aar for 2innorm221

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After Action Report : 2 weeks in Normandy version 2.2.1

First turn:
I have divided the map into four sector: first sector utah beach

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First sector: Utah beach, here you see the paratroops (506,507,508 division) who have landed around Ste Mère Eglise, there is also a lot of units on two hexes on the beach. During first round I try ov victory every where it works for a lot of units except at Merderet bridge and for the bunker on the left of the beach, at the end of the first round Ste mere eglise was on my hands, I also had taken control of some bridges I didn’t move my units more than 2 or three hexes also when they won an ov just for preserving a lot of rounds, I put the units who didn’t win ov on limited attacks for the tanks and single unit attack for infantry (usually this is how I proceed to take control of hexes) and I used the boats for supporting main assault. At the end of first turn all the units in the area of Utah beach were linked, I had gained control of ste marie du mont, st come du mont, Merderet river and even St Sauveur, I was really satisfied for the results of this sector.

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second sector: omaha beach

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this is where I had more difficulties to destroy the defences of the Germans, during the first round none of my attacks were successful, little by little I manage to make the infantry unit around Colleville retreating but it wasn’t worth the price because during the first assault the 741 tank unit evaporated losing about ten tank, I managed to make the unit fortified in Vierville retreating some rounds later but at the end of first turn I was only one hex away from the beach well this is not quite good I was a little disappointed by these results on this sector

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third sector sector: gold and junnio beach

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for me may be the sector where to progress is very easy because ov assaults work a lot of time especially with the strong armored brigade I managed to go deep quickly enough on this sector and at the end of the turn on the left I was at the door of Bayeux, Creully was mine.
After having destroyed the defences facing the Canadians, I used them to encircle Douvres and it worked well at the end of the turn douvres was in my hand and the units defending it were completely destroyed by the british. I was very happy for what happened in this area .
Forget to say that one armor brigade was sent to help linking at port en bessin

The planes

During all the scenario my strategy for the planes was the same: at the beginning of the turn I put all my planes on combat support and by the end of the turn before launching what I thought it would have been the last combat round I put all my planes on interdiction. I think this was a good idea but if you want this to be effective you must be a master in knowing how many combat rounds you gonna have. As I’m not really a master yet, this didn’t work so good in the game, but in general I maintain that it is a good idea.

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sword beach

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First thing I did in this sector was to regroup the british paratroopers by taking control of the road I have pointed on the map, the units on the beach were used to head for caen and particularly Benouville at the end of turn one Benouville was mine but the assault on Troarn was unfortunately unsuccessful so I think I was half satisfied at the end of the turn one for this sector. Pegasus bridge was secured but I didn’t manage to hold the bridge further south so I had only one bridge for sending units towards the east.


First turn: conclusions

1)get off the beach everywhere: ok except for some units around Omaha beach.
2)Link the beaches : problems with Omaha and utah beach.
3)Sending reinforcements for helping paras: ok
4)Take important bridges on major rivers: ok
5)Go deep in enemy lines: (written after the game) didn’t thought to send more units in the east of sword beach towards Pegasus bridge in order to take Caen from behind.

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Turn 2 to 12

First sector, Sword beach, east of Pegasus bridge, the situation of british paratroops

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Britishs paratroops have been pushed back from Toarn during all the scenario I didn’t thought about sending them reinforcements to help them to escape to the germans, I thought that each groups had its task and that it was out of question to divide forces.
Obviously it was a mistake I should have sent at least one or two formations to help them and if it had succeeded may be I could have pushed further south threatening heart of Caen.

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Final british paratroops situation

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This is a real disaster, they are encircled, exhausted and they have no chance to head for an harbour so they will probably be destroyed, I hope queen of England will forgive me lol.

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Sector of Caen: you can see German counter attacks in grey and allied attacks in orange

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British and Canadians formations have tried during the entirety of the scenario to take control of Caen, but this was a failure, I thought that I have so much forces that it would work but it didn’t, the reason of this failure is that the Germans have a lot of arty units
Some good armor units even equiped with panthers and infantry units. Frontal assault didn’t work so by the end of the game I tried to build a bridge on the Orne River to go south of Caen, this attempt have been pointed on the map with a yellow arrow, but it was too late and the result was also a failure loosing units for nothing, I nearly managed to take bourguebous bridge for while, that means if you see an opportunity of going deep into enemy lines don’t do as I did believe in what you think, take units as much as you have and send it in the rear of the enemy and it will probably work. I didn’t believe in my breakthrough so it failed because not enough forces.

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Here is the final situation in this sector

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I have been pushed back from Caen and I’m about to loose Pegasus Bridge, it is certain that the allies won’t take Caen before a while lol. The german counter attacks were quite strong of course but I think this situation is due to a bad play from me but I’m sure triaxe will give his opinion about this. However my losses penalty is equal to the losses of the Germans: 2. I think this situation is a real catastrophe for the allies.

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West of Caen: I had sent the british troops here hoping a breakthrough giving me the opportunity for attacking Caen: result failure again

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As you can see british are completely stuck around Tilly sur seulles, and German units are far from being exhausted. Once again my strategy failed despite heavy attacks along the front line

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Fourth sector: forest of Cerisy

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You can see that I managed to take foret de Cerisy unfortunately for me this is the only objective I managed to take. Except this my situation is not good neither because I didn’t managed to cross the river and by this not threatening St-lo.

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Sector of carentan:

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In this sector I think I was not far from taking Carentan, my failure was due to the fact that I couldn’t repaired and secured the brige located on the map early enough to threaten Carentan seriously otherwise I think I would have been able to take Carentan and even more. A possible strategy would have been to send units towards the west of the map to help paratroops putting a foot on the other side of the river near St Sauveur.

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Following sector: St sauveur

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As you can I have choosen to stay on defence on this sector because I thought I had not enough forces to attack, I was hoping a success in other sectors to go further

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Final sector: Cherbourg

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In the beginning of the game I faced to a very strong defence around Valogne I only find about the middle game about how to avoid it by going north unfortunately things have been decided before I could do this.

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Final conclusions.

I think 2 weeks in Normandy is a well balanced scenario but I think that a allied victory is most likely to be the outcome but they must be very cautious!!!!!!!!!!!! For this so here are the keys for allied victory in 2 weeks in norm ( well these are what I think)
1) link the beaches.
2) help your paratroopers dropped at the country
3) keep bridges intact as much as you can
4) garrison every bridges and important points, this is an important thing to do because by doing this you prevent your enemy from counter attacking, by garrison I mean leaving at least a strong infantry unit on ignore losses with if possible artillery support for defence.
5) Keep strong reserves in the case of the enemy managed to counter attack, you can afford this because allied have a lot of troops.
6) Take any opportunity you have for taking bridges and sending units in the rear of the enemy, you have the advantage that the German cannot afford to garrison each points so it should work.
7) you should try to have a lot of your planes on interdiction, I think it’s very useful not only because it bombed enemy units but especially because it reduce enemy’s supply
don’t forget this.
8) one thing I consider important and that I forgot to do is to bomb major bridges to delay Germans reinforcements and to cut his supply lines however I don’t really understand how do bridges affect that.
9) Dig in all your troops at the end of your turn, I’m sure the veterans all do that, but for my part when I am on the offensive I often forget to dig in my troops and when Germans are counterattacking, my units are more likely to retreat or to reorganise.
10) I don’t know if it is allowed or not but putting ships in harbours along the coast will increase your fire range.
11) a good tip for destroying bunkers which can fire on your ships is to use armored units on ignore losses attack with maximum naval support ( also on ignore losses) I tried this after the game against the po and the results astonished me a lot each time I did this the result was 0% losses for allied army and the bunker was at 100% destroyed and it doesn’t take much round of combat this are the reasons why I think it’s a good tip.

Well I think it’s all I have to say for the moment for the game I have played with allied forces against Triaxe playing the wermacht, anyway a good game