Sea Lion (first one)

[jman0war]

Well i got my army this far, but i don't see much prospect winning it.
I'm basically out of money, after topping up my units after the last battle: 2500 prestige.
While this map is small and only 20 turns, i can't manage the British air force nor navy.

I watched part of a video on YouTube and the person had about 4 or 5 Strategic Bombers available, another 4 Tactical, and maybe 6 or so Fighters. My airforce is tiny in comparison.

When i look back, i spent a lot of money on Elite replacements particularly after the bruising battles in Stalingrad, Volga, Kuybyshev.

[robman]

This is the first Sea Lion scenario in the vanilla campaign, correct? If so, it is mainly an air and naval battle. You need a large air force (whatever you have plus new purchases) and you need to concentrate your fleet before the British do. I found concentrating the fleet in the east and then working methodically to the west worked best. Fighter cover for both ships and bombers is essential: you can bid goodbye to any capital ship left unprotected. Don't try to embark until the RAF is mostly gone and any remaining Royal Navy ships are well to the west--my land forces spent most of the scenario lolling around in France. (Keep them out of sight as best you can--you don't have fighter cover to spare.) Finally, before you can land comfortably, you need to take out some of the radar installations taking up valuable beachfront real estate. If memory serves, if you can land with five turns left, you should be OK.

[makoto14]

Mostly what robman said. I keep my fleet on the french coast and pick off DD and CLs if they come out. First 10-15 turns its escorted bombers to hit royal navy BB. Ultimate cheese is if you can over strength 217E to 15 and get a double attack hero it can kill a BB every turn. If not even the Ju-87 do decently against ships. Also if you have a gustav you can put it in Calais and wipe out the area around dover. Your actual invasion force can be done with like 2 eng/2tanks going from dover westward with CAS, so move everything thats land units back in storage and even you can sacrifice meh heros for prestige in turn 0 and then buy more core planes.

[jman0war]

Ok i suppose i'll forgo repairing my dinged up ground units and try and buy a big enough airforce.

I didn't receive any Double Attack hero so that's a non runner.

What about Air Defense? upgrade, buy more, keep in Reserve?

I have to upgrade my fighters to those FW's and it looks a little expensive.

[robman]

No need to add AA. Unlike the PG/PC1 Sealion landing, you don’t have to rush your amphibious assault. By the time you land in England, the RAF will be gone. AA units are most useful along the French coast in the meantime: the RAF will come looking for the assault force, and if you can wound British planes over France, they will be less effective in the Battle of the Channel.

[jman0war]

I completed the map today.
Have to say it's my least favorite of the campaign.
Didn't really like having to double the size of my air force in one go like that.
Feels like I ended up neglecting upgrades to my ground units this turn.


Disappointed with the HE 217 fighters, they have a higher Air Attack than the FW's but that wasn't translated to a better attack against the British fighters.
Maybe they were 'green'.

[VirgilInTheSKY]

I completed the map today.
Have to say it's my least favorite of the campaign.
Didn't really like having to double the size of my air force in one go like that.
Feels like I ended up neglecting upgrades to my ground units this turn.


Disappointed with the HE 217 fighters, they have a higher Air Attack than the FW's but that wasn't translated to a better attack against the British fighters.
Maybe they were 'green'.

It is because He 219 has very low Initiative. It's a heavy fighter designed to go for enemy bombers, not fighters.

[robman]

Disappointed with the HE 217 fighters, they have a higher Air Attack than the FW's but that wasn't translated to a better attack against the British fighters.

I learned the same lesson the hard way. In fighter combat, initiative is the most important stat. If you shoot second, most of your firepower is moot.

[GomezAdams]

I won it the first go with three fighters (FW 190 A) and three Ju87 D's. Plus of course the two inexperienced 109's they give you.

But I lost my most experienced Panther and my second most experienced engineer group. I also lost an artillery unit, but it was relatively new so no big loss there.

I simply gave the bums rush to the right side to start and then just sat there, consolidated my AAA there and let the AI bash up against me trying to repel me while my AAA and fighters ate them alive. About half my units were still stacked up at port in Calais waiting to cross for the first 5 turns.

I didn't move out of there until there were only 8 or 9 moves left. They had nothing left to fight with by then and I literally raced at top speed across the map taking objectives that largely had nothing in them.