Slitherine

Looking for help with the Moscow scenario in the Barbarossa South DLC. Maybe I used up too much prestige in the previous chapter but I'm having a devil of a time with this one. I loaded up on pioneers and flame tanks and trimmed my recon units down. I struck from west and south of the city. I ignore the pillboxes and forts and work my way around them but my troops are getting chewed up by waves of conscripts, guards units and bombers. My prestige is gone. Then around turn 17 in comes waves of tanks. Does anyone have a tried and true approach to this one?

MOSCAU...MOSCOVSKAYA:

My advice...right or wrong would be to step by step... methodically destroy everything in your path!. Load up on 'Long Range Artillery' [Four Units I would think]... 3 Heavy Duty 'Anti-Aircraft-Units'...'two or three Stuka Dive Bombers'... and three or four Fighters... as well as use a few 'Pioneers'... for the heavy-duty street and bunker battles... as well as... as many 'Tanks' as you can manage to acquire.

Then aggresively go forward with a 'Full-Scale-Accelerated-Assault'!.

In both the '41 and '43 Moscow I remember putting the bulk of my men in the south, and encircled the city from the south and east. The bulk of my armor and AT went this route, with more of a screen hitting from the east and encircling north.

My approach (unit numbers are approx):

From South - 2 pioneer, 1 15cm arty, 1 AA, 2 tanks or 1 tank and 1 armored car - they defeat infantry and cavalry near south edge of map, then push East to the road, then north up the road to the river

From Southeast - 3-4 tanks, mobile AA - they secure the southern approach to Moscow and meet up with the South group near the river/town hex intersection

Do not push up the east side of Moscow until most of the city is in your control and the south is fully in your control; this will delay the counterattack until your units prepare to absorb the punch

From West - 4 pioneer, 2 15cm arty, 1 21cm arty, 2 AA (swap flame tank for a pioneer if it has 3-5 stars & have the right heroes) - they push east into Moscow and stay south of the river - move slowly and always have the pioneers backed up by arty and arty always covered by AA - eventually AA will become anti-tank after Russian air force is eliminated - you do not have to take out all fortified bunkers, most can be bypassed (just don't sit next to them)

From Northwest - 2 tanks to hold the flank and eventually push north and east around the city - no need to be aggressive early or you will just burn prestige

4 fighters, 2-3 dive bombers, 1 scout - take out Russian fighters first so you can quickly control the skies and allow your bombers to be more effective

Good luck!

First, it depends on your traits. If you have infantry general, lotz of pioneers is no problem. If you have anti air vet. - one flak will solve your air attack problem.

I play without pos traits and heroes:

1. no bombers at all. Moscow has strong air defence, so Bombers arent effective. Besides, weather is bad often, so you have too many rounds where they do nothing for you. You need lotz of pioneers, they cost you many slots.
2. One 21 cm anti arty arty is needed to be safe of enemy arty.
3. If its too hard, go barbarossa mid, then you have gustav. It safes you muuuuch time and the russian guards wont like it too. (time is my only enemy on that map, espec. if you want the bonus goals)
4. If you have no prestige, disband a bad hero. I play without heros because of that, its too easy.
5. In the northwest i put ONE greandier inf. ONLY.. Wait for the t34, till he caps your city, then you can kill him easily and you get some prestige for retaking the city. You can use the grenadier to kill the pac, then transform this grenadier into an parachute inf. (city with supply hex) Its only duty: to capture the city in the north, which is only defended by one pac. (this saves you lots of time, otherwise your main pioneer group has to take that city which is often impossible, because it has to repell the russian counteroffensive. Before you do this, you have to be SURE (recon plane), that there are no enemy tanks or infantry near, or your parachute inf. will die fast. (i do it in the end when the enemy counteroffensive is already destr. or at least severly weakend) And of course you need total air dominance when your air transport flies to the city.
6. To take tula i use: 1 pioneer, one good pac (if you are barb. south you should take sturer emil or how the name was) and one stug 3 arty. (it costs only 2 slots WITH one overstrength and shielded by pac it survives tank attacks which can be important when the counter off. starts. Rest as many pz3 as possible. (pziv is anti inf. at that time, dont use them, btw. i dont use flame tanks, they die to easy if the enemy flanks you-pioneers are the go to guys in urban warfare
7.South west i have most of my units: As many pioneers and 150 cm arty as possible AND the 21cm Arty as mentioned before. No flak, its expensive and it doesnt prevent bleeding you dry bec. of bombing. I use 3 Fighters and i DONT attack with them. Place them BETWEEN your artys, especially the 21cm arty is a magnet for russian bombers. So you dont have to hunt them, they bomb your arty and get severly damaged by your fighters, in ai round. And in your round you finish em completly. (but dont let your artys unguarded, when you finish the planes or bleeding starts next round...) That way you loose much less prestige and the russians loose their air force fast. If you dont have enough slots, maybe one fighter-bomber is a good choice. 2 slotz only WITH one overstrenght and you can finish weakend russian air force with it. Use 1 or two scoutplanes as shields, over prototypes. AI loves to bomb emil gustav etc..
8.A good formation of elite pioneers has no problem cleaning the city from southwest to north, north east. With green pioneers you will have a hard time against the russian guards, even WITH arty support. Time is a problem in that case. Prestige less, because of cheap reinforcements.
9.The tula group pushes north east and takes the vic there. NEVER leave your tanks without protection of emil or you will suffer. (if you have std. pac only use an overstrenght pac, its imp. that your pac punishes the t34s and kvs, bec. your pz3 are no match. German tanks are simply not competitive, at that time.

Good luck

From what I remember, I send a stronger mobile force to sweep around Moscow from the South and attack/clear out the area East of the city. Then move up until I have it largely surrounded. From the Southwest is the only place I launch my infantry-artillery attack. Later, It is joined by a 2nd ground assault from the East. I end by taking the last victory hexes that are in the northwest of the map. My bombers are assisting the sweeping attack around the southern flank and the armored units east of the city, not so much the urban battle itself. That's the artillery's job.

I do leave a few units to guard the Northwest hexes because the enemy likes to make sorties there too.

It's been half a year since I last played the vanilla campaign so I hope my recollection is accurate and I am thinking of the correct map.

Thanks for the advice gentlemen. I did a few things differently: put my stukas and recon into reserve. This left my Bf 109 and 110's. I like the 110 because of it's range and dual role. Plus mine have a lot of experience so they are pretty good against the Yaks. Promoted my Wehr Inf to Grenadiers. Bought some additional Pioneers. Added a PzIII tank. Removed all the organic transport from the infantry to save money. Now let's see how this force configuration deals with the late onslaught from the Russians tanks.

Has someone some good Tipps and strategies for the moscom scenario from the addon?

for the original with the big counter offensive kicks in pull back into moscow the tanks come into the city and your infantry can shred them