Mike Brewer  - Mar 8, 2006 2:12 pm (#5430 Total: 5437)  
Currently playing: Napoleon on the Danube (NES), Breakout Normandy pbem
tournament (AH). Last played: . The Mighty Endeavor (SCS, The Gamers),
Montebello (NBS, The Gamers), Aspern-Essling (NBS, The Gamers). 
	 
Solitaire TME: AAR (of sorts)

Just finished my first solitaire game of TME. Both sides played badly,
and the game ended with a draw (just!) on 25 VPs. 

Usual landings on the first turn: 2 in Normandy, 1 in St Tropez, and 2
more used later in the game to take Boulogne/Calais. [I forgot to use
the 6th...] 

First, the Allies played badly, failing to get create a comprehensive
breakthrough in Normandy: Turns 2,4 and 5 all involved the Allies
breaking through the German lines in Normandy, but then immediately
having their weak/thin breakthrough snapped off or eliminated by the
German Panzers (who would usually use the movement phase to rendezvous
behind the lines in a couple of killer stacks, and then use the
exploitation phase to overrun). The breakout of Normandy proper didn't
happen until Turn 6 when the Allies had enough airpoints to break
through simultaneously in two places. 

The Germans then executed a brilliant fighting withdrawal to the Seine
(by Aug/Sep 1944 or Turn 8/9) which they held in strength: it took 5
more turns before they pulled back. This was partly because the Allies
had only 1 port (Cherbourg), and partly because there were a lot of
German units behind the Seine (none had surrendered). It was only when
the secondary invasion at Calais/Boulougne linked up at Abbeville with
units that had crossed the Seine N of Paris (threatening a large
Abbeville/Amiens pocket) that the Germans abandoned Paris. By the end of
Turn 15/November 1944, the Germans were holding a line from
Ostend-Brussels-Namur-Sedan-Langres-Dijon. 

In the south, the Allies progress was even worse. Marseille didn't fall
until Turn 7(!), thanks to 2 SS, and wasn't functional until Turn 13
(!!) so the Allies were stuck behind Grenoble and Lyons. 

However, then the Germans played badly. They forgot that there are no VP
areas in the S of France, so there's not much need to defend it. So when
Patton's armour finally got to manoveur S of the main German line,
taking Dijon and Nancy (Turn 19/January 1945) and then Strasbourg (Turn
20/February 1945), they cut off all the German units in the S of France.
Plus, the fact that the German line in the N of France extended all the
way S to Dijon meant that were too few units between Brussels and
Aachen. 

But in the end, that 5 turn delay behind the Seine meant that the Allies
ran out of time. By the end of 1944 (Turn 17), the German line was the
Maas/Meuse, The first VP (Namur) didn't come until January 1945 (Turn
18), when the line was behind the Moselle and up the West Wall to
Aachen. January and February were immensely frustrating as the Allies
failed to have enough trucks to attack all the way along the long line
from Antwerp to Strasbourg, and exploit breakthroughs. By the end of
February 1945 (Turn 21), the Germans have been pushed back to the Rhine
(plus Antwerp, Cologne, Koblenz & Mainz), and the Allies have 7 VPs. The
Allies then stop battering themselves against Cologne/Essen/Dusseldorf,
and instead cross the Rhine at Arnhem in the much loved
movement-overrun/combat/exploitation-overrun triple play (the Germans
had very few units N of Essen). By the end of March 1945, the Allies
have mopped up all the Germans holding out in the West Wall fortresses,
and have captured Antwerp and Essen (from the N via Arnhem), and have 19
VPs. Antwerp opens immediately, and boy is that handy for supplying
units through Arnhem. The Allied troops then race across the bridge at
Arnhem, making for Rotterdam, the V2 sites, and the VP points around
Munster: there are no German units N or W of Munster, except those
bottled up in Rotterdam. 

The last turn of the game opened with the Allies needing 5 VPs to avoid
a loss, which they managed: the Allies carpet-bombed Rotterdam at 5:1
which would have yielded 2 more VPs on a 6, but they rolled a 3, and the
Germans had a 2:1 attack against Essen which would have taken back 2 VPs
on a 9, but they rolled a 7. 

The Allies ended up with 25 VPs [in order of capture]: Namur, Brussels,
Liege, Saarbrucken, 26.35, Metz, 25.36, Krefeld, Antwerp (2),
Strasbourg, 8.26, 14.20, Trier, 27.36, Aachen (2), Essen (2), 24.31,
7.32, 20.22, 10.11, 10.12 (2). 

The main thing I learnt was that it is not as easy attacking as the
Allies as it first seems...As soon as those first 2 or 3 beach ports
disappear, the progress in the N of France can really grind to a halt
until Le Havre falls. Yet its hard to take Le Havre with just 1 attack
HQ. And it's relatively easy for the Germans to counterattack against a
breakthrough provided they have Panzers in reserve or that they can take
out of the line. I also had enormous fun with a couple of German units
who managed to escape S of the Loire river as Patton's tanks took
Angers, Tours and Orleans: these units threatened to wreak havoc with
the Allied supply lines, and forced them to use up 2 emergency attacks. 

What a game... 

Mike