Britain On the Ropes - an Allies Defiant AAR (Scenarios 1 Through 4 complete)

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airboy
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Britain On the Ropes - an Allies Defiant AAR (Scenarios 1 Through 4 complete)

Post by airboy »

I've completed Allies Defiant 3 times and have some confidence in my strategic choices.

The First Scenario is Norway.

Like normal, I'm playing on the Lieutenant difficulty level and have the AAR hosted on my blog so I don't lose it sometime in the future. I've lost three or four AARs due to websites going down or other problems, and I also want to collect my work in one place. It takes hundreds of hours to edit and annotate screenshots and think through what I want to write up for an AAR. Too much work to lose.

Thus far, I explain the strategic situation, my troop selection choices, renaming units, and have completed the first 2 turns. I've got all of the screenshots for Norway Scenario.

See: https://averysgameblog.wordpress.com/20 ... -1-norway/
For Part 1 of Norway.
Last edited by airboy on Mon Aug 23, 2021 8:26 pm, edited 8 times in total.
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Re: Britain On the Ropes - an Allies Defiant AAR

Post by airboy »

Hopefully, The FilthyCasual can complete his AAR for Allies Defiant and fix the screenshot situation. Just a suggestion, if you have a blog on Wordpress you can put a lot of content up including pictures and screenshots that has had some track record for stability.

It is interesting how his troop choices and deployment differ from my choices. Not a criticism, just an observation. I've enjoyed all of the Order of Battle games because almost all of the scenarios have multiple plausible strategies.
airboy
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Re: Britain On the Ropes - an Allies Defiant AAR

Post by airboy »

Norway Part 2 is up. This takes us through Turn 8 plus the Battle of the Norwegian Sea.

See: https://averysgameblog.wordpress.com/20 ... ay-part-2/
airboy
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Re: Britain On the Ropes - an Allies Defiant AAR

Post by airboy »

Norway Finale and a discussion of early research goals is up!

See: https://averysgameblog.wordpress.com/20 ... onclusion/
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Re: Britain On the Ropes - an Allies Defiant AAR

Post by airboy »

Below is a link to the first part of Scenario 2 - The Low Countries.

This is a large-scale, fighting retreat by British and French Forces. I've posted a detailed discussion of my strategy including unit purchases. The first two turns against the German onslaught are also complete.

See: https://averysgameblog.wordpress.com/20 ... cenario-2/
airboy
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Re: Britain On the Ropes - an Allies Defiant AAR

Post by airboy »

Part 2 of the Low Countries is now up. This takes us through turn 6. The British successfully held long enough for the bridges to the blown, broke contact, and are moving towards their second line of defense. The Belgian Army is being mauled. The French are slowly retreating while inflicting serious damage on the advancing German Army.

See: https://averysgameblog.wordpress.com/20 ... attle-ww2/
GabeKnight
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Re: Britain On the Ropes - an Allies Defiant AAR

Post by GabeKnight »

Your AARs are very well made and detailed. Thanks for that.

But... level 2 difficulty? Come on, please, switch to middle difficulty. Basically you're just crippling the AI.

I completely understand players wanting to have an even battlefield and not go for higher difficulties that would overstrength enemy units (level 4 & 5), but.... I mean... you've said you've played the campaign three times, so I stongly believe you should be perfectly okay playing against 10-HP enemy units... :D
airboy
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Re: Britain On the Ropes - an Allies Defiant AAR

Post by airboy »

Glad you enjoy the AARs.

I play what I enjoy and this is relaxation for me.

Enjoyed your mod. Loved visiting Finland the 3 times I've been there.
GabeKnight
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Re: Britain On the Ropes - an Allies Defiant AAR

Post by GabeKnight »

Fair enough.

I'd love to visit the Scandinavian peninsula myself someday, but honestly I don't like cold very much... :lol:

And don't remind me about my mod...( :oops: ) I know it needs an update, but as long as I'm replaying older content, it doesn't matter to me. But I'll do it eventually.
airboy
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Re: Britain On the Ropes - an Allies Defiant AAR

Post by airboy »

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Re: Britain On the Ropes - an Allies Defiant AAR

Post by airboy »

The conclusion of Scenario 2 - Low Countries is up.

See: https://averysgameblog.wordpress.com/20 ... attle-ww2/

The text of the conclusion (without screenshots) is below.

Turn 15 to End of Scenario
Woops! A German Army advanced through the Ardennes, broke through at Sedan, and is threatening Allied troops in Belgium and Northern France. Destroying most of the advance units arriving somewhere South/Southeast of Lille is a new secondary objective.

The last road bridge in the North is blown. French forces broke contact with the pursuing Germans and another bridge is wired by British Combat Engineers for demolition.

French forces continue to retreat towards Lille on turn 16. Since no German bombers have been reported on the front, two fighter units are scouting in the South and Southeast for approaching German units.

Pursing German units fail to catch up with the French rearguard by turn 18. A bridge is blown on the approach to Lille making the French defenders task easier. There are only seven turns left. All of the road bridges from the North towards Lille have been blown. The railroad bridge has been mined. There are a significant number of defenders blocking the approaches to Lille from all directions.

On turn 19 the lead German spearhead from Sedan attack British forces South of Lille capturing Arras.

Allied counter attacks near Arras destroy all of the lead Ardennes force spearhead excepting two units on turn 20. German armor attacks on turn 21 destroying a unit of French armored cars.

However, the British main force attacks on turn 22 destroying the initial spearhead from Sedan giving the Allies a major victory.

In sum, I’ve played this scenario about a dozen times on the First Lieutenant level of difficulty. By chance, when I played this scenario for the AAR and screenshots the Allies got very lucky. Both German Stuka Units blundered into French AA guns without fighter support in the first couple of turns and were destroyed. Then, a Bf-109 unit made the same mistake and was destroyed.

Next, German Armor pursued without adequate infantry support which enabled the French defenders to effectively use anti-tank guns to severely damage most of the armored units. This made it easy to pick off the heavily damaged units or to surround and destroy German light armor if it advanced too far in advance of the infantry.

Overall, the strategy was sound but the Allies benefitted from a lot of luck this play through. I’ve never had this battle go nearly this well in a dozen attempts.

Would this strategy work on a higher difficulty level? I played Norway on the Captain level of difficulty and had no problems. I took the core force from the Norway victory and played the Low Countries on Captain difficulty.

The Low Countries scenario is more difficult on the Captain level of difficulty – the basic strategy of carefully blowing bridges and having units covered by anti-tank guns is sound.
This scenario’s AAR contains 69 annotated screenshots and five pages of text. I’m not redoing the AAR on a different level of difficulty. However, I did pare down the screenshots from a level 3 difficulty to about a dozen that I will post in the upcoming week on the Slitherine website (if file sizes will permit) to demonstrate how the strategy works on a higher difficulty level.
Last edited by airboy on Tue May 18, 2021 11:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Britain On the Ropes - an Allies Defiant AAR (Scenarios 1 & 2 complete)

Post by airboy »

This is turn 15 - Captain Level difficulty. Bridges have been blown according to schedule.

Germans have a lot more pressure on the British & French, but both have achieved all secondary objectives through turn 15 in the scenario.

French have not reinforced any armor or armored car units. All reinforcements have been devoted to anti-tank and infantry units because you get more "bang for the buck" for your limited 100 reinforcement points gained from achieving a secondary objective.
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t15 Captain Difficulty.jpg
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Re: Britain On the Ropes - an Allies Defiant AAR (Scenarios 1 & 2 complete)

Post by airboy »

The following screenshots demonstrate that the strategy works well on difficulty level 3. The Ardennes spearhead is easily destroyed, the bridge approaches to Lille are dropped, and Lille itself is well defended on turn 20 with the group which crushed the German Ardennes spearhead ready to rejoin the main force of Lille defenders.
Attachments
t18 Captain Level Difficulty.jpg
t18 Captain Level Difficulty.jpg (1022.67 KiB) Viewed 3128 times
turn 19 counter-attack.jpg
turn 19 counter-attack.jpg (942.31 KiB) Viewed 3128 times
Victory - Captain Difficulty.jpg
Victory - Captain Difficulty.jpg (372.54 KiB) Viewed 3128 times
airboy
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Re: Britain On the Ropes - an Allies Defiant AAR (Scenarios 1 & 2 complete)

Post by airboy »

Part 1 of Dunkirk is finished! It takes you through the mission objectives, mission and terrain analysis and the first 3 turns.

Hopefully I'll get the rest of Dunkirk posted this week. Part 1 has approximately half of the screenshots for this AAR. Like most of my battles, understanding the objectives, terrain and troops is the key to my strategy.

See: https://averysgameblog.wordpress.com/20 ... cenario-3/
airboy
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Re: Britain On the Ropes - an Allies Defiant AAR (Scenarios 1 & 2 complete)

Post by airboy »

The Dunkirk scenario is complete. Part 2 can be found at:
https://averysgameblog.wordpress.com/20 ... onclusion/

There are two odd things about this scenario. First, your core units do not have to make it off the beach to be carried forward to the next scenario. Second, fighter reinforcements gained by holding Lille for 4 turns do not have the same refuel/replacement process as your core units. Both of these factors must be considered when forming and executing your strategy.
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Re: Britain On the Ropes - an Allies Defiant AAR (Scenarios 1 Through 3 complete)

Post by Elbrin »

AB,

Once again job well done. I am glad all is well with you and your family and that you are gaming/simming again. Between all the work you have done with the AAR's for the Pacific Campaign and now Allies Defiant, Slitherine should comp you on the next DLC or maybe have you Beta test.

Again thanks for all your work and sharing your thoughts and insights.
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Re: Britain On the Ropes - an Allies Defiant AAR (Scenarios 1 Through 3 complete)

Post by airboy »

Glad that you are enjoying the AAR.
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Re: Britain On the Ropes - an Allies Defiant AAR (Scenarios 1 Through 3 complete)

Post by GabeKnight »

Agree with "Elbrin"; nice job, well done with a nice presentation. Thanks!

PS: I hope you enjoy playing on "equal grounds" with the AI. Looks better IMO.
airboy
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Re: Britain On the Ropes - an Allies Defiant AAR (Scenarios 1 Through 3 complete)

Post by airboy »

Part one of Western Desert (scenario 4) is up.

See: https://averysgameblog.wordpress.com/20 ... cenario-4/

I've played this scenario scores of times. After much thought, I can consistently destroy the Italian positions in Egypt with minimal losses and minimal time. This is the conclusion to turns 1 & 2.

My results on the first two turns may seem impossible. I’ve destroyed a heavily defended position with almost no losses. But this is close to what happened in December 1940. The Italians were caught by surprise with most units surrendering before entering heavy combat. My results are better (10% losses on one heavy infantry, one anti-tank gun, one Cruiser Tank unit and one Spitfire squadron), but not wildly dissimilar to what the British achieved. Furthermore, I’ve played this scenario more than 20 times and with this battle plan I get this result 95%+ of the time. Try it for yourself and see.
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Re: Britain On the Ropes - an Allies Defiant AAR (Scenarios 1 Through 3 complete)

Post by airboy »

Western Desert Scenario is Complete.

See: https://averysgameblog.wordpress.com/20 ... cenario-4/
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