joethepro36

I started this mission and got bogged down pretty quickly in what seemed like a very difficult and bloody nightmare scenario: attacking in dim light across a river and into a bog with heavy rain "hammering" down. Feeling a bit demoralised I went to this forum to see what others thought and found this thread. Got a real kick out of some of the (unwarranted) over-the-top complaining on the first page and did note the positive feedback from others. I went on to complete this scenario having gone in blind with a total victory. A very satisfying ending and I'd encourage anyone feeling discouraged looking at this scenario to give it both a try and commit to playing the game to a finish. The scenario was an "experience". The conditions are absolutely horrendous, it is downright cruel to the player at times. However it's a very unique experience that has taught me a bit about how to handle the terrain and how the soviets play. Without spoiling anything here, I really got a feel for attacking in large waves of units while supporting MGs and SU-76s provided suppression fire. Soviet infantry aren't very good but if you give the Germans the ole' company vs a platoon, platoon vs a squad treatment, then things quickly even out. Overall I was quite satisfied by their performance, just don't expect a lot from a single squad alone even in favourable combat. Full spoilers ahead from here on... Initially the attack is extremely foreboding. The sheer amount of units to command was daunting and the prospect of crossing a river under fire was a worry. I deployed my forces equally on all 6 crossing points I could see with a view that a deployment in the forest edges with machine guns and SU-76s in the treeline would be able to cover infantry trying to rush across the river. The rocket artillery I quickly threw into a pre-mission bombardment on the 2nd line as per the advice of the campaign notes being totally blind to its effectiveness. My first minute was spent just watching the seconds tick, while unexpectedly without fire on my men. I gingerly moved a few squads forward to the crossing edges, took some fire and first casualties from MG gunners sitting in foxholes in the treelines. On trying to get units to fire back on the contacts to supress I found I couldn't get a target due to the reverse slope position of the enemies and then moving up units to try and fire back, found that my units just couldn't see the enemy. This was when I realised the map would be a really difficult one. I pushed on nonetheless and got squads across the river, carefully probing forwards up the very thin bit of cover that the river's slope afforded towards the enemy. My feelings in this beginning section were mostly an overriding fear of interlocking MG fire, AT guns and mortars hitting me as soon as I came up over the ridge. When this didn't come (great fog of war effect here), I had more confidence and pushed my men out into the forests with SU-76s giving a little fire support to knock out the sniping light MG teams. As the forest lines became secure and no grand enemy bombardment was coming down, I began a systematic push of all forces except top level HQ units across the river and into tree-lines. I used SU-76s and the MG teams to supress distant foxhole-stationed hostile units where possible while units advanced. Then I bumped into the first line trenches with squads firing MGs at distance with interlocking fire from some of the forward foxholes. This is where things got extra difficult as sightlines are terrible and units can't see anything in the dark, heavily forested, rainy conditions. I found that I had to carefully order every unit each turn individually through the covered approaches in the forests while maximising the amount of suppressive fire I could get down on the enemy positions, often from awkward angles. It was also the case that advancing onto these positions resulted in heavy casualties anyway especially due to units clustering together and I had to keep in mind the campaign advice "expect heavy casualties". The nature of the terrain means that you are basically forced into pushing large amounts of men close together into narrow forested areas. If you don't keep units together you get curbstomped by German squads who outcompete your units. Mines were also a pain but ultimately didn't kill an excessive quantity of men and machines. This is also where I got quite discouraged, its absolutely grim seeing the SU-76s even at slow speed get immobilised in the terrain. I lost one in the river crossing itself and 99% of my movement with these units in the scenario was on slow. Lost another to an AT mine early on, then two more to distant AT guns. Before getting to the 2nd line I'd lose all but one to immobilisation. Great lesson in ammunition being only useful if it is actually fired. I worried over running out and then watched them die or go immobile and become useless. Seeing how hard it was to take the first line scattered defences made me much more worried and I could see glimpses of much stronger resistance on the 2nd line, besides the 3rd line to come! I had a read of the thread and figured, hey I'll perserve and see how it goes. I got better at gauging my forces ability to attack and win and found I'd effectively split my force into 4 prongs. The southern 3 crossings formed into 2 prongs going through the dense forest areas. 1 crossing in the middle went the middle line and then the two up north merged into clearing that route. Middle got bogged down under heavy fire including repeated TRP based mortar fire and sort of just held the centre a bit at the first line. The southern prongs were highly successful in just battering through with sheer weight of numbers and I just kept rolling them forwards. Enemy mortar fire came down and because I generally kept moving quickly forward, I never got clipped by it too badly. Jeez do they fire a ton of mortars though! As I got to the 2nd line, my forces ended up in somewhat of a pincer movement, with the southern prongs merging and advancing on the flank while supported by fire from the centre units, while northern forces got practically stopped due to heavy resistance. AT guns were the most lethal enemy asset to my units by a good margin, one gun scoring 33 infantry and 2 SU-76s alone. Advancing on the 2nd line meant using heavy machine gun suppression, a massive flanking attack to avoid fire from the remaining bunkers and I used every bit of mortars I had on one grand line-barrage across their forces with admittedly not much effect. Time was getting very limited and as I passed under 30 mins remaining, I resigned myself to at least capturing the 2nd line with maybe some probing of the 3rd. As my forces started to press on the remaining centre of the enemy line and finish pinching the vice shut, I found the enemy were running away much more and while under fire. At 23 minutes remaining and to my great surprise as I was expecting a heavy fight for the 3rd line, I received a surrender and total victory. Felt well earned and left me feeling pretty great about having suffered and gone through the experience. I'd like to mention that in the thread there was some hostility towards the design of the map from someone who evidently hadn't played the scenario end to end before commenting, which I believe is to their loss. I think this map is a brilliant example of one that looks downright awful on first glance but is actually a well designed mission. It's a lot more forgiving than you first think, just listen to the advice in the campaign notes! Some screenshots of the final moments. Results: A German cowers as a wave of Soviet infantry move across the southern rear flank of the 2nd line clearing the positions out one by one: Last of a squad surrenders as Soviet infantry on the north flank wrap around his position: Soviet infantry inside a 300mm rocket artillery crater capture a German squad in the 2nd line centre: