It's a Long Way to Tipperary Tournament - Round 3 - S43 DIME Beach

[Dog Soldier]

Turn 17 2:00 PM 11 July 1943 Day Normal Conditions Visibility 5km

  GT17 CR.jpg (Size: 20.87 KB / Downloads: 3)
Another nine units disrupted with five reforming. Allied artillery, (maybe naval) and air strikes do a lot of damage.

  GT17.jpg (Size: 151.66 KB / Downloads: 4)
Steel God has chosen to retreat and use his artillery and air strikes to run up the casualty VP over four turns. That could make things very close. I have decided to shift my forces towards the the airfield he is holding to force the VP down and see his reaction.

  GT17 1_PzG 1HG.jpg (Size: 5.22 KB / Downloads: 2)
I split the Biscari - Vittoria line to cover the large PzGr unit advancing along the secondary road east of the river.

  GT17 82 AB Pest trapped.jpg (Size: 45.55 KB / Downloads: 4)
In the north, I trapped the AB unit against the board edge.

  GT17 VP.jpg (Size: 20.97 KB / Downloads: 4)
I was able to inflict enough damage to reduce the VP Steel God accumulated in his turn. Total net VP for the turn is four VP in favor of the Allied side. I can live with that. Hope he begins running more units low ammo or unavailable for naval and artillery fire. However, retreating shortens his lines to supply points on the beach. Maybe that is what he is doing.
Dog Soldier

[Steel God]

Situation at the end of Turn 18 – 1400 July 11th 1943

Well Brian did as I thought he would, moved forward and exchanged fire where it was advantageous for him to do so.  The net VP gain was 15VPs (score at 642) so unless he can push through and capture an objective, I think we’re still looking at a Drawn game.

Shuffled everyone around, fired off all my artillery and took some SA attacks, pushed the score back up to 658 – see saw.

[Dog Soldier]

Turn 18 4:00 PM 11 July 1943 Day Normal Conditions Visibility 5km

  GT18 CR.jpg (Size: 20.36 KB / Downloads: 7)
Maybe made some mistakes here this turn.  We will see how bad it will be. I moved my stack near the Gela River up to continue pressing the 1st ID defending in front of the southern airfield. I miscalculated MP for the other stack of panzers in the center. I wanted to shoot and retreat there. Ran short on MP.  Paratroops in the north were assaulted as my engineers resolved low ammo status this turn.  Less than ten paratroops are left there.

  GT18.jpg (Size: 157.37 KB / Downloads: 6)
Steel God was able to add 16 VP in his half of the turn similar to the last turn. I was not scoring more than I lost. I only reduced his VP by four points in my half of the turn. This battle might be taking a nasty turn for me.

  GT18 VP.jpg (Size: 19.72 KB / Downloads: 5)
Dog Soldier

[Steel God]

Situation at the end of Turn 19 – 1600 July 11th 1943

Well that worked out almost like I planned it.  Brian shuffled some stuff around and closed with me to look for favorable fire exchanges, but he only picked up 4 VPs for the effort (score at 654) and has left many of his best units open to isolation this turn, which I will gladly oblige him with.  I don’t expect them to stay isolated but it will cut down his fire effectiveness considerably, and who knows, maybe something develops that allows me to get a juicy assault in somewhere and steal enough VPs for a Minor (I’m closer to one than he is at the moment, although he looks to be going heavy for the Airfield at hex (12,20).

Well, I managed to isolate his Tigers, the bulk of the Livorno Division, and the HG’s Half Track Mounted Engineers in hex (13,18), and for good measure also isolated his PzIIIs and half his PzIVs in hex (18,20).  I also shelled an Italian armored unit (D35s) off the map.  Otherwise, I kept SA fire to a minimum especially against that big stack with the Tigers as I didn’t want anyone going Low Ammo (they’re all currently supplied) in the event he tries to assault forward with that isolated stack I want the best odds I can get.  I’ve got 600 B quality on one side of him and 800 B quality on the other side, and with him being isolated even with 1100 or so troops in there with those Tigers (they’re all C I believe except for the HG Engineer unit with is probably A) he’ll be at least D morale for isolation and possibly some E’s because the Livorno has taken quite a bit of fire and might have some units at +100 fatigue.  If he tries to combine the Germans with the Italians that’s another 20% hit, and in both stacks he’d have to disrupt 2 B units – none of that’s impossible but if he tries and fails it could leave him open to follow ups on my turn that cost him a fair amount of VPs and hence the game would go from a Draw to an Allied Minor.  I suspect he will move a unit up and extract that stack out of isolation.  I expect him to do that with the isolated Panzers in (18,20).  Score stands at 662 and barring something weird or foolish, likely to remain in that Draw territory.

[Dog Soldier]

Turn 19 6:00 PM 11 July 1943 Day Normal Conditions Visibility 5km

  GT19 CR.jpg (Size: 24.18 KB / Downloads: 5)
The command report shows Steel God saw and took advantage of my mistakes. A long list of isolated units. I will be able to rescue them. I doubt this will propel him to a minor victory. A draw is still on the table with only one more turn to go.

  GT19.jpg (Size: 146.23 KB / Downloads: 4)
As I suspected, my panzer stack SW of Hill 41 took two shots after moving so did not have enough MP to move back a hex and avoid encirclement. Not too costly. Seems every gun both onshore and offshore attacked the Italian tank unit covering the rear of the large stack east of the Gela river. When the bombardment ended, the unit was scrap. I sent another Italian tank unit form the stack to the west to break the encirclement allowing my large stack to retreat. I have taken a dozen shots at those Shermans and only resulted in fatigue. Not one has been lost. I will file a complaint with the munitions quartermaster for sending me paint rounds instead of AP. Beautiful colors though...
Meanwhile the PzGr approaching the Ponte Drillo are battering the 45th ID unit they are facing. Too bad there were not enough Axis troops between Biscari and Vittoria to properly recon and cover each other to allow me to move earlier.
The last of paratroops in the north surrendered this turn.

  GT19 VP.jpg (Size: 20.2 KB / Downloads: 3)
In the Allied turn he gained only eight VP. I took ten of those back. Just an even turn with two VP in my favor this turn.The Allies need 100 VP in the next turn to change the victory level. I do not think that is possible.
Dog Soldier

[Steel God]

Situation at the end of Turn 20 – 1800 July 11th 1943

Well, the situation Brian was in left him few choices that didn’t involve risking a Minor Loss for almost no chance of a Minor Victory, so he did the prudent thing and extracted all his isolated troops and fired where he could, moving the score 10 VPs in his favor (652).  There’s no way for me to come up with the 50+ VPs needed for the Allied Win, and even if there was, he’d only have to shave a few VPs off to knock it back to a Draw.  Conversely there’s no way he can capture 100VPs worth of objectives to push this to a Minor Axis Victory because he’s too far away from the objectives.  So, this one will fizzle out with each of us just trying to move the needle by whatever small amount we can to earn the best score for the Tournament.  

An interesting side note – the Allies still have a Light Armored unit from turn 5 that has not landed, and the divisional artillery battalions from the 45th ID have never set up.  The latter is just bad luck but the PDT values have Artillery Set Up at 100% for the Axis and at 75% for the Allies, so it's a luck issue the Axis never has to contend with.  The former issue with the never arriving armored unit, however, is just the best argument I can think of for not having variable reinforcements in a short game.  Variable is fine in large campaign games, but in a short game it can be a real balance killer.  Not the case here since I don’t think that unit makes a great impact, but the principle is the same, and what if instead of a light armor unit it was the 1st ID HQ instead?  

And that’s that – fired my artillery off, exchanged SA fires where profitable, focused on the HG Engineer unit stacked with the Livorno because that’s what I would have done in a campaign scenario, blew up the bridge at Ponte Drillo so he couldn’t sneak across in a miracle T mounted attack and steal 50 VPs, and pulled back the defenders east of the Acale to minimize his opportunities for good exchange rates.  Pushed the score to 680, which he will shave down by a dozen or so, but a Draw it was destined to be and a Draw it remained.  Be most interested to read Brain’s side of this tale when it’s posted.

[Dog Soldier]

Turn 20 8:00 PM 11 July 1943 Day Normal Conditions Visibility 5km

  GT20 CR.jpg (Size: 17.47 KB / Downloads: 1)
A third of the nine HQ's went out out of command this final turn. The Coastal Defense HQ is still broken. Not a surprise there as it kept coming back in bad situations to allow Steel God to reap VP from it. The two other HQs were the mobile groups E and H.Mobile Group H is stationed on garrison duty east of Acale River and has met no threats. No worries there. Mobile Group E though has troops in the large Italian stack between the airfields. They are a very small group now. Overall it is the unfortunate three battalions of the 4th Livorno MID that are disrupted which diluted any punch I could throw in this last turn.
 I was able to rally only one of the nine disrupted units. It was the Italian mortar unit which was recovering from disruption for several turns after being hit on day one by enemy artillery. It has essentially been of little to no use most of the game.

  GT20.jpg (Size: 247.11 KB / Downloads: 3)
Fired artillery and direct fire at targets which were engaged to reduce the VP count. The PzGr Battalion moved to Ponte Drillo to fire on the engineers left there to guard the VP location.  No air units available this turn.  Reduced the VP gained by Steel God in his final turn by half. A draw is a good result.

  GT20 VP.jpg (Size: 21.08 KB / Downloads: 3)
Overall, the Axis game is one of balancing risks. There is no safe strategy. 
The map clearly shows the Acale River as the biggest obstacle to shifting Axis troops between the two beaches the Allies com in on. The third front is the scattered 82ns AB drops. It is a conundrum for both sides. Weak AB units can be surrounded and destroyed piecemeal before they link up to form stronger units. However, the low visibility on the first day makes that a difficult task for the Axis. Putting too many units into the hunt weakens any chance of smashing the Allied sea landed units before they can get organized.
The various commands are all independent of each other and thus unable to be incorporated into a single coordinated CoC. Command ranges of the Italian HQ's are middling at ten km which means to be effective they have to stay fairly close to their units. I had a bit of bad luck (or just was not lucky enough) having the Italian Trg Cadre unit which starts disrupted in the pillbox at Plano Lupo failing to rally. They were easily pushed out by the Allies losing a key position on the highest ground close to the beaches. If the Axis can hold that position just long enough to get a German unit into it, it could be held the rest of game. The Plano Lupo position would break any Allied attacks causing them to split to either side like the Hougoumont position did to the French at Waterloo.
The Germans are the effective units.They are few in numbers compared to the Allies so only a fraction can be consolidated to a strong stack or two. Covering their flanks is an issue then. Once committed, the Axis force cannot switch fronts easily.
The bridges across the Acale are far to the north on poor roads or trails preventing swift maneuver. It would be poor Allied play to not secure the Ponte Drillo area early before Axis forces can reach that location. Ponte Drillo and the bridges at Gela are key to the Allies developing internal lines allowing them to shift forces to meet Axis threats faster than the Axis can develop such attacks.
Essentially the Axis player has to choose where to strike  on the first day, and get there fast hoping the Allied player is looking for advantages elsewhere.
By the second day, the game becomes a grinding slug fest, unless one side or the other has guessed wrong where to deploy their strongest forces.
Make for a fun game none the less.

Dog Soldier

[Mr Grumpy]

Thanks for the excellent AAR, having just played this scenario previous to the Tourney it has been interesting to see the differences in this game to the one I played, my Para's were able to link up with the 45th ID and hold Vittoria & Biscari in the east, in the centre I captured Piano Lupo quite early and that anchored that part of my line, in the west I also managed to capture Ponte Olivio village hex which after some heavy fighting the 1st ID used that hex as a springboard to capture the adjacent objective hex late in the game, I was helped by the fact my opponent committed the Livorno ID to the recapture of Gela which ultimately proved impossible but I did have to commit elements of the 1st ID to ensure I held it, this is a vital part of the battle as significant Allied reinforcements land at Gela (as well as the 250vp), so its loss would almost certainly mean the Allied player would lose the scenario.

Having been away for PzC for many years I now realise how far on the series has progressed and that this scenario (edited in 2009) requires some updating, however it still remains a fun scenario in its present form.