Goliath
Member
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 .
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!")
(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 .
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!")