AAR: The Curse of the Delay

[Ravindau]

This is a Generated Battle, German Advance vs. US (AI) Delay.

750 pts. vs. XXX, AI advantage = 110% (US get slightly over 400pts). All Realism prefs on.

Date = June, 1944. 39 Turns, Random Normandy Map, 3x1.5 km.

The map looks very good and is plausible for the region; I find the random maps in this game generally outstanding.

Contrary to war stories, the very difficult terrain will be more of a help than a hindrance, because my approaches are covered.

I think the 39 turns the game gives me are too generous. The advancing side in an Advance/Delay random battle is rather VERY overpowered, which I will try to show.

I buy a reinforced SS company with an added Inf platoon, a few extra 80mm Mortars and 2 ACs.

*The Golden Rule of Strategy: Don´t try to be too clever!* The plan is to keep my company close together -you know from horror movies what happens when you split up!- and march directly on the southernmost objective, then work my way up from there (OOB & plan pics & setup files attached).

BEFORE YOU READ ON:

*If you are a beginning player, this setup is actually a useful Infantry Combat 101 training exercise. Just extract the setup into your savegame folder, load the save and (likely) get your first win.

*If you are not a Beginner, here´s a challenge: Try NOT to get a Major Win with this setup. It may well be possible, if your plan is creative enough!

[Ravindau]

Advancing cautiously toward the 1st objective. Nothing happens.

[Ravindau]

Both flanks face slight resistance, approx. 1 US Rifle sqd. each. I bring up reserves to overwhelm the puny defenders.

[Ravindau]

From the bypassed village in the North, a Rifle sqd. opens fire on my right flank, causing some consternation. I pin them with my ACs and send the Sharpshooter around their flank. After he pops a few, they rout into the open and are eliminated. My center is temporarily stopped by a well-situated sqd. that covers their route of advance. I have to wait for the Mortars to take care of that. My left flank is only 200m from the 1st objective and encountering no resistance. Some 60mm Mortar fire hits the woods in my rear. I don´t know where that came from, and don´t really care. 19 turns to go.

[Ravindau]

We take Objective #1 and encounter what appears to be the US main line of resistance: 1 1/2 plts situated around the 2nd objective. They are being overwhelmed rather fast and with light losses to the attacking force. Mortars prove useful at pinning the defenders. Occasionally their fire falls short and they pin my own troops, but no matter, since we have all the time in the world. 14 turns to go.

[Ravindau]

At this point we suffer the only setback in the game: A stubborn US Rifle sqd, even though pinned, manages to destroy one of my ACs at 50m distance! Impressive, though ultimately inconsequential: American resistance is ceasing, and we are taking the 2nd objective and marching on the 3rd.

[Ravindau]

All US sqds are dead or on the run. As we take the last objective, the game ends prematurely, with 6 turns left! US losses are 128 men and 1 Mortar, German losses are 36 men and 1 AC. I win 2873 : 68 (40:1).

CONCLUSION: Advance/Delay generated games have a balance problem. It´s not a bug, everything works perfectly. It´s not the AI, either: A human player would have been steamrolled just the same.

I think the most important reason why this was too easy was the complete lack of time pressure. It´s the very idea of the Advance/Delay that time should not be on the side of the attacker.

I propose to reduce the turns given in an Advance/Delay generated game by about 20%. This would put a little more pressure on the attacker and give the defender the chance to play a trade-space-for-time game.

There would be no impact on realism: You can easily imagine that the parameters of the wider situation are not stable, and time is of the essence for the attacker.

[scorpio_rocks]

I think you will find that the timed objectives option completely alleviates the timing issue.

(just looked it up this is a "CD version" only option)

[Imp]

I propose to reduce the turns given in an Advance/Delay generated game by about 20%. This would put a little more pressure on the attacker and give the defender the chance to play a trade-space-for-time game.

As mentioned timed objectives is one way to cause a hurry up or you could just reduce the number of turns yourself to something more to your liking, I usually do or set timed objectives high.
There are so many variables deciding what the number of turns should be is not easy even when you know the force, visibility & are looking at the map.
Increasing AI% to 150 or reducing the size of the map would have made it harder giving you less avenues of approach & making the AI less dispersed.
Look at mainly the height of the map versus number of defenders, they are forced to be spread thinly so allowing yourself the time to advance as a group across the whole map. You said it yourself engaging lone units with 1 & a half platoons being the stiff resistance.

[Ravindau]

Originally Posted by Imp

You said it yourself engaging lone units with 1 & a half platoons being the stiff resistance.

You got this upside down. The strongest resistance was the 1 1/2 plts I mentioned, but I was of course engaging them with my entire company+ & ACs.

I don´t think reducing map width from 30 to 20 hexes would have made a big difference.

And yes, one could fiddle with the settings. But shouldn´t the official settings be balanced so as to be fit for tournament style play between humans, as much as possible?

As it stands, I doubt anyone would be happy to play the delaying side in a generated game in a tournament...