It's a Long Way to Tipperary - Round 4

[Ricky B]

Without taking anything away from the Allied players’ great skill, I think that, in any case, the opponents failed to position their units in a tactically effective manner, given the enormous losses they suffered. I believe that 1,600 men with "A" morale crammed into a single hex are not easily neutralized, and that the Shermans, even in large numbers, since they cannot fire from a distance of 2 km, they must always position themselves adiacent to german infantry units, which can provide substantial anti-tank fire, if available. The 87 tanks my opponent lost were mostly the result of attacks against my infantry, apart from a few long-range shots fired by the Mk IVs and Tigers.

Ciro

Each battle is relative. ComradeP asked how we achieved our wins and what I did at least, may not have translated to how you fought. I can see that Akilpio was very aggressive, hence his what I would call very high losses to win his battle, compared to my losses. And ComradeP's losses were a bit similar but lower than mine - so I can see he didn't use his armor up close as much as I did.

I don't know if you fell back early and concentrated your forces, or did it in place? I do myself on defense try to avoid the wall of units and instead concentrate, as maybe you did from the start, or maybe after falling back? I do know that the Germans, with 39,000 men, could only form maybe 20 stacks of 1600 men leaving gaps between them and likely not covering the entire front except for smaller stacks, and even at that without much in the way of reserves?

So in that situation, what I would do as the allied player as I did anyway, would be to use the Devils Bde commandos to push between stacks since they can move through ZOCs, while having massed armor facing the stacks on either side and regular infantry following up. That worked in both my games for the tourney to unhinge the German line in the east, although in both cases there I had at least one opportunity of a massed assault with the commandos against generally 2 German companies that caused over 100 German losses to maybe 30 commandos.

Anyway, just saying that as you say there may have been better defensive solutions to try but then as the attacker I would be working to still find weak points and focus on a small number of points with massed forces. That definitely doesn't mean it would work any better than what ComradeP appears to have tried in shifting major forces to the west side, too.

Anyway, I always try to focus on where I have the advantage, fall back where I don't but staying ready to advance again. I follow the principles of war that I learned in the US Marines 45+ years ago - with a focus on these 3: concentration of force matched with economy of force, along with flexibility.

Rick