Campaign tactics - zone breakthroughs and deployments

[broadsword]

Just a thread about how the PG campaign system -- as used in Cassino and in C&C Vol. 2 "War in the Hedgerows: Operation Epsom 1944" -- creates some interesting and additional dimensions to decision-making...

Here are the campaign zones in Operation Epsom:



And there's a rule in the campaign that says this:

9.5 Breakthrough Setup.
If during a battle phase one or more units are able to break through to an area that is adjacent to their parent battalion or support unit’s designated target area but is not adjacent to the area where they were deployed during the current campaign day’s Deployment Phase, then non-activated enemy units deployed to the area may set up at that time. This happens at the moment when the first unit with an attack order enters or fires on any hex of an area that was not designated as a target area this phase. The player owning the non-activated battalions (and any support units) deployed to that area sets up all their units and leaders per rules 9.1 and 9.4,
and once he’s done setting them up play continues normally.

(Those deployment rules 9.1 and 9.4 say that the defender has to deploy AFVs out of range of any AT-capable units, and non-AFVs have to set up out of any enemy unit' DF range.)

This can lead to some interesting tactical decisions.

For example, in my current Epsom campaign, it's June 26 at 11:45 a.m. The British have advanced up to the SE border of the Cheux sector where it adjoins the Odon Valley-East sector.

The British are trying to decide whether to:

A) Keep pushing W to defeat the remnants of the 1.25th SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment (the shortest route into Cheux), or.
B) Break through S into Odon Valley-East (to cut off Cheux from the S and SE, and/or to exploit S into the Odon Valley.)

To make a good decision, the British commander needs to know what German forces are in Odon Valley-East and where they're deployed.
Those Germans will be "inactive," because if they were activated they'd have been deployed onto the map at the start of the day's battle turn. The German player gets to put them on-map the moment any British unit enters or fires into the Odon Valley-East zone. But since those Germans are "inactive," they can't move or do anything except opportunity fire and spot for bombardments.

So the British player moves a single platoon one hex, from the Cheux zone to Odon Valley-East zone, on a "recce mission." That one move forces the German player to deploy and commit any forces assigned to that zone. And sure enough -- the German player turns out to have 1.26th SS Panzer regiment and the Mark IV tanks of 9th SS Panzer Company in Odon Valley-East. The British unit can now see them all deployed, report this back to HQ, and the British can avoid advancing into a giant kill sack.

Also, now that the Germans in Odon Valley-East are committed to the map, the British player can maneuver against them -- as long as he doesn't move adjacent to any of them or cause step losses among them, they have to remain asleep and inactive where they were deployed. If those conditions are violated then the inactive units get "released for combat" and can move and fight normally.

So, the campaign zone system and the rules for activation/release of units make for some pleasingly complex situations. Keeping certain German units selectively "asleep" is one of the biggest advantages the British have in the camapign game that they don't have in the CMBN original scenarios, IMHO.

For example, in the Cheux sector, the 1.25th SS Panzergrenadier Regiment has been largely chewed up -- but they still have the fresh and unspotted 5th SS Pz Company (3 x Mark IV tank platoons) in support. By avoiding any attack on the tanks, the British have kept it "inactive" and out of the fight thus far. That will allow the British to deal with the tanks separately, and on the most advantageous terms they can -- maybe with an airstrike, for example, which spots its own targets automatically.

Some may wonder if it's unfair or unrealistic to have the German player's hands tied this way. What do you think? I like it because I think it simulates command-and-control issues. I imagine that the hellacious British shelling and forceful attack have thrown German communications into disarray. I can imagine the situation collapsing around Cheux, but higher German HQ either not realizing it or refusing the local commander's requests to release the panzer company. After all, the German HQ would say, 5th SS Panzer Company is the only armor in the Cheux sector, and none of the main British tank units have appeared in the attack yet (the only tanks the British have fighting now in the area are Armoured Engineer "funnies").