Grand Campaign West & East 39-45 (Manstein) [Epilogue]

[huckc]

Houffalize
Prestige: 25,349 with 61 units
Soft Cap: 100% (no fighters deployed)



Went with the "Bridge Crossing" branch because I did the Antwerp one last play-through. (Also to duck the Eisenborn Ridge artillery that is 2x strength on Manstein )

Another slog in snowy weather, thankfully at 100% soft cap again due to no fighters deployed and the relatively low strength of the defenders and their static nature this mission.

That being said, pretty much everything that could go wrong did go wrong, I even had a Tiger II down to 1 strength after getting caught out in close terrain and nailed by a US infantry. Another unfortunate event of note was an airborne mis-drop that drew upon multiple enemy units that otherwise would've never been encountered.

Deployed four Fallschirmjäger in the air to clear the path into La Roche-en-Ardenne and help take it.




Turn 3 - All-out assault on Houfallize.


Turn 4 - Fallschirmjäger dropped with a costly mis-drop drawing enemy units.


Turn 15 - Pushing on La Roche-en-Ardenne

Result
Decisive Victory turn 17 of 18
Prestige: 28,760 with 61 units

[huckc]

Celles
Prestige: 24,951 with 64 units
Soft Cap: 66% (some over-strength)



Extremely difficult scenario, making me sort of regret going this branch of the campaign . Faced with massive combined arms counter-attacks that need to be cleared out then pushing far across the map to take some well defended cities.

Bought some new units, including a strategic bomber which I regret not doing at the beginning of the campaign. It's only a He-122, worth 300 prestige. I did that due to the huge upgrade to the "Amerika Bomber" coming soon and didn't want to waste too much prestige in the process.

Deployed three Fallschirmjäger in the air to take Dinant in the very west.


(There is a rail line in the south that I didn't notice until half-way through the scenario but was still able to utilize it to bring units to the front-line. Rail is especially useful on frozen ground to save fuel.)


Turn 2 - Facing an immediete counter-attack of great strength in the south.


Turn 5 - Fallschirmjäger landing behind Dinant in the west.


Turn 7 - Facing a second counter-attack of similar disposition.


Turn 12 - Assault on Celles in the center and Fallschirmjäger fighting British infantry in Dinant in what would be brutal house-to-house fighting.


Turn 16 - Final turn, all objectives virtually secured and rushing my tanks in support against a counter-attack at Dinant.



Result
Decisive Victory turn 16 of 16
Prestige: 28,546 with 64 units

[huckc]

Bastogne Siege
Prestige: 27,779 with with 64 units
Soft Cap: 100% (No major fighters deployed)




Medium difficulty, that's if you ignore the northern road and evacuate all the rockets to the southern zone. Weather remains cloudy or snowy, no clear skies still.

Deployed four Fallschirmjäger in the air to clear the way for my ground troops.

Made a very expensive false assumption that the rockets can be free-replaced after the scenario and voluntarily took a hit to one of them. Turns out you can't replace them at all, costing me 600 prestige, darn-it!




Evacuating all the rockets to the south


Enemy counter-attack

Result
Decisive Victory turn 18 of 19

[huckc]

Bastogne Assault
Prestige: 35,780 with 64 units
Soft Cap: 43% (major over-strength)



Extremely difficult scenario despite clear skies finally. Stretched extremely thin over a large map against a strong enemy airforce is never a good thing. I was going for a DV but an MV also gets you a ticket to Liege.

Lost my first core unit too for the entire playthrough, a 2-star unhero'd Fallschirmjäger, however it was my least valuable unit deployed so not too horrible. I had plans though!

Ctrl + LMB is crucial in this scenario to see the percent chance of rugged a defense and opting to wait for further artillery support if its too high.


Deployed all four Fallschirmjäger on the ground, mostly to dig in and defend victory hexes targeted by counter-attacks.

It's an epic scenario so lots of screenshot incoming...


It's best to ignore the entire line of fortifications in the north as you can see with my plans here. No time to dig out those entrenched units while risking rugged defenses!


Turn 2 - Storming Flamierge in the north and its vital airfield


Turn 2 - Storming Wardin in the south


Turn 5 - Just outside of Bastogne


Turn 6 - Attacking Command Post


Turn 6 - Defending Tillet in the east


Turn 6 - Defending Clochiment in the south


Turn 8 - Fighting my way through Bastoge and taking a big hit from General McAuliffe's Wolverine


Turn 12 - R.I.P. Fallschirmjäger, destroyed here despite four entrenchment and covered by two artillery units. Its killers were that 19 strength 4-star 101st airborne, an honorary foe.


Turn 15 - Command Post finally cleared of enemy garrison and counter-attackers


Turn 18 - All victory hexes secured in Bastogne. Just some infantry to clear out then moving out to take Senonchamps.


Turn 18 - Tense moments at Tillet, near the brink of disaster.


Turn 19 - Southern counter-attack neutralized and moving out to take Sibret


Turn 20 - Sibret taken, that just leaves...


Turn 20 - Sonenchamp taken for the final victory hex!



Result
Decisive Victory turn 20 of 23.
Lost a core Fallschirmjäger for the first core unit lost in the entire play-though
Prestige: 36,312 with 64 units

[goose_2]

I just finished this last weekend, so it is fresh in my mind.

I barely made the Decisive, myself, mostly because I was playing blind, but I brought out the remaining V-1's and V-2's and blasted my way to success.

This is where I have to stop following as I will be trying it blind, but will catch up once I complete.

Awesome work

[huckc]

I just finished this last weekend, so it is fresh in my mind.

I barely made the Decisive, myself, mostly because I was playing blind, but I brought out the remaining V-1's and V-2's and blasted my way to success.

This is where I have to stop following as I will be trying it blind, but will catch up once I complete.

Awesome work

I sold off all but two rockets, opting to over-strength instead.

Liege
Prestige: 35,140 with 64 units
Soft Cap: 97% (Partial deployment)



I found this one easy but mainly because it seems much easier non-blind, very disproportionately so. I had a lot of trouble my first play-through. I also remember where the supply dumps are and heavy enemy armor which helps immensely.

Deployed all three Fallschirmjäger in the air to land behind the Meuse river and blow things up and stuff.




Turn 2 - Wall fighter trap worked


Turn 2 - Jet aircraft arrives and down goes the soft cap to 54%


Turn 4 - Fallschirmjäger dropped and ready to go


Turn 9 - Final wave of enemy aircraft and descending into Liege.


Turn 12 - Making my way through Liege and chipping away at the enemy heavy armor in the northwest.


Turn 15 - Captured the final victory hex in Liege.


Turn 16 - Destroyed the last supply dump



Result
Decisive Victory turn 16 of 18. All supply dumps destroyed.
Prestige: 38,179 with 67 units

[huckc]

Antwerp
Prestige: 34,851 with 69 units
Soft Cap: 27%



If Liege was too easy then this scenario more than makes up for it. Extremely hard! The enemy air force was very strong and there was a massive counter-attack from the north that tied me up for a long time. A strategic mistake was not fully vesting in dealing with that counter-attack.

Deployed all three Fallschirmjäger in the air for a double-drop to take out some far-reaching supply depots in the north. They would tally up seven total supply dumps destroyed, great job! One was nearly destroyed however to an aggressive British Engineer.




Turn 4 - Zonhoven taken


Turn 5 - Counter-attack from Brussels


Turn 7 - The tip of a massive enemy air wave nearly takes out a 12-strength 3-star Gotha I received last mission.


Turn 9 - Still chipping away at the air wave and capturing Westerlo


Turn 11 - Massive counter-attack from the north would tie me up for many turns. The V-rockets helped immensely.


Turn 18 - Full press on Antwerp and Fallschirmjäger taking out some depots in the north


Turn 20 - Making good progress into Antwerp



Turn 22 - All victory hexes secured and all supply depots destroyed for the complete victory!



Result
Decisive Victory turn 22 of 24. All supply depots destroyed.
Prestige: 44,825 with 69 units.

[huckc]

Brussels
Prestige: 38,569 with 69 units
Soft Cap: 31%



Insanely difficult defensive scenario, the hardest of the campaign so far. Partly because the normally weakened British roughly double in strength. Also the 17-strength American fighters, especially the P-47N, can one-shot any of my bombers and the M26 Pershings can go toe-to-toe with any of my tanks.

The enemy air waves were tense as I couldn't let any of their fighters escape and repair to full strength. Each wave already takes all seven of my fighters and two fighter-bombers to deal with so adding previous fighters to it is way too much.

Upgrading some of the aux anti-tank units to the 8.8cm Pak 43/41 to help form the defensive line.




Turn 3 - First wave of enemy attacks in full swing


Turn 10 - Massive second wave from the north. Fortunately the enemy infantry has transport and can't go in thick forest.


Turn 17 - Final turn thankfully, as the final wave from the south is not able to arrive in time to do much damage

Turn flow
https://i.imgur.com/eHcrVsq.mp4

Result
Decisive Victory turn 17 of 17
Prestige: 40,764 with 69 units

[huckc]

Gates of Berlin
Prestige: 31,227 with 69 units
Soft Cap: 20%


Extremely difficult and complex scenario, with the most units at play by far in the entire campaign. The scenario is 22 turns long however the first 1/3 is what really counts.

The key is to get to the bridge engineer positions in time to completely "plug" them, which is extremely difficult at this level due to the amount of enemy strength you need to get through in only 7 or 8 turns.

I had a self-imposed limitation of only using one of the V-rockets, the rest would be flown out to the evacuation hexes to be used in Sealion or disbanded. I really also wanted the Aux mobile AA with 4-stars so I evacuated it as well.


Habermann circled.


Turn 2 - Heavy fighting in the center


Turn 2 - In the south, evacuated Habermann immediately and trying to destroy as many units via surrender as possible.


Turn 8 - Great success! All bridge engineer positions plugged. The scenario was effectively over at this point but would face heavy air waves. SE Maus capturable re-deployed to help in the south.


Turn 22 - Final turn, rolling my heaviest tanks onto the bridge victory hexes in order to secure the victory.

Result
Decisive Victory turn 22 of 22. Gained 11 V-rockets, a few aux units, and a special SE Maus
Prestige: 33,454 with 85 units.

[huckc]

Dunkirk 45
Prestige: 24,934 with 85 units
Soft Cap: 20%




Medium-high difficulty scenario. Small map but rough terrain, deceptively hard. I also misunderstood the victory conditions and thought it would end after taking all the objectives, instead it ends when the clock runs out which made it funner defending against the American onslaught but somewhat exploitable by capturing the last victory hex on the final turn.




Turn 4 - Most of the initial screen destroyed. Fallschirmjäger about to duke it out in the swamps.


Turn 6 - Brugge taken and assaulting Nieuport.


Turn 9 Nieuport taken and facing the first of many air waves, includes the new Meteor jet fighter.


Turn 11 - De Panne taken and hit with the second air wave.


Turn 13 - Third air wave while sieging Dunkirk.


Turn 15 - Dunkirk captured which triggered the American counter-attack while getting hit with the fourth air wave.


Turn 17 - Final turn. American onslaught contained while getting hit with the final air wave, was fearful of the 17-strength M36 Jacksons and Pershings. The mobile AAs took their toll on my planes.

Result
Decisive Victory turn 17 of 17.
Prestige: 26,858 with 85 units

[huckc]

Sealion 45
Prestige: 1,717 (Max over-strength)
Soft Cap: 46% (weird, should've been 20% and switched to that half way through)

Final scenario and suitably challenging.

Deployed four Fallschirmjäger to land in Wales and that other SW peninsula to take some hard to reach flags and block the expected naval landings.

Didn't need to disband any of my dozens of rockets as I already had enough prestige for max over-strength so I was able to deploy them and enjoy some very high explosive delayed gratification

Going to do a full map screenie every five turns as a checkpoint with some interesting bits thrown in.




Deployment. A lot of extra V-rockets that I saved from previous scenarios.


Turn 2 - Initial landings


Turn 5 - Still trying to break though to London and a massive battle with the US navy.


Turn 10 - Finally reached London and US navy almost cleared.


Turn 15 - Bracing for the massive naval landing in the southwest. Should be any turn now...


Landing ships have arrived


Turn 20 - Didn't do a good job of barricading the landings and many units landed, causing later headaches. Only a third of the map conquered.


Turn 25 - Greater London area cleared and moving north


Turn 30 - Not looking good in the north, so many flags and enemy units with only ten turns remaining. Victory seems improbable.


Turn 35- Going for broke to take the last dozen or so of flags. A victory is looking 50/50


Turn 40 - Final turn and only one flag remaining. Would be easily captured despite an extremely hectic last few turns leading up to it.

Result
Decisive Victory turn 40 of 40




Replaying this I think I can win it much cleaner by...

1) Not disbanding AA prematurely as I mistakenly thought the air war was over. Didn't expect the last two British air waves after defeating the Americans.
2) Not forgetting about the last V-1 rocket spawn until few turns later. Using those rockets against the last big AA gun in the very north.
3) Using another strategic bomber or two against the massive US navy. Used four already but probably could've spared more which would keep more u-boats alive to destroy the naval landings.
4) Blockading the coastal hexes against the naval landings instead of trying to intercept them
5) Not reserving a slot for the railway gun as for some reason it can't be deployed on the island, despite rail hexes in towns
6) Not losing the u-boat in the very north after getting spotted by a destroyer

Final campaign thoughts:
Extremely enjoyable and well crafted. Chapeau to the designer!

Campaign was a success! Thanks for reading!

[huckc]

Now that the West is conquered I decided to travel back in time and take my dusty old '41 core and go east!

Vitebsk
Prestige: 40,831 with 65 units
Soft Cap: 100%



I find that defensive scenarios tend to be disproportionately harder on Manstein and this one is no exception, strength plus aggression is harder than just strength. Doesn't help that my tanks are still 3-star with weak base stats compared to the enemy's KV-1Cs, which they will spam purchase relentlessly and I don't blame them at all for that.


Deployment


Turn 2 - fighting off the first wave.


Turn 15 - KV-1C spam incoming, time to pull the plug!

Result
Decisive Victory turn 15 of 19
Prestige: 45,137 with 66 units
Gained a captured T-34/41
A nice +1 spotting hero on my best 88

[huckc]

Kharkov 42
Prestige: 43,112 with 67 units
Soft Cap: 100%



Did you find this scenario very hard because I found it very hard. A very tough opening two scenarios, wouldn't want to play this on the default core.

Plan was to defend the west Donets bridgehead with half my force against the main thrust to take Kharkov while flanking with the other half along the north and south. Didn't go entirely to plan as I over-extended myself in the north and took lots of losses, but only needed one mid-scenario replacement.




Turn 3 - Heavy fighting in the south and mid. Captured a T34/41 in the northeast with a quick decisive action then split those forces to the south and mid to bolster the defense there.


Turn 11 - KV-1C purchase spam that would take awhile to destroy. My forces on the east side of the Oskal river could do nothing but watch from afar


Turn 18 - Last enemy unit alive, would keep him that way in order to continue the scenario and milk the 200 prestige per turn.

Result
Decisive Victory turn 20 of 20
Prestige: 49,459 with 68 units
Gained a captured T34/41

[PeteMitchell]

Now that the West is conquered I decided to travel back in time and take my dusty old '41 core and go east!

Oh this is really great news, I am very excited!

By the way, how do you do your extra-large vertical screenshots (or rather with which screen are you playing)? Thanks!

[huckc]

Now that the West is conquered I decided to travel back in time and take my dusty old '41 core and go east!

Oh this is really great news, I am very excited!

By the way, how do you do your extra-large vertical screenshots (or rather with which screen are you playing)? Thanks!

Hey thanks for the support.

I have a 4k screen and use ShareX's scrolling capture feature, which works sorta ok. The game doesn't use standard scroll commands so you need to scroll manually while it's working, which is very tricky but still much better than manually stitching things.
https://getsharex.com/screenshots/#gallery-19

[PeteMitchell]

Now that the West is conquered I decided to travel back in time and take my dusty old '41 core and go east!

Oh this is really great news, I am very excited!

By the way, how do you do your extra-large vertical screenshots (or rather with which screen are you playing)? Thanks!

Hey thanks for the support.

I have a 4k screen and use ShareX's scrolling capture feature, which works sorta ok. The game doesn't use standard scroll commands so you need to scroll manually while it's working, which is very tricky but still much better than manually stitching things.
https://getsharex.com/screenshots/#gallery-19

Thanks a lot! This could be really useful for the long eastern front in McGuba's Battlefield Europe...

[huckc]

Simferopol
Prestige: 50425 with 56 units (sold off all my uneeded capturables)
Soft Cap: 100%



I screwed up by not reading the victory requirements and lost one of the railguns which cost me the DV. It was very late in the scenario and I felt there was too high a probability of losing a weaker core unit to an AI attack so I offered up one of the railguns as bate to take the heat off, not fully expecting it to be outright destroyed mind you.

Other than that, the key to this one on Manstein is to not bother with the flags on the very east and west portions of the map due to time restrictions, instead joining all your forces in one big push down the center. Still need to worry about getting back-capped at very end by AI purchases from those side flags however so move back some units to block them.





Turn 2 - Voinka already taken in an elaborate opening move, forcing many a surrenders


Turn 10 - Sieging Simeropol


Turn 11 - Simferopol taken for the final victory hex

Result
Marginal Victory turn 11 of 12
Prestige 54103 with 56 units

[huckc]

Sevastopol Siege
Prestige: 53991 with 60 units
Soft Cap: 100%



Relatively easy one, provided you proceed with caution before hitting the southern coast. Bring recon and only hit Alushta in full force when all your units are ready.

There's also powerful armor to the south and at this level they're strong enough to attack my veteran tanks profitably, not a big deal as you have plenty of slots (and turns) to absorb having a tank or three knocked out of the battle. Also bring strategic bombers to destroy the powerful warships along the southern coast.





Turn 2 - Dashing south


Turn 5 - Assaulting Alushta in the south and taking big hits from enemy armor. Hopefully that's the last of them!


Turn 6 - All northern victory hexes captured


Turn 9 - Moving further south to take the final three victory hexes along the coast


Turn 14 - All victory hexes captured. Siege is a go!

Result
Decisive Victory turn 14 of 18
Prestige: 57526 with 60 units

[huckc]

Voronezh
Prestige: 54929 with 61 units
Soft Cap: 100%



Huge map with very tight time restrictions, thankfully the enemy force is weaker per unit than in all the previous scenarios in this campaign due to low experience. Most less than 1-star.
Aggression is key here unlike last scenario, not enougth time to be cautious. Large swaths of the map are entirely undefended too.




Turn 2 - Aftermath of a very aggressive opening move


Turn 3 - Liski taken in the south


Turn 4 - Lured a KV-1B tank onto the Don river in the north according to plan. Extremely fortunate for me and would destroy it this turn using Rudel then the Panzer IV.


Turn 5 - Full press on Voronezh


Turn 6 - Misdrops and fighting around Tolovaya


Turn 8 - Vorornezh finally secured and most of my units streaming east to take Zherdevka, the final victory hex! Also KV-1B captured.


Turn 11 - Zherdevka captured!


Last enemy flag remaining, blocked by some BT-5 shenanigans

Result
Decisive Victory turn 11 of 13
Prestige: 58465 with 64 units

[huckc]

Novanninsky




Medium difficulty scenario. The hardest part is the armored counter-attack close to the beginning with strong tanks and two mobile AA guns making things difficult. It's led by a named KV-1C at 20 health and 3-stars, a very tough foe to bring down.

After that it's mostly keeping at a moderate pace south down the map without making any big mistakes. I found I had some extra time to be cautious and scouted ahead.

I also got back-capped temporarily which almost cost me the DV.




Turn 2 - Scouting ahead for trouble after destroying the entire first screen of defenders on turn 1


Turn 3 - Aftermath of getting hit with a major armored counter-attack


Turn 8 - Novanninsky taken and hit with a second counter-attack but much weaker than the first


Turn 11 - Final victory hex with a nice ring of new purchases


Turn 12 - Back-capped! Turns out I wasn't paranoid by sending my two 88s to block things just in case but too bad they caught one still in its transport.


Turn 13 - Racing my nearest available units up to destroy the back-cappers which fortunately was enough to prevent a disaster.

Note:
It seems that the AI tries to back-cap from side flags purchases when it can no longer buy new units to defend its last victory hex due to being blocked by your own units. On this map it tried to back-cap me from two separate flags on different sides of the map, going straight for the closest victory hex. Not sure if it was out of prestige, but it bought BT-5s and recon instead of KV-1Cs thankfully.

Result
Decisive Victory turn 13 of 14
Prestige: