Evacuate medical unit (Teruel, Mission 10 in SCW)

[NightPhoenix]

Is there any way to consistently save the medial unit from getting destroyed?
I found that no matter what, the republicans destroy the cargo on turn 7 (regardless of nationalist defend, attack or hold), having killed all nationalists but maybe a lucky survivor that wasn't seen. Getting to the west of Teruel on turn 8 is already very ambitious, maybe possible if you know the map 100%. Prestige is not a problem, just looking for a solid strategy.
The only way i've seen it potentially being possible is if you manage to get the cargo out of the city to the east, and in retreating from an enemy attack, they fail to follow up and destroy it. But that seems to be very far-fetched and not a very consistent way to do it.

Anyone been able to do it, as you're supposed to, like the briefing mentions? Any tips?

[Rhaeg]

Hello mr. N. Phoenix,

I recently discovered your Youtube channel and am checking it regularly for some hints on how to tackle the various secondary objectives. I finished SCW on default difficulty but missed probably half the secondary objectives. You were my only hope to get those done. Now that I see you coming to this forum for advice I no longer have any faith in you. Shame!

Yours sincerely,
Rhaeg

...

Ok, j/k

Together with the Ebro river secondary objective this seemed like the most hopeless one to accomplish. In my case, they started attacking the unit on turn 4 or so. I moved it behind some of the remaining Teruel defenders and kept it safe for 1 more turn, but after that it got destroyed quickly. Tried making a run to the west which was just suicide. I am going through the dlc for the 2nd time now and when I get to the Teruel scenario I was planning on moving southwest this time, as that direction seemed a bit more empty last time. Will probably still fail though, seemed like a hopeless objective. Imagine the sense of pride when finally succeeding though!

[P5138]

My method has worked pretty much every time, after getting it killed a bunch with trial and error:
- Do not stay in the city. Historically it fell before being retaken, and it will do so in this mission. Leaving the truck in Teruel ensures its death.

- Escape the city due east away from the river, towards Valdecebro (if you're brave you can try to cap it, otherwise stay at least one tile away from it). Cross the second bridge and go into Alfambra. Either wait there for your units to reach the river, or use the time to capture the points north of the town. Once you've cleared the path, go down the rail line that runs past Caude on the north side to the escape point.

Here's a quick sketch of my route. I actually just got to Terual on my "canon" run through the campaign.


I have only come into contact with an enemy on this route once in the many times I've run the mission (feels like 4 times, failing 3 times, and starting number 5), and it hit me once, but then moved to attack Teruel.

Edit: On my most recent run, I had to make an adjustment to the route, since bad weather slowed my and the AI's movement: After making it to Veldecebro (and capturing it), head for the unnamed village in the Northeast, crossing the river and staying off the roads. The more direct route to Alfambra had enemies on it. Also, another note. If you cannot end the move in a capture point, stop at least 2 hexes away from it. The AI will not engage you if they cannot see you. Even though the AI just lost the city, and should know you're there, it doesn't make the connection.

Edit2: I wanted to update with a map that has my most recent route, that's safer, assuming you are pushing through the center.

By the time the Truck reached Alfambra, my main force was there to link up with it, and there was a clear road back. I think it finally got to the escape point on turn 16 or 17. It was a little tighter than previous runs, but the weather seemed way worse for way longer on this run.

[Rhaeg]

[Lots of sound advice]

Or you could try this ofc!

Thank you P5138, will try this!

[nexusno2000]

Or do like me:

Plow through the enemy along the road next to the frozen river, using Perimeter Control to let the truck slip through to safety (on round 4 I think it was).

[P5138]

[Lots of sound advice]

Or you could try this ofc!

Thank you P5138, will try this!

Good luck. Also another tip. If you use undos, and you ever move the truck and see infantry, undo it. It will not survive.

Edit:

Or do like me:

Plow through the enemy along the road next to the frozen river, using Perimeter Control to let the truck slip through to safety (on round 4 I think it was).

I've been watching your playthrough and have been amazed at how well it has been going for you. Mine turned into massive slogs, but then again I refuse to switch the Panzer I's out for "better" units. (Adding units as Spanish companies, fine, replacing the Pz IBs, forbidden). My current run through, I've even refused the Verdeja and I-16's. Getting Galland without taking the 12CP requires only taking 1 of the options before Ebro and getting all bonus objectives but Brunete (3 times in and still never close), according to my math.

[adiekmann]

I basically drive it straight out to the West of the city where it begins the scenario in. However, the real trick I learned is not to do it too early, nor wait too late.

That means, you drive your forces forward along that main southern (but still central) road. You don't need to clear the entire area of enemy units, but just mostly free a path for it to break out. Even if it's sitting right next to enemy units, they are going to focus on your assault team, not the truck. A couple of turns to skirt by any remaining enemy units, and then it's free sailing west along the road unmolested. Remember, it's a 20 strength units, so even if it gets attack once or twice, it'll still make it through.

If you go too early though and your forward tanks/units are not near by, then by all means they will focus on the truck and destroy it. You must at least partially clear the way along that road and more importantly draw the attention of the remaining enemy units that can harm it away from the truck as it takes its first steps west to your core forces that have driven to about where those first hills West of the city house the enemy's artillery units.

Wait too long, however, and the Nationalist forces defending the city will be destroyed and so will your truck as it will be surrounded and unable to escape neither their encirclement nor their attention.

I find that it takes longer to clear the more northernly road and that's why I've done it a couple of times successfully now the way I described above.

Hope this helps!

[NightPhoenix]

Hello mr. N. Phoenix,

I recently discovered your Youtube channel and am checking it regularly for some hints on how to tackle the various secondary objectives. I finished SCW on default difficulty but missed probably half the secondary objectives. You were my only hope to get those done. Now that I see you coming to this forum for advice I no longer have any faith in you. Shame!

Yours sincerely,
Rhaeg

...

Ok, j/k

Together with the Ebro river secondary objective this seemed like the most hopeless one to accomplish. In my case, they started attacking the unit on turn 4 or so. I moved it behind some of the remaining Teruel defenders and kept it safe for 1 more turn, but after that it got destroyed quickly. Tried making a run to the west which was just suicide. I am going through the dlc for the 2nd time now and when I get to the Teruel scenario I was planning on moving southwest this time, as that direction seemed a bit more empty last time. Will probably still fail though, seemed like a hopeless objective. Imagine the sense of pride when finally succeeding though!

Haha thanks, but even i have my limits. I'm playing on ironman, so i'm not getting this one for sure, i already tried.

My method has worked pretty much every time, after getting it killed a bunch with trial and error:
- Do not stay in the city. Historically it fell before being retaken, and it will do so in this mission. Leaving the truck in Teruel ensures its death.

- Escape the city due east away from the river, towards Valdecebro (if you're brave you can try to cap it, otherwise stay at least one tile away from it). Cross the second bridge and go into Alfambra. Either wait there for your units to reach the river, or use the time to capture the points north of the town. Once you've cleared the path, go down the rail line that runs past Claude on the north side to the escape point.

Here's a quick sketch of my route. I actually just got to Terual on my "canon" run through the campaign.


I have only come into contact with an enemy on this route once in the many times I've run the mission (feels like 4 times, failing 3 times, and starting number 5), and it hit me once, but then moved to attack Teruel.

Wow, amazing work. Glad to see it is actually possible.

[Lots of sound advice]

Or you could try this ofc!

Thank you P5138, will try this!

Good luck. Also another tip. If you use undos, and you ever move the truck and see infantry, undo it. It will not survive.

Edit:

Or do like me:

Plow through the enemy along the road next to the frozen river, using Perimeter Control to let the truck slip through to safety (on round 4 I think it was).

I've been watching your playthrough and have been amazed at how well it has been going for you. Mine turned into massive slogs, but then again I refuse to switch the Panzer I's out for "better" units. (Adding units as Spanish companies, fine, replacing the Pz IBs, forbidden). My current run through, I've even refused the Verdeja and I-16's. Getting Galland without taking the 12CP requires only taking 1 of the options before Ebro and getting all bonus objectives but Brunete (3 times in and still never close), according to my math.

Yes I'm playing in ironman mode, so reloading won't work. The ice road part is a good tactic though. Even though i don't have perimiter control, that seems pretty neat work.

[fluffybunnyuk]

My tank is usually sat in the middle of Teruel on turn 6 having destroyed all units between it and the deployment point.
Because everythings dead on the route back, evacuating the truck isnt a problem.
I send the truck along the west road to home. It takes 3 turns.

Most peoples problems i've seen are a result of either refusing the Veredja tank or not overstrengthing it so they can get steady overruns.

Gallland is not worth it for the points, but the Veredja is reasonably useful. It killed 3,500 points(about 40,000 in value) for me before the campaign end, my next non-tank unit killed 500 points....
I just did the maths from my Madrid victory screen, and it killed more points, than all my non-tank units combined.

[P5138]

Wow, amazing work. Glad to see it is actually possible.

My theory is that every bonus objective was tested to make sure it's possible, but whether or not it's doable without prior knowledge/lots of luck is another story. Well, I'm on the fence about Ebro.

Yes I'm playing in ironman mode, so reloading won't work. The ice road part is a good tactic though. Even though i don't have perimiter control, that seems pretty neat work.

I want to be able to play ironman, but I make too many mis-clicks, and like to have saves to retry missions/recover from crashes. My current rule is the default 3 undos per turn are fine but only are to be used sparingly (and only are to be used for rerolls on attacks in the case of total RNG BS). Plus, even without Ironman, I'm only able to float like 3K prestige on General difficulty, but that's with using Elite replacements, but trying to never do it during battle.

(Then again, my current run I've also gotten very unlucky with heroes: Prudent, Field Medic (?!), and Learns from Mistakes. The other ones I got are good enough (nothing that helps with prestige), but those one are just not great. Not Provocateur levels of bad, but sub-optimal.)

[NightPhoenix]

My tank is usually sat in the middle of Teruel on turn 6 having destroyed all units between it and the deployment point.
Because everythings dead on the route back, evacuating the truck isnt a problem.
I send the truck along the west road to home. It takes 3 turns.

Most peoples problems i've seen are a result of either refusing the Veredja tank or not overstrengthing it so they can get steady overruns.

Gallland is not worth it for the points, but the Veredja is reasonably useful. It killed 3,500 points(about 40,000 in value) for me before the campaign end, my next non-tank unit killed 500 points....
I just did the maths from my Madrid victory screen, and it killed more points, than all my non-tank units combined.

Not really sure how, some ubercombination of heroes? the Verdeja is nice, but barely stronger than a T-26. At the start of this mission (10) it killed 200 points (2.000 in value) for me.

Wow, amazing work. Glad to see it is actually possible.

My theory is that every bonus objective was tested to make sure it's possible, but whether or not it's doable without prior knowledge/lots of luck is another story. Well, I'm on the fence about Ebro.

Yes I'm playing in ironman mode, so reloading won't work. The ice road part is a good tactic though. Even though i don't have perimiter control, that seems pretty neat work.

I want to be able to play ironman, but I make too many mis-clicks, and like to have saves to retry missions/recover from crashes. My current rule is the default 3 undos per turn are fine but only are to be used sparingly (and only are to be used for rerolls on attacks in the case of total RNG BS). Plus, even without Ironman, I'm only able to float like 3K prestige on General difficulty, but that's with using Elite replacements, but trying to never do it during battle.

(Then again, my current run I've also gotten very unlucky with heroes: Prudent, Field Medic (?!), and Learns from Mistakes. The other ones I got are good enough (nothing that helps with prestige), but those one are just not great. Not Provocateur levels of bad, but sub-optimal.)

I wouldn't be so sure about the testing and potential adjustment of the objective based on feedback but nevermind that. I don't really know which heroes constitute as "good" and which don't. Most of them seem fairly useless. (Like never get more than half your strength in damage, or immune to ambushes) And only a handful are good. Would make sense to counteract that you're gonna play maybe 5/6/7 campaigns in a row. So far i've gotten 2 good ones: No counterattack and one where it deals damage, also drains all movement (for juicy surrenders).

[fluffybunnyuk]

20 strength (consolidator) 2.5* veredja gets 20 attacks@70% accuracy. Thats about 14 damage.
Sometimes i miss and the unit runs off with 1 or 2 strength but its fairly rare. I tend to use a tactical bomber, or artillery to chip 1 or 2 damage off to ensure the overrun.
I use ignore entrenchment on it, and +5vs infantry.

So no rapid fire, no double attack.

But it has gained steamroller, it has gained +2 soft/hard attack awards. It has gained survivor +2 defense award.

So its soft attack is 19 and its hard attack is 17, and its ground defense is 16...

Thats main campaign panzer IIIJ strength. Its easily the strongest unit in the game by a country mile.
I checked the units.csv and the next best tank is the IVF2 , and that doesn't appear until March 1942 maybe Stalingrad.
In 1936 its like a hot knife through butter.

[P5138]

I don't really know which heroes constitute as "good" and which don't. Most of them seem fairly useless. (Like never get more than half your strength in damage, or immune to ambushes) And only a handful are good. Would make sense to counteract that you're gonna play maybe 5/6/7 campaigns in a row. So far i've gotten 2 good ones: No counterattack and one where it deals damage, also drains all movement (for juicy surrenders).

Envelopment (surrenders on retreat) is great, but can hurt too (hurts tanks that don't already have Steamroller, since units die too fast to get Overruns). No Counterattack is also great, but can be too tempting if you, again, use it on a tank, then attack an infantry in Close Terrain and don't kill the unit (who will then attack on their turn against your close defense, which is likely 0).

I've definitely compiled a list in my head of the best, most OP, ones, but all of them do have their uses (however situational they are). Even "bad" ones like Provocateur (enemies will attack this unit instead of neighboring friendly units) can be amazing: put it on a tank or infantry that is right next to enemy infantry, and place an artillery piece near it (also touching the enemy infantry). AI always prioritizes artillery, so its attacks will go at the artillery, but be redirected to the stronger unit which will do more damage against it and be cheaper to fix.

The worst ones for me are any that give a bonus for taking damage. They seem like they are almost a waste of the hero slot. I might find a way to make them synergize with a unit eventually, but they all seem like they cost too much more Prestige than the 1000 the hero is worth to get the benefits out of them.

So far, the most unbelievably good one is "Aiming Assistance" (aiming boost to adjacent friendly units). Reason: Put it on an artillery unit, which is almost always surrounded by friendly units. Whenever they attack (or defend) the artillery boosts their aim, but since the Artillery was acting as a recon, it gets experience for every attack the friendly units make too. in my last campaign, I had a 5 star artillery before the start of Barbarossa because I got that hero in Poland (and another artillery climbing up through 3 stars since the hero changed battalions). This is also why Galland, if they get his bonus working, is well worth the Commendation Point cost. Aiming assistance is amazing for boosting experience in the long run.

[fluffybunnyuk]

+1 defence for every damage point taken is huge...
In the main game on overstrength infantry (25) you can take 10 damage, get a full functioning infantry unit(15), and have +10 defense.
I can sit them in the middle of quicksand, sunbathing, and reading books, and it still wouldnt take damage.