First Balkan War - a TOAW senario study

[Jmenschenfresser]

Don't have a beer so I'll start a conversation. Been a little bored lately, so I reinstalled The Operational Art of War (Century of Warfare) on my puter. First go round I never played through all the senarios.

Anycase, I found the Balkans 1912 senario very intriguing. I've yet to play the 1913 senario, leaving it for when I perfect and understand the first one.

First, before I played this senario twice, I knew virtually nothing about the balkans war. I played it once from the side of the Balkan Alliance and came out defeated. I was determined to find out how the actual war was fought, as the front lines sort of wrap. Instead of you fighting along a 180 degree front, as the Balkan Alliance, you control something like 4 different nations invading the Turkish holdings of the Balkan peninsula. Think of it as a car being crushed from the top and bottom, and the only way for Turkish reinforcements to come is through the tailpipe.

There are quite a few small objectives, but I think if you capture all of them you can't win...not enough points. Not sure though. There are 3 large scoring victory locations: Constantinople, Salonika, and Scutari. There is also Andrianople, but I believe it is only worth 30...the others are 60 or 90 points...and Adrianople is doable.

I lost the first bout because I failed to capture any of these. I did initially capture Adrianople, but was beat back off of it in the Last few turns. Throughout the game, fresh Turkish units pour over the straight from mainland Turkey, making it impossible to take Constantinople. The Bulgarians attack from the north, possesing the largest force. They sweep down over Adrianople which lies northwest of Constantinople. The Greeks are probably the second, or third behind the Serbians, not sure. They come up from the south natually. The Serbians are farther west, attacking south and the Montenegrians are furthest west, with the smallest force, also attacking south.

I read after losing the first time that pre-WW1 and WW1 senarios in TOAW consist of two phases, the manuever phase and the grind phase. It is important that you keep a static line from forming otherwise the game turns to the second phase...the grind, where you move slowly forward or backward.

I lost the first round because I went right into the grind. The Greeks, with the later help of the southbound Serbs couldn't uproot the Turks from Salonika. The Montenegrans couldn't take Scutari, a fort with a super high defense rating on the coast. And the Bulgarians couldn't even hold onto Adrianople.

Second bout, I was ready. First off I sent a small section of Bulgarian calavary south between Constantinople and Salonika. (FYI, I am not a grognard and don't remember all of the army lingo, divisions, brigade, etc.) In this vast nothingness, the Turkish don't have one unit, however, their main supply railroad runs along the coast. Destroy the bridge here, and this cuts off a major source of supplies for the western half of the theater.

I then send all of the Montenegrain army south and over the next few turns surround Scutari, cutting off supplies, digging in for a long medieval siege. I then switch over to the east side, and the Bulgarians. I know I need to move around Adrianople (and another small victory flag a few hexes to its east), surround them and contain the Turkish to a small triangle around constantinople. I move a division of calvary to the black sea coast and south, skirting the Turkish forces, staying out of sight. The calvary are the initial flank. They are soon followed by several strong infantry units.

The east plays out nicely. I drive a wedge between the two strongholds (Adrianople and the other victory hex), quickly surrounding them. I leave them like that for several turns, hitting them only with light attacks. I drive them off their hexes and wear them down throughout the rest of the game...by the end they are both eliminated. Huge loss for the Turks. During this time, I've been funneling units through the holes and I've mounted a hefty siege of the Last, say, 6 hexes in and around constantinople. I know I'll never make it. Before the end of the game, I get within one hex, having forced a wedge along the southern coast, but am beaten back. The key were the initial calvary units around the flank. As soon as the AI saw them nearing Constantinople, they formed a line and were never able to attempt to free their surrounded friends at Adrianople.

The West: Scutari is a mystery. I had it surrounded the whole game virtually. I waited a few turns before attacking. The Montenegrans, later reinforced by several Serbian units couldn't take the fort. Not sure what I did wrong there. I was wearing them down, but at a snail's pace.

To take Salonika, I decided on a two and a half pronged attack. I moved half of my forces, mostly calvary...near useless for attack...in a long arc around the city to the west. When the Turks saw this force they moved a significant number of units to stop it. I then quickly moved the more powerful part of my force up the coast and blew away the defenders about half way through the game. The Serbians showed up just in time for the final assualt on Salonika.

There's also another fort down near the border of Greece, which is easy to miss given that it isn't on the road to Salonika. I would say it is just as powerful a defender as Scutari. I got this one out of two mistakes. After having wasted precious units assaulting it the first time, I decided just to leave it be. But after one or two turns, the Turks stationed there, moved after my force assaulting Salonika. I stalled his unit in the mountains, skirted around and took the fort behind his back, virtually unguarded.

End result: a draw. I had a marginal victory for all of the game after I took Salonika...I think I lost too many men on the constantinople assault.

Why do I post this about a non-shrapnel game? Dunno. Anyone know anything about the Balkan Wars? I finally found a rough map on the internet depicting generalized force movements. They are the same as I moved my troops in the first bout and got spanked while my armies ground down to nothing. I can see that the designer nearly got the senario to end like the actual war everytime it is played. It's impossible I think, unless the AI completely screws up, to take Constantinople.

[Jmenschenfresser]

Part 2
Mortain Scenario

I played this one, one and a half times to date. Both times as the US.

I'm personally not familiar with this German counter attack, but so be it. The first time I played only half the way through just getting a feel for it. Then decided to start over.

At the beginning, the Germans are situated in a giant 'C' like pocket. The US forces at the southern edge of the pocket (parts of the 30th Infantry Division and some armored recon from the 3rd), near the town of Barenton, are outnumbered, and as they are close to the edge of the map, from the start I feared they might be encircled and die a slow death.

As the pocket turns northward, the 30th US Infantry Div guards the town of Mortain(25vps). Just to their north is the 4th Infantry Div. Between the two is a week area, cut east to west by a river. On my first turn I tried to use the river as a dividing line between the 30th and the 4th. Mistake.

The pocket starts to turn eastward here. Here is where you find the 9th Inf. Past them you find the 28th Inf, and rounding out the northern most flank is the 29th.

To give you an idea of the layout, the southern edge is extremely weak. The thrust of the panzers which should come through Mortain, is only guarded by an Inf Div. plus change. I think there is a bit of armor lying around here at the start.
The north is so heavily guarded that I don't see either side going anywhere.

I decided to leave the units of the 30th in the south alone for now. See what the Germans would do. Along the western part of the pocket, I moved up what units I could. Here I made one mistake that could have cost me the battle. Between the 30th and the 4th, I left too weak a gap. Here the front staggered a bit, with the 30th farther east than the 4th. All units on the northern edge I left alone as well. I did notice that in the bend from going north to turning back east, the Germans had left this corner open. I moved into the gap, and thus lopped off a piece of the corner. Keep in mind, the first turns of the battle I did little direct attacking. I had several pieces of well placed artillery. I picked large stacks that looked like they would attack and hammered them.

On the Germans first real advance they looked as if they were going for the trap of the southern 30th Inf. At first I decided to defend myself and hold my ground here, but a turn or two later, I started pulling them back. At first I suffered huge disengagement penalties, but after a while, I left one strong infantry brigade behind while three others retreated.

By this time the Germans had overrun Mortain and thus gotten themselves 25vps. Instead of engaging the rest of the 30th and parts of the 3rd armor, lined up just west of Mortain, they moved south and around. At first I was worried. Having moved up everything in anticipation of a big fight, I'd left nothing between the front lines and the goal, the city crossroads of Avranches(35vps). I scrambled to check my reinforcement list. Hehe, sure enough, I had plenty on the way. Two turns I had to hold them. But I could see, that if my reinforcements didn't materialize near Avranches, the Germans would be closer than I would. I had to make them think twice (yes, it is a computer, but you'd be suprised at the AI on this one). I pulled off one tank battalion from around Mortain..was about the only thing that could move with any speed. I really didn't know exactly what was in that spearhead running along the southern edge of the map. I knew that it was led by some serious armor though.

Problem with the AI in this game is that it tends deal poorly with single units it is able to bypass. Frequently I find myself with full strenght battalions or whatnot behind their lines.

Happened in this case. A battalion of the 4th calvary got pushed into a position where it was unable fight, and then left. I usually will leave an understrenght unit to keep things like this busy. AI doesn't. So I moved it after the rolling panzers. What do you know. Just as that battalion of armor moved down from the north finding a battalion of German regulars, the 4th calvary swings in behind and retakes the little town of St. Hilaire(5vps). In addition to this I moved some units near Mortain south, threathening to close the supply line of the panzer juggernaut. I think all this put a halt to their campaign west. Next turn some of the German units backtracked to deal with my armor.

Now the near miss:
The Germans launched a smaller attack on the gap between the 30th and the 4th, but along the 4ths side of the river. Over two turns, they drove the southern most battalion of the 4th Inf west. I shuffled as many units as I could, relinquishing my hopes on exploiting the weak bend in the pocket. I piled up enough strenght just north of the advancing German battalion to convince them to stop or risk opening a weak link for me to close down. The 1st. SS pz pioneer battalion stopped and never moved an inch. Neither forward nor backward. And not for lack of my trying.

As the pocket wound back north and then east, the Germans deposited, for lack of a better word, a decent amount of armor. This scared me. I pounded the hex with artillery. Didn't do much against the armor, but it really hurt their infantry. I think it gained a hex only to lose one adjacent to it. Something like that.

East, the 363. German Infantry Div, tried to flank my 29th. Stopped that cold. Ended up pushing them back a couple hexes by the end of the battle. To keep the Germans frozen to the pocket, and keep them from funneling more men to the south, I figured I'd try to be a threat in the north. There were 3 inf divs up there doing nothing. On one turn, I opened a one hex gap using the 28th and artillery from the 29th and the 28th. Next turn I widened the gap to 3 hexes and pushed a little farther. By the end of the battle, I'd pushed far enough into the pocket to link the 28th to the middle of the 4th, thus surrounding most of the 116. panzer div.

The most interesting pieces for me were the tardy pieces of the 3rd and the 30th, trying to escape being cut off in the south. As I freed them up and raced back toward Mortain, I ended up moving in at the right time. I'd just forced some German Inf back creating a line to Mortain itself when the remnants of the southern units showed up. Suddenly I had Mortain almost surrounded. Attacking at once, I drove the already reorganizing infantry from the town and took it...never to lose it. Oh yes, the German soldiers stayed close. I managed to take Mortain without really routing the Germans...I just sorta scruntched the line northward.

Then my reinforcements arrived. Serveral battalions of the 3rd armor arrived far in the north near my airbase, and another Div, the 35th, of Int in the south. The armor I had slam into their juggernaut from the north...right at the town of St. Hilaire. The 35th split in half, half staying back to guard the way to Avranches, and the other half advancing on the point of the German spearhead.

Soon all was going my way. The German advance got cut into at least 3 sections. All easy to deal with. And as they lost supplies, they were routed with ease.

An easy scenario. Even though the Germans are the aggressors, I fail to see how this is really winable for them. The advantage I got from my air force kept the German artillery out of action. As the Americans you suffer shock for the first 3 rounds, but no more than one division was in shock at a time, and all of those were the 28th, 29th, and the 4th. All in the north. No harm done. Perhaps had the 30th suffered shock on turn 3, I might have had problems.

Also, had the Germans opened a second gap, pushing the 4th back. I probably could have still stopped a German armor advance in the north and south, but I wouldn't have routed it so completely.

Any suggestions? Comments?

I realize again this isn't shrapnel, but hell, maybe it will drag in some Talonsoft people and open their eyes. I only write this to boast or seek pity, and really work through my mistakes and exploits. Maybe a fun read for some.