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

[huckc]

Novgorod
Prestige: 29199 with 57 units

Bought and deployed a new BF-109f fighter, Wurhframen artillery, and bridge engineers.

Deployed three Fallschirmjäger in the air to land behind Novgorod and do their dastardly deeds.

Plan of attack



Turn 4 a standoff of sorts across the river Tigoda. My forces having the clear advantage in strength.


Turn 7 a mass attack swarm of Fallschirmjäger. The enemy airborne clearly throwing his grenade in the wrong direction.


Turn 8 brute force river crossing in the north


Turn 9 enemy armored counter-attack. Many would soon be forced into surrender thanks to the packed nature of the battle.


Turn 9 rewarded with a captured T-34.


Turn 11 a consolidation of forces after defeating the counter-attack and enveloping of Novgorod. It'll all be over soon.

Result
Decisive Victory turn 13 of 21
Gained a captured T-34. Map cleared of all enemy units and flags.
Prestige: 32304 with 58 units

[huckc]

Leningrad 41
Prestige: 31732 with 58 units

The objectives for this scenario are to both capture all victory hexes as well as place 5 of 6 aux artillery pieces on the marked A hexes. The latter is tricky because those hexes are very close to Leningrad which hosts powerful battleships and fortresses. There are also numerous counter-attacks that can finish them off.

Deployed three Fallschirmjäger in the air to land in the eastern forest and help the push up the east bank of the Neva river.

The rest of my ground forces would be split in two in the east and west.

Plan of attack



Turn 1 immediate counter-attack by a couple strong KV-1s


Turn 5 heavy fighting in the east around Tosno and Fallschirmjäger landing in the forests.


Turn 10 captured the first two of seven total artillery zones.


Turn 15 the east bank of the Neva river is finally cleared of enemy units.


Turn 16 facing a troublesome counter-attack just to the west of Leningrad that would eventually deal heavy damage to two aux artillery pieces and would take a while to clear thanks to lots of new deployments by the AI.

Result
Decisive Victory turn 20 of 21. Captured all objectives and placed all six aux artillery pieces in the marked hexes.
Prestige: 35346 with 58 units

[huckc]

Vyazma
Prestige: 34442 with 58 units

The final screen before Moscow! Extremely foul weather as is historic, wound up getting a total of 9 turns of rain and 10 turns of mud

Deployed five Fallschirmjäger in the air. Three of whom would land in the north to take a vital airfield then re-board their planes to land further east and sieze Moscow. The two others would wait until planes are available then land south and capture the KV-1 then perhaps board trains to help take Moscow or the suburb Mozhayzk.

The remainder of my ground forces would be split into two between the north and south as typical for this scenario. The northern force would be stronger as they will need to split later on with one group diverting south to help seize Vyazma and the other to take Mozhayzk.

The southern task force, containg Oleh Dir, would take the southern airfield ASAP then move up into Vyazma.

Both forces would face at least one armored counter-attack.

Plan of attack



Turn 2 the southern airfield would be captured in some highly optimized maneuvers, despite the second turn having rain and muddy ground. (Turn 3 pictured)


Turn 3, with the onset of clear skies and dry ground, Fallschirmjäger dropped in the north and ready to act


Turn 5 is the beginning of eight consecutive muddy turns. Tough going!


Turn 6 Fallschirmjäger dropped in the south


Turn 7 northern group of Fallschirmjäger re-dropped in the northeast


Turn 13 the tentative approach into Vyazma


Turn 14 KV-1 captured


Turn 15 Fallschirmjäger assault into Moscow!


Turn 15 Mozhayzk approach


Turn 18 Moscow taken!


Turn 18 in the thick of it at Vyazma. The city would be captured this turn.


Turn 19 Mozhayzk taken for the final objective!

Result
Decisive Victory turn 19 of 20.
Gained a captured KV-1A heavy tank
Prestige: 38415 with 59 units.

[huckc]

Streets of Moscow
Prestige: 35531 with 59 units

Extremely difficult scenario, wanted to go for the DV as well as both capturables which as it turns out is extremely ambitious, to the point of wreckless . The weather sure felt like I was on the wrong side of luck too with lots of snowy turns.

Deployed only two Fallschirmjäger in the air to land in the northwest of Moscow and secure the victory hex there...it would not go well. They got beat up pretty badly and would have to retreat numerous times out of the city to regroup. Should've went with three but I needed the front-line slots too much.

Plan of attack



Turn 2 disposition after a highly optimized opening move


Turn 4 my KV-1B tank is strong enough to go right up into the central district alone.


Turn 6 a counter-attack with T-34s nearly takes out a core SE tank


Turn 10 the southeastern district is finally taken for the first objective


Turn 16 Fallschirmjäger beaten back for a second time


Turn 17 the northeastern district is taken


Turn 21 the Kremlin is enveloped


Turn 23 a T-34/41 is captured


Turn 24 captured KV-1B



Result
Decisive Victory turn 24 of 24.
Prestige: 39721 with 62 units
Lots of losses and expensive mid-scenario replacements. No core units lost, barely.
Gained a captured T34-41 and KV-1B tank.

[huckc]

Demyansk Pocket
Prestige: 38363 with 62 units

Final scenario for '41, this time on the defense and overall much easier than the last. Hopefully picking up some good heroes before the purge next scenario.

No Fallschirmjäger deployed in the air due to the mostly static defensive nature of the scenario.

Plan of defense



Turn 19 the tide has turned in the northeast and I'm launching a counter-attack of my own. Also captured the T-34/41.

Result
Decisive Victory turn 22 of 22. No good heroes gained sadly.
Gained a captured T-34/41
Prestige: 43448 with 63 units. Haven't disbanded any captured units.

[goose_2]

Streets of Moscow
Prestige: 35531 with 59 units


Turn 24 captured KV-1B

Result
Decisive Victory turn 24 of 24.
Prestige: 39721 with 62 units
Lots of losses and expensive mid-scenario replacements. No core units lost, barely.
Gained a captured T34-41 and KV-1B tank.

This was just amazing
Extremely well done, yes you had to spend a lot but think of the glory.

I wish you were going East, as you seem to still be doing well enough on prestige.

The cut is here. List your best units you are considering taking west so we can help you decide which ones to take.

[huckc]

This was just amazing
Extremely well done, yes you had to spend a lot but think of the glory.

I wish you were going East, as you seem to still be doing well enough on prestige.

The cut is here. List your best units you are considering taking west so we can help you decide which ones to take.

Thanks goose, that battle was insane and I was lucky to not lose any units.

Unfortunately I had to make a decision right away regarding which units to take with me West. Went with all front-line units, a mix of infantry, tanks, and fighters including all the scripted historical heroes minus Otto the fighter pilot. After a few scenarios deep I'm pretty happy with the choices I made and picked up some really good fill-ups on the way as a bonus, including a tank that was at +5 defense which picked up another +3 defense hero for a total of +8 defense

St. Nazaire and Dieppe were extremely difficult on Manstein to get a DV. Dieppe was perhaps as hard as Moscow. Going to have to add those soon...

[huckc]

St. Nazaire
Prestige: 0

Finally made it to the West.

This battle is very difficult on Manstein mainly due to the 4* commandos doubling in strength from their normal 5, rather than the usual 50% increase. They were stronger then my own infantry which is very rare. Then there's the 5* engineers, Lt. Newman, but they were already at 8 so 13 here.

Now who to bring?





Infantry: +3 move +3 init, +1 init, +1 attack
Infantry: +3 init +2 attack, ?, ?
Infantry: +2 def, +1 init, ?
Tank: +2 attack +2 defense +2 spot, +2 attack, ?
Tank: +3 defense, +2 defense, ?
Tank: [Heinz Rondorf...], ?, ?
Tac bomber: +9 attack +9 def +1 move, +1 attack, ?
Fighter: +2 attack +1 def +2 init, ?, ?
Fighter: +3 defense, ?, ?
SE Tank: +1 move, +1 attack, ?
SE Tank: +3 attack, ?, ?
SE Tank: +1 attack, +3 attack, ?
SE Tank: +1 move, +1 move, ?

Not all of them were fully over-strengthened due to the soft cap, or in the case of that one SE tank not having enough experience. I went with all Panzer IVs as prestige is extremely tight when Panthers become available (can't upgrade them all plus soft cap considerations).


Turn 5 HMS Campletown arrived in position and most commandos landing here

Result
Decisive Victory turn 14 of 14
Prestige: 3096 with 13 units

[huckc]

Bayonne
Prestige: 1956

Going to keep this one brief, I didn't try to save the trains for the DV due to the enemy strength attacking them at them more than double, from 4 to 9.

Was given two conscripts and two T-34s on turn 2. Will probably disband the T-34s and convert the conscripts to airborne if they gain enough experience.



Result
Marginal Victory turn 11 of 15
Prestige: 2815 with 19 units

[huckc]

Hardelot
Prestige: 596 with 19 units

I found this battle extremely interesting because of the random probability of where each of two separate attacks will come from, and on such a huge map this made balancing your forces extremely important. I'd had some units on stand by in the center boarded in trains ready to ship north or south.

Bought four strategic bombers primarily to have two each at the two possible naval landing spots.




Turn 6 the naval landing would be in the north, the two strategic bombers were sufficient enough to destroy the landings before any of the enemy units would touch land.

Result
Decisive Victory turn 16 of 16
Prestige: 1539 with 27 units

[huckc]

Dieppe
Prestige: 185 with 21 units

Wow! This battle was a true epic and has become one of my all-time favorites after playing it on Manstein just now. It might even be harder than Streets of Moscow considering your core is rags compared to then and the extreme enemy strength disparity, amount of units, aggression, time limit, etc.

Lost a lot of prestige going for the DV but you can't put a price on glory

Deployed the four strategic bombers I bought last scenario to bomb the landing transports. Most of them wouldn't be outright destroyed but would land at half-strength and block the coast having to take replacements and losing prestige and an experience level in the process. The artillery though I would focus on destroying as negating that advantage is huge, as well as the special 3* Churchill unit Major General Roberts (sorry bud).

Plan of defense/counter-thrust



Turn 3 I would capture the enemy's only airfield, leaving it just the aircraft carrier for re-fueling. I figured it would greatly reduce their air aggression by them having to queue for the carrier but it turns out the AI doesn't actually go and re-fuel there and instead attacks until it runs out of fuel. So probably not a good tactic for me to do in the end.


Turn 3 all four strategic bombers put to work bombing the landing transports


Turn 3 hiding my tanks in the forest in preparation for the powerful wave of bombers


Turn 8 final defensive position in the outer layer of the city. Being in the city was key to protect against enemy bombers.


Turn 15 the tide has finally turned and I push to take the last few objectives in the city from the well entrenched enemy infantry.

Result
Decisive Victory turn 17 of 17.
Prestige: 433 with 34 units
Gifted a bunch of core units that will be disbanded for much needed prestige, except for the two FW-190 fighters which I'm definitely keeping as they have nearly 2* now.

[goose_2]

St. Nazaire
Prestige: 0

Finally made it to the West.

This battle is very difficult on Manstein mainly due to the 4* commandos doubling in strength from their normal 5, rather than the usual 50% increase. They were stronger then my own infantry which is very rare. Then there's the 5* engineers, Lt. Newman, but they were already at 8 so 13 here.

Now who to bring?

Whom did you bring?

I cannot see pictures at work and if you could breakdown who you brought and what their stats were to get that Decisive, very well done by the way, I for one am very interested.

[huckc]

Whom did you bring?

I cannot see pictures at work and if you could breakdown who you brought and what their stats were to get that Decisive, very well done by the way, I for one am very interested.

Updated!

[huckc]

Gironde
Prestige: 140 with 32 units

The key for me for this one on Manstein is to destroy HMS Tuna before it has a chance to unload its commandos. Normally they're six units at 35 strength total but here it's a massive increase to 65 strength, nearly double. The submarine has roughly seven or eight turns of movement to get there so you can afford a few evades and bad weather turns thankfully.

Finally able to deploy some Fallschirmjäger in the air and would use my two to take the victory hex at the tip of the peninsula. Let's hope for no misdrops as they'll be in punished severely if so...

Plan of attack



Turn 3 this unlucky misdrop would be very costly and would start a very unfortunate chain of events starting with the artillery


As is normally the case in the universe, luck evens out overall and I only got one or two evades on the submarine, easily destroying it before it reached its destination.

Result
Decisive Victory turn 18 of 18
Prestige: 2334 with 32 units

[huckc]

Syracuse
Prestige: 55 with 22 units

The main objective for this scenario is to evacuate as many Italian units as you can. You only need seven for the DV, but you're highly incentitivized to do as many as possible. You also need to evacuate your own units which makes a fighting withdrawal in the cards.

As is normally the case in a challenging video game, the evacuation is very tricky as the enemy has made deep inroads which you need to breakthrough in some parts and ignore in others.

A huge bevy of upgrades are available. All my SE tanks to Panthers, all my non-SE tanks to Panzer IVJs, and all my infantry to their 43 version leaving me nearly broke and had to disband all but one of my random gifted units.

Plan of evacuation



Turn 4 the Italians moving up along the west coast with my units following soon after.


Turn 8 the clump in the west right before evacuation, you need to evacuate them all at once so you don't trigger the DV too early. Actually that might be wrong, oh well it makes for a good screenshot at least.


Turn 8 the clump in the east

Result
Decisive Victory turn 8 of 16. Evacuated 19 total Italian units, worth roughly 4000 prestige
Very clean, almost no damage except of course to the aux units which will free repair anyway.
Prestige: 1299 with 23 core units


Turns out most of the enemy hasn't even landed yet . I appreciate this touch by the Designer as it shows the real overwhelming strength of the invasion.

[huckc]

Etna Line North
Prestige: 95

Extremely difficult defensive scenario. Went after the Americans in the north after dealing with the British last play-through, not realizing what I got myself into as this seems way harder.

A few restarts required, more than any scenario so far. Either I'd get over-run on the ground via enemy combined arms or lose a fighter to a mass attack of thunderbolts. The main thing for this to work was to not let the artillery in the north get within range by not destroying too many of the initial screen of units.

Plan of defense



Turn 9 final defensive configuration. Got a lot of surrenders but extremely cautious about not letting the artillery in the north get within range.

Result
Decisive Victory turn 17 of 17.
Prestige: 4268

[huckc]

Messina
Prestige: 6077

Very easy scenario once you learn the tricks.

Disbanded all but the five least valuable Italian units to get the necessary 18 ground troop on the Italian mainland. I'm rich! (for now)

On Sicily I only deployed four tanks and three AA guns from my core to stem the tide necessary to hold the enemy to only two victory hexes. The rest of my force in action would be the fighters and strategic bombers to deal with the powerful enemy air force and naval fleet.

Result
Decisive Victory turn 6 of 16. 18 ground units on the mainland.
Gained two very valuable experimental aircraft. Will keep the fighter with its excellent hero and base stats and probably disband the tac bomber. Not a fan of those especially late game.
Prestige: 7176 with 41 units

[huckc]

Catanzaro
Prestige: 6257 with 38 units

Medium difficulty scenario. A lot of ground to cover and a lot high strength enemy units standing in your way, including a very large air force.

Deployed a bunch of brand new units to replace the ones already capped. A kradschutzen infantry, a Fallschirmjäger, two panthers, and the experimental fighter gained in the last scenario.

My two veteran Fallschirmjäger would be deployed in the air to help take the two southern victory hexes.

Plan of attack



Turn 3 the big and lengthy air way would begin above Catanzaro. Very difficult to completely destroy each air unit at such high strength, typically requiring three fighters each.


Turn 3 colliding into an enemy counter-attack along the west coast.


Fallschirmjäger dropped but would be waiting a long time for no enemy bombers above (pictured).


Turn 12 with almost all the victory hexes captured, the enemy air force makes one last powerful attack.

Result
Decisive Victory turn 13 of 17.
Prestige: 8273 with 38 units

[huckc]

Taranto
Prestige: 8273 with 38 units

Another medium difficulty scenario. Tasked with securing all the victory hexes and destroying at least three Italian battleships.

Deployed three Fallschirmjäger in the air to take the furthest objectives.

A couple careless tactical blunders took two of my artillery units out of the battle by leaving them exposed to British attacking ground troops.

A more strategic-level blunder was to focus on destroying the British landing ships first rather than the battleships in harbor, allowing them to shell my ground troops attacking the city for far too long. Even though the aux bombers would have been hit with AA fire during the AI turn it would have been worth it I believe.




British attacking up the coast


Fallschirmjäger landing on the peninsula with some bomber help


Captured units


Taranto finally secured

Result
Decisive Victory turn 16 of 18
Gained a captured Italian tank and AA gun.
Prestige: 8955 with 40 units

[huckc]

Volturno Line
Prestige: 6163 with 42 units

Very difficult scenario to get a DV, at least until I finally figured out. The key is to prevent the enemy from securing Telese (orange). This prevents the bridge engineer from spawning right on the Volturno but more importantly you don't need to wrestle it back at the end somehow.

The strong enemy airforce was also a major challenge. Needed to get in the mind of the AI to figure out where it will attack on each of three waves consisting of 3 to 5 aircraft each and position myself accordingly. It doesn't like blind attacks against objectives and prefers seemingly undefended units obviously.

Plan of defense/counter-attack



Turn 4 defending


Turn 15 counter-attack in the north to take Campobosso, the final objective needed for a DV.

Result
Decisive Victory turn 17 of 17.
Prestige: 7733 with 42 units