Generalissimus Campaign - No Liberator/Trophies of War/Heroes

[comradep]

My somewhat smaller core makes forcing surrenders whilst still pushing on complicated at times, so I'll invest in some additional units in the Soviet Union.

What's interesting is that our prestige gains are not that different in Belgium/France compared to the early maps. That you cán gain more than 3000 prestige points in the second scenario is intriguing, as even with large scale surrenders of Allied armour it's tricky to get beyond 3000 in France as unit density is still similar to Poland. We both received 270-300 prestige from the objective in the south in Bug River, due to an issue with it still giving prestige per turn, but that's still some 2800 points from a scenario with only 5 objectives worth 100 prestige, two towns and two airfields for an additional 200 prestige.

With the more generic units (well, what feels like more generic units) in PC2, there are only small gaps between something like a 7TP and an R35. Cavalry also tends to be expensive, and the Poles have numerous cavalry units.

Another thing I do not understand – why does the transport not revert back to an artillery when split, despite having the movement points for it (and the icon on the location showing it). The 2nd artillery from the split went the same distance and ended on a hill as well and reverted.

This is a known bug already reported by Kerensky and me.

[charonjr]

I still think the main point is map knowledge, especially since I played the map twice in a fairly short time.

Sedan will be interesting now, never played this map before. I will use your AAR extensively for some guidance, but might have to restart this one if I get too far behind.

And I addition I restart the first turn till I fell that I got a very good opening, this helps as well I think.

[charonjr]

Breakthrough at Sedan

Upgraded: Ju 87B tactical bomber to BF 110D fighter-bomber, 2x Pz 38(t)A to Pz IVD

Bought: Fi 156 Storch recon plane, StuG IIIB, SdKfz 7/1, 2cm Flakvierling

Starting Prestige: 2.776 - 55/55 slots

Infantry:
Pioniere (truck)
Pioniere (truck)
Pioniere (truck)
Fallschirmjäger (reserve)
Gebirgsjäger (reserve)

Tanks:
Panzer IB
Panzer IB
Panzer IVD (UPGRADE)
Panzer IVD (UPGRADE)

Recon:
Sdkfz 222
Sdkfz 222

Artillery:
10,5 cm leFH 18 (half-track)
10,5 cm leFH 18 (half-track)
10,5 cm leFH 18 (half-track)

Anti-Air:
2cm Flakvierling (half-track)
2cm Flakvierling (half-track) (NEW)
SdKfz 7/1 (NEW)

Fighter:
Bf 109E
Bf 109E

Tactical Bomber:
1x Bf 110D (UPGRADE)
1x Fi 156 Storch (NEW)

Strategic Bomber:
2x Ju 88A
1x Do17Z



Setup: Terrain makes the split of forces pretty clear. Panzer in the north to avoid the heavy wood, infantry in the middle. Split recon car between middle and Luxembourg. Bringing lots of AA due to their dual purpose (AA/AT) and the AA Veteran trait, saves on fighters and they are useful vs. tanks as well.
Kampfgruppe North: 2x Pz IB, 2x Pz IVD, 1x SdKfz 222, 1x StuG IIIB, 2x 10,5 cm leFH 18, 1x SdKfz 7/1, 1x Flakvierling
Kampfgruppe Mitte: 3x Pioniere, 1x SdKfz 222, 1x 10,5 cm, 1x Flakvierling



Turn 1: Splitting recon car in the middle and move to Luxembourg, took Vianden and Luxembourg. Splitting Fi 156 – which can not be done since the airfield capacity is reached, good to know. Restarted with 1 Ju 88A at the Trier airfield. Fi 156 found one Chasseurs Ardennais and a T-13 blocking the way to Sedan. Surrounded St. Vith.



Turn 2: Was a mistake to bomb the Chasseurs and the T-13, now the fighters that attacked my planes are out of range of my fighters. It would be nice if the planes keep their initial positions on the airbase or if positions can be assigned to them since I could have reached the enemy fighters otherwise. Setting up around Bastogne and bombed it, surrendered St. Vith. Rebasing most aircraft to Luxembourg.



Turn 3: Old news, fighters attacking strat bomber despite fighter protection, and there is a Flakvierling that can be moved into range (and was visible from Bastogne) as well. I keep forgetting that I can not bring vehicles into thick forests. Shot down the first fighter, took 1 AA and 2 Bf 109E (with the Bf 110D as additional support) despite it already being down to 6 HP. Without having 5 turns less I could have waited till I cut the supplies to Bastogne closer to Philippeville, but in this mode it is brute force time – took Bastogne, 5 losses.



Turn 4: Agressive enemy airforce, attack on my protected strat bomber and my tank heading towards Givet (and again screwed by slot assignment, Bf 109E lacks 1 range to the bomber and is located in one of the two bad slots – did anyone already made a suggestion for the possibility to manually assign slots at airbases?), 2 AA in range of the bomber – 2nd fighter destroyed, bomber down to 6. Cut off Chasseurs. Trying to infiltrate into the north.



Turn 5: Bomber at tank again, fighter in range this time, as is the SdKfz 7/1 – bomber down to 1.



Turn 6: Surrendered Chasseurs, infiltration still going on, but it will be the final turn. Bombing in the south.



Turn 7: Encirclement time, starting with the 155mm piece – suppression at 5 due to StuG and 10,5cm. Trying to hold the airfield, will hopefully be able to get some suppression in to the AA at Philippeville. This will hurt...



Turn 8: Yup, some damage, but 155mm ripe for surrender. Airbase roulette hates me again, none of my strat bombers in range of the AA. Encirclement made larger.



Turn 9: Some more damage from attacks, especially a Somua in the south has me worried - split of Pz IVD down to 1 HP - but pocket holding so far. Starting push against Givet – surrenders.



Situation after major cleanup - Philipeville at 7/15 suppression and no entrenchment. Would like to get the Somua a bit closer, but hitting a well armoured tank, preferably the StuG which is fairly inexpensive (but a prototype at the moment), is the safer option. And I hate when RNG hates me, needed 2 refires from 0/-1 hits that did no damage – and saw another strange one there, did 1 suppression and the suppression actually got lower from 8/9 to 7/9.



Turn 10: StuG hit for 2. Retook airfield and bringing in lighter aircraft. Philippeville surrendered. Encircled the Somua, but found a R35 in the process. One infantry with a recon and artillery support heading to Sedan through the woods.



Turn 11: R35 damaged SdKfz 7/1 (AT mode) and Somua a Vierlingsflak (AT mode), both are ripe for capture next turn, R35 maybe the one after that. Hirson shelled to base entrenchment – gotta love StuGs. Bomber shot down.



Turn 12: R35 kept fireing at the AA in AT mode, 7/7 supression – surrendered. Captured 8 Somua, surrender of Hirson. Misjudged travel distance of artillery in truck, instead of rejoining out of reach of the R 35 it sits 1 hex to close now. Maybe make the “join marker” red instead of yellow if it will not work. Sedan at 5/10 entrenchment.



Turn 13: Bugger, French infantry came and hit my Pioniere for 6, forgot about the strongpoint’s sight radius of 4 – this might make getting Sedan more costly than expected. Surrendered R35, Laon encircled.



Turn 14: Chasseurs join the fight and attacked my Vierling, together with am attack from the infantry it was destroyed – still have the split off part. Loan surrendered. Remaining troops hurry towards Sedan.



Turn 15: Infantry surrendered, strongpoint destroyed. Cloudy weather will not be helpful with the bombings. Sedan surrendered, but took 2 Pioniere, 1 surrendered infantry as well.


Ending Prestige: 6.145 (+3.369), 4.625 after repairs (+1.849)


OK, this one got closer in the end than anticipated. But good to know that the AI does behave differently – at least in my case those Chasseurs activated and this made it very close. Huge losses, but huge gains as well – could now field 2 Renault R35 units if I wanted. With a better knowledge of the map some of those losses might have been avoided, but staying below 1k, kudos.

[comradep]

At this rate, you'll be able to complete the campaign twice before I'm done!

I'll post my AAR of Dijon tomorrow, I'm nearly done with Heeresgruppe Süd's opening of Barbarossa. There are 16 Soviet tank units, 2 amphibious tanks and plenty of armoured cars in that scenario. The Reds are not fooling around.

Though the differences in which units we capture and at what remaining strength are subtle, the difference in prestige is quite substantial due to all the 1-2 strength point differences and having to destroy some units adding up to about 600 prestige. I often felt that I had to make a decision between either encircling a unit thoroughly in 1 turn and capture it or delay doing so due to missing one or two units that could help. For encirclements, a slightly larger core can already make a difference due to in most cases having to cover 6 hexes or bumping retreating enemies into a river.

Good to see that you also used the "to hell with the Ardennes!" approach to Sedan. Not what the designers expected, but the option of simply bypassing the forest is almost too good to ignore.

and again screwed by slot assignment, Bf 109E lacks 1 range to the bomber and is located in one of the two bad slots – did anyone already made a suggestion for the possibility to manually assign slots at airbases?

This has been suggested a few times, I recently made a post about it in the suggestion thread to either be able to select a destination or trace movement from the actual airfield. If an air unit ends up at the "wrong" side of the airfield, you lose 2 movement points compared to an air unit on the other side.

and saw another strange one there, did 1 suppression and the suppression actually got lower from 8/9 to 7/9.

This is a known bug I believe, I saw a post about it.

[SineMora]

Another AAR using similar house rules to what I'm using now. Perhaps I really should just skip posting mine, as there are bound to be a lot of similarities, although I went with different scenarios in Fall Gelb. Still, your philosophy is very different from mine (e.g., heavy on the AA), so perhaps a comparison could have some use. Nice going.

[charonjr]

@comradep: Unlikely, weekend will be time off and on Monday it is back to work for me I am writing along when I play actually, so at the moment I am thinking about opening moves for Channel Coast. Yeah, actually for Channel Coast my core does feel TOO large...

Had Manstein known about such a "road" his plan would not have be rejected by OKH If there is such a nice highway you just have to use it with Panzers, and I dare to think that is what the scenario designer had in mind, finishing in 15 turns otherwise might have been either very costly or outright impossible.


@SineMora: Thx, more written AARs are always good Played the other path 3 times before now, so wanted to try something new, and I did struggle more than if I had done Belgium for the 4th time. With "Anti-Air Veteran" one just has to pick AA guns - I even thought about playing with "No Air" for a bit, but just like the flexibility too much.

[SineMora]

I decided against AA Veteran partly because I'm somewhat roleplaying my general (the traits are meant to define him as a person, so AA Veteran wouldn't make any sense), but mainly because it feels as if the AI doesn't really understand it. Maybe my limited testing wasn't comprehensive enough, but to me it seems as if the AI doesn't properly evaluate the consequences of attacking when the target is covered by an AA gun with AA Veteran -- ground units will generally avoid attacking if the target unit has too much support, but aircraft don't seem to care. It makes it feel cheap, because having the enemy airforce all act like kamikaze pilots doesn't appeal to me, but maybe your experience with it is different.

[charonjr]

Actually my experience with ground based attacks is the same, it was in the "old" AAR in Belgium IIRC correctly were a 2 fairly high value tanks suicided against my defenses. This is one of the rasons I am keeping the Pz IB around, if I can not use a StuG as a buffer they will work and not harm the precious target as much in the process

And from my current writeup of the Channel Coast "Hehe, enemy fighter stopped its attack on my artillery in front of Cambrai since it saw it protected by two Vierlingsflak." And I am fairly sure that I saw aborted attacks from the air earlier as well - but IIRC those were attacks against units protected by AA. What I see is the AI being stupid about attacking aircraft protected by fighters.

[SineMora]

There will always be some units that display kamikaze behaviour because of high aggression levels; the most egregious example of this I've found are the Home Guard in the England scenarios who will madly charge anything in range, even if it's a Tiger supported by artillery resulting in a complete wipeout for no damage. Fortunately most units are not that aggressive though, even if the AI seems a little too keen to attack it predicts it can inflict losses.

I haven't read the entire AAR yet, but that does sound promising. I might consider AA Veteran in the future, then.

[charonjr]

I am still playing/writing the one I quoted there, just oberserved it before taking a break. Will continue it now. But some other examples should be in there already.

[comradep]

Fighter escorts are not that powerful, so the AI can get a few kills before being knocked out of the sky. The 1-2 punch of fighters and AA is something the AI can't really deal with it seems.

Thus far, the AI has been competent in dealing with units protected by artillery. If it can do some damage, it will attack. If the artillery support looks like it will be too much, it won't.

What I am worried about is AT support, as based on this AAR and comments by others the AI isn't very good at determining risks from support fire from AT units. If you place a Panzer IB somewhere, with two 8.8cm FlaK 36's behind it out of sight (or a prototype like the Dicker Max or Sturer Emil) the AI might impale its tank units on the trap you've created.

[charonjr]

I have no problem with a trap (for me implying the AT being out of sight) working, since there are enough examples of things like that working in RL. But what gets me worried are the instances when tanks impale themself onto AT despite knowing about them.

[charonjr]

Channel Coast

Upgraded: none

Bought: 10,5 cm LeFH 18, 2cm Flakvierling AA

Starting Prestige: 3.995 - 59/59 slots

Infantry:
Pioniere (truck)
Pioniere (truck)
Pioniere (truck)
Fallschirmjäger (reserve)
Gebirgsjäger (reserve)

Tanks:
Panzer IB
Panzer IB
Panzer IVD
Panzer IVD

Recon:
Sdkfz 222
Sdkfz 222

Artillery:
10,5 cm leFH 18 (half-track)
10,5 cm leFH 18 (half-track)
10,5 cm leFH 18 (half-track)
10,5 cm leFH 18 (half-track) (NEW)

Anti-Air:
2cm Flakvierling (half-track)
2cm Flakvierling (half-track)
2cm Flakvierling (half-track) (NEW)
SdKfz 7/1

Fighter:
Bf 109E
Bf 109E

Tactical Bomber:
1x Bf 110D
1x Fi 156 Storch

Strategic Bomber:
2x Ju 88A
1x Do17Z



Setup: I ran into the problem of not having enough placement tiles for my forces, leading to 3 groups – normally I would have ignored the north. The northernmost group has no tanks and slower progress is espected.



Turn 1: Encircled FT-17 and Panhard, getting AA gun in range for a future attack of the airfield at Peronne.



Turn 2: Hehe, enemy bomber stopped its attack on my artillery in front of Cambrai since it saw it protected by two Vierlingsflak. Panhard and Ft-17 surrendered. Soissons and the infantry in front Peronne and Cambrai are encircled. Due to the shelling by artillery the newly encircled units start usually at 4+ suppression.



Turn 3: AT gun from Cambrai moved to attack my SdKfz for 2 damage despite it being guarded by an artillery. I still don’t get the AI logic. It got surrendered together with the infantry. Infantry in front of Peronne surrenders and the Flaks move towards the airport and the airport is occupied by the StuG. Two Vierlingsflak destroyed the already damaged D.520 and the SdKfz 7/1 damages the Potez 631 for 5, Bf 109E and Bf 110D finish the job. Remaining light aircraft move to the dirt airfield at Peronne. Encircled Cambrai.



Turn 4: Nasty attack by a Damiler Dingo and Crusader Mk.IV at Cambrai, 4 damage to Pz IV. Surrendered the artillery there while enlarging the pocket – infantry, Daimler and Crusader will be fully suppressed. Smaller attack by infantry at Peronne, 2 damage to double protected SdKfz 7/1, infantry at 6/14 suppression. Soissons surrendered, moving troops towards Peronne. Fi 156 spotted 3 tanks SW of Peronne, 2 Renault R35 and 1 Hotchkiss H35, to the west of Cambrai (and in range of the enlarged pocket) there is a Matilda II and a Cruiser Mk.I.



Turn 5: Matilda hit StuG for 2 and the Crusader Mk.I together with another infantry hit my Pz IVD encircling the infantry at Peronne for 3, forcing it onto the Somme. Hurricane attacked my Fi 156 for 2 damage.



Time to capture the suppressed units and maybe bag some more. Infantry at Peronne surrendered first after having been forced onto the Somme as well, followed by Peronne itself. The units in/around Cambrai follow. Matilda encircled at Arras, infantry and Crusader Mk.I at Peronne. SdKfz 7/1 damaging Hurricane for 3, destroyed by Bf 109Es afterwards. Sadly rain again, so not much to do with my air superiority – not sure if it is total, but I should have more fighters by now.



Turn 6: Blenheim Mk.I tactical bomber ran into my Bf 109E, actually causing 1 damage despite being ambushed. Ah, base proximity to base is the most likely culprit (in combination with difficulty).



Crusader and infantry at Peronne surrendered. Took Arras airfield, Matilda Mk2 needs another turn to stew, will need this time for Arras itself as well.



Turn 7: Captured 9 Matila Mk2, Arras surrendered. Doullens encircled and pocketed 3 tanks and 1 AA SW of Peronne. 5 elite replacements (202 prestige) for Pz IVD at 2 HP, since it will be needed to surrender the pocketed R35s and H35. Hmm, maybe I imagine things, but I think the R35 and H35 switched their sight range from 1 to 2 after their activation. Just checked the end turn save, at the end of turn 6 they were at range 1.



Turn 8: Another case of aborted air attack here at the pocket – there was a Bf 109E there as well. But it did not end well for the Breguet anyway – simply due to the reason that there were two other targets with more HP left I had to let it escape with 1 HP.



At Doullens two tactical bombers were shot down by a combination of FlaK and Bf 109E – no attack on targets protected by FlaK - a Potez 633 and a Blenheim Mk.I). And at Peronne I can only capture the first two of the 4 units there due to lack of firepower – 18 Renault R35.



Turn 9: 8 Hotchkiss captured, 25mm AA has to be unentrenched first. Starting to unentrench the defenders of Clairmont and the AA right next to it. Surrendered Doullens. Not many enemies left, and still 6 turns to go. Hmm, cant zoom out far enough...



Turn 10: Somua moved out towards Doullens and got ambushed, lost 3 points , encirecled. Noyon occupied, Clairmont and AA encircled as is Amiens further in the north. Clouds coming.



Turn 11: Somua retreated onto the bridge, will have to be careful with the damage, French infantry came out of the woods west of Amiens and damaged Pz IB for 2, pocket held, encircled it. Starting to shell Abbeville, StuG as always is great at removing entrenchment.



Turn 12: Occupied Clermont and captured the units, same at Amiens – 6 Somuas captured. Abbeville and AA encircled. Race to the north begins.



Turn 13: AMC 35 ambushed, damaged for 6 , captured 3. Abbeville occupied. Calais airport occupied, troops keep rushing north.



Turn 14: StuGs in place (split). Boulogne and Calais encircled, more than enough units around to take them next turn.

Turn 15: Occupied final 2 victory locations, captured another 257 prestige.

End prestige: 8.965 (+5.172), after repairs: 8.011 (+4.016) - edit: -202 for the in scenario repair, so +4.768/+3.814

Decent one again, just the right level of units to lead to a slight race in the end. Gaining 4k prestige at this stage of the game after repairs is very nice, especially on a map I have not played before, but comradep’s AAR was very helpful.

And I think I have not seen a single stupid attack by air on FlaK protected units, but I have seen them often before, maybe something in the patch changed this. The lack of good setup tiles is something to keep in mind, but I try to keep many units around to help with encirclements.

Dijon up next

[comradep]

Very nice, talk about a Blitzkrieg.

Every time I think I've had a decent run, I open your AAR to discover that you have at least 1000 prestige more in the same scenario

In this case nearly 2000 more.

I think you may have added/subtracted prestige the wrong way for the in-scenario replacements. The end prestige is total prestige gained-repairs during the scenario, so you gained (4970+202=)5172 prestige, using 202 for in-scenario replacements. The gain at the end would be 4.970 before the other repairs.

My repair costs were fairly high due to having to replace substantial fighter strength point losses, something which is less of an issue for you as the AA helps minimize air unit strength point losses.

As to proximity to base bonus: I have a feeling it's not working correctly. The feeling I have is that (AI) air units will (sometimes?) trace to any friendly airfield, not to their base.

[charonjr]

Thx, I kinda liked the map, and as I said, your AAR was very helpful, but for my first shot at it I am pleased with the result Fooling around with the first turn gave me the idea of rushing the airbase at Peronne, which was a huge help.

And yeah you are right, I have already paid those replacement costs

IIRC recall correctly it was their actual base, but it can be considered that the aircraft are "led" by the closest airbase anyway it would be fine anyway with me.

[SineMora]

Having read this got me to do some more testing with AA Veteran, and I'm now leaning towards it being too strong; it'll probably have to go on my list of disallowed traits. However, I'm also tempted to restart my campaign with the addition of David vs Goliath, in which case AA Veteran would probably be a mandatory pick (regardless of my feelings about the trait, it's difficult to see how you could possible handle air defence when every plane has a strength of 15 otherwise -- fighters simple don't do enough damage and there aren't enough core slots to go around for a combination of fighters and AA guns). I'm slightly apprehensive about the need for space to deploy, though, as many of the later scenarios are far less forgiving than France in that regard. I guess you'll upgrade to more powerful batteries eventually to reduce that problem?

If the AI actually gets a bonus for any airfield it'd be a bug, because players don't (which is easy enough to test by attacking a fighter next to one of your airbases -- if you rebase the fighter there instead of moving there it'll perform much better).

[charonjr]

I agree that AA Veteran is one of the more powerful traits, at the moment it allows me to substitue a 3 slot fighter (Bf 109E) with a 1 or 2 slot AA (Vierlingsflak/SdKfz 7/1), but with lower range/mobility. And they are decent as tank busters as well. But yes, with better protected planes better AA guns are needed, the 88 becomes pretty much mandatory for the heavier stuff later on - essentially switch 1 slot Vierlingsflak for 3 slot 88.

Thought about David and Goliath for a moment as well, but dont think I can pull it off till the end. USSR/USA will be hard enough as it is I think.

[charonjr]

Dijon

Upgraded: 10,5 cm leFH 18 to 15 cm sFH 18

Bought: 2x Panzer IB

Starting Prestige: 7.436 - 64/64 slots

Infantry:
Pioniere (truck)
Pioniere (truck)
Pioniere (truck)
Fallschirmjäger (reserve)
Gebirgsjäger (reserve)

Tanks:
Panzer IB
Panzer IB
Panzer IB (NEW)
Panzer IB (NEW)
Panzer IVD
Panzer IVD

Recon:
Sdkfz 222
Sdkfz 222

Artillery:
10,5 cm leFH 18 (half-track)
10,5 cm leFH 18 (half-track)
15 cm sFH 18 (half-track)
15 cm sFH 18 (half-track) (UPGRADE)
StuG IIIB

Anti-Air:
2cm Flakvierling (half-track)
2cm Flakvierling (half-track)
2cm Flakvierling (half-track) (reserve)
SdKfz 7/1

Fighter:
Bf 109E
Bf 109E

Tactical Bomber:
1x Bf 110D
1x Fi 156 Storch

Strategic Bomber:
2x Ju 88A
1x Do17Z



Setup: Due to the thick wood towards the Maginot 2. Pioniere get rid of their trucks. My idea here is to isolate the Reims area with Mastery of Blitzkrieg right on turn 1. Panzer crossing the Aisne to the east and west of Reims. SdKfz 222 holding the river positions, supported by artillery. And needing more Panzer for the initial push I bought two additional Pz IB.



Turn 1: Crossing started and Reims area encircled, since the artillery SW of Reims can not be included in the encirclement it is fired upon. AA and artillery to the east are attacked as well for the same reason and they are units that bother me – AA destroyed, 155mm artillery damaged for 5.



Turn 2: 2 tanks and the AT gun around Reims captured. Infantry which attacked west of Reims encircled as are the units east of Reims.



Turn 3: Reims occupied. Panhard and one infantry captured, other infantry pushed on the river and surrendered there, the artillery at Verdun is too close. Soissons occupied, AT gun destroyed. DB-7 shot down by FlaK and Bf 109E after bombing my artillery for 2 – seems like artillery on a river is too much to resist despite FlaK. M.S 406 brought down to 2 HP by Flak and BF 109E. Bunker busters reached their positions.



Turn 4: 3 air attacks, Fi 156 got hit for 3 by a D.520, Bf 109E for 4 by a D.520 – causing 3 and the low HP M.S 406 doing nothing to a SdKfz 222 on the river. M.S 406 destroyed by Bf 110D, SdKfz 7/1 and Bf 109Es bring them down to 1 and 5. Infantry at Soissons captured. Dirt airfield NW of Romilly occupied. Strongpoint north of Verdun down to 4 HP, Pioniere lost 2 and 1.



Turn 5: More air attacks and the infantries from St. Dizier and Romilly left their towns to attack – minor damage except for 2 HP on a Ju 88A. DB-7 at 3 HO, 1 D.520 shot down, final D.520 at 1 HP. Strongpoint destroyed. Attacking infantries encircled, the one at St. Dizier captured.



Turn 6: French cavalry arrived at St. Dizier and two tanks, a Char B1 and a Hotchkiss H35 are approaching Romilly. Romilly occupied, infantry surrendered. Tanks and cavalry encircled. Remaining D.520 shot down by FlaK. Troyes encircled as well after taking the airport at Troyes, Bfs and Do 17Z relocate there. Fi 156 spot Somua and AMC P16 recon car approaching, surrendering cavalry now. Shelling of Verdun started.



Turn 7: Encircled Chaumont together with the Somua and P16.



Turn 8: Somua moved onto the river, captured 9, in addition 9 Char B1, the Hotchkiss and P16. Encircled Chattilon. Troyes gaining morale when being supressed, I stopped shooting before get enough moerale to be able to act again.



Turn 9: Finally surrendered Troyes, Chaumont followed. Encircled Sombernon.



Turn 10: Defenders of Sombernon left town and attacked my SdKfz 222 for 1 damage, got encircled and surrendered. Chattilon surrendered, occupied Vesoul - Chasseurs Alpins in the hills there. Encircled Dijon.



Turn 11: Infantry in Vesoul ambushed Panhard for 7 damage, making Besancon easy, destroyed shortly later. Dijon surrendered. Have to start to rush again, Metz is still far away.



Turn 12: Encircled Mirecourt, assault on Verdun begun – preparations by bombing over the last turns weakened the guns. Occupied undefended Belfort in the SE.



Turn 13: Defenders of Nancy leaving their positions and attacking Pz IB for 2 damage. Verdun encircled. Mirecourt encircled and surrendered. Metz hangar reached and started shotting at it. In range of 2 forts, will have to brute force this one, and this will hurt.



Turn 14: Verdun surrendered. Nancy occupied, surrendered defenders outside. Enough forces around for the win.

Turn 15: Surrendered Metz defenders (on river), occupied Metz.


Ending prestige: 11.957 (+4.723), after repairs: 10.720 (+3.284)


Nice scenario, even if dealing with the counter attacks fairly quickly it can get close in the end if you don’t properly manage two to three forces at once. I should have taken Verdun right at the beginning with a third part of my forces. Most likely taking out that one fort in the process as well, yielding another flag and another surrender in addition to less of a rush towards the end. Only played this map once under much easier circumstances and felt it.

[comradep]

Interesting approach to Dijon, and impressive prestige gain as usual.

I wasn't sure whether my minimalist approach towards Metz would work, but it did in the end.

I wonder what the triggers for the French armour are. I thought it might be "German units arrive in the Romilly area" for the western group and "German units capture St. Dizier" for the Somua unit and armoured car unit, but in your case the French didn't move when you captured St. Dizier.

[charonjr]

Good question about the trigger, and it does not seem to be based on turns as well (at least not the second group, but maybe the first one).

But the cavalery does look turn based to me.