Finally getting around to posting up about last weekend’s Europa game.  It was a hard-fought contest, coming down to the last impulse.  The scenario uses a modified Europa turn sequence, with a non-phasing reaction phase placed between the phasing player’s movement and exploitation phase.  It’s air-on-demand, regardless of impulse.  The scenario involved the Dec I  through Jan II turns.

Victory points are awarded to the German player if able to exit units off the North map side (Brussels/Antwerp), or if the Allied player activates either the 9th or 3rd Armies.  For the Allied player, it’s simply a matter of avoiding German VPs.   We did not play the Boddenplatte option – which also involves VPs. Too much for the time available.

Tim’s axis of advance was South to North, using high-odds armored attacks to shatter outlying US units.  As Allied commander, I decided to activate either the 9th and/or 3d Army only as a last resort, way too many VPs involved.  The Allied reinforcement schedule is fairly generous, and it looked as though it was worth the risk to attempt a bend-but-not-break defense.

By mid-game, Tim’s pressure forced me to abandon Aachen in order to shorten up my defensive line, in order to create minimal reserves if needed to plug gaps of support weakened units.  The modified turn sequence saved me.  His January I attack attrited my unsupported southern units, forcing them to fall back.  However, during the reaction phase, I was able to reinforce these faltering units and seal off a penetration that would have given him access to the road grid leading to Brussels and Antwerp, and victory.

Early last week, Tim sent me an e-mail summarizing his impressions of the game.  Here they are…..

1.   We forgot to halve the bombing factors of aircraft during the snow weather turns….oops…one for your rules screw-up files. We’d even talked about it during the set up.
2. I wonder if it would be more useful to have the Luftwaffe fly harassment. They did help some on the attacks, but if they’d been halved, they wouldn’t have been all that useful (of course, they’d be halved for harassment, too). Making it harder for the allies to move up reserves would be a very good thing.
3. I didn’t do a very good job of handling negative modifiers– I should have been a more cognizant of whether a defending stack was capable of AECD and if it wasn’t, used enough infantry to bring the attack below the threshold for ATEC. ATEC is very hard to overcome during bad weather. Of course, using more infantry lowers the German combat power. The other option, which I did use later in the scenario was to throw in more half capable units (I guess the Germans knew what they were doing when they made their panzer divisions into panzergrenadier divisions by detaching the panther battalions).
4. I know we talked about it, but I was really surprised when you gave up Aachen. I was thinking that the allies would be very reluctant to abandon the first German city they’d captured and a west wall hex to boot. Given that the scenario didn’t penalize that decision, it was a good one.
5. It was a bummer that my commandos got killed…I was hoping they would negate some of the negative modifiers from terrain and weather.
6. I think I spent too much energy attacking the weak southern part of your line. I like to think I’m pretty good about focusing about what wins a scenario or a game, but not this time. In better weather, I might have been able to turn your flank, but its hard in the snow (and the axis fuel shortages hurt, too).
7. I think you’re right that the Germans have to take some low odds attacks in order to try to crack the allied line.

BTW, the game involves a lot of counters in a very small area.  Tim liked that.  We did not use the black and white larger hex insert that accompanying the magazine.  Here’s the usual crummy picture, shot early in the day, so the beer mats are not yet in use.

Fun game, Fun Time…….