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

[Dog Soldier]

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

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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.

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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.

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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