Stalingrad?

[Ninjachicken]

Did anyone finish the battle for Stalingrad yet? Not sure what army composition I should choose, I tried going mass arty, but im never going to capture the entire city in 35 turns that way lol.

[empedocles]

what I don't get of this scenario is how are the soviet reinforcement coming from the east?
Are they reduced the more you take the "bonus" objectives?

[Ichthyic]

Originally posted by Ninjachicken:

hmm the problem is that most tanks are completely useless it seems, they get swarmed with infantry and die instantly or get damaged which is a disaster figuring the limited funds.

make sure you keep your tanks on tiles marked "clear", so that enemies cannot attack using your CC defense. city tiles always allow enemies to attack your CC defense, which is why it's usually a bad idea to use tanks in cities.

you might get lucky and grab the hero that forces attacking units to use your standard defense instead of CC defense (Vigilant). if you do, slap that hero on your best tank, and now it can roflstomp infantry even in cities.

you can even make a tank into a better version of pioneer infantry:

-choose flame tanks. there are 3 or 4 versions in the game, ending with the 38t. these allow you to ignore entrenchment and do extra damage to structures like pill boxes
-use the following heroes on your flame tank: Phased Movement (ingores ZOC, movement points in steps like a recon), vigilant (forces attacks to use your main defense), flag killer (optional; but gives you 5 bonus attack whenever you are attacking an objective hex).

that thing will carry you all by itself.

or, you can even find a hero that allows you to ignore entrenchment. then you can use your king tigers as city busters if you slap a vigilant on them.

[Furor Teutonicus]

The next mission is even harder -.-

[piemax]

Yes, and then once you leave Russia it gets so much easier it feels anticlimactic. Something seems off with the balance and pacing of the missions.

[jbzomal75]

How do you people afford the Karl Gerat? They don't give it to you(which is bs). You have to spend 3000 prestige for the thing. I didn't have that much prestige at the time to spend on that one unit.

The rail gun? How do you still have it? It didn't carry over from the previous scenario for Stalingrad. Unless you're talking about Volga?

Somebody mentioned 4000 prestige going into Stalingrad. LOL! I wish! I started with 200 and there's no way I'm going to be able to do it. How did you start with 4000?

[Path]

You can purchase the Schwerer Gustav for 5000 prestige at Sevastopol, and yes, it's yours to keep. There are a few tips for the Battle of Stalingrad in my AAR[www.slitherine.com], but you should keep in mind that the AI gets very little prestige in that scenario, so you don't need to kill off units in a single turn.

If you have that little prestige you've been doing something terribly wrong, though.

[Ichthyic]

high prestige:

-move fast
-capture as many units as you can

that's it.

if you find you are constantly at low prestige, go back and start over again. learn the basics of creating small phalanx groups that can move fast, take out cities and chokepoints by themselves, and outflank enemies.

ideally something like:

-tank (NOT a slow tank)
-infantry (pioneer is ideal; give them the best transpo available)
-AA/AT (88s work great)
-artillery (sfh 18 or later rockets or hummel)

that group can easily take out anything you will run across, and creating a couple of such groups and using them as spearheads will easily win you most maps long before the timer runs out. the quicker you conquer a map, the more prestige you will get.

[jbzomal75]

Originally posted by Path:

You can purchase the Schwerer Gustav for 5000 prestige at Sevastopol, and yes, it's yours to keep. There are a few tips for the Battle of Stalingrad in my AAR[www.slitherine.com], but you should keep in mind that the AI gets very little prestige in that scenario, so you don't need to kill off units in a single turn.

If you have that little prestige you've been doing something terribly wrong, though.

The AI gets very little prestige at Stalingrad? That's funny because the Russian infantry just keeps coming and coming and coming...

[jbzomal75]

Originally posted by Ichthyic:

high prestige:

-move fast
-capture as many units as you can

that's it.

if you find you are constantly at low prestige, go back and start over again. learn the basics of creating small phalanx groups that can move fast, take out cities and chokepoints by themselves, and outflank enemies.

ideally something like:

-tank (NOT a slow tank)
-infantry (pioneer is ideal; give them the best transpo available)
-AA/AT (88s work great)
-artillery (sfh 18 or later rockets or hummel)

that group can easily take out anything you will run across, and creating a couple of such groups and using them as spearheads will easily win you most maps long before the timer runs out. the quicker you conquer a map, the more prestige you will get.

You act like you always have a straight shot to objectives, which isn't the case There's opposition in the way that can either disintegrate a small force or at least slow it down enough to cause problems. And what about rivers? So many of the objectives are 'conveniently' behind rivers. Trying a frontal assault with such a small force sounds like a recipe for disaster.

[Path]

Originally posted by jbzomal75:

The AI gets very little prestige at Stalingrad? That's funny because the Russian infantry just keeps coming and coming and coming...

You do realise that the AI doesn't actually requisition units in the campaign, right? The prestige it gets is used solely for repairs, and with so little available in Stalingrad few ever get done.

[Ichthyic]

"Trying a frontal assault with such a small force sounds like a recipe for disaster. "

and this is why you fail.

I, otoh, ended the campaign with 93k prestige.

you can listen, or not. I know how this game works.

[jbzomal75]

Originally posted by Path:

Originally posted by jbzomal75:

The AI gets very little prestige at Stalingrad? That's funny because the Russian infantry just keeps coming and coming and coming...

You do realise that the AI doesn't actually requisition units in the campaign, right? The prestige it gets is used solely for repairs, and with so little available in Stalingrad few ever get done.

So you're saying it only repairs the infantry it has? I keep seeing full strength infantry units coming out of the city and attacking me and they seem like new units to me, not 'repaired' ones. Does it bring infantry up from way back in the rear?

Originally posted by Ichthyic:

"Trying a frontal assault with such a small force sounds like a recipe for disaster. "

and this is why you fail.

I, otoh, ended the campaign with 93k prestige.

you can listen, or not. I know how this game works.

So you're saying to not bother trying to flank defenses? Well that makes the game more boring then. At least by flanking I get a small sense of using some kind of strategy to bypass frontal defenses.

[Path]

Originally posted by jbzomal75:

So you're saying it only repairs the infantry it has? I keep seeing full strength infantry units coming out of the city and attacking me and they seem like new units to me, not 'repaired' ones. Does it bring infantry up from way back in the rear?

Yes. Not only is there a lot of infantry in the city itself, there are about a score or so battalions on the eastern banks of the Volga that'll shuttle across the river as the battle progresses. Shutting down the ferry and securing the western banks can help prevent that.

[Ichthyic]

"So you're saying to not bother trying to flank defenses?"

read what I wrote again.