Sevastopol Help for new player

[Tom]

I need a little help in Sevastopol. I could learn by trial and error, but could use some help. In this battle I get a Gustar and 4 Goliaths. What is the best way to fight with them? Any suggestions? I saw that if I attack a pillbox with the Goliath, I could expect 10 damage (kill) for the Goliath. That seems excessive. And the Gustar with all its firepower only did 5 damage to a pillbox. Thanks.

[DDodgers24.5]

The Goliaths are suicide units. Use them once and they are gone. It's been awhile since I played this but I recall you get two Goliaths in the north and two in the east. When I played this I sacrificed them quickly on the outer bunkers. The ones in the east are in a bad location, so best to just use them up quickly. The two in the north, it may be best to save them until you are beyond the initial defenses. There are a bunch of bunkers going toward the port city in the north that grind you to a halt. I wish I had saved the goliaths to help blow through a couple of these. Watch that some of the bunkers are defended by AT guns. Best to use a scout plane or recon unit to view behind the bunkers. The Gustov is just a big cannon. Great for supressing the bunkers before hitting with infantry. Hope that helps!

[Vathek1]

A few things to note:

• You can get two Gustav Guns in this mission for your core forces. Dismiss the initial auxiliary one on the deployment screen. Now you can see 20 units of prototype Gustav Gun in your store.
  
• Whatever you are targetting with the Gustav Gun may not have been the same bunker. At Sevastopol, there are two types of fixed fortifications--the bunkers and the Maxim Gorky I and II forts. The latter are best destroyed with the Gustav Gun. The former you can either bypass or easily
  
• Goliaths count as tanks/hard targets, so an AT gun behind the target you are attacking will provide support fires against the Goliath.
  
• The Goliaths should be used quickly to clear minefields. Don't worry about "saving" them for anything--the only thing special about them is that they are auxiliaries here and you don't need to worry about reinforcing them. (In fact, don't reinforce auxiliary forces; you'll never see those guys again after the mission.)
  
• You need the Gustav Gun to smash Maxim Gorky I and II. Park your guns just out of range of the fort and start blasting. Park a recon aircraft over the fort for best results.
  
• You cannot add heroes to the Gustav Gun directly. However, there's an indirect way to do this--equip the heroes you want (ideally things like zero or reduced slots) on your most experienced artillery. Now upgrade that artillery piece into a Gustav Gun at the start of Sevastopol. The heroes will remain on the Gustav, but will be locked onto it, so make sure you don't want those heroes for something else!

Anyway, make sure you protect your Gustav Guns from air and ground assault. Park aircraft over the guns for AA protection, and surround them with AA guns. Have a testudo of tanks around them as well--20 units is the maximum amount you will get for the rest of the game, so don't get Gustav damaged if you can help it!

Push your main force westwards with the Gustav Guns, but also send a detachment of armour, artillery, a bit of AA, and some AT southwest with the Romanian mountaineers. You can have the Romanians attack the southwest objectives through the swamps. Just watch out for T-34s on your way there.

Finally, the Gustav Gun has excellent mobility, but it is limited to railroads. As you rank it up in veterancy, it will become a frighteningly effective "delete button" for any enemy ground unit which you don't want to see any more. Tanks, infantry, bunkers, forts, AT, artillery, naval vessels... if it can't fly, it will die to the Gustav Gun. And if you have two of them, you can deliver a potent one-two punch to any enemy unit. I don't think I have seen any ground unit survive two Gustav strikes in one turn with more than a couple strength points. Unlike regular artillery, the Gustav Gun will effectively kill, and not just suppress.

As for the auxiliary ships near the harbour, use them as you wish. The sub is great for scouting, but it will be countered hard by the Soviet torpedo boats and corvettes. You can sink those with your strat bombers, but AA in Sevastopol's urban area will pepper them badly, and the enemy fighters will tear up your bombers. Clear out the enemy air force as you move westward, then start reducing the cruiser, as it will shoot at your forces.

[Tom]

Thanks you guys so much!