Review of "Blitzkrieg!" Campaign v1.11 |
Blitzkrieg! Version 1.11
Blitzkrieg! Version 1.11 Prestige: 100 Equipment: Zerstörer 2.61 Round 1: Madrid offensive Quite easy. Full attack. Sent my recon down south to take the cities. You need to coordinate your final attack a bit in the end, but otherwise there shouldnīt be any problems. My pioneers got a leader. Did a last turn BV. Round 2: Ciechanow Easy. Most of my army was placed on the eastern hexes. They drove south, took the airfield, and turned east to take the hex there. Then turned south again towards the 2.nd airfield. This had already been taken by the bridge engineers from the top corner whom I flew in. I flew in 1 inf unit as well. Quite handy for an attack in the back on the last VH. The city in the middle was taken by storm, without loss of units. Bought 1 fighter, 3 panzers, 2 art and a recon. Did a last urn BV, but could have done a 4 before BV. I waited to gain exp. Round 3: Suomussalmi Easy again. The northern city can be taken with 1 inf, 1 small art and 1 panzer. The centralcity can be stormed with pioneers and artillery. The same goes for the last city. Panzer and AT are not much use here. It is snowing almost al the time, so bombers are useless. Managed to shoot down the 2 russian fighters anyway. Did a last turn BV, but could have made a 4 before BV. Killed some extra AT and paratroopers. Round 4: Lillehammer Easy again. Placed a good art, a good inf, a good panzer, a bad recon, and bad panzer on the left side of the see. They took their time but in the end took the first city, the airfield and the next city. The remaining units took the other side. 1 inf, a bad art, an AT and a recon took Elverum and Rena. The rest took Lillehammer. No problems here. Just go in under artillery cover. One art got a leader, nice. Did a 3 before BV. I was not able to take out the Spitfire. Watch it, it is very experienced. Round 5: Sedan My army now consists of: 5 panzers (one is still a PZIIA from Spain), 2 AT, 5 art, 3 recon, 1 AA, 5 inf and 2 fighters. Guess i have to buy more panzers soon. The artillery and inf will do for now. It is getting harder now. Took Sedan in the first round with art and inf. They never saw what hit them. Took Meīziers in the next. This is real Blitzkrieg. The french airforce was almost smashed after turn 2. The force that took Meīziers was sent northwest to take the 2 cities, and then south to take to 2 victory hexes. The other force that was a bit slower headed straight towards Signy-lī-Abbaye, where they met. Both then headed south and smashed the whole french army, also the part on the other side of the river. Only one inf survived. Was caught a bit by surprise by the counterattack on Sedan and had to buy a guard unit. Lost one exp-100 inf in a surprise, dammit. Got revenge by hitting hard on the attacking units. Did a last turn BV. Could have done it 1 turn faster, but I wanted to take out more french units. 2 panzers got leaders, one of them was my PZIIA, guess I should upgrade it. Round 6: Race to Dunkirk Bought 2 PZIVD, 1 88mm AA, 1 recon, 1 pioneer, 1 21 cm Morser 18, received a Nebelwerfer as prototype and upgraded the PZIIA. The army is starting to look like an army. Easy round again. My art smashed all resistance. Inf and panzer cleaned up. The best units were sent directly towards Dunkirk. Remaining part spent a little more time taking the plain in the middke of the map and the VHīs. Dunkirk was stormed under art cover. Could have done a BV, but decided to wait, so I would get transferred to Africa, killed all units but one, and took all cities but one. Did a 4 before BV. There is a good fighter out there, but he ran into my 2 AA, and was taken out. This is real blitzkrieg. Round 7: Pursuit to Tobruk Bought 1 AT, 1 art, 1 fighter and upgraded 1 inf. Relatively easy, but you really have to act fast. Sent my best units straight towards the eastern city. Not that well defended. Art can bleed it up, and inf can clean the rest. Just give yourself good time with the first city. It is only lightly defended, and easy to take. Enemy airresistance is sparse. Did a last turn BV. The 2 southern cities are not defended. Round 8: Bought 1 AA, and overstrengthened(OS) my 2 leader art. Fairly easy round. Sent my best units towards Sidi Rezegh and spent a little more time taking Tobruk. With heavy art cover the english didnīt stand chance. There are some good fighters out there, but with good AA itīs no problem. Did a last turn BV. Could have done it one round faster. Round 9: Malta OS my two leader tanks. Easy round. Massive art, inf and panzer, and youīll run them down. Furthermore you have plenty of navalart to help you. Vallena is easy, donīt waste time, hurry straight towars Marfa. Here art can kill the defenders. Only problem is to avoid getting blown up by the british navy. Make sure some of the ships are visible. Then there will be shot at them instead. They are wasteable. Did a last tun BV. Got a StuG IIIF as reward, nice piece. Round 10: Kishinev Upgraded my 3 fighters to FW190īs and my 2 leaderart to K18īs. Nice to have range 6 art. The round is quite easy. Sent in all my best units from the north. The had no problems fighting there way through. The less experienced were sent in from the south west. They met a bit more resistance, but nothing that couldnīt be handled. Lost one aux-inf and 2 OS-strengtpoint on one of the art. The russian airforce is no threat at all. Did a last turn BV, could have done 3 before. My tactics with strong art is proving good so far. Round 11: Novgorod OS 4 panzers and 2 art. Bought 2 new 17 K18 pieces and a FW190, and downgraded some PZIVD to PZIIIj. I donīt understand why these are cheaper. They are much better than the PZIVD. The rather is not difficult if you play it right. The russians have plenty of inf, and a lot of good art plus some tough tank divisions that will attack you in the beginning. I concentrated the best units around staraya Russa, and the russians were smashed. Had so much art they were not able to attack. Remember a little AA if you donīt want to loose a few S-points to the russian airforce (that only survived 1 turn). The less good units were placed at the southern hexes. I had 3 art, and gave myself good time, just killing one or 2 units per turn. After the breakout from S-R I split my central force in 4 fractions. The best going east slowly under lot of art cover. 1 inf plus a recon and 2 art going SE to take the supply-VH. And 2 forces going south on different ridges. Each round was started with art and fighter attacks, and then the panzers rule !. Got to daring in the end and lost a 300+ panzer and a 300+ pioneer in two surprises. FUCK Did a last turn BV and got 3 leaders. Round 12: OS 2 tanks and 5 art. Bought 1 pioneer, 1 PZIVF1, and upgraded my 10.5 leFH 18 art (yes, the one from Spain). Easier than the last round. The russians have some good panzerdivisions out there, so tale care in the beginning. I lost one PZIII to a strenght 12 T34 with leader. Another PZIVD was alomost finished off, but survived and got a leader. Besides from this there are no problems. My forces were split into 3 groups. Group south attacking Novopetrovskoj from the south and taking Kostrovo. Group center going round Volokolamsk, attacking Novopetrovskoj from the west and Vlaskovo from the south. Group North going directly for Vlakovo and finally some art and inf left behind to take Volokolamsk. Group center had the hardest time fighting against russian panzer, so place your best units here. The russian airforce is still a joke, it didnīt survive round 2. Generally the cities are a little better defended now with both art and AA. Did a last turn BV, could have done a BV-1. Round 13: Klin Bought a PZIVF1 and a FW190, upgraded a waffen SS to pioneers and OS 3 panzers and all the art. Most of it was already. Quite easy round. I split my army into 3 groups. Group west going south, taking the western VH, then turn east and attack the 2 southern hexes. It didnīt have any problems. Group center taking Solnogorsk and then continuing south. Itīs paze was halted a bit end the end, because I didnīt have enough inf and panzer. Assign 3 panzers to this group. Group east took Rogatschewo and Federoloka. They met the hardest resistance from some fairly good russian panzer units. I did a last BV+1. I could have done a BV, but I wanted to try the extra rounds. Round 14: Southern Front 1942 Bought a 88mm AA and 2 StuG IIIF. Sold my 2 88mm AT, they havenīt been much use. OS-all art and all panzer plus one fighter. Downgraded all art to 17 K18. Rather range tham power. My army now consist of: 8 panzers (2 Pz IIIJ, 4 PzIIIJ2, 2 Pz IVF1) 4 AT (3 StuG IIIF, 1 StuG IIIB) 10 Art (9 17 K18, 1 15 NbWf41) 4 recon (4 PSW 231) 4 AA (4 88mm FLAK) 6 inf (5 Sturmpioniere, 1 Bruckenpioniere) 5 fighters (5 FW-190A) I have 14 leaders. Still a quite round. Made to army groups. Group North going straight for Zeschnikov and then turning east to take Andruschki and the airfield. The biggest problem was crossing the river, but with some Bruckenpioniere and 5 artillery pieces to cover it was no real challenge. Group east headed straight for Kanev, and then turned north. They didnīt make it to Anndruschki, so no reason to assign many troops here. Again the biggest problem was crossing the river, but I waited for the art to catch up, and after a bombardment it was easy to cross. In the middle of the map the weaker units and the aux-forces fought a bit. Nothing serious, donīt waste any art here. The airforce is getting tougher, but is still easily beaten off. Did a BV-2. Round 15: Approach to Stalingrad Got a Pz IIIN as reward. 7 of 9 panzers upgraded to Pz IVF2. Bought 1 17 K18, 1 FW-190A, 1 88mm AA. OS the only panzer that had been damaged in the last round. Easy round. Only one art and one panzer of the OS ones got damaged. The rest didnīt suffer any casualties at all. Sent most of my army directly towards the SE city. A smaller group took the northernmost crossing, and then the airfield. They didnīt meet resistance worth mentioning. 2 panzers and one AT crossed the bridge in the middle. Later they were able to take the green VH and the eastern supply hex. Now the russian couldnīt get any reinforcements, and the SE city was destroyd with the fire of 8 art pieces. They didnīt stand a chance. The best part of the round was when the russians threw in their air- force. One turn they massed in 4 planes, and then next round 3 more. Only one survived more than one round... Did a BV-2. Could have done it 2-3 turns faster if I had been willing to take damage on my OS- units. Round 16: Viipuri 1942 OS all art and panzer with more than 200 exp. Also 2 fighters, 3 recons, and half the inf was OS. I have 2200 prestige left. Bought 1 more Bruckenpioniere. Come on this is too easy. 5 units got damaged, the rest were not hit a all. My 9 pieces of art blasted their defences away in the first round. Then my 6 500+ exp panzers rolled down the rest. The rest was blitzkrieg. Just storming forwards. Did a BV-5 !!, and I even played defensively, because I didnīt want my OS-units to be damaged. I only lost some hitpoints when the russians sent in their airforce. Most units should be kept in the left side of the map. It is a good idea to sail over some finnish units. The draw the attention from your core units. Round 17: Winterstorm (I think it was called) 7 of 9 panzers upgraded and OS to tigers ;o) One AA upgraded til StuGIII 5 of 6 fighters OS. What is this. I did a BV-5 again. The only casualty to OS units was 1 hitpoint on a recon. The russians donīt have anything to throw in against strength 15 panzer and art. Round 18: Tunesia Counterattack Got a Pz IIF, sold it !. Didnīt do other changes. Fuck. It didnīt stay quite that easy. First turn was fun. My art softened the enemy up, and then my panzers rolled. I think I took out 15 units. Then the airraid came. 5-6 fighters and 2-3 bombers. They shot down one of my 500+ exp fighters. The only one I didnīt OS. Therefore OS all air- planes. During the next 2 rounds all enemy planes were taken out, so actually only this first raid was difficult. On the ground I was surpreme. The tigers are superb. Even the PzIVF2 are way better than the allied. The southern city is easy, so donīt send in more than 2-3 good tanks here. Did a BV-3. Round 19: Northwest Afrika Upgraded the remaining tanks to tigers. OS all fighters, art, and panzer. Bought 1 FW190 and 3 SdKfz. The last airraid scared me a bit. Easier than the last round. Again the biggest problem is the british spitfires. They are better and have more exp than my FW190īs. This time the came more scattered over the turns, so I could shoot them down one after the other. My ground units are still much better than the allied. Biggest problem here is some selfpulled art, and some US self driven AT. Best units should be sent towards thr 3 hexes close together. Lots of art is also needed here, and AA. The southern hex is quite easy. Just be patient, and always have AA cover. Did a lst turn BV. The allies have lots of ships, so all mine were sunk. Better to loose them, than have the ships shooting at my inf and art. Round 20: Zitadelle OS all art, AA, fighters and panzer. Sold my Nebelwerfer, and bought 2 Hummel. Easy again. In the original SSI, this is a very hard round, because your units are unexperienced and few, now you have plenty. Art, panzer and AT is the key to succes. The russian airforce is easily beaten, so no reason to OS the fighters. Did a BV-3. Round 21: Novgorod1943 Got a PSW 234/1 as reward. Updraded all recon to PSW 234/2 and one Pz IV to Panther A. All panzer and art are still OS from the last round. Not very difficult. Biggest problem is the russian art, that can damage you a bit, and a few of the russian SU85 AT guns. The airforce is worth nothing. I divided my army into 4 groups. 2 going down the ridges in the middle. Softening up the art and inf with my art, and then rolling them. 1 going SE this was easy, and 1 going east. A bit harder, but if you are willing to take a little damage on your panzers they are also easily beaten. Did a last turn BV. No reason to OS all fighters. Round 22: OS all panzer, art and fighters. Changed a recon movement inf to Fall- schirmjaeger, since it wasnīt able to use transport with this ability. Diffirent type of round. Lot of city fighting in the end. The first rounds on the plains are pretty easy. Just keep your panzers in front, then nothing serious can go wrong. It was snowing all the time, so I lured the enemy into several surprises. When you reach Leningrad, you have to vhange tactics. Put up some of your panzers as defenceline, and slowly move all your art forwards. My art had longer range than the russian, so I could blow them away. Too late I found out, that it is possible to cross the river in the eastern side. I sent some Brucken- pioniere, and was thereafter able to attack the enemy from 2 sides. Did a BV-2. Round 23: Drive on Moscow OS all panzer, art and fighters. Downgraded 3 panzers to Panther G. It hits harder and moves longer. Much harder than the last many rounds. It is said, that these are the russians last reserves. Some reserves to have. Lots of good tanks and AT, plus the best inf so far. A lot is highly entrenched. Divided my forces in to 3 groups. Group east going straight south, helping a bit with the VH at (25,22). Part of the group was sent east of the eastern river, and could attack the last city from the rear. I couldnīt have made a BV without this move. Group center had the toughest time. Spent some rounds taking (25,22) and later the last 3 cityes. Russian engineers were dug in with 12 in entrenchment. Luckily a had some strenght 12 pioneers with my. You need most of your best tanks, art and inf in this group. Group west took the 2 western cities. There are a few good russian AT and tank units around, so you better OS your panzer. You also need some good art here. I used the hungarians to take the cities in the western part of the map. If you play at lower prestige, I think you need these in the attack on the VHīs. The russian airforce is huge, but since it is snowing most of the time, no real threat. Did a last turn BV. Round 24: Drive to the sea Upgraded my 4 StuG to JgdPanther, and 3 of my leader panzer to King Tiger. OS all units. With my army, this was no problem. I lost 1 strenghtpoint on a tank, 2 on an AT, and a total of 4 on my fighters. All other core-units were unharmed. I placed most of my 500+ exp tanks in the first line plus 4 pieces of the best art. After 3 rounds they here almost slain back the whole attack. The enmy fighters are no problem, donīt OS all fighters, let some good strenght 10 come in, they can soften up the enemy, and leave your OS fighters intact. Decided to end the round early, since I wanted to spare prestige in repairing my units. Did a BV-4 !!. Round 25: St. Lo Counterattack Got a Maus as reward. Kept it just for the fun. OS all units. Upgraded my to leader fighters to Me-163 and bought an extra one. Harder than the last round. The allied airforce is huge, and some of the spitfires are very good. I really got a good use of my Me-163īs. Also there are pretty good range 2 tanks out there. They managed to take out my weakest recon unit. Still, wih 15 Strenghtpoints (SP) tanks and AT, they are not able of stopping you. Just scatter you forces all over the map, and attack from all sides. Keep relatively good aircover. Did a BV-3. AI must be set to be agressive. This gives some funny situations, for example 3 times inf attacked my 15 SP tanks or AT, resulting in the fact, that they got totally annihilated, and my unit was unharmed. Round 26: Cherbourg OS all units. Now it is funny. The allied airforce is really huge. 10-15 planes I think. Some of them very good. Also some good art out there, and a navy, that annihilated mine very fast. Key to success: Patience. Just move forward slowly with good aircover, and go for the tanks, AT, recon and art. Inf can be killed later. I lost another recon, this time a good one, damn. I Almost lost an AT. I was standing in a city, when some rangers attacked it. Do never them in a city. Did a last turn BV. Round 27: SeeLow Heights Counterattack OS all units. Wow. There are some really nasty russian tanks and AT out there. So you are in need of your 15 SP panzer. My JdgPanzer also came in handy. You have plenty of time, so be patient the first rounds. The russians attack everything. Like last round they attacked my 15 SP King Tiger, with infantry. They didnīt survive that. Airforce is huge, but badly experienced. Not like the Spitfires in the last round. Did a BV-2, could have made it BV-4. Round 28: Konrad (nov44) OS most units except some inf and one fighter. Easier than the last round. Lots of inf and art must be cleared first. Then the russians send in armor. I managed to take out a lot of them in surprise attacks. The rest are easily taken out by King Tigers and JgdPanzers. The airforce is small to medium size. No problem here. Managed to hold Buda for 4 turns, but was then overrun. Most units should be sent south to Solt, since the russians can only supply. Donīt play too defensive, since time is a little sparse. Inf isnīt of much use, since it will just be blown away on the plains. Did a last turn BV. Round 29: Kishinev (45) OS most units except AT. UPG one FW190 to Me262. Bought one PSW 234/4 and one JagdTiger (just for the of it). The round is not very difficult. As usual I had the bigget problems with some enemy tanks and AT. If you just soften them up with tough non-OS units and then roll them afterwards, you reduce the prestige loss. I made two groups, equally strong. Maybe the northern should be a bit stronger, and then let it take both supply hexes. It has much more space to move at, the southern group was locked up a bit. The airforce is arriving in groups the first couple of rounds, so you can shoot them down as they arrive. I like this, it is better then 10 planes in round 1. Did a last turn BV, could have done a BV-1. Round 30: Invasion! Ok, it is getting harder. The allied airforce is really good this time. They shot down one 15 SP FW190 and reduced another 15 SP to 5 SP before I redrew it. Therefore only send in OSed ME 163 and Me 262 and start by taking out the bombers, that really can do damage. The fighters attack the boats anyway, and donīt do much damage. On the ground they are not that hard to handle. King Tigers and JgdPanthers are still way better. There are some well dug in (Entrenchment 15) inf around. If you donīt want to spend too much time, bring your 15 SP Sturmpioneers to the front. They can easily clean them out. The units in the south are just cannonfodder. I tried to send them some reinforcements, but met a large allied fleet. To avoid having my units sunk, I sacrificed most of the aux-units. After a few turns the italien and german navy arrives. Use this to take out the allied navy, and then send in the reinforcements. Still they wonīt do much good, so you can just land everything in the north, and let the aux get slaughtered. Did a last turn BV. Round 31: Windsor 1945 OS all units. Upgraded one FW190 to Me 262 (I learned from the last round) and one Panther G to Panther II, just to test them on the battlefield. Not very diffucult. The first round was funny, because you were able to fire all 12 art pieces, blasting away the allied. Then the panzers rolled. There are a few good range 2 tanks and AT out there, but if you just place your range 2 tanks and AT in the first line, they donīt dare to attack. In the first allied round they send in their airforce, which is small and unexperiencec. Around turn 6-7 though, they send in some much tougher units. I liked that detail. They managed to shoot down the italien fighter. Then I stroke back. Some of the cities again have highly entrenched inf, especially the hexes in the eastern side. I suggest you send in Strumpioniere. Did a last turn BV. Round 32: Midlands OS most units again except recon. Finally you meet the best units the enemy has. Their fighters are extremely deadly. They almost took out one leader 15 SP Me-163 and one 15 SP Me-262. But this was just the first wave. Later wave 2 and 3 arrives. After wave 2 my fighters were all below 10 SP and withdrawn. Now I had to depend on my AA. Luckily they didnīt let me down. Lots of good art, AT and tanks. Many of them OS and with 400+ exp. You have to take casualties on your OS units. Again the VHīs are defended with highly entrenched inf, covered with range 5 art. You need your good art and pioneers here. The NW hex can be difficult. I only had 1 art, and this was not enough. You need at least 3. Some units got enjured here, and I withdrew them, just to meet allied units around VH (25,6). These bastards killed one of my 500+ exp art. They were stupid and didnīt take hex (25,6), which was only defended by one 8 SP aux inf. I sent the reinforcements against them, but I had finished the before they got into battle. Did a V-4. Result: 29 Brilliant victories 3 Victories Army: Tanks: King Tiger (2286*, 2199*, 1836*, 1729*) Panther II (1431) Panther G (2132, 1320) Panther A (1148, 100) Tiger (2812*) Maus (200) AT: JgdPanther (1268, 1028, 868, 863) JgdTiger (I) Art: 17 K18 (1333*, 1259*, 1255*, V, V, V, V, V, IV) Hummel (III, I) Recon: PSW 234/2 (V, V, V) PSW 234/4 (0) AA: 88mm FlaK (III, II, II, I) 88mm FlaK 41 (371*) Sdkfz 6/2 (III, I, 0) Inf: Sturmpioniere (1459*, 988, 898*, 630) Bruckenpioniere (V, I) Fallschrimjager (680*) Figh: Me-163 (1608*, 1268*) Me-262 (V, V, V) He-162 (II) Casualties inflicted: taken AA: 137 0 AT 179 1 Art 293 3 Inf 842 27 Rec 33 4 Tank 267 6 Fighters 149 6 Bombers 69 1 Prestige left: 4151