Any tips how to get DV on Berlin DLC?

[timek28]

Hi all,

I made several tries to get DV on Berlin DLC mission. However I'm really having a hard time with it. My initial core is pretty ravaged from the Sellow hights mission, since it was very painfull. I have 33 units (27 core and 6 SE), out of possible 45 core units. Out of which 5 are Tiger 2, 1 Mouse, 5 SE Tiger 2, 1 SE Mouse, 1 Grenadier 43 infantry, 1 Pak 43/41, 2 JagdTigers, 1 21 Cm artillery, 4 NbWf43, 3 Stuh42, 4 Flak 40 and 5 Ostwinds. Tanks due to extensive fighting have only 1 star experience, and basically only AA and some Arty have more then one star.

I disbanded my Me262 and 1 Heinkel SB. I have about 7800 prestige now. My strategy up to now was to shrink front as much as possible and to put my forces inside the area between two canals and Brandenburg gate (so I can force Soviets to cross water all the time - except on the east side at Brandenburg gate). I usually bought additionall 9-10 Grenadiers 43 (with or without transport to experiment, with is better for pulling back and redeploying), and 6 more artillery (I tried with NbWf34 very good, Stuh42 which is bad because it is defensive and 21 Cm which does little damage). Whichever route I choose I fail to penetrate eastern front of enemy on some 24th move. I''m able to break the front on west, but on east there are too many enemy units crowding in the city and I cannot dig them out. Especially since my units on eastern front themselves get too thin and without ammo on the 24th turn.

What am I doing wrong? I feel my eastern front strategy is flawed, but streching my forces further east is really hard with this few tanks and good units. I know my core is pretty weak, but I just recently discovered that I can dismember units and save prestige. If I knew thiss before I would have dismemberd my stukas and bombers long time ago... I guess I could have saved a lot of prestige until now in that way. Also I somehow need units that will not only be able to defend but to make a very fast and powerfull counterattack at the 24th turn. Untill now I only relied on hevvy Tiger2's and JagdTigers (sucks with ammo), but now I'm even considering Panther G's and JagdPanthers for the counterattacks... I guess Tiger 2's should be in front for defence and PanterG's in back for counterattacks...

[Kamerer]

I think it sounds like you have arrived there with too weak a corps to really make a successful defense, actually.

You strategy is sound. This thread talks about it in some detail:

viewtopic.php?f=121&t=35576&p=334310&hi ... er#p334310

But what you are describing is similar. I think the problem is your units are just too green to survive that environment and effectively defeat the opposing forces. Getting a DV throughout 45 campaign and in berlin requires really carefully cultivating your units experience starting much, much earlier and fighting very frugally to retain prestige and build unit experience. Also developing units and then leaving them in reserve a long time - for example when KV1a, b model tanks are no longer useful, instead of disbanding them and the 300+ experience and heroes on them, I leave them in the corps and later when I need more units, upgrade them to a Panther or Tiger so I have a new, powerful units and not a green one. Tricks vary and also depend upon what level you are playing and what the award rate is for experience and prestige, this varies dramatically by difficulty level.

As to the corps, for example regarding air power, I'd like to have very little (or no) sp AAA and instead more flexible units like Me262s and Fw190s and a 12.8cm AAA (one or two max). used effectively five fighters and a gun will give you complete air control in most all scenarios. And on the ground, more armor and artillery that can deliver suppression. I usually have seven or eight 21cm artillery pieces, three or four SPAA and three or four SU-122's by 1945. But this point units should have 300+ experience/strength to do well on the 1945 battlefield, and most units should be 500+, even playing with reduced experience levels like Field Marshal.

[timek28]

Yes my core is definitely battered. I play on colonel level (middle level) of difficulty, and I find game more then challenging on this level (50% of missions are really challenging). I did my best to keep at least one five starred Tiger 2 in these defensive battles, but the amount of Soviets is just countless and I just cannot save enough prestige in order to have elite replacements. I watched the casualties stats today and basically AI has around 20 times bigger losses then I have on the level of whole war (I've lost about 50 tanks and he lost around 2200 whatever that means). Nevertheless even with that I'm somehow supposed to keep five starred units and complete core? Maybe I don't understand tactics but I just find that very hard to do in these circumstances. I believe it is possible, but I just don't want or have time to spend 3 days planning one battle and micromanaging every possibility on every hex. In this mission I can annihilate most of the enemy units (except IS2) in 1-2 punches and have them surrendering by forcing the rivers independent of experience of my units. But hey maybe if I had 5 starred Tiger2 I could do that in one punch...

I will try to extend the front to the Spree river on east somehow and try to force enemy on river from all sides, so that he doesn't get entrenched on the east. It will be very difficult though.

Edit:

@Kamerer

Wow you really seemed to cultivate a experienced core. I had only one or maybe two captured SU122's, but I couldn't even keep them (ha to use them as AT guns). Maybe the lack of proper recon, going for side objectives or trying to force DV in some missions has hampered my prestige and unit experience. As far as Air supremacy comes to play, I find my AA guns doing just a fine job protecting my units in this scenario. Most airplanes get wiped out, with some delivering 1-2 damage. Maybe Me262 would have been better in some prior scenarios but here I don't think it makes much of a difference, except the fact that then I would have to protect airfield additionally, and yes ground units would have more mobility. But other than that what I see as a difference between me and you is only your larger experience. Amount of artillery is also similar but different type (I prefer NbWf for fantastic soft attack). Well I cannot get my experience back now, so I'll try the impossible.

[Kamerer]

A quick note: there are different ways to achieve the same results in PC. Each has its plusses and minuses. One thing I would note about the air game, is that sending nine ground units to do the same job as five air units does cost you the ability to deploy four ground combat units - tanks, infantry, or artillery.

[timek28]

Most definately. If I was only wiser to employ 5 Me's instead of bunch of flaks in earlier missions. I just thought flaks are half of a price of Me and that's why I bought them. I needed prestige for tanks.

Now I'm trying the tactics with 5 Me 262s and 2 flaks and apparently it is working very well. However ground strategy is still a mistery for me. I tried strecthing to the east bank of Spree but then I spread my units too thin and it is basically impossible to defend this way. I have to create shorter front. It is a really hard scenario, but I've beat hard scenarios in past (to great cost though). If I could only stop all his units while they are still on the river. On the west that is going pretty well, but on the east not at all. Maybe three tighter round pockets: left, middle and right would be a best way to go instead of trying to connect the whole area with one contigious force, for which there are not enough units. Those pockets should control bridges but leave some of the banks uncovered. I'll try that.

[timek28]

Actually now that you''r telling me that I should have most of the units on 5 stars by now (and I have none), I'm considering replaying the whole campaign alltohether! I just need some links, tips or whatever on how to maintain units with such strangth when the things get rough (from Stalingrad)?

[Casaubon]

I´m havin a hard time surviving this battle aiming for a sole MV as my core is pretty low tech in comparisson. I try to focus on defending the central "island" surrounded by the canals and the double airfields in the south, after my earlier attempts were unsuccessfull to rescue some of the aux units and bring them closer to the centre. I´m losing about 3 core units each turn and prestige goes down from ~7000 to 3000 within the first 4 turns, when I usually quit the game after too many of my best units got encirceld after their support was killed and I fear the enemy units I´ve seen and killed until then will be replaced with fresh enemy waves on a regular basis.

Is this the very last scenario in DLC45east and is it winable on MV at all with a 40 units core having 2xTigerII 2xMaus 3xTigerI a few panthers, pz4 + some heroes 1star inf, several 3*arty, 6 quality AA + weak airforce?

This whole scenario has a feel very much like Breslau minus the fact that there is no side I can secure and have a safe back area. Apparently the southwest seems to bring the least pressure. Is that right, I haven´t been able to survive that long to try clearing that direction first. Would you suggest it?

[johndoe2]

I had trouble with this as well but a excellent advice on this forum made it rather easy.

Do not fight the units in front of you!

The AI is unwilling to attack you stationary units supported by artillery. Only fight the enemy units trying to flank you. And that is the key and it works.
Of course majority of my units were Tiger II and some of the fighters (ME 262) and the two 88AA were monsters that I nursed as far back as Poland. Air superiority was never in question. So you are a bit weak but try the above strategy and see how it goes.

[Casaubon]

thank you for your hints john, actually I spent all afternoon trying to figure this out on my own but its 9pm and I quit again after a hard fight. This time I did much better after finding the best bottlenecks to dig in, and keep a vague air superiority, but in turn 8 the red army broke my defenses again

As I´ve just seen your screenshots your position seems pretty much the same as mine, except I couldn´t risk staying on the outer river banks and dug in all in the center. On the screenshot I marked my fortfied position (green) with pocket 1 and 2 and the 2 spots the AI broke it. The redish arrow shows where their relentless IS2 attacks finally broke through at the Reichstag hex and the red circle with green border shows the true dillema of my current situation: Until turn 8 I had clogged the inner city airport on the left (the only within reach for me) successfully with my 2**Maus and the enemy stood aside it and could not brake in there, BUT what I had not known until now & having played through all eastern front DLCs is that airports with enemy units next to it apparently dont refill my planes and all my 7 aircrafts are falling down the skies within 2 turns!!

Seems I´m restarting the game once again with the same fortified positions & with extra focus on the Reichstag city hex area while I´ll try to cover/hold more ground around my only airfield. If not possible I´ll try the map with all of my luftwaffe sold.

screenshot

[johndoe2]

BUT what I had not known until now & having played through all eastern front DLCs is that airports with enemy units next to it apparently dont refill my planes and all my 7 aircrafts are falling down the skies within 2 turns!!

The one aircraft that's right on top of the airfield will (same as the aircraft carriers), not sustainable on a longer run but for a turn or two will help. Can't see you screen shot thou.

PS
This might interest you - couple of turns latter



those poor Ferdinand's really took some beating

[Casaubon]

Oh sorry I fixed the screenshot. Here it is. By the way my core was in a much better shape one map before at Seelow Heights when I thought its the last map and didnt care too much about senseless losses at the very end before I secured the fieldmarshall. Stupid me ! Good to know that once can pull at least a little kerosine for 1 plane in an emergency. Unfortunately my airfleet´s tank emptied just all at once in the same turn

I see you got Tigers on city hexes, how could they survive there? Mine get roasted by soviet subsequent engineer attacks if I keep them there. I assume the pressure diminshes at turn 13 in the southwest and one can risk sending them into close combat areas?

[johndoe2]

In this scenario any panzer supported by arty will either survive or take very limited casualties when attacked. Just make sure you always have enough amo! I didn't and the result was the two poor Ferdinand's. I went out too soon and had to regroup latter on...

I'm surprised that you lost so much at Seelow Heights, I actually complained about how easy that particular scenario is.
I went after the Soviet bridging units and destroyed them quite early, so the Soviet heavies never crossed the river.

[boredatwork]

Is this the very last scenario in DLC45east and is it winable on MV at all with a 40 units core having 2xTigerII 2xMaus 3xTigerI a few panthers, pz4 + some heroes 1star inf, several 3*arty, 6 quality AA + weak airforce?

40 core units is a bit on the low side - between core slots and SE units (9) you should be able to field ~53-54 units in Berlin, with a few left over for so you can deploy 59 units in the next scenario.

It's one of the failings of the premade campaign structure that heavy losses earlier in the campaign will snowball and make late games relatively unplayable. If there was one recent battle that you suffered heavy losses in it might be more productive to replay that battle to get your forces in better shape than continue to beat your head gainst a wall trying to beat Berlin (without cheating) with a badly depleted core.

With the extra units it becomes easier to hold both airfields, to better service a larger airfoce, to provide you with options to pick off soviet artillery. You also have more options to rotate damaged units off the front line to repair.

Lastly keep in mind that unlike many scenarios, it's frequently better in Berlin to damage 2 units than completely kill 1. Kill 1 unit and it is quickly replaced leaving you to be attacked by 2 full strength units next turn. Damage 2 on the otherhand and the AI will likely try and repair them in place next to you units thus sparing you a turn of attacks.

I'm surprised that you lost so much at Seelow Heights, I actually complained about how easy that particular scenario is.
I went after the Soviet bridging units and destroyed them quite early, so the Soviet heavies never crossed the river.

Where is the fun in that? If you've made it to 1945 it should be evident the AI cannot handle an opposed river crossing - rather than abuse a weak AI I'm happy to let them cross the river that way wipping them out without taking excessive losses is reasonably challenging.

[Casaubon]

erm the game seems not to encourage my playing style. It worked well in the early year DLCs up to stalingrad, but from then on I payed the toll as I am playing in "General" difficulty.

Until stalingrad my core grew up to 90+ units in my core. all about 2**, almost any of them with hero(s) all maps finished with a DV & capture all equipment possible. I used not to upgrade all of this core to the latest tech available, rather was rotating the use of units due to specific situations, and tried to buy / use / train about 3 green units on every new map, afterwards sending them to the reserves. This way many veterans from poland/france/balkans were not active until I recalled them at about 1943. For example I used the early recon, AAs , fighter planes way longer than usually people do I guess, my panzers III and IVs were active even long after Stalingrad, same as early years captured equipment etc.
after the difficulty soon rised dramatically I tended to lose units, and let them stay dead, hardly reloading after I knew what would happen in the next turns as I had such a strong reserve I felt this would compensate the loss. Ok so after the late year DLCs regular losses in my SE and core had reduced my overall strength subsequently and I realized something with my style was wrong at the latest since "Return to Kishinev" as the map was hardly possible to beat at all. it was too late already to reload a specific map as I used to lose valuable stuff every map since 1943 and SAVE the game.

It´s a pity the difficulty in this game was achieved by spawning unrealistic amounts of enemy units rather than using more advanced AI algorithms. Nevertheless I still love it As there was announcements that there will be an allied corps next I think I will postpone my purchase of the 43,44,45West DLCs because I´m afraid I would be facing huge amounts of enemy allied reinforcements there same as in the east DLCS rather than challenging map designs. I´m a little tired of that "endless stream of enemies" concept as I prefer shorter scenarios that dont require to save every man on the field.

[johndoe2]

The 43 & 44 West DLC are noticeably different in a good way. I find them harder then Eastern scenarios.

As to the core force I didn't fall into the trap of maintaining 'historically accurate' core and updated to the beast equipment available. 'Where's fun in that?' someone may ask, well the game is not designed to be 'historically accurate' so my core is not going to be either.
In 1943 when Tiger I appeared I retired my PzIV (to await for Tiger II upgrade) and either bought Tiger I or/and upgraded some Soviet & French captured equipment. The only thing getting killed after that was infantry and although I thought I had enough reserves was proven wrong. Still no panzer loses after 1943 and met the Soviets in Berlin in good shape.

If you do beat Berlin with your available core core units it would be quite an achievement - so let us know how it goes

[timek28]

SInce I started the topic just to add my 2 cents. I didn't read all the posts above but I'll try yo make my point quickly. I replayed all GC missions starting from 39 in order to create better core. Wtihout elite core I think it is impossible to win this mission. And I'm talking about medium level of dificullty (colonel I guess).

Here are some points:

1) Before, I didn't know difference between pioneers and grenadiers or grenadiers and gebirgsjagers. Thus I used infantry inapropriately.

2) I relied only on heavy units instead of balancing force in offensive and deffensive role (Panther - Tiger for example). Thus I wasn't able to make quick flanking moves in missions starting from 43 and above. This is especially inportnat in missions that reuquire both attacking and defending.

3) I didn't use elite replacements almost at all. Now I used elite replacemnets whenever I could. I also treid my best not to loose any elite core unit. Of course it was easier now since I knew soviet unit placements since I played missions before...

4) I used 2 recon units most of the time. Thus trying to prevent any surprises.

5) I used brige pioneeres whenever there was need for flanking manouvers. This is especially important in following mission (Berlin Redux) which is even harder then Berlin.

6)I kept my air force more or less in tact up to 45. Although historically probably innacurate, I maintained 5 Me262 with 5 stars and 5-6 Fw190G with 5 stars in figher bomber roles. However in order to achieve this, as soon as new planes appear one should start to replace old planes bit by bit. Stukas should be replaced almost imidiatelly by figher bombers as there are too many soviet arcraft from Kurs on, and there is no point in wasting prestige on defending ineffective Stukas.

As far as the mission goes. Just cover the river banks of middle section. Keep the closest left airport in your hands, and keep the east line around Fuhrer bunker. Have maybe bridge pioneeres accros the river in the middle so your units can cross in all directions quickly. Put tanks in first line, artillery in back (especially put artillery in east and west), and shuffle units from front to back as soon as some unit gets ammo depleated or decreased in strength. Also as soon as you see that last wave of attack runs out start the counter attack. There should be as far as I remember 2 large waves. If you do all this you should be able to save good amount of prestige and time.

[Casaubon]

yes I used the same defensive positions & tactics in the last days like here, using bridge pioneers for connecting my front and the river positions to hit crossing enemy units. level and tac bombers to strafe soviet artillery, kradschützen to delay enemy advance in order to withdraw as many aux as possible to the center, where I upgrade them. holding the inner city airfield on the left. abusing the AI exploit to not kill harmless units stuck next to mine to narrow gateways even more. I got about 7 AA high level guns mostly positioned in the Highcommandbunker area where enemy airwaves arrive, shooting down the remains with my 4 fighters, while tanks/ATguns with strong artillery cover in 2nd line hold the main soviet attack from the east in this area. From the west I manage to stop the enemy advance almost completely around the inner city airport with some losses that I can replace mostly. I think the disposition is almost ideal, still there is always some losses and sometimes the AI brakes through my line and hits my artillery hard. Then I have to quit and retry

what turn does the second wave start? about the middle of the 32, which would be around turn 15? I lost about 25% of my core and some of my airforce in the first 7 turns, regardless how hard I tried in the last days. I could keep on playing but I have the feeling that I need to perform even better, not lose any tank or any key unit at least to turn 8 or so.

[brettz123]

Until stalingrad my core grew up to 90+ units in my core. all about 2**, almost any of them with hero(s) all maps finished with a DV & capture all equipment possible. I used not to upgrade all of this core to the latest tech available, rather was rotating the use of units due to specific situations, and tried to buy / use / train about 3 green units on every new map, afterwards sending them to the reserves. This way many veterans from poland/france/balkans were not active until I recalled them at about 1943. For example I used the early recon, AAs , fighter planes way longer than usually people do I guess, my panzers III and IVs were active even long after Stalingrad, same as early years captured equipment etc.

This was your big mistake. There is absolutely no benefit to having this many units in your CORE. No problem having some units to switch in and out depending on the situation but 90+ is just a bad decision. You will never get enough heroes to make a good unit and you will dilute your experience which further weakens your units. You should never have more than 50 - 55 units.

For instance my CORE consists of the following (and is completely purchased by the end of the 1941 DLC)
4 Infantry (I suggest grenadier or fallschirmjaeger)
17 Panzers
3 AT (not as good as tanks so if you want to go just for effectiveness take these as full blown tanks)
4 Towed artillery (I have 150s)
1 Towed Nebelwerfer (at least one of your artillery will get a range +1 hero and this is what I convert him to)
3 Wurfrahmen 40 (one of the best units in the game)
3 StuGs (these guys are awesome! don't upgrade to the Brumbars though as the StuH 42 is the most capable of dealing out damage to soft targets)
1 88 (versatile and deadly but pretty hard to use)
6 Fighters
4 Stukas (useless by 44 but by then you can upgrade them to Fw-190s)
2 Me-110s (great in the 39, 40, and 41..... not so great after but you can upgrade them to Me-410 which is pretty nice and later to Fw-190s)
2 He-177A (useful for when you are facing ships which isnt too often but good in specific situations.

after the difficulty soon rised dramatically I tended to lose units, and let them stay dead, hardly reloading after I knew what would happen in the next turns as I had such a strong reserve I felt this would compensate the loss. Ok so after the late year DLCs regular losses in my SE and core had reduced my overall strength subsequently and I realized something with my style was wrong at the latest since "Return to Kishinev" as the map was hardly possible to beat at all. it was too late already to reload a specific map as I used to lose valuable stuff every map since 1943 and SAVE the game.

It´s a pity the difficulty in this game was achieved by spawning unrealistic amounts of enemy units rather than using more advanced AI algorithms. Nevertheless I still love it As there was announcements that there will be an allied corps next I think I will postpone my purchase of the 43,44,45West DLCs because I´m afraid I would be facing huge amounts of enemy allied reinforcements there same as in the east DLCS rather than challenging map designs. I´m a little tired of that "endless stream of enemies" concept as I prefer shorter scenarios that dont require to save every man on the field.

I will admit that some of the later scenarios seem like an endless stream of enemies but that is pretty historical. Your issue is you built your CORE very poorly to the point where you really can't win with it.

[timek28]

I forgot to add that I had almost all units five starred until this point. And all overstrenghened to 15. This is also very important. Basically in that case it doesn't matter how many AI units are there they will get obliterated with very few of your losses (No core units should be lost). Five starred Tigers and Panthers won't be attacked even in city hex without artillery support. However Berlin Redux is where things get tough.

It is also very important to do any optional missions and capture all enemy equipment possible to be prepared for this mission. This especially applies to covert mission that gives you around 6 AA veteran units and missions that give you SU122 artillery.

I cannot see you losing this mission (or getting anything but DV) with all your units having five stars, unless there is some ridiculous flaw in your strategy. On the other hand no matter which strategy you choose it won't help if you have inexperienced units. Especially because Berlin Redux is coming and soviets will put out there their best and most experienced units (most will be 4 starred or above).

As far as when waves come I think the second wave starts around move 17 and completely dries out until move 25. So you have good 7 moves ahead to achieve a DV. But your units on the western flank should start breaking through even earlier.

Edit:
I just saw your screenshot. No PZIVs please! Although H version is quite formidable, it will have much higher losses than Panthers and Tigers. If you cannot afford TIger 2 go with Tiger 1. But no PZIVs. I basically replaced all my PZIVs at the beginning of 44 or so...

[Casaubon]

Finally I managed to win a marginal victory in Berlin with a "historical" core composition. It is possible and a decisive victory is possible to achieve also I think with a non optimized core, I had not the energy to replay it for a DV this time though. I must say I was a little disappointet that a MV ends with a plain and indifferent "Axis surrenders" Screen as reward instead of an Outro. I just have changed history a little by winning this onslought didn´t I, so why there is nothing emphasizing it?
On the other hand I apologize for my rant about poor scenario design in one of posts above. This scenario was designed just different by intention and needs a different playing approach using AI exploits, which I´m not a big fan off. Well nevermind.



So if anybody out there is playing a historical army and uses not only top-notch units up to 45, these hints might be interesting for you:

the setup
You need to be aware that this scenario starts off with your army being outnumbered by 10:1 at least and this relation will not change throughout most of the time. You have a constant stream of prestige income, I think it is about 200/turn, so you can repurchase green infantry units you lose. I never bought elite replacements on this map since it is the last battle and never ran out of prestige for repairs/ aux upgrades and infantry/pak repurchases, that I lost.

for comparison my core, consisting of the following units (* = experience, H = Hero, 7 SEs included):

Prestige: ~5000
Infantry: 2x Grenadier *H, 2x Fallschirm*H, 1 Inf;
Tanks: 2x TigerII*HH, 1x Maus*H (from Seelow Heights), 1x SE Maus** (granted at map start), 1x TigerI**HH, 2x Panther**HH, 2x PzIV*H, 1x PzIII*H, 1x PzIIFlamm ****H;
ATs: 1x Elefant**HHH, 1x KTiger***, 1x Pak43 **H;
Artillery: 4x SFh***H, 1x Mrs 21***H, 1x Nbwf**H,1x K5Railgun*****H, 1xBrumbär*****H, 1x Pzwerf***H;
AAs (most of them granted in optional raid mission in 45): 3x Flak40****H. 2x Flak36**H, 2xOstwind*****H;
Luftwaffe: 1x Me262**H, 1x Bf109K***HH, 1x FW190A, 1xKomet H, 1x FW190D**H, 1x Stuka*H, 1x Henschel**, 1x Heinkel*,1x Dornier***, 1x Junkers**;

In the beginning I left the weaker tanks, 2 aircraft and some infantry in my reserve for later use and bought a bunch of green units, my prestige dropped to ~3000:
4x Gebirgsjäger, 2x Brückenpioniere, 2x Kradschützen, 1x ReconSdkfz232, 1x Pioniere, 1x StugIV;

the rescue - turns 1 to 3
You have some additional forces that will be overrun within turn 1 and 2 and most of them are dead when you finally start moving. Because your core is not consisting of overstrength superunits it is an imperative to dig in at heavily fortified positions and hold them throughout the time, rather blocking than killing of endless waves of enemy units going for the centre. If you try to cover too much space and move out of the inner area within the river/canal borders you will overstretch and fail. In order to be able to hold the centre you will need any help by auxiliary units available you managed to rescue and bring back to your ultimate defenseline. See the rescue op here.

So I bought some green disposible units in order to rescue as many AUX units as possible. The rescue units most probably wont survive this operation but their loss is worth it as you will need as many units deployed simultaneously as possible to strengthen all hotspots the enemy is trying to cross or to interchange/ rotate heavily damaged strongpoint defenders. I learned that I can keep few of the rescue units alive if they have a high mobility (Kradschützen or cheap Recon) and run for life after the AUX are secured.
You can upgrade these rescued AUX later, which makes them really valuable since this is the last battle there is no waste in upgrading AUX here. At some point I delayed the enemy with green inf or green paks to keep escape routs open, one was rescued by train, one pak ran away by upgrading with a lorry, others by fleeing the river with the help of bridge engineers. Until turn 3 I managed to bring home 5 AUX Volkssturm, and 2 Paks from the outer city districts. Together with the ones stationed closer I began to upgrade the Volkssturm to Gebirgsjäger or Brückenpioniere when their hitpoints were reduced under 10, the Pak40s to Pak43 or StugIII / StugIV, if needed in open terrain. My army had the following auxiliary alive & helping / on-route for upgrades in turn 4:
7x Volkssturm, 6x Pak40, 1x Flak40, 1x Bunker

So I positioned the main core around the hotspots I marked green on the screenshot, on the insides of the riverbanks and canals except northeast of the High Command bunker, where I dug in behind the 2 clear hexes. My best units (TigerII, Maus, Ktiger, Elefant, Pak43, Grenadiere) are holding this open or close combat terrain, with very strong AA and Artillery support. See here.

the luftwaffe

I did not deploy all of my planes right from the start, as my green infantry will die again and again in the first turns, I can redeploy less effective planes later as core slots will be freed constantly.

The cyan arrow marked on the screenshot indicates the direction where the soviet airforce will be flying in. It proved to be a good idea positioning the heavy AA calibres along that path, so my interceptors can deal with the already weakened enemy fighters and suffer less losses. This is vital because one can´t repair the Luftwaffe to full extent throughout most of this scenario. The Tempelhof dual airfields in the south will be overrun within 2-3 turns, the only airfield accessible will be the inner city airfield in centre west, BUT it will be next to enemy units trying to cross the river all of the time there, so your repair is slowed down to +1 maximum/turn. For refuelling you can use the 2 hexes east/right of that airfield to get fuel tanks filled as long these are held by your units.
My fighters units ended the scenario 1 shot down, others reduced to ~ half strength and I managed to keep air superiority due to my strong AAs on the ground. I bought repairs almost only for my bombers, because the red army has one big weakness here, they did not bring any ground based mobile AA units!! This makes this level a bombing feast for your tac bombers cutting down enemy tanks crossing water or your strat bombers destroying/depleting enemy Katyushas. The main danger from enemy fighters comes from the east, but you should always see them in time as they are coming the way along your positions at the High command bunker where you shell them heavily with your AAs. If there is undamaged enemy fighters remaining on the map you should use your own for covering your bombers rather than Strafe ground attack missions.

holding the bottlenecks
In the first ~ 10 turns things can get really nasty, the only way to survive is to deplete enemy IS2 tanks, Katyushas, SU122s with strat bombers, blocking off crossing units with your dug in infantry/paks from city hexes that you have to support with excessive artillery cover. Place your best armored units in the open areas that you need to keep. The enemy AI player wont charge into those terrain tiles if you keep your artillery supplied and well positioned. If the frontline defenders are hit severly they will be exchanged with weaker units deployed closeby until they are repaired. Bring in the upgraded AUX units to do the replacement job until your own are fit again. Bridge pioneers proved very helpfull as your backareas are hopelessly overcrowded with Artillery and AA support units and you run out of space for rotation moves. If the enemy breaches any strongpoint, it is very important to reconquer those positions as they proved to be the best bottlenecks to hold. It happened to me about 4 to 5 times in different locations, mostly when enemy artillery manages to supress my own support artillery. There is supreme overstrength heavy IsII tanks coming in from all directions so you probably wont be able to fend those off in every case.
You should keep control of these key hexes and reconquer them if lost at all cost:
Southeast: 17.15 (holding the bridges with KTiger), 23.14 + 23.16 (hold clear with TigerII or Maus, stuff space behind with AAs and Arty), 20.12 (Reichstag, Pak or Grenadiere),
Central Island: 19.9, 17.7, 13.7 (hold crossings from close combat terrain)
City Airfield West: 9.9 (use hv. tank), 10.11(Pak43)
There will be not much movement in the turns 5 - 15. Your army sits in the city hexes next to the water crossings and block weakened enemy units, jamming the better soviet units in the rear that you are bombing from the air. Occassionally if you have sufficient ammo you kill off only those, that wont be replaced by high threatening units by the means of the stone paper scissors principle as you need to anticipate what might do harm to your position and what replacement unit will pose a real threat when you open a pathway by killing. Avoid giving five star IS2s the option to attack your tanks in open or overstrength soviet engineers to charge unsupported city hexes. Artillery suppresion is really the key here. As you are killing off selected units every turn the enemy army will run of replacements little by little. First this happens northeast of your central Island, but dont cross the river yet, there is another enemy tank wave coming in around turn 15 (red arrows on this screenshot). You can use recons (like the PzII Luchs) though to hunt enemy Katyushas and return the recon afterwards, finishing the job by air in this area. So you are clogged again in your fortifications until turn ~25, when the constant killing starts to clear the map finally.

the counteroffensive
I didnt really manage to play this part very well as I got reaaaally tired and ended in a marginal victory but I think I see some possibilities with a historical core for a DV as I got ~ 80% of the necessary victory tiles until turn 32. The enemies strongest position still brimming with different unit types will be the area east of your High command bunker, so for a DV your best units should be active right here. It might prove impossible to get 29,18 and the 2 vic hexes east of it in time still, I haven´t tried. The easiest & first depleted area from enemy waves is north/northeast and you could starting expanding here around turn 21, even if there is still danger on the other fronts. I marked this area green on here. In my case I would deploy the Fallschirmjäger + Flammpanzer that I kept in my reserves right here an start a small offensive. The tricky part after turn 25 is to not run into soviets defenders (mostly undefended towed artillery) unnecessarily that are spread sparsely throughout the city, use air and recon to avoid them with your combat units that are going to clear the victory hexes held by infantry or stationary AA guns.