Market Garden #4 - Catch Up
Posted: Sat Sep 17, 2011 6:43 pm
I can't believe it. This campaign just keeps getting better and better. Surely there must be at least 1-2 merely 'OK' missions in the campaign? 
In a word, 'Catch Up' was glorious! 
Having said that, things did get off to a rather inauspicious start for me. The best I can say about the initial defense of both towns and the farm was that I tried. Maybe it was my para losses from the first mission that came back to haunt me here. In any event what I ended up doing was abandoning the northern town and concentrating all troops in the main town and at the farm. Concerning the farm, my five defenders were still overwhelmed with only 1-2 turns to go to meet the extra credit victory condition. They did, however, take a lot of Germans with them (making my job easier later), especially the AT gun that took out the two Panthers in one round! Who was it that wrote "Your status in hell depends on the size of your honor guard???"
When 30 Corps finally shows up with your buffed British troops from the previous scenarios, it was a gaming epiphany! From that point on the mission was great fun. The only real challenge was trying to quickly move up your troops over a single road and out of the town bottle neck were the two Tigers were waiting. I somehow was able to get my Cromwells and Shermans in a line just outside the town, and at that point was able to demoralize, drive off, and eventually destroy both Tigers with the loss of one tank! I would attribute this to the veteran status of most of my tanks, though I can't help but think that the mission might have been a wash had the Germans been a little luckier. As always though in battling it out against superior armor, the player needs to concentrate his fire to wear down the morale of the defenders, and also try to position yourself for the rear or side shot.
Anyway, after destroying the Tigers it was basically a race to recapture the VP squares before the shot clock ran out, and the only place I encountered any serious resistance was around the northern town. Again though, my veterans drove the defenders off without too much trouble. The only other thing I have to say about this great mission is that I've been perfecting my rapid deployment of infantry in half-tracks. In fact at one point I quickly deployed my flamethrower team to that windmill on the road, just in time to intercept and destroy a Stug!
Next up is the SS counterattack at Arnhem. I suspect I will really be putting my war helmet on for this one!
In a word, 'Catch Up' was glorious! Having said that, things did get off to a rather inauspicious start for me. The best I can say about the initial defense of both towns and the farm was that I tried. Maybe it was my para losses from the first mission that came back to haunt me here. In any event what I ended up doing was abandoning the northern town and concentrating all troops in the main town and at the farm. Concerning the farm, my five defenders were still overwhelmed with only 1-2 turns to go to meet the extra credit victory condition. They did, however, take a lot of Germans with them (making my job easier later), especially the AT gun that took out the two Panthers in one round! Who was it that wrote "Your status in hell depends on the size of your honor guard???"
When 30 Corps finally shows up with your buffed British troops from the previous scenarios, it was a gaming epiphany!
From that point on the mission was great fun. The only real challenge was trying to quickly move up your troops over a single road and out of the town bottle neck were the two Tigers were waiting. I somehow was able to get my Cromwells and Shermans in a line just outside the town, and at that point was able to demoralize, drive off, and eventually destroy both Tigers with the loss of one tank! I would attribute this to the veteran status of most of my tanks, though I can't help but think that the mission might have been a wash had the Germans been a little luckier. As always though in battling it out against superior armor, the player needs to concentrate his fire to wear down the morale of the defenders, and also try to position yourself for the rear or side shot. Anyway, after destroying the Tigers it was basically a race to recapture the VP squares before the shot clock ran out, and the only place I encountered any serious resistance was around the northern town. Again though, my veterans drove the defenders off without too much trouble. The only other thing I have to say about this great mission is that I've been perfecting my rapid deployment of infantry in half-tracks. In fact at one point I quickly deployed my flamethrower team to that windmill on the road, just in time to intercept and destroy a Stug!
Next up is the SS counterattack at Arnhem. I suspect I will really be putting my war helmet on for this one!
