Slitherine

Damn this is a tough nut to crack. Having come off a comparatively easy decisive victory in Italy...I'm very surprised how difficult this scenario is. I'm well equipped with experienced Panthers and fighters. But as I rush forward...I initially appear to have the invasion contained but then I'm rather quickly overrun by bombers, fighters, super-human infantry and even the navy. My arty is rather quickly eliminated by what appear to be dozens of allied aircraft. My fighters don't appear to stand a chance.

Is it realistic to go for a decisive win (eliminate all the allied ground forces) or is a more appropriate strategy to fall back and settle for a marginal victory. Prior to purchasing any new units I have 6 fighters, 3 Tacs (including a couple of older Stukas that have served me well ... 4-5 star) and 1 long-range bomber. I have no anti-aircraft but can see that I will need a bunch.

Any suggestions???

Personally what helped me was, intercepting a large part of the Allied landing force on sea, but I had 5 Strategic Bombers and 6 Fighters and only 1 Fighter Bomber (ME410A).
Concentrate your bombardment on the "good" enemy Armour/Artillery, You can ignore the infantry and the obsolete M4 Shermans and M4A1's, focus on the upgunned/uparmored " (76)W / Firefly / A3E3 " variants.

Also depending on your prestige reserves, you can purchase units closer to the landing zones to keep the Allies busy.
43 Grenadier's are excellent defenders within cities and the Bocage.

You can also consider the 8.8 AA, since while it's effectiveness on the Eastern Front has diminished by '44 due to Soviet Heavy Armor, it's still quite effective against the lightly armoured M4.
+ It can provide air cover for the first few turns. until you can fly in your fighters.

Ideally you want to entrap the Allies in the Bocage so they are forced down a corridor in single file into your killzones.
Vire and Falais are excellent for this.

Other than that, Don't focus on trying to stop the Allies on the beaches, it's better to regroup and fall back in most cases into the bocage.

What I first found interesting in this scenario is that 15 out of 18 allied aircraft are American, meaning that the British contribution is at 17%. While out of 9 allied naval units, none are British.

The ratio of land troops is much more equal.

Beruldsen wrote:Damn this is a tough nut to crack. Having come off a comparatively easy decisive victory in Italy...I'm very surprised how difficult this scenario is. I'm well equipped with experienced Panthers and fighters. But as I rush forward...I initially appear to have the invasion contained but then I'm rather quickly overrun by bombers, fighters, super-human infantry and even the navy. My arty is rather quickly eliminated by what appear to be dozens of allied aircraft. My fighters don't appear to stand a chance.

Is it realistic to go for a decisive win (eliminate all the allied ground forces) or is a more appropriate strategy to fall back and settle for a marginal victory. Prior to purchasing any new units I have 6 fighters, 3 Tacs (including a couple of older Stukas that have served me well ... 4-5 star) and 1 long-range bomber. I have no anti-aircraft but can see that I will need a bunch.

Any suggestions???

I don't rush forward at all, let them come to you.

It's a pretty long scenario so you have plenty of time to get a decisive if you want, don't worry about losing to many VP hexes early. Stay away from the coast where the fleet is located and knock out his tanks and iunfantry as they advance. Once you've crippled him then start a methodical advance to take back all the VP hexes. This also has the added advantage of giving you more prestige You'll need a Strat bomber or two if you want to take out the fleet and stop them from whittling away at you with bombardments.

I move some heavy units (using railroads) forward early.

If I have spare slots, I put some AA out of reach of naval, but still in the center.

I 'roll up' the Allies by mostly working 'right to left' where I can capture the port on the upper right of the map. The right side of the map can usually be done quickly, and the area just 'left' of the river is so 'open' that you tanks can move in to kill non-armored stuff quickly.

Aircraft:
At the start, I have to keep aircraft in a 'tight' formation, like the computer does, which means that the AI can' surround a single plane on more than 3 sides. (By the time the 4 plane comes in...my unit is so weak that it dies, so I keep it from being hit 4 times.)

I'll often have one mobile AA to accompany tightly all the 'fixed' artillery.

I let enemy units come into the middle of the map, and destroy them, before pressing forward. When I go for the remaining units in the peninsula, I have to rush so that the navy can't take forever blowing up my units. I will have destroyed most of the forces already available.

NOTE:
When you have the choice between killing a unit or doing more damage (but not kill) another unit, then eliminate the unit. The AI only has so many starting units and can only 'buy' so many replacement units.

Thanks all...I got myself a decisive victory...by taking your suggestions.

1. I purchased 4 AA 36
2. After the start of the first turn ... I purchased 2 King Tigers in the Northern Port...these came in very handy
3. I held back my fighters until turn 5-6 and then slowly, along with the AA picked off allied planes.
4. Important to keep your fighters in tight formations to avoid losing any.
5. I didn't rush to the coast but rather let them allies come to me.
6. By turn 20 the allies were mostly spent.
7. I didn't bother with my towed arty...

I set 2 traps for the allied tanks. In Paris I had 3 inf and one art just in one hex frofillm the edge of the city then close attacked with the inf. I killed 4 fireflies and 3 british tanks coming from the north. I had a tank defending the bridge na of Paris too. The second trap is an aa trap in the center of the map I had extra slots I did not fill so I built 3 of the super cheap ones in the center of the map I didn't e en get them trucks. They ped kill so many planes one got almost to 2 stars xp so after the battle it got upgraded after the battle. I play on fm level.

My recent strategy (which is working fine) is to take my heaviest and most experienced tanks/AT's, and put them in cities and move them forward by rail. The tank in paris moves to the coast or the city just before the coast.

I put in some AA purchases in the first round to start taking shots at planes overhead and to give some cover when my trains show up.

I'm finding I can begin jamming the invaders, and if I have enough planes, I eventually 'unleash' them once my AA have taken a small toll.