US Corps '42 - 45 (Ultimate)

[huckc]

Scenario 1 '44-45: Omaha Beach

The focus for this one is destroying the four Atlantikwall fortresses needed for an MV. Fortunately they only have the standard 15 strength and a middling two star experience, so their strength alone won't be much of an issue, it's all of the unit around them that are of most concern as well as difficulty in reaching two of them.

Two of the four are in the very eastern part of the map (spotted in the image), which can't be landed near or are easy to access due to the cliffs and rocky beach in front. Therefore I will use two rookie airborne units to take one of them out, while another rookie Rangers without transport will take out the other which is sort of accessible directly from the beach, but only over rocky sands. I needed an infantry unit with no transport due to the rocky beach approach so had to use a green unit as all my others have transport. He will have no artillery cover however, so it's important to take care of the fortress and retreat quickly.

The two in the west are in a much more favorable position for me to attack, and can be hit directly from the beach by tanks due to good sands. After taking these relatively quickly, I will seize any opportunity in taking additional objectives should it arise. One bit of caution are the two nebelwerfer '43 units with +1 range in the center of the map.

I bought a Sherman crab to help with the mines on the beach, along with an Engineer and captured crab from '43 for a total of three dedicated mine clearing units, enough to get the job done.

Plan of attack (the two eastern Atlantikwall fortresses are visible):


Result:
Turn 11 MV, destroyed all Atlantikwall guns and captured two additional objective towns in the west.

[huckc]

Scenario 2 '44-45: Pointe du Hoc (first try)

This map is like two maps in that there are two very tough separate puzzles going on.

Puzzle 1: Figure out how to keep the trapped rangers alive.


(There is also a 13 soft attack artillery within range that's not spotted.)

Solved by shelling the AA with your two ships then bombing the surrounding enemy with your biggest bombs. Followed up by attacking the infantry not backed by infantry with the trapped rangers to oust them. No matter what you do you can't gain entrenchment so the goal is to reduce their strength to the tipping point where the AI's no-attack decision gets made.



Check!


Puzzle 2: Figure out how how take all the objectives needed to just win an MV in 11 turns

North (turn 2 start)


South (turn 2 start)


Almost worked! My airborne unit got over-run after taking the southwest object which was needed for an MV



Result: Loss!

[huckc]

I've added some tactical drawings from screenshots for a few scenarios I found interesting.

[huckc]

Scenario 2 '44-45: Pointe du Hoc (second try)

I'm going to chalk this one up as a "morale victory". While I didn't succeed in capturing all the objectives, I did save the trapped rangers:


As well as destroy the remaining Atlantikwall guns for a 250 prestige reward:


Result:
First and last loss of the whole campaign. Any loss after this will be a dismissal so it's not an option any more.

Even if I did go for the win, the replacement costs would've have dwarfed the prestige reward for victory. I actually got more prestige for destroying the guns and various surrenders than I would've gotten for the victory.

[goose_2]

Great screen shots and wonderful progress.
Just stunning

[huckc]

Scenario 3 '44-45: Carentan

The time to take it easy on the men is over, the infamous brutal battle of Carentan is to be fought and the city must be taken at all costs.



A few things that make this battle extremely difficult:

1. The northern approach into the city contains parallel winding rivers and bocage everywhere, meaning the main assault from this direction must be made over the Douvre bridge, aka "purple heart lane".

2. The city is heavily occupied by experienced enemy infantry, almost all hexes are occupied by them with a couple artillery and AA. Only 11 turns to clear them out. Three of which are just to get there.

3. Extremely potent anti-armor comes in large numbers from the south later on, which can one or two-shot most of my own armored units.

Plan of attack:


Turn 1
There's a large screen of defenders facing your approach, mostly infantry. So this turn was heavily optimized and tweaked to wipe them out which I did save a few stragglers.

Turn 2
In the east I took care of most of the stragglers, needed to eliminate them as they will flank me later on. The key to taking these guys out is to plop an aircraft above their head which partially negates their ability to get replacements. Also spotted their sole enemy fighter and swarmed it with four of my thunderbolts.

In the north, my lead Sherman engaged with an anti-tank gun blocking the bridgehead preceded by a massive barrage of artillery and strat bomber.

The rest of the units in this group were positioned to begin their various approaches over the rivers and bridge.

...

Turn 10
I now have most of the city, however the big attack from the south by anti-tank units has arrived. They almost took out one of my hellcats, down to 2 health, and heavily bruised a few others unfortunate enough to be in reach.

Turn 11
I evacuated the 2 health hellcat after carefully spotting his escape route by a thunderbolt. I then focus on taking the last victory hex in the city, defended by a strong panzer grenadiers who've been entrenching this whole time. Thankfully I have mainly artillery that were able to fully suppress him and were ousted by a ranger while another slide in to take this last victory hex needed.

I then moved my shermans inside the city as to play to their close defense strength relative to the three stugs that will try to take back the city on their turn. The shermans are there side by side with the rangers primarily to prevent the rangers defending the victory hexes from being mass attacked.

Fortunately this proved successfull as the three powerful stugs opted not to attack while the other weaker anti-tank was only able to take one damage off a ranger on one of the victory hexes.

The line held and the city is secure.

Result:
Turn 11 MV, Carentan fully secured.
No core units lost, but heavily casualties.

[huckc]

Scenario 4 '44-45: Cotentin

The time to take it easy on the men has begun again!

Pretty boring one the way I played it, wanted to minimize expensive casualties in anticipation for the tough next few scenarios so I only took the northern road which bypassed most of the strong enemy units.

Left a few greener units without existing expensive overstrength in the south to train against the enemy attacks.

Plan of attack:


Result:
Turn 11 MV, three ground troops placed on the marked hexes

[huckc]

Scenario 5 '44-45: Cherbourg

This one is shaped a lot like Palermo and I was duly worried about being able to make it up to the the heavily fortified city in time to actually take it. Fortunately this one proved a bit easier partly because there is no enemy air and the provided naval power gave the three fortifications a nice distraction to attack instead of my ground troops.

Also very similar to Palermo, the plan is to strike up the inland roads, the shortest distance to the city, while ignoring much of the coast. The east coast is especially well defended. I also brute forced my way thru some of the bocage, as it was actually faster than taking the roads around it and wouldn't clog them as much.

Plan of attack:


Turn 5 a strong friendly fleet shows up. I used them primarily to shell the AA in the city and draw fire from the enemy forts and away from my ground troops attacking the city.


Turn 8 I capture the first of three V-1 bombs from the hangars in the center of the map. I opted to use them rather than for the small 250(?) prestige reward in evacuating them as I was unsure of whether I can actually win this scenario and figured the replacement costs it would save from my core troops would probably be greater than the reward. They were used on the strongest AA defending the city after shelling it with artillery. Didn't want to use one my bombers as another AA unit was in range.


Turn 12 the siege begins in earnest. With four turns still remaining, things are looking good.


Turn 14 it's pretty much a wrap, time to not make any big mistakes and take stupid losses (I failed and took a 120 prestige shot to one my thunderbolts from a suicidal off-map mobile AA)


Result
Turn 16 MV
Some badly mauled units, but no core losses

[huckc]

Scenario 6 '44-45: Avranches

This one turned out to be the hardest so far in the entire campaign, even harder than Salerno Counter-attack and Carentan.

I needed to take Avranches in the deep south as well as place 5 ground units south of its river. The -5 turns took a big bite down to 13 turns and was mostly why this was so exceedingly difficult.

The optimal strategy turned out to be a long-range sneak attack along the east of the map with roughly half my force while the other half takes up defensive positions in the north and hold up the powerful SS armored division (pictured below) with a Panther and Panzer IVJs, including Ernst Beckham.

Plan of attack (North):


The circle in the southeast contains this formidable force, needed them to move up and out of the way in order for the plan to work:


Plan of attack (South):


That little red circle is this guy guarding the approach to Avranches, the first Tiger II I've faced and the most powerful unit on the map:


I had to take him out no matter what due to time restrictions, so I ammo dumped him with a couple B-17s after him almost taking out one of my hellcats. I used the cheap bridge engineers in the half-track to take up his final ammo, nearly destroying the engineers in the process (predicted losses left them with two health, not one).



Turn Breakdown

Turn 1 was somewhat of a spoiling attack by me with the task of taking out as many 88 guns as possible, in order to clear the skies of flak in the air battles to come.

Turn 2 I then get into position for defense while making my way to the river La Vire in preparation for crossing.

Turn 5 the crossing begins, with each unit fully fueled. They'll need to then cover so much ground south that they'll need another fueling on the way.


...

Turn 11, 12 I contact and destroy the Tiger II as pictured above, the way is now clear to Avranches.

Turn 13 I push into Avranches with zero turns to spare.

Result:
Turn 13 MV
No core losses, but heavy casualties.
Gained a scripted hero unit, Lafayette G. Pool in a valuable M4A1 76mm

North:


South:

[goose_2]

Oh my goodness!

That is the best AAR I have ever read, thorough quick with enough pictures and turn by turn breakdown, I feel if I was attempting this map, you have given me the strategy and breakdown of what to expect and how to counter it, even at this insanely difficult level.

Well done my friend, well done

[huckc]

Oh my goodness!

That is the best AAR I have ever read, thorough quick with enough pictures and turn by turn breakdown, I feel if I was attempting this map, you have given me the strategy and breakdown of what to expect and how to counter it, even at this insanely difficult level.

Well done my friend, well done

Thanks, you are very kind

I feel like the well is running dangerously dry prestige-wise, hopefully I can make it to the end but it's not looking too probable. Will do a core breakdown after the next scenario which is when the M36 Jackson drops.

[TSPC37730]

Oh my goodness!

That is the best AAR I have ever read, thorough quick with enough pictures and turn by turn breakdown, I feel if I was attempting this map, you have given me the strategy and breakdown of what to expect and how to counter it, even at this insanely difficult level.

Well done my friend, well done

Thanks, you are very kind

I feel like the well is running dangerously dry prestige-wise, hopefully I can make it to the end but it's not looking too probable. Will do a core breakdown after the next scenario which is when the M36 Jackson drops.

I must agree. This is a very nice AAR series. Complete & thorough. Thank you.

[huckc]

Scenario 7 '44-45: Brittany

The last of the Normandy breakout scenarios, this one involves neutralizing the Western Allies' western flank in the Brittany peninsula.

Relatively easy one to get a victory, however the real, and extremely tough objective was the Panther G capturable. The G model being the top of line Panther so even more enticing.

For this, I needed to capture the ports of Brest, Lorient, and Saint Nazaire:




Plan of attack (ports in the yellow circle):


Turn Breakdown

Turn 1
Heavily tweaked and choreographed to destroy as many units as possible, especially the 88s, while finishing in good position to withstand the enemy counter air attack: (1) BF-109 fighter, (1) JU-87 tac bomber, (1) ME 110 tac bomber all 15 strength with three stars of experience.

Turn 2
I destroy the three enemy aircraft with help from two of my AA units. Their job was effectively done at this point. I'm also faced with an enemy armor counter-attack of six tanks within range of my own, only one of which was particularly dangerous, a Stug IV. Fortunately for me he was in artillery mode thus a sitting duck. The rest also went down without issue, but had to be softened up with artillery and/or strat bombers first due to their 15 strength.

There was also an extremely potent JagdPanther sitting within range of Remmes, who can one-shot almost all my armored units. Fortunately I was able to bait him into one my top hellcats who ambushed while managing not to destroy themselves in the process, a rather impressive feat. Thankfully the M36 Jackson upgrade arrives on the next scenario and will put me on equal terms in the anti-tank department.

I also begin the siege of Remmes, the four hex city in the center of the map and one of the three objectives.

Turns 3 and 4
I finish mopping things up around Remmes, and start heading in the direction of the ports with most of my army in order to capture the Panther.

Turns 5-9
I make my way up the map, capturing the easy port of Lorient which had only one infantry in it. I also begin the siege of the port of Saint Nazaire and the two remaining objectives for an MV. The objectives weren't a high priority as I can take them on the final turn, rather than the ports which need to be in my hands on the final turn minus 1.

Turn 10
I arrive in force at the "pain point" port of Brest, pictured below. I needed to take it this turn in order for the capturable script to reward me on the final turn 11.


Fortunately the weather gods were on my side and the skies were clear for me to bomb the crap out of it, then attacked it with no less than three of my best infantry in order to finally destroy the 20 health infantry defending it.


Turn 11
Much jubilation as the capturable Panther G is confirmed and officially in my core !



Now to take any last objectives to secure the MV and prepare for the invasion of Germany!

Result:
Turn 11 MV
No core losses, rather light casualties but heavy expenditures in overstrength.
Gained a captured Panther G, probably my last new addition to the core as any new units will be too green and will never be able to gain enough experience in time for the end.

[huckc]

Going into the latter half of 44-45, and now that the M36 Jackson has dropped, makes a good time for a core breakdown.

Tanks:
(6) M4A3 Sherman 76mm

• (4) 3 star
  (1) 2 star
  (1) 1 star

(1) Panther G capturable (0 star)

Anti-tank:
(4) M36 Jackson

• (3) 3 star
  (1) 2 star

Recon:
(1) Willy's Jeep (1 star)
(1) Captured SdKFz 234/2 9r (1 star)

Infantry:
(4) Rangers

• (3) 3 star
  (1) 2 star

(1) Engineers 43 (1 star)
(2) Airborne 43

• (1) 1 star
  (1) 0 star

Artillery:
(6) M12 155mm GMC artillery (All 4 star )
(2) Sherman Caliope (2 star)

Anti-aircraft:
(3) M15A1 GMC

• (2) 2 star
  (1) 1 star

(1) 90mm M1A1 (1 star)

Fighters:
(5) SE P47-D thunderbolts

• (3) 3 star
  (1) 2 star
  (1) 1 star

Tac bombers:
(1) B-25H (4 star)
(1) B-26 (2 star)

Strat bombers:
(2) B-17G

• (1) 4 star
  (1) 3 star

(2) B-29 SF

• (1) 3 star
  (1) 2 star

Prestige:
809 (including planned disbands of units not listed)

Soft Cap:
~65% on turn 1

Notable Heroes (historical/scripted):
Audie Murphy, Rangers: A+2, D+3, I+3, S+1
Bomber Ace , B-25H: A+3, I+2
Lafayette G Pool, M4A3 76: A+4, I+2

Notable Heroes (random, +3 or better):
Kenneth Carter, Rangers: D+3
Kevin Brown, Rangers: D+3
Kenneth Moore, M4A3 Sherman: A+3

No range heroes for artillery sadly.

[goose_2]

Just amazing that you have made it as far as you have and continuing to take them down, must be a lot of reloading and saving when good results happen, which is fine when playing at this level.

[huckc]

Just amazing that you have made it as far as you have and continuing to take them down, must be a lot of reloading and saving when good results happen, which is fine when playing at this level.

I'm pretty surprised myself, didn't think I'd ever make it this far.

I actually haven't reloaded any turns so far and have a zero-tolerance policy towards it, but I do restart scenarios on any exceedingly bad luck on the first turn or two, which is quite often on some scenarios. I dabbled with recording macros to automate the first turn due to this, but wasn't worth it I found and haven't used any tool assistance at all.

[goose_2]

You are a stretch above as I have replayed certain days over after seeing that my initial day was full of fraught and peril...ssssooooo....you are better than me

[huckc]

Scenario 8 '44-45: Aachen

With limited dice chess on, the most crushing RNG for this campaign is the weather. What I wouldn't give to reload for clear skies when the wunderwaffe and BF-109Ks roll in and I have four AA units prepared.

This battle really made my brain hurt and I'm not sure exactly what happened, but I came out of it with a DV and another captured Panther. I think I got a super lucky rugged defense mid scenario but will have to watch the replay to know for sure.


Turn Breakdown:

Turn 1
The road into Aachen is defended by three units in fortfication hexes, however they weren't particularly strong. There are also three tanks between my two deployment positions which I'll need to deal with right away.

Four of these seven units I was able to force into surrender, probably a personal record. The remaining three will be easily dealt with the following turn.

Turn 2
I mop things up from the initial screen and move up the road towards Aachen.

My northern force is expected to encounter the luftwaffe, including a very strong Komet and BF-109k figher along with two tactical bombers. I brace accordingly with four AA units while hoping for clear skies next turn to really nail them.

Turn 3
Very fortunate runout from the luftwaffe attack, the BF-109 already down to 8 health due to an unexpected encounter with one of my thunderbolts. That still leaves the komet at full 15 health, so I hit it with three of my AA units leaving it with 4 health and the fourth to take two pips off the BF-109 for good measure down to 6 health. This allowed me to completely destroy the luftwaffe including the two tac bombers, using all five of my thunderbolts.

My ground units in the north engaged with two strong JagdPanther IVs unwittingly and left two M36 Jacksons down to 4 health and out of the battle from there on out.

The rest of my units continued their approach towards Aachen.

Turn 4
Three of my best infantry have made their way into Aachen and destroyed one infantry and battered the high powered towed anti-tank unit fortified in the final road hex into Aachen that my tanks will need to arrrive thru.

Turns 4-10
I battle my way thru Aachen hex by hex, block by block. Defending the city were (11) infantry units, (2) 155m artillery, (1) nebelwerfer 43, (1) Panzer IV, (2) towed anti-tank guns, and (2) AA guns. They all needed to be destroyed to get the victory.

Turns 11
With the city all but taken, I route two of my best infantry, a few artillery, and a few tanks in order to capture the city hex north of the city that rewards a Panther. Defending it was a strong SE Infanterie with 3 stars but he was no match for the combined might of my artillery, strat bombers, and Rangers.

This(?) turn I also engage with the Tiger 2 that was in the flanking force. It took my two remaining M36 Jacksons to take him out. The enemy infantry arriving behind the tank couldn't do much against my final screen of two tanks and artillery.

Turns 12
Captured Panther shows up !

I clear out the remainder of the city in order to get the DV, and unwittingly end the scenario a turn early due to this. Oh well, I'll take this result any day due to how tough and crazy this was!


Plan of attack:

(Yellow circle is the hex that will reward a Panther D)

The circled aggressors trying to flank me are these guys, including a tiger 2:


The Arena: Aachen

(City must be cleared of all enemy units for the victory)

Result:
Turn 12 DV, city cleared out of all enemy troops
Captured a valuable Panther D, will probably need disband it later for prestige.
Went from 60% soft cap to 90% due to the losses suffered during the scenario, these costly replacement were mostly offset by the extra prestige of getting a full DV!


The shermans took a key part in taking the city provided they were backed by at least two artillery units.

[huckc]

Scenario 9 '44-45: Ruhr

This scenario has it all:

• 1. Airbone slots with a carrot for them
  2. Valuable capturable (Me-262)
  3. Prestige bonus hexes for the airborne (see 1)
  4. Sneaky bridge engineer crossing

In addition to that, you need to capture at least three of the six bridges along the Rhine. It's interesting to decide which of the six to capture and the tactics to get there, which is part of why I'm really enjoying this play-thru.

[Placeholder AAR]


Result:
Turn 13 MV, Three bridges over the Rhine captured
Captured all three dam hexes for a 500 prestige reward
Captured a Me-262 fighter

[huckc]

Scenario 10 '44-45: Saint Vikth

The plan is to hold the required five objects until turn 12 where you're then given the order to evacuate all core troops off the map. There are quite a few aux troops too, which can also be evacuated for a massive sum of prestige after later disbanding. Three of the objectives I plan to focus on holding are in the city of Saint Vikth and two are in open hexes in the north.

The evacuation will be tricky since I have only three turns to make it to the marked hexes which are on the cusp of unreachable, and that's without factoring in the frozen ground fuel cost. So I will need to start many of my units early so they can re-fuel and actually make it there in time. If any don't, then it's a full on loss and a trip for me to the POW camp .

The amount of enemy armor on the attack is mind-boggling. (4) Tiger IIs, (3) JagdPanthers, (1) JagdTiger, throngs of Panzer IVJs and various anti-tank units.

I'm not proud of this, but I had to purchase seven new infantry units for the sole purpose of clogging the Ardennes roads and provoking costly attacks in (ideally) snowy weather from the enemy on their way to Saint Vikth. Their sacrifice will not be forgotten


Turn breakdown:
For deployment I placed all my veteran infantry on the final line of defense in Saint Vikth in order for them to build up as much entrenchment as possible as they'll need hold the line for a few turns until the end. They will be facing very strong infantry and tanks that normally won't hesitate to attack them, as well as rocket artillery that normally will rip them up. It's key that they don't get attacked at all.

Turn 1
The enemy is first to act and it's snowy weather thankfully. A few aux troops in the very south and west are almost destroyed, I then move them to an inconvenient position for the enemy in order to slow down the attack as much as possible. The frozen grounds works in my favor, and any movement prevents them from getting re-fueled that turn.

All other aux troops with transport I move towards Saint Vikth and from as much harm as possible. They aren't much use against the over-strengthened enemy thus they're much more valuable to me as evacuees.

In the north I set up up shop on the road just outside the forest in order to ambush the enemy while not allowing them room to maneuver. They will either back up or stay put depending on the following turns' weather and the expected vision distance of the enemy for optimal ambush conditions.

For the roads into Saint Vikth in the west I move up my sacrificial infantry as deeply into the woods as possible along the road. This will really mess up the enemy as they can't enter the thick forest hexes around the roads due to infantry having transport.

Turns 2-7
The situation in the north is going very well, haven't had to move back much and getting some good ambushing in.

The situation in the west, the roads into Saint Vikth, is going more or less according to plan. The enemy having to deal with all the infantry I sent forth and getting slowed down and damaged.

Turn 8
The enemy has reached Saint Vikth finally. One of their tanks takes a big shot into one of my M36 Jacksons, but thankfully not destroying and I retreat him towards the evacuation point.

Other than that, the enemy hasn't made any in-ways into my line of defense and has not surrounded me.

Turn 11
A JagdTiger manages to make its way around the city and pounds an M36 Jackson guarding the southern flank down to 6 health, however they're now on a city hex and get nearly destroyed by the Ranger next to it when I'm up to act. When this sort of thing happens its best to leave them there essentially incapacitated instead of outright destroying it which just lets a full health unit take its place.

Turn 12
The evacuation order is officially given, and all my troops have a clear line of escape with enough movement points and fuel to make it.


Plan of defense:


A turn prior to the evacuation order, HOLD!!!



Result
Turn 14 DV, Held five objectives until turn 12 then evacuated all core troops.
No core units lost miraculously
Evacuated all aux units with transport or are motorized $$$


The Germans having a big party in Saint Vikth