[WarInEur] Attrition a New Look

[Don Lazov]

The new Attrition model an AAR and thoughts

There is a lot of debate on the attrition option. But here is one
commanders thoughts on in this mini-AAR.

The current game is a full campaign game with all options on. The just
finished Axis Turn was 3/6/40 the invasion of France begun on 3/5/40.
France has just offered surrender terms which I happily if not
ecstatically accepted.

Yes in just 5 short weeks France has fallen! With no "gambits", just
plain hard work and a fairly good plain.

Was it nerve racking? Yes, to be sure, was I sure of my madness? No, in
fact last turn (2/6/40) I started to think perhaps I made a critical
mistake, but I am getting ahead of myself. The first turn I took out
Luxembourg and drove a wedge into Holland and the Netherlands fell. I
made a small mistake with Belgium and just surrounded a lot of infantry
(bypassed) and only air dropped on Liege (forgot about Amsterdam till
1/6/40) and took Brussels thinking that would do here in and then went
for "my main goal". On 1/6/40 I realized my initial mistake and
reinforced for the assault on Amsterdam for 2/6/40. I attacked with
three 6-5's (a corps) and two 8-8 (another corps) and got a dr, that is
all I need to secure success in the lowlands.

My Main Goal was to drive a knife like wedge straight through the heart
of France to Paris. I kept pushing my knife in deeper each turn,
irregardless of my flanks. I attacked at 3-1 odds with Panzers and
Panzer Grenadiers, I attacked at 2-1 with 6-5's and kept pushing and
slowly but surly on 3/6/40 Two 10-8 pushed out two French 3-4 from Paris
and occupied the hex.

To be honest it did take nerves of steel and on 2/6/40 like I said
above, I thought I screwed up).

Here are some salient points:

1) most of my front line Panzer and Panzer Grenadiers are at about 40%
to 30% percent attrition (meaning 5 or 6 attack factors at best) a few
are at 50%.

2) throughout the whole push I keep about eight 6-5 in reserve on ports
and rail lines, but on 1/6/40 and 2/6/40 I released them to the front as
reinforcements.

3) during the last production cycle I had four new units that came out
of production, but they were at 40% to 55 % (units just out of
production are not at 100%) and one was ready (and desperately needed
this turn) at 15%, so I railed the other 2 (at 20% and 25%) closer to
the front.

4) if you use IR/MR your units that are 1-5 at 4% attrition are not
6-5's at 50% attrition, so you have to be smart on how you horde
reserves and how you beat your units to death (via movement and combat.

The key points to all of this was to me a lot more realistic, the same
"old" game with a new exciting twist. I personally love operational
level combat and having the knowledge of the basics of attrition (no
secret really, lots of common military sense) really plays out for a
fun, realistic and exciting game.

When Paris fell the relief was immense. The reason for me was that the
gamble worked, my plan worked and my concept and usage of this "new" era
of combat seemed to come together. I briefly felt the feeling that
Guderian and Manstein must have felt, or when Patton cursed Rommel and
said "I read your damn book you Nazi bastard!".

Quite refreshing from the days of "calculated" MP and combat factors
only. Quite realistic for me as well.

It's only 1940 and a long way from 1945. Who's up next? That is top secret.

Don


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