Turn 4 - 07/15/1943
Here’s the position at the start of the turn:
East |
West |
The Allies won the initiative roll, and Eric chooses to go first. He makes a new landing in the US sector to the west of my units, which I was afraid might happen. I'd let the following Italian divisions lag the Germans and had left some coast exposed behind the main German defensive line. Even worse, this gap also separated the KG-Ens units from their HQ, definitely a bad mistake. Sure enough the HQ gets eliminated, and I've got a real bad situation on my hands.
Then things get even worse. I go to use my reserve artillery to barrage the Brits aiming to attack south of Syracuse, but Eric thinks I've already attacked them with air barrage. We must really be getting tired (we've been going for about 8-10 hours) because I've got no clue who I did/didn't attack, so let it ride. (I did my air barrages first, east to west, so by the time I get to the artillery barrage some little time has passed.) This means that he makes a successful attack and gains a foothold over the river. Only after do I figure out that it was the next stack I'd air barraged, but it's too late. The attack gains exploitation, and he also attacks into the outskirts of Syracuse, getting another good result, and I compound the earlier mistakes by losing a unit rather than retreating. (As I decided to fall back in my turn this was an especially bad decision.)
I'd also made the mistake of defending in the rough to the north of Ragusa, thinking it was Very Close terrain, when I should have defended further back in the mountains. That costs me another unit.
Here’s the position at the end of the Allied turn:
East |
West |
In my turn in the east, on the coast I retire my left flank a little to the low hills along the coast, but keep my right flank on the river. I'm starting to think about falling back to the next river, although I'm going to have to endure a turn or two defending in the open, which I'm not hopeful about. I pull back to the mountains in the middle, and all along the US sector it's time to find a good defensive line.
End of turn 4 position:
East |
West |
Not a good turn for me. Over on the right, things are looking really scary. KG-Ens is going to have problems keeping in supply with no HQ, and my KG-Flrd HQ is looking very exposed. There are only a scattering of weak Italian coastal divisions holding 2nd Arm. from running around the entire western coast, and as I'm 2 from 2 in my surrender rolls for coastal divisions it could all go pear shaped in very short order. (I've made 6 surrender rolls so far, losing 2 coastal divisions and the Syracuse coastal artillery, winning 3 coastal artillery. I'd have gladly swapped one of the coastal artillery units for one of the divisions.) That landing behind my front line has really put me off balance. Nice move, Eric. (Curse your eyes!)
At this point we call an end to the first day's play. We probably started around 1030, ended around 2200, and broke for lunch and dinner for around 1.5 hours.
Turn 5 - 07/17/1943
The Allies win the initiative and Eric elects to go first. I'm quite happy with that decision as I think a double move could be truly disastrous for my prospects. Eric grinds forward with the Brits, but the US forces don't press as much as I'd expected them to. Perhaps he has more supply issues than I'd expected, which I'm so disappointed to hear, if true. (NOT!)
I get pushed out of the hills on the coast in the east, so I take that as a hint that it's time to start falling back.
In the west he captures Porto Empedocle, and assaults my adjacent unit. The surrender roll for Assta division goes my way, which means that I have some units to hold the west with, although it's one of the smaller coastal divisions. However, he takes an 'o' result and chooses to retreat, leaving the port open and containing 2T.
Here’s the position at the end of the Allied turn:
East |
West |
My turn sees me move a couple of Italian units to the river at Augusta, ready for falling back next turn. Otherwise I just do a gradual fall back through the mountains, linking up the east and west sectors with HG division. In the west his retreat from Porto Empedocle seems like an invitation, so I march right in and capture 1T. (You have to roll on the Supply Dump capture table, which gives you a percentage of the supply that you capture.) The rest of the Italians are trying to get there, but I don't want to spend a lot of supply on fuel, so they keep walking slowly. Otherwise it's just finding some good defensive terrain to fall back to. Otherwise, I'm just falling back and trying to keep a line.
End of turn 5 position:
East |
West |
Turn 6 - 07/19/1943
Once again Eric wins the initiative roll and elects to go first. His air barrage roll is another 1, two in a row and he's rolled either 5 or 1 in every turn. On the east coast I DG his units in my reaction phase, so no combat for you, but I lose a unit to a box cars naval barrage roll. In the middle I lose the Italian unit at Chiaramonte Gulfi, as he gets a great roll with exploitation, which he uses to follow up with another great result to remove the HG armor unit behind it. (The 4-4-8 unit in 45.20.) In the west he presses forward, but not too aggressively. He attempts to take Porto Empedocle, but I DG his units on my side of the river, and he decides not to risk the river assault. (With at least a 3-1 and +4 for the Action Rating drm I was expecting him to attack, as attacker surprise was quite likely, and even without it the drm ensures that it would have to be a pretty bad roll to not get a decent result. The likelihood of both rolls being crummy made it worth the risk.
Here’s the position at the end of the Allied turn:
East |
West |
My turn is fairly simple. I continue to hold along the eastern coast, and air barrage his guys into DG, so he won't be doing much there next turn. Over in the other areas I've got a semi-decent line, so just tweak it to make it as good as possible. To the west I've got a reasonable line behind the river, although it's mostly held by a new Italian coastal division, so I'm risking another bad surrender roll.
End of turn 6 position:
East |
West |
I'm beginning to consider abandoning the west of the island, focussing on falling back towards Messina in a controlled manner, giving up space for time. I'm thinking of defending along the river line at a3233-3831 as a starting point, and moving back from there, Kind of like a swing door, hinged on the eastern coast. Once I get into the mountainous area around Etna it should help, as his movement will be severely curtailed.
Turn 7 - 07/21/1943
Same as last turn, Eric wins the initiative, elects to go first, and rolls a 1 for his air barrages. (Pretty neat trick, but you still have some way to rival my trick of rolling 1 5 times in a row for my commands in our Clash for a Continent game! :) Once more he presses forward, although the eastern coast is pretty stacked already. He tries to fly in some SPs, but my Italian fighter takes out two fighters flying cover (I rolled 8+ twice in a row!) and the two transports, all for a loss to boot! The same unit then intercepts the sole air barrage, taking out a Spitfire flying cover (-1 drm!) and the rest of the barraging aircraft! Let's hear it for the Italian Air Force, W00T!
However, it's not all going my way, as he barrages, attacks and kills the Tiger unit in the middle, then finally captures Porto Empedocle. Both combats gain exploitation, but he choses not to use the one in the middle. However, the one to the west is a different matter, as 2nd Arm dash forward to attack a unit of Aosta coastal division, which promptly surrenders. Yay, I'm now down 3 out of 4 division surrender rolls, and it's the weakest one that survived. That's going to make defense of the western side of the island even more of a challenge, and giving it up to focus on the east is making even more sense.
Here’s the position at the end of the Allied turn:
East |
West |
In my turn I continue to try to adjust my lines, falling back on the eastern coast to the next river. However, we've got a hard limit of 1730 to start clearing up, and I rush my turn, not spotting that I've left a couple of units of the Italian Livno division out of supply in the middle. They both fail their rolls, and I lose two precious ground units. Next time I'll not try to go as quickly and make sure my supply lines are safe, and to heck with trying to get another turn in.
As part of the rushing, and annoyance on my part, I forget to take pictures.
Turn 8 - 07/21/1943
Eric once again goes first, and it's more of the same as he presses forward. (I'm working from memory here, so I'm not clear on exactly what happened in this last turn.) We're pretty close to the mandatory clear up time, so I decline to risk another turn like the last one, and we call a halt after his turn. Eric starts recording positions and putting each stack of counters into an ice tray (a trick he learned from somewhere) as we plan to come back to this at a later stage. He's part way through before I think about the camera, so no more pics at all. :(
We intend to get it back on the table for another go, so I'll make sure to take pics before we start. I'll put my thoughts on the game into a separate post.
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