Slitherine

I'm working through Sandstorm. My AARs have a lot of annotated screenshots. An example of my work is the US Pacific AAR which is complete.
See: viewtopic.php?f=373&t=89923

My Sandstorm AAR was done after completing the entire campaign on both the Lieutenant and Captain level at least a half a dozen times. I've completed the first scenario (Libya) at least 20 times and the first four scenarios at least a dozen times. I kept getting different results and kept altering my tactics. I've finally decided I have little to no room for improvement. This became sort of a mania, and the only way I can end this is to write up an AAR. I plan to cover at least the first 4 scenarios and then we will see where it goes from there.

The screenshots are from Sandstorm on the Lieutenant level. Captain level had a significant difference only on the Halfaya Pass scenario (#2 in the campaign).

Sandstorm has several very challenging scenarios. I own and have completed every Order of Battle: WW2 campaign multiple times. IMHO Sandstorm is more difficult than most of the Order of Battle campaigns - but your opinion may differ.

Part 1 and 2 of the First Scenario in Sandstorm: Libya is complete.

See:
https://averysgameblog.wordpress.com/20 ... eport-aar/
https://averysgameblog.wordpress.com/20 ... storm-aar/

This is the starting (text) of my AAR. The rest of the AAR including screenshots are on my game blog. I put my AARs & reviews on my blog so I can keep track of everything. I've had a lot of my work vanish as websites die or other problems arise.

A huge decision throughout Sandstorm and critical to the first scenario is how to best use the Italians. Germany has significantly better men and equipment in almost every category excepting artillery. But Italians are fifty percent or more of your army. Players should carefully decide where to spend precious German command points.
Libya 1941 opens with preplaced troops of one German and one Italian artillery unit, one German Armor (Panzer III), one truck motorized German engineer and one truck motorized Italian infantry. You must purchase the remainder. Starting command points (limiting maximum land, air and naval units fielded) are Italy 19 land and 3 air points; German 10 land and 10 air points. There are 460 Italian and 600 German resource points to purchase units. Unit costs vary considerably with armor and air units much more costly in resource points than foot infantry.

Choosing air units is easy and ground units devilishly hard.

Germany has a superb tactical bomber unmatched by Italy. Italian fighters are pretty good. Tactical bombers are devastating on ground units but mincemeat for fighters. Your air force needs enough fighters for at least parity in the air. Tactical bombers are excellent ground support units. I bought the best available Italian Fighter (MC200 Saetta), two Bf 100 F German fighters and a Ju 87 B tactical bomber. My last German air command point purchased a recon plane completing my air force.

With only ten command points, German land purchases are limited. Germany has vastly superior medium tanks, much better infantry, somewhat better scout cars, and roughly equal artillery. In 1941 Germany has two types of armor: one designed for anti-tank superiority and the other more focused on infantry support. My strongest need is knocking out other tanks so 6 command points are spent on a Panzer IIIJ with the remaining 4 points purchasing a halftrack motorized infantry. Halftracks are more expensive than trucks but have some mounted offensive capability and much better mounted defense. Halftracks also have better off-road movement.

The Italians have limited resource points after purchasing the MC200 Saetta.

The Order of Battle series AI excels in outflanking and isolating your units. Libya has a lot of open space and I need Italian Infantry to hold my flanks. I buy 3 inexpensive, Italian foot infantry, the best Italian armor available (mediocre and expensive compared to German armor) and a recon unit.

The two points spent on the recon unit could have truck-motorized two Italian infantry. I chose the recon unit for several reasons. When mounted in trucks, infantry is highly vulnerable to attack. Trucks are expensive and some Italian resource points are held in reserve to replace casualties. Recon units have several advantages. First, they are fast and can detect mines. Second, they can choose phased movement. Last, they quickly retreat when taking damage making them hard to destroy. The disadvantages of recon units are they cannot take objectives, are relatively expensive, and have minimal offensive punch.

Just a point, what you called a armored car was really a Light Tank Mk IV (if I’m not mistaken), though it is certainly more like a tankette in size, armament, all characteristics. Turn 1 and turn 2, saying the ‘armored car’ attacked my armored car. That is quite nit-picky of me, otherwise, its very good.
You also refer to all forces as British, despite some being Indian and Australian.

Zekedia222 wrote: ↑Mon Feb 24, 2020 9:05 pm Just a point, what you called a armored car was really a Light Tank Mk IV (if I’m not mistaken), though it is certainly more like a tankette in size, armament, all characteristics. Turn 1 and turn 2, saying the ‘armored car’ attacked my armored car. That is quite nit-picky of me, otherwise, its very good.
You also refer to all forces as British, despite some being Indian and Australian.

You are right on all accounts.

The North African defenders were commonwealth and UK forces. In a twist of fate, most of the Australian and New Zealand army was in North Africa when the Japanese rampaged through the Pacific. Most of the Indian infantry were in India when the Japanese attacked from Burma although quite a few units were in North Africa.

For AAR purposes, it is easier to refer to my opponents as the Brits (or later on the Yanks) than it is to break down the nationality of my opponents. But your comment is on the money and I'm being a bit lazy.

I'm not playing the British and Order of Battle does not give you full tactical details on your opponents. In the Libya scenario the Axis faces three full blown medium/heavy tank units. The rest are a mix of scout cars and light tanks/tankettes. Light tanks are less effective than scout cars in the game. Scouts usually take three to four major blows in a row, retreating every time before you can finally kill them due to their game properties. Light tanks just take the pounding and die after one or two hits making them far easier for Panzer IIIs, Panzer IVs, or Italian Armor to destroy than scout cars.

I've finished up the first scenario: Libya.
https://averysgameblog.wordpress.com/20 ... onclusion/

Part 1 of Halfaya Pass the 2nd Sandstorm scenario is up.
https://averysgameblog.wordpress.com/20 ... sandstorm/

Halfaya Pass is complete!

The great victory brings rewards from both Hitler & Mussolini for the winners!

https://averysgameblog.wordpress.com/20 ... sandstorm/

It's funny, I got back into Order of Battle in general and Sandstorm in particular on a whim when visiting the forums for other reasons. Noticed some stuff that had put me off (of the "why can't I attack?!" variety) had been addressed and now it's threatening to be my favourite game. Don't get me wrong, I'm absolutely hopeless and have to use easy difficulty settings, but the important thing is it's fun. Never stopped loving multiplayer by the way, the coral sea map I could play forever.