Game: Sicily: Triumph and Folly

Thread: Re: Campaign game

mcdeans — 2008-05-12T04:22:29+00:00

OCS, as a game system, continues to totally impress me. Every time we extend our knowledge of the system the additions fit in without screwing with everything else, and just work. This time it was the whole naval component, from ships to amphibious landings and beach assaults. Pretty straight forward, although with all the landings it does take time.

Mid way through the 8th turn (07/22/1943) (we stopped after the Allied player turn) how was the game progressing? According to the scenario set ups for the next turn (24th), the Allies should have been in Palermo with the US 2nd Arm., and driving through the middle of the island, with the Brits getting as far as the south of Catania. In our game the US had barely pushed west of Porto Empedocle, and only as far as Naro, 15 miles inland. In the east the Brits hadn't got as far as Augusta. Overall, about as far as they'd got by 07/12 in the original campaign, so I was feeling pretty good about that, and my position in general. However, as with a lot of these games, it can all go wrong pretty quickly, and there was still a lot of game to go. Especially with so many weak Italian units around, and even more so when all it would take is a bad surrender roll for complete divisions to disappear.

This is a big game, no doubt about it. Eric felt that perhaps we bit off more than we could chew, but this has been my favorite OCS game so far. Primarily, I think, because we were involved in the whole campaign, and had total control over where and how the battle was fought. In previous games we've had set ups defined, which kind of forced the nature of the game. Here I dictated where and how I defended, and Eric had the choice of where to land, so the game felt less scripted. (OK, we started with the suggestions from Operations Magazine, but I fiddled a little, and there's a few things I'd change for a second go, but I hope you get the point I'm trying to make.)

Yes, there was a lot to think about, but that's fine, and I certainly didn't find time dragging during Eric's turns, although I generally used that time to catch up with my notes on what had happened, and his plans were usually more clear cut so his moves took less time anyway. I must admit that I did rush myself a little in a couple of places (especially in the turn that Eric mentioned, which was turn 7 not 6, where I missed that a couple of units were out of trace supply, with no SP access to eat off the map, which had me totally pissed at my own stupidity), as I was very conscious of taking a long time on my turns. But there was a lot to make decisions on: fall back or hold; where to fall back to; how to fall back; where to place those units in the new line; do I want to reallocate my divisions; what about a reserve; when to commit a reserve; any opportunities to take advantage of, and are they worth the risk; what about supply. All in all a big puzzle, with lots to think about. And I really like that sort of puzzle.

(In fact it reminded me a lot of our attempt to play Drang Nach Osten when at college. I had the map mounted to the wall of my dorm room by Blu-Tak, and would stare at it for hours, planning lines of attack, potential moves, likely responses, and counters to those responses. My opponent, playing the Soviets, would come in and do the same, thinking for ages and moving a few counters. We didn't get too far, but I really enjoyed it.)

It was in the rushing that I made mistakes. A unit out of position here. Forgetting to move a replacement unit there. Missing an air base refit. Lots of little (and a few not so little!) things, but I'm sure we were both missing little things, so they even out over the game. However, I was getting towards a limit on the size of game that I'd like to address for the time taken. As Eric said, we got through 7.5 turns in around 16-17 hours of gaming, around 2 hours per turn, although that did include a large period of down time discussing how to barrage naval units. I'd say that I occupied way more than 50% of that time, but I think the Axis player has more to think about than the Allied player, so that shouldn't come as a surprise. (Unlike our Race for Tunis game, where the Axis defender has an easier time of it, and the onus is on the attacker, in my view.)

It would be interesting to try one of the Case Blue scenarios to see how that feels in comparison to Sicily. More counters to handle, but would the front lines be denser and more static such that there are actually fewer decisions to make and the game is actually easier/quicker to play? Often those games with fewer units are harder to play because each unit and its position is more critical to your success, but perhaps may be more satisfying. (I think this touches on the same issues we had with Red Vengeance over Defiant Russia.)

Getting back to my preference for Sicily over DAK2-Gazala, it would be really interesting to try the full DAK2 campaign game and see whether I still preferred Sicily. Now that would be an undertaking!

(Oh, and for those who want to see every single pic in the game you'll find them here.)

Thread: Re: Campaign game

autumnweave — 2008-05-11T01:22:10+00:00

Interesting. I'm looking forward to seeing how this plays out.

Thread: Re: Campaign game

mcdeans — 2008-05-10T20:52:43+00:00

Turn 4 - 07/15/1943

The Allies won the initiative roll, and Eric chooses to go first. He makes a new landing in the US sector to the west of my units, which I was afraid might happen. I'd let the following Italian divisions lag the Germans and had left some coast exposed behind the main German defensive line. Even worse, this gap also separated the KG-Ens units from their HQ, definitely a bad mistake. Sure enough the HQ gets eliminated, and I've got a real bad situation on my hands.

Then things get even worse. I go to use my reserve artillery to barrage the Brits aiming to attack south of Syracuse, but Eric thinks I've already attacked them with air barrage. We must really be getting tired (we've been going for about 8-10 hours) because I've got no clue who I did/didn't attack, so let it ride. (I did my air barrages first, east to west, so by the time I get to the artillery barrage some little time has passed.) This means that he makes a successful attack and gains a foothold over the river. Only after do I figure out that it was the next stack I'd air barraged, but it's too late. The attack gains exploitation, and he also attacks into the outskirts of Syracuse, getting another good result, and I compound the earlier mistakes by losing a unit rather than retreating. (As I decided to fall back in my turn this was an especially bad decision.)

I'd also made the mistake of defending in the rough to the north of Ragusa, thinking it was Very Close terrain, when I should have defended further back in the mountains. That costs me another unit.

Here’s the position at the end of the Allied turn:

East
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West

In my turn in the east, on the coast I retire my left flank a little to the low hills along the coast, but keep my right flank on the river. I'm starting to think about falling back to the next river, although I'm going to have to endure a turn or two defending in the open, which I'm not hopeful about. I pull back to the mountains in the middle, and all along the US sector it's time to find a good defensive line.

End of turn 4 position:

East
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West
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Not a good turn for me. Over on the right, things are looking really scary. KG-Ens is going to have problems keeping in supply with no HQ, and my KG-Flrd HQ is looking very exposed. There are only a scattering of weak Italian coastal divisions holding 2nd Arm. from running around the entire western coast, and as I'm 2 from 2 in my surrender rolls for coastal divisions it could all go pear shaped in very short order. (I've made 6 surrender rolls so far, losing 2 coastal divisions and the Syracuse coastal artillery, winning 3 coastal artillery. I'd have gladly swapped one of the coastal artillery units for one of the divisions.) That landing behind my front line has really put me off balance. Nice move, Eric. (Curse your eyes!)

At this point we call an end to the first day's play. We probably started around 1030, ended around 2200, and broke for lunch and dinner for around 1.5 hours.

Turn 5 - 07/17/1943

The Allies win the initiative and Eric elects to go first. I'm quite happy with that decision as I think a double move could be truly disastrous for my prospects. Eric grinds forward with the Brits, but the US forces don't press as much as I'd expected them to. Perhaps he has more supply issues than I'd expected, which I'm so disappointed to hear, if true. (NOT!)

I get pushed out of the hills on the coast in the east, so I take that as a hint that it's time to start falling back.

In the west he captures Porto Empedocle, and assaults my adjacent unit. The surrender roll for Assta division goes my way, which means that I have some units to hold the west with, although it's one of the smaller coastal divisions. However, he takes an 'o' result and chooses to retreat, leaving the port open and containing 2T.

Here’s the position at the end of the Allied turn:

East
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West
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My turn sees me move a couple of Italian units to the river at Augusta, ready for falling back next turn. Otherwise I just do a gradual fall back through the mountains, linking up the east and west sectors with HG division. In the west his retreat from Porto Empedocle seems like an invitation, so I march right in and capture 1T. (You have to roll on the Supply Dump capture table, which gives you a percentage of the supply that you capture.) The rest of the Italians are trying to get there, but I don't want to spend a lot of supply on fuel, so they keep walking slowly. Otherwise it's just finding some good defensive terrain to fall back to. Otherwise, I'm just falling back and trying to keep a line.

End of turn 5 position:

East
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West
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Turn 6 - 07/19/1943

Once again Eric wins the initiative roll and elects to go first. His air barrage roll is another 1, two in a row and he's rolled either 5 or 1 in every turn. On the east coast I DG his units in my reaction phase, so no combat for you, but I lose a unit to a box cars naval barrage roll. In the middle I lose the Italian unit at Chiaramonte Gulfi, as he gets a great roll with exploitation, which he uses to follow up with another great result to remove the HG armor unit behind it. (The 4-4-8 unit in 45.20.) In the west he presses forward, but not too aggressively. He attempts to take Porto Empedocle, but I DG his units on my side of the river, and he decides not to risk the river assault. (With at least a 3-1 and +4 for the Action Rating drm I was expecting him to attack, as attacker surprise was quite likely, and even without it the drm ensures that it would have to be a pretty bad roll to not get a decent result. The likelihood of both rolls being crummy made it worth the risk.

Here’s the position at the end of the Allied turn:

East
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West
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My turn is fairly simple. I continue to hold along the eastern coast, and air barrage his guys into DG, so he won't be doing much there next turn. Over in the other areas I've got a semi-decent line, so just tweak it to make it as good as possible. To the west I've got a reasonable line behind the river, although it's mostly held by a new Italian coastal division, so I'm risking another bad surrender roll.

End of turn 6 position:

East
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West
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I'm beginning to consider abandoning the west of the island, focussing on falling back towards Messina in a controlled manner, giving up space for time. I'm thinking of defending along the river line at a3233-3831 as a starting point, and moving back from there, Kind of like a swing door, hinged on the eastern coast. Once I get into the mountainous area around Etna it should help, as his movement will be severely curtailed.

Turn 7 - 07/21/1943

Same as last turn, Eric wins the initiative, elects to go first, and rolls a 1 for his air barrages. (Pretty neat trick, but you still have some way to rival my trick of rolling 1 5 times in a row for my commands in our Clash for a Continent game! Once more he presses forward, although the eastern coast is pretty stacked already. He tries to fly in some SPs, but my Italian fighter takes out two fighters flying cover (I rolled 8+ twice in a row!) and the two transports, all for a loss to boot! The same unit then intercepts the sole air barrage, taking out a Spitfire flying cover (-1 drm!) and the rest of the barraging aircraft! Let's hear it for the Italian Air Force, W00T!

However, it's not all going my way, as he barrages, attacks and kills the Tiger unit in the middle, then finally captures Porto Empedocle. Both combats gain exploitation, but he choses not to use the one in the middle. However, the one to the west is a different matter, as 2nd Arm dash forward to attack a unit of Aosta coastal division, which promptly surrenders. Yay, I'm now down 3 out of 4 division surrender rolls, and it's the weakest one that survived. That's going to make defense of the western side of the island even more of a challenge, and giving it up to focus on the east is making even more sense.

Here’s the position at the end of the Allied turn:

East
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West
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In my turn I continue to try to adjust my lines, falling back on the eastern coast to the next river. However, we've got a hard limit of 1730 to start clearing up, and I rush my turn, not spotting that I've left a couple of units of the Italian Livno division out of supply in the middle. They both fail their rolls, and I lose two precious ground units. Next time I'll not try to go as quickly and make sure my supply lines are safe, and to heck with trying to get another turn in.

As part of the rushing, and annoyance on my part, I forget to take pictures.

Turn 8 - 07/21/1943

Eric once again goes first, and it's more of the same as he presses forward. (I'm working from memory here, so I'm not clear on exactly what happened in this last turn.) We're pretty close to the mandatory clear up time, so I decline to risk another turn like the last one, and we call a halt after his turn. Eric starts recording positions and putting each stack of counters into an ice tray (a trick he learned from somewhere) as we plan to come back to this at a later stage. He's part way through before I think about the camera, so no more pics at all.

We intend to get it back on the table for another go, so I'll make sure to take pics before we start. I'll put my thoughts on the game into a separate post.

Thread: Re: Campaign game

mcdeans — 2008-05-10T20:40:58+00:00

Turn 2 - 07/12/1943

I win the initiative roll and am faced with a hard decision: do I go first to improve my position and try to prevent him from moving, and risk a potentially killer double turn, or let him take a turn and hope to be able to benefit from a double turn myself. In the end I elect to go first, as there are a few things I want to do before he gets a chance to move. Things like protect my air base at Licata, recover a good line. Plus, I'm still stronger on air, so now is my best chance to inflict losses on his air units. Let's hope that decision doesn't come back to bite me.

In the east I use the river line to the south of Syracuse as my anchor, using the Italian Napoli division to hold the inland road. In the west I'm a little more aggressive, and put pressure on the Gela area where the initial landings were weak. However, in my combat I can't get the 6 or higher (no modifiers, so I blew another 70% roll) that would remove his sole unit and save the Gela area. Dang! That would have caused him serious issues in hooking up his beachheads. The only other thing of note is that in my 4 air barrages he rolled 2 hits. (A flak hit requires a modified 11, and I don't believe he had any modifiers.)

At the end of my turn it looks like this:

East
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West
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In his turn, Eric tries to drop some paras behind my line, just to the south of Niscemi, but I win the air interception (no modifier, needed 8+) to remove his air cover, then proceed to make mincemeat of the transports, forcing them all to abort with loss! (A loss requires a 5/6 roll.) A stunning result.

Other than that, the expected ship load of units arrive successfully. He presses around the Syracuse area, (using his single allowed air barrage - he rolls each turn for the allowed number of air barrages) but my artillery comes out of reserve and DGs him, so there is no combat.

The end of turn 2 has the situation like this:

East
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West
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Turn 3 - 07/14/1943

Once again, I win the initiative roll, and have another tough choice on who goes first. In the east most of his strength is still off to the south after landing, and will take a turn or two to get to the front line. In the US sector I'm more concerned. On my left he's strong, but all my units are in reserve, so I have flexibility to respond to his actions. In the middle I'm weaker, but so is he. On the right he has a big stack in Licata that scares me, but I don't really know what it contains. On the plus side, his lack of air barrage capability last turn has my fighters still all active, ready to create mayhem and (hopefully!) disrupt his air barrages. All things considered, I decide to let Eric go first.

In the end he didn't push forward as much as I'd expected. 1st Arm. pushed eastwards towards Comiso and the air base there, but otherwise there wasn't any movement, especially towards the west. In the east the expected moves were seen.

My air barrages go well, until he rolls 3 consecutive 50/50 interception wins for loss. I did well last turn, so perhaps I can't complain. I still get some good DG results, which should spoil his combats. Hah! Fat chance, as he rolls like a demon, with every combat gaining good surprise or a combat roll of 10+. Over on the right of the US sector, he needs an 11+ to gain surprise (I'm on +1 modifier for Action Rating) and proceeds to roll box cars, converting his weak attack into something decent. Pah! These remove my coastal artillery at gela, and a unit threatening his Gela/Licata link up. He continues the good rolls into his exploitation, killing another of my good units.

Position at the end of Allied turn:

East

West

In my turn I started to pull back in the US sector. However, I did mount one attack at Gela, managing to roll really well and removing a Ranger and a regular infantry battalion on a Ao1DL1o1 result. In the east I pretty much just hung tight, as I was in a good defensive position. However, I did start pulling the Italian Napoli division back along the main road, heading for the hills.

Position at the end of turn 3:

East
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West
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OK, that didn't go as badly as it could have, so giving him the double turn here was a decent option. The Brits have been held at Syracuse for another turn with no loss. In the US sector he's not very strong, but there are still units offshore, so they could cause me trouble. I don't think I can hold him from linking up for another turn, so it may be time to bug out. The Brits and US units are starting to link up in the middle, so time to withdraw from that area as well. Yep, time to chuck it in reverse!

Thread: Campaign game

mcdeans — 2008-05-10T20:00:31+00:00

(The original has been posted to the Two Sides to the Coin blog, and is posted in 3 segments covering the first 7.5 turns of the campaign scenario, and a final post on thoughts so far. The intention is to get back to it at some point.)

In another of our larger, OCS games (see our Tunisia and DAK2-Gazala session reports), Eric (Basilius) and I got together to try Sicily: Triumph and Folly, based on the July/August 1943 Allied invasion. Once more I was the Axis player, and Eric was the Allies. We had originally planned this game for a yearly week-long wargaming extravaganza, but Eric's schedule nixed that idea. I had an open weekend, so proposed that as an alternative, and Eric's wife was kind enough to allow him to come out and play, especially as we planned it for the full weekend.

For deployment, I had planned to use the sample Axis deployment that Eric found on ConsimWorld, but come the allotted time on Saturday morning, I found that it only covered 4 of the 12 beach landing zones (the main Allied landing zones). So, my morning was a scramble to come up with a deployment before Eric arrived. As such, I'm not sure I picked good locations for all my units, but as they were all outside the landing areas it really didn't matter a huge amount, and they weren't doing a whole lot of movement, anyway. For the variable placement units, I try to angle them towards the likely landing areas, but also trying to keep no more than 1RE to a hex in order not to present a good target for air barrages. Here’s my initial deployment:

South-east corner

South coast

East coast

West island

North-east corner

Overview

(Future pics will focus on the first two areas, where all the action occurs, and I'll refer to them as east and west, although the latter is really the south beach.)

In the pre-game actions, Eric rolled for damage to the ports. Some had only light damage, others extensive, but 3 of the 4 with light damage were in his immediate landing areas, and would give him a good base for expansion and landing SPs. Those heavily damaged were my main ports on the eastern coast. Nice planning Eric!

The fun starts with the Brits landing on the east coast from the south-east corner through just south of Syracuse. 1st Airborne lands just south over the river from Syracuse, with the sole unit north of the river drifting into the sea (leaving its 1T SP to land in the open!) and the AT unit landing near an Italian division. He also captures the air base there after winning a fighter sweep (even air ratings, so a 40% chance of losing), I miss a 60% interception roll (with a +1 on my rating, we both abort on the modified 7) and the flak misses (with a +4 modifier, required 7+). In the west, the Americans land at Scoglitti, Gela and Licata.

His naval bombardments DG most of my units that are facing a Beach Assault (BA), however he misses the units at Gela. (I miss my first 4 air interceptions, 3 of them with a +1 modifier, not being able to roll higher than a net 7 in any of them.) All his BAs go well, except for Gela, where he gets repulsed after a nasty surprise roll. As part of the combats I roll for the two Italian coastal divisions (206th in the south-east corner, and 207th, facing the US at Licata and to the west.), and both decide to give up. (Each coastal division and artillery has to roll the first time they’re involved in combat, with a 50% chance of being removed. Yes, the entire division, in one go. Can seriously dent your line!) This is a big blow, as these are the two biggest coastal divisions, and it gives him complete and easy control of the entire south-east corner of the island without even the semblance of a fight.

In my turn I start moving towards the beaches to try to contain the landings and possibly set up some counter-attacks. There’s a lot to decide as I need to figure out where to commit the divisions. I try a few air barrages, missing all but 1, but succeed with an artillery barrage against the US troops at Gela.

I have only the one combat, removing the exposed 1st Airborne AT unit.

Here’s the position at the end of the first turn:

East

West

At the end of the turn, I’m quite concerned. The entire south east is defended by a single puny 1-3-6 armor unit. I’d hoped to be able to hold him up a little more than that. In the US sector he hasn’t been able to link up his beach-heads, due to my unexpected success at Gela, but the road is open to the west for a large flanking maneuver, with only weak Italian troops to stop him.

During the turn we had an extended discussion on coastal artillery, and that they don’t get to fire on the landing craft, as they sail up, land, and sail away out of range before the artillery can do anything. (Hey, I'm the defender, so, of course, it's not good!) It was only at the end of the day’s play that I found the relevant section of rules (hidden in the Naval Power section), which has coastal artillery treated like naval units, allowing them to fire once per game turn in any barrage phase (air/naval, combat, exploitation or reaction) without requiring a Reserve marker. This still would not have allowed them to fire on those landing craft not making a BA (which I still think is wrong), but at least being able to fire on those who are making a BA is something for the attacking player to be concerned about, as a DG will certainly cramp their chances of assaulting successfully. Who knows what effect it would have had on our game, but it would probably have made the landings harder. It's hard to create naval casualties, as only a real high roll will give you a hit, rather than a DG result. Individual DG results get removed as normal, but a second DG result gives a hit, so the secret is to either have multiple coastal artillery units fire (naval fires are targeted individually, rather than aggregated into a single fire like other barrages) or to also use air units, to get those multiple DG results.

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Fulminata — 2006-08-27T16:43:10+00:00

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Fulminata — 2006-08-27T16:26:09+00:00

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Fulminata — 2006-08-27T16:25:45+00:00

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Fulminata — 2006-08-27T08:28:30+00:00

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Fulminata — 2006-08-27T08:28:25+00:00

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Fulminata — 2006-08-27T06:22:59+00:00

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Kevin Moody — 2006-08-12T06:52:49+00:00

VASSAL module map by Greg Dahl

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Lawrence Hung — 2005-02-20T15:15:57+00:00

The last turn results.

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Lawrence Hung — 2005-02-20T15:15:57+00:00

The first turn landing

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cosarara — 2004-10-01T18:07:08+00:00

The fall of Catania