Help with GC40 The Hague

[okiemcguire]

Ok... I have tried this scenario several times with no luck. I need help from all you Generals out there, please.

Here is my current unit roster:
3 Grenadier w/tracked transports
2 Fallschirmaiger
1 Pioniere w/tracked transport
1 Panzer IB (low strength)
1 Panzer IIIF (low strength)
1 Panzer IVD
1 SE Panzer IIF (low strength)
1 Panzerjager (low strength)
2 Artillerys w/tracked transport
2 BF 109E (1 w/low strength)
3 Ju 87B (1 w/low strength)
2 BF 110D (1 w/low strength)

My beginning prestige value is 451.

With the low strength of some my units, I have attempted to up their value and purchase 1 mobil Anti-Aircraft unit. Using my BF 109E and somtimes the BF 110D as my fighter against enemy air.

My first attempt to reach The Hague and the surrounded air units was to go straight up the middle through Schoonhoven, Gouda and then Zoetermeer. Met with great resistance and lost my surrounded air and most of my attack force.

My second attempt was to keep Schoonhoven and multiple ground and armor units busy with a much smaller force and then sending the main forces through Rotterdam. I dropped my 2 Fallschirmaiger units just NW of Rotterdam and attack from the NW while I attacked with the main force from the SW. Got mu farther this time, linking up with the surrounded forces at Ypenburg AFB. However, massive ground forces attacked with some artillery and a little armor and pushed my depleted forces almost of the map to the SW at Ockkenburg AFB. I have pretty much air superiority and use the Ju 87B as additional artillery but no avail.

Can someone give me an idea how they did this? Thanks...

[shawkhan]

If I were you I would watch deducter's AAR video of that scenario. It helped me.

[okiemcguire]

Thanks Shawkhan! I really should review the forum a little more closely. I did review his two part video. We have similar units except for the Stug. He went north with armor and basically infantry to the South. What was good was hearing someone else why they are making the moves that they are making.

[Axoid]

Here's my quick and dirty run-down of how I completed the scenario with a DV
1. LOTS of artillery. I have 8 artillery units (6 Sturmpanzer) that follow behind my other units.
2. Send 2 INF, 1 Panzer IV, and 2 ARTY north across the first bridge, then turned west towards the main center city (can't recall the name off-hand right now)
3. Sent the rest of my force south-west, then turned north through the main city in the middle. The combination of arty and inf cleared a path to allow other units to help relieve the sourrounded airborne
4. Sent 2 of my own airborne units to drop in to help AUX units right above the main center city. I left the northern-most airborne units to their own devices, can't help everyone.
5. My 3 BF-109s cleared any fighters/bombers and allowed my 2 JU-87s to soften up targets along with the arty

My core forces in roughly as follows
8x INF (2x airborne, 1x pioneers, 2x mountain, 3x SE mountain)
3x Panzer IV
10x arty (6x Sturnpanzer, 3x 15cm arty, 1x captured arty from GC39)
3x Bf-109
2x JU-87
1x 88 AA
1x Jadpanzer AT

I've found that Arty pay for their prestige cost easily. It's better to suppress an enemy unit then attack, not losing any friendly STR vs.slugging it out and losing 1-3 STR, which needs to be replenished during the scenarion to keep the unit effective, which ends up costing way more than the price of the Arty unit. I also keep my arty right behind my inf and tanks, so when the enemy does counter-attack, they usually get suppressed enough they fail the attack.

Hope that helps.

[captainjack]

Well, I'm only a few months late coming up with some ideas, but still...

For me, the key is to get the bigger group of paratroops around the 75 mm gun, trying to get as many as possible in the fortifications for the added entrenchment. The artillery suppresses attackers (and sometimes put them off attacking you) with the defensive fire. As paratroops have relatively high initiative you should be able to cause more damage than you receive if anyone does attack. Don't feel you have to attack all the time, defending or resupplying is a good tactic here. Make sure you resupply the 75mm gun frequently - this is very important as you could face three or four attacks in a turn, so you need a minimum of 4 ammo. Also, check your paratroop ammo - don't let it get too low, even if you have to miss an attack. I usually buy one para unit and drop it into the area early in the game so that I have six units who can form a complete ring around the gun. This defnce should be strong enough to give you plenty of time to get through to them while they are still standing.

For the smaller group of two, you can either sit in the fortifications and get in the way or have a go at the nearby AA gun with both units. If you take it out quickly, you can probably get one unit back to the fortifications, where you reinforce, sit and annoy the allied forces. If you can get one or both of these units to the nearest airfield, you can take off and get dropped somewhere - either to reinforce or to sit and survive or if at reasonable strength you can help out.

As for the people who recommend lots of artillery - I agree with them totally.

I won't advise you how to move around the board to capture the objectives in a timely and stress free manner, as I usually scrape through on the the last turn by a stroke of luck and get distracted by side objectives. I should probably look up some advice on strategy sometime!

[Victor_K]

Axoid, i like your core group. I differ a some, less artillary, more BF110's (just love their versatility). Having an 88 is so important especially for those high defense tanks.

[Axoid]

Axoid, i like your core group. I differ a some, less artillary, more BF110's (just love their versatility). Having an 88 is so important especially for those high defense tanks.

Thanks. I've expanded on it a bit since this post, adding another BF-109, another Panzer IV, another 88, and another Infantry. I also forgot to mention I have 2 recon vehicles as well.

[jabutler42]

This one was pretty tough. Took me 4-5 tries before I figured it out. I got a DV on turn 17/18. Here's what I did:

The Dutch launch human wave attacks halfway through in that area north of Rotterdam, so you have to have plenty of artillery to fend that off when it occurs. What I did was send my infantry south and attacked Rotterdam from below. I sent my armor north, then turned west and took out their infantry north of the river. For the paras, I moved the two units from the southwest field to the central airfield to join up with three paras and one artillery. With five paras surrounding the artillery, you should be able to hold off the Dutch for at least 4-5 turns. After they linked up my infantry linked up with them from Rotterdam, then I was able to handle the counterattack. After that drive up through the Hague and mop up the rest. I recommend at least four tac bombers (I had two Ju-87s and two BFs) to blunt their attacks.

[captainjack]

I replayed this recently on General having restarted the DLCs with version 1.14. The (real-world) weather was bad so I got through a lot of scenarios!

I flew both the northern paras away from the airfield - one helped circle the 75mm gun along with the two southern paras, but the other had a bad day due to lousy generalship. At least it was an aux unit not a core one. I sent a SE Panzer 3, a Stug 3a (all eqp cheat but based on them being invented pre 1939), a SIG and an SE grenadier up north.

The rest - grenadiers, one infantry, some Gebirgsjager, artillery and an AT gun worked their way to and through the city, while the airforce cleared any tanks and artillery I could find in the south eastern area.
A little bit of luck with the paras thinned out the dutch troops and the northern sweep proved very effective. They cleared everything in their path without suffering all that much harm - the airforce helped - and were able to help attack the final North western city/airfield objective as the southern forces reached it. I was a pleasantly surprised that it worked so well, as I had only gone that way to see what happened.

[rilnator]

I came into this scenario with a bit of spare prestige to I bought a third Stuka, a third ME109, and a third FJ. I figured they will be needed in the later in the east and wanted to blood them. Also turned the bulk of my arty into SP.

Saving the FJ units wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. In the North they were overrun with a big shout out to the 22nd who managed to take out the enemy AA before resisting 4 attacks in 1 turn. But in the end it was too much.

I used my armour in the centre to link up with the FJ on the coast, they then swung north while my refitted FJ took The Hague then Rotterdam. Also had a mixed force heading up east side of map cleaning up victory point locations.

DV on last turn, once again just making sure I had every last flag on the map.