Stalingrad (axis '41/11)

1) Starting position with all four objective cities in sight. Stalingrad is one on the east, rest I'll call west, north and south objective city, WOC, NOC and SOC.


Taking over SOC triggered Rokosovski (sits in that factory in southeast corner); taking over NOC lures Vasilievski in from ne corner.
On the first glance it looks who controls WOC and the mountain north of it has control over Stalingrad. And it is so. And it's not hard to take it - But Soviet counters will be fierce, don't be the first one to take it. Also if you let AI allies to work the flanks they won't get Roko & Vasil out in time. Focus on bonus objectives first, time enough.
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2) AI south moves

We have good AI allies, they'll do the job almost perfectly! Blue is List, green is Horth. Thick lines are bosses, I've replayed this a lot, there is some randomness but this lines are almost always true. One or the other will even take out Roko, may not lure him out in time tho. Pink lines are Roko counter, triggered by Horth taking over SOC


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2ii ¡ Just for education purposes ! what happens if you rush all you have to WOC and Stalingrad

2a) south without you

2b) north without you


As you can see, they'll spend 2-3 moves here, in the water, getting pounded by arty and land fort. So they'll be late with taking SOC and NOC cities and you'll be late with bonus objectives.

You may not have main role in beginning, but your support is crucial. Protect them from encirclement, take out few selected units, sit back, save health and funds for the finale.

...On the other hand:
2c) south opening, now with you; ideally your howitzer will oneshot AC. Yellow square is where he was, golden wings above Leeb prove he spilled the first blood. List now can attack on city, we are to move howitzer onto enemy arty, bunker, land fort, SOC etc


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3) Some of the Stalingrad defence key points; green is land fort + howitzer + any hero that they choose to retake WOC. Yellow , another katysha+fort pair. Deadly where they overlap. Pink town will be where their reinforcement park their HT - while your allies focus on Roko and WOC he'll do a lot of damage. A lot. Put on howitzer's to do list.

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4) south, your move: blue group is really howitzer (Leeb) alone, later supported with HT and/or arty from reinforcements. Simply put, follows the river and takes position a tile or two behind WOC; along the way fires on selected targets on opposite bank, starting with AC that blocks List's way.


Team green (tank #1, Guderian + AC) support List at first non-objective city down south, don't expose themselves too much and take control of it if possible (economy!)

Then they become support for Horth by crossing the river and taking out that radar-fort cluster
(I jumped in with my first para to get behind the enemy and expose them all; otherwise Guderian will trip on radar crew and won't be able to close in with land fort that should be taken out first. Para also helps a lot just by dropping their morale. Then I rushed para back to airport and jumped to central mountain range as soon as tank and AC had sight of and moved in to kill southern cluster)

Team Pink are infantry (2 starting + first, turn 1 reinforcement) group that I made all paras (eventually); they start by taking control of central allied city and airport (Paulus start position). From there you can support with a single para one of the wings, southern more lightly; their main task however will be to take over land fort and radar on the central mountain range, just north of WOC. Coupled with our howitzer and protected by our tank #2 they'll reign over the plains below
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4a)
Like this:


fearless paras moved in first, took over land fort. Bit late are our team blue, howitzer + reinf, working on Roko; howitzer in pic belongs to List. Still, left flank sufficiently secured.

4b) ...or like this. Vasil walking into our ambush. He'll focus on our wiking in WOC which can be replenished on the cheap while we unload from the heights ) 


(I've replayed this over and over to crystallize this strategy so pics are from different runs, not the same. Generals in are not my final choice, neither is wiking, 3 x paras offer more)
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5) North AI moves

Again, they are enough to take out north non-objective city, and NOC, and Vasilievski. But they'll be slow, especially with ITA EC gen just sitting there first 2 turns.

Thus, in order to speed up their progress and preserve their strength:
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6) North, your move (yellow team, tank2 + art).



I used Böck here mainly for his leadership ability: starting with 40 gold, just enough to stack up that tank, buy a panther to speed him up and a truck for artillery. They should hit that AC together, Tank then take out artillery in entrenchment behind and finally takes position on the north tip of that central mountain range when your infantry takes possession of land fort.

Your arty goes to take out land fort far north, your AI allie will ignore it. Then creeps up to NOC, staying behind allies to land a shot or three on Vasilievski.
pink is para jump to help kill that fort, optional
If you can without much risk or losing tempo, take possession of any&all urban areas to boost your economy.
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7)  This cluster here is your main responsibility. It will be ignored by both List and Hoth. They can demoralise your allies with encirclement and constant chipping; to keep up the tempo they must be taken out immediately.



A job for our Green team, best tank general followed closely with AC should move in as soon as List clears non-objective south city (Rostov-on-Don). Ignore enemy tanks counter, they'll focus on city and your allies will kill or seriously damage Roko; you have this much to do here. Your howitzer from team blue (Leeb in my case) supports from opposite bank of the river on his way towards central mountain range. If you feel like, surround/demoralise with one para from team pink. All keep distance from SOC, Roko and that southeast fort.
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8) Leeb, spoiled for choices. Wounded and encircled Roko in sights is unexpected gift.

So Team Green cleared ac+radar+fort+arty cluster to make space for Horth to kill Soviet EC in SOC; he then was killed in Rokos counter, but Leeb and List made him run away - with radar out he didn't see Guderian waiting, so was stopped in his track.  I kept both tank and AC in near full health and away from southeast fort; here I risk a bit of AC in order to demoralise Roko before attacking with Leeb's howitzer.

With Roko gone Guderian proceeded to kill SE fort so he and AC can stack up and heal in that factory down there. Be quick and don't get entangled in local skirmishes.

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9) finale

Trivial after this really. If you have that mountain range and a strong tank on southern approach you can do anything. I suggest starting it with your main tank taking out katyusha in south factory. Soften main defender with arty, even with air if you can afford, jump in or roll in. Brute force no-brainer. Any questions, feel free