Slitherine

Hi guys, I need help with the last scenario of Soviet Corps campaign. Japaneese army has lots of aircraft, their infantry is experienced and well entrenched, terrain seems to be perfect for defense and I can deploy only 16 units...

My general strategy is:
1x T-34-85, 1x 203mm M1931, 1x YaG 10 are landing on the eastern island to capture the airfield - no problem with that.
1x Su-152, 2x 203mm M1931, 1x Yak-9U in Vladivostok are trying to get through forest to Changchun - I can only keep enemy engaged here, no chance for breaktrhough.

Near Chita and Chaibalsan I have rest of my army: 2x Is-2 (one elite), 1x T-34-85, 1x Su-152, 1x Gurads 43, 2x 203 mm M1931, 3x Yak-9U. First I focus to get through the mountains to Tsitsihar, then I split my troops to capture Dolon Nur on the south-west and rest of my army goes to the center of the map. Yak fighters make for AA defense and slowly eliminate japaneese aircraft.

I'm using "disband" option when I capture the eastern airfield to reinforce other places on the map. I have enough prestige to build any army I want. Still I can't fit in time limit. I'm missing 2-3 turns to capture all key objectives, killing every japaneese unit and getting decisive victory seems impossible.

Thanks in advance for any help

Well what can I say

Think outside the Box

Fight the Air Units from the Ground

I thought I had a Replay saved somewhere but I could not find it anymore
So I just loaded an older Savegame and made a quick run through the scenario to get a replay file

As it was some time ago I last played Soviet Corps it's pretty awkward and I blundered several times on the Eastern Island with the Airport and butchered several Infantry Units from my troops. Same with my southern squad, impatience and a sloppy approach cost me some, but it's the last scenario of the Campaign anyway and you have plenty of Prestige and Units to burn so it doesn't matter. But since you have pretty much time to conquer all the other victory or non victory hexes even holding back to get the last non victory hex city you will get the idea anyway. I think with a little bit of discipline and patience you can clean out the whole map easily, even without a disband. At least on Colonel or up to FieldMarshall Level.

So I deployed NO Air unit (except a Para, can be be any Unit to conquer a Hex as well, the Idea with the Para is to evacuate it from the Island later on. I messed this idea up with my incompetence as you will see )
All my best towed AA Guns (these are your key to victory)
Plenty of Arty (note while I messed up a bit in the south with towed Arty, it's better to use Switch Units doesn't matter if it is Arty or At or even KV2 with a switch, Range heroes are welcome )

Never mind a few heavy Blows from the Japanese Air Force, just patiently pound them with the AA guns
Also soften Ground Units with your Arty and finish them off with the few Tanks you have on the Battlefield.
Make a slow and safe progress step by step. Don't run out on Ammo especially with your Arty

Just watch the Replay and you will get the Basic Idea, just sorry I could not give you one with a little bit more accuracy and sharper gameplay (after all this a just a hush hush fight using the old tactics again)

edit

so I took a bit more time to play it once more and with some Responsibility and here you have a Decisive Victory for the Second Replay
btw I posted it on some other thread

Going Groundbound (without any Air Units in all Scenarios) is nice alternate Task to go through Soviet Corps

Manchuria involves fighting a heavily entrenched, heavily overstrength army but with inherently weak units and with a powerful airforce while you have relatively few deployment slots and limited time. This poses some challenges if you have got used to fighting heavy armour and reasonable troops with a big army. .

The voerstrength and entrenchment means that you need units that can keep fighting - lots of ammo needed, and also the ability to heavily suppress anything that attacks you, which means lots of light to medium artillery - SP Art is useful for keeping up attacks and defending armour in close terrain (eg SP rocket launchers with 10 ammo) though a move hero model 42 76 with 11 ammo and 110% Rof and an AT switch is very handy and you may need a couple of 3 range guns for counter battery work). You also need one or two SPAA to deter air attack (towed AA hits harder when attacking but for me defence is key here, so the ability of SPAA to move into position to protect forces is more important), and two fighters. Three might have been better but I'd only got two and didn't want to field inexperienced ones.

Send a tank, an infantry and a towed gun over to the island. They will be disbanded as soon as they take the city, so there might be a case for using a second gun as the sooner you clear the island ou can deploy the replacements on the mainland that bit sooner.
Concentrate the rest of your forces. Otherwise you will be sitting around for ever, when what you need is to blast opposition as fast as possible. Concetration also means that the SPAA can provide more complete protection - though against 15 strong bombers you might still take some damage, at least the defensive fire gradually reduces their strength. Use your fighters carefully as return fire from 15 strength bombers can see you running out of overstrength very quickly and you don't have time to reinforce.

Because you should have a big reserve, whenever you need reinforcement or when you complete an objective, see if you'd be better off disbanding and redeploying new (overstrength and fully supplied) units. It isn't always useful but can be, especially if it allows you to outflank or bypass a strongpoint.

And finally, keep your eyes open. Last time I took all the objectives on the last turn (having cleared all the objectives on the last but one) but found two aircraft that I hadn't completely destroyed after I'd got rid of all my fighters and AA, and with no time to by a new one. I had to settle for MV, although that was my first Manchurian win so wasn't too diapopinted.

Thanks guys for your help, especially hurly. Thanks to you I realised how useful "switch" units are. And you are right, towed AA is the key to victory, Japaneese have to pay high price for their air attacks and if in need it can be used as AT. I forgot about this unit after Barbarossa.

After reading your posts I've managed to receive vicory, for dv I'll need more practice. Thanks a lot!

DzikiNakuriwacz wrote: ↑Sun Dec 02, 2018 5:28 pm Thanks guys for your help, especially hurly. Thanks to you I realised how useful "switch" units are. And you are right, towed AA is the key to victory, Japaneese have to pay high price for their air attacks and if in need it can be used as AT. I forgot about this unit after Barbarossa.

After reading your posts I've managed to receive vicory, for dv I'll need more practice. Thanks a lot!

I just knocked 3 turns off my record for that scenario- I've now done it in 9. Key points:

1) The Japanese units are harmless, so don't bother with heavy tanks. I deployed all OT-34. Overstrength them to 15 and they get 21(!) shots per turn from each of them. They kill weak units way faster than an IS-2 that only gets max 15 shots per turn and they deal with entrenchment and close terrain just fine.

2) Disband your own units. I deployed 4 top of the line fighters and two AA, but disbanded 3 of them on turn 4 and 2 more of them on turn 6 replacing them with rocket artillery.

3) The AI will retreat any air units that are below 10 strength, so don't go for the kill just batter as many of them as you can to keep them out of the action. Those 4 fighters and 2 AA can therefore batter all 12 Japanese air units in 2 turns. After that it only takes a couple units to fight the planes they manage to repair.

proline wrote: ↑Tue Dec 04, 2018 5:05 am

DzikiNakuriwacz wrote: ↑Sun Dec 02, 2018 5:28 pm Thanks guys for your help, especially hurly. Thanks to you I realised how useful "switch" units are. And you are right, towed AA is the key to victory, Japaneese have to pay high price for their air attacks and if in need it can be used as AT. I forgot about this unit after Barbarossa.

After reading your posts I've managed to receive vicory, for dv I'll need more practice. Thanks a lot!

I just knocked 3 turns off my record for that scenario- I've now done it in 9. Key points:

1) The Japanese units are harmless, so don't bother with heavy tanks. I deployed all OT-34. Overstrength them to 15 and they get 21(!) shots per turn from each of them. They kill weak units way faster than an IS-2 that only gets max 15 shots per turn and they deal with entrenchment and close terrain just fine.

2) Disband your own units. I deployed 4 top of the line fighters and two AA, but disbanded 3 of them on turn 4 and 2 more of them on turn 6 replacing them with rocket artillery.

3) The AI will retreat any air units that are below 10 strength, so don't go for the kill just batter as many of them as you can to keep them out of the action. Those 4 fighters and 2 AA can therefore batter all 12 Japanese air units in 2 turns. After that it only takes a couple units to fight the planes they manage to repair.

Great Idea going all in with the OT34. Makes this seemingly time challenged scenario a lot easier to solve.

I said to the OP think outside the box, but the campaign thinking scarecrow I am (never waste any prestige) made me field my best KV 1 (for the Ammo) instead of the OT. So not enough outside the Box thinking from me as well

Memo to self
thinking outside the box is a great concept, but never forget there is another box right beside the outside box that may even give you better performance.

And there is no real hard scenario in the game if you have a "Beautiful Mind" you'll find a way to make it look easy

DzikiNakuriwacz wrote: ↑Sun Dec 02, 2018 5:28 pm Thanks guys for your help, especially hurly. Thanks to you I realised how useful "switch" units are. And you are right, towed AA is the key to victory, Japaneese have to pay high price for their air attacks and if in need it can be used as AT. I forgot about this unit after Barbarossa.

After reading your posts I've managed to receive vicory, for dv I'll need more practice. Thanks a lot!

Winning as Japanese is also brain burning. Do you want to try me on MP? I can set up the game and let you know the password.

If you want to play as the Japanese against the smartest AI (lv2), you can not only capture all Soviet cities but also destroy all Soviet units by the following rules I developed based on my own experience. I wrote these to share with interested players.

1. Capture Choibalsan, Chita and airfield (8,3) with 16th Japanese Inf because the Soviets have no units there and they will not be able to purchase units from those cities. By doing so, they will not be able to refuel their aircrafts at the airfield.

2. Attack the landing craft with the artillery and the fighter that are on the island. Then use 13th Japanese Inf to attack the landing craft. Thus, the landing craft will be suppressed by the artillery first and then be hurt worse by the fighter and the Infantry.

3. Use the bombers wisely and be sure to send a fighter to protect it. Sometimes they can make great damage. But NEVER attack the Soviet fighters unless they are running out of bullets, or your fighters will be hurt much worse than the enemy’s.

4.Don’t be afraid that your units will be hurt much worse than the enemy’s. Make enemy’s units run out of bullets, then you can attack them effortlessly.

5. Attack the Soviet artillery near Vladivostok when you have a chance, or it will be even harder for you to attack the Soviet tanks.