Victory at Stalingrad - Winter Storm - General

[Aerofare the Deranged Daedalist]

For the love of... Is this so-called "challenge" even beatable solo in General?

I've been following guides, but nothing - absolutely no tactic or unit - can break through the endless spam of enemy vehicles and mortar half tracks.

I thought Kharkov Pursuit was a rubbish ToW scenario, but this is a freaking nightmare.

Panzer IV's take out half my anti-tank guns crews in one to two shots, and they keep driving around them point blank so I can hardly get a shot in. And if I eventually do, it does very little damage.

Then, I can hardly mobilise even two squads of Guard Riflemen before mortar half tracks kill them all with pinpoint shots.

I once sat with about five squads of GR's and four AT guns, all veterancy 2 or up, and the combined force of tank spam and mortar spam just slaughters them.

As the final absurdity, I'm so busy having to defend my base from annihilation that I can't even take a few steps towards capturing the VP's.

[Bics93]

I founded Kharkov much more difficult than Winter Storm... If I remember correctly I winned it in the first run. I used a lot the DP-28 ability on Guards and Conscript's AT granade, while concentrating the fire of at least 2 AT guns on enemy tanks (so driving around become useless for the enemy). Sometimes I also concentrated all cannons against a single target: I distracted one Tiger with Guards while shooting with 4 AT guns on the other Tiger (blinded by Guards DP-28). Mortar halftrack were a problem, but I managed to kill them all by sending two Guards or Conscripts supported by a Maxim to hunt them: I suppressed enemy grens or pio with the MG and then used AT granades or PTRS to kill rapidly the halftrack, then return rapidly near the central victory point (which I used as main core of my force). You should save often and reload if RNG is not in your favor ;)

[Bics93]

Trying to defend a long line is quite difficult, often my troops were concentrated arond the central point and I moved theme where needed. An M5 with some infantry can be useful to reinforce and to hunt pio or grens that walk alone beyond your lines.

[Tromboncino]

I did it with a little Maxim support for the beginning, then like bics did, I tried to slow down enemy veichles with conscripts' AT nades, while ZIS ATs were killing them (2 of them, 3 at maximum). Don't put them too far or they'll be useless, since they'll be overrunned. After the first rush of tanks, I did 2 KV-8s and I killed the enemy base while the other ATs were ready to counter other tank spams and conscripts to slow them down.
You can even try the Soviet Reserve Army doctrine to spawn (and spam) AT Partisans with Panzershreks right behind tanks to give extra cover to the ZIS ATs and slow them down, so conscripts will have more chance capture more territory and hold it thanks to PPSh. Do a support truck and they'll always be on the battlefield, so you can win by victory points.
Ah, it's very important to hold both fuel points, even if not connected, so the enemy will spawn less tanks.

[Aerofare the Deranged Daedalist]

Thanks for the advice, guys! I FINALLY did it after many restarts. Much of Kharkov Pursuit and Winter Storm is luck based. -.- I kept constant pressure on the enemy as soon as I got Guard Riflemen squads and, during that entire battle, they didn't bring in Panzer IV's or Stug III's. I used my field guns to take out only the Tiger and didn't bother with them, so they were slaughtered. But I ended up with a vet 2 ISU-152 and seven vet 3 GR's.

PS. Please tell me The Southern Fronts doesn't have anything like Winter Storm and Kharkov Pursuit...

[Bics93]

Originally posted by Aerofare the Derpy Dinobot:

Thanks for the advice, guys! I FINALLY did it after many restarts. Much of Kharkov Pursuit and Winter Storm is luck based. -.- I kept constant pressure on the enemy as soon as I got Guard Riflemen squads and, during that entire battle, they didn't bring in Panzer IV's or Stug III's. I used my field guns to take out only the Tiger and didn't bother with them, so they were slaughtered. But I ended up with a vet 2 ISU-152 and seven vet 3 GR's.

PS. Please tell me The Southern Fronts doesn't have anything like Winter Storm and Kharkov Pursuit...

An IS-2 in Winter Storm? I think I never went over 100 manpower: I was constantly reinforcing my dying units :)
However I played about 50% of Southern Fronts missions and, at the moment, I didn't found anything difficult as Kharkov, Tiger Ace or skirmish with '41 Ostheer.

[Aerofare the Deranged Daedalist]

Originally posted by bics93:

Originally posted by Aerofare the Derpy Dinobot:

Thanks for the advice, guys! I FINALLY did it after many restarts. Much of Kharkov Pursuit and Winter Storm is luck based. -.- I kept constant pressure on the enemy as soon as I got Guard Riflemen squads and, during that entire battle, they didn't bring in Panzer IV's or Stug III's. I used my field guns to take out only the Tiger and didn't bother with them, so they were slaughtered. But I ended up with a vet 2 ISU-152 and seven vet 3 GR's.

PS. Please tell me The Southern Fronts doesn't have anything like Winter Storm and Kharkov Pursuit...

An IS-2 in Winter Storm? I think I never went over 100 manpower: I was constantly reinforcing my dying units :)
However I played about 50% of Southern Fronts missions and, at the moment, I didn't found anything difficult as Kharkov, Tiger Ace or skirmish with '41 Ostheer.

ISU-152, not an IS-2. :-P Yes, I was really, really lucky that match. But even after winning, I still feel like Kharkov Pursuit and Winter Storm are not challenging, they're plain absurd. It's a battle against luck more than anything.

Great, because I just want to get all the ToW scenarios over with once and for all. And I'm not able to handle such tension much longer.

[Bics93]

Gold medal or death! ;)

[Aerofare the Deranged Daedalist]

Originally posted by bics93:

Gold medal or death! ;)

That's the way. XD I'm aiming for all the achievements in the game, and I'm SO close to having them all. :-P I can only play offline for the time being, so I have to sync my game again someday, but currently I only have 74 achievements to go. :-)

[Tromboncino]

Originally posted by Aerofare the Derpy Dinobot:

Originally posted by bics93:

Gold medal or death! ;)

That's the way. XD I'm aiming for all the achievements in the game, and I'm SO close to having them all. :-P I can only play offline for the time being, so I have to sync my game again someday, but currently I only have 74 achievements to go. :-)

I'm going for achievements too, even if I did already all Generals missions.
Wanna help each other and play for fun too?
(btw, the harderst ♥♥♥♥ by far is Faceoff at Rostov)

[Aerofare the Deranged Daedalist]

Originally posted by Tromboncino:

Originally posted by Aerofare the Derpy Dinobot:

That's the way. XD I'm aiming for all the achievements in the game, and I'm SO close to having them all. :-P I can only play offline for the time being, so I have to sync my game again someday, but currently I only have 74 achievements to go. :-)

I'm going for achievements too, even if I did already all Generals missions.
Wanna help each other and play for fun too?
(btw, the harderst ♥♥♥♥ by far is Faceoff at Rostov)

I'd like to. Believe me, I would, but I haven't had Internet access on my PC since January this year. Except when I go to some friends. So I'll add you, and when I eventually do have web access again, I'd gladly join.

Rostov is tough, but I was able to work my way around it after a few tries. By far the worst for me remains Kharkov Pursuit and now Winter Storm.