The Hague Scenario in GC'40

[Vease101]

Absolutely loving the Grand Campaign, even though I'm not very good I am learning all the time just by playing and resisting the temptation to just reload after a poor (marginal) performance. This is my first time through The Hague scenario and after half a dozen turns it appeared to me that there was no way in hell that the isolated Paratroopers could survive before the relief force gets to them. As the only way to get a DV is to save at least four auxiliary units my 'strategy' then has been to load four of them up in the last surviving airfield and high tail it back to the airfield in the initial deployment area. Is this the right thing to do? I am going to be bogged down taking Rotterdam for a while so should I have just retreated the Paras to the northern part of the city to help with the assault?

[Tarrak]

You can keep them alive without evacuating them. Just group them together around the artillery in defensive terrain and sit it out while your troops move to save them. You may have to invest some prestige in replacements for them tho. I never tried the "hightail home" strategy but if you got enough transport planes available you can try to do it. It's not like the paratroopers are doing any good there except binding a few enemy forces.

[fliegenderstaub]

Well, you might have a look at a replay I saved of The Hague. I played it on General difficulty and finished it with a DV on turn 10.

Keeping the Fallschirmjäger units alive usually works, although sometimes I loose one or the other. These guys are much better on offense than on defense, so I try to take an advantage of that. Taking Rotterdam quickly is essential. And beware of the counterattacks. The Fallschirmjäger units around the northernmost airfield are in my opinion endangered most. So try to get through to them as soon as possible.

[hugh2711]

Have you tried deduter's AAR on youtube?
"...saving four units is trivial..."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ok_bOldUPW0

his whole series going up to gc43 is very good

[ThorHa]

It's not like the paratroopers are doing any good there except binding a few enemy forces.

Quite wrong at least on difficulty setting including Field Marshal, sorry. You can easily use the southern and middle groups to force conquer Rotterdam on turns 1 to 3 AND keep the majority of it alive with a bit airforce help. The northern one should keep the city but abandon the airfield and retreat in a nearby fortification hex. I had a unit strength 9 sit there from turn 3 until the end unmolested, occasionally striking against opportunity targets.

Correctly used the paras speed up the whole map a lot. The Hague is one of the maps where a DV in 2/3 of the allowed turns is no problem without any crippling losses.

Regards,
Thorsten

[proline]

I usually evacuate the northernmost airport by flying those units to the southern one. Cluster around the artillery at the southern one and send a bomber or two to take out any tanks or artillery they attack you with. Paratroopers supported by artillery can hold off infantry attacks indefinitely, even scoring a few kills of their own.

[captainjack]

There's nothing wrong with having the paras run for home - they can then be used to capture outlying cities and help out your main forces. The requirement is to keep the auxiliaries alive, and doesn't say where they should be or what you should do with them in the meantime. They could be very handy for clearing out remote cities or adding weight to an attack somewhere else. Creative solutions can be very effective.

My strategy for the paras is similar to Proline's. Air drop the Northern ones to the gun and camp around the artillery piece,. The Southern ones can hold their airfield for a while and clear out the nearby troops with a small amount of luck but be prepared to head to the artillery cluster if needed. Keep an eye on ammo - especially for the artillery piece which can make four or five defensive shots a turn. With a little planning (and a strategic bomber) you can rack up quite a bit of surrender prestige (while also killing off units quickly) and tie up a lot of AI forces. This is also quite a good way to earn experience for a new strategic bomber.

I usually split my core forces into two main groups - one heads west through the city to link with the paras and the other (the faster units) head up the east side of the map and then hook round the north clearing out the cities on the way and eventually head west to drop down on Rotterdam from the north.

It may not be the best strategy but it works consistently, usually has low casualty rate (unless you have a lack-of-scouting event), and isn't too stressful (I usually have a couple of turns in hand).

[Vease101]

Thanks for all the replies, in the end I didn't get anywhere near The Hague anyway but secured sufficient objectives for a MV. One humorous point was that I airdropped one of the Auxiliary Paras at the rightmost edge of the map, marched them across a bridge and picked off an armoured unit and two infantry units doing suicide attacks from the other side of the river...what a pity they weren't a core unit. Also the AI kept sending a bomber over to hit them which kept it out of the way of my main force

[LevV]

One of the interesting scenarios of early GC, maybe because i'm particularly interested in airborne troops/warfare
On my first blind play-through (FM) the northern team got slaughtered, the two southern teams struggled but survived, and it took me a while for my core to break-through all the obstacles to the Hague and the northern VH. It was quite challenging but if i remember correctly it was still a DV.

My second attempt (FM) was done after reading above suggestions of evacuating northern team, and so i did, and this time was of course easier, DV but couple objects on north left un-captured.

On the third try (FM) i just have finished i decided to paradrop 2 of paras to both central team and northern team (bought 1 para for this specific mission, had 3 already), plus i send two Stukas up north to help defending from armor, and i also bought 7.5 arty to airdrop it to nothern group (but it appeared that there is no deploy hex right on initial airfield, and there are only 4 transports, and by the time nothern airfield was ready to accept incoming arty my flanking pz3 already made it to that area). I spend quite a lot for in-game replacements during hot combats (incl aux paras), but this time seemed the easiest because the AI had his forces spred fighting me all over the map. of course a DV and this time every object is captured. My net result is almost exactly 1000 p after elite replacements for Sedan deploy.

Last game brought me to idea that it is better to advance in min 3-4 directions, with small groups but the good point is that enemy will also have to be scattered and you will not run into everlasting horde on 2 main roads you choose (usually for most scenarious there are 2 most obvious pathes i think)

[heinzrondorf]

It’s funny you bring up this scenario because I just played it the other day myself. I agree it is quite fun, varied and interesting!

I usually follow the same strategy as @proline and @captainjack above and as you did on your second attempt, i.e. evacuating the two northern paras and then positioning them around the artillery piece. I then usually paradrop in two extra Fallschirmjäger to help out until the main force gets there.

This time, since I played on Rommel and wanted to preserve prestige, I decided against converting any Wehrmacht Inf/Gebirgsjäger into Fallschirmjäger so I did not send in any help to the paratroopers apart from my airforce. All my (land) core units instead drove in from the south. I got a DV with quite low in-game replacements but did not manage to clear the entire map.

Your approach seems interesting though. I might try it another time!