@AndrewAAGamer This makes me happy, as this was the theory I came up with after my two games. Artillery are probably the first unit to be taken under almost every circumstance. Especially as they don’t buff infantry in this version.
I am of the belief that the Germans must blitzkrieg as hard as they possibly can. Getting into the city is way more important than killing stragglers on the region board.
Hold pitomnik, and try to use Winter Storm to reopen the supply from the south. It’s doable, but not easy.
I also found that bombing the ferries was quite helpful early as you generally get free kills with no risk of them attacking back. Especially once/if the Soviets supply lines are only from across the Volga
@AndrewAAGamer I don’t have the game in front of me, but here is what our tactics have developed into so far:
Push Soviets out of the Don basin, air drop supply on the unsupplied Gerrmans in the south, and attack across the river with the purpose of taking Rynok and pitomnik on the following turns. Use air power in concentration to decisivly defeat the enemy in 1 round if possible in the spaces next to Rynok and Pitomnik. Following turns (if units available) occupy the north and south with a man screen, ideally the man screen is 2 in depth. Goal is to enter Stalingrad from Rynok and get those factories, while also entering through Pitomnik and spreading out from there to get cash. We save our mech and infantry as much as possible. We drop German supply on Pitomnik to keep Germans in supply in the city if there is a cut off. Plans are not being used in Stalingrad itself that much due to Soviets accumulating artillery through the factory and buying extra.
I suppose we are playing to win the game by sudden death, but that has never happened on the German side.
Okay, overall sounds good at a high level.
I am surprised to hear you are airdropping supplies on Pitomnik. Is this when there is bad weather? Otherwise, the planes should be attacking at every opportunity there is as that is a huge advantage for the Axis early on.
Definitely agree that the entry points are Pitomnik and Rynok.
Pitomnik should fall on G2.
Rynok should fall no later than G3 and hopefully G2. It depends if the Russians contest it from Ilovenska.
The G1 attack I came up with in our testing was generally agreed to be very powerful. Do you attack?
This should, on average, result in 16 hits for the Germans (11 infantry, 1 mechanized infantry and 4 tanks) with the Russians getting 10 hits (9 infantry and 1 mechanized infantry).
Of course, on R1 the Russians don’t fare much better as they have fewer units now to counterattack.
No sure what you mean about a 2 depth man screen. Is this mid-game when you are expecting Uranus or early on? I only say this as early on you need to get everyone into Stalingrad you can ASAP. 1) To collect as many RP’s as possible while reducing Russian income and 2) to put tremendous pressure on Russia so they can’t wait to initiate Uranus until to Turn 7. If the Russians can wait to Turn 7 life is going to be a lot tougher for the Axis.
BTW, usually, it is those units locked in combat that then become your screening against Uranus because they could not get into the City early on anyway.
Glad to hear you are enjoying the game!
@jim010 It sounds like your attack is going too wide (i.e. trying to enter the city from every angle simultaneously, leaving large numbers of troops on the flanks where the Uranus guys will appear) and are getting punished for it, but that’s impossible to see without a proper game report with screenshots.
From your earlier posts, I would recommend tweaking your OOL with Germany to at least keep Tanks alive. having blitz move available to you when inside the city will make progressing there go easier.
@Daaras What!? Really!? I never knew that!
We attac: Kremenskaya, Koutluban, Vertyachi, Kalach, and Buzinovka on turn 1
We attac: Kremenskaya, Koutluban, Vertyachi, Kalach, and Buzinovka on turn 1
Thanks, that sounds pretty good.
You are missing Gromoslavka; and I assume the 3 Russian infantry then slide into Abganerovo Station to make that battle go longer. While not a total disaster, that could be an issue as then the Tinguta battle is fighting without supplies which is certainly not ideal.
I would rethink hitting Gromoslavka with 4 infantry and an artillery, all minor axis. While that is an even battle on G1, 6 vs 6, on the Russian counterattack it is most likely 2 vs 8 so the Russians die faster and can’t assist in other battles. It is key to clear the regional board asap so to get into the City board fast.
@AndrewAAGamer Sorry, I missed that. Yes, we attack Gromoslavka as well. We do try to clear Tinguta as soon as possible to get those units moving. The soviet player often does a good job of gumming up the German movements.
@DoManMacgee Ideally entering form all 3 would be nice, but the focus is on Pitomnik and Rynok
@jim010 Seems to me it might just be a case of needing to try messing around with the German strategy, but again without a full game report I can’t really give super concrete advice.
One other thing you mentioned was that you’re not using air units in the city for fear of having them get shot down. That may be part of your issue as, in my opinion, Germany needs to be comfortable with the idea of gambling their air units to make decisive attacks against Soviet positions in the city during the initial attempt to break in, even if the air units get lost in the process. This is because:
A: you get more air units with winter storm later.
B: The “bad weather” mechanic in the later rounds of the game will eventually make your air units effectively worthless anyway.
So it’s a “use it before you lose it” kind of situation. In certain situations, the air units can be used to soak hits for tanks, as strange as that sounds.
