Slitherine

Please post here your comments about this scenario.

Konigsberg
Starting prestige 2600
Ending prestige 200
Marginal victory turn 18/18
Losses:
2x Panzer IV
2x Panther (though one was a green SS unit that I had just gotten that same battle)
1x Jagdtiger
1x Jagd panther
1x Warsaw artillery (that's right, my beloved Polish artillery unit I captured back in Warsaw '39)
1x 12.2 FLAK (that I purchased this battle)
1x mobile FLAK
1x Green Wehrmacht infantry

As you can see from the list of losses, this battle took a turn not necessarily in my favor. But before I elaborate on that, let me first explain what my basic strategy was.

Ever since Stalingrad, this particular core has been living paycheck to paycheck I have another core that still has about 18,000 prestige after Stalingrad but it is only up to 1943 and won't be able to play this campaign for a while. Frankly though, it is this constantly living on the edge that I love about this core. It makes things exciting, I have to constantly scratch and claw to be able to ever get ahead. But even before this battle, things were getting dire. For the first time in the entire campaign, I had to use largely normal replacements during the deployment phase. No matter how bad things got, I prided myself on always getting my units up to at least ten points with elite replacements. Those days are gone however. Just like the historical Germans I tried to concentrate my resources on my SS units and get them up to full overstrength but the other units were normal replacements with a few elite replacements here and there. Now with that in mind, I knew at the outset that another decisive victory would be pushing this core too hard. I was going to go for a marginal victory, limit my losses, and maybe come out ahead on prestige.

My strategy, and honestly, i think it was a pretty good one, was to deploy ALL my forces north of the river and concentrate on just holding the minimum three victory hexes, which were two city hexes and the airfield hex. After having so much trouble with the Red Airforce I bought an extra FLAK unit and then pulled all the auxillary FLAK south of the river to the north of it. And then with such a blanket of FLAK I was going to set my fighters on the offensive and try to seize air suprmeacy. This part of my strategy worked beautifully. The Red Airforce was quickly shot out of the sky on both waves.

The rest of my strategy didn't go nearly as well . The central flaw I think was that I forgot that the river was frozen and didn't deploy accordingly. As a result some of my panzers were unbacked by artillery in city hexes and unexpectedly attacked by Soviet infantry. This started to unhinge my strategy early on, but still I beat the first wave with modest losses, only one unit was completely lost by this point, a Panzer IV. That second wave however, hit hard and beat the living crap out of me. By the end of the battle a substantial portion of my armor was lost and holding on for the marginal victory became one of the most stressful and hardest fought battles in my Panzer Corps career.

I think losses on this scale naturally call into question my ability to continue the campaign but I am optimistic that I will be able to continue on some level, it is likely that my strategy may have to involve trying to find the easiest possible path to a marginal victory. Instead of splitting my forces into two groups, they may just have to be one group from now on and in some battles I may just have to take my luck with a loss rather than risk destruction of my remaining forces. At least the "core" of my core is still with me for the most part, and I expected my Panzer IVs to be slaughtered at some point during this campaign anyway. I am sure that my lost units will have a high place in Valhalla for their sacrifice.

So yes, a brutal, and unforgettable scenario, and I expected nothing less from 1945. I wanted a campaign that was like the Godzilla monster in Sim City that you summoned to destroy your city that you spent countless hours meticulously building and it seems like I am going to get it.

It's a tough scenario, but a little too tough for this early in the campaign perhaps. We'll see how other players fair in this battle.

I made it through, but with very little prestige through the game to repair tanks with elite reinforcements. It took 17 turns to get through, you just have to take it slow and keep mass. That city to the east looked easy until my recon pulled up, then my PzIVj's just could not handle the Soviet armor.

I am surprised at the beating the AT takes in the swamps and in mountains, but as a former light infantryman, I understand it. I just think it is too one sided at this point, the infantry is chewing up jadgtigers and elephants.

Overall, I would not change this scenario except to possibly up the prestige. The reminder to have infantry was essential. I am playing colonel level so I may have it easier than monkspider. Getting ~3k afterwards will help with Osterede.