Grand Campaign West & East 39-45 (Manstein) [Epilogue]

[huckc]

Albert Canal
Prestige: 4992

Very complex scenario, faced with counter-attacks in all directions.

Deployed three Fallschirmjäger in the air to take Antwerp before my main body. See further down below to see how that played out..

Plan of attack



Disaster strikes! Fallschirmjäger get tagged for 10 damage while in their transport planes...

...The two remaining would continue on with their mission to take Antwerp in a feat of valor


Result
Turn 21 DV. All objectives captured
Prestige: 6987

[huckc]

The Hague
Prestige: 6325

Deployed two Fallschirmjäger in the air to help their fellow jumpmen ASAP.

The rest of my force would push through Rotterdam and provide much needed armored help.

Plan of attack



Turn 2. My two Fallschirmjäger landed for much needed reinforcement


Turn 10. Sieging The Hague while fending off a counter-attack in the east.


Result
Turn 16 DV. Captured all objectives and saved the aux Fallschirmjäger
Prestige: 7899

[huckc]

Sedan
Prestige: 7454

Deployed all four Fallschirmjäger in the air to take two inland objectives.

The rest of my force was split into half. One going immediately by way of the northern ports to flank the heavy artillery in Sedan , landing on the peninsula. The other securing the vital airfield in the west, then destroying all enemy units in the vicinity, and finally moving into the ports on the west bank in order to flank from the south by way of naval landing.

Plan of attack



Turn 3, the landings in the north begin


Turn 8, Fallschirmjäger dropped with one miss


Turn 14, fending off a strong counter-attack. Not pictured is my western task force boarding their landing ships for a nasty surprise for the enemy

Result
Turn 18 DV. All objectives captured. Captured a Somua medium tank.
Prestige: 10406

[huckc]

Maubeuge
Prestige: 9401

Opted to attack the British this time since I went for the French last play-through.

Deployed three Fallschirmjäger in the air to take the southwest objectives of Cambrai and Douai.

The rest of my forces would be split into two between the north and south, the northern task force to take the objectives of Mons along with a vital airfield within range of most of the map, then Tournai, and finally Lille in the northwest.

The southern group would link up with the Fallschirmjäger and provide armored support, then move up north along the west portion of the map to help with the siege of Lille.

Plan of attack



Fallschirmjäger dropped in the southwest


Turn 15 the siege of Lille begins. Heavy enemy artillery exposed fortunately.


Final turn 18, the defending infantry was quickly destroyed and all three AA guns surrendered.

Result
Turn 18 DV. Captured all objectives.
Prestige: 11908

[huckc]

Arras
Prestige: 9842

Very difficult defensive scenario, faced with a lot heavy armor which was especially dangerous in the clear ground in the south. Prodigious use of 88s in anti-tank mode is a necessity, fortunately you're provided two aux ones as well as the two core I deployed making it a total of four.

Only one Fallschirmjäger deployed in the air with the task of taking the remote city objective in the southwest.

Plan of defense



Defending against the final wave in the south


Enemy bridge engineers didn't take too kindly of my back capping

Result
Turn 24 Marginal Victory. Six of eight objectives held.
Prestige: 11841

I have an idea of a reasonably reliable way to get a DV, but it's a bit exploitative of the AI and I just wanted to put this one behind me. The idea is to back-cap with a strong Fallschirmjäger right after the final wave begins their move, resulting in the wave moving back to the capped objective instead of forward and using that opportunity to push forward into the remaining objectives.

[huckc]

Calais
Prestige: 10903

I found this scenario extremely difficult and had to restart numerous times after getting battered severely with various counter-attacks. The complex terrain and unpredictable enemy movements were a big issue.

Deployed two Fallschirmjäger in the air to take the objective of Marquise in the west surrounded by favorable forest terrain.

Plan of attack



Fallschirmjäger taking Marquise by defeating the tank guarding it in favorable close defense fighting


Turn 14 the siege of Calais begins

Result
Turn 19 Decisive Victory. All objectives captured and only two enemy flags remain on the entire map
Prestige: 13439

[huckc]

Dunkirk
Prestige: 12577

This scenario is unique in that the sole objective is to destroy as many evacuation destroyers, trains, and landing craft as possible.

Deployed three Fallschirmjäger in the air. The strongest was to land behind then destroy the stronghold Grand Fort Philippe. The other two would drop in the east behind the river Canal de la Basse Colme to wreak havoc and disrupt enemy movements.

Plan of attack



Turn 3 Fallschirmjäger dropped and ready to destroy the stronghold


Most of the destruction was at sea using strategic bombers and gunboats

Result
Turn 10 Decisive Victory. Destroyed at least 17 evacuation equipment.
Prestige: 14307

[goose_2]

You are pulling of feats that I could not accomplish.

How many units have you lost?

[huckc]

You are pulling of feats that I could not accomplish.

How many units have you lost?

No core unit lost so far. The prestige situation is merely ok however, even though it'll get reset to zero I'm still putting in an effort to conserve it for the sake of good play. Going into Dijon, the second to last '40 scenario, I have a little over 15k after replacements with 39 units.

Reims
Prestige: 13035

Deployed four Fallschirmjäger in the air to land behind the Aisne River and tasked with taking out some weakly defended towns in order to clear the way for my western ground troops, then moving south to help capture Reims.

The rest of my ground troops were split into three groups along the west, center, and east portion of the map.

The western group would move south, facing minor resistance, crossing the Aisne and linking up with a Fallschirmjäger and taking out two objectives in the middle.

The center group would move and attack into the objective Rethel, including taking its vital central airfield, then defend it from expected counter-attacks.

The eastern group, containing Oleh Dir who's still a mountain man, along with some of my strongest armor and artillery in order to clear out expected fierce resistance east of the Aisne, then move far south and finally up into Reims.

Plan of attack



Turn 4 Fallschirmjäger dropped and ready to go, two of the four were misdrops which proved inconsequential however


Facing a strong and prolonged counter-attack on Rethel. The enemy AA would inflict a non-negligible amount of losses because desperate times call for desperate air attacks to weaken their armor.


Turn 15 ready to pounce on Reims from the west and south in 3, 2, 1...

Attack!


Result
Decisive Victory turn 18 of 20. Captured all objectives and a French Char B1 heavy tank.
Prestige: 15334

[huckc]

Now that I'm about 2/3 the way to the big '42 decision down to 9 core units, thought I'd post about my likely candidates thus far (bold). It includes current units as well as scripted heroes coming up in '41. Also possibly come up with some sort of final run farming plan.

Infantry (Move +3 Init +3, Init +1)
Infantry (Att +2 Init +3)
Infantry (Def +2) // Close
Infantry (Att +3)
Panzer (Att +2 Def +2 Spot +2) // Meh close
Panzer (Att +1 Def +1 Init +2 Mov +1 Spott +1)
Panzer (Def +2, Def +3) // Roughly doubling close defense!
Artillery (Att +2)
Artillery (Att +3) // Close
Fighter (Att +2 Def +1 Init +2)
Fighter (Def +2)
Fighter (Def +3)
Tac Bomber (Att +1 Init +6) // Close one, I don't think I'd find two tac bombers useful late-game and would rather have a dedicated fighter for when the init bonus actually takes into affect
Tac Bomber (Att +9 Def +9 Mov +1)

SE units automatically carried over:
4 Panzers (soft cap suppression!)

Approximate carry-over prestige values:

Infantry: 150 (just a family upgrade to ’43 version)
Panzer: 0 (upgrade to Panthers and Tigers)
Artillery: 500 (werf vehicle)
Fighter: 0 (upgrade to FW-190 soon)
Tac bomber: 0 (upgrade to FW-190G)

The selection is a combination of hero quality, unit diversity plus relative difficulty gaining experience, and prestige value.

Most of the unit types have no effective prestige value as they will be faced with huge mandatory upgrades soon after '42 starts. Ironically, infantry is worth more than panzers due to this and also the hardest to gain experience. Artillery is by far the most valuable, however it is the easiest to gain experience. Carry-over experience is 375.

Thoughts welcomed

[goose_2]

Now that I'm about 2/3 the way to the big '42 decision down to 9 core units, thought I'd post about my likely candidates thus far (bold). It includes current units as well as scripted heroes coming up in '41. Also possibly come up with some sort of final run farming plan.

Infantry (Move +3 Init +3, Init +1)
Infantry (Att +2 Init +3)
Infantry (Def +2) // Close
Infantry (Att +3)
Panzer (Att +2 Def +2 Spot +2) // Meh close
Panzer (Att +1 Def +1 Init +2 Mov +1 Spott +1)
Panzer (Def +2, Def +3) // Roughly doubling close defense!
Artillery (Att +2)
Artillery (Att +3) // Close
Fighter (Att +2 Def +1 Init +2)
Fighter (Def +2)
Fighter (Def +3)
Tac Bomber (Att +1 Init +6) // Close one, I don't think I'd find two tac bombers useful late-game and would rather have a dedicated fighter for when the init bonus actually takes into affect
Tac Bomber (Att +9 Def +9 Mov +1)

SE units automatically carried over:
4 Panzers (soft cap suppression!)

Approximate carry-over prestige values:

Infantry: 150 (just a family upgrade to ’43 version)
Panzer: 0 (upgrade to Panthers and Tigers)
Artillery: 500 (werf vehicle)
Fighter: 0 (upgrade to FW-190 soon)
Tac bomber: 0 (upgrade to FW-190G)

The selection is a combination of hero quality, unit diversity plus relative difficulty gaining experience, and prestige value.

Most of the unit types have no effective prestige value as they will be faced with huge mandatory upgrades soon after '42 starts. Ironically, infantry is worth more than panzers due to this and also the hardest to gain experience. Artillery is by far the most valuable, however it is the easiest to gain experience. Carry-over experience is 375.

Thoughts welcomed

In thinking about this I approach it from what I did in my playthrough.
I took all Super heroes from my playthrough, meaning the Uber ones rewarded as you play. All except the following: Recon Rudel - Tac Bomber (Att -5 Def -2 Spott +2)
; Otto Kittel- Fighter (Att +3 Def -2 Init +2); Helmut Wirnsberger- Infantry (Att +2 Init +3)

That means I took all the others, plus 2 Artillery that seemed close to getting a 2nd hero. Since I have been playing on Guderian I have yet to receive a 2nd hero on any of my artillery units.
So this is what I took with me into the cut off:
Converted all 4 SE Tanks to SE Pz4F/2’s and Fully Overstrengthed.
I brought Albert Kerscher and Heinz Rondorf and made them both Flamms.
In the air I brought Heinrich Bar, +3 Att Fighter, Helmut Lent, and Uber Rudel, which I converted to a Fighter Bomber.
I also brought Oleh Dir as a converted Grenadier, and the last 2 units were my +3 Att and +1 Range Artillery both converted to Wurfrahmen’s. (These units brought my Soft Cap down to 48 which is awfully restrictive, but I am not going to have that money again, so…)

My thinking on some of these transfers: 2 tanks converted to Flamm's. MY SE Panzer's would be enough to handle the needed armor, but with the Special Heroes on those 2 tanks I couldn't leave them behind.
I have started 45 Campaign and still have them in Flamms both with 5 stars experience and Albert Kirscher with a 2nd hero Heinz Rondorf has got to be close.
I wanted to have a highly mobile Pioneer unit so I have tried to utilize them in that way, to mop up soft targets and the like.

For my Fighter's I wanted units that were close to 2nd heroes and had maximum Experience so I took the +3 Attack Fighter, I know I should favor Defense, but I don't and I do not believe I had a +3 Defensive Fighter that was close to 2 heroes. Now these both have 2nd heroes and are in Me-262's.

I brought 2 artillery and in retrospect, especially since I lost one in the vulnerable Wurfrahamn (I find these way too costly and vulnerable, yet still have not changed them for their maneuverability and hitting power.) I would probably just take 1 and bring the Helmut Wirnsberger as he would have proven better on the battlefield.

My thoughts on leaving back Otto is that crappy Defense and his lack of experience is insufficient to make the cut.

I see you have other great units, but you do not need anymore tanks than the 2 super heroes and the SE's you already have, the game gives you more bonus units in the West than you will ever fully utilize.

Those are my thoughts

[huckc]

In thinking about this I approach it from what I did in my playthrough.
I took all Super heroes from my playthrough, meaning the Uber ones rewarded as you play. All except the following: Recon Rudel - Tac Bomber (Att -5 Def -2 Spott +2)
; Otto Kittel- Fighter (Att +3 Def -2 Init +2); Helmut Wirnsberger- Infantry (Att +2 Init +3)

That means I took all the others, plus 2 Artillery that seemed close to getting a 2nd hero. Since I have been playing on Guderian I have yet to receive a 2nd hero on any of my artillery units.
So this is what I took with me into the cut off:
Converted all 4 SE Tanks to SE Pz4F/2’s and Fully Overstrengthed.
I brought Albert Kerscher and Heinz Rondorf and made them both Flamms.
In the air I brought Heinrich Bar, +3 Att Fighter, Helmut Lent, and Uber Rudel, which I converted to a Fighter Bomber.
I also brought Oleh Dir as a converted Grenadier, and the last 2 units were my +3 Att and +1 Range Artillery both converted to Wurfrahmen’s. (These units brought my Soft Cap down to 48 which is awfully restrictive, but I am not going to have that money again, so…)

My thinking on some of these transfers: 2 tanks converted to Flamm's. MY SE Panzer's would be enough to handle the needed armor, but with the Special Heroes on those 2 tanks I couldn't leave them behind.
I have started 45 Campaign and still have them in Flamms both with 5 stars experience and Albert Kirscher with a 2nd hero Heinz Rondorf has got to be close.
I wanted to have a highly mobile Pioneer unit so I have tried to utilize them in that way, to mop up soft targets and the like.

For my Fighter's I wanted units that were close to 2nd heroes and had maximum Experience so I took the +3 Attack Fighter, I know I should favor Defense, but I don't and I do not believe I had a +3 Defensive Fighter that was close to 2 heroes. Now these both have 2nd heroes and are in Me-262's.

I brought 2 artillery and in retrospect, especially since I lost one in the vulnerable Wurfrahamn (I find these way too costly and vulnerable, yet still have not changed them for their maneuverability and hitting power.) I would probably just take 1 and bring the Helmut Wirnsberger as he would have proven better on the battlefield.

My thoughts on leaving back Otto is that crappy Defense and his lack of experience is insufficient to make the cut.

I see you have other great units, but you do not need anymore tanks than the 2 super heroes and the SE's you already have, the game gives you more bonus units in the West than you will ever fully utilize.

Those are my thoughts

Good stuff, thanks. The Flamms idea I would've never thought of and they'll be useful in the mostly city fighting leading up to Panther availability and keep the soft cap down.

I also agree about Otto and would almost surely leave him in the East due to his -2 defense in favor of my +3 defense random hero fighter.

[huckc]

Dijon
Prestige: 14661

Somehow I don't remember this map from my first play-through, despite being huge and complex.

Deployed five Fallschirmjäger in the air in order to take some objectives in the deep south. One of whom is a complete rookie.

The rest of my ground forces would be split along the east and west as normal for this scenario, all attacking south and taking the many objectives along the way. They will eventually meet at Dijon in the center, hi fiving each other with their packs full of delicious mustard in a huge boost to morale.

Plan of attack



Sieging Dijon


Turn 17, final objective is all but taken
Prestige: 17137

Result
Decisive Victory turn 18 of 18.

[huckc]

Maginot Line

Prestige: 16054

This one I do remember, not sure if I got a DV then but I didn't pin any hope on one here due to the 17 strength enemy fortresses.

Deployed three Fallschirmjäger in the air and two on the ground. Their bonus vs. structures is extremely helpful on this map, at least to get a DV. Two of these jumpers would fly to the north to help the aux units.

Two of the fortresses are only 10 strength, so my plan was to brute force destroy them with stukas ASAP which will open up the map considerably and make my job a lot easier. Deployed three stukas total, thankfully no enemy fighters to counter them.

Plan of attack



One of two fortresses brute force destroyed with stukas to start the map


Two of my strongest Fallschirmjäger taking out one of three 17 health fortress, Longuyon.


Facing a strong counter-attack in the east, the enemy bitterly wanted to keep Sarrebourg


Turn 13 was pivotal moment where I decided a DV was feasible and would proceed with the utmost aggression


Turn 15 the last fortress flag to get a DV was surrounded easily destroyed, or was it the last flag?


Final turn 16, scrambling to take out one of two back-capped objectives that were required for a DV

Result
Decisive Victory turn 16 of 16. Extremely pleased
Prestige: 19057 with 43 units

And now to the east for '41!

[huckc]

Belgrade
Prestige: 18034 with 45 units

The opening scenario for '41, I don't remember much about this one so it's probably easy as you'd expect for the first map.

A big upgrade across the board for all my Panzer IIIs and IVs.

Also upgraded all my fighters to the new BF-109F. A massive boost to initiative and and fuel, but with two less attack.

Plan of attack



Turn 12 enveloping Belgrade

Result
Decisive Victory Turn 18 of 18.
Prestige: 20182 with 45 units

[huckc]

Metaxas Line
Prestige: 18973 with 46 units

The invasion of mainland Greece begins and ends here!

Deployed four Fallschirmjäger in the air. Two of whom were tasked with securing the area around Thessalonika, including a strategic central airfield and the objective town of Apollonia. The other two would fly far to the east and take the town of Keramoti which contains the capturable Matilda 2.

The rest of my ground forces would be split into two. The much larger body would move south to take Thessalonika and all the objectives in the way. The remaining few units would scale the mountains and descend into the objective of Serrai.

Plan of attack



Captured Matilda 2


Turn 10 Thessalonika enveloped


Turn 11 almost lost my first core unit in the fierce fighting around Serrai

Result
Decisive Victory Turn 12 of 14.
Captured a Matilda 2
Prestige: 21159 with 47 units

[huckc]

Crete Airborne
Prestige: 20084 with 47 units

I went with the Airborne map as it seems easier, not gonna lie!

It also complimented my core nicely as I was able to deploy a lot of my ground units directly on the island followed-up with my Fallschirmjäger flying in to land from the sea, of which three were deployed in this fashion.

Deployed three strategic bombers to deal with the powerful enemy fleet.

Plan of attack



Turn 3 the enemy fleet threatening my landing party


Turn 8 Heraklion would fall


Turn 9 Souda would be in my hands and the last objective to take

Result
Decisive Victory Turn 9 of 15
Prestige: 22881 with 47 units


No ships remaining, enemy or ally

[huckc]

Minsk 41
Prestige: 22169 with 47 units

The opening act of Barbarossa and a wonderfully designed map to boot with critical secondary objectives making it my favorite type of scenario.

The secondary objective is to take as many enemy airfields ASAP as all(?) of them will eventually spawn a strong fighter about half way through. To accomplish this I deployed the max three Fallschirmjäger in the air to take the furthest ones unguarded. The remainder of my ground troops would scoop up the rest, including two to the north of Minsk in very northeast of the map. This leaves one airfield remaining to the east of Minsk, thus unreachable in time, which shouldn't be a problem dealing with this sole enemy fighter.

Most of the initial screen of enemy ground troops had no ammo so were easy targets.

Plan of attack



Turn 2 Uber Rudel appears right on schedule


Despite now being out of ammo thanks to strategic bombers, Brest Fortress was extremely hard to kill. The veteran engineers pictured couldn't even damage it, despite their bonus vs. structures.


Turn 9, by now everything has gone more or less according to plan however I couldn't quite reach this airfield so I blocked the enemy spawn with a plane.


Turn 14 Minsk is almost complete surrounded. There was a KV-2 tank here but it got smoked by Rudel.


Turn 14 stopping an enemy counter-attack to retake the strategically and tactically important Brest fortress


Turn 15 the Karl-Gerät mortar is transported across the map to Misnk via rail to get one final spectacular shot in against the unlucky sole defending infantry

Result
Decisive Victory turn 15 of 20.
Gained an Uber Rudel.
Prestige: 25261 with 49 units

[huckc]

Smolensk
Prestige: 24184 with 51 units

I found this scenario deceptively difficult. While there aren't a lot of enemy units on the map, they were aggressive and some of the counter-attacks caught me off guard. That, coupled with the many rivers and rough terrain made major losses inevitable.

Deployed five Fallschirmjäger in the air, three to start out with then two following up after the air transport slots become available again.

You're provided with an aux bridge engineer which will be used to cross the Dneiper, a major river, twice. This river will also be useful in forcing enemy surrenders as they can't retreat onto it.

Plan of attack



Turn 3 two units show up with powerful heroes. One is a Panzer II and would be upgraded ASAP.


Turn 4 the drop to take the central airfield didn't go as planned after alerting an enemy tank.


Turn 9 facing a counter-attack at Mogilev


Turn 10 facing a counter-attack at Orsha that would inflict heavy losses


Turn 14 captured a KV-1B tank, it would be put to immediate use in helping to take Smolensk thanks to its beefy stats


Turn 15 crossing the Dneiper in order to flank Smolensk


Turn 17 Vitebsk would fall


Turn 18 Smolensk enveloped and taken for the final objective

Result
Decisive Victory turn 18 or 21.

Gained a captured KV-1B and two scripted hero units
Prestige: 28841 with 54 units

[huckc]

Ostrov
Prestige: 28286 with 54 units

A nice vertical map, tall and skinny. I've noticed I tend to do worse on these maps and this was no exception. Played it very poorly but not enough to warrant a restart.

Deployed four Fallschirmjäger, three of which would land north behind Ostrov.

The rest of my ground forces would be more or less split along the east and western roads, with a little cross in the center to help each other out.

Plan of attack



Turn 6 enemy counter-attack with T-34s, always a danger this campaign.


Fallschirmjäger that landed behind Ostrov couldn't quite get the rolls to take the artillery out, so had to retreat after this turn.


Turn 13 Ostrov enveloped with a beatiful chance to surrender the KV-1 tank but failed miserably

Result
Decisive Victory turn 14 out of 18
Prestige: 31051 with 54 units