Allied: Crossing the Rhine

[uran21]

Please post here your comments about this scenario.

[Kamerer]

Beta 2

Loss, 24/24

Lost about 1/2 of my tanks, a few artillery pieces, and one or two infantry. Not a lot of fun.

[ThvN]

Crossing the Rhine

IDS_STRING25 Siegbourg=Siegburg

IDS_MESSAGE1
"HQ is sending you rare and unique unit."
you a rare

OR:
HQ is sending you an experimental unit.

[produit]

Beta 3, Triumph 24/24, FM, Chess mode, ending prestige 491.

This map is crazy. A small error and you lose 1-2 units. Enemy tank counter-attacks are just impossible. I had only best allied tanks (Comet, M36, M26, Crocodile), but surviving is difficult. Str 15 Tiger II, Str 15 Jagdtiger, and so on... Even the Tortoise barely survive to this onslaught. I had to retake save games multiple times to be able to finish this map. Most of the time, you hope that the enemy will take his tank units in the open or in a city to be able to attack it with planes or infantry. But this tactic is difficult to put in place with the air defense present and the artillery/forts on the map. This map is a killer of units. I would like to see what other players will say.

Restarting the map and using Fog of War cheat, enemy units are (strength in parentheses) :
3 Tiger II (15,15,14)
1 Jagdtigther (15)
3 Jagdpanther (13,13,12)
3 Elephant (12,13,14)
3 Nashorn (13,14,15)
2 Jagdpanzer IV/70 (12,15)
5 Panther A (12,13,14,14,15)
2 Panther G (14,15)
4 Panzer IVJ (15,15,15,15)

In front of that, I was only able to deploy 9 anti-tank hard units (1 M26, 5 Comets, 1 Firefly and 2 M36, OS between 11-13), against 26 German that are mostly better weapon and with more strength (12-15). I have more experience (mostly 300 exp.), but even a M26 cannot survive two attacks by Elephant/JagdPanther/Jagdtiger/Tiger II with a strength of 14-15.

I would really advise to reduce massively enemy armor strength. Number of units could be let like that, but strength should be reduce below 10, between 6 and 9 I would say, to make those tanks annoying, but not killing machines.

Prestige was also really lacking for me, I had to let 3-4 tanks units on the side, because I haven't the prestige to fill it up with elite, and I would not loose 200 exp for a tank reduced to a strength of 2 at this stage. It is even not the last map...

Saying during the briefing that no enemy airplane will come could also help the player to take no fighter and to buy 2-3 added ground units that will be really needed.

[monkspider]

Crossing the Rhine
DV 22/24
Beta 3
General level
Loses: 1x US Infantry and 1x Anti-Tank gun

I managed to narrowly pull off the DV on this one, but man on man, this one was brutal. I had very high losses, I even had to use cheats to save one of my elite British tanks that has been around since Border Raids. I upgraded one of my Sherman to a Pershing, which helped. But the amount of high quality enemy units on this map seems to be unrealistic. This was a time when Germany's armnaments production had been in collapse for several months and they were scraping the bottom of the manpower barrel. Still, I like the idea of the scenario, crossing the Rhine and then creating the Ruhr pocket.

[uran21]

Thanks to all for the feedback so far. From first iteration this scenario was significantly reduced in difficulty. Victory requirement was lowered as well as experience of enemy troops for Beta 3. For Beta 4 scenario was reduced even more. Enemy experience is bellow one star. No unit was removed from the map but their strength points were significantly reduced, having -4, -5 to be the common rule for it. Some individual units even more some less. Armour was more influenced by it than infantry for example. No changes were made to auxiliary units though. If you find yourself engaged in fighting with auxiliary enemy units on this map, and those not being structures, it is a good indicator your army entered in the wrong street. Following straight path to objectives is the way to go on this map. After all something needs to be encircled.

[RobertCL]

Beta 4
Standalone scenario
Leutnant level

Excellent scenario.
Originally I though a VH was to be added in Bochum to make the scenario harder but this is an encirclement scenario, now I fully understand.
BTW I discovered that British Long Range Desert Group could appear as infantry unit when clicking on the switch button, 1st time I noticed it.

I am happy I had this time heavy bombers in numbers, a very good scenario, congrats to the team!

[hadberz]

I played this as stand-alone on Colonel setting as Allies. Victory achieved on turn 20 even though I had captured 6 objectives earlier. Overall, a enjoyable scenario.

[billmv44]

Beta 4. General. Prestige start 7520, end 210. Victory on 24/24.
I captured all VH's and have taken 14 enemy flags with 3 neutralized. Shouldn't that be a Triumph? Or do the hexes have to be neutralized? I have the final turn save game if needed.

Those 15 strength enemy tanks are quite scary. Prestige was just enough to upgrade 1 Sherman to a Pershing. That, plus the turtle helped. I used the aux bombers to suppress the tanks when I wasn't trying to neutralize hexes. The counter-attack from east of Olpe caught me off guard, but my air forces were able to hold them off until I could rush forces to deal with the threat. Losing my M8 on the second turn didn't help my ability those forces.

The balance seems reasonable (barely). As usual, these battles are massive prestige drains. Damage must be repaired (and the Germans inflict a lot of damage). So that really drains away the prestige. I'll use the cheat code to move on the the final scenario in this branch.

[uran21]

I captured all VH's and have taken 14 enemy flags with 3 neutralized. Shouldn't that be a Triumph?

For Triumph you should capture all VH's and neutralize at least 10 flags in the process. Later you can capture those neutralized flags if you want but important is they get neutralized at some point.

[okiemcguire]

Crossing the Rhine - Beta 4

Level: General
Prestige Begin: 4547 At Deployment: 3 End/Victory Bonus: 129/+7001
Results: Victory 24/24

Upgrades: 1 x Churchill IV to 1 x Comet, 1 x M4A3(76)W to 1 x M26, 1 x SE P-51 Mustand to 1 x SE P-51D Mustang.

Comments: You answered this in a previous email.. But I also captured all VH and > 10 flags. I had the remaining axis troops bottled up in Oberhausen, Dorsten, Bochum, and Essen. I guess I should have let the hexes become neutralized completely before I take them. This was my first experience with this scenario. I was lucky that 1) had engineers in both North and South Forces to handle mines, 2) had Comet, M26, Sherman Firefly, M36 Jacksons and the additional Heavy tank to handle the many armor I encountered..some at 15 str, 3) luckliy left troop stationed in Olpe to handle the counter attack, and 4) lots of Air power. If I had known that I would not encounter any fighters, I would have deployed more tactical and/or strategic bombers.

Air Corp Deployed: Hurrican IIC, Tempest, 2 x SE Meteor, 1 SE P-51D Mustang, 2 x Mosquito VI S2, and 2 x Lancaster III.

Southern Force - Mainly American forces of SE Ranger, Engineer, HW Inf, 1 x M26, 1 x M4A3(76)W, 2 x M36 Jackson, 2 x Churchill IV, Calliope, 155mm M12 GMC, Daimler, and BL 7.2inch. Move across the river to take Siegburg with airfield. Force then splits to continue attacks.

Force 1 moves NE to take and station troops at Olpe. The armor force will continue to Hagen. Hagen had been softened by air bombardment. The force will then cross the Ruhr river at the VH and support the assualt on Dortmund. After defeating the counterattack at Olpe. The Inf will catch up.

Force 2 moves NW taking Leverkurn, Dusseldorf, Duisburg, and then begin assualt on Essen. Defeating mines, armor, and fortifications.

Northern Force - The british force of Commando, Engineer, 2 x Churchill IV, Crocodile, Comet. Sherman Firefly, Daimler, Sexton, 155mm M12 GMC, and BL 7.2 inch will cross the Rhine and take Wesel and airfield. Armor moves east in artillery protected advance to defeat the many armor and infantry deployed. Infantry, Crocodile, Engineer, and couple of Churchills follow the armor taking Haltern and Selm. Small force begins to bombard Dorsten. The main force will move south over the Lippe River to take Hamm then take Dortmund to the west.

[produit]

Beta 4, FM, Chess mode, Triumph 17/24 (Cleared the map), Ending prestige 321.

The map is really simpler in Beta 4. I was attacked 2 times by enemy armored. The first time by a Jagdpanther that provoked a surprise contact and died directly without inflicting damage, the second time was the 15 strengthed Tiger 2 that attacked my Crocodile (3 Heroes, +7 defense total) in a city. I lost 2 points of strength but was able to kill it easily with infantry afterwards. Infantry and Crocodile are really needed to sustain as few prestige losses as possible when attacking entrenched armored targets and cities. As an example, the Jagdtiger (Strength 15) was killed in two attacks without loosing a strength point with an attack by a Commando and then a Ranger. Infantry rules in close combat, especially against low exp. German units.

My prestige remains really tights, with only 321 prestige in the end. I have to take really care. On the other hand, I suppose that I receive only 40% of the prestige (earned only 200 prestige for the 10 neutralized flags), and that is logical with a core of high end units mostly OS to 12-13, in FM.

The new map is really easier than the previous version. I didn't have to reload a lot of time in order to not lose any unit. Still OS 15 Tiger II and Jagdtiger make their impression...

[Raven_427]

RC2

Wonderful map .. at least, that's what i thought before entering it. Wondered about that neutralizing task .. but ok, give it a try.

- Crossing the rhine itself went easy enough. Encounterd some mines .. bypassing instead of destroying them.
- My fighters discovered some heavy armor in the western center of the map early on. This will be a serious counter attack later on .. so i've had some tanks guarding my back .. slowing acvance down heavily.
- Even so .. counter attacks, especially the first one from SE made some trouble, even further, slowing my advance.
- Wondered about not encountering any Volkssturm? Shouldn't the Germans be down to that this time? But ok .. without all those Panthers (and the AA) it would be to easy.
- Did it by the book, encircling the area, letting one VH open, then coming from the east, cleaning up, trying to get the needed neutralized areas. Didn't know, that i can capture them afterwards. Would give some prestige ..

DV @ 23/24 (after some cleanup to get exp on my tanks / artillery)

Great screnario to me ..