Slitherine

I'm playing AC mission Cobra in '44. I had tough time dealing with Germans in the Overlord mission itself, but this mission seems to be downright hellish. I'm supposed to take control of 10 cities or something like that. There are 20 turns in the scenario. However right from the get go instead of me attacking I'm the one who is attacked from various spots! Germans throw SE Panthers at me, PzIVHs and swarms of infantry. All this is backed up with artillery as well as AA guns. One complete army!

I've managed to stop attacks somehow at some 6th or 7th turn. However I lost one Sherman Firefly in the process. The problem is that on the northeast as well in other parts of the map there is just too many German infantry units. Almost every second hex has German infantry with entrenchment of 4. Also my Spitfires are having tough time dealing with FW190s of 3 stars. I should have bought Tempests but I didn't have enough prestige for that and Fireflies. Germans even threw a Ju87 at me!

I tried breaking down south from the northeast (something about that was said in briefing too), however I was welcomed with more German armor (SE Tiger 2 to be exact). It gives me chills just to see that beast. I managed to upgrade all my Churchills to Fireflies in this mission just of the sakes of more gun power. Churchills are almost invincible but are very bad offensively so ultimately not much is accomplished by them late in the war. Fireflies on the other hand stand no chance with Tigers, while they are about equal or better than Panthers.

I wouldn't have anything against Tiger or Panther here and there, but to be honest, number of German units and tanks in this mission is equal to mine, if not larger. There are surely more German infantry units than mine and they are all deeply entrenched. I cannot believe that it was this hard historically for Allies to break through and that there was this many Germans. Also I'm having troubles with prestige and experience on FM. All German units now are 3 starred, while I always did elite replacements but I have at best similar experience to Germans.

Btw. US tactical bombers suck. Mosquito is only good solution...

Btw2: What is the all mentioned reform unit feature? Is that a possibility to reform US into British forces or vise versa? That would be very helpful as during the war some nice American hardware appears, but I'm stuck with British units. For example I would like to reform my Priest into GMC artillery...

Perhaps if the scenario is too hard for you, you should try playing it at a lower difficulty level than Field Marshall? There are lower difficulty levels for a reason.

danhanegan wrote:Perhaps if the scenario is too hard for you, you should try playing it at a lower difficulty level than Field Marshall? There are lower difficulty levels for a reason.

Maybe I will try that. But for now, I'm going a few scenarios back in order to spare prestige, and form a stronger core.

This is one of those battles were Infantry, artillery and high level bombers are your best friends. I stuck with Churchill tank, their good defesence and close combat numbers make them much better here too over going all fireflys. I started wih everything at the top of the map, didt put anything to the far southwest below the river, keep your units to support. Now on the US flank, infantry with artillery behind them for me, killed German tanks with ease in that bocage. I kept my armor along the far right in the open fighting against infantry mostly. Then just slowly moved down that flank, till I was ready to cross the river and run at the germans.

As for the British on the right, little different there, much more open. Again go slow, if you get caught with one mistake, allied units arent good enough to live past what the germans can toss at you. Here allied air power is key though. I never let the big cats (panthers, tigers etc) close on me to fight without at least being hit 2-3 times high level bombers and then ground attack bommbers. So that by the time they do attack, or I attack them, they are down to 5-6 strength and one round of ammo. High level bombers take a pounding from 88s, so I normally have 3, and one is always being repaired, but just keep flying them in. Once you get an 88 out of ammo, hit it with tac bombers.

Personally my infantry, im running 8 plus units, kill more german armor than my tanks do. The terrain is great for attacking tanks in terrain they dont fight well in. Use your armor to force the germans tanks to full back into terrain so you infantry can kill them if you can.

Really Allied command is nothing like playing as the Germans, were tanks are key. For the Allies, im finding good infantry/artillery and Air Power are whats winning most battles in the end for me.

Off the top of my head my core for Cobra was something like this,

Brit Infantry XX
Reg infantry
Reg Infantry
Churchill
US M10, the brits used them not sure why we cant buy them as British in the game
Artillery

Brit Infantry XX
Reg Infantry
Reg Infantry
Churchill
US M10
Artillery

Brit Armor XX
Firefly
Cromwell
HW Infantry
Artillery, tracked
Reccon

2 fighters, 1 Tac, 1 high level bomber.

US Infantry XX
Reg Infantry
Reg Infantry
Sherman
M10
Artillery

US Armor XX
Sherman
M10
HW Infantry
Artillery, tracked

2 fighters, 1-2 tac, 2 High level bombers.

@Anfield

Thanks for the thorough answer

I've realized that tanks are not the best way to go as far as Allied forces go. There are some good tanks later on but none are able to consistently compete with German armor. So on that hand developers did a good job. However I want to have 2-3 US tanks because I know there will be Pershings late in tha war and I want to have some of those. Churchills are a must, because they are effectively the only ones capable of stopping a Tiger.

Also I realize that infantry and aerial support are crucial for Allied troops. Especially in the bocage in the France missions. They can wreck havoc in the German armor in close terrain. Somehow those situations remind me a lot to "Saving private Ryan"and I don't know why

I replayed my campaign starting from the Tunis mission, and I think I saved a lot more prestige this time, and also I have a better core. I also avoided playing Casino and went for Anzio instead. It proved to be a good decision. Last time I played Cassino it took a heavy tool on my troops and prestige. It's incredible how easy is Anzio compared to Casino...

Now I'm at the Overlord mission again. I tried different tactics in desperate effort to win Caen. Germans have a perfect defending position out there. They also have too many AA batteries (mobile and 88) in behind and also a lot of mobile reserves with lot of Tanks in behind (at least 5-6 of them). I tried breaking out from Villers Bocage with lots of my infantry but even that didn't work. I think Victory here is optimal. Triumph IMO is possible but the question is to witch price. There are simply too many AA and Artillery batteries in behind of Caen, protected with tanks. It is impossible to flank them effectively. If anyone accomplished this please share

Yeah I agree, Anzio is easier than Cassino. I learned that the hard way too!

Im also not going for all out wins after my first play through. Ill get the min number of hexes captured for the win, then push on if things look good from there to get the others for a total victory. Seems very little difference in the outcome of what you play next and is saving my Army from, as you know, taking a pounding in some battles.

When ive taken Caen in D-Day, its been as you said, going at Caen from Villers Bocage. But I find it almsot impossible to hold that Bridge with the Brit Paras haha

Timek28, I took Caen in D-Day. I had 3 paratroop unit dropped in the area, landed one armor unit and one artillery unit to back the airborne units up. I sent all the units deployed to be the beach towards Caen ASAP. Used a lot of air and most of my naval support there also. Playing as colonel.

I also took Caen in D-Day without unacceptably heavy losses. I moved armor and artillery across the bridge immediately after landing, and shifted more armor and artillery to the open country east of Caen as the battle wore on. Once I dealt with the German armored counterattack, I gradually squeezed Caen from both sides, using armor to take out the artillery and AA south of the city. I left relatively few units in the center of the map and I did not take Villers-Bocage at all.

My Dday approach is very similar to Robman's. Land three churchill's and some arty near the bridge. The paras hold for a turn or two until the tanks roll over and form a screen around the bridge. Surviving paras pull back to regroup and an artillery unit moves behind the churchills to back them up. At this stage I'm using the latest churchill's. They can't get anywhere in this terrain, so the low fuel doesn't matter and the extra armour helps survive shells from the fortresses and the odd panther attack. I'm still working on good solutions for the other objectives.

As for the bocage one (Cobra) I have tried massing tanks on the right and with some success. Playing on 1.14 I recently managed (though it was hard work) to get a Triumph at General with a turn or two spare. I can't (yet) see how to do this under 1.20 as there are so many entrenched troops.