Slitherine

My force consists of 10 infantry units (2 regular, 2 mountain, 2 panzer grenadier, 2 pionere, 2 bridge. 3 Panzer 3L's 5 Pnz IVG, 5 artillery, 1 88mm ATG

My SS consists of 1 Panzer Grenadier, 2 Pznr 1VFG's 1 Pnzr IIIL' and one IIIN.

6 ME109G's, 1 109F and 109E. 5 JU 87D's, 1 BF110, 1 HE 111 and 1 JU88

and of course the Italian army and its aircraft.

I allocate about 1/4 of my force to eliminate the partisan and cut off soviet units that can harrass the airfields and other strategic targets. They are usually eliminated by the end of the 2nd turn, sometimes turn 3.


I am unable to beat the computer in Stalingrad. I come close but always wind up retreating due to the collapse of Romanian, Hungarian and Italian troops. Is this just par for the course? I have the game on colonel strength for the allies.

Have any of you all been able to win at Stalingrad and if so any pointers for me?

Hello!

I would say your core is fine. I have several reccomendations:
Firstly, do not deploy all units at all times. Furthermore, try to rotate units in and out of combat, per different scenarios, to develop a solid, experienced core. My rookie mistake was using just 10 favorite units and the other 20 were just tagging along. You generally need to develop an all-around, strong army by rotation. Hence, you should deploy 2 pioniere, maybe even buy/convert 1 more regiment to pioniere; as well as all of your regulars and panzergrenadiere, and as for the bruckenpioniere and the gebrigsjager, they might as well rest since they are not much use in this scenario.
I hope you're not deploying BOTH of your bridge pioniers in ALL scenarios, for example... they're situational

Secondly, I think that 5 Stukas is an overkill in this scenario, since most of the combat is in urban terrain, which means that enemies have good cover. I would go with maximally 2 StuKas, 2 strategic bombers, 1-2 Me 110's; and 3-5 fighters. Minimize the Luftwaffe and deploy some more artillery... like 8-10 or perhaps even 12 of assorted guns of all calibers plus a couple of StuG's/Wurfrahmen/SU122 if you've captured it. Artillery IS the queen of battle.

Thirdly, the Italians are very poor except for the Bersaglieri, which are decent infantry. As soon as you start pushing into the city, upgrade the regular Italian infantry to Bersaglieri. I also upgraded the BA65 (I think that's the name) fighter-bobmer into the Sparviero SM79 for 100-ish prestige... to make it a bit less useless... I can't put it any other way

Fourthly, the partisans are annoying, but I simply ordered the 3 Italian Bersaglieri regiments and the assorted AT guns to deal with the Western group, and supported them with Me110's. I still lost time there, don't know how to do it the best way. I restrain using more of my core (anything significant) for those pesky partisans when I have to push along the entire front.

Fifthly, when you've entered the city, organise kampfgruppen made of all combat arms. Use pioniere a lot, use artillery even more. Do not deploy all 8 of your core tanks (not counting the SE): substitute them with pioniere and artillery.

Hope my opinion helps!