Allied Corps AAR – Part 2

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When we left off my intrepid heroes were had finished Turn 3 and were heading toward a 50 mm PaK, A Wurfrahmen, an SdKfz 234/2, and two units of Pioneer infantry. Because several of my units were open topped I was giving that Wurfrahmen a healthy distance. But at some point it would need to be addressed.

The German AI, on the other hand, had the opportunity to take some shots at my advancing force, but mysteriously held its ground and did nothing.

 

Allied Turn 4

I’m more shocked by the lack of initiative by the German Pioneer and Wurfrahmen. They just sit there. That seems crazy. I decide to focus on the Wurfrahmen first. My P-51 makes a pass and does some damage.

Allied Corps AAR-027

Now I have some choices. Along my line of advance there is a river, the Nederrijn to my south. The way the Panzer Corps engine works friendly units cannot move if adjacent to an enemy unit. So no matter how weak that 50mm PaK is, I won’t be able to squeak past it. I have to destroy it. The Chaffee fires but does no damage while taking a beating itself. The P-47 does a little more damage and then I pull it back to base for refueling. The Wellington, now refueled moves up and eliminates the PaK. That’s good news. Now I can advance. I pull the Chaffee back and move the Airborne up to take the airbase that the PaK had occupied. Their chances of taking on the Pioneers don’t look good so I just let them hang. We’ll figure out what to do with the Pioneers shortly.

The Challenger takes on the Jagdpanzer IV. It gives it a good beating but takes several points in damage in return. But the JgPz IV retreats, so I’m pleased. I move up a Sherman 76. It destroys the leftover JgPz IVs and only takes one damage. I’m good with that.

The 75mm PaK gets a taste of my mobile artillery and I unleash 155mm of love on it. It makes a dent. A British heavy weapons unit polishes off the remains. That’s a thorn out of my side that had been holding up my northern armored advance. Speaking of north, I move up and take out the last of that German motorcycle unit. The Wehrmacht unit by the 75mm PaK is next. First a P-47 strafes it. Then my Calliope hammers it. Then the Sherman 105 finishes it off. Good. Time to get this show on the road.

As I move forward the rest of my units and check one last time to see I’ve taken advantage of all that I can, I see that the 234 in Utrecht is vulnerable to an attack by my Airborne. They appear to be able to hit it without suffering casualties. This isn’t always a given, but it’s a good bet as the 234 has been reduced to two points. Boom! It’s destroyed without a problem. Time to turn things over to the Germans.

Allied Corps AAR-028

German Turn 4

Now things get interesting. A Hezter moves up on my Airborne at the airport. It hammers them. Then the Pioneers to go work on them. Suddenly my vaunted airborne unit is down to five points. Time to pull them back and reinforce. Then a JgPz IV appears and attacks my Sherman 76. As I would expect the Shermans get the worst of that exchange. And again, little other visible German movement.

Allied Corps AAR-030

Allied Turn 5

First I move a Hellcat to engage the Hetzer. The fighting is fierce but the Hellcat gets the better of the exchange. The Hetzer retreats out of sight. Then I move another Hellcat to engage the JgPz IV. Again the Hellcat wins and drives the German armor out of sight. I’ve taken a beating and will need to reinforce those Hellcats but this is a win.

Allied Corps AAR-031

I move the Sherman 76 up a hex and reveal the JgPz IV. We attack and this time really hurt what’s left. I move up the Challengers and they finish it off. Then my mobile 155 hammers the Wurfrahmen and it’s reduced to a single point. I bring up the rest of my units and prepare to start taking victory objectives.

Allied Corps AAR-033

There are three in the north and two to the southwest. It’s five turns into a 19 turn game. Ideally I’d like to bring all my force to bear on the north before turning south. But I must take all five objectives or I will lose the game. Simple as that. With 14 turns to do it in, I think I can handle it.

Allied Corps AAR-035

German Turn 5

Once again things grow quiet. The two Pioneer squads I’m in contact around Utrecht put up a fight but they suffer more than they give in the exchange. In addition the 155 got some opportunity fire in for support and inflicted three points of damage. In all I’d like every round to go like that!

Allied Corps AAR-036

Allied Turn 6

Just when I think things are going well some tough units appear in the north. And this is the round I needed to try to rest and repair some of my units. Up north I’m greeted by a Panzer IV J, a Panzer V A, and a Brummbär, a 37mm Flak cannon, and some kind of aircraft that I can’t yet ID. Yet another tough nut to crack.

Allied Corps AAR-038

My Wellington roars over the remains of the Hetzer and destroys the single strength point that remained. Good. The Tempest up north is going to be wiped out if I keep it around that 37mm Flak cannon. It’s ammo and fuel, while not too low, are low enough to give me an excuse to pull it back and away from that Flak unit. This will be a ground operation until I can get rid of the anti-air. I move the Tempest aircraft down to the airfield just occupied by my Hellcat. It’s on the front line, but the surviving German units have taken a beating and I think it’s a safe bet it won’t have too much trouble.

With the Tempest out of the way I can clearly see the air unit that was in the hex with it. I thought it might be a transport, but it isn’t. It’s an Henschel 129 B: a tank buster. While the precise production version of the 129 B isn’t clear (there were at least three variants) I can’t afford to believe that this late in the war I’m up against anything other than 129 B-3, which will be carrying a 75mm PaK configured for the aircraft. That’s a lot of hurt. Suddenly I’m finding I need to stay out of range of that Flak, but keep my tanks protected from the Panzerknacker. This means I’ll need to coordinate an effort to destroy the Flak cannon then immediately pull up fighter support to deal with the 129-B.

Allied Corps AAR-040

I study the map.

I switch to meta game mode.

Allied Corps AAR-042

Why not? The scenario designer has metagamed this scenario. It’s time I start thinking about what he was thinking. One thing I know: So far none of the German units have shown much initiative or aggression. Now that could change, but I believe that if I leave those units alone, they may just leave me alone. So instead of being pulled into the north for a nasty fight I decide I’m going to push west and attempt to take the two westernmost objectives first. It’s likely to be tough, but I believe it’s the better move. I’ll keep the armored force in the north in a sheltering position (if I can) for a couple of turns in case those units decide to pursue me. But I’m going to do my best to move around them and ignore them, rather than engage.

Allied Corps AAR-043

The P-51 and the P-47 that had been loitering over the infantry attack and then move forward to scout. The P-51 spots a 75mm PaK, but more interestingly the P-47 spots a V1 team! That turkey is going down. I do not want to take incoming fire from that (on the off chance it tries to attack me) and I sure do not want it firing on London. We’re going to make taking it out a priority.

Allied Corps AAR-044

I order my B-29 to attack the V1. It does, to no effect. But we spot even juicier targets: a V2 and a hanger outside of Leiden. Now I know why I’m here. We are going to crush these guys.

Allied Corps AAR-045

Back to the issue around Utrecht. I hammer the northern Pioneer with my 155, then my Cromwell, then my Challenger. It’s destroyed. The southern Pioneer unit, while still at strength seven, is out of supply and out of ammo. I hit it first with a Hellfire, with only one point of damage. Not unexpected. Then I bring up some US Engineers. They slam the Pioneers and do three points of damage. Then I bring out a Firefly unit to finish them off. Boom and done. We’re pushing west.

Allied Corps AAR-049

My Challengers need to rest and refit. They’ve shot but can still move, but are out of ammo. I don’t want to move them blind into enemy territory, but I don’t want to leave them here. Instead I’ll move some other units forward first to scout the area.

My Jeep moves into the woods. All seems clear so I pull up as many of the rest of my forces as I can and try to refit the few that really need it.

Allied Corps AAR-052

Allied Corps AAR-053

German Turn 6

Now some surprises. The Henschel 129 B makes a play for a Firefly unit. Thankfully I have a P-47 just next to it that spoils the attack and inflicts nine points of damage on it! It’s down to one. Then a Panther appears from nowhere. It attacks the Fireflies. As expected, they take a beating but give a good blow in return: four points of damage. But those Fireflies are dead meat next turn unless I can get them out of danger to refit.

Allied Corps AAR-055

Allied Turn 7

Taking on that Panther is a job for the Wolverines (WOLVERINES! Wait. That’s a movie.) I move them to the flank of the Panthers and check the odds. Not great. I’ll do five damage and take six. But I don’t have much choice. That Panther has to go and it starts with making a dent. I do five points of damage. It returns three! And it retreats. This is as good as I could have hoped for.

Allied Corps AAR-057

Now I reconsider that Firefly under the Hs-129. It has six strength points. I have air cover to take out their plane. And then it’s six points of Firefly versus three of Panzer. I like this idea and order an attack on the air unit. The 129 goes down in flames. The Fireflies fire on the Panther. They take one point of damage but destroy the remnant of the Panthers. This is going well.

Allied Corps AAR-058

Now it’s time to hammer that V1. I roll up another Firefly and let loose on it. Seven points of damage in one shot and the V1 retreats. Good news.

Allied Corps AAR-060

Most of my force around Utrecht is beat up and in need of resupply. Several units pause to refit. I bring up the 155 and hammer the 75mm PaK in front of me. Then I bring up some SAS troops who knock it down to one point. A loitering P-51 sweeps in to finish it off. My way west is looking clearer. My decision to bypass the northern objectives first appears to be paying off.

Allied Corps AAR-061

I move the Chaffee up to scout around Rotterdam. Holy smokes! A Panzerwerfer and a Jagdpanther protect it. Two of my favorite units from Flames of War, but this isn’t a minis game and I’m not playing the Germans. That Chaffee may not survive the next turn, but at least I know what I’m up against down there. I order the Tempest to strafe the Panzerwerfer. It does – to no effect. But now I see some infantry guarding Rotterdam. Another tough nut. The Wellington moves over a 170mm field cannon the Tempest spotted. It does one damage. Not much, but in this game every bit helps.

Allied Corps AAR-062

Up north I move the Calliope up to fire on the V1 and it takes out the remaining three points. Good.

Holy crap, now I spot a Nashorn protecting Amsterdam!

Allied Corps AAR-065

I haven’t lost any units yet, but now I’m contemplating buying more units. This has just turned from a challenge to a potential nightmare. I’m facing nearly every überweapon the Germans can field. What’s missing? I start going through my mind: Me-262 still hasn’t made an appearance; no Königstigers, Ferdinands, or Königspanzers yet. But the list of things I haven’t tackled is getting pretty short.

Allied Turn 8

No, I didn’t forget the Germans’ turn. But apparently the AI did. Nothing happened, at least visible to me.

So it’s my turn again.

I have a two-pronged attack that, unless I change something now, will naturally unfold. The heaviest forces are bearing down on Leiden – which appears to be the lightest defended. And Rotterdam, which seems to have some good ground protection but is vulnerable from the air.

Allied Corps AAR-067

It’s Turn 8 of 19 turns. At this point I seem to have plenty of time to crack both of these nuts before turning north for the final encounter. Clearly I’m going to have to redirect much of the ground force to Rotterdam as that’s where most of the resistance lies.

My B-29 has twice tried to bomb the Jagdpanther, but it has been given the message that it was “neutralized.” Apparently even with no aircraft in the air attacking an enemy unit residing in an airfield renders the attack moot. Fine. I move the B-29. I’ll hit some other target not so vulnerable. The Wellington does a point of damage to the field artillery it’s over. Most of my force is already poised to overrun Leiden so I elect to move on it next and then see what I have left over to take on Rotterdam.

As my P-51 targets another V2 it spots – what else? – a Nebelwerfer! Trifecta! All the great German toys are here.

Allied Corps AAR-068

As we capture Leiden we spot minefields, more troops, and even an 88mm PaK. Clearly the Germans meant to keep this turf. Well, I’m here to take it. With enough troops to crack Rotterdam and Leiden already fallen I move a small force and prepare it for a move on the north. I won’t go on the offensive yet, but we might as well start thinking about it.

As I give the turn over to the AI it shares some good news – I’ve captured a train carrying a V2.

German Turn 8

The German field artillery has some serious reach. They pound the US engineers from a distance I thought might be out of range. Then a Tiger arrives and lays some hurt on them. They may have a bit of a time rooting up that mine field I had planned for them until I can get rid of the Tiger. Up north that Nashorn picks a fight with some of my armor.

Allied Corps AAR-072

And with that the German turn comes to an end. Check back soon for an update as the battle continues.


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One Response to Allied Corps AAR – Part 2

  1. […] we left off with Part 2 of this AAR the Germans had pulled out everything but the kitchen sink. There weren’t a lot of German […]

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