Scenario 8 '43:
Salerno Counter-attack
This battle was utterly insane and easily the hardest so far. The sheer strength of enemy armor and fighters was completely overwhelming. The enemy air force consisting of five elite fighters and four tactical bombers including: (3) BF-109s, (2) FW-190s, and a diverse assortment of four tactical bombers including the new FW-190G.
A lot of restarts but finally determined the optimal flow was to form a bridgehead to defend the southernmost objective Agropoli which has the most favorable terrain of full river cover, while two flanking task forces sneak around the western and eastern portions of the map to capture five other objectives required to be held. Needed a lot of units for the eastern task force, which made it difficult to not get spotted by the numerous enemy recon units passing by.
Turn 1 the enemy has the initiative and destroys the aux units in the east. When I'm up to act I destroy three enemy aircraft, including two BF-109s, and begin moving south to the Agropoli bridgehead and to the east and west flanking staging positions. Took some considerable air losses here, more than I normally accept, but needed to chip away at their air force at any opportunity.
Turns 2 thru 5 were mainly focusing on hightailing it south as well as clearing up the eastern flanking staging area and getting in good position there.
Turn 6 the enemy reaches the southern river covering Agropoli in force, but soon realized there were in a bad spot as my two top hellcats were waiting for them across the river backed by strong artillery and AA units.
Turns 7-8 were mostly duking it out in the air, trying to destroy the remainder of the enemy air force while nearing losing a thunderbolt at 1 health.
Turn 9 the eastern task force begins their move north, destroying an unfortunate panzer grenadier in their wake. All this time the western task force was sitting fine in their staging area, they only needed to act on the last few turns.
Turns 10-14 were primarily the eastern task force defending their newly capture objective Serre from infantry counter-attacks, while moving half its force north to capture Calabritto.
Final turn 15, the enemy nearly defeats my Rangers defending Serre, but fortunately held strong. I'm up to act as the final action, with only two objectives held out of the six needed. I then destroy the infantry defending one of them, Calabritto in the north to take that one, while slipping into four others in the northeast and central portions of the map for seven total.
Plan of attack (north):
Plan of attack (south):
Result:
Turn 15 MV, seven objectives held
No core units lossed, heavy air casualties
Failed to capture the Panzer IV in the northernmost town
......
Scenario 8 '43:
Salerno Counter-attack (retry to get the capturable Panzer IV)
Played almost exactly like the first try, however focused on getting the capturable in the northeast corner town prior to getting the objective nearby, Calabritto.
Result:
Turn 15 MV, seven objectives held
No core units lossed, light casualties
Gained a capturable Panzer IVH and Audie Murphy infantry
Sliding into Salerno on the last turn, last act
North:
South:
