On Ground

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Petr
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On Ground

Post by Petr » Sun Sep 08, 2013 5:43 am

Hi all,

This topic deals in detail with everything related to the ground war. Obviously, this will be much more important in the NE Africa sector than the NW Africa sector. Still, the same technics will be used for both sectors, so even for NW, this might be interesting to review. The starting numbers are only relevant to NE Africa.

NE AFRICA PRE-CAMPAIGN MOVE ETC
This will be included in the final version of the rules but I think it is important enough to be included here.
The below rules simulate that the Allies achieved complete surpise when launching Operation Crusader and the Axis high command (Rommel) was slow to react. It is very historical.

1. In NE AFRICA ONLY, there will be a PRE-CAMPAIGN night mission move to allow the Allies to reposition their forces within certain parameters.
a. The Axis has 10 moves during this turn.
b. The Allies have 110 moves during this turn.
c. Both sides can move their naval units as desired within the limitations of the rules.
d. There is NO FLYING during this pre-campaign movement.
e. The Allies MUST stay within the indicated front line in this mission file: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/636 ... plates.mis
f. No barrages are allowed by both sides.
g. Redeployments by both sides are allowed.
h. The mission duration is the full 2h15m.
i. If the Allies move outside of the frontline the offending units will be placed at Alexandria. Make sure you keep a good distance my eye sight is not what it used to be :-)

2. FIRST MISSION NE AFRICA
a. The Axis will have 30 moves.
b. The Allies will have 60 moves.
c. No further restrictions.

3. SECOND MISSION NE AFRICA
a. Both sides will have 60 ground moves.
b. No restrictions either side.

The file above contains the location of the factory plates used in the campaign.

Here is the same for the NW AFRICA sector. Please ignore factory plates located in Tunisia and Algeria. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/636 ... plates.mis

Important considerations:
TANKS
1. Tank vs tank combat is a difficult subject. A host of modifications have been made in the technics to arrive at a balance that allows all tanks to destroy each other so that in a 4vs4 straight head-on shooting match there should be casualties on both sides, even if only one versus four. However, it is VERY important to understand that tank combat is very unpredictable and depends highly on how both forces meet each other. Concentration is key, but poses other potential problems (friendly fire). In the end, with both sides moving at the same time luck will most likely be the deciding factor. We can argue about this as long as we want, it is simply the nature of the system only reinforced by 2h15 mission duration.
In all cases I have tried to achieve historical results in ground combat versus relying on historical correctness regarding armor thickness, rate of fire and so on. Stock, a Matilda is just too strong and virtually indestructible. This simply does not correspond to historical facts. As such, you should view the manipulations in the technics to allow for "gaps" in the IL2 ground combat engine which do not take into account extremely important factors as level of training, 3 man turrets, leadership, initiative, doctrine, sloped armor, face hardened armor, skill and reliability of the machines, etc…. On all of these the Germans scored very high while the British were just learning the ropes and trying to catch up.

2. The above being said, the Matilda's and Valentines remain the strongest tanks in the deck BUT are very slow and move at infantry speeds. This is historical as the British never used them in a mobile form and grouped them under special Tank Brigades to support the infantry. Keep in mind that Matilda's only had a 2 man turret, and the Valentines only a 3 man crew!

3. To allow the German tanks to perform historical, they have been toughened up and the PzIIIH has been upgraded to the long barreled 50mm gun. The Matilda's and Valentines will still win a straight head-on equal numbers battle but will take 1-2 casualties. IF, as the Axis commander, you go head to head with either the Matilda's or Valentines, be prepared to take losses, substantial losses in anything that resembles a fair fight! Period!

4. This in turn made the German tanks too strong versus the Crusaders and especially the Cruisers A13. Both tanks have been strengthened a great deal to allow them to actually do something else than just die horribly. In addition, they have received the 6 Pounder gun, making them much more effective but have retained their range disadvantage as was historical. In fact, the 2 pounder gun lacked a capped AP round and could only penetrate the German armor from about 100 yards! Clearly, this would just not work with the IL2 ground combat system.

5. The Stuart is the fastest tank in the campaign with 15km/h BUT is also short legged as historical. So make sure you provide plenty of supply when moving or you might find yourself out of gaz and stranded pretty quickly. Keeping your supply well organized is a general recommendation. Ignore at your own peril! It did have an effective Capped AP round for its 37mm gun and can be very effective under the right circumstances.

6. The M13 is not a bad tank in this period of the war, but neither is it a great one. It had a 47mm gun, with a capped AP round that was effective against most Allied tanks although it will find it very difficult to compete with Matilda's and Valentines. Once, in phase 2, when the M3 Lee's arrive it will have a much tougher time. In any case, as the Allied commander, you'd do well to treat them with respect and don't assume you can just waltz over them without a second thought.

AT GUNS
1. As with the Crusader and A13's, the 2 Pounder AT gun has in fact the 6 Pounder gun to allow it to actually do something.

2. All AT guns on both sides have a stationary and mobile object that allows them to fire on the move. I thought this was necessary because of the very mobile nature of the campaign and to get around one of the limitations of the IL2 ground combat engine. These objects are listed below. Keep in mind that the 88mm AT gun is a very strong and versatile weapon, exactly as it was historically. A less known tidbit of information is that the Italians had a very similar and just as effective 90mm AA gun which they even managed to mount on a Giant Truck. I did not create an additional SEOW entry for it and simply used the 88mm.

3. For some strange reason the British never quite used their 4.5inch (85mm AAA) guns in the dual role as did the Germans. One reason was their very strict organization and also the lack of suitable ammunition. However, in phase 2 a limited number of the 4.5inch AT guns will be available as was historically.

AAA GUNS
1. Most flak guns have stationary (cannot move by themselves) and mobile versions. With the exception of the 88mm AT (and later the 4.5inch AT version) they only fire at planes. This solves a long standing issue where AAA guns were simply too powerful in a ground role, because of the range necessary to be effective versus planes.

2. The German 20mm Flak 38 will also transform to the DemagFlak object when moving.

3. The bofors 40mm does not have a mobile AA capable object (just the standard truck) BUT it does have twice the range of the 20mm Axis AAA guns. Historically, it proved impossible to get the bofors mounted on a truck or armored carrier. The Allies do have the mobile 25mm AAA truck.

TO DO: Summary of force capabilities per country

Full xls file can be downloaded here: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/636 ... nfov1.xlsx

COMMONWEALTH
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AXIS
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NEUTRAL
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