From: Christopher Salander Subject: Avalanche Game Replay Game Replay Avalanche: The Invasion of Italy Avalanche Games Avalanche offers several optional scenarios. This game follows the historical scenario. The units of the 16th Panzer Div. are deployed across the map, and the units of 2 British and 1 American infantry division hit the beach. Large numbers of gunships deploy off the coast to provide artillery support. Day 1: "Do What Rommel Recommended" The Germans were fortunate in that the random placement of strongpoints put the strongest ones directly in front of the invasion beaches, and the weakest ones to the side. The Allies needed two turns to eliminate the strongpoints and advance out of the first hexes. This gave the Germans time to concentrate their forces and attack. The Americans lost a couple of steps to artillery as they landed. The German player recalled what Rommel had said about how you should repel an amphibious invasion - hit them as early as possible, on the beaches. Following that idea he assembled two groups of high value infantry and armor and attacked each British landing zone. Terrain forced him to simply screen the Ranger landing zones to the north, and lack of units forced him to stay on the defensive in front of the Americans in the south. Since the Allied infantry started out with no AT guns or armor, the Germans were able to launch very destructive attacks with few units due to the combat shifts for armor and for morale. The only problem they had was a lack of infantry units to create combined arms stacks. Also, various companies had to be spread out in fieldworks to contain the beachheads. The two German attacks punched through to the beaches and each knocked out a British beachhead counter. (2 out of 5). The Germans then tried to attack along the beach, to eliminate the other counters and win the game, but the British withdrew the depleted units, brought up full strength units, and in 2 or 3 cases, used the "Stand Fast" option and lost more steps, rather than lose another beachhead. Day 2: "The Dam Bursts" The most important development on this day was the arrival of Allied AT guns and armor. The Allied player immediately distributed the AT guns to all his infantry stacks, pretty much making them immune to the nasty German counterattacks of the day before. Large numbers of Allied units were arriving every turn, and the German player finally realized that he was about to be overwhelmed, and had to retreat to cover the roads for reinforcements. Unfortunately, the units which had knocked out the two British beachheads were cut off. The one in the center lost a unit before it could withdraw. In the other case, more German units that were badly needed elsewhere had to attack to open up a retreat route for the trapped stack, only to have it fail its infiltration move three times! Eventually the Germans withdrew to the hills, but the British stayed right on them every turn, preventing disrupted units from recovering. The 46th division was to the north, and the 56th division in the center. The American division was the 36th. In the south, the Americans were more like hounds chasing foxes. The Germans stopped to defend towns and bridges, but otherwise they were running for the hills. One artillery battery was overtaken and destroyed. One German infantry battalion retreated south along the coast with one HQ and leader. (The German player mistakenly thought that reinforcements would be coming from there. The Americans screened off that unit and pursued the rest up the river valley (southeast).) In the north, the American Rangers cleared the heights, only to face armored units. Neither side could attack the other, so a stalemate developed. The American player wasn't sure from the rules, but it seemed as though the Ranger beachheads could be treated just like any other beachhead, so any time some unassigned units showed up in the reinforcement list (units not part of a specific divsion), he diverted some of them to that area, to try and outflanked the Germans. (1. There are significant penalties/problems when using units from different divisions, so you pretty much have to land all of the same division at the same beach. 2. The game ends if the Allied player can get 3 battalions off the coast road to the north (to Naples), so this diversion of units to the north could have a big payoff.) The British rangers became ambitious and attacked Salerno and took one hex. The German player scraped up a couple of units and on a good die roll threw the British out. Then the Germans had to leave anyway. Day 3. "Send Help - Custer" The first two days had been cloudy, limiting air points, but day 3 was clear. The German was devoting all his air points to shipping attacks, since the accounts of the original battle indicate that the Allied naval guns were decisive. He had previously sunk a monitor, and on this day he damaged an American cruiser. The Allied player put what he could into air superiority, but was limited to 3 points, so the rest went to ground support, which helped in a couple of critical attacks well out of naval gunnery range. The Allied player had immediately put engineers on the airfields near the beaches, to repair them and give him more air superiority points. The Germans fell back in 4 groups, 1 to the N, 1 to the E, 1 to the SE, and the 1 unit to the S. The one thing that saved their behinds was the lack of armor on the Allied side. Even if the Allies used massive stacks of infantry and lots of artillery, it was still difficult to get a high odds attack against the Germans if they had armor and the Allies didn't. There were only 3 Allied tank battalions, so that limited the number of effective attacks per turn. It was only on day 4 that it occurred to the Allied player to split them up into companies to spread out the armor combat bonus. The third day is crucial, because the Allies have all elements of all three divisions ashore, while the Germans only get a very few new units. The first large German reinforcements come at the end of this day. An armor thrust by the British eliminates the German units covering the road NE to Avellino. This allows the 46th to take control of this road and swing west to try and flank the German positions around Nochea. Just enough German units arrive from the north to screen off any outflanking attempts. The Allied player moves most of his remaining ships over to the north end of the map to support the thrust to Naples. The British 56th division pushes up the hills to the east, continuing to chew up the few remaining Germans. They also try to support an American attack on Eboli, but are hurt by the cross-division, cross- nationality penalties and leave the town to the Americans. Enough reinforcements come up from the SE that the Germans are able to hold Eboli and the last bridge across the river. To deal with this, the Americans bring up the newly arrived 45th Infantry division and send it into the hills to turn the German left flank. But the Germans throw new units into that area and halt the advance, so the Americans try to push up the river valley, only to stall. Day 4: Stalemate Artillery ammunition begins to be a problem for the Americans. The British have cleared their beachheads and have even left small units as shore parties to bring in supplies, but the American beachheads are tied up with units of the 45th division. Major German reinforcements arrive, especially in the north (such as the Herman Goering division). These come just in time because all that is left of the 16th Pz is 3 artillery battalions, 2 depleted battalions, and two companies. Most of the line is held by reinforcements. The position in the north is just a small pocket around Pompeii. Before the German reinforcements can have an effect, the Allies make a major push for Nochea in the north, and Eboli in the southeast, both victory condition cities. The fighting is bloody, but the Allies win. The 56th division starts to shift from east to the north. The Allied player is dissatisfied with the situation. He checks the reinforcement schedule to see when he will get he two remaining divsions, the 82nd airborne, and the 7th British armored. He had originally dismissed the idea of an air drop, because he was doing so well, and he did not want to bother with the procedure. He is shocked to see that if he does not paradrop the 82nd airborne infantry, most of it will not come on! He immediately plans a drop. Day 5: Mud The flood of fresh armor, infantry and artillery on the German side makes itself felt. First, the Allied advances are stopped. Then local counterattacks are launched to stabilize the lines. The Allied player is now facing 5 new German divisions: 2 Panzer, 2 Panzer Grenadier, and 1 Parachute. (29th, 26th, 15th Pz, HG, 3 PG, 1st Para.). This is the first day that it rains. The Allied player has a fit, because it cancels his airdrop. Everything goes into slow motion. Units already in combat keep fighting, but units approaching the front don't get there yet. Day 6: Tigers, Tigers, everywhere. Now the new German units start to hurt the Allies. In the south, there are not enough units to throw the Americans back, but here and there the German player makes a nasty counter attack just to bleed his opponent. The Americans are still fumbling with artillery ammunition, and are well out of naval gun range. The Germans get most of their new reinforcements in the north and they go on the attack to expand their pocket. Large amounts of artillery and nebelwefers combined with large, fresh units drive the British back. The rangers are over matched, and have to abandon the penisula north of Salerno. The Germans drive on Pognani and Nochea, but the towns become meatgrinders, and the Allied player feeds in units of the 56th division coming down out of the hills. The German gets some miserable die rolls and does not make any progress. The Allies now have four airfields in operation, and, when the weather clears, can stop almost all German air attacks. In the south, the Allied player finally drops the 82nd airborne infantry. Their artillery and support units arrive at the beaches. The plan is to land them on the Allied side, to avoid the nasty casualties for landing in enemy territory, but to land them at the south end of the line, so that they can attack the German flank and source of reinforcements. (Actually, the main reason is that the Americans only need to capture one more victory condition town, Aulette; but that is way off in the SE part of the map.) Day 7: Trading Queens The German player has to scramble to meet the threat in the south. He must thin out his main line and shift units south. He gives up any hope of retaking Eboli. In the north, the Germans finally break the British ring around them, breaking out to the NE. British units spread out to try and contain them, but a couple of artillery units get overrun. The rest are limbered and sent to the nearest road. The Germans also attack southward, but the British continue to hold Nochea, and the hills north of Salerno. In the south, due to the thinning of the German line, the Americans punch through along the river, inflicting heavy casualties. The German player decides he is trying to defend too large an area with too few units and starts a general withdraw, to form a smaller defensive area around Aulette and the road from the SE. So the Americans are closing in on the last town they need, but the British have just lost Pognano and are about to lose others. The British 7th Armored Division arrives, and the Allied player is confident that it will stop the German advance. Day 8: WWI all over again A small pleasure for the German player is the damaging last turn of the second battleship, and the damaging this turn of the remaining monitor. The Allies now have no ships with range greater than 7. The 7th Armor moved into position and stopped cold the German advance in the north. Meanwhile, the bulk of the 26th Panzer arrives in the south and throws back the 82 Airborne. There are some anxious moments for the Americans when the 26th's tanks hit airborne infantry without AT guns, and eliminate half the 82nd's artillery. But Tank Destroyer are shifted over, and the attacks are stopped. The result of the reinforcements to each side is that neither side can find a point in the line where they can get 3:1 or better. All the attacks stop. The only significant developments are: 1) a retreat and disruption after a botched German attack on Nochea leaves the victory town of Pognani open and the British grab it. 2) Frustrated that his ships cannot contribute to the main battles, and that the game is coming to an end, the Allied player starts using Bombardment on the only units in reach, German artillery in the north. Now both players realize that no more significant reinforcements are coming and that the lines will not move unless someone does something really stupid. So the game is called, with 3 days left to go. Since the Allies held all the locations they needed for victory except Aulette, it is called an Almost Allied victory. - Chris Salander