Conquest of the Aegean - After Action Report

Games
21

Day 1. 2000 hours

The sun has now set, and it will soon get dark, giving everyone more freedom to move than they might otherwise enjoy. Soon I’ll be thinking about redeploying… But I have another hour of twilight to deal with first.

Thought I’d do this one by region, as the global perspective hasn’t changed much, but there have been some changes in each location.

Nor-Force

North Force has had no major challenges at all. No sign of any attempted bridge crossing. The blocking company managed to very successfully pull back and then redeploy behind a bridge. Oh, I used mil symbols this time! The other symbol indicates whether a unit is dug in, deployed, or moving. My units are dug in or deployed, the approaching Germans are moving.

The next blocking position is behind another river, and by then I figured the unit would be pretty tired so I have ordered it to pull right back once it’s taking too much fire there.

The dark blue line indicates current unit commander (me), the light blue indicates it’s orbat commander, which is the “21st (Auckland) NZ Infantry Btn. HQ”. If I were to order the coy. to ‘re-attach’ it would fall back under the command of the HQ unit.

Cen-Force

Centre force is having a bit of a hard time. You can see here a Coy. has been forced out of it’s position (on the right) and is returning to it now. All units on the map have been blazing away at each other, and the East-most company has also had some air strikes called in on them (I think). Air strikes really scare the hell out of your boys and make it likely for them break and retreat for a short while.

[i](Thanks for the comments. An AAR is the next-best thing to playing multiplayer for me. Hehe. I kinda wish I’d finished my PIRATE aar for Crusader Kings, when I ran the little island of Corsica. I wrote it all in-character. It’s probably still on the Paradox boards somewhere. Unfortunately, not much happens when you’re Corsica hehehe.

EDIT: Oh, I found it! Pirates of the Med)[/i]

22

Day 2. 0001 hours

On the left, the coy. there has been heavily shot up by arty and air power, but has managed to fall back to its first fall back position. It’s rather shaken up though. Units seem to be pouring over the ferry in the west. It’s probably time to start thinking about pulling everything out before any more forces get too engaged and the Germans bypass my main line, or pin it and encircle.

In the centre, despite heavy shelling, it seems the ferry there has been used successfully by the enemy, and with it dark, we can’t be too sure where he is. I thought this might happen, but it was a better deal than just leaving a coy. right in there to be destroyed.

In the north, the picture is like this:

Nor-Force

Despite my boys being dug-in in Tempe, the approach of a motorcycle unit threw them for a six and forced them back further into the town. The engineers on the bridge got a bit freaked out too. I have no idea why :( …There’s also an enemy unit on the other side of the bridge it seems.

My delaying coy. gave up any hope of moving to it’s penultimate position, due to the closeness of the enemy, and instead decided to pull right back to its final destination. Fair call says I.

23

What do all those incomplete white boxes mean? Is that facing, zone of control, emplacement area, or what?

24

All of the above. The bigger the box, chances are, the more guys are in there. You can change the frontage and depth, but generally I leave it at default, or make a line, as the engineers are, and the AT unit in the woods is.

I usually set facing, but sometimes I don’t and the AI will make the call to point towards the greatest threat. Units will adjust as new threats come along though. My stupid Auckland coy. was happily on the edge of the village facing the incoming threat when it got bounced. It’s currently moving back to it’s position where I hope it will redeploy and kick the damn motorbike bozos out of town!

But first I think I need to give all of my units orders to move out. With this side of the river lost, essentially, there’s no point in trying to hold ground that’s no longer worth anything. Now it’s dark I’m hoping I can get my boys out safely and get them into new positions without them being molested. They have all lost most of the fatigue they started the day with, but I’m sure they’ll be pretty tired by morning!

25

Day 2, 0002 Hours

The GREAT REPLAN. Otherwise known as “AARG RUN AWAY, RUN AWAAAAYY”.

I’ve given my Nor Force (now given command of the Engineers up there as well) and my Cen Force (now in command of C coy. at the other bridge) orders to pull back and set up a series of positions for a delay order. The positions bring them in line with the force controlled by Allen and already in the gap between the hills.

Arty guns have been ordered to pull back as well. I won’t be able to see the enemy before it’s too late, so best to get them into nice new, safe positions for dawn.

Orders delay suggests most units will be on the move within about 45 minutes. Which I can live with. They have some distance to cover, especially Nor Force, but I’m still hopeful most units will be in position by morning.

My main fear remains the western ferry, but the coy. over there hasn’t been molested for a while, so fingers crossed they are not heading his way and are perhaps trying to sweep into my left. By the time they reach their goal, with luck, all they’ll find is empty foxholes.

Below is the map, with each position in the fall back plan labelled and coloured. As you can see, if they do try and head down the valley they will be facing pretty solid lines of our boys.

26

I agree. But, I did find Highway to the Reich at nws-online.net for $15. Matrix still wants $50 for it.

http://yhst-12000246778232.stores.yahoo.net/hitorecdrome.html

Thanks for the suggestion, salwon! I’m really enjoying HttR and will probably grab CotA when it has a price break.

Great AAR, Calistas. Keep it coming. This is really informative about how to play this game system.

27

Really well put together Calistas.

28

Day 2, 0200 Hours

Just in time, it seems, my boys are on the move out of the front lines…

Note the situation. On the left, an infantry company of some form has managed to get across the ferry in the dark. In the centre, the red ! marks the position of a sighter German unit, more are likely to be behind.

The North East is quite an interesting spot. Bombardment of town has pushed both of my units back and the bridge and town was quickly taken by Germans. No matter, minutes later the units there had their orders to slip out and south. You can see all the routes plotted out and the units under way.

Thankfully, my arty has got itself into its new fall-back position and I’m already using it to try and screen the withdrawal. Without that screen those mechanised units would never let my foot-bound soldiers out of their grips.

Scarily, the AI threw me for a loop with a sneaky rear-attack, with their probable line of advance marked in red. I’m pleased I had that blocking coy. retreat to the woods there. I had in the back of my mind that those lads would provide some ‘just in case’ backup, and they did, forcing two armoured coys. and I think an infantry coy. with a surprise that was enough for force one to retreat.

The friendly Kiwi coy. there just got its orders to pull out, so the arty is going to try and buy them the time they need to make it out in one piece. I hope the Germans will be too busy dodging shells and consolidating their gains to grab any of my moving units by their short and curlies.

29

Day 2, 0500 Hours

ARG! Dawn! Damn you!

My central force is jiggling about, but mostly pretty close to its position. My northern force, as you can see, is strung out, and marching a long the side of a hill while Germans in the valley below look up and go “LOL WUT?”

I’m going to have to lay down a massive amount of artillery to keep the Germans from putting up a lot of effective fire, and I don’t have that much to spare. Only plus for me is that my guns are now pulled back and pretty close to the supply depot - if it can even keep up with their demands!

30

Yowch! I kept quiet, but this was my fear with your initial strategy – that a sharp push through the middle could divide your forces, and end up with one part enveloped. Not sure I could come up with anything better though – you didn’t have much to work with – but I do wonder if the bonus for holding on to the bridges was a poison pill…

Things look bad for your northern forces – good luck pulling them out of the fire!

31

Day 2, 1500 Hours

A painful morning and afternoon was had by all.

Well, Nor Force has been hammered pretty hard. In hindsight I should have plotted a course for them way over the back of the hill. They were going to be slogging it by foot either way. But at least they’ve slowed down the Germans a bit, after all, who doesn’t want to stop for a bit of a turkey shoot?

The NE enemy has managed to catch up with Nor Force, although I’ve held them back a bit through a pile of arty. Thank god I’m so close to my supply depot.

The Western enemy has, as hoped, taken the river road to join the main body. While this bodes badly for later, it’s a hell of a lot better than if they’d taken the longer but more dangerous (for me) South and Western route into my rear.

The rest of the Germans have been crossing the river in force. I’ve been keeping the large concentrations saturated in artillery fire, along with any that looked like threatening my boys.

In a good example of how order delay works against you, you’ll note the little blue arrow in the center. That’s about 3 different coys. all trying to get to the same damn patch of hill for their ‘delay’ order. I’ve hard to re-order them back a bit, meanwhile, the enemy coy. in there gets free shots at somewhat surprised Aussies. Thankfully, two mortar units are within range of the enemy coy. and have been keeping its head down.

Germans must be quite experienced units, takes a lot of arty to break them or force them back.

Hmm, my delay plan has gone a bit awry. In places it’s fine (where I’ve got the blue curves, units are dug in), but Nor Force have had to be issued entirely new orders, placing them well to the rear of the current force.

Come nightfall it will be a big re-org time. Nor Force will probably go straight for the exit, the rest are more rested and better able to fight I figure. Hell, I might group them ALL and go for one big series of delay orders. MM… naw.

Oh, notice the cavalry (literally), has arrived! B Sqn. 2 NZ Cav Div has popped in as reinforcement and is in the middle of its pre-assault re-org (the blocky icon over it, it’s on the right). I’m sending it assaulting up the road to hopefully cover Nor Force’s retreat a bit.

It’s rather light, on the left you can see it’s equipment sheet - Vicker’s light tanks and Daimler armoured cars. The heaviest armourments are the 50-cals on the ACs, they should give the enemy a little surprise, but I will not be able to afford to leave this unit hanging around for long, they will be vulnerable to infantry guns and any of the German ACs I suspect.

(Jasper, yeah I almost wonder if it would have been better to pull that northern unit back altogether. But then you still have to find somewhere to put them that doesn’t mean they’ve enveloped from the flank and frontally. It’s a tough problem. If I had ordered their pull-out at about 6pm Day 1 I could have had them moving and clear all night and that might have been a bit more safe!)

32

Day 2, 1630 Hours

CHARGEEE! Well, the cav charged, and hit nothing. Which is… ok I guess. I’ve ordered them to do a bit of delaying in the retreat route of Nor Force, with losses set to ‘low’, so hopefully they’ll shoot up the enemy a bit, but scoot as soon as they get any serious return fire.

Pleasingly, Nor Force seems to have disengaged from the enemy successfully. It’s moving on at a good clip now and not being constantly forced to ‘take cover’. The enemy seem to be concentrating through the town where the little arrow is.

On my NNW sector the enemy have tried to form up for an assault at least twice, each time I’ve dropped all 16 guns on rapid fire, and sometimes mortars too. This seems to have had the desired effect and you can see a red down-arrow, indicating an AT unit routing, and a couple of yellow down arrows indicating retreats.

In COTA you really, REALLY don’t want your form up point to be in view of the enemy. Your units are quite vulnerable at their form up point and hitting those areas with artillery will stop any chance of a successful attack.

I’m no military vet, but I serve (badly) in the New Zealand Territorial Force (our version of the US reserves) and having been done the whole form-up point thing as a baggy, I can well imagine how completely unnerving and destructive it would be to be shelled at that time.

The pleasant thing about hitting the Krauts there near that bridge is not only are they forming up, but other units are still crossing. It will take them some time to sort that mess out, time I can use to get my boys into safety come nightfall.

33

Day 2, 2000 Hours

Night is coming! And we’re all still (mostlyish) alive!

In this image I’ve got the LOS area tool going, so please let me explain before you wonder what the grey mush is.

I noticed the Cav unit wasn’t up to much. I clicked the LOS Area tool and clicked on the unit. It appears my lads have managed to park in the only ditch for miles around and can see about as far as I can piss.

I have ordered them back to ‘defend’ another point, which, as you can see from my click, offfers better LOS options. White is easily seen, greyish is can see in the distance (I think). Mind you, it will be dark soon. Hmm.

One of the great advantages of mechanised units is their speed on acting on orders. Only 30 minutes delay for that cav units.

In other areas the Germans continue to push south, slowly, despite my arty blazing away. The Germans seem to be treating the arty as a minor annoyance, whereas my guys drop throw their hands in the air and scream off into the sunset at the merest incoming whistle. I wonder if perhaps I’m seeing occasional air strikes, but I can’t be sure.

I’ll give it another few minutes and then order new move and defend orders. With luck we’ll again see our boys bail out over night, and have them ready for more pew pew by dawn. That being said, I have to exit most of my force by Day 3, 1200 hours. So perhaps it’s about time for a big long slog back to Larissa. Come midnight all available points for my two remaining objective towns will be had (although I might lose a couple of points by leaving early), and my last task will be to get the hell out of dodge.

34

Thanks very much for writing this, good stuff.

I like these games a lot, but your problem with the cavalry LoS is one of the things that annoyed me about playing them. You can order an attack and the AI plans it and does a reasonable job of running it. But if you want to set up a defence, it feels like you need to micromanage and place units by hand.

35

Excellent work so far. Your success here also highlights something to keep in mind when you play Germany (or any large motorized force, really): KEEP MOVING!!! Forming up immediately on the other side of the bridge/ferry is suicide due to exactly what you did. Sending them across by battalions is definitely better in this situation - the Aussies are reeling, and by pressing the attack through the night (fast move order, aggression set to max) would’ve kept you falling back to the point where there was nowhere to go.

Of course, we’re also seeing why attacking in Greece was so stupid to begin with. Germany here has probably 3-4x as many men and a ridiculous firepower advantage, but because the movement lanes are so small it’s relatively easy to mount an effective defense by delay orders and opening up with every gun you have.

Great stuff. You should take a screenshot of the headquarters unit to show how the supply system works…if it’s not too much more work :)

36

Pishtaco - Well, the mistake with my cav is really one of my own making. You can check the LOS from anywhere on the map, to anywhere, either by clicking the “LOS Area” tool or by the normal LOS tool. I should have played around with the LOS at my assault destination before I told the boys to advance.

Salwon - Yes, good idea. I’ll try and get something up on supply next update. Being so close to my own supply lines is definitely helping me in this fight. My guns are quite regularly topped up with more ammo, and I’m extremely wasteful with arty rounds!

37

I’m impressed you made it away, I’d figured the main crossing force would cut sharply east to seal your northern group in. Maybe this is a factor of Fog of War… which hopefully affects the AI too? Ideally, the option was there for the bold and foresighted, but wasn’t clear to the AI, so it took the prudent choice of playing it safe for fear of a trap.

Plus, I hadn’t counted on the effectiveness of your artillery in stalling the German Advance. How exactly do artillery orders work?

38

Artillery’s on the map just like any other unit, it’s just a matter of giving them a “bombard” order, specifying the rate of fire and the length.

Actually you can leave the arty in the AI’s hands, and units will call for fire support when they need it (very effective for battalion level mortar assets), but for the big pieces there’s a nice “Fire Support” tab on the left side of the screen that lists all of the arty you have available. It’s an incredibly streamlined system, but it also makes it just a little too easy to forget about the guns when you’re retreating!

39

Jasper - Yes, Fog of War does work on the AI too. Panther Games are quite proud of their AI which doesn’t “cheat”. The other factor to consider is that the ground Nor Force is on is really steep. In places, up to 40 degrees. This is well beyond what any mechanised force can easily travel on. The only exception (I think) is if they are travelling on tracks, and the route to Nor Force is a bit convoluted.

They could probably have sliced across and added more fire-power to the bombardment of my boys on the hill, but they didn’t, because they also suffer from order delays and perhaps the AI decided it had more important tasks than sorting out a force to attack, and then later on re-ordering that force to move back against the MLR.

As for how art works, there are two ways of doing it.

  1. leave your arty organically attached to your Btns. This is quite common with mortars and on larger maps. Mortar teams will move and work with your btn, so in a defence order, the mortars will be towards the back, and on call for your AI to use, and in an attack they’ll set up to cover an shell the target, etc.

  2. Take control of the mortars and big guns with your ‘commander’ and manually move and place them around and manually call them in (and leave them on call perhaps).

I tend to like to take complete control, so I do two things:
a) I move my guns around myself
b) I don’t leave them in control of the AI.

The AI is pretty good at using the guns wisely. Front line units might spot a particular threat and then call in arty on them, and the guns will happily blaze away. Thankfully, they only blaze away on “slow” ROF, it takes the player to call in “rapid” ROF.

In this scenario I’ve tried to use the arty as a big hammer to stop the enemy getting too close to my guy, and to kill as many as possible of their men at the crossing points, where they are concentrated. It’s worked well, but I have used a LOT of artillery.

Units are particularly vulnerable to arty when they are road-moving or forming up. They generally get forced to take cover and maybe deploy, and that buys my defenders more time. Take enough casualties and the unit will retreat, or rout. When it recovers it will try to return to it’s last task.

The enemy FUP I’ve been hammering has been hit with all 16 tubes on rapid for 20 minutes at a go, usually multiple times. Add in mortars when they have got to close, and then longer bursts at slow rate of fire, and you can understand why the enemy have made such halting progress in that area. I’ve not seen the effect of 16 25lb’ers pounding a 500m square box (or so?), but I think it would be extremely troubling for the recipient. A great book to read is “Guns of War” which is the memoir of a Canadian 25lber gunner, he talks about how effective arty was at breaking up attacks.

In terms of how arty orders work, I’ll put some screens up tonight. Essentially you click on your “fire support” tab, select the arty unit, click ‘bombard’, then place the marker. The marker, like all orders, can be adjusted. Specifically, you adjust the ROF and duration.

In the next game, Battles from the Bulge, you can order more complex arty strikes and coordinate the arty with assaulting units etc etc

40

Those dashed lines on the map represent paths more than roads, it’s hard to move the mechanized troops around on them. The AI is good at choosing paths - if you tell it to take the quickest route, it will find the correct road to take them to the destination. You can force them to go a certain way, but it’s almost always better to trust the AI.