FSO: March - Tunisia 1943

[ghostdancer]

March's FSO takes everybody back to the dessert to recreated the Tunisian battles of 1943.

http://www.ahevents.org/fso-current-next-event.html



DESCRIPTION
This FSO will recreate the conquest of Tunisia by the Allies in 1943.
 
In the east Montgomery and his 8th Army, the famous desert rats, race through Libya until finally being brought to a halt by Rommel at the "Mareth Line" where he was dug in and tried to end his long retreat from Egypt. Fortunately for him the 8th Army was had almost at the very end of its supply chain which brought its rapid advance to a screeching halt until ports in Libya were repaired and supply dumps created closer to the Tunisia border.
 
Meanwhile in the west the Allied 1st Army had landed in Morocco and Algeria on November 8th and had rolled up both countries in the face of only sporadic Vichy resistance and light German defenses. However, Hitler was determined to make Tunisia the cornerstone of the Axis defense of North Africa, swearing to turn it into the Verdun of the Mediterranean. General Arnim was immediately sent to take command of the German and Italian forces in Tunisia and to sieze it from the French before they could switch sides and turn it over to the Americans and the British, as they had just done in the "Darlan Deal" for Morocco and Algeria.

All told Arnim had 110,000 troops, 200 tanks (with some of the new Panthers present) and Flieger Korps II had been reinforced to 445 combat aircraft and 637 transport aircraft.
 
Facing this in the west was the Allied 1st Army made up of green American troops, unreliable French divisions (freshly come over from the Vichy regime), and fresh British divisions new to North Africa. The western airforce made up of both USAAF and RAF was untried and had yet to develop the command structure and tactics that the Desert Air Force in the East had developed after several hard years of warfare.
 
While in the east stood the battle hardened 8th Army eager to finally end their long tour of duty in Africa with only the German and Italian forces in Tunisia standing in their way.


U.S.
A-20G
B-24J (limited)
B-25C/D (formations enabled)
B-26B (formations enabled)
F4F-4
P-38G
P-39D
P-40E
 
Sherman Variant TBD
M-3
 
 
BRITISH
Boston Mk III (formations enabled)
Hurricane Mk IIC
Hurricane Mk IID
Seafire MK IIC
Spitfire V
Spitfire IX
 
 
GERMAN
Bf 109F-4
Bf 109G-2
Bf 109G-6
Bf 110C-4b
Bf 110G-2
Fw 190A-5 (sub for early 190s)
Ju 87D-3 (gets 2 lives)
Ju 88A-4 (formations enabled)
 
Panzer IV
SdKfz 251
 
 
ITALIAN
C.202
 
 
COUNTRY PERCENTAGES
Roughly 50 / 50 with the Axis having slightly more.
 
SCORING
CV - TBD points
CA - TBD points
DD - TBD points

5 pts - Single Engine AC with 1 crew
10 pts - Single or double engine AC with 2 crew
15 pts - Double Engine AC with 3+ crew

TBD - Small Airfield
TBD - Medium Airfield
TBD - Large Airfield
TBD - Port
TBD - Vehicle Base
TBD - Grunt Facility
TBD - HQ
 
ARENA SETTINGS
- Tunisia terrain
- Fuel 1.0
- Icons short
- 0.4 Ack
- Fighter and Bomber warning range 52,000 (about 10 miles)
- Tower range set to 52,000 (for display only to match the above setting)
- Clouds / visibility
      Frame 1, 29 miles
      Frame 2, 33 miles
      Frame 3, 14 miles
- Radar off
- Formations off - Friendly collisions off
- Kill shooter off
- Calm winds
- Time: 11 AM
 
SPECIAL RULES

Note: that special rules sent out with objectives trump these rules.

JU87 pilots get a second life in an aircraft assigned to them by their CiC (it can be any of the available Axis plane type except fw190A5s).


GROUND RULES
A ground combat element will be incorporated into the event. Specific rules regarding the ground combat will be forth coming but it a meeting engagement between two armored forces. Both sides will spawn outside of a base not controlled by either and will be tasked with capturing the neutral (third party base) and holding it until a specified time.
 
After this time GVs pilots will get a second get a second life in planes. However until the GV battle is over dead GV players may man the guns of other tanks, vehicles, or if they wish airplanes (although other GVs probably would appreciate help more at this juncture).

[StokesAk]

Looks like a great match up!

[ghostdancer]

Oh, to let everybody know I will have min / maxs on planes. So the 190A5, Spit IXs, and the P38s will not be unlimited.

[AKKuya]

I like the Stuka part with 2 lives.

[Der Jude]

I'm getting a raging semi just thinking about the 109 vs 38 dogfights that will be occurring

[perdue3]

Look at all the Spits, yummy.

[j500ss]

Ummm GD,    March's FSO takes everybody back to the dessert????       One to many s.




Sorry just could not let that one go sir   


 

[eww76]

Awesome! I'm GORT BTW fly with 2/jg27. See you guys up there!

[MachNix]

Attempting to download the Tunisia terrain form the AH website produced a Not Found error.

Ref:
http://downloads.hitechcreations.com/AHTUNISIA.EXE

[ghostdancer]

Will fire a note to skuzzy about that.

[Krusty]

Frame 2 had FAR too many allies and far too many P-38s and spits!

Of the 180 pilots in frame 2, 81 of them were in P-38Gs or some form of spit5/9/seaf (also spit5 with more ammo)

Some of these squadrons so equipped consisted of well over 20 pilots! Entire hordes of 20+ spits wiping out better-planed 109G2 units with 2-1 numbers ratios.

The entire frame was a gang rape on the allied side.


Hardly representative of 1943 Tunisia, IMO. I think the numbers need tweaking and the plane caps need serious lowering.

[ghostdancer]

I have no control over turn out and the original turnout of the frame was actually evenly matched between the sides. Numbers below is based on the raw logs and count those who snuck under non-squad colors.

Before Reset (22:15)
Allies = 168
Axis = 164

After Reset (22:49)
Allies = 179 (+11 allies)
Axis = 146 (-18 Axis)

After the accidental reset the numbers became skewed and the allies had a serious advantage.  However, this does not warrant re-balancing frame 3 since the reset was not intentional.

As for planes available the Allies had a max of 40 P38Gs (26 used after reset) and 23 Spit IXs (22 used after reset). The Axis had a max of 50 Fw190A5s (34 used after reset) and 13 Bf109G6s (and 12 used after reset). Actual deployment up to those thresholds is up to the CiC. Squad turnout is also out of my hands.


The Axis deployed a total of 105 pilots to 109s and 190s (F4, G2, G6, A5). Allies deployed 86 to P38s and Spits (P38, Spit 5, Spit 9, Seafire). In my opinion the F4, G2, G6, A5 are a match for the P38, Spit 5, Spit 9, Sea Fire combo.

Overall the allies deployed 153 fighters (67 in P39D, P40E, Hurri IID) versus the Axis 123 (18 in 202s). A spread of only 30 fighters. If the reset did not happen it would probably been a much more narrow spread between the two sides on fighters.

[Krusty]

I'll concede the reset screwing us over.

However, I disagree with your comment about the axis planeset being more than able to compensate for all the spitfires in the arena. Don't get me wrong, I think the planes themselves are okay... but 20+ spits of ANY kind can wipe out 10 109s of any kind when they run into each other.

Look at the numbers:

179 allies, of which only 75 died. 41% loss ratio.

146 axis, of which 111 died. 75% loss ratio.

They had far more souls in play and suffered a much smaller loss ratio because of it. IMO this is why spitfires need to be limited. The arena might as well have been entirely spitfires on the allied side, IMO. Limit the G6s and 190s more as well if you think you need to reduce both sides evenly, but the super abundance of these destabilizing planes (81 of 179 as spits or p-38Gs) is very annoying. Add that to any kind of numbers imbalance and it's a terrible night to bother showing up for FSO.

[ghostdancer]

There were 60 spits of all types in Frame 2. There were 71 109s of all types, advantage Axis

There were 86 spits and P38s versus 105 FWs and 109s, advantage Axis.

Numbers at engagement points can vary do to to many issues to list. However, there is absolutely no possibility that at every engagement the 109s were out numbered 2 to 1 (always 20+ spits versus 10 109s). Simply put there were more 109s than there were Spits. There were more 109s and FWs than there were Spits and P38s. For the Allies to engage any point with 2 to 1 numbers in Spits and P38s means they would be weak somewhere else and the 109s would be dealing with just P40s, P39s, Hurri IIDs.

20+ 109s would also wipe out 10 spits.

Next per the logs the allies were credited with 127 kills.  The axis were credited with 108 kills only a 19 less than the allies and that is with the Allies have  33 pilots advantage.  

Loss ratio is relative. Since the allies fielded twice the amount of bomber formations than the Axis did. Axis had 13 bomber formations and Allies had 29. So the Axis fielded  172 aircraft over all (13 formations of bombers .. not sure what GV second lifers took yet). The Allies fielded 237 aircraft over all (29 formations of bombers .. not sure what GV second lifers took yet). The allies put up a much larger force since, for whatever reason, they had over twice the bomber formations in the air. This alone will reduce their loss ratio. However, actual kill credits for both sides were extremely close and this was when the Allies had a significant bomber advantage and also fighter advantage do to the reset.

The imbalance of bomber numbers could be do to 1) The reset or 2) The Axis commander chose to go with a smaller bomber force intentionally (although probably not that small).

Again individual squad turnout, squad actions, flow of battle, and decisions made by the CiC are all out of my control and have a very large impact on the shape of battle and game play. Both side were given a level playing field, comparable aircraft (you even claim that 109s are superior to Spits), and the possibility of turning out pilots in the same number range.

No data shown in this frame indicates anything here is out of whack / caused by the design. 109s and Fws outnumbered allied Spits and 38s, only when you thrown in the P40s, P39s, and Hurries were the Axis outnumbered. Allies fielded more overall bombers. Credit kills were very close and were not 75 allies to 111 axis but were 108 allied to 127 axis.

The reset caused a number disadvantage but if the Allies turned out high and the Axis low the same situation could have occurred.

[kansas2]

I have no control over turn out and the original turnout of the frame was actually evenly matched between the sides. Numbers below is based on the raw logs and count those who snuck under non-squad colors.

Before Reset (22:15)
Allies = 168
Axis = 164

After Reset (22:49)
Allies = 179 (+11 allies)
Axis = 146 (-18 Axis)

Numbers were not that far off if you don't count the 16 pilots of the 332nd Flying Mongrels that
saw no action due to the axis strike force being wiped out before they could hit A22. The AK's
were also on defense at A22 and they had 10 pilots and in countered a total of 3 ME109's.

That left

Allies = 153

Axis = 143