SCW Ebro - need ideas

[Rifraff]

Listen to the briefing.. Don't get sucked in by trying to go for the bonus before getting the mission objectives. The creators are evil for putting bonus objectives in the game knowing we will always try and get them. By about turn 10-15 it's all about sitting behind a river skipping turns, which probably made watching all the ui moves not much fun. The first 10-15 turns were fun though....

[egrofik]

I 've played this scenario twice on normal level.
My strategy is a mix from the posts in this forum.
First make a breaktrough at Asco and in the North clear this area in parrallel and connect your forces at Flix.
Then go down south with your units and clear the 152mm arty.
Place you CTV in the south and help the Nationalists to defend the river crossings.
Around turn 4 or 5 order them to defend.
Watch out for reinforcments in you back around turn 25.
I've made it with capturing all VH in turn 30 in the second attempt.

[Dmurphy238]

After losing in my first try, I decided to take the entire northern part of the map. That entailed taking out three minefields to allow for supply and clearing out the units behind them. I guess that eliminated a northern spawn spot. Then I built a wall of units just south of the “third” victory hex and lining up artillery and Bredas behind them. The supply hex was guarded by a couple of Italian infantry and an artillery unit with a good bit of Nationalist help. Finally several units prevented the Republicans from advancing up the western side of the river. The Nationalists were slowly worn down over time but my core units were never in great danger. 30 turns passed, game won. Trying to capture all VPs? No thanks!

[truth80]

Hi All,

I restarted the entire campaign on Colonel difficulty and try to achieve all bonus objects. It´s the most challenging at Ebro.

I read through the thread and it seems the best strategy is to raid the other side of the river starting from the north and move forward to the central part to eliminate the heavy artys in the first few turns then return to defense from the other side. In the beginning, the nationalists should be sent to attack until they occupy the cities then should stay of defensive stance.

I´m now thinking about the ideal setup, I would take the 203 mm, some 105 mms, 2x 88 AA, 4 panzers (incl. the Verdeja). I personally prefer the 3.7 mm AT guns over the Breda, because they need one slot less, they are cheaper and with the double moving and transport unpacking traits they act like a normal self-propelled AT gun From the remaining slots, I would take tac bombers and fighters.

What should I consider for the aux forces? Should I deploy them in the south? What would be the best to take? AA, AT, infantry or tanks?

All ideas would be welcome

[nexusno2000]

Hi All,

I restarted the entire campaign on Colonel difficulty and try to achieve all bonus objects. It´s the most challenging at Ebro.

I read through the thread and it seems the best strategy is to raid the other side of the river starting from the north and move forward to the central part to eliminate the heavy artys in the first few turns then return to defense from the other side. In the beginning, the nationalists should be sent to attack until they occupy the cities then should stay of defensive stance.

I´m now thinking about the ideal setup, I would take the 203 mm, some 105 mms, 2x 88 AA, 4 panzers (incl. the Verdeja). I personally prefer the 3.7 mm AT guns over the Breda, because they need one slot less, they are cheaper and with the double moving and transport unpacking traits they act like a normal self-propelled AT gun From the remaining slots, I would take tac bombers and fighters.

What should I consider for the aux forces? Should I deploy them in the south? What would be the best to take? AA, AT, infantry or tanks?

All ideas would be welcome

I would make the Nationalists hold position from start. This is necessary at high difficulty or you run out of prestige super quick. Maybe it's not a problem at Colonel. But at max difficulty it is.

Breda is hopeless. Use 3.7cm or getter yet, captured AT guns. 88s are oc even better but enemy planes is a problem all scenario long so you need AA too.

[Panzer73]

What should I consider for the aux forces? Should I deploy them in the south? What would be the best to take? AA, AT, infantry or tanks?

All ideas would be welcome

I've played 5 SCW campaigns on General difficulty, playing the Battle of the Ebro six times (twice for the first campaign). The Ebro is intimidating the first time you play it. It is easy if you are not using the Insufficient Supply option, and rather painful if you are.

My auxiliary units in the last run though (with Panzer General) were: 1 2 cm FlaK, 1 47 mm AT, 4 tanks (3 IT heavies and 1 T-26), 1 motorized infantry, 1 cavalry.

The bulk of my core tanks are in the centered in the deployment zone across Asco. They punch through to the east, and sweep north. One tank, the two Italian infantry and one IT tank, along with a 105 mm are deployed at the northernmost slots. They go up to Ribarroja, eliminate the Republican forces there, then turn east. The two forces meet near Flix, destroying the northern Republican forces.

A mix of core and auxiliary ART and AT support Mora de Ebro and Benisanai. I race to Miravel with the auxiliary FlaK and one core recon. Miravel will usually fall after a while. By that time the center force will wheel back, the Nationalist infantry will attack, and eventually Miravel will be reclaimed. The 10th victory hex will fall when sufficient forces sweep southwest and encircle the Republicans.

The key to the southern position is Benifallet. I place one core ART behind the defending Nationalist infantry and AT gun. And use two auxiliary tanks on the other side to tag team and attack Republican forces on the bridge during my turn. The Republicans will was a lot of time and units there. I missed that during my first campaign and had to fight a bloody struggle in the south.

The unpredictable part is where the Republican reinforcements will arrive. This is where the Insufficient Supply setting get challenging. The Verdaja 2 is an excellent tank except for its fuel depot. It will start crawling if it has to go back and forth too often. Other units can also suffer, but their fuel depot is 3x their movement point. So a little back and forth between the north and south will not hurt them as much. The better solution is to leave the northern force (2 inf, 1 art, 1 aux tank, 1 core tank) there, and fly the air force back and forth instead.

My first play I kept messing with the Nationalist ally settings, and they got slaughtered. I tried nexusno2000's suggestion the second time I fought the Ebro for the First Corps, and the southern defenders were overrun. Since then I haven't changed the Nationalist setting, I just let them do what they want to do.

[truth80]

So... I succeeded and got the bonus objective on the last turn, although I gave it up already around the 20th...

I took 5 panzers, 4x 3,7 mm AT, 4x 105 mm arty, 1x 203 mm, 3x 88mm AA, 1 recon, 3 He, 3 stuka core units
From the aux I took mostly panzers (the best ones), 2 infantry and one captured AA - biggest mistake was that I didn´t take artys instead of so many panzers

I started with the raid: 3 panzer IB, 1 T26 and the Verdeja ran from the central pass already in the first turn, destroying all artys and AA then I continued to the north part and destroyed the two big arty and quickly returned behind the river and moved the panzers down to the south.

In the meanwhile I constantly kept the air clean, one 88mm on the north, one at the middle (Arco airfield), and one around the southern-east airfield, all out of the range of the AI artys. I could reach all planes this way (with AA trait) and hunted down the weakened ones with the HEs.

The nationalists were on defensive stance during all 30 turns. The southern-west city did not need any support, they could easily hold back the waves alone. The biggest challenge was the southern and the east part, below Arco where I could not wipe all artys so quick like in the north. Around turn 15, I captured the middle southern city and launched another panzer raid with 3 Italian tanks and the Verdeja. It was extreme tough, I was constantly in encirclement and couldn´t move back behind the Ebro anymore. Hardly, but I wiped out all artys on the south but lost the 3 aux panzers, so I just moved up to the middle with the Verdeja. Alone it couldn´t eliminate the artys, but I always damaged one (every turn) and the AI repaired them always, so they didn´t shoot. The Verdeja was not attacked, because the AI permanently tried to break through.

By turn 26 I moved down most of my 105 mm artys and the Stukas and constantly attacked everything which tried to get across the river and kept the occupied cities under fire. Actually, the AI could not manage to get into the other side of the river (almost at all), I kept them in the entire length of Ebro on the other side. I timed all attacks to cause as much suppression as I can and attacked the cities with everything to kick the Republicans out. I finally succeeded on turn 30 and got the bonus objective

I could have done it better with more Italian artys, but it was a nice challenge this way.

I didn´t lose too much prestige with this tactic and kept the balance (on Colonel difficulty). On the last 10 turns my prestige was even increasing. I ended up the mission with over 18k in total.

[neuge]

just some information if anyone still needs it,
inspired by @fluffybunnyuk i went for total victory and for me it was quite easy to achieve.

My first SCW playthrough, Generalissimus, Force Dispersion, fair play (means without power 4 abuse)

Key factor was big tac. bombers force (14x He 45) which helped Nationalist to defend all critical spots while my 3 highly mobile groups (mostly recons) went for breakthrough and quick encirclement.
Quite intense battle occurred when reinforcement from round 3 and 5 arrived, but at round 9 I have total control of the map so next reinforcements was just welcomed food to my hungry army

Prestige wise, for me it was most profitable scenario in whole SCW (so far).