Tips for getting Decisive Victory in Sealion '40?

[KenPortner]

I've played it about 10 times now and can't get close to a decisive victory.

How do you do it?

[VPaulus]

You can always take a look at "The Diary of Herr Pferdmann" by Horseman.
viewtopic.php?f=145&t=26166

[brettz123]

It would help if you posted your CORE and what you are having trouble with.

The general tips you will get are that you need 2 strategic bombers to augment the two you auxilliary ones you get. This will let you take out the british navy without taking much damage.

Upgrade your 109e's to 109f's to deal with the spitfires. This is important because the spitfires increased initiative will cause alot of damage to your 109e's.

Upgrade 2 of your experienced infantry to fallschirmjaegers and go for the top left objective.

You might want to take an 88 with you in order to deal with the Matilda II to the West of London (stationed on an airfield). It isn't necessary but it might help.

Split your landing forces into 4 distinct groups.
1. Your main group which will strike into London. Lots of pioniere and artillery here.
a. The tanks in this group should be used to link up with your paratroopers around the top left objective in the last couple of turns to help you out there.
2. Another group to head straight to the west and take the far left objective. This should have tanks and two arillery pieces. Land to the west of all the cities around London so you don't waste time fighting through them.
3. an Eastern force consisting of something like 1 tank, 1 infantry, and an artilery piece which will be used along with your eastern naval forces to take the top eastern objective.
4. your fallschirmjaegers should be used to take the airfield to the West (which is undefended). This will let you base your fighters and refuel without heading back over the channel. They can then start moving north.

You want to keep your transports out of sight on their first turn. Do not under any ciscumstances move them into sight of anything on the first turn or you will pay the price.

[Tarrak]

You can always take a look at "The Diary of Herr Pferdmann" by Horseman.
viewtopic.php?f=145&t=26166

Sorry for the OT but this reminds me .. anyone knows what happened to horseman? He made this outstanding AAR and then kind of disappeared.

[VPaulus]

Sorry for the OT but this reminds me .. anyone knows what happened to horseman? He made this outstanding AAR and then kind of disappeared.

No. He was a very active member in this forum, but his last post from November last year.
Hopefully, there's nothing wrong with him.

[KenPortner]

It would help if you posted your CORE and what you are having trouble with.

The general tips you will get are that you need 2 strategic bombers to augment the two you auxilliary ones you get. This will let you take out the british navy without taking much damage.

Upgrade your 109e's to 109f's to deal with the spitfires. This is important because the spitfires increased initiative will cause alot of damage to your 109e's.

Upgrade 2 of your experienced infantry to fallschirmjaegers and go for the top left objective.

You might want to take an 88 with you in order to deal with the Matilda II to the West of London (stationed on an airfield). It isn't necessary but it might help.

Split your landing forces into 4 distinct groups.
1. Your main group which will strike into London. Lots of pioniere and artillery here.
a. The tanks in this group should be used to link up with your paratroopers around the top left objective in the last couple of turns to help you out there.
2. Another group to head straight to the west and take the far left objective. This should have tanks and two arillery pieces. Land to the west of all the cities around London so you don't waste time fighting through them.
3. an Eastern force consisting of something like 1 tank, 1 infantry, and an artilery piece which will be used along with your eastern naval forces to take the top eastern objective.
4. your fallschirmjaegers should be used to take the airfield to the West (which is undefended). This will let you base your fighters and refuel without heading back over the channel. They can then start moving north.

You want to keep your transports out of sight on their first turn. Do not under any ciscumstances move them into sight of anything on the first turn or you will pay the price.

These are just the types of tips I need. Thanks very much.

[brettz123]

Hope it helps. Sealion 40 is one of the hardest scenarios in the main campaign. There don't seem to be many different ways to beat it.

[KeldorKatarn]

I also used fallschirmjäger and also a bridge engineer to cross the Thames east of London. That helps a lot. Also you need to make sure you keep the royal air force and navy in check and get rid of them very fast. I personally think I had way too little artillery for this scenario but it is possible if you take care of your units. But I too needed several tries to pull it off. All the more satisfying to see them surrender though

[Jabod]

I have just completed this, getting a decisive victory on my second attempt. My first attempt (more of a trial run really) quickly ended in disaster when the RAF and Royal Navy intervened.

I had already figured that I needed a lot of strategic bombers (I had 4 in total) to deal with the Royal Navy. I also maxed up the strength of the bombers that I already had (I had purchased a couple back in the Norwegian scenario, which are seasoned veterans by now).

After seeing the strength of the RAF I figured that I needed a lot of fighters too, so on my second attempt I purchased a bunch of Me-109s, giving me seven fighter units in total. As a result, my army was actually rather small and compact, while my air force was massive.

These are the forces that I had at start:

4x regular infantry
1x grenadier
1x mountain
1x SE infantry
2x paras
2x light tanks
3x heavy tanks
3x artillery
6x Me-109
1x Me-110
1x Ju-87
4x Ju-88
Plus of course the navy

I am not recommending this as the ideal mix, but it worked for me!

Except for the extra Me-109s, I decided at the start to spend most of my prestige on strengthening my existing units rather than buying new ones. I figured that it would be a challenge to get many units ashore, so the stronger the individual units were, the better.

The priority in the first few turns was systematically wiping out the British navy and airforce, ganging up on the ships with my subs and bombers, and on the planes with my fighters. Getting a few troops ashore was a bonus.

I landed on a very narrow front in the south-east of England - basically to the East of Bexhill-on-Sea and around Dover. Obviously it is vital to stay out of range of the British heavy ships' guns (five hexes for the battleship!), which was only possible if I kept the landing front very narrow, using the subs and destroyers to keep the Royal Navy at a distance.

One tip - perhaps an obvious one - is that your navy can come in extremely useful once the Royal Navy has been wiped out. Note that the eastern edge of London is within range of your cruisers and your battleship if you sail them up the Thames estuary, enabling your capital ships to support the attack on London.

I sent the destroyers and gunboats west, where they were able to provide some useful support to my subsequent attacks (from the north) on the ports along the south coast.

Once I had got my army ashore in Kent, my strategy was actually pretty crude. I just made a bee-line for London with pretty much everything I had. This strategy actually worked out fine.

Taking out the antiaircraft unit defending London is obviously crucial to bringing the airforce into play, so I decided it was worth making fairly costly attacks on the town (Reigate) just south of London, which allowed my panzers to sweep round to take out the AA unit (and also to capture the airfield just south of London, which became the main base for my airforce). Otherwise, my attacks were pretty well supported with air and artillery and therefore not too costly.

Of course, you earn a ton of prestige from capturing London, which I used to purchase an additional tank unit and a reconaissance unit, which came in handy during the final dash for the remaining objectives. Note that reinforcements that are purchased in mid-game can be deployed deep inland!

Once I had captured London, my forces radiated outwards towards the other objectives, all of which were lightly defended and fell without much difficulty. One main force headed towards Oxford, with another one heading towards Reading. Tanks, infantry and stukas made short work of the Matilda defending the latter.

The Reading force then split in two, with one part attacking Oxford from the South (conveniently taking out the defending artillery), and the other heading towards Portsmouth and Southampton. The latter ports had been softened up with continuous air and naval attacks so fell without much trouble.

A couple of units headed east to take Ipswich, which fell easily with support from the navy's big ships (still hanging around the Thames estuary.)

With the fall of Oxford and Southampton, everything converged on Bristol, in time to take it within the 14-turn limit.

I did not do anything very adventurous with my paras, landing them just ahead of my main armies. It is true that you have to be cautious with the paras in the first few turns as the RAF will make mincemeat of your transports. In fact one of my paras came a cropper while attempting the initial landing in Kent, and had to be rebuilt in France. I later landed it to the East of London, where it helped support the attack on the capital.

[fredleander]

I wonder - has any of you guys studied the actual Sealion plans? That would probably help a lot.........

Fred

[brettz123]

I wonder - has any of you guys studied the actual Sealion plans? That would probably help a lot.........

Fred

I did but then I realized their CORE didnt match mine for some reason........ no wonder they lost the war.

[hs1611]

I did but then I realized their CORE didnt match mine for some reason........ no wonder they lost the war.

Maybe they didn't have enough prestige...