(Beginner) Marne 1914: Chaos on the Rivers

[tropicalbyron]

Hi all!

I am a TOAW beginner and direly in need of advice, even if I'm already having a lot of fun!
I have played Kasserine 43 on both sides many times, and have won the 1942 Burma campaign as the English (thanks to a heroic run towards the port through the forest by the very brave N. Staffordshire Company). This is my first time on Marne 14 (12-turns version).

I have some questions, first rather technical/tactical:
- Is it normal that when the heavy fighting begins, I as the Entente suffer major losses compared to Germans in nearly all combat, computer initiated or not?
- That turned me towards a strategy of constant maneuvers trying to bait enemies and divert them from primary operational objectives.

As for how the battle unfolded (sorry to not be narrative, I am just a bit short on time and understanding of the game to be able to write more narrative AARs!)

- I decided to hit hard on the Western front with the 6th immediately. I mounted an ambitious encirclement of Meaux but the infantry failed to follow the cavalary. Nonetheless, the present of a French cavalry division behind their lines did divert significant German forces, especially for the first half of the battle, and enabled the Sixth to control the Western quarter of the map by half of campaign. This did not last however, as the Sixth was truly weakened by overly ambitious maneuvers, and the Germans mounted a counterattack that by turn 12 had turned into a dwindling but still significant force, opposed by many French units ordered to ignore losses on the road to Paris. Still, I wish the Germans hadn't finished 2.5km from that objective! The Sixth did however manage to take and hold Crecy.

- With the BEF I mounted a classic Northern attack aimed towards Coulommiers. Because the Germans put so much resources and units fighting the French Sixth in the West, the region was badly defended and it was easy to envelop a basically non existent German line with swarms of British units. By the end we had a fairly strong hold on Coulommiers, the enemy was counterattacking, but was not having success.

- With the "blue" French army I decided on an ambitious play: go up north to Montmirail but leave the West sparcely defended, in the hope of drawing all the German's attention to the northern front. This left the road towards Provins fairly poorly defended. I hoped the Germans wouldn't go for it, but they absolutely did, and I had to take some BEF battalions back to Provins as well as concentrate my forces over there to avoid loss on turn 12. On the other hand, the offensive towards Montmirail was a resounding success.

- With the "Gold" army I decided I would try to outflank the Germans on their northern flank. I had good success with this by the end of turn 12, so much so that both sides of the Front were just a few kilometers away from joining up and cutting off the supplies of a whole German army engaged towards Provings.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: tropicalbyron
Hi all!

I am a TOAW beginner and direly in need of advice, even if I'm already having a lot of fun!
I have played Kasserine 43 on both sides many times, and have won the 1942 Burma campaign as the English (thanks to a heroic run towards the port through the forest by the very brave N. Staffordshire Company). This is my first time on Marne 14 (12-turns version).

I have some questions, first rather technical/tactical:
- Is it normal that when the heavy fighting begins, I as the Entente suffer major losses compared to Germans in nearly all combat, computer initiated or not?
- That turned me towards a strategy of constant maneuvers trying to bait enemies and divert them from primary operational objectives.

Hi Hugo dude. You're off to a good start. Thank you for this AAR. I'll be keeping up with your progress and I'll provide whatever good advice I can come up with. You've picked a good scenario to play.

As far as answering your question about losing more than the Germans in every combat you have: maybe it's due to the difference between the proficiency of your combatants? In my D21 game in my battle(s) with the Germans I notice that the Soviets almost always lose more than the Germans do and I've attributed that to the difference between the proficiencies of units of the two armies. Soviet proficiency of the typical Soviet unit is less than 60 or so and the Germans are typically 90 or above, most of the time.

Other than that I'm not sure what else it might be due to. And for some tips you can use: You didn't specify whether or not aircraft are involved and I'm too lazy to load the scenario and take a look. But if you can, provide some CS for your troops when you can.

Also, try to keep your units fairly close to the roads and rails where the supply levels are usually higher than out in the sticks.

Try to have a mix of unit types in your stacks. By that I mean that usually a mix of infantry, AFV's, and maybe some AT units together can usually handle enenmy attacks slightly better than any one unit type alone. So I try to provide some tanks in with my infantry stack to mitigate enemy attacks. I believe it helps. YMMV.

If you can, cut off the supply to your enemy units, even in the case of the smaller enemy groupings. Without supply they can't easily recoup their losses and their unit proficiency will plummet. Right now I'm trying to drop the bridges that feed the enemy units right in front of me in specific local areas to facilitate the take down attempts I run. If the enemy units are dug in I'll usually attack with a one-dot stance and then once they are all unentrenched I go for the multiple dot attacks. I hardly ever use three-dot attacks unless the enemy unit is small and easily pushed over.

You're doing fine and this should be a good game.

Again, thanks for the AAR.

friends, larry