Pelle vs Grubwurm

[pelle]

Grubwurm says he will finally make his first move. Too bad I will be away over the weekend and will not have anything to report for a few days. I hope to play my first turn sunday or monday.

[pelle]

Ok, I got the first PBL file from Grubwurm. I will try to attach it here, in case someone wants to see. Any advice is ofcourse much appreciated in case there is something to add to all the other info in the other threads.Too bad I will not have time to see for myself how he did since I have no time for a few days as I wrote in my last post. :nervous: Can't wait to get back and finally get to play this after reading so much about the other games in this forum!

[General Staff]

The Merderet River line is gone, but you can try and take the bridges over the Taute and at Carentan using hints in other threads here.

You've got a good chance to retake Pegasus using heavy direct arty with LA/ML attacks from the ground with flank adavantage (i.e. 83,36 and Benouville).

Otherwise a fairly standard Allied T1. And advice available commenting on other games.

Time is on your side. Use it. Dig in in best defensible terrain and at road junctions (not necessarily on, adjacent is good and again choose best terrain) to deny them best speed. Break units down. Combined arms stacks. Site arty for maximum advantage of minimum ranged equipment. Hit Naval Assets with your last round using coastal arty. Make them pay dearly for every yard.

You've just got to hold on for 12-13 turns and keep them off Cherbourg, St Lo, Torigni and away from Bourgebus Ridge.

Hope this helps.

[pelle]

Wow, my first turn is completed. That took me over 2 hours 30 minutes, and still I do not think I did very good. Hope at least in a few areas my front can hold for a few minutes.

I managed to retake and blow Pegasus bridge. I did not manage to secure the last bridge just north of Carentan (two other bridges were blown).

I think my worst area is to the west of Caen. I underestimated the number of units needed here to create something resembling a frontline.
I think I sent a bit too much to the east side of the river to fight his paratroopers. Then I realised too late that Bayeux is only held by a single HQ and he might be able to cross the river and attack it easily since most of the defenders are dug in in the wrong hexes. If only I get one turn to move in the reinforcements that are on their way there.

I'm not sure about his intentions in the west. I might have put a bit too much into securing his breakout to the west from Utah. Should I have sent more units eastwards to help defend Carentan or Omaha?

I think he might break out of Omaha. I hope he stays to dig out all my little infantry and 88 platoons spread out all over most of the front, but he might be able to rush a few units around my right flank. :OHNO:

My coastal artillery did not cause much damage. Not very many had targets within sight at all.

[General Staff]

A few pointers:

1) Try and get a surround on 85,37. And the other paras in the vicinity with backs to the river.
2) Try and defend S of Creully using hills.
3) I wouldn't use TR in bocage (e.g. 48,25). It's lethal to attackers and in TR mode IIRC you are as a counter-attack- certainly not dug in.
4) Grandcamp. Maybe some infantry here to support SPGs? CA stack.
5) Defend behind rivers not on them (e.g. Taute River), unless there is a good reason.
6) Units broken down (exceptions mentioned elsewhere), armor in CA stacks (e.g. SE of St Saveur).

Hope this helps.

[pelle]

The TR unit(s) had run out of MP and I thought making them TR would at least give them a small chance of helping out on the front. Now I know not to try that again in defensive terrain. Thanks!

Defending on rivers were done to delay him from taking the bridge hex and moving in his bridging engineers (arriving turn 3?). Now that I think about it I do not see how a company or two will make much difference once he decides he want to cross a certain river.

A few armor units are without infantry because of miscalculations. Running out of MP before any infantry could reach the hex. Perhaps I should move units a little at a time or try to move slowest units first when trying to coordinate them.

My opponent has not contacted me again since complaining about problems using my PBEM file a few days ago even though I contacted him twice again (including trying to send the file again). I hope he is just needing time to make his move and that I will get to my second turn soon.

Edit: Grubwurm quit. I'm up against shoelessjoe instead, waiting for him to make his first move (back to turn 1 again...). I hope the advise given here will help me not make the same mistakes on my new first turn.