Click map to see details on force composition
Poland is generally regarded to be a walk-over and a tutorial. If all you ever play against is the AI - then you're right. If on the other hand you ever play PBEM, it's quite another matter.The Poland scenario has got some rivers which provide excellent defensive lines. Inexperienced german units will find the going rough if they try to cross the rivers where polish units are on sentry.
| The standard strategy involves an attack on Kalisz, which was no doubt also what CHARLES expected. I decided to limit my attack on Kalisz to be pinning only while splitting the rest of the army in two groups. The southern victoryobjective (VO) has the most favorable terrain for defense so I used most of my units in that attack. The initial rivercrossings in the south was backed up by defensive artillery, which effectively spoiled the polish counterattacks. | Click map to see details on force composition |
Warszaw is a more complex scenario, but at this stage, the german player allready has a firm adavantage in experience. This is also where the Luftwaffe appears for the first time. The polish army has no AD and only feeble fighters so it's as close to a walk-over as one can get.
| My main thrust was in the direction of Warszaw (south). It is necessary to lay a siege to Warszaw because of the fortification. Entrenchment must go below 3 to avoid high casulaties. The secondary thrusts were at the south and north crossing the rivers before going into action. The southern force was counterattacked by polish tanks but after it had crossed the river. The counterattack was encircled and crushed. Warszaw was taken mostly with infantry (including one pioneer) supported by artillery. The secondary attack on Warszaw was made to put maximum pressure on the polish army and deny it the option of relocation. Most tanks were used in the southern rivercrossing. Eventually, when Warszaw had fallen, all three forces converged on the last VO. Scenario over and a satisfying comment from the General Staff! |  Click map to see details on force composition |
 I was defeated in this scenario, but fortunately that had no consequences for the continued campaign. The course of the battle was roughly like this:Map1 1) I landed in strength near Oslo, with just a tiny force near Stavanger (west) and with a medium sized group in the north. 2) The northern group was largely destroyed by naval and airbombardment followed up by allied ground attacks. All the southern part of the map including Lillehammer was quickly captured. 3) I had to fight of a combined minor naval/air counterattack towards Denmark. 4) I anticipated the royal navy to be close to the shore in the bay near the central VO. It wasn't - it was heading straight towards my fleet and the Kriegsmarine was destroyed. 5) The RAF chose to fight in the middle part of the map only, forcing the Luftwaffe to operate at the extreme of its fuel range.
|  Click to enlarge (V's and double V's designate airraids and dogfights, an eye with a "V" over shows areas of aerial reconnaisance. Crossed flags shows naval encounters). |
| Map2
6) At the central part of the map, I was unable to break through the arty and AD backed defense lines. 7) My southern surface group arrived too late to save the northern group from annihilation. I then tried to extract the single surviving battleship, but it was caught up with and sunk. 8) In the end I was even threatened with a landing at Stavanger, but I managed to stop that. |  Click to enlarge |
One of my favorite scenarios. The germans have a great potential for blitz'ing here. They usually have to do it with much feeble equipment in the stand-alone scenarios. You can upgrade your tanks in the campaign, but there's hardly enough to upgrade everything and much of the job still has to be done by infantry. New purchases are also necessary. The allied side is put to a hard test, but it's not at all impossible. I've won this scenario several times in PBEM and Charles did do very well too
| I had my forces split in three groups. The best equipped was in the center, but some of my heavy artillery was positioned in the north to take Liege and one artillery piece plus a Pz35(t) core tank was sent through Luxemburg towards Sedan. My short term goal was to break through Liege as fast as possible (succeded in 1 turn), crash through the central sector around Namur and establish a siege to Sedan in the south. |  Click for a slightly enlarged map (V's and double V's designate airraids and dogfights, a V with a hat is a paradrop and an oval is a group of tanks). |
Allthough many of my units were at this point very experienced, I was aware of the strong defensive positions around Paris and the Seine line. Another concern were the British units. If the allied player recaptures a lost city, he suddenly has a chance to build a number of units superior to what is otherwise available in this scenario. Therefore priority was given to kill the british units - including the Matilda which with it's thick armor can make a real obstacle ("Mobile roadblocks"). This mission together with my desire to avoid a direct assault on Paris led me to split my forces in two (well, in 2½ really): One heading southwest to deal with the british and one heading southeast in a big swing south of the Seine line. Essentially I aimed for a pincermovement on Paris, trying to attack it in the rear. In the center - in front of Paris - I had a smaller screening force. I was aware that I was at some risk in the center, but I gambled that I would hold once the centerposition had been established. The two prongs made good headway. I managed to eliminate the british units and some local infiltrating units in the east. As I was nearing Paris, Charles broke out into the center in a counterattack. As bad weather simultaneously set on the area, the few covering units were on their own. There was no question I could take Paris, but could he take my startin VO up north? Allthough his counterattack was rather widespread and with quite a few units, I managed to delay him long enough with scattered defense to have the good weather come back. Luftwaffe went into action against the defenseless french, I counter-counterattacked with new units build up north and with a few units coming back from Paris. He was stopped short of my northern cities! After that it was just mobbing up. In all a pretty exciting scenario, where Charles showed he hadn't forgotten the promising results of a counterattack in Norway.A superb victory with the RAF and Royal Navy knocked out early in the game. British troops were completely outclassed. Perhaps a bit boring for both sides. Especially as I delayed the finish in order to go to Kiev (and not Middleeast).I wanted to take the campaign to Kiev and therefore voluntarily took only a minor victory. However we decided to make a sidebattle in the Mideast with my core army alone (disbanding all auxillaries except navy). I broke through over the Jordan river in the northern rugged terrain while a minor force crossed further to the south. Charles had prepared some armoured groups in the extreme south and north. I spotted them and dealt with them without delaying the main drive to Baghdad. Once in front of Baghdad and it's double river defense line, my elite panzers backed by artillery crashed through the allied defenses and rapidly captured Baghdad 3 turns before the time limit.The original path of the campaign. It was a clear but costly victory. In this scenario my panzers for the first time met substantial opposition. I split my corearmy in two to advance in two seperate divisions from the west over the riverline which is important to cross to gain a foothold. I made the southern division strongest in anticipation that the hardest defense would be there. I was wrong and I was hitting air in that sector, while tough opposition in the northern Konotopsector cost me several coreunits (mostly soft targets). At the same time, an expected counterattack south of Kiev was launched. I stemmed it with PzJIB's but was unable to effectively deal with the russian tanks in this sector untill I build a PzIIIJ. Meanwhile, my eastern forces were overrun by a russian counterattack and stopped only short of a VO. The outcome of the battle was never questioned, but it took my much longer time than expected and - what's worse - cost me some precious, experienced core units.This scenario is probably one of my biggest favorites. The mere size of this battle, makes it a special challenge. We have agreed to modify this scenario. It was to simulate a "what-if" situation where Stalin releases some of his siberian reinforcements at an earlier stage for a preemptive strike. Thus Charles was be given an extra 1.600 prestige to spend in the Moscow sector from turn 15. I believe it may just have made the difference between a major and a minor victory. Details to follow.The vast defensive positions in this scenario had me worried at the beginning. I could not rely on the usual panzer-breakthroughs. Entrenchment and fortifications just isn't their element. I figured out that concentrated firepower was the key, so I concentrated artillery and planes plus pioneers on three points; northeast (just in front of the VO), northwest corner and southwest. The two northern groups were to breakthrough with the panzers exploiting holes to kill support units - especially arty and flak. The southern group was a bit weaker and was intended to start clearing a third approach to Sevastopol city in case resistance up north was heavy or if the riverline at the east bank was defended heavily. As it turned out, the southern attack wasn't necessary and it actually ran into much more resistance than expected. The break-throughs went as planned and the westbank was soon under control, eventually letting me shell the eastbank from there. It proved no problem crossing the river, which only had the default defenses (big mistake, Charles). After that it was a slugging out in the city - a battle I won safely due to artillery and airpower. I did suffer some kills, though.Next scenario. Stalingrad! Ahhh..home of the tank battles. I'm looking forward to those Tigers. Negotiations are going on to find out if Charles should have some extra benefit like in Moscow. After all, 31 turns against Tigers etc. is a long time...
