Slaughtered at Basildon - Sea Lion - advice?

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piotrekxg
Lance Corporal - SdKfz 222
Lance Corporal - SdKfz 222
Posts: 22
Joined: Sat Jan 26, 2013 7:41 pm

Slaughtered at Basildon - Sea Lion - advice?

Post by piotrekxg »

I just started Sea Lion a couple of days ago on Field Marshal level. First couple of scenarios went smoothly (btw - in my humble opinion this DLC is the best so far in terms of variety of tasks and missions - great job!) until Basildon scenario (it is in Dover path). In this scenario my troops have been slaughtered by countless and apparently immortal British :). Despite my thick defense lines British tanks just cut through my Panzers III's and IV's which were useless against Matildas and even enemy infantry was attacking and destroying my best tanks! (i.e. in one of the turns I lost 3 armored units which has never happened in last 3 years of playing this game!). On top of that game objectives change in mid game making the task even more difficult (btw I like difficult).

Do you have any good tactics for this scenario? Mine was to concentrate on the couple of cities and fortified positions around bridge on Thames leaving the rest of the map to enemy but it wasn't enough. Or maybe should I withdraw on the other bank of Thames and destroy enemy tanks when they try to pursue me to the other bank and then counter attack towards the end? My core forces are fairly balanced (1/4th of tanks, infantry, artillery and aircrafts) and they use best equipment possible so it is not like I have crappy units versus elite enemy units and in all previous games I had easily achieved major victory, that is why I was so shocked when they simply drove over my lines :).

So any tips?
captainjack
Brigadier-General - 15 cm Nblwf 41
Brigadier-General - 15 cm Nblwf 41
Posts: 1912
Joined: Thu Sep 13, 2012 7:42 am

Re: Slaughtered at Basildon - Sea Lion - advice?

Post by captainjack »

South of the river - I'd left my 3 range nebelwerfer to look after the infantry in close terrain. I should have pulled them back one hex so that they were surrounded by close terrain. The defenders are no more vulnerable, but any tanks get minced.

North of the river, I gradually pulled my units together to improve the defensive strength - only one hex at a time to keep the defensive artillery (mostly 105mm, and one Stug 3) - supporting. My two 88s provided good air cover, so the two tac bombers (110 and a Stuka) could take out tanks and the two strat bombers could strip ammo from anything with air defence or tanks awaiting a visit from the tac bombers.

Where possible I try to leave a hex of close terrain for tanks to wander into so my infantry can give them a bad day. The bad weather helped with a few ambushes. The basically wait it out for a few turns. This is pretty much my standard defensive pattern, although I was a bit smarter with use of terrain and ambush here than I usually am.

Once the worst was over, I sent the Slovaks south of the river, left a few units (three infantry and two artillery) to clear up the north eastern town and started to work towards the other objectives. It was a last or last-but-one turn win, but not too stressful after about turn 1 or 2.

I was playing on General with dice chess setting, so I wouldn't have had really extreme results. Other than that, the only super hero is Oleh Dir. He got an extra +1 initiative and is now working as a Pioneer. The rest are mostly +1 with the odd +2 and the best is probably the 3range nebelwerfer.
piotrekxg
Lance Corporal - SdKfz 222
Lance Corporal - SdKfz 222
Posts: 22
Joined: Sat Jan 26, 2013 7:41 pm

Re: Slaughtered at Basildon - Sea Lion - advice?

Post by piotrekxg »

OK I tried that and it worked (kinda) I got minor victory. I'd need at least 2 more turns to take the last victor hex and the snowy weather did not help with the offensive last couple of turns. At the beginning I pulled back and concentrated my units around the closest city to to the Thames. I softened Matildas as they approached and dealt with enemy air crafts on my terrain with the support of AA. I went into offensive around turn 12 and still it was hard race against time to take that one but last victory hex. Any idea what (and if) there is any difference in terms of minor and major victory in terms of prestige?
captainjack
Brigadier-General - 15 cm Nblwf 41
Brigadier-General - 15 cm Nblwf 41
Posts: 1912
Joined: Thu Sep 13, 2012 7:42 am

Re: Slaughtered at Basildon - Sea Lion - advice?

Post by captainjack »

The easiest way to check prestige for loss/mv/dv is to use the cheat codes to force the desired result, then check the prestige count at the beginning of the next scenario. There are other ways, but this is probably the quickest.

Access cheat codes (on PC press control+alt+delete+c - it can be done for ipad etc but I don't have one so don't know how). Type one of the following:
endscn0 will force a DV
endscn1 will force a MV
endscn2 will force a loss.

It is also worth checking in the library to see where the campaign branches. In some campaigns your next scenario (or sometimes whether you get a choice) is determined by your results
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