Re: DAR: Poland
Decisive Victory!!!!
Turn 35
My scouts spotted two Bofors, took out one and shot up the other. At that point, I brought to bear everything I had close. After several squads, five tanks and two armored car fired at it, I finally got it. My forces also engaged a few other enemy units seen as well.
Casualties
Friendly: Zero.
Enemy: Two 40mm Bofors destoryed and estimated 30 casualties.
Total Casualties
German
Men: 76
Artillery: 1
Soft Vehicles: 0
APCs: 0
AFVs: 3
Air Transports/Helos: 1 (one spotter plane)
Aircraft: 0
Poland
Men: 1277
Artillery: 18
Soft Vehicles: 0
APCs: 0
AFVs: 40
Air Transports/Helos: 0
Aircraft: 0
Score
Germany: 5363
GB: 491
Final Comments
I got the decisive victory out of this battle but I wasn't really happy the way it turned out. Most of the plan went as designed. I captured Hill 3, elements from Hill 1 were able to push forward as were the elements in the South Woods. The flanking maneuver around the North side of Hill 3 didn't happen, because I had to commit my reserves elsewhere. One has to be willing to just throw the plan away as soon as it becomes clear the AI won't cooperate.
There are three factors that come into play for the struggle during this battle. The first is the overall experience of my core. I started over because of the latest patch and my core was at national average experience. My units ran when under fire more readily than they did with a more experienced core. This applies to my artillery crews as well.
The second again was related to me starting over. I'm use to a rapid force capable of assault style tactics using infantry and half-tracks. My force has trucks right now and not half tracks. All I could do is run forward and drop my force off. The speed of the trucks still helped. It was better to be fighting from the tops of the hills than fighting to get up them. Starting my fighting 250m farther back could have resulted in me getting a marginal victory. It will still take time for me to upgrade my trucks to half-tracks, so I have to get use to it.
The final factor was getting use to the artillery changes. For sake of realism, my core has four FOOs. One is assigned to each company and one at battalion level. I wanted to make the most of them to minimize the impact of the artillery changes. It's difficult to say I really had a chance to adapt to the artillery changes because the AI hit my artillery with counter battery fire much earlier than it usually does. Fire adjustments may be more delayed, but not nearly as much as waiting for crews to return to their guns, if they come back at all.
Overall, I guess I shouldn't be unhappy with roughly a 15 to 1 destroy rate of enemy assets, except aircraft. Looks like the next battle will be another meeting engagement. I've added six truck mobile 81mm mortar units, eight SPAA units and two ammo trucks. Also, I upgraded five PzKw IId tanks to PzKw IVb units. Overall, getting 20% fewer repair points didn't seem to hurt.
I've attached the save just before I ended my last turn. Enjoy!
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