Turn 5

The weather gets worse and I lose sight of a lot of the units I spotted last turn as visibility drops. At least that gives my air units the opportunity to head back east and lick their wounds.

North Group

North Objective 2 is shrouded in the harsh weather so I’ll need to rescout everything and unfortunately my recon unit is little help here. Too bad artillery can operate in any kind of weather, because the artillery I remember seeing sitting right on my objective hex is still very much active. It harasses my every attack. What’s worse is that I will most likely get to the enemy artillery last since the enemy has done an excellent job utilizing the river to defend the objective hex which is essentially surrounded on all sides by either a natural barrier or a well-entrenched unit.

If I’m going to have to deal with decreased visibility, I might as well use it to my advantage where I can. I use tracked movement to send my infantry over the river in the hopes that I can get my forces into position under the cover of the storm. Hopefully this will save them from harassing fire as they cross the river.

Center Group

Another quiet turn, but I’m still pushing forward as fast as possible. The river creates a bottleneck for my armor, not good.

South Group

Some of my arty runs out of ammo so I’ll need to advance without supporting fire until they resupply. Still, I make some progress but there’s much work to be done. The north flank of the objective is still firmly in the hands of the enemy and it doesn’t look like I’ll punch through any time soon.

Turn 6

AGN

The Allies are tenaciously defending North Objective 2. An infantry and an armored unit in North Group are nearly annihilated so at the outset of the sixth turn I pull them back and cash in more prestige to bring them back to fighting form.

As my forces envelop North Objective 2 I send a recon unit further west in the hopes of seeing what is waiting for me at the third objective. So far it just looks like more isolated infantry dug in at various chokepoints.

Elsewhere, I continue my assault of North Objective 2 but find that the devastating enemy artillery batteries are silent. I recon a little closer and find that the arty has run out of ammo! The combination of being nearly surrounded and having far too many targets to shoot at exhausts their supply of shells. If the enemy finds a way to get supplies to that artillery unit I’m in trouble so will need to attack with everything I’ve got.

I finally peel back the slightest layer of defense around the artillery and send my strongest unit to prosecute the breakthrough and take out that arty. I succeed! I continue attacking the objective until I almost annihilate the enemy presence.

Center Group

My arty and armor arrive just as I begin my assault on North Objective 2. My arty provides invaluable harassing fire but now my own artillery is almost out of ammo.

South Group

In the south, I flank around the south of the enemy’s position and take an airfield located just behind South Objective 2. Unfortunately a 57mm AT gun is waiting for me and badly damages one of my armored units.

Thankfully most of my arty is back online so I concentrate fire on the objective and move in with infantry. Despite the support fire I take steep losses. Nevertheless I persevere and capture the objective, an important milestone because I’m running low on prestige and I’ll need as much of it as I can get for supplies and reinforcements for the last push forward.

The northern flank of the objective remains the same as it’s been the past couple of turns: still stymied by the well-placed/well-defended infantry. This detachment proved to be completely ineffective.

I almost foolishly push an air unit forward to scout South Objective 3. More geographical obstacles used deftly by the enemy.

Turn 7

North Group

I mop up the remaining resistance around North Objective 2 push hard for the final objective. Many of my forces are at half strength or worse and need ammo, fuel, or both. I will need to pause just out of range of the enemy’s artillery near North Objective 3 to rest and refit. I decide to bypass any enemy not directly in my path to buy a few extra turns to bring North Group back up to full strength.

Center Group

Like North Group, Center Group is also pushing towards North Objective 2 but they’re at least in a little better shape. Still, they’re mostly out of ammo and still have several isolated and dug in infantry units hindering their advance. I’ll have to bypass these enemy pockets as well as they’ll take far too much time to destroy.

South Group

The northern flank still holding out against my panzers but I can’t wait around for them to crack the last village standing in their way. The next objective is still a good distance away and lots of units are out of fuel and ammo and need reinforcement. I also notice a potential bottleneck in crossing the river directly west of my newly-conquered objective. This could put South Objective 3 seriously behind schedule. Depending on how the advance to the objective goes, I may break off some of Center Group to help flank South Objective 3.

Turn 8

The enemy takes to the skies and comes at me with a vengeance. I lose an arty unit caught crossing the river and some infantry are caught in their trucks and are badly damaged. When my turn starts up again the weather descends into misery and I lose much of my earlier recon work. That will slow my units down since I’ll have to tread carefully (no pun intended) so I don’t get ambushed.

North Group

I push forward further, albeit slowly. Some units get badly needed supplies or reinforcements.

Center Group

I foolish try to take a pocket of infantry dug into a town and I lose an infantry unit and take serious causalities with two armored units. I’m running low on prestige so I can’t afford to keep reinforcing these losses. This was easily the biggest mistake I’ve made yet and it may get worse if the enemy seizes this opportunity to swoop in with their air power and mop up my damaged units. I have very limited AA capabilities so I’m essentially powerless to stop that, should it occur.

South Group

I attempt to move into position around South Objective 2 but a single infantry unit is holding up the entire advance. The enemy brilliantly placed an entrenched position in the only pass between a long, dense forest. In order to have any hope of getting my panzers through this infantry unit has to go, and the enemy knows it. To make matters much worse, my artillery is out of ammo so I’ll need to wait a turn before I can soften up the enemy position. I’m now faced with the rather unfortunate decision of taking additional losses this turn to try to destroy the enemy unit or to wait another turn to bring my artillery’s firepower to bear. I elect to at least try an assault on the position which is moderately successful. Still, as long as that unit is on the map, my entire advance is at a dead stop.

Turn 9

North Group

I take on the outlying infantry positions to clear the way for North Objective 3. So far so good and finally most of my forces are strong enough to assault the enemy position and, more importantly, they have the ammunition and fuel to do it.

Center Group

At this point, Center Group has basically been partitioned into North Group and South Group so I’ll just refer to these two groups from now on.

South Group

It was costly, but I threw everything I had at that infantry blocking my advance towards South Objective 3. Eventually I meet success and the road is now open. With haste, I start setting up my assault a couple of turns late.

Turn 10

North Group

With most of my forces in position for their final push, I bombard as much of the infantry as I can but they’re well dug in. I move my infantry in knowing full well they’ll get hammered but I have no choice. The causalities are not as bad as they could have been but I still took losses – only one holdout remains on the objective hex and the unit there remains full strength.

The enemy throws all their airpower to the north – three air units disrupt my arty and damage already weakened infantry, delaying their return to combat even further. I’m so close to completing my objective in the north but I’ll have to wait another turn.

South Group

South Group’s situation is considerably less rosy. Some of my armor has run out of ammo and I’m still having artillery run out of ammo. I take out an outlying AT gun to open the door to the final objective but I find several overstrengthed units complete with a healthy artillery battery. With what I hope is most of the enemy’s air power tied up in the north, I venture my last good air unit to harass the enemy arty and it has a good effect despite the AA lurking nearby.

Turn 11

North Group

At last, I take North Objective 3 and net 100 prestige which comes just in time. I’ll spend every last drop of it to reinforce South Group.

South Group

Just like the previous objectives, I concentrate fire on the AT gun standing in the way to the enemy’s artillery unit. I get through and quickly send a panzer to smash the arty – it retreats to the river. Now that it’s on a much more vulnerable hex, I send my air unit after it. The enemy artillery isn’t destroyed but it’s badly damaged and combat ineffective. Still, many of my panzers are completely out of ammo so I need to protect them – if they’re attacked when they have no ammo the repercussions could be serious.

Turn 12

North Group

North Group is unfortunately too far away to arrive in time to help in the south so they dig in and celebrate.

South Group

Things are still slow going as I’m continually being met with units that need more supplies. I’m making headway but I’m at least a turn or more away from victory. That overstrengthed infantry unit on the last hex I need to declare victory will not deny me much longer! I need to also stay on top of that artillery unit lest it get reinforced and begin raining steel down on me when I’m least expecting it.

Turn 13

South Group

North Group

With North Objective 3 firmly in my hands, the enemy gives up on harassing North Group and sends their airpower south. Their superior air force destroys my last combat effective air unit and devastates an artillery unit that was in transit to the front.

Now it’s my turn: literally every unit I have slams into that over-strengthed infantry unit sitting on my last objective. I knock it out with the LAST unit I attack with but I have no units left that can move into the victory hex! I was substituting panzers in and out to maximize the amount of firepower I could concentrate on the city. In yet another blunder I forget to leave a unit near the victory hex with movement points left. Now I can only the enemy doesn’t reinforce too heavily next turn because for now I have to sit and stare at my last objective – just out of reach.

Turn 14

South Group

In a last ditch attempt, the enemy moves their nearby AA unit into the objective, I should be able to make short work of it and I do. I end my turn and await any counterattack from the enemy. Nothing substantial comes and I hold all objectives – victory is mine!

Conclusion

At the outset of the scenario I had a few pleasant surprises but that would be the extent of my good fortune as it was all uphill from there. I should also note that I don’t think the enemy had geography working to their advantage very much in the first few engagements which may have explained my initial success. Once rivers and heavy forests started entering the equation I found their resistance to be much stronger.

So how did I do? What follows is my honest assessment.

What didn’t go so well:

• I did a poor job managing what few air assets I had. Although my air power was mostly fighters and not bombers, I could have been stingier with when and how I used them. I took my aircraft for granted in the beginning when I had a few turns of peace in the skies, but later the enemy spent considerably on AA and brought in fighters. The small losses I took initially with my carelessness lead to a complete rout in the sky later on.
• I also didn’t pick my battles particularly well mid-game. I could have bypassed a few costly cities that weren’t really threatening enough to warrant holding up my advance. On the flip side of that coin, I didn’t aggressively attack certain points that, while only manned by one infantry unit, we’re important enough that they could have completely held up my progress (and they did). Suffice to say I’ll study the terrain much closer next time.
• I was a bit haphazard with my force makeup late game. I was stuck with almost no infantry in South Group and that hurt me on the march towards my final objective. The AI can be sneaky and creep in to take a key objective once you’ve already rolled past it so you have to keep some units on your rear to deal with any stragglers. However, I should have noticed that I was heavily favoring infantry to garrison my objective hexes and that had a pronounced effect later on in the game.
• Overall, I took most of my causalities attacking dug in infantry. I’m not sure if there was any way for this to be avoided but it’s a skill I want to hone in the future.

• I purchased a lot of armor at the beginning of the game, but I feel like a couple of crack infantry units on well-armored half-tracks may have worked out a lot better.

What went well:

• The enemy had very limited armor and AT and what little they had I largely neutralized before they could become a factor.
• I was able to aggressively punch through to troublesome arty units and take them out of the picture. Many times I couldn’t destroy an arty unit but I was able to damage it enough so that it was ineffective in reacting to my assaults elsewhere.
• Perhaps most importantly, the scenario played out a lot like I planned it. Sure, there were some wrinkles here and there, but by and large I think I did a good job anticipating and mitigating trouble spots. I think my system of allocating additional units from Center Group to either the north or south if things got dicey on the flanks was a good one. It didn’t always pan out perfectly but with some further refining I think it would work much better the second time around.

Thanks for reading, see you on the battlefield! 

AAR written by: Sean Drummy 

Link to Part One of the Ardennes Scenario here!