Britain On the Ropes - an Allies Defiant AAR (Scenarios 1 Through 4 complete)

[StuccoFresco]

I like a well-executed plan.

[airboy]

I finally finished replaying Allies Defiant to get a core force for Allies Resurgent. I wanted to play Resurgent with a core force and this is the only way to do it.

I've taken screenshots for the next scenario in this AAR, but I've committed to an RPG scenario for MACE in mid-November that I need to finish. Not sure if I'll get the next scenario posted before Halloween.

I guess Slitherine can dock my pay for this AAR.

[airboy]

I've finished the Allies Resurgent campaign. It is considerably more difficult than Allies Defiant. Germany has a huge edge in armor quality and their troops are both more experienced and fighting on more easily defensible terrain (Tunisia, Sicily and Italy) than seen in Allies Defiant.

But "more difficult" to me reads "more interesting." Having visited both Italy and Sicily and read a considerable amount of military history - the terrain is easy to defend. Germany fielded very experienced troops and better armor in these campaigns.

I enjoyed "Resurgent" more than I anticipated. It is well worth the purchase price for Order of Battle fans. I have a couple of suggestions for players:
1] Infantry is more important than most Order of Battle scenarios due to the terrain.
2] Tactical bombers become very important in the last 3rd of the scenarios.
3] US "Long Tom" artillery becomes critical in the last couple of scenarios.
4] USA will need AT Wolverine units early and often to survive German armor attacks. US armor and AT guns cannot provide adequate offense/defense against German Armor in 1943 & 1944 without massive tactical bomber superiority.

One thing the AI does not improve upon - artillery should fire either first or second in a combined arms attack. The AI still has artillery fire last or almost last - which puts the AI at a significant disadvantage. The AI also does not reinforce fighter units before sending them out after heavy damage - which makes them easy to destroy. This may be "features" that give reasonably astute human opponents an edge - but it is still an exploitable AI weakness.