Decisive Victory!!!!
Turn 51
No activity around Group 12.
Groups 3 and 4 fought with enemy infantry to the very end. Those units on the line had been beaten up pretty good, but the enemy kept on coming.
Casualties
Friendly: Estimated 5 casualties.
Enemy: Estimated 10 casualties.
Total Casualties
German
Men: 232
Artillery: 0
Soft Vehicles: 0
APCs: 8
AFVs: 0
United States
Men: 773
Artillery: 8
Soft Vehicles: 0
APCs: 0
AFVs: 18
Note: No aircraft in battle
Score
Germany: 6743
GB: 580
Final Comments
Well, this battle was everything I expected it to be. City attacks can be complicated enough, but the stream added another degree of complexity. It might have been easier if I hadn't been so fixed on using the bridges, but I know rough along streams would have bogged down a fair percentage of my force. It's all speculation, however. It's hard to argue with a plan that worked, even if it might have been harder than it needed to be.
The one pair of intersections I identified in my plan turned out to be a critical one. It didn't take too much imagination to expect the AI to try to push down to the corner objects if I captured them first. The element I hadn't considered was the number of obstacles I had to clear to get to G3 and amount of artillery that was brought in once I got there. That forced a change of plans.
I'm actually surprised I was able to capture the objectives at G2 from the direction I did. This is especially true considering the beating Group 2 took on Hill 1. Two factors helped this change of plans to work. The first is as much as Group 2 got pounded, Group 1 was left pretty much untouched. That element balanced things out. The other factor was shifting units from Group 4 to assist in the move. The combined force of Groups 1 and 2 weren't strong enough to do more than planned. Shifting troops wasn't a stroke of brilliance, however. It really was the only option. Anywhere else, those uncommitted Group 4 units would have had to break through the obstacles with limited engineer support. The worst case scenario would have been I captured only objective groups G2 and G3 and I get a draw or maybe a marginal victory out of it.
One thing the AI didn't do as much as I would have expected was mine roads in town. Just a few mines on that road to G1 would have prevented me from getting there. Vehicles would have been left behind and my high speed approach in town would have been cut off.
For everyone who says they capture the last flags almost at the end of the battle, here's another one you can look at. I had all the objectives on turn 50, one turn to go. Why the battle didn't end there, I'm not sure. Just keep in mind, you don't get bonus points for fast.
My next battle is a defend. Too bad I don't get to defend in a place like I had to take. It's not the best defensive terrain I've seen before. And I've already got bunkers for my troops to hide in during the AI's 30 minute long prep fire
I've attached the save just before I ended my last turn. Enjoy!