DLC 42 #12 Stalingrad Ruins

[El_Condoro]

Stalingrad Ruins

[pickle]

I took this route on my second play through to see what it was about. Not quite what I was expecting...lots of terrain to potentially defend with starting points far removed from the vital airfields on the outskirts of Stalingrad in the Gumrak area. This was also the location of the first Russian counterattack. They quickly overcame the Italian defenders and were working their way back to Stalingrad proper when my rushed reinforcements arrived. Luckily, the combination of experienced tankers and the Luftwaffe carried the day. I was expecting further attacks in the area as the briefing stated the airfields were critical; this did not happen until later and then only a weak one.

I started out fairly conservatively not knowing if a mass Russian attack was coming on all sides or not. Consequently, I wasted a lot of turns doing next to nothing beyond some reconnaissance. When I finally started moving towards the Russian controlled main objectives, I found I was spread too thinly to take them all without taking some serious risks. In particular, the feriocity of Russian counterattack (s) as I neared the last objective was nearly too much. They started to come from multiple sides though only one was armour heavy.

At the end of the day, I ended up losing two corps units (last of my Russian KV1's and a MarkIV) and the recon unit (multiple times again)-general level.

Overall, I would say this is a fairly challenging scenario. However, I think I probably could have ended up with a DV (marginal only with one objective left to take) had I not been so conservative at the start as I waited for a few turns looking to see what would happen. After defeating the initial Russian counterattacks, I was able to make short work of the objective defenders especially once I had concentrated my forces.

[Adean]

I played this map, a lot of enemy unit. Smgs are very strong and during I thing it was 6th turn strong counter attack, a lot of infantry and tanks T-34/43. I lost one FJ and a lot of Italian forces:( but at the end we destroy them:) Now we have to withdraw.

[karlto]

In my mind, this scenario has some issues in that it is very difficult to play the first time, when you don't know what forces are out there, while it becomes progressively simpler on each replay. At the end, you know where everything is, and you can concentrate your forces and take on each group individually rather than having to cover all directions. I did not get the same feeling in the first '42 scenario, as this was much more dynamic.

This also makes it difficult to grade on difficulty. On first playthrough: very tough, while in the end it seemed relatively simple, although it cost me my beloved veteran 88 AA.

If you interleave some German forces with the Italians, they can actually hold themselves pretty well defensively. On the initial playthrough, I put all my Germans elsewhere, with something like the historical outcome where the Italians buckled completely and Stalingrad became cut off from the rest of the German lines.

So, overall I'm not quite happy with this scenario, although it could be that everything is bound to be an anticlimax after the main Stalingrad scenarios.

Looking at the campaign as a whole, I think overall the pacing has been good, building tension up towards Stalingrad (with the assault on Sevastopol being a highlight of the prior scenarios), my core units initially faring well and dealing better and better with Soviet armor with the >F2 IVs and the III becoming more of an infantry tank. The depot scenario was also very nice, I love that SU122 to bits (especially converting it between arty and AT is very cool). Then, the Stalingrad scenarios throw your core units into the meat grinder and losing experienced units become a fact of life. The SMG infantry is becoming almost as feared as the KVs were early on and can chew up even experienced armor. Combined arms tactics including strong arty support is a must. Coming out of the Stalingrad scenarios, it looks to be only about survival and trying to live through the winter. Sounds pretty historical to me!

[OmegaMan1]

Stalingrad Ruins. MV in 24 turns.
Start prestige: 40. End prestige: 162.
New units purchased: Two grenadiers (all at deployment).
Units lost: Core – Two recons, grenadier; auxiliary – Two Italian infantry.
Medals: 2. Heroes: 1.

This was an interesting scenario. Not nearly as tough as I thought it would be; indeed, in some ways it seemed a little too easy, although I’m not going to complain! From the start I decided that, since this was a defensive scenario, I’d defend each of my six objectives as best as possible to insure the minor victory. However, the more I looked at my initial set-up, I had second thoughts; my forces were way too scattered to be really effective. So I decided to use a “circle the wagons” approach – I picked two objective city hexes (32,14 and 37,9) and the Italian airfield (13,17) and clustered all of my forces around those three locations.

The AI started off with an attack on the far western objective hex (Gumrak) and defeated the Italian defender rather easily. It then attacked from the west toward the Italian airfield. Here I placed several of my SE Panzer units, and was able to successfully destroy the Russian attackers. (Recalling the commander’s warning to guard my two airfields carefully, I picked the 13,17 location since it was both an objective and had a good assortment of Italian units defending, leaving the other airfield in the northwest to its own defense; however, the Russians never went after that location.) I was then able to launch a small counterattack and retake the Gumrak hex at 4,10.

The AI’s next attack came at the 25,9 city objective hex, where I had placed one of my two newly purchased grenadier units. The AI acted very cautiously here; it started moving forces there on turn 8, but didn’t begin attacking until turn 11. (It surrounded the hex with armored units, which sat there for three turns, until it brought up artillery and infantry units to begin the attack.) The hex fell on turn 12, and then the Russians turned to attack my dug-in positions around hex 32,14. I was able to hold off the attackers by using defensive artillery, bombers and coordinated counterattacks. The attack seemed to sputter out around turn 19; at that point I went on the attack, and retook hex 25,9; I also was able to get forces into hex 26,17 on turn 20, so at that point I actually had my six objective hexes and (if I could hold them) a minor victory.

On turn 20, the AI launched its third and final attack, against the Italian airfield. This was the biggest attack of all, as streams of Russian conscripts and armored units moved up from the south. Thankfully, the Italians and my SE Panzers saved the day (with the usual help from my tac bombers), defeating the attack and preserving my minor victory.

My thoughts here? Well, it seems there were some unusual things going on in this scenario. First, the AI’s attacks weren’t as sharp as they’ve been in previous scenarios; it seemed hesitant to attack, and also left objective hexes open after it took them (I used an Italian recon to gather up a host of unoccupied flag hexes). Also, the Russian air force behaved oddly; on at least three occasions, it allowed air units to crash from lack of fuel supplies (I was able to observe this because all three times, a Red air unit would have the low fuel symbol on it; I’d check its fuel status, see it had single-digit fuel supplies, and then would crash from lack of fuel the following turn). Also, there was an anomaly on the map. Hex 14,20 seemed strange: it had a flag, and was labeled “Stalingrad,” but there was no city terrain present; perhaps it was missing? And I am still able to "create" flag markers in non-flagged city hexes via strat bombing and supression.

Overall, I was fully prepared for this to be a brutal scenario. While I’m happy it wasn’t as bad as I expected, I was a little let down. After all, this is Stalingrad, so I expected some more attacks (not unlike the Demyansk Pocket scenario in ’41) and a more aggressive AI. Of course, it might be that I misunderstood when the choice of scenarios was offered: I assumed that staying in Stalingrad would be the tougher scenario, and if this isn’t the case, I stand corrected. In any case, not a bad mission, nor a particularly outstanding one; like I said, it seems to need a bit more fine-tuning.

(As an aside, I wish there were place names on this map like there were on the Stalingrad Docks map. At least the location of the German 6th Army HQ, the GUM department store, should be on here!)

[Jonesy1760]

If so how? I got a loss result for both..Russian units just pop up like daisies!!!