June 14, 1944 -- Far Left of XXX Corps

Started by MengJiao, May 31, 2017, 08:17:26 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

MengJiao



  This is a kind of approach to some Operation Dauntless AAR/DARs.  Here we have the situation as the 49th West Riding came up on the left of the XXX Corps line on June14, one day after Villers-Bocage.  The area covered by the Operation Dauntless map is here on the Greatest Day map (grand tactical system) to the east of the Seulles River and centered on Fontenay-le-Pesnel.  The situation is also that of one day after the end of the last scenario in the Greatest Day and one or two days before the first scenario in Operation Dauntless -- a brigade-sized attack by the 49th Division  with the objective of taking Cristot and the high ground south of it.

MengJiao

#1
Quote from: MengJiao on May 31, 2017, 08:17:26 PM


  This is a kind of approach to some Operation Dauntless AAR/DARs.  Here we have the situation as the 49th West Riding came up on the left of the XXX Corps line on June14, one day after Villers-Bocage.  The area covered by the Operation Dauntless map is here on the Greatest Day map (grand tactical system) to the east of the Seulles River and centered on Fontenay-le-Pesnel.  The situation is also that of one day after the end of the last scenario in the Greatest Day and one or two days before the first scenario in Operation Dauntless -- a brigade-sized attack by the 49th Division  with the objective of taking Cristot and the high ground south of it.

  Another comparison:  4 Sherman troops (with one Firefly each)  = one Squadron (Operation Dauntless) versus one Grand tactical Sherman Squadron with 4 Fireflies.  These are sitting on the Operation Dauntless map.  Movement factors are about the same ( which makes sense Op Daunt is 420 meters to the hex and Grand tactical (in this case) is 500 meters to the hex.  The Dauntless Fireflies are a little more resilient (in both games one hit strips off the Firefly factors leaving a modest Sherman behind to continue the fight), but it takes 4 hits to de-Firefly the Dauntless Shermans and only one to De-Firefly the Grand tactical squadron.

bayonetbrant

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 04, 2017, 10:04:05 PM
so which one are you playing?  GTS?

   I'm going to be writing some AARs for Operation Dauntless, but I thought I would start off by comparing some things about GTS (which covers the same area, though only up to June 13)  and Operation Dauntless.  It is tempting since they are close in scale (GTS -- 500 meters and 2 hours -- OpDaunt 420 meters and 90 minutes).  I did run a crude version of the initial OpDaunt quasi historical scenario in GTS using the Canadian 3rd and the 4th Armored instead of the 49th West Riding and the 8th Armored. which makes more sense than it would seem since the 49th left XXX Corps and eventually operated with the Canadian army and the 4th and 8th armored Bdes are similar (each was an ex-Africa Bde with an organic mechanized infantry Bn). 
  So I'm going to be playing Operation Dauntless with occasional side lights from GTS on a related (slightly earlier) topic.

bayonetbrant

Gotcha - thanks for the clarification.

I enjoy seeing how systems are compared to each other, so I appreciated the comments about the Fireflies.
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 05, 2017, 05:33:40 AM
Gotcha - thanks for the clarification.

I enjoy seeing how systems are compared to each other, so I appreciated the comments about the Fireflies.

  Here is a comparison of an infantry battalion from GTS ( Canadian Scotts) to one from OpDauntless ( Hallamshires).  Note that the
battalion in OpDauntless has the Vickers MG section (Kennsingtons in this case) and the Carrier  Platoon, as well as mortars and 6 pdrs.
The MGs, mortars and AT guns are all mechanized with inherent transport states on the flipside (only one step).  The carrier platoon is as odd
and useful as it no doubt was in reality and this is the only game I've seen where it can do much of anything.
   In contrast, the battalion from GTS, has to rely on guns and such from brigade level and the heavy MGs are in their own mechanized formation -- which is nice, but not the way they seem to have been used historically.  As for special rules -- the carrier platoon has a swarm of special rules
and the "purple box" formations in GTS get some tedious and weird free firepower to make up for battalions not having much of a kick otherwise. 

bayonetbrant

So it looks like Op Dauntless is more granular, which lets you experiment more with lower-level tactics?
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 06, 2017, 05:33:22 AM
So it looks like Op Dauntless is more granular, which lets you experiment more with lower-level tactics?

  Definitely much more granular than the differences in scale (GTS 500: OpDaunt 420 and GTS 2 hours: OpDaunt 90 minutes) might imply.  Both games fit into an interesting middle ground between the definitely tactical (250 meters a hex and below) and the definitely Operational ( anything above 500 meters a hex, I guess), but Operation Dauntless is focused on the intricacies of battle rather than the realm of command cycles (which is more a GTS focus -- radio nets, telephone communications, coordination with artillery, assembling your parachutists, recovering your cohesion).  OpDauntless is also pure IgoYouGo and the doctrinal afflautus just gets dumped on the British Army (they can't dig in as well, they can't coordinate or get combined arms benefits etc. etc. which seems purely mythical to me, but its the kind of thing the game thinks is important so there you have it -- GTS also has this -- only the Germans can use the Bocage as Bocage -- which seems odd, but different games have different obsessions it seems -- but more as chrome than a central element).
So can you experiment more?  I certainly am -- the Brits get to dig in as much as they want and have a recon screen when I am running the show -- for example.
BUT GTS allows for many more parametes to shift around (troop quality, command levels and so on) so it really allows more more experimentation overall, I think.  But I've just started playing OpDauntless and maybe it has more to offer than a quick few tutorials and one and a third quasi-historical play-throughs would suggest.