Pre-action report (Road to Rimini)

Goliath

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Anticipating the soon-to-start workshop, I thought I should be a good pupil and have a look at the scenario beforehand ;).

(By the way, I hope I haven't broken some unwritten house rule of not investigating the scenario beforehand :OHNO:. Playing a scenario neither player has any knowledge of, apart from the briefing, sounds like great fun :). However, for a workshop where learning is the keyword, it seems to me that some preparations will better the experience. Perhaps a poll on this would prove me wrong :crosseye::nervous:, and in that case we better drop this thread...)

Anyway, I thought it could be fun for those interested (irrespective of team), to share any pre-action thoughts regarding the scenario. For my part, I have an ongoing hot-seat game against myself.

As Allied, I was awed by the masses of artillery available, and thought that sparing the troops by limited attacks at minimize losses would do, letting the artillery do the job. This worked fairly well on the German forces between the Metauro and Foglia rivers. However, it didn't take me very far when starting to pound the Gotic Line (at Montecalvo, Monteccio and by the coast). When no significant break-through was obtained in a few turns, I lost my temper, and tried to use my troops more directly (after all, the intention was to play around with the scenario a bit). After turn 9, this has resulted in only 27 objective points and a horrendous loss penalty of 91 :eek:.

As German commander, I was troubled by my thin order of battle :(. I let my forces south of the Gotic Line try to delay the advancing hordes as best as they could, while manning the Line thinly with what I had. Most of the forces south of the Line got trapped :upset:, but at least they delayed the Allied advance a bit. The attacks on the Gotic Line itself soon had my troops there glowing red, but by some reshuffling the Line basically held until reinforcements arrived - got mashed - and barely held again until relieved by further reinforcements. At turn 9, the Germans still stand at an overwhelming victory.

Admittedly, this hot-seat game isn't my most serious effort ever at TOAW ;), but it would be interesting to hear any spontaneous reflections (such as "Are you nuts, the Gotic Line should be history before turn 5!":))
 

ralphtrickey

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Itried two games against the new Elmer, The first one on defense, and the second on offense. After reading the scenario briefing, I studied the map. It was pretty obvious that the west side was very weak, but the east side was where all the victory hexes were. Looking at the units I had, I also decided that it might be best to fall back to the Gothic line and try to defend there.:devious:

I was fairly successful against Elmer, although there were some very close moments, and I used every single reinforcement I could get. I was even able to do a counter-attack on turn 9 against Pesaro, and for about a half-turn I had a decisive victory:eek:, but settled for a minor victory. :smoke:

A couple of things I did that may and may not have helped. I blew all the bridges behind me to try to slow down the Allies.:clown: It didn't seem to help much. I also occupied San Marino so that I would have better visibility on the enemy forces.:paperbag:

I tried the Allies, and decided to press against all positions about the same since I had enough men, and probe for weak spots. The massive artillery really heps, and I was told that the PO isn't programmed well. I agree, by turn 7 or so, I had a decisive victory already, so I quit there.

Ralph
 

Veers

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Good plan, Goliath, I'm sure the vets will add their own comments, as well.
As for me, well, I havent played the scenario (have barely even looked at it, actually...:D), so I haven't anything constructive to put forward.
(I'm just organizing this party, the vets are here for the advice :nuts:)
 

jlbetin

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Have a look here

http://forums.gamesquad.com/showthread.php?t=3380

It was played with a previous version of Rimini 1.0
.
Remember this is a four voices AAR take time to read all of them

It must help you a lot

Der WanderDitItForYouAll
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The Best weapon ever:a good Joke. The Best shield ever: Humour
JLBETIN© Aka Der Wanderer TOAW Section Leader is a █ WHQ/SZO/XG/Gamesquad® product since 01/2003

To get news on the Birth of European Army Tournament round one & two, clich here -> Results on 05/17/2007
 
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Goliath

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Excellent reference! (However, I got lost in the redirections when following the strategyzoneonline links :crosseye:)

Judging from the attached map images, it looks as if the terrain in the older version of the scenario isn't as rough as in the new version shipped with TOAW 3. I suppose this means that the brits will have an even harder time in the new version... :surprise:
 

jlbetin

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Excellent reference! (However, I got lost in the redirections when following the strategyzoneonline links :crosseye:)

Judging from the attached map images, it looks as if the terrain in the older version of the scenario isn't as rough as in the new version shipped with TOAW 3. I suppose this means that the brits will have an even harder time in the new version... :surprise:
in case of trouble with links replace strategyzoneonline or armchair string by gamesquad

I'll try to follow links and restore the correct values

Der WanderOnWarPath
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The Best weapon ever:a good Joke. The Best shield ever: Humour
JLBETIN© Aka Der Wanderer TOAW Section Leader is a █ WHQ/SZO/XG/Gamesquad® product since 01/2003

To get news on the Birth of European Army Tournament round one & two, clich here -> Results on 05/17/2007
 

jlbetin

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I did it

I'll run all along the links and repair the urls.
It must go easier now

If I missed one just pin point the url of the page for me to correct it

Der WanderExhaustedByTheTrip
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The Best weapon ever:a good Joke. The Best shield ever: Humour
JLBETIN© Aka Der Wanderer TOAW Section Leader is a █ WHQ/SZO/XG/Gamesquad® product since 01/2003

To get news on the Birth of European Army Tournament round one & two, clich here -> Results on 05/17/2007
 

murphstein

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merci beaucoup!

Just read the two AARs referenced by Jean-Luc, and they were great! Highly recommended reading for my fellow noobs.

Now a couple of questions:

Did the German players move first in this version? There's some mention by both German players of redeploying forces before the British attack and without worry of Allied interdiction strikes. How much of a difference will it make that in our games, the Brits move first?

What's the point in having the German 5th Geb Div and 85th Geb Rgt fixed in place in turn 1 and withdrawn at the start of turn 2? The AARs mention that they fought in your games, so was the scenario intentionally made harder for the Germans with the removal of these two formations?

What to do with the Luftwaffe? I see them as good for just one suicidal attack on a couple of high-value targets; otherwise, they'll spend the whole game reorganizing. Neither German player even mentioned them... ;-)

dpm
 
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General Staff

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I don't see much different in German tactics than those used in the original 2 Weeks in Normandy (and you might want to look at the General Staff versus Elmer game for these ideas):

1) Break infantry/armour units down into 3 and defend in depth. Rotate units in and out as and if you can.
2) Combined arms stacks. A little armour to support infantry helps- you'd be surprised what a single StugIII can do.
3) Arty cover at maximum. Check individual gun ranges.
4) Use best terrain possible.
5) Obviously blow bridges.
6) Hit targets of opportunity with direct arty in support of LA/ML attacks.
7) Your Air 'Force'- if it survives- is best used as a threat.
8) Dig, dig, dig. Always dig.

These are initial thoughts but just back from 3 weeks holidays so will try to look closer shortly. But for now first thoughts for those who have started. Germans just have to try to hold as long as possible as in 2WIN.
 
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