Arnhem-Second Wave

The following pics are from a Marginal Victory in this remake of a HTTR scenario for Command Ops: Battles from the Bulge. I will be posting the write-up over the next several days so please check back.

D01-05:00: The initial deployment of the Para’s with three objectives already lit up. Although the LZ SD Objective is not yet active, this is one of the few scenarios where protecting the LZ is both a high scoring objective and tough to do (some scenarios the LZ can be virtually forgotten which IMHO is lazy/poor mission craft).

D01-05:00: I order 1 Border Bn (566/408/132) to delay from out front of the Heelsum Objective (10 Victory Points) back to a blocking position 1 KM away from the Highway Early Objective (10 Victory Points) which I maintain by detaching C Coy to defend in-situ. The delay consists of eight leap-frogging steps in hopes of inflicting as much damage against the Germans as possible.

D01-05:00: I order 7 KOSB Bn (684/482/161) to delay back to a blocking position split between the Wolfheze Early Objective (10 Victory Points) and the currently inactive LZ SD Objective (17 Victory Points). The pattern is a six step leap-frog to delay the Axis from threatening the primary Wolfheze Objective (27 Victory Points) which becomes active at D01-15:30.

D01-05:00: I order 1 Airlanding Bde HQ to defend just northeast of Wolfheze on the rail line. This is an all hands on deck kind of mission so they will be expected to participate in the fight even though it is not a primary frontline unit (at least they are not tasked with taking and/or holding an objective).

D01-05:00: I order 1 Airborne Div HQ (1,073/848/60), headed by Major General Robert "Roy" Elliott Urquhart to defend at the Wolfheze Early Objective (10 Victory Points).

Update 4/27/13: While I am still going to finish the write-up above on the Marginal Victory, I played the scenario again today (using build 4.3.249 as in the AAR above) and with the most basic plan, achieved a Decisive Victory with considerably less loss of life and equipment.

That battle plan was nothing more than having the starting forces defend in-situ with minimum rest. When the reinforcements arrived they were split between the Wolfheze and LZ SD objectives: everything else was ignored.

IMHO this should not have been a Decisive Victory as it makes the mission too simplistic to beat.