Epsom is turning

[scorehouse]

my force into Epsom Salts! any advice? do you over strength units or try to put as many units as possible on the battlefield?

[dalfrede]

Battle, exp at end of battle.
Azul 3480
Gab 3165
Kav 3500
Pion 3001
Pion 2999
Pion 3500
Pion 3185
CharB 3059
Pz3 3057
Pz3 2816
Pz4 3078
SomuaS35 3296
Verdeja 3448
Sdk222 3012
Sdk222 2783
Sdk232 2338
PzJ1 1225
PzJ1 1097
PzJ1 3500
122mm 2177
122mm 2432
150mm 2143
20mmFk 1366
Sdk7/1 1543
Sdk7/1 1158
Me109 3024
Me109 3432
Me109 3410
Me110 3055
Me110 3018
Me110 3173
He70 131
Ju87 3500
He111 3134
He111 2832

Grab the necessary VHs, then fight defensively to hold them.
Don't worry about bonuses.
Overstrength fighters to 12.

If you want the Meteor, Paratroop in to capture the hex and fly out. Should have fighter escort.
Capture the northwest air field so Recon plane can scout area first.
Once your Fall is back, you can surrender the airfield.

[scorehouse]

so the 109 are the only OS units to 12? notice your artillery is in mm not cm? is it all captured? why the 110's and no captured fighters?

[scorehouse]

also why the PZ1's? aren't they just cannon fodder? seems like you can get more powerful tanks for the same slot requirement?

[dalfrede]

so the 109 are the only OS units to 12?

Yes
Note: other units with 1 or 2 core cost upped to max strength for core cost.

notice your artillery is in mm not cm? is it all captured?

Yes,
but I'm an engineer so converting cm to mm fairly simple for me .

why the 110's and no captured fighters?

Range
Not necessary. Can play 'No AirForce' AO40 - AO41

also why the PZ1's? aren't they just cannon fodder? seems like you can get more powerful tanks for the same slot requirement?

Pzj1 - AT not tank.

[scorehouse]

that 's 35 units at a unit cost average of 3. that's way above the allotted slots? you don't use the 21cm German artillery with zero slots, over strength, lethal attack, fast dismount, etc.? where do you use your prime heroes?

[dalfrede]

Epson.zip

(876.63 KiB) Downloaded 78 times

Two last turn saves with different armies.

[scorehouse]

can't unzip can you pdf? sorry thanks

[dalfrede]

Is the file corrupted?
PDF is an image/format, this forum allows posting .jpg and .zip, maybe .rar .

Epson2.jpg (317.89 KiB) Viewed 2485 times

Epson1.jpg (320.21 KiB) Viewed 2485 times

[adiekmann]

Epson.zip
Two last turn saves with different armies.

I was able to open your zip/sav files. I always find it interesting to take a close look at how others play, build their core, and assign their heroes!

2 tank OA + ST/Env duos! Must be a life-send when playing at the highest difficulty level...

[Kerensky]

Grab the necessary VHs, then fight defensively to hold them.
Don't worry about bonuses.

Quote for Truth.

This is very much encouraged, as extremely difficult objectives are pretty universally bonus objectives in the DLC campaigns. If you find yourself struggling on a particular difficulty mode, it's definitely a good idea to not over-extend your forces so much trying to grab the whole map.

[Magni]

My personal approach was to push through Seven Oaks and the gap between it and Redhill to the left of the River, up towards Croydon. A certain someone and a pile of tanks decided to counterattack right into me in front of Croydon, and I spent a few turns cleaning that up. (88s in AT mode are about the only thing that can kill him at low strength.) This also sparked a major air battle by the end of which I mostly had air superiority secured.

After that, I split my forces. One or two infantry and an artillery unit went from Seven Oaks to clear out the eastern fortifications. A small group of units stuck on the Croydon-Seven Oaks axis to intercept counterattacks from the northeast (which is where most of them came from for me) and the rest of my force was split between raiding London and bashing into Epsom. It's important to realise that the defenders sitting in the various fortifications around the map, including all primary and secondary objectives and London, are static and can be safely left alone and bypassed where possible.

After southern London and Epsom were done, I blocked the bridges to the west to stall counterattacks there and had some infantry and artillery take the western fortifications from the rear, and towards the end of the scenario did the same to Redhill. The Aerodrome raid with some Fallschirms isn't particularily hard once you have secured air dominance, it's undefended unless there's a counterattack force right there. Then your guys just jump back into their planes and fly back to join the actual battle.

Overall a dicy scenario, but for me it was relatively smooth sailing (if something of a slog with all the fortified positions to storm) once I had weathered the big counterattack by the grumpy frenchman.

[scorehouse]

do you over strength or go with as many units as u can? how many fighters did you bring to the battle? thanks

[Magni]

do you over strength or go with as many units as u can? how many fighters did you bring to the battle? thanks

I don't overstrength a lot overall. 2-slot units (Panzer General, so most of my tanks at Epsom) get upped to Strength 11 as a rule. Other than that, the only big hogs were the Azuls at full 20 strength (with Oleh Dir and the Steamroller trait - these guys are just ridiculous against anything other than tanks and units sitting at 8+ entrenchment) and a unit of 15-strength 21cm Mörser with a 0-slot hero, Rapid Fire 1.5 and Elsa.

For the air battle, I brought IIRC three Bf-109 - one with Galland and one with Bar and a No Retaliation hero; the latter was a real showstopper and generally killed non-overstrenght squadrons, including the bloody 303, by himself - and two 110s, plus two 88mm Flak guns that only switched to AT mode against ol' De Gaulle. Early on, I fought the air battle relatively defensively, escorting my couple tacs and strats to strikes right on my frontline on the ground, menaing my planes would mostly stay near or over my AA guns. I also concentrated on taking down fighters first, using the 109s to weaken full or high-strength squadrons while the 110s delivered the killing strikes against low-strength ones.

[scorehouse]

by Strats u mean the heavy bombers? how many do you use? they don't seem to do much damage for me. so only 2 109's? you dont suffer much damage to your landing craft?

[Magni]

by Strats u mean the heavy bombers? how many do you use? they don't seem to do much damage for me. so only 2 109's? you dont suffer much damage to your landing craft?

Yes, strategic bombers. They're not there for raw damage (outside of sinking ships), they're for suppression, busting entrenchment and slowing down enemy units, and I tend to bring like 2 on many maps. For Epsom, I brought three Bf 109s.

And what landing craft? Epsom doesn't have those.

[Scrapulous]

by Strats u mean the heavy bombers? how many do you use? they don't seem to do much damage for me. so only 2 109's? you dont suffer much damage to your landing craft?

Yeah, "Strat" is short for "Strategic bomber." You'll also see "Tac," for "Tactical bomber."

"how many do you use? they don't seem to do much damage for me."

Unless you put a Lethal Attack hero on them, they won't. They're like flying artillery in that respect: most of the damage they deal is in the form of Suppression. They also reduce their target's ammunition, entrenchment, and movement points. And small caliber AA doesn't do much to them, so they're great at softening up entrenched positions.

"only 2 109's?"

I see three Bf 109s in dalfrede's list, and three Bf 110s, which are capable of air-to-air attack and so and can supplement the three 109s before switching to ground attack missions. On top of that he has two He 111s, which are Strategic Bombers. It looks like a capable and balanced air complement for the mission to me.