DAR: Bou Arada - Tunisia

[RERomine]

Decisive Victory!!!!

Turn 13

My infantry pushed into the smoke and destroyed four panicked enemy tanks. Others were destroyed by my tanks. The enemy rained in some heavy artillery and then called it a day.

Casualties

Friendly: Estimated 10 casualties

Enemy: Two Sherman II tanks, three Valentine IX tanks, one Crusader AA mk1 tank and four Lee I tanks destroyed, estimated 20 casualties.

Total Casualties

German

Men: 51
Artillery: 1
Soft Vehicles: 0
APCs: 0
AFVs: 0

British

Men: 945
Artillery: 0
Soft Vehicles: 8
APCs: 20
AFVs: 141
Aircraft: 1

Score

Germany: 13578
GB: 150

Final Comments

Most of the enemy tanks were destroyed. There were roughly 25 left, but many of those were damaged in one respect or another. Because so much happened so fast, it was impossible for me to keep track of damaging hits to enemy tanks. I know some tanks were damaged and then destroyed, while others were damaged but survived the turn.

Behind the enemy's line of burning tanks, there seemed to be a battalion of infantry. If those had gotten through first or at least came through with the tanks, this battle could have been very different. It's difficult to say why they didn't get into action. Maybe because the AI lost so many points in tanks, it got to a point and said no more. My artillery did help in separating the infantry from the tanks. Normally, the AI rides them into battle and dumps then when the enemy is sighted. When artillery hits them, they jump off even if the are 2km+ from the FEBA. Some infantry did get into the fight by riding in fast vehicles. Unfortunately, those die very easily when they out run their armor support. Two things the AI does that I don't: Attack with men in trucks and ride men on tanks into battle. A well timed advance of infantry and tanks would have made this a very different battle.

One more thing is my ammo problem. Well, it really wasn't much of a problem this time. I rotated a total of four tanks off the line for resupply. Tanks selected by the AI to use are more expensive than the ones they used in the battle where I had ammo problems. More expensive means fewer tanks, which in turn means less ammo used in dealing with them. In that battle, the AI had somewhere in the range of 275 armored vehicles. I dealt with that using the same number of guns. The only significant difference between then and now in my force was I replace StuGs with Tigers. Tigers carry more ammo and do get fewer shots bouncing off. The biggest difference in the battles, however is having to deal with 100 fewer vehicles that require AP ammo to kill. I figure that is because vehicle cost.

I've attached the save just before I ended my last turn. In this case, clicking on end turn doesn't necessarily mean the battle will automatically end once the AI finishes turn 13. I don't recall any AI turn kills by my forces, but any little change may inspire the AI to keep going. In that ammo battle I talk about, I killed serveral enemy tanks the last turn during the AI phase. I tried to run it again, those kills didn't happen and the AI didn't give up. Probably not an issue in this case, but I thought I would mention that if someone tries to look at the final numbers after the battle. Enjoy!!