(12-03-2012, 11:51 PM)Matt W Wrote: Vince,
Wonderful summary. I have played this one through scenario 7 and have many of the same comments. I did, however, try the penny packet defense in some cases in order to delay the Americans. Warning, it doesn't work for beans. The penny packets can be dealt with by a portion of the American force while the remainder, which is generally more than enough moves on towards the objectives.
The American player needs to be acutely aware of the potential for losses. While they have overwhelming force in many cases,
As to the OBA. Most of the "Invasion of Germany" scenarios reinforce the idea that the German army in that campaign and others on the western front faced a vastly different threat than on the eastern front. While they were certainly outnumbered by the western allies it was the tremendous superiority of artillery that made for the greatest difficulty.
I believe that writeups like this help immensely in giving some "feel" to the products. Each game or supplement tells a story to the players. Certainly Daniel and I came away with a greater understanding of the Peruvian-Ecuadorian conflict with War on the Equator and I can tell you tons of stories about the Razakar militia of Hyderabad now that we are 7 scenarios into Indian Unity.
BTW, Vince, that ribbon looks good on you.
Matt,
Thanks for a full response to the post, it is appreciated. I have purposelly truncated your 'quote' above in places to answer those parts showing.
The summary has been brewing slowly since the completion of the module. Adding here, deleting there and re-reading everywhere .... and I have still found mistakes now that is posted
I wanted to 'lay-down' the experience so that others who HAD played it could comment on how it relates to their plays, and for those about to play, especially if less versed in outnumbered defence play, a few ideas of what to expect and maybe how to tackle it. I also intentionally left out American counter-counter-measures in the hope that the Ami triumvirate of Wayne, Alan and Tony can add THEIR side of the story and how to combat prepared defenders.
On the OBA, it realistically served a purpose of very often though not always keeping my maligned troopers head down and in cover. Rare was the time it seemed that they could roam freely across the game-board. It usually came down to times when they were out of LOS or when tastier targets were on offer. It also helped the US on a couple of occassions against German AFV positions. I think Wayne will agree that a decent OBA strike he had on a StG platoon, subsequently demoralising or disrupting it, opened a pathway for a decent and safe US advance
in scenario 10 (Like A Dose Of Salts).
The module gives some other relaistic outcomes. Studying the numbers chart, look at the amount and percentage of 'experienced' German officers that had to be sacrificed to hold that line. Always an underlying issue for the Germans was the slow and sometimes fast evaporation of experience and I saw that occur in these scenarios. Also, man for man, German-US losses were about the same, 107 v 108 steps overrall. But look at the material lost by the US. So many more tanks and a plethora of 33 APC's bit the bullet. German ordanance suffered likewise once their positions became revealed. Here again, these numbers seem to tally up well with the written material on the subject.
This is at least the third write-up on a completed module and it may be a useful folder with such a title to stick these threads (and no, I don't wish to receive offers of other places I can stick it
).
The ribbon I have to say has turned out nicely. Its quite out there on its own in terms of colours. I like it ! I'm looking to perhaps joining P.Lloyd in the North of Elsenborn Ribbon club or Roer River Battles, we shall see. Aachen looks a bit more intense and will see me visit there later.
