Letter from Storming Stalingrad, someone needs help

[adrianoku]

My dearest wife,
you know how much important is this campaign for me , my army and our great country.
I've won every battle from far september 1939, every battle was longly planned,
and many men died for our Fuhrer, but, everything had sense, and I've got DECISIVE victory everytime
and gained prestige from my high command, until... until now, here in Stalingrad where everything is grey and smokey and ...
difficult, terribly difficult. From the very beginning I was promoted Field Marshall, and I was so proud, but now
I'd like to be a colonel and not have this gret responsabilty over my shoulder, too many died, too much blood, too many russians.
It's now 28 september 1942, the operation "Storming Stalingrad" it's just finished and... we won, yes, but only a marginal victory, but worst,
my army was decimated, and my morale, my faith are ... gone.
The winter is coming, and battle for Stalingrad it's just begun, and I'm wondering... if I could repeat this battle
... what I could do to to obtain a decisive victory? How to loose less men? How to make up my army in order to get to the end
of this campaign? I'll play this game within my fantasy, and for now, farewell, I'll return to this damned slaughterhouse
which is this city.

With love,

Von Fraublucher

[Tarrak]

First i must say your post made me smile. A really nice one.

I just finished Stalingrad myself and managed to score a decisive victory on Field Marshal difficulty with around 3 turns left if memory servers right. I am afraid you have to accept loses in this scenario. To much fighting happens in close combat and the low close defense of most units leads to high casualties. You have to avoid at all costs to bring your tanks (with a possible exception of the Pz IIIN) into the city hexes. Only do it if you REALLY must for any reason and even then only if supported by an artillery. For infantry exactly the opposite is the case. Try to keep them in close terrain all the time. The second you let one alone in the open a T34 appear out of the fog of war and decimate it heavily. Generally try to always back up your units with artillery. Make sure you suppress the enemy units, especially the evil SMG infantry, before attacking them. Advance slowly and carefully. You have enough turns and in the end you will be faster moving slowly and steady while maintaining a proper front instead of wildly rushing forward and taking heavy losses and then waste time to withdraw and resupply your units. Never rush into unexplored terrain as you will stumble into an ambush and lose units. So much to the general strategy.

I split my forces into two groups of about same strength. One in the north and one in the south. They both advanced then forward slowly with my PzIVs, T34s and KVs securing the flanks while the PZIIIN and infantry supported by artillery did most of the fighting. Your PZ IVGs, especially if experienced, are superior to every Russian tanks except the T34/43 and the newer KVs and can mop them up quite easily. The T34/43 is another topic. The second you see one hit it with air power. Hit it hard. After it's weakened or (preferably and) suppressed hit it with your armor. Make sure your artillery is protected form soviet counterattacks. You will have to expose your tanks sometimes when pursuing some targets to finish them off but make sure if you do so only let them in open terrain. That way they are rather unlikely to get totally destroyed ... it can happen tho. I said already get used to having some loses. If an enemy tank retreats into city hexes it's fodder for your infantry. Even a T34/43 do not stand any chance against infantry in close combat. Have you both battle group advance slowly but steady while maintaining a proper front and you should be fine.

Use your air power to suppress and weaken enemy strongholds prior attacking. Try to always escort your Ju87s with a fighter. The soviet air force is not to strong here but it appears from time to time and can badly hurt a lone Ju87. Your level bombers are pretty much save, the AI do not dare to attack them usually. Same is true for Me110 if you are using any.

The Italians in the middle are another topic ... they are .. well useless may be a bit harsh word but it describes them perfectly. Keep them on defensive positions around the airfields they hold. They will probably still start to falter at some points to the attack. I saved them by redirecting my bombers to there and bombing the attack into stone age. Do not even thing about using them offensively. They will have their hands full with defending the 3 airfields but they can hold they own so you do not need to waste any of your ground troops there really. A bit of a help from your air force is all they need.

I am sure a victory there is possible with all different kinds of core setup but for reference my was like follows:
6 Infantry: 3 Grenadier, 1 Pionere, 2 SE Gebirgsjäger
13 Tanks: 2x SE Pz IIIN, 2x Pz IIIN, 1x SE Pz IVG, 2x Pz IVG, 1x T34/40, 1xT34/41, 3x KV-1B, 1x KV-1C (yes it seems i secretly want to play the Red Army )
1 Recon : 1x 232 8 Wheel
10 Artillery: 2x 17cm, 2x Sturmpanzer I, 3x StuG IIIb, 2 x Wurfrahmen, 1x SU-122
1 AA: 1x 8.8 FlaK
4 Fighter: 4x Bf109G
4 Tactical Bomber: 2x Ju87D, 2x Bf110G
2 Level Bomber: 2x He177A

Most of the unit have 3 stars experience. A few four, a few less. During the scenario i lost 1 PzIVG, 1 SE Gebrigsjäger and around 3 to 4 recons ... yes i manged to lose it, buy it and lose it again and ... The Russian really seems to hate recons.

So that's about all i say here. I hope you manage to get a DV there soon to please high command the Führer and your wife.

[charonjr]

I bought 3 additional paras for this one, they are really great at city fighting due to their high initiative.

[adrianoku]

**** possibly spoiler for "storming Stalingrad" scenery ****

Away from the "roloplay" letter to my wife thanks for the suggestions! ( and to be precise I hate nazis, hate Furher and hate war, this is only a game )
I think my error was principally the use of italian army, in the initial turns I kept them in a defensive role and they did it very well, ... to much well so I started attacking east, then an horde of russians came out from west and it was the end, if I stayed in defense problably now I could be a decisive victorious marshall ( with a decimated army, but victoriuos )

Another question, but ... you speak of a compact front, did you conquered everything from west to east? Because I went directly to my objectives, I let behind every objective not strictly necessary. And ... you wrote not to use tanks in close terrain .... and how did you do with only 6 inf?

Now I'll study the scenery again and try a different composition of my army, more artillery ( I had only 6) and use of some paras, usefull for bunkers in the town.

Russian ariforce was not a problem at all, for more than an half of the battle there were only my planes in the sky!

[Tarrak]

Another question, but ... you speak of a compact front, did you conquered everything from west to east? Because I went directly to my objectives, I let behind every objective not strictly necessary. And ... you wrote not to use tanks in close terrain .... and how did you do with only 6 inf?

As i mentioned you can use the Pz IIIN in the city hexes. They actually do quite well. They got 4 CD compared to 2 of most other tanks and quite high SA so they tend to kill and suppress a lot of infantry so it doesn't shot back to hard. That gave me 10 units for close combat in city hexes and of course all the artillery and air force was supporting them. From time to time i used another of my tanks in the city hexes too but only vs very weakened units and only if i could make sure that they had artillery cover and could not be attacked by more then one enemy unit next turn.

I did not conquer all flags but most of them. I left out the few in the middle in front of the Italian units. They sit tight there until you engage them so they do not pose a real threat. I tried to conquer them with the leftover of my Italian forces after i thwarted the attack on the airfields but let's say it i wasn't really successful. I probably left out some flags on the sides unconquered as well. Did not want to waste time as i wasn't sure what kind of opposition awaits me at the end.

P.S. After you beat that scenario have fun in Stalingrad Docks. In my opinion it's even worse. Endless waves of Russian .. endless i tell you. . I managed a DV there with just one turn spare and lost a T34/40 and again quite a few recons. Poor little scouts. I started Stalingrad with around 12k prestige now after the both scenarios and refreshing my core i am down to around 5k ... ok i did upgrade my fighters to Fw190 which wasn't cheap but still: Stalingrad is an evil meat grinder for your army.

[robman]

Well, to quote the classic Monty Python sketch, set in an English country inn:

Vacationer (speaking to fellow vacationer "Mr. Hilter"): Oh, no, you've got the wrong map there. This is Stalingrad. You want the Ilfracombe and Barnstaple section.

Landlady: Oh, lucky Mr Johnson pointed that out. You wouldn't have had much fun in Stalingrad, would you? Ha ha. I said, you wouldn't have had much fun in Stalingrad, would you?

Hilter: Not much fun in Stalingrad, no.

[monkspider]

I enjoyed the letter, thanks for posting.

Storming Stalingrad is definitely a very memorable scenario. It does a wonderful job of reflecting the nature of that brutal battle.

[adrianoku]

I agree, a memorable scenario, 1st of all was the first one my marginal victory since 1939 and my ego it's been hurted a lot
and then very very well designed, the feeling of russians behind every wall it's really threatening , my congratulations to the slitherine guys!
The second time I've played it I got a decisive victory (with only one inf loss), with the indubitable vantage to know some enemy's locations, but it was
an hard play again and the last objective conquered the last turn! I was also proud of my italian army, no problem in annihilating every enemy forces around them. I kept them around the airfields for all the scenery but for the last 10 turns (after having countered the russian attack) problably I could also use them in attack.

PS: Ah, I don't know if it's a bug or not but in the airfield north (36,2) there are two il2 which doesn't move at all, it's a shot the pigeon game.

The decisive decision thanks to which I've got this victory was changing drastically my artillery units, the use of mobile art it's a must!

[Tarrak]

Glad to see you managed to get a DV with the loss of only one unit. This is rather good. Now have fun in Stalingrad Docks ... this will be even more fun.

[adrianoku]

Glad to see you managed to get a DV with the loss of only one unit. This is rather good. Now have fun in Stalingrad Docks ... this will be even more fun.

Yes, I'm in planning phase now, I'd like to beat the enemy at the first shot this time, to repeat a scenario is for me a little defeat, this time I'll put in practice the lesson learned before and who knows if there will be another mail ...

However thanks for the precious suggestions!