Tuesday 13 August 2019

Rommel Mid War American v German

Andy and I played another Rommel game last night, this time a one-off Mid War game.

For a change I went for a low army size and maxed out on artillery intending to defend. Andy picked a high army size so I got to choose the scenario and went for 'Evacuation' in which the attacker has to capture three out of five objectives which are removed after a varying number of turns.

As the defender it gives you some tough choices such as how many objectives to defend at all (if you try to defend all five your force will be spread too thin), which objectives to concentrate on defending (the ones nearest the attacker have to be defended for the shortest time but are more vulnerable than the ones further back) and if you can afford to sacrifice any units to delay the enemy.

The terrain didn't go great for the Americans with a low number of 11 terrain choices and Andy getting to choose terrain first only two of the objectives ended up in cover. The Americans deployed to defend four of the five objectives. The Armored CC deployed so that it could withdraw after luring the Germans into an attack onto a second objective the Americans didn't actually plan to defend with the Infantry RCT defending the other three objectives and the American artillery park:

Having deployed the American infantry defending an objective that would have to be held for eight turns looked a bit isolated. They would need support quickly to hold on as they were bound to be attacked in strength:

The Germans line up to begin their attack. They have a new toy in the form of a Nebelwerfer which is a very effective short-range artillery base. Contributing 5 strength to an attack (albeit with short range) doubled to a potential 10 by using a tactic it looks dangerous and was of immediate concern to the Americans!:

The Germans use road movement to advance quickly and launch some attacks all of which are beaten off with losses on both sides. As anticipated they have committed a lot of units to attacking the objective held by the American Armored CC:

They also attack the isolated American infantry in the town, they take heavy losses and only just hold on:

The battle lines after the initial German attacks:

The Americans reorganise their forces and withdraw from the objective on their left according to plan. The American infantry in the town on the right will have to hold on a little longer until the Armored CC can help them. The only attack from the Americans consists of using 'Jabos' to blow up the Nebelwerfer, the Germans having forgotten that any German unit that made a road move in the previous turn can be targeted by Jabos who inflict a single hit. Artillery only have one hit so it destroys them! While having no actual effect beyond it's loss the Americans are heartened by the removal of the Nebelwerfer threat and the Germans slightly upset their new toy didn't last long:

The American infantry hold on despite taking more losses:

Support for the beleaguered American infantry is moving up and they don't need to hold on much longer. Much of the German force on the American left is going to take time to get back into the action:

The Germans make one last attack on the vital town. Both sides throw everything into the combat. The American infantry only just hold on, two units being eliminated and the third reduced to a single strength point! With a little more luck the Germans could have won the game here:

The Americans have held the town long enough now and the survivors evacuate it. The final two German objectives are strongly held by the Americans and with night approaching it looks like the Americans will hold on:

The Germans continue to attack but have taken heavy losses weakening their ability to inflict damage on the Americans. On their side the Americans have a front line of almost spent units but also enough fresh units to defend the remaining objectives:

The American perimeter is much reduced but the evacuation has almost been carried out now:

German attacks continue but with little chance of success:

Night is about to fall with the Americans holding on for a victory:

Another great game which we really enjoyed. It could easily have gone the other way on a couple of occasions when the American infantry in the town on the right only just held on.

As ever the choice of where to spend your Ops and what to defend/attack was crucial and the more experience we both gain the harder those choices are. My choice of a small army with lots of artillery did work out in the end, unusually for the defender I inflicted a lot of damage on the German units which meant that while they had a lot of units left at the end most of them were very weak.

Without the artillery the weak American infantry and armor would have survived the German attacks but not inflicted any damage on them so it certainly played it's part.

The plan to appear to defend the town on the left, drawing German units towards it before retreating to concentrate on the other objectives also worked to a great extent.

Having played a lot of games with me as the Americans and Andy as the Germans I think perhaps next time I will try the Germans while Andy has some British he is keen to use.

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