Advance to the Elbe (Stand alone Scenario)
Posted: Wed Jun 10, 2015 5:39 am
Hey everyone, I am a veteran Panzer General turned Panzercorps player.
I have played all the Grand Campaigns and had gone back to playing all the base scenarios for each of the Panzer/Afrika/Allied Corps games. I play them as the Allies and the Axis, at the colonel level to start. Some are ridiculously easy as that level, and most of the time I wipe the opposing army from the map. However I run into a few that are quite challenging even at that level.
The Cobra scenario was entertaining as I had to set up inland away from the ships and bunch my units around the flak until the planes weakened and the Allied units slowly advanced south. The AI would buy a ton of long barreled Shermans (the weaker American one and not the Firefly) and it took some time to finally drive the US army into the sea.
I beat Bagration as the Germans in the standalone scenario but it is easily one of the hardest of all. The Russians would slaughter the German units within 10 turns, but I took the tactic of delaying in the south and center and massing most of the army in the north. The Russians would ignore the north and drive to the middle forested city and also cross the river in the south in mass. I would counterattack with 2 Tiger 2's and an Elephant and also a couple towed 88's and the surviving antitank guns and Panthers. The Soviets would drain their prestige on IS-2's and once they were dead, the Soviets simply bled to death. I retook the eastern towns and counterattacked. A Soviet force existed at the end but it held no cities.
There are a few other stand alones that are hard. Fort Capuzzo as Italians is difficult because you have no prestige and weak infantry. The Bardia scenario is hard as British because you have only 4 pioneers to start and have to literally buy the whole army from scratch. A few African scenarios as British and Germans are hard with minefields and long distances to travel.
However, one I CANNOT win as the Germans no matter what even at Colonel level is Advance to the Elbe. You literally face a super-heavy force of 4 star US and British tanks with 14 and 15 strength. Not only that but they have like 11,000 prestige and are attacking German units who are out in the open and some are already surrounded and/or understrength. Playing as the Allies, I can win the scenario without losing any strength as I can replace all my overstrength loss during the scenario. But even the bumbling AI can steamroll my units. None of my tactics work. I tried engaging them early and death was quick. I tried holding back and massing in the hills and forests to force them to attack my infantry with tanks and it caused heavy losses, but the losses were easily replaced by the Allies but my units lost just as heavily and could not replace! This is another issue as the Germans cannot buy any units, they cannot replace tank casualties even if lucky enough to recapture a town, and have zero starting prestige. So I can attack a M26 in the forest and take off 6 but lose 6, and the M26 is able to replace losses and the Grenadier is crippled and dead next turn. The US forces can easily one shot the German tanks and all die quickly if they venture out. The B26 bombers take out 6-8 strength points from everything they attack and even my 15 strength Ta-152 is destroyed without loss by the P-47 and Meteor. The fighters take pot shots at the Maus constantly if they don't have flak next to them. Usually the Maus bleeds 1-2 each turn at the end and finally is overwhelmed when out of ammo.
My best effort was sneaking a unit behind the US advance (usually the motorcycle unit on top that is ignored in favor of killing the Grenadier). This unit took the rear cities and gave me 100 or so prestige to get some replacements for infantry, but this was barely enough to save a few units. I then let the enemy advance in the center and north and tried to counterattack in the south against the few M36 Jacksons and infantry down there. The infantry can attack the Jackson without much damage and take off ammo. The main goal is to defend in the hills and forests with the infantry and weaken the tanks to under 5 strength. Then swarm them and try and keep them from replacing losses. I cannot destroy any tanks as the US spawns M26 Pershings with 4 stars that I cannot hold off. If I keep the core slots occupied with weak units, they cannot build new units in the rear. I then tried to swing units around the rear and retake the objective cities before the main Allied army took the northern city and got through the forest and hills.
The problem was that the Allied army and airforce simply slaughtered units too fast for me to accomplish my objective. I would have too few effective units to hold units or prevent resupply and the Allied artillery would literally blow away my infantry when it was bunched up around the weak enemy tanks. I could not separate the artillery from the tanks and infantry due to the good movement of the Allied tanks and artillery meaning they kept pace with each other and could back each other up well. The Callioppe and the Churchill artillery were especially strong. A strategy of wiping out the infantry and artillery first did not work because only a few inf were thrown ahead and the tanks actually outpaced the artillery and infantry to my main lines. So at some point I had to make a decision to start wiping out the Allied army before my forces disintegrated, and there were at least a couple cities still unoccupied by my forces. These forces were usually very weak tanks as they were useless at this point as I had no replacement ability. The Allied airforce would fly around and pick off tanks and once Allied units were destroyed, the AI would start making M26 Pershings. My battered army was then steamrolled by 10 brand new M26's who finished the rest of the battle and retook the ones I took in the rear. The worst part is that I couldn't even kill off bombers or fighters as this would introduce core slots for new M26's. By the last few turns all the eastern cities were unoccupied and the battle was over. The surviving artillery pieces, bombers, and infantry helped root out the few inf I had left.
So by the end of the battle I usually have nothing left or just a couple Russian fighters left. The US airforce is usually quite battered by the end because of my flak concentrations, but I need to be careful not to free up core slots for the AI by getting a errant flak ambush.
So this is the only base scenario I have not beaten in the Panzercorps series. Has anyone beaten this scenario? You need to hold FIVE objectives to win and I couldn't hold one even when I parked a Maus in one.
I have played all the Grand Campaigns and had gone back to playing all the base scenarios for each of the Panzer/Afrika/Allied Corps games. I play them as the Allies and the Axis, at the colonel level to start. Some are ridiculously easy as that level, and most of the time I wipe the opposing army from the map. However I run into a few that are quite challenging even at that level.
The Cobra scenario was entertaining as I had to set up inland away from the ships and bunch my units around the flak until the planes weakened and the Allied units slowly advanced south. The AI would buy a ton of long barreled Shermans (the weaker American one and not the Firefly) and it took some time to finally drive the US army into the sea.
I beat Bagration as the Germans in the standalone scenario but it is easily one of the hardest of all. The Russians would slaughter the German units within 10 turns, but I took the tactic of delaying in the south and center and massing most of the army in the north. The Russians would ignore the north and drive to the middle forested city and also cross the river in the south in mass. I would counterattack with 2 Tiger 2's and an Elephant and also a couple towed 88's and the surviving antitank guns and Panthers. The Soviets would drain their prestige on IS-2's and once they were dead, the Soviets simply bled to death. I retook the eastern towns and counterattacked. A Soviet force existed at the end but it held no cities.
There are a few other stand alones that are hard. Fort Capuzzo as Italians is difficult because you have no prestige and weak infantry. The Bardia scenario is hard as British because you have only 4 pioneers to start and have to literally buy the whole army from scratch. A few African scenarios as British and Germans are hard with minefields and long distances to travel.
However, one I CANNOT win as the Germans no matter what even at Colonel level is Advance to the Elbe. You literally face a super-heavy force of 4 star US and British tanks with 14 and 15 strength. Not only that but they have like 11,000 prestige and are attacking German units who are out in the open and some are already surrounded and/or understrength. Playing as the Allies, I can win the scenario without losing any strength as I can replace all my overstrength loss during the scenario. But even the bumbling AI can steamroll my units. None of my tactics work. I tried engaging them early and death was quick. I tried holding back and massing in the hills and forests to force them to attack my infantry with tanks and it caused heavy losses, but the losses were easily replaced by the Allies but my units lost just as heavily and could not replace! This is another issue as the Germans cannot buy any units, they cannot replace tank casualties even if lucky enough to recapture a town, and have zero starting prestige. So I can attack a M26 in the forest and take off 6 but lose 6, and the M26 is able to replace losses and the Grenadier is crippled and dead next turn. The US forces can easily one shot the German tanks and all die quickly if they venture out. The B26 bombers take out 6-8 strength points from everything they attack and even my 15 strength Ta-152 is destroyed without loss by the P-47 and Meteor. The fighters take pot shots at the Maus constantly if they don't have flak next to them. Usually the Maus bleeds 1-2 each turn at the end and finally is overwhelmed when out of ammo.
My best effort was sneaking a unit behind the US advance (usually the motorcycle unit on top that is ignored in favor of killing the Grenadier). This unit took the rear cities and gave me 100 or so prestige to get some replacements for infantry, but this was barely enough to save a few units. I then let the enemy advance in the center and north and tried to counterattack in the south against the few M36 Jacksons and infantry down there. The infantry can attack the Jackson without much damage and take off ammo. The main goal is to defend in the hills and forests with the infantry and weaken the tanks to under 5 strength. Then swarm them and try and keep them from replacing losses. I cannot destroy any tanks as the US spawns M26 Pershings with 4 stars that I cannot hold off. If I keep the core slots occupied with weak units, they cannot build new units in the rear. I then tried to swing units around the rear and retake the objective cities before the main Allied army took the northern city and got through the forest and hills.
The problem was that the Allied army and airforce simply slaughtered units too fast for me to accomplish my objective. I would have too few effective units to hold units or prevent resupply and the Allied artillery would literally blow away my infantry when it was bunched up around the weak enemy tanks. I could not separate the artillery from the tanks and infantry due to the good movement of the Allied tanks and artillery meaning they kept pace with each other and could back each other up well. The Callioppe and the Churchill artillery were especially strong. A strategy of wiping out the infantry and artillery first did not work because only a few inf were thrown ahead and the tanks actually outpaced the artillery and infantry to my main lines. So at some point I had to make a decision to start wiping out the Allied army before my forces disintegrated, and there were at least a couple cities still unoccupied by my forces. These forces were usually very weak tanks as they were useless at this point as I had no replacement ability. The Allied airforce would fly around and pick off tanks and once Allied units were destroyed, the AI would start making M26 Pershings. My battered army was then steamrolled by 10 brand new M26's who finished the rest of the battle and retook the ones I took in the rear. The worst part is that I couldn't even kill off bombers or fighters as this would introduce core slots for new M26's. By the last few turns all the eastern cities were unoccupied and the battle was over. The surviving artillery pieces, bombers, and infantry helped root out the few inf I had left.
So by the end of the battle I usually have nothing left or just a couple Russian fighters left. The US airforce is usually quite battered by the end because of my flak concentrations, but I need to be careful not to free up core slots for the AI by getting a errant flak ambush.
So this is the only base scenario I have not beaten in the Panzercorps series. Has anyone beaten this scenario? You need to hold FIVE objectives to win and I couldn't hold one even when I parked a Maus in one.
