Stuck in the middle of the Gothic line with you

[MickMannock]

With Crete and Lorraine done, I jumped over to the Gothic line scenario. Starting it up I thought it couldn't get any harder than the prior two scenarios but boy was I wrong. The Germans are really well fortified in the mountains and are well stacked with artillery and AA.

After some 20 turns I broke through but it was still a hassle to get going because of all the rivers. And then, suddenly, a giant panzer armada appears, led by a 4,5 star Tiger with 15 OS. It just overruns any of my units it comes across, instakilling anything. Finally I managed to surround it, but none of my ground units could make a dent. My A-36 could chip away 1 kill every turn, but the scenario ended before I could see it die. Didn't matter much though, since I lacked 7 victory hexes anyway.

So any strategy tips are very welcome. Thanks!

[SineMora]

I found it to be fairly straightforward. There are two passes that are significantly easier to break through, and those are the ones you should target; forget the others until you can encircle the Germans. Likewise with the pocket in the east, which can also be easily surrounded and starved out. The Germans are passive early on so you can just plough everything into pushing through the passes, which means artillery, engineers and SAS (YMMV but I found SAS to be useful because for some reason they're dirt cheap, making them great disposable tools). You'll want some counterbattery option as these'll have a range of 5 in the mountains and help with the number of German artillery.

Once you have secured an objective and freed up resources you can start getting some armour and air units (no real point early on because the German positions are so entrenched and covered with AA that it's a waste of time going after them) and secure the land up to the Po. As long as you make good time you'll beat the German counterattack; by then you can drop the superfluous infantry and grab more bombers. Once you suppress the German AA elements the armoured column is defenceless and has no hope of pushing through your defensive line south of the Po; just park a few tanks backed up by TDs there and you're good. The rest is cleanup.

[MickMannock]

I found it to be fairly straightforward. There are two passes that are significantly easier to break through, and those are the ones you should target; forget the others until you can encircle the Germans. Likewise with the pocket in the east, which can also be easily surrounded and starved out. The Germans are passive early on so you can just plough everything into pushing through the passes, which means artillery, engineers and SAS (YMMV but I found SAS to be useful because for some reason they're dirt cheap, making them great disposable tools). You'll want some counterbattery option as these'll have a range of 5 in the mountains and help with the number of German artillery.

Once you have secured an objective and freed up resources you can start getting some armour and air units (no real point early on because the German positions are so entrenched and covered with AA that it's a waste of time going after them) and secure the land up to the Po. As long as you make good time you'll beat the German counterattack; by then you can drop the superfluous infantry and grab more bombers. Once you suppress the German AA elements the armoured column is defenceless and has no hope of pushing through your defensive line south of the Po; just park a few tanks backed up by TDs there and you're good. The rest is cleanup.

I did go arty, engineers and infantry in the beginning (two battlegroups, with two of each unit). The western mountain pass went pretty well, but the mountain pass side got shot to pieces by artillery and their quite hardpunching infantry. I just got bogged down there and there was a lot of prestige lost just to keep my soldiers alive.

Another setback was some 10-15 turns in, when sporadic German units pushed south, grabbing a few town of mine which led to me rushing some units south to clear them up. No big deal, but that also made my offensive lose momentum a bit.

*edit*

Nice to get some assistance from a fellow Swede. Cheers!

[SineMora]

Nice to get some assistance from a fellow Swede. Cheers!

Heja Sverige

You'll want to bring the Mountaineer unit over to help you. I didn't find their artillery to be so bad -- the counterattacks by their infantry forced me to cycle mine, though -- but I made sure to have most of it under the umberella of the counter-battery pieces. The German armour stationed just north of the ridge will push south at some point, but by themselves they aren't much of a threat and you should have some armour of your own by then. The crossing at Florence is a good place to hold them off if you go with the same passes I did, as it's likely the Germans will counterattack through the center then.

Losing a few towns for a while is acceptable if it comes to that because you need to secure the towns along the southern bank of the Po and shore up the defenses there before the massive German armoured column arrives. Even the 15-strength Tiger isn't that intidmidating when it's forced to attack from a river crossing into a heavy tank supported by artillery and a TD. You don't want to be fighting that monster in the open, though.

While the Germans have a lot of armour the Luftwaffe is stretched thin, so gaining control of the skies is easy once you free up more slots.

Edit: I loaded up the scenario to refresh my memory a bit. I went through the Cesena and Abetone passes (I ended up encircling the pockets around Rimini and Pesaro as well as the central passes) using British infantry and American artillery (Long Toms and the more powerful counter-battery option). In retrospect the Long Toms were probably overkill, but it worked. Most of the German armoured column was destroyed trying to break through Ferrara.

Later on I added mainly British armour and American aircraft, e.g., Challengers and A-36s. TDs were Hellcats or Achilleses.

[MickMannock]

Nice to get some assistance from a fellow Swede. Cheers!

Heja Sverige

You'll want to bring the Mountaineer unit over to help you. I didn't find their artillery to be so bad -- the counterattacks by their infantry forced me to cycle mine, though -- but I made sure to have most of it under the umberella of the counter-battery pieces. The German armour stationed just north of the ridge will push south at some point, but by themselves they aren't much of a threat and you should have some armour of your own by then. The crossing at Florence is a good place to hold them off if you go with the same passes I did, as it's likely the Germans will counterattack through the center then.

Losing a few towns for a while is acceptable if it comes to that because you need to secure the towns along the southern bank of the Po and shore up the defenses there before the massive German armoured column arrives. Even the 15-strength Tiger isn't that intidmidating when it's forced to attack from a river crossing into a heavy tank supported by artillery and a TD. You don't want to be fighting that monster in the open, though.

While the Germans have a lot of armour the Luftwaffe is stretched thin, so gaining control of the skies is easy once you free up more slots.

Edit: I loaded up the scenario to refresh my memory a bit. I went through the Cesena and Abetone passes (I ended up encircling the pockets around Rimini and Pesaro as well as the central passes) using British infantry and American artillery (Long Toms and the more powerful counter-battery option). In retrospect the Long Toms were probably overkill, but it worked. Most of the German armoured column was destroyed trying to break through Ferrara.

Later on I added mainly British armour and American aircraft, e.g., Challengers and A-36s. TDs were Hellcats or Achilleses.

Thanks for all the help!

Started a new run at it yesterday and progressed much better this time around. Took it more slowly and methodical this time and things went a bit better, even though it feels like I'm wasting too many turns clearing everything out. I have cleared all the mountains and only have a little part of the pocket in the east left (around the town of Pesaro) and have 21 turns left. I hope it's enough. The big panzer attack just launched and I'm guarding the two bridges with a tank each, backed up by two Hellcats. I hope it will be enough.

Last time I made a single push towards Milano, but this time I'll try making a two pronged attack, heading up the Mediterranian coast via Spezia, but also heading towards Milano. And I hope I can destroy most of the panzer attack on the two bridges, so when I move north, it will be a bit easier than what it looks right now.

One good thing is that I have a lot more prestige banked this time around, so it will be easier to reinforce the troops that take damage as I make my final push.

[MickMannock]

Finally finished the Gothic line scenario yesterday and with a victory. But it was darn close, nailed the last victory hex on the last turn. Those mountains are really pesky and when you get out of that you have all the rivers to deal with. I thought it was very challenging to get the right composition of the core and to keep a good tempo but at the same time not taking any unnecessary casualties. All in all a fun scenario though.

[SineMora]

Finally finished the Gothic line scenario yesterday and with a victory. But it was darn close, nailed the last victory hex on the last turn. Those mountains are really pesky and when you get out of that you have all the rivers to deal with. I thought it was very challenging to get the right composition of the core and to keep a good tempo but at the same time not taking any unnecessary casualties. All in all a fun scenario though.

Yeah, it's good fun. Absolutely massive too, so it takes a while to finish.