DLC '44 West #04: Beaches of Normandy

[VPaulus]

Please post here your comments about this scenario.

[Kamerer]

4) Normandy – beta 1

Level: Field Marshal
Prestige: Begin: 3,750. End: 6,525. Net: +2,775
Result: DV 14/14
Replacement policy/prestige: ~50 used for aux units.

Problems:

• • One of the pre-positioned defense units retreated into an adjacent sea hex.

General impressions/comments:

• • That was fun – new and interesting twists always are.
  • I followed the briefing, didn’t take air but bought an extra 12.8cm FlaK (already had one, plus the 90mm Italian capture) AND 4x Mobelwagens, one for each beachhead. Maybe overkill, but I was taking no chances. The allied air did very, very little damage. Ground map cleared by turn 11 or 12.
  • After the vicious, deep naval shelling at Anzio, it was uncharacteristically tame here.

 

[karlto]

Fun scenario, but I can't help but feel it was a little tame. I ended up taking all the beaches and killing everything on land, and it felt way too easy. I think the naval gunnery support needs to be a lot more vicious (didn't do much damage, and mainly focused on the aux troops), and there should be an almost en-ending stream of troops coming in. The last thing I did before starting '44 West Beta was running through '44 East - now that's tough. D-day should feel a bit more like Bagration, and not such a walk in the park, in my opinion.

[ThvN]

beta 1
Colonel, Imported Core, DV 14/14

Prestige before/after deployment: 8193/4456
Prestige on last turn/incl. victory bonus: 7631/9131

I didn't baby all those expensive overstrenght fighters throughout the campaign to leave them home, so 'challenge accepted' was the motto that was written on the fuselages of my bonus SE Bf109G, SE Bf109K (cheatily upgraded from the F I got at the start of the previous DLC), bonus Ta152H, and 2 ordinary Fw 190's, and by ordinary I mean 14 strength, just like almost all the others. Helped by the fact that the Allies lost some aircraft while attacking bunkers and getting within range of the aux FlaK, I lost virtually no air strenght, and managed to wipe out the allied air units in a few turns each time they appeared.

As overkill I brought my SPAAG's with me and 128mm FlaK, but that last one was a big dissapointment, only the mobile FlaK's and the aux 20mm's got some kills. And the aux 88mm FlaK got more kills as an antitank gun! Like the previous posters, I noticed that the naval bombardment was much lighter then expected, but if I hadn't managed to gain air supremacy I would have gotten much higher casualties, and losing units to a ship you can't reach while you have to defend the beaches might be too frustrating, I don't know. The stationary aux units gave me good practice in shooting Allies with one and then having it retreat towards another aux unit, so this unit could kill it off. I call it 'Pinball mode', and with some knowledge of the retreat mechanism it is almost a game within a game.

I conquered the last victory hexes on turn 9, and spent the rest of the time taking potshots at the remaining transports and a carrier that had sailed up against the coast. I got most of the AI units by quickly surrounding the beach sections, attack and wait for surrender, then move up and block the landing zones. The most trouble I had was forcing my way across the Orne river to take Sword beach, where I almost lost a paratrooper I had dropped there. This sector was nicely balanced, but overal the Allied lacked a bit of extra support to force the player to play more cautiously and make quick rushes towards the beach more dangerous, perhaps a few more tac bombers for the allied would help, or extra naval units for shore bombardment. The Allied paratroopers with their support artillery were nice, but they started to attack me on the first turn at the Aure river crossing, luckily my trusty bridge engineer absorbed the damage, but they would have been better as stationary ambush, not trying to cross the river there and abandon their artillery.

Oddities:

The briefing contains this sentence:
"Temporary control is satisfied only if you control all victory hexes of a particular beach, and I will be relaying this information to you during the mission as well." I got no additional messages during the scenario, and found none in the editor, so I'm not sure what the meaning of this is?

The stationary aux units are able to retreat, not sure if this is intentional.

Carrier sailing up against Omaha beach, on stayed put but the other one made itself into a nice target. Not important as it didn't block any transport ships, it just looks silly.

After reviewing the battlefield, I noticed some off-map B-29's called ‘victory marker’ in the north-east corner?

[Kerensky]

4) Normandy – beta 1

Level: Field Marshal
Prestige: Begin: 3,750. End: 6,525. Net: +2,775
Result: DV 14/14
Replacement policy/prestige: ~50 used for aux units.

Problems:

• • One of the pre-positioned defense units retreated into an adjacent sea hex.

General impressions/comments:

• • That was fun – new and interesting twists always are.
  • I followed the briefing, didn’t take air but bought an extra 12.8cm FlaK (already had one, plus the 90mm Italian capture) AND 4x Mobelwagens, one for each beachhead. Maybe overkill, but I was taking no chances. The allied air did very, very little damage. Ground map cleared by turn 11 or 12.
  • After the vicious, deep naval shelling at Anzio, it was uncharacteristically tame here.

 

Do you recall which unit retreated into a sea hex, and what coordinates this happened at?

[Kamerer]

Do you recall which unit retreated into a sea hex, and what coordinates this happened at?

In fact, I recall it precisely! It was the Bodenstandig unit originally in Cabourg, 39,14. First it was forced to retreat SE on to beach hex 40,15. Next turn it retreated due north into sea hex 40,14. It was pursued and an allied unit killed it while in that sea hex (allied unit stayed on beach).

[Kerensky]

Apparently 0 speed units is pretty funky.
Using a hero to reduce a german HW unit to 0 speed (-2 move hero)
Prevents that unit from moving (as intended)
But apparently when it comes time to retreat, allows this unit to retreat anywhere it damn well pleases, regardless of the hex.
As with the case of such a unit retreating into a sea hex apparently...

Strange, but very intriguing. Thanks!

[zappel]

Just a minor map labeling hint: hex 12,8 and 12,9 are labeled as desert.

[Kamerer]

wrong thread, sorry.

[RobertCL]

General comment:

* Love the messages during the game when the player secures a beach;
* Great idea to have as objective the beaches capture (this shows up that Rommel was right in reality);
* I played at Lt level, the troops from the extreme right of the map did a nice counterattack but in the meatime I was able to capture Omaha and the two other beaches on its right;
* Allied air force is strong enough and I lost two valuable bombers.

[zappel]

Beta2 - Colonel-Level - Imported core - MV at turn 14
Get a MV but don't know why. I took control over Omaha and Gold Beach, wasn't this the objective?

Objectives

Normandy01.png (100.38 KiB) Viewed 5743 times

Messages

Normandy02.png (65.05 KiB) Viewed 5743 times

I like the scenario. Lot's of allied air power, first I was disappointed because of only four or five fighters at the beginnig (espacially after the text at the start) but after turn 8 lots of fighters achieved. This was the time of my AA and AD (thanks for the tip in the scenario-text).

[Kamerer]

4) The storm-tossed Beaches of Normandy – beta 2

Level: Rommel, stock core
Prestige: Begin: 0. End: 1000. Net: +1000
Result: DV 14/14

Core changes:
No purchases.
Upgraded one Pz.IV to J model
Upgraded Nashorn to Jagdpanther
Upgraded one Panther to G model
Upgraded one FW190 to Dora model

Problems:

• • LC exert zoc? I had a Pz IV on Juno beach, flanked by two other panzers. Facing it were two landing craft. I could not resupply it. Did not make sense.

General impressions/comments:

• • Definitely much harder. Managed DV by clearing Omaha and pushing on to Juno and holding it, ignoring Sword entirely.
  • This is a much costlier scenario now; might be good to have more prestige.

[monkspider]

Beaches of Normandy
General level
Default core
Ending prestige 700
Decisive victory
Losses: 1x Wehrmacht Infantry, 2x Mobile FLAK I purchased for the mission

A classic scenario! You once again rise to the occasion to make the most historic battles especially memorable. I really like how you get to choose which of the beaches you want to concentrate on. I ended up taking Sword and Gold. It was very difficult, taking two beaches proved to be very costly. Allied air/naval power made sure that virtually all of my units took at least some losses. I took my fighters along, and didn't end up losing any, though most of them got taken down to 5 or 6 strength.

[LostAgain]

Playing FM with an imported core. BETA II

Wow, did you guys put more aircraft into this scenario? That was intense! Best scenario yet in this DLC! I like having to be defensive even when I'm attacking and this certainly gave me all I could handle. I like the pop ups telling me when I've got temporary control of a beach as I often would have overlooked that detail while fighting for my life.

My only concern with this scenario is a technical issue. On turn 6 I attempted to attack a transport with a Bruckenpioniere but could not. I then tried to attack a land target and could! I tested this out repeatedly on this turn and throughout the scenario with identical results every time. Somehow the game was seeing my unit as one of the Panzer Grenadier units!

[Mountaineer]

I am also perplexed by the idea of temporary control. What does that mean for a DV?

I also noted that MG units will retreat, and then still not be able to move.

[Mountaineer]

I can also strengthen the bunker at Cabourg, but none of the others. SHould I be able to strengthen any of them?

[billmv44]

General Level. Beta 3, but started with a Beta 2 save. DV on 14/14. Ending prestige 1483.

I also noticed the landing craft exerting ZOC. Not sure if that's intended, doesn't seem right. Not a huge deal either way. I added some AD units, but deployed all my fighters (2 190D 1 190 A and the SE 109G). I was able to wipe out the first wave of Allied aircraft, but the 2nd and third waves were more problematic. I disbanded one AA unit to allow me to deploy my HE-177. I sank many landing craft. Surprisingly, the AI did not target it at all. I only defended it with one fighter. The AI was very aggressive in using it's air power against ground targets. It only engaged in air to air once or twice. I ran right into allied paratroopers with tanks rushing to the beaches. Fortunately they were in open hexes and I didn't suffer too much damage. I captured 3 of the 4 beach zones (and 75% of the 4th) by turn 14 for the DV.

[Kamerer]

4) H-Hour, D-Day – beta 3/rc

Level: Rommel, stock core
Prestige: Begin: 0. End: 875. Net: +875
Result: DV 7/14 (game continued on to 14)

Problems:

• • Supply still not working properly on beaches. Tiger facing one landing craft could get 7 fuel and 1 ammo. Clear LOC to the rear, no allied combat units around. Is it acting like desert or something?

General impressions/comments:

• • Conceptually, I find this scenario odd because it doesn’t have sustainable objectives. After obtaining two beach areas, the scenario goes on, but there’s no incentive to hold the ground taken. And since supply on beaches is for some reason severely restricted, an added disincentive.
  • So it was a very disappointing scenario, 2/3rds of it gaining control and the others retreating away. Certainly an historical outcome, but not a really fun scenario. The scale and geography seem at a different level than most DLC maps, I think that makes it feel odd, too.

[zappel]

Beta3 - Colonel-Level - Imported core - DV
I belive that now more fighters are in the sky as in Beta2. I saw eight fighters in turn 1 and two or three new waves with five or more fighters at the end of the scenario, they hurt my fighters hard. The reward from Cassino (SE-Bf 109G) is really helpfull so I could engage totally four FW190, one Bf109 and two Me410 to achieve air-superiority. Managed to protect two aux MG-units because they retreated two times in the direction of my forces. They could not move but were very useful in my defense-line near the beaches. Bought a second bomber and upgrade my existing bomber so two He177 sunk a lot of units while on transport ships.
At the first time in Beta2 I won a MV although I took control over two beaches, I don't know why. This time I tested with two and three beaches and always got a DV. This is a fine scenario I like to play, do not change anything!

[zappel]

Supply still not working properly on beaches. Tiger facing one landing craft could get 7 fuel and 1 ammo. Clear LOC to the rear, no allied combat units around. Is it acting like desert or something

I think so. In Beta2 two beach hexes were not labeled so the type was shown: desert.