Hedgerow Inferno

[Abatis]

Hey guys,

I'm playing WF Hedgerow Inferno with John Given, and just wanted to say- as a custom scenario -it is really fun. It's real heavy hitting with a good force mix for both sides. Our scenario has evolved into 3 sub battles , A real tense mix of urban combat, with clawing for control of a bald hill top, to hunt and chase through the hedgrows. We d'loaded it from the Blitz, any who haven't checked it out for pbem, you should :) If this is old news, well, its still good news! :D

[John Given]

Yes, I must concur with my friend Abatis on this one - this scenario is confounding because the allies have several avenues of approach. The number of units in the scenario also seem to be just about right. It is a large map, but with only 20 turns it is just great for pbem.

Right now Abatis has the edge, and may retain it. I think the key to this scenario, even more than others, is to grab the high ground and hold it - but Brian ain't makin' that easy for me!

/toast to the campaign series :toast:

[John Given]

Well, the game ended early with a major victory for Abatis.

The point win/loss victory point ratio trended sharply in favor of the allies in the last turn played (11 of 20) as combined infantry, artillery, and tank forces pummeled the already battered and overextended german forces.

If I had to play this one over as the german, I believe I would be tempted to choose some good firing positions and let my enemy come to me, as opposed to trying a blitzkrieg against such a well-equipped american force.

The problem with that strategy, is that if the american sits back and waits for the germans, the german will lose - the americans hold many of the better objective hexes at start, and the starting victory condition is "minor german defeat." The german must attack savagely if he is to have any hope of victory.

Point spread was fairly even through much of the game (minor german defeat/draw, but again, trended downward in the last few turns as artillery claimed massive german infantry casualties, and was sitting at "major german defeat" when I resigned.

Good game Brian! :salute: :sigh1:

[Abatis]

Hey thanks :)

I'll tell you- I was getting worried myself! My losses seemed pretty high to me- and not knowing your last reserves were already committed and already weakened..well, I was just hoping to hold on. :shock: The battering ram into both towns was pretty intense! The back and forth fight for Mt Robin also a high point(and not just the elevated geographical kind). I was wealthy in reserves, fortunately!

In the Germans shoes- I would have not attacked the towns until I had that hill. US has a lot of arty, best way to shut it down is to have that hill, and kick out those observers. Also, from there, the main road between the US positions can be cut off, and LOS into the towns for arty established. With all of the armor and shock troops in the German OOB- I think all of them focused together could take any of the objectives one at a time...but then there is time to consider, and if the isolation approach is feasible within the game clock- and that's open for debate!

ANyhow, looking forward to the next one.