Scheldt '44 Market Garden (expanded) Allied AAR - settled for a Draw turn 69

[ComradeP]

With assaults limited by stacking limitations, poor tank performance and my D quality units making hardly any impression with direct fire, I asked James if he would settle for a draw on turn 69. He agreed.

He was kind enough to share his password. Here's the situation on the German side of the fence on turn 69.



Aside from 59. Infanterie Division, a handful of units near Nijmegen, some Division Erdmann units and the bulk of the D/E quality units Division Von Tettau, the Germans are in decent shape. The slowing down of the Allied offensive combined with the frontline becoming very narrow must've allowed my opponent to rotate forces.

Normally, I try to keep hitting the same unit to keep increasing Fatigue, but that wasn't possible anymore. Many German units don't even have any Fatigue at all. Of course, the same goes for my units. After a lull of one or two days, everybody that hasn't been in combat is nearly fresh. The Germans also benefit from their generous recovery/replacements.





I was fairly happy with how the game went. I could've been more aggressive earlier, but I preferred to concentrate my forces. Slower progress on the flanks also meant my opponent concentrated some forces there. In the east, that led to the D/E quality units being clobbered and Division Erdmann narrowly escaping.

In the end, it was just too hard to make progress as the front became more narrow. The Allies really lack the means to make an impression on entrenched units due to low unit quality.

Well played by James. The only move I didn't really understand was why he didn't counter-attack the Scottish Division or move the A quality units elsewhere. There wasn't much point in keeping high quality units there for him if he didn't intend to counter-attack. I could've made an armoured push there, like in the east, but the results were not worth the hassle after a number of urban areas were turned to RUBBLE, limiting movement along interior lines prior to the weather worsening.

Suggestions:

-Reduce fire effect reductions for fortifications, at least until combat calculations are adjusted to divide/multiply instead of being cumulative. 10% Improved, 20% Trench would be better in scenarios with low quality forces like this.

-Remove morale penalty for Allied artillery. Though there might be a historical justification for reducing morale for Allied ground units, the relative lack of German artillery and the Luftwaffe rarely making its presence felt the Allied gunners had an easy time. Artillery is weak enough as it is in PzC and further reductions are not necessary.

Also: the indirect fire modifier applies to support fire during the enemy turn. The notes imply the reduction to 90% for the Allies is intended to be a penalty for offensive fire as Allied fire concentrated on the frontline positions.

Errors discovered:

-25 pounder unit belonging to 11th Armoured is fixed for the duration after returning as part of 11th Armoured instead of 5th AGRA.

-Polish airborne engineer unit has vehicle movement/defence stats.

Potential error: T-mode movement speed for Allied engineers and infantry doesn't match. Speed 10 vs. Speed 12.

[Elxaime]

The only move I didn't really understand was why he didn't counter-attack the Scottish Division or move the A quality units elsewhere. There wasn't much point in keeping high quality units there for him if he didn't intend to counter-attack. I could've made an armoured push there, like in the east, but the results were not worth the hassle after a number of urban areas were turned to RUBBLE, limiting movement along interior lines prior to the weather worsening.

I was very cautious even with the Scottish Division stalled due to the impact on German forces to the east (Erdmann and friends) being steamrolled by the massed Allied armor attack earlier.  I wasn't sure how fast the Allied armor could relocate.  I also wasn't sure what was behind the Scots and was also very wary of the Belgian and Dutch resistance units and their ability to move from one ZOC to another, as that had been used earlier near Nijmegen to surround a unwary German unit or two.

[phoenix]

Thanks both. I really enjoyed the AAR, ComradeP. It did make me think - especially in the light of David's comments above - that I would rather wait until the first patch is out before embarking on it, if only because of the Renkum bridge aspect.

I would like to ask, ComradeP, how you think this compared to playing the old MG scenarios? I myself found that it was difficult enough getting paras to Arnhem and keeping them there in the old MG 44 stock scenario, and even in the alt version. Difficult even there to replicate history. Even harder here - impossible, I think you would say, no? I mean 3 days at Arnhem holding out, in game terms, is around 30 moves, isolated. That's never going to work.

[Mr Grumpy]

Just some info FYI, I found it was impossible to reach Arnhem against a competent German player in the stock game, so Ed allowed me to do some work on this aspect in the _Alt version and after much testing I found it was possible to reach the Arnhem with a number of units via the historical route along the rivers edge (Lion route), but one other big change from the stock scenario is that there is an Allied supply source in Arnhem which means that the Para's will not suffer the isolation penalties that they do in the stock scenario.

I never actually had the time to play the whole scenario through to see if there was a chance that the Para's in Arnhem might be able to hold out, but at least these changes meant there was a chance they would.

[ComradeP]

I've never played Market Garden '44, but 1st Airborne capturing and holding the Arnhem bridge isn't going to happen with or without a supply hex. The Germans pack a pretty serious punch near Arnhem, and it's easy to move additional forces to the area. A 387 Men para or 512 glider battalion isn't going to last long against prolonged direct fire.

The size of the 1st Airborne perimeter is the main limiting factor in the two games where I'm playing this scenario as the Axis. If 1st Airborne holds more terrain, it's more difficult for the formation to hold any part of the perimeter but it takes longer to clean up.

There's also the somewhat curious situation that the fighting in the southern half of the map tends to favour the Allies in terms of progress on the flanks compared to history as the Germans lack the units to hold the area. I overestimated German capabilities in that area. Contrary to my usual practice of analysing a scenario prior to playing it, I was mostly improvising during the opening of this game. I didn't play it blind, but I didn't check German strength thoroughly.

The fighting in the northern part of the map favours the Germans. The Driel ferry is down at the start of the scenario, whilst it was actually in place until the arrival of Polish units. The rail bridge was also only blown up when 1st Airborne attacked it. On the other hand, the ferry between Huissen and Loo was destroyed by the ferryman and was in the water in two pieces during the operation. The ferry at Pannerden was badly damaged.

Full hex ferries and full hex bridges and hexside ferries/bridges work differently, and the impact on the scenario can be quite big. Hexside rail bridges are light in the scenario, but full hex rail bridges support any kind of unit moving across it in T-mode. Hexside ferries require units to be broken down. Full hex ferries can be used by combined units.

Similarly, engineer units with boats can ferry combined units up to the stacking limit into a water hex provided you move units as stacks. If an engineer unit with boats is adjacent to 3 water hexes, it can move all infantry battalions in a division across a river in just 3 turns (stacks move into 3 water hexes, stack moves to hexes on other side of the river, second batch of stacks move into the water hexes during the same turn, second batch moves to the hexes on the other side of the river) , or even 2 depending on unit size and stacking limit. Those engineers are busy beavers.

When 82nd Airborne makes a concentrated push towards Nijmegen, it's difficult to stop, but it can't both attempt to save 1st Airborne and secure the Nijmegen area.

The initial division Von Tettau units are weak, but they only need to be present to act as an anvil for the hammer of the combined SS and Heer forces engaging 1st Airborne. The NCO School and training units are also pretty good. Moving them to the area between Rhine and Waal will make it very difficult for the Allies to evacuate 1st Airborne.

In a team game where I'm controlling Axis forces around Arnhem currently at turn 20, 1st Airborne isn't really going anywhere, but the Germans are still too weak to make a strong push along the perimeter. That the hammer will be coming down soon is a certainty, however.

In another game, I'm playing a forward defence as the Germans and though casualties are pretty stiff for Division Erdmann and some other units, Allied progress is limited. I've lost 2 companies of Fallschirmjaeger that pushed too far near Eindhoven, but the withdrawal has been more or less orderly otherwise. 1st Airborne was knocked out on September 20th and German units in the area moved to 's Hertogenbosch by train. Both 101st and 82nd Airborne have lost several companies, but nothing dramatic yet.

[phoenix]

Thanks.

[CountryBoy]

I can't comment on Scheldt 44, but in the original Market Garden, I was able to get 1st Airborne units adjacent to the bridge hex and keep open a link to the rest of 1st Airborne for all 90 odd turns. But I couldn't take the bridge, despite eventually bringing XXX Corps infantry over the river using the Driel ferry. That said, my opponent didn't play a very aggressive defence around Arnhem.