45 East Berlin

[codman]

Looking for some advice on the GC 45 East Berlin scenario. The attached screen shot shows the my initial emplacements but any advice would be appreciated. Playing the Rommel campaign has been a good challenge but starting this scenario with only 66 prestige left and most of my units at 12 and 13 gives me the feeling that the light at the end of the tunnel is nothing more than the headlamp of a train...

Thanks in advance - Codman

PS: For those of you who may have successfully gotten to Berlin Redux on Rommel, I'm all ears!!!

Also I apologize if the image is too grainy as I'm no wizard when it comes to screenshots.

[wargovichr]

Stage a fighting withdrawal back to a **concentrated tight** supporting defense on the "island" **behind rivers** containing the führer bunker but maintain defense of the one airfield (critical to refuel)...a bruckenpioniere provides back and forth access to the "island."
90% of your battles should be at river hexes.
You will need more prestige to repair/recycle defenses then plug gaps. Infantry and artillery the mainstay of defence and panzers to counterattack (at rivers).

[Rayrard]

This looks like "regular" Belin, not Redux. Redux has no aux units and you have to deploy to attack in the southeast as well as defend.

You seem to have few units compared to what I've played that scenario with.

You are concentrated which is good but with only one Brumbar near the airfield I feel like you will be driven from the airfields by infantry attacks on the tanks in city hexes. Even if you keep a Tiger 2 on the airfield the Soviets will surround it and prevent anything from resupply. I think you can easily defend the river and counterattack, but your airforce will likely run out of fuel. You will probably lose a few tanks up there since only the Elephant and the Maus will be able to shoot without return fire damaging them. The mobile heavy Soviet artillery will likely destroy your infantry on the west side and you don't have enough artillery to defend against infantry attacks in the west. I would be much more afraid of the Soviet SMG and Guards infantry and the heavy ISU-152/122 artillery than the Russian tanks. Moving all the tanks south of the river to the north on the island would make your defense impenetrable as you could swap damaged units in and out and still keep a continuous front. You just have to watch for the Soviets sneaking across the river and getting into city hexes. With your shortage of ranged artillery, you might have heavy losses digging a SMG out of a city hex. You only have 4 ranged pieces pieces and only obsolete Su-122's on the west side. Also keep your Flak alive in case you lose your airforce or your artillery is gonna get mobbed by Sturmoviks.

Also, what is the average experience of your units? With 66 entering Berlin you mus have used regular green replacements? If your units are under 3 stars you will likely be destroyed. You need 4 or 5 star Panthers to stand against T34/85's and IS-2's and even your Tiger 2's at 12 strength need experience to be able to force surrenders of anything without artillery support. Two or three star Me-262's with 12 strength should live as long as they have an airfield, but there is a good chance that return fire will knock off a few points with bad dice rolls on a Yak-9U or La-7 with 3-4 stars. Once the 262 gets under 7 or 8 strength, the Russians will mob it and kill it.

[wargovichr]

Oh, dump all your bombers, disband them for prestige which you'll need desperately as **you'll need air superiority fighters and AA.** 88's double as antitank.

[codman]

Thanks for the tips although I decided not to get rid of the bombers as they help with the IS tanks and larger Soviet SP artillery. I played through a couple of times and got marginal victories but I doubt I can get a decisive with Rommel.

I'd be interested to hear if anyone has been able to get to Berlin Redux and beyond in Rommel as the inability to get loads of prestige puts a brake on a legion of massively over strength units.