4 am, June 25, 1944: Operation Dauntless

Started by MengJiao, June 13, 2017, 08:03:38 PM

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MengJiao


  The 49th West Riding takes aim at the boundary between Panzer Lehr and the 12th SS Panzer Division.  This is the big scenario that the game is built around.  The Germans don't start out with much, but both sides have a lot of flexibility in bringing in reinforcements.

  The image shows the joinery where the two panzer divisions ajoin in the middle of Fontenay-le-Presnel.  The 2nd army's plan is for the 49th to attack for one day and 1) clear the high ground on the flank of the advance planned for VIII Corps' advance in Operation Epsom 2) draw in German reserves that would otherwise oppose Epsom.  Historically, the 49th's attack succeeded in accomplishing both objectives, though took a day longer to take the high ground than planned since the objective of drawing in German reserves succeeded all too well.


bayonetbrant

sometimes you draw in the reserves and then wonder what the hell you got yourself into
The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers

JudgeDredd

Alba gu' brath

MengJiao

Quote from: JudgeDredd on June 14, 2017, 06:07:34 AM
aaaaargh...clip those counters  ;D

  I know.  I'm waiting for a used and pre-clipped game to turn up on Ebay.  Cheap, clipped fully sat-upon.  Meanwhile there may be
a Vassal option that gives clipped counters.

MengJiao

Quote from: bayonetbrant on June 14, 2017, 06:05:24 AM
sometimes you draw in the reserves and then wonder what the hell you got yourself into

   No reserves showing up yet.  As historically, the 49th follows a massive barrage through the fog and gains a foothold in the town:


MengJiao

Quote from: MengJiao on June 14, 2017, 05:36:31 PM
Quote from: bayonetbrant on June 14, 2017, 06:05:24 AM
sometimes you draw in the reserves and then wonder what the hell you got yourself into

   No reserves showing up yet.  As historically, the 49th follows a massive barrage through the fog and gains a foothold in the town:

   The British infantry works well when making assaults out of the fog and not being hit by any kind of ranged or artillery fire.  The 49th pushes across two bridges over the Bordel -- which I didn't expect -- and takes one Strongpoint.  That was all fairly bloody, but infantry tend to recover strength easier than other units in this game so now I think infantry might work sometimes pretty well in this game.  Of course now the fog is lifting and the Germans may win an automatic victory by inflicting massive losses on the relatively exposed British infantry.  So I guess it all evens out.

    Here is the end of Turn 4 (which makes it 10am and the fog is lifting):


MengJiao

#6
As a side note, continuing the comparison of GTS and OpDAuntless, on the left are the 15 counters representing a British mechanized battalion in OpDAuntless.  On the right are the five units of a mechanized battalion from GTS.  OpDaunt has 3 inf companies and their Half-tracks along with AT guns, mortars and MGs as well as 3 scout platoons.  GTS has 4 infantry companies (halftracks on the other side) and a reasonable AT gun unit:

Silent Disapproval Robot

I've been fiddling with this game and it's giving me a headache.  Lots and lots of fiddly little rules and rules exceptions to try and keep in mind.  German armour seems ridiculously powerful, especially if you use the fire control optional rules.  Panzer IVs feel like Tigers, the way they chew up Shermans.

MengJiao

Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on June 19, 2017, 07:34:34 AM
I've been fiddling with this game and it's giving me a headache.  Lots and lots of fiddly little rules and rules exceptions to try and keep in mind.  German armour seems ridiculously powerful, especially if you use the fire control optional rules.  Panzer IVs feel like Tigers, the way they chew up Shermans.

  Shermans are pretty fragile in the system.  I just had three get shot up just supporting some attacks.  Since its my first run-through of the big scenario, I'm not sure how bad that is.  Anyway I've avoided as many optional rules as possible since there's plenty of dice-rolling in the game already, not to mention lots of fiddly stuff.  On the other hand, where else would you ever see a British mech bn represented by 15 units?  And the carrier platoon rules are pretty neat (if fiddly).  I kind of like the game -- its very good for solitaire since I have no idea what is going on and there are all kinds of options in terms of buying reinforcements. 

MengJiao

Quote from: MengJiao on June 19, 2017, 06:07:12 PM
Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on June 19, 2017, 07:34:34 AM
I've been fiddling with this game and it's giving me a headache.  Lots and lots of fiddly little rules and rules exceptions to try and keep in mind.  German armour seems ridiculously powerful, especially if you use the fire control optional rules.  Panzer IVs feel like Tigers, the way they chew up Shermans.

  Shermans are pretty fragile in the system.  I just had three get shot up just supporting some attacks.  Since its my first run-through of the big scenario, I'm not sure how bad that is.  Anyway I've avoided as many optional rules as possible since there's plenty of dice-rolling in the game already, not to mention lots of fiddly stuff.  On the other hand, where else would you ever see a British mech bn represented by 15 units?  And the carrier platoon rules are pretty neat (if fiddly).  I kind of like the game -- its very good for solitaire since I have no idea what is going on and there are all kinds of options in terms of buying reinforcements.

  It's a bit after 1pm, and after losing 8 steps of Shermans (= about 16 and at this stage of the war about 4 would have brewed up spectacularly) and lots of troops and carriers and halftacks and machine guns, the 49th (West Riding) is very close to completely blowing through Panzer Lehr.  It's still 3 turns until the divisional boundary can shift, huge reinforcements and KG Wunsche can turn up.  It's the German turn, so there are lots of things they can do: bring in more PzLehr formations, counter-attack, shorten their front (there's a little stream that will help with that).  Still, at the moment, the 49th is very close to breaking clean through:


bayonetbrant

what are those 2 platoons of German engineers trying to do up there?
The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers

MengJiao

Quote from: bayonetbrant on June 21, 2017, 05:22:05 AM
what are those 2 platoons of German engineers trying to do up there?

  The yellow box gives them column a shift against assaults (specialized close range weapons used by engineers apparently).  By this stage of the game, the 49th is bringing in its own yellow-shift assault units to clean up the strongpoints and that strongpoint  (La ferme de la Bijude) is the last one preventing the 49th from running wild in Panzer LehrLand.  Since the position is otherwise pretty weak, I put both the engineers in there.  They also have okay close range AT for platoons.  It also seemed like a safe place to put them in case the Germans need to start counter-attacking and recapturing strong points ( they are also good at attacking in assaults).

MengJiao

Quote from: MengJiao on June 21, 2017, 08:18:53 PM
Quote from: bayonetbrant on June 21, 2017, 05:22:05 AM
what are those 2 platoons of German engineers trying to do up there?

  The yellow box gives them column a shift against assaults (specialized close range weapons used by engineers apparently).  By this stage of the game, the 49th is bringing in its own yellow-shift assault units to clean up the strongpoints and that strongpoint  (La ferme de la Bijude) is the last one preventing the 49th from running wild in Panzer LehrLand.  Since the position is otherwise pretty weak, I put both the engineers in there.  They also have okay close range AT for platoons.  It also seemed like a safe place to put them in case the Germans need to start counter-attacking and recapturing strong points ( they are also good at attacking in assaults).

  And they held on.    Here's the situation at about 2pm:


MengJiao

Quote from: MengJiao on June 25, 2017, 09:36:10 PM

  And they held on.    Here's the situation at about 2pm:

  4pm -- British move starts and they put up air recon.  The circled red 14 is a reminder that that asset will be gone when Epsom starts on turn 14.
It's turn 9 and after 12 hours of battle, things are not going very well for either side: Panzer Lehr is barely holding on and the 49th is nowhere near its main objectives:


MengJiao

Quote from: MengJiao on June 26, 2017, 06:16:31 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on June 25, 2017, 09:36:10 PM

  And they held on.    Here's the situation at about 2pm:

  4pm -- British move starts and they put up air recon.  The circled red 14 is a reminder that that asset will be gone when Epsom starts on turn 14.
It's turn 9 and after 12 hours of battle, things are not going very well for either side: Panzer Lehr is barely holding on and the 49th is nowhere near its main objectives:

  Approaching 5:30 -- the 49th is slowing down and the 192 Bn of the 21st Pz has arrived.  Next turn KG Wunch will show up and that should make life very hard for the 49th.  And in a few more turns the 49th:
a) loses most of its Army level support as Epsom kicks off just to the east
b) is late to take its objectives around Ruaray
c) will face all the German Army-level reserves that it has drawn in on itself

So things look as grim in the game as they did for the 49th historically.