DC1: Warsaw to Paris - Jason vs Barthheart

Started by Barthheart, March 20, 2017, 06:25:53 PM

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Barthheart

Prologue

Well, we're at it again due to overwhelming peer pressure. This time around Jason will be driving the panzers while I will try to use all the Allied toys and grit and luck to stop him. :bd:

We're going to try and play the campaign game but just the Poland and France scenarios. So Jason wants to do well in Poland so he gets some more toys in France and I need to do well to hobble him enough in France to be ale to pull out a win.

Doing well in Poland is harder for the Germans, but I need to really make him pay to get the most benefit in France. I have a few tricks up my sleeves that I won't go into yet in case he's reading this.

The struggle will begin in earnest tomorrow night when I open Jason's file to see what he managed in the first actions. I hope we can keep you all entertained.  :)

JasonPratt

My AAR thread is temporarily open at the moment, too, btw: no spoilers there yet.  O:-)

Adding this thread to my sig.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

Crossroads

Quote from: Barthheart on March 20, 2017, 06:25:53 PM
Prologue
So Jason wants to do well in Poland so he gets some more toys in France and I need to do well to hobble him enough in France to be ale to pull out a win.

Subscription in for this thread as well  :)
Campaign Series Legion | CS: Vietnam 1948-1967 | CS: Middle East 1948-1985

CS: Vietnam DAR: LZ Albany as NVA (South Vietnam 11/17/65)  
CS: Middle East AARs: High Water Mark (Syria 10/12/73) Me vs Berto | Riptide (Libya 8/6/85) Me vs Berto | The Crossroads (West Bank 6/5/67)  Me vs Berto

Boardgame AARs: AH D-Day | MMP PanzerBlitz2 Carentan | OSS Putin's Northern War | GMT Next War: Poland | LnL Against the Odds DIY

JasonPratt

#3
Strictly speaking, if Barth delays me sufficiently there will be no war in France; and if there is, I'm going to get the toys anyway. What I won't get is a full recharge of my losses if I take more than 10% casualties. Any losses above that will reduce my replenish by proportion. (Roughly speaking for example, if I suffer 11% casualties, I'll only replenish back up to 99% strength.)

Any political points I manage to spare / gain in Poland, I can spend on France, but I'm not sure what I can spend them on. Without historical variants, there aren't many valid pre-scenario cards to buy. (The engine allows me to waste points on them anyway, but to no purpose. There are two valid choices pre-Poland which I'll explain in the AAR.) Once I'm into the operation, I can buy another infantry division every once in a while as I gang up points. Is that it? ...maybe? From a campaign perspective, the goal is to save up enough polipoints to help with the end-game invasion of Britain -- which we aren't planning to do.

Unlike more PanzerGeneral-ish games, I can't spend points during a mission to replenish troops, much less upgrade kit; I don't think I can upgrade kit (much less buy extra units) between scenarios later.

I mean, sure, I'll buy a few more infantry divisions as I get them, but I'm wondering if I should do that now in Poland so they can get some experience maybe -- but that only makes sense if they carry over into France. Otherwise extra divs only make sense to tip a balance in case I'm risking losing Weiss.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

Sir Slash

Sounds good Jason. Best I can remember from playing against the AI, getting to Warsaw is the key...duh. It has many more Vic. points than any other Polish city and is their source of supply. It wasn't too hard to get there but unless you can cut it off from the east and isolate the units supply there, it becomes a slug-fest for the city which will cost you plenty. The Polish Airforce-- no problem. The Polish weather-- BIG problem. Rain just killed me in this scenario. That I remember well.  :pullhair:
"Take a look at that". Sgt. Wilkerson-- CMBN. His last words after spotting a German tank on the other side of a hedgerow.

Barthheart

Kinda disheartening when you all are planning my demise in my onw thread.....  >:(  :knuppel2:

Anyway time to get this show on the road so no more reading Jason.  ;)


Barthheart

#6
September 1, 1939

The Germans come streaming over the boarder. And pass along a message to the first post boy they meat....


(click to embiggen)

Not sure he really wants to lead with HQs but who am I to argue with the him....  ???

Barthheart

Next up we get a message the ordinary citizen are flocking to the help save the nation.



If only they'd flock in more useful places than behind enemy lines and out of supply.  :crazy2:

These are great messages to get though.. free troop, even if they are speed bumps. I'll take all I can get.
<:-)

Barthheart

#8
And then we come to what we are all fighting for... VPs!  \m/



Now, Jason doesn't need to take Warsaw to win but he'd have to take pretty much every other VP location instead which can take a lot of time, of which he only has 14 turns, each turn is 2 days
All the other red dot cities in Poland are worth 1 VP. There are VP's outside of Poland that I can try and take which will reduce Jason's total... but it's stretch for me to get to them... mostly... ;)


Barthheart

GHQ does have some command cards to play but I think I'll hold these for a bit. The Supply Depot one comes in very handy if a large pocket forms and needs to hold out.


Barthheart

Northern Sector

Now to my actions for the first turn... mostly running away. But I can't run too far too fast because I need to slow the German advance and make him pay with casualties as a penalty for the next scenario.

So to that end I withdraw in a few places, yellow lines, and advance in a few others, brown lines, and hold and dig in in others, orange lines.

There are a few spoiling moves that I like the Poles to try to keep the Germans on their toes. For example at location 1, these bridges connect the German rail net to the East Prussian net. If I can destroy them and keep them out of German hands, they can't use strategic movement in East Prussia and thus can slow them down.

Also, at points 2 and 3, I'm using cavalry units to try and cut the German supply lines. This game is all about supply lines. If you get cut off your ability to fight degrades making it harder to fight. They again will slow their advance. I'm trading a few unit for time. Jason's hard lunge at point 2 makes him vulnerable to being cut off. He'll have to keep at least one unit back to keep his line open and maybe chase down the cavalry. Again at point 3, he can over extend trying for the "cheap" points at the back of the battle. So some more cavalry to keep him busy.


Barthheart

Middle Sector

Here it's mostly about getting behind rivers and blowing bridges, which went well except for one bridge.... next turn. The Germans need to get their engineer units next to a blown bridge to fix it. Engineer units can also move fast which makes some people use them for recon ahead of the main force as well as bridge repair. So whenever I see an engineer unit out front and lightly guarded I'll make every effort to attack it hard. Fewer engineers mean fewer repaired bridges which mean slower advances.

I also need to get unit around Warsaw and Lodz, large VP locations. The sooner they stop moving in a good defensive location the sooner they build up their entrenchment values making it harder to dislodge them in a fight.

Poznan, on the far left, can usually hold out pretty well but one needs to make sure they don't get pocketed. It's worth 2 VPs but the troops are better used to defend Warsaw. Sometimes you get caught here though so then you need to make the Germans pay heavily to try and keep you pocketed.... supply card is handy here if required.


Barthheart

Southern Sector

Here the main focus is to protect Krakau, 5 Vps, and not let the Germans make an end run around the Middle. So more units moving into blocking positions and getting behind rivers.

Points 4,5, and 6 (proper comma usage  O0) are more spoiler advances trying to cut supplies or at least draw off front line troops. In the south east, the Slovacs and the few Germans down there are especially vulnerable to being cut off because they are already at the extreme end of the supply line.


Barthheart

And finally an overview of the whole theatre at the end of Sept. 2.


Crossroads

Quote from: Barthheart on March 27, 2017, 07:52:53 PM

Points 4,5, and 6

:bd:

Will be interesting to see how the first turns will evolve, and which card you'll finally opt to play.
Campaign Series Legion | CS: Vietnam 1948-1967 | CS: Middle East 1948-1985

CS: Vietnam DAR: LZ Albany as NVA (South Vietnam 11/17/65)  
CS: Middle East AARs: High Water Mark (Syria 10/12/73) Me vs Berto | Riptide (Libya 8/6/85) Me vs Berto | The Crossroads (West Bank 6/5/67)  Me vs Berto

Boardgame AARs: AH D-Day | MMP PanzerBlitz2 Carentan | OSS Putin's Northern War | GMT Next War: Poland | LnL Against the Odds DIY