Five for Fighting - How Hockey Saved the Allies - An FtM AAR

[eqqman]

In any event, we need to move troops to ports, apparently, to load them into ships. Life was so much easier in 1066, 1399 and 1836. So those troops near Calabria moving north? Well, they're going to have to return for pickup. Oops.

Hmm I thought somebody mentioned this after your last update when you dropped that extra port in Sicily...

Just select your troops and (right click?) in the sea zone that has waiting Transports, and you can move men right into them regardless of the presence of a port.

Nice to see the action in the boot, it's been a while since we've seen so many Canadians piled together in one place outside a Celine Dion concert...

[InnocentIII]

Hmm I thought somebody mentioned this after your last update when you dropped that extra port in Sicily...

Just select your troops and (right click?) in the sea zone that has waiting Transports, and you can move men right into them regardless of the presence of a port.

Nice to see the action in the boot, it's been a while since we've seen so many Canadians piled together in one place outside a Celine Dion concert...

Ah, thanks. That's what I get for assuming things. Could have sworn Rensslaer did that alot, but I was so worried when it did not appear to be working. Sounds like same mechanism for all the games, I just need to do it when I'm not antsy about how many hours go by before I see clearly that they're loading.

Thanks.

[morningSIDEr]

Cracking stuff and some very good progress, Canada's forces are sweeping all before them as they advance north! Or, uhm, are they advancing east? West perhaps? Well, they are advancing anyway and creating many useful pockets as they do so!

[enf91]

I can make arrows! Granted, the men in Albania are not themselves morons, but it does seem like only morons would defend Albania in force while losing Italy proper to the Steamroller of the North.

Well, OTL, Hitler kept troops in Norway while the Russians and Western Allies were invading Germany, and his last offensive was into Hungary, so a stupid Axis AI seems only natural.

[InnocentIII]

Cracking stuff and some very good progress, Canada's forces are sweeping all before them as they advance north! Or, uhm, are they advancing east? West perhaps? Well, they are advancing anyway and creating many useful pockets as they do so!

I prefer normal maps where Italy is north south. Hmm, this might give me some appreciation for being Australian.

Well, OTL, Hitler kept troops in Norway while the Russians and Western Allies were invading Germany, and his last offensive was into Hungary, so a stupid Axis AI seems only natural.

He's gonna have to wake up pretty late in the day to beat the Allied AI, or even I, this chapter!

[InnocentIII]

At the end of the AAR I'll add up my score of enemies killed or captured, but I believe now we're in the quarter of a million to three-hundred thousand range. Not bad for an army around half that size. We have another 50,000 or more Italians in our sight, and the pocket is closing now.

Limited Time Offer! Sign up today! No further captives will be taken!

Also, our supply situation is not only hunky, but extremely dory.



Meanwhile, I can't take undefended Taranto without leaving undefended Bari. However, when one measely division hits Calabria, I realize that this is all I need to let me replace the troops leaving Bari, and so to grab the only source of supply for the Italians in the still-forming pocket. Taranto may well be the final resting place of the most holey Littorio!



Hey, didn't I just win this battle?



Apparently, the Italians fleeing the pocket are now considered defenders of Tricarico. No matter, we should be closing the escape route soon.

I bet I know the name of that Battleship! J-10!



[Ed - Yeah, that joke never gets old]

We've taken Taranto, so the ships there have to depart, and even though I was moving that single division to Bari, I decide to take a side trip to have an old friend for dinner with some fava beans and a nice chianti.



"Whassup?"
"Not much, whassup witchoo?"
"Not much. Bringin' dese guys somewheres"
"In Italy?"
"Yeah."
"We're enemies, right?"
"Think so. Until after the war."
"Obviously."
"kthxbye"
"cya"

[Ed - don't say you never learned anything from George Lucas. Me - did anyone say "noooooo"? Ed - good point]

Like two fleets passing in the daylight, two fleets passed in the daylight. One's stance was set to "aggressive", one's was set to "invisible".

We killed 600 and lost 100 in Tricarico, but the real questionmark is northwest of there - will we close the pocket once and for all?



And yes, I did remember to bring Canada's air force. Possibly not my best move ever. Moving planes around costs them ORG, I think, and in any event mine weren't in the best shape before I moved them. They aren't gonna build ORG getting their asses kicked.



The good news is that the planes could all repair here. The bad news is that they need it. I can't send 50% of my airforce out to fight when 100% just got beaten badly. In better news, I am landing men near Solerno, and we close the ring(let)!



However, the wily crafty Italians sneak into captivity without allowing us to count them.



Looking over the last chapter's images, I'm calling this three garrison divisions and one HQ for about 25,000 men. Then suddenly, some idiot starts playing Canada and decides to launch an even-strength attack, with the goal of pushing the enemy troops out of the next pocket and toward safety!



Let's hope this is the last we see of that guy. The attack is on the port with two garrison divisions, and it's from the southwest.

Nope, the moron reinforced that battle and sent in more troops. Well, at least someone on the Allied side is behaving intelligently.



Nope, not Britain, who is content to sit on her hands and look forward to enjoying a 90% Soviet Europe. Still on guard against the Nazi juggernaut, Winston? lrn2readmapz dude!




Nope, not the Russians. Well, yes, they are behaving intelligently, but they're not actually on the Allied side.



Nope, not the USA. Why fight over the future of western Europe when you can capture ... North Korea!

I lied. None of the allies is behaving intelligently right now. Hopefully, Canada has enough residual brain power to finish off this pocket and do a little better with her forces in the next one. We'll see.

Meanwhile, it's Guaranteed Win Night* at the arena!



* - wins not actually guaranteed, in case of loss, coach will say "I'm not going to use injuries as an excuse, but it is the reason we lost", and the players will say "we're not using injuries as an excuse, but that fat season ticket holder who played in the third did let in a couple soft goals."

Six-thousand enemy are quickly captured, but ... it's a double header!



It looks like we're just shy of 50,000 Axis troops in this pocket, but that's close enough for me to call it 50,000. Why?

Because we add 1000 when we win the what-the-hell-was-I-thinking-bowl!

[blsteen]

Well that went better than Operation Avalanche.
Plus no need to have the 82nd Airborne drop to save the day...yet
Ah, the Littorio
The RCAF could use some upgrading it seems, perhaps some...
Lightnings

[enf91]

The "what-the-hell-was-I-thinking-Bowl"? Who plays in that, the 6th-placed PAC-10 and the 7th-placed Sun West?
To all confused: This is a college football reference. The number of "bowl" games is TOO DAMN HIGH!

[morningSIDEr]

Then suddenly, some idiot starts playing Canada and decides to launch an even-strength attack, with the goal of pushing the enemy troops out of the next pocket and toward safety!

Let's hope this is the last we see of that guy.

Curse that guy! Undoubtedly some British officer I bet.

Very good stuff despite his shocking actions at least, more prisoners bagged and a good bit of progress made.

[InnocentIII]

Well that went better than Operation Avalanche.
Plus no need to have the 82nd Airborne drop to save the day...yet
Ah, the Littorio
The RCAF could use some upgrading it seems, perhaps some...
Lightnings

Yeah, Littorio, the one that got away was thiiiiii--------iiiiis big! As for upgrades, I'm afraid I'm gonna be out of luck there. I could use better planes, but even the tanks I finally started aren't due until July 4 and I'm not sure the war will last until March.

The "what-the-hell-was-I-thinking-Bowl"? Who plays in that, the 6th-placed PAC-10 and the 7th-placed Sun West?
To all confused: This is a college football reference. The number of "bowl" games is TOO DAMN HIGH!

Nah, you're thinking of the Activia bowl!

Curse that guy! Undoubtedly some British officer I bet.

Very good stuff despite his shocking actions at least, more prisoners bagged and a good bit of progress made.

He might not be British, but he's made promises to a certain spouse about future time in the UK, so that's probably it. And thanks, if I could have done the same thing a year earlier (I don't think so, but if), this could have made all the difference. Even now, I suppose it's good that somebody on our side knows where the Continent is.

EDIT - Emu-d in my own AAR?

Italy ain't got no hope, no hope in hell!

None whatever. Heck, even her navy is no match for Canada. Italy's air force, however, cheats.

[Saithis]

Italy ain't got no hope, no hope in hell!

[InnocentIII]

Canada did a decent job taking the previous slice of Italy, right up until the end when I forgot what I was doing and started pushing the enemy back because, well, I can't recall why I would have done that. It was nice to take a port? It was nice to be adjacent to Napoli? Maybe the men really wanted to see Pompeii, or get away from Vesuvius by moving closer to it now and further away later. It was like playing chess and pushing the pawns forward because that's what you do, rather than having any actual goal in mind. So now I'll try to take another slice of Italy, capture more Axis troops, and see if I can't beat the Russians to something.

I send troops to gobble up the heel of Italy.



This shot also shows a nice overview. SPOLIER ALERT - the moron who launched the What-The-Hell-Was-I-Thinking Bowl suggested that I land the men, reload them, land them, reload them, all to speed up taking the Heel of Italy. At first, I listened. Then I realized that I kind of needed my navy for other things. Like beating the enemy.

I have three ports on Mainland Italy now, including Taranto, which is a major facility. However, the Russian Bear waits for no man.



So I begin to wonder what happens when Germany is knocked out. I did it as the USA, but all I recall is "Enforced Conquer" and then I kind of stopped playing. I did not stick around to see what happened next. Hopefully I can beat Italy before da bears beat Adolf. If not, I hope to get a shot at finishing my war before everything ends. Vichy France is still active, for example. It would be nice to fight the cold war from north of the Alps somewhere. How are we doing on knocking out Italy?



Yeah, cause the Allies are (almost) doing better than the Axis and Commies combined. Right. Korea must be really valuable!

32.10% on Italy. Napoli is worth another 6 VPs, we'll see how that changes things. My plan was to methodically move up the peninsula. I might have to go for VPs at some point, though for now, the natural process should produce the VPs I'd be looking for. A grab at specific spots might still be worth it. Rome is 15 VPs, Genoa and Aenice are worth 7 each, Bologna is worth 5. Again, right now, Naples is the target, then presumably the capitol, but I might go for Genoa if it would end the war. I also might be forced to bypass Rome, if it is super-well defended.

As I mentioned, I was going to load and reload my infantry to capture Italy's heel. In doing so, I did discover that apparently I cannot order the men to board ship from a friendly province. I sat and waited and waited. I finally got them to board by ordering them to a distant province, and they pathed across the water.



Finally, realizing how much time this was all taking, I decided to use my fleet to fight the enemy rather than cleaning up the map.

The plan is to chop off another slice of Italy, and take with it another 50,000-75,000 Axis soldiers.



Fair's fair, but I really should not be fighting Germans anymore. Have you guys seen a map lately? Probably not.



Calling all Germans! Your presence is required elsewhere! By rights they ought to be fighting the Americans in North Korea.

We get bombed repeatedly in Benevento, so I send out my slightly-repaired fighters.



The air above Benevento must be very thin, I get a stacking penalty with two units. It's mostly ORG loss, but by the end my fighters aren't feeling so well.

The enemy air chases me back to Taranto, knocking me down to 92/64. <sigh> You know, I'm thinking the UK has some un-used air power. I blame them. Still, it's time to take it to the bad guys.



I'm only landing the Marines for now, in case it's contested, and then I'll land the other divisions before going to get the next bunch. Because San Severo is the named after the patron saint of slasher films, we'll only land there if we have to.



At first I thought that the enemy forgot their Armored Cars. Then the battle results came up, and the enemy lost Zero of their Zero men. I realized that the Axis no longer needed HQs in order to field zombie armies! Where would it end? On the other hand, the USSR would not stand a chance against a zombie invasion. They have no transports that I am aware of.



Being a genius, I am sending the Marines into the mountains, but I did bring Mountain Troops in case the Marines need help, or directions. Until then the mountain troops defend the beaches from zombies.

I now have 33,000 troops in the landing zone, and a Garrison division of 7000 Axis bounces off harmlessly from the north, where the Axis did have a pretty big stack of icons. I'm not sure how many actual troops those are. Nobody wants to tell Hitler some of the units he's moving around the map are empty, and apparently the game is going along with the deception.

While my ships drag men around to the west, I attack the critical part of this operation - the center province. I need to close this gap with the men I have landed in the East/North, or I hope to.



I plan to land in Monte Cassino. What could possibly go wrong there?

The battle in the center, Isernia, seems like it ought to go pretty well when I first see it. Mechanized defending in mountains is bad, right?



The AI thought so as well, since the enemy bugs out long before the battle was decided.

The enemy then decides to counter-attack in Benevento, confirming my belief that there are still way too many Germans in Italy.



Somebody must have told them David Hasselof was here.

Hurray! An uncontested landing in Monte Cassino! And yes, the Benevento attack is not from Naples. They sure fooled me! [Ed - it's from both. Me - I can read a map, just takes me three tries.]



Hello, British Navy! This is what an invasion looks like. Tell your friends!

Now batting for Pedro Borbon, Manny Mota!



Great, German pinch hitters magically appear in Monte Cassino. Granted, they're only officers, but still, not really a sensible use of talent if you ask me.

I have to wait about a day before my Marines can attack in the manner they've trained all their lives to do, off of one mountain and up another. In the meantime, this couldn't possibly go at all badly, right?

[eqqman]

As I mentioned, I was going to load and reload my infantry to capture Italy's heel. In doing so, I did discover that apparently I cannot order the men to board ship from a friendly province. I sat and waited and waited. I finally got them to board by ordering them to a distant province, and they pathed across the water.

That should have worked just fine. Did you control-click or just do a regular right-click?

[InnocentIII]

That should have worked just fine. Did you control-click or just do a regular right-click?

Regular right click. Same click I use to move overland and used to move into the ship as a waypoint. I'll try it in a non-AAR game and see if I can't figure it out. Been too busy having Elvis Costello reign in Ireland (III = "The Cruel", V = "The Fat") when not playing or writing. There is still a good deal about HoI3 I don't really get.

[Avindian]

I actually think the stacking penalty applied to the opponent, not you. I could be wrong though.

[Xenophon13]

I know I'm kinda late to join the party, but I have really enjoyed this AAR. When you said hockey saved the allies, you weren't kidding!

[blsteen]

Closing the pocket. Again.
Good drives but you're going to have to get a move on if Rome is still super defended and you hope to meet the cossacks at the Brenner Pass.

[InnocentIII]

I actually think the stacking penalty applied to the opponent, not you. I could be wrong though.

I read the the shot as saying the Germans had 50% stacking penalty and I had 10%, but I was having enough trouble anyway that it won't matter for a bit. BTW, it could be that "stacking" in the air applies to everyone, but less for me than him? It makes more sense in air combat than on the ground or even at sea. I dunno.

I know I'm kinda late to join the party, but I have really enjoyed this AAR. When you said hockey saved the allies, you weren't kidding!

Thanks, and welcome! I'm hoping hockey saves more than 10% of Europe here.

Closing the pocket. Again.
Good drives but you're going to have to get a move on if Rome is still super defended and you hope to meet the cossacks at the Brenner Pass.

Thanks, and yeah, I'm hoping the enemy treats Rome like it treats all its other ports

[InnocentIII]

Can Canada drive the Axis out of Monte Cassino? Would it help if we bombed the monastary to fine powder? Stay tuned!



Right now it's looking rough, and not just because there are too many Damned Germans in Italy. Defending mountains from a sea-borne assault is almost Messina-like in difficulty. I'd really like to do that, and often, if I knew how.

I launch an assault on Naples, just in case I need to link up with the North/East coast in a different province, or worse, settle for cutting off the Axis troops on that coast and just take Naples without capturing its defenders. Then the Axis call off the attack in Benevento.



I add a division to the attack on Naples, and when the Marines become available to attack Monte Cassino from the north, I add them to that battle.



Turns out two can play at that game. And oh, if it was an Axis member, Kansas would be going bye-bye.



Missed it by that much.



Well, if Plan A is running into a crapload of guys in Monte Cassino, time to make sure that half of the Axis are boxed in, at least.



I know, the Mountain troops would have been better in Monte Cassino. Frankly, by this point I'd given up on the Monte Cassino battle and was trying to guarantee that I got at least half a loaf.



Also, this is not the optimal attack ratio, but I was hoping that Mountain Divisions in hills vs Mechanised in hills would make up for the fact that I don't even come close to outnumbering the defenders. Plus, I'll see how the battles go, and feed more men into whatever starts to go well!



Assuming something starts to go well.

We decide to pull out of the Monte Cassino battle, and give Rum Tum Tugger and his friends a shot.



Then, suddenly, McAvity decided to stay home saying, "nobody is gonna get your stupid 'Cats' reference anyway!"



The trouble with grabbing Caserta is that now we need to win another battle in the center, or the enemy is not cut off.

Then, while I worry too much about dividing the pocket in two and not enough about closing it, and fail to quickly have the newly-landed troops attack the center, the AI sees the writing on the wall and bugs out of Napoli.



One nice side effect is that Italy just walked out of its only source of supply for the soon-to-be pocket. In the meantime, even if supplies are getting through, I'm not sure that the throughput of the provinces is enough to support the Axis. On the other hand, given the rich supply situation of every province I've taken so far, it's going to be weeks before the enemy begins to feel the pinch.

Ah, it turns out that I had been feeding men into the central battle. In the whole genius/moron debate, I'm back to considering myself a genius.



Well, genius is not the exact right word, maybe non-moron. Campobasso is looking good. It's too bad that those two mechanized units are going to squirt out of the pocket, but I'll see them next time. I need to close this in. My guess here is that I have another roughly 50,000 Axis soldiers in the process of being rounded up and quietly led away.

Then, disaster strikes!



Recently-conquered Croatia has been pillaged, and corpses turned into four full brigades of zombie soldiers! Don't let the zeroes fool you, that's the number of live soldiers. Zombies are not "effective soldiers". Anyway, empty divisions can't attack, we know that. Only Canada's extensive experience fighting the undead prevented this from being a disaster. That and getting Diablo 3 (I'm not playing until they find the secret cow level, "mooo moo-moo moo mooo").

As we feed more divisions into the front line, Campobasso turns from likely victory to matter-of-time-now victory, and we're going to pick up another 50,000 prisoners or so.



We land four unemployed divisions in San Severo to split the pocket and clean up the northeast. The men are under strict orders not to go into any basements. Ten thousand Italians trying to break out are easily brushed aside, and the central battle begins its decisive phase.



I might not capture those mechanized divisions right off, but they're not going to be battle worthy for some time.

Just because I'm unlikely to capture them just now, doesn't mean I'm not going to give it a shot. Another attack on Monte Cassino, what could go wrong?



The Germans start bombing my troops again, and I identify the denizens of the northeast as 10,400 in Manfredonia, and 10,000 in Foggia. They will be wrapped up without any screenshot because it's just not tough to defeat cut off troops who are pretty worn out to boot, and I'm getting near the photo limit. A shot to leave you with some questions about:



How long will I keep fighting in Monte Cassino? Will the Germans be mean to my Marines? Isn't anybody defending Berlin these days? And who ordered a sub?

[enf91]

Why don't you just head through Frosinone and Littoria? That has to be more efficient than banging your head against a wall. Remember from ice hockey: If you're going to run into a wall, make sure the opposition is in between. Then it's not "moron", it's a "body check".