the coastal fortifications and are giving supporting fire.

[shang]

Here's the battle plan for taking Valletta. The attack is separated into four combat groups. Each of them consists of a full brigade of infantry, who are supported by light tanks, heavy tanks, AT-guns and flak batteries. Four mortal platoons are stationed in Hamrun for short range artillery support, and then of course there's field artillery support from the beach.



The units marked with a lighter highlight are the ones that will attack Valletta. The rest will defend Hamrun and push the lines further west.

[shang]

17:09. We were supposed to have Valletta under our control at 12:00, so we're running a bit late on the schedule, but otherwise everything is going just as planned. The attack groups have advanced at a steady speed and without taking any major losses. The rest of the 1st UK Armor Brigade is advancing towards Sliema without much trouble. However, there are still two days left in the scenario, so I think the enemy might still get reinforcements and try to recapture the cities. As soon as we have Valletta and Sliema it's time to start setting up a strong defensive front.

[shang]

Day 5, 03:46. It's been a long fight, but we nearly control both Valetta and Sliema. It's just a matter of hunting down the few remaining enemies, which takes time in a dense city environment.



In the south, 8-CO has moved from Zebbuj to Rabat and Mdina, in order to disrupt some enemy artillery that was spotted there earlier during the night.

[shang]

Sliema is secured at 6:30 and Valletta becomes official under Allied control at 08:00 on Day 5 as most of the enemies surrender or withdraw from the city into Fort St. Elmo. Now we just have to sit tight for next 32 hours, but currently it looks pretty much a total victory for the Allied forces.

[shang]

Aaand it's over. No worthwhile counter-attack ever came, just small skirmishes with companies that half their men in fighting condition.



100 victory points vs. their 39 victory points is a clear decisive victory. The 1:10 ratio of kills is nice too.


The whole thing was actually way too easy, considering the CotA AI can usually put up enough of a fight that it can force a draw, or only grant me a marginal victory. I did wuss out a bit and set this scenario on "Regular Order Delay" instead of the Realistic setting I usually use, but that setting should affect the AI player equivalently, so I don't think it alone explains everything. I'm almost suspecting the scenario bugged somehow, and the Axis player didn't get the reinforcement it should have. Maybe I should try this one from the Axis point of view one of these days.

Here's the final situation on the map when the game ended. The gray crosses mark the locations where Axis companies surrendered or were destroyed.

[06 Maestro]

Nice AAR.
I never played this one so I don't know why it looks so lopsided for the Allies. Perhaps they have many air strikes, or you just totally outwitted the AI. I'll have to try this one out.

[shang]

Just out of curiosity, I tried the scenario again with the same parameters, but as Axis. It was a LOT more difficult from the Axis side, and even through I managed to hold my biggest objectives, it was still only a draw, since points are capped to 100 and the objectives in this scenario are worth a lot more.





Without the point cap, it would have been ~140 vs. 92, but as it is, the Axis doesn't have much hope of gaining a decisive victory, as the Allied player can get almost the max point amount just from his secondary objectives. I'd be interested in seeing how other players handle the Axis side here.

[Deathtreader]

Shang,

Terrific AAR............thanks for sharing!!

Rob.