Second Front Strategies

[Sten Sture]

FMK - maybe I should upgrade my T1 It may be set on 10base. Either way I wish the POW's changed into tanks or bombers in a later round. damn.

[Xin Yu]

OK, Here's a complete plan for the D-day

First turn, land the gliders near Langrune on different places (so they don't get stack-killed), then move the commandos to the hedgerow square south of Lagrune and fortify them. The German will waste its shells to attack the gliders, but they will use other troops to attack the commandos (and lose). On turn 2 use the commandos to attack and occupy the city. As far as the gliders are not in the same city as the commandos, shells will not fall upon them.

Your aircrafts should be able to clear the shore mines within turn 2 and turn 3. There are 38 shore mines in total. Check the casualty screen to make sure you get 35 killed. Three of them will be disbanded when you capture Langrune.

Mean while, put your assault crafts (which do not have armors on them!) together to form circles to protect other ships (as I mentioned in one of my previous posts). Groups your ships to form 4 such 'fleets' and land them in the following locations:

1. North to Vierville s/Mer. This city has only infantry units so use your bombers to clear the defense and land rangers to occupy it. Your armors can reach the city in two turns from the shore.

2. North-East to Port-en-Bessin. There is one command post on the beach. Use your cruisers to destroy it, then land your heavy artillaries/Crocodiles to attack. Since the command post's terrain is 'field' (1 move point) you can attack the same turn as you landed. Then use rangers to occupy the city. The whole procedure should be finished in the same turn. Afterwards you can land some infantry units to form a circle (along with the assault crafts) to protect the cruisers and other landing vihecles.

3. North-East to Le Hamel. There is a fortress square next to the city and accessable from the sea. Land a lot of infantry units and some artillaries. The infantries will be cannon folders for your artillary units. The second turn use the artillaries to attack then occupy the city.

4. North to Lagrune. Your commandos have already occupied the city for you, so just send reinforcement there.

After the 4 targets are occupied, expand to nearby cities. Attack by using your artillaries.

Use engineers to clear the beach batteries along the shore (use rangers to do amphibious assault to prevent counter-attacks). This includes the American beach. After the batteries are gone, cruisers, DD-tanks and destroyes can do coastal bombardment. I prefer not using engineers for cities, since I may encounter other types of units and waste the precious units.

After other beach head positions are secure, use assault crafts to move some troops (chain-transportation) to the American beach. Supported by air force they should be able to occupy La Madeleine easily. DD-tanks may be able to do so by themselves.

On even turns (Turn 2, 4, ...), send your fighters to the upper-right corner, the ocean squares in the middle-east part of the map, and the upper-left corner, to search for German fighters. You may want to go half way on odd turns in case the German fighters are out of range.

Don't waste money. You may need to rush-build some anti-tank defenses. I prefer to hire a lot of taxmen in my home cities. When you reach your targets, you will be rewarded some infantry units. Disband them to build armors.

Do not kill enemy fortified positions unless it is absolutely necessary. The German have 3 civs so some of the positions may block their own units' movements.

Edit: if you capture a German city on turn 1 you get all of its treasury. If you really want that money ($1000 plus) you can try to attack Lagrune on turn 1.
[This message has been edited by Xin Yu (edited October 16, 2000).]

[Case]

Here are some general strategies that I have found useful:
1. Concentrate your airpower around Caen - If the Tigers can't reach you, they can't hurt you
2. Advance quickly to discourage the Germans from sending to many units into the hedgerows.
3. Keep armor in reserve to deal with infiltrating Germans blocking your roads by occuping the hedgerows next to them. Armoured Carriers work best.
4.On D-Day don't land your forces as soon as their LCVP reaches the beach - wait untill you have enough units (especially Engineers/Crocodiles and Rangers/commandos) to seize the beach (or at least a city next to it) in one turn
5. Use that Battleship ammo up on D-Day, it's useless afterwoods as the Battleships lose the submarine flag
6. After D-Day use Rangers and commandos for patrolling the Hedgerows and scouting ahead of your main forces
7 Save often!

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If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error
-John Kenneth Galbraith

[Cal]

How does everyone deal with the Fallschrimagers? They always manage to practically erradicate my elite paradrop units before part 1 is over.

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The strategically impaired,
-Cal

[Xin Yu]

Cal: Fortify them in pairs on hedgerows. Away from roads if you want to save them (but their role is to sacrafice themselves to delay the German reinforcement). If you do not use them to delay the German armors' advance, you can still use airforce to stop (and acrually kill) the German tanks at the marsh squares between the American beach and other beaches. That's part of the reason why I prefer not to attack the American beach in the first few turns.

On turn 3, you can move a bomber next to the German airbase near Caen (on a hedgerow terrain) and wait for a suicide attack from the Luftwaffer .

[Shadowstrike]

I rush St Mere Eglise with my paratroopers and fortify them. Heh heh... Panzers and german paratroopers dash themselves against it... Saves the paratroopers. Land on Utah quickly, capture La Madeline and break trough. Once you reinforce the city wtih tanks, it's secure, for the while

Xin, I couldn't take Lagrune with the Gliders. I either got left with one or two units left in the city...

BTW, how does everyone deal with the advance from Caen? And how do you sucessfully attack the American beaches? I can only capture Port On-Bessin, and if I'm lucky Coleville. How does everyone else do it?

[Case]

I got Omaha by using Engineers to secure Port En-Bessin then filled it up with tanks and (most importantly) self-propelled artillery. On turn three or four I struck out towards Utah using the Mobile Artillery to lead the way. Basically, the trick is not to bother landing anywhere on Omaha except for Port En-Bessin and the little river next to it. (keep your guys on the LCVP's until they can safely come ashore at one of these locations).

On Utah I led of with engineers and rangers landing on the cliffs and troops on the beaches above and below the cliffs. The guys to the north had a 100% fatality rate, but they stoped the Germans bothering the Engineers. Once I captured the city behind the cliffs part of the minefield turned into the easier to transverse beach, and I dumped heaps of infantry on to the island off the coast and sent the LCVP's back to the LSTs to pick up loads of armour.


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If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error
-John Kenneth Galbraith

[Xin Yu]

quote: Originally posted by Shadowstrike on 10-18-2000 10:05 PM Xin, I couldn't take Lagrune with the Gliders. I either got left with one or two units left in the city...

The gliders will paradrop to other squares but the commandos will move to the hedgerow square due South of Lagrune (Yes, 10 commandos on the same square.) Attack on the second turn -- there will be less units inside the city. The gliders will be lost before that and the city will not be attacked by shells (you get shells only if you have gliders inside the city).

You don't need to worry about armors from Caen in the first part since you are behind city walls. Let them waste the armors. Later you should use airforce wisely to force the tigers to the open and take them out.

[Shadowstrike]

That's where I got it wrong...

Anyhow, the tanks do dash themselves agaist my cities, taking out 1 infantry per tank. Right now, I've almost defeated all of them (most of my forces were at La Hamel (Easier landing location) and once I busted through the Blockhaus, they flooded through. I almost lost Corseilles to a determined assult. It was empty, except the Germans were out of units.

I find that Le Hamel, Andromanches and Port-En Bessin easy to hold once captured. After capturing each and every city, I rush-build the anti-tank in one turn, just to be safe. BTW, does anyone know if its wise to take Bayeux?

[Cal]

It is *very* wise to take Bayeux. You get a wonder, and a very large city. Dump your ammo supply trucks in there and then support as many tanks and other fuel supporting units as possible in there.

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The strategically impaired,
-Cal

[Sten Sture]

Has anyone used the Allies repair your unit trick to repair damaged Air units once you have a couple of cities? I don't know if it uses up all of your movement, but if it doesn't then it is a great way to get fixed in mid-flight.

Also - there are a couple of 15cm guns on beach terrain - a fresh P47 can take them out most of the time. I took out the 210mm north of St Marie Eglise with a P47.

Landing non-vet infantry units and then withdrawing them attracted a bunch of units onto bad terrain at Utah.

P51s and and usually Spitfires can take out Machinegun nests on normal terrain, and most armor on grass or marsh - 88s are better to hit with P47 and Typhoons on weak terrain. I will hit ANY stack on weak terrain.

I have Commandos, Rangers and Croc tanks bypass everything at the beach and get into the hedgerows to create ZOCs and blow up stuff on grass.

[Xin Yu]

'Allied city reparing units' only applys to land units. (I test that in Harlan's Lord of the Ring scenario. Couldn't get Gandalf repaired).

[Sten Sture]

quote: Originally posted by Xin Yu on 10-20-2000 04:12 PM ...only applys to land units.

Damn

[Shadowstrike]

OK, I tested the "Lagrune a la Xin" last night and it worked. It was close though, I almost lost the whole stack. I suppose that it can happen.

[Xin Yu]

Shasdowstrike: theoretically you shouldn't lose since the german attacking units (M42 machine gun) have 9a 2h 2f vs your commandos 6d 2h 2f on defensex2.5 terrain (both sides are veterans). You have to take some chance or you'll not be able to gain advantage.

There is another way to take a chance. You can land your gliders on the barbware square northeast of Lion-sur-Mer and use commandos to attack the city. You'll lose two commandos to the two Widerstandsnests but you'll have a chance to win all of the rest 6 battles. This way you still have two commandos left to take the city (that is, you can afford to lose 1 more battle). After taking the city, the 15cm battery next to it will be disbanded and you can use the commando(s) (with 2/3 move point left) to attack the shells and destroy them. If this is successful you can safely land the gliders inside the city for later use. Besides you'll get all of the German marine's money (600 golds).

If you cannot take the city on turn 1, then you should move the gliders to sea squares so that your commandos don't get bombed by shells. You may get a chance to take the city on turn 2 (since the city belongs to German marine there will not be any reinforcement, however the city may produce a unit during the turn, plus your commandos are on barbwire so they may get killed first).

Reinforcement (bombers, several commandos and crocodiles) will arrive on turn 3 so there is a decent chance for you to hold on against German armors. Then, if you still have gliders left, you can paradrop engineers and heavy artillaries to other cities and take them. Surround the occupied cities with bombers and infantry units so that shells will not fall upon them for the sake of the gliders.