Scenario: WIP Campaign - Gateway to Asia

[Ts4EVER]

This has been in the works for quite a while now, probably the most complex campaign I made yet. Would be really nice if people could give it a go and give feedback.

"Gateway to Asia"

German Campaign

July 28th 1942 - November 08th 1942

Design by Ts4EVER

"If I don't get the oil of Maikop and Grozny, then I must liquidate the war." - Adolf Hitler, 1st June 1942

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Having been convinced by Goering that seizing the oil of the Caucasus was the solution to the War in the East, on 5 April 1942 Hitler issued Fuehrer Directive 41, which specified that his aim was ‘to wipe out the entire defence potential remaining to the Soviets, and to cut them off, as far as possible, from their most important centres of war industry’. To wit, the directive
ordered that ‘all available forces will be concentrated on the main operations in the Southern sector, with the aim of destroying the enemy before the Don, in order to secure the Caucasian oilfields and the passes through the Caucasus Mountains themselves’.

IMPORTANT GAMEPLAY NOTES
This campaign consists of three acts, each with three scenarios.
You only receive repair points at the end of each act.
You only have to win the last scenario in each act in order to progress through the campaign, but winning a marginal victory or better in the earlier scenarios gives you advantages in the later ones.
Your force consists of a Panzer Kompanie and an armoured Panzergrenadier Kompanie with some scout cars attached and represents the spearhead of 23. Panzer Division. Expanding your core force will not be necessary, however, upgrading some tanks with better armed models is recommended.
Note that you will receive 1 victory point for every 100 repair points not spent at the end of the campaign.
The campaign was designed with an intermediate player in mind.

[wulfir]

I changed the names of the leaders for the tank company and the PzGren HQ squad to historical names drawn from officers of the 23. Panzer-Division. I gave the tank company an Abteilung structure by naming the platoons “companies”.

OOB
Kampfgruppe Burmeister

II/Panzer-Regiment 201 (Soltmann)
- - - 5. Kp (Fechner)
- - - 6. Kp (Grahn)
- - - 7. Kp (Ott)

3./Schützen-Regiment 126 (SPW-Kompanie) (Lieher)

(Pz)Aufklärungszug (Oskierski)




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Scenario 00: Moskovskiy


Turn 1-3

Effort begins with Schwerpunkt to the south.

Turn 4

Aufklärungszug meldet Feindberürhung. Iwan opens fire with AT-rifles from the outskirts of MOSKOVSKIY.

Turn 5-8

Fiendpanzer erkannt! 7./PzRgt 201 exchange fire with T-70 tanks in the south. Kampfgruppe advance continues. Oskierski (Aufkl.Zug) geht zurück. 6./PzRgt201 knocks out three T-70 light tanks, (Entfärnung 700 meter) one each claimed by Fehrenberg (PzIV lang), Tritschler (PzIIIL) and Stiewe (PzIIIL). Enemy artillery fire from MOSKOVSKIY directad at KG.

Gahlen(PzII), 5./PzRgt201, knocked out by fire from T-70, northern part of the village.

Turn 9-14

Grahn (KpChef 6./PzRgt201) (PzIIIL) claims a fourth T-70, quickly followed by Patzhold (PzIIIL) of 7./PzRgt201 killing a fifth enemy T-70. Fdl. Sicherung – Cavalry, west of MOSKOVSKIY destroyed by 5. and 6./PzRgt201. SPW-Kompanie (3./SR126) moves forward. Iwan infantry with AT-rifles defending the village outskirts damage two SPWs and knocks out a third. 5. and 6./PzRgt201 engage yet more T-70s inside the village. Another three enemy tanks judged to have been knocked out. Our infantry enters the village under cover from mortars.

Turn 15-20

Grahn (KpChef 6./PzRgt201) is immobilized by Iwan tank fire in the southern part of the village. 6.Kp advance stalls. In the north 5.Kp under Ott meets with more success and penetrates into the village supported by riflemen of the SPW-Kp.

5. and 7.Kp/PzRgt201 wheel south and moves through the village supported by the SPW-Kp on foot. The fighting is hard. Most Iwans die defending the village, only a handful flee to the east. Another half-dozen T-70 tanks are destroyed. One PzIIf of 5.Kp is lost to a hand held AT-weapon attack. The crew is killed. Some infantry squads are reduced but the enemy does not have strength enough to stop our attack. The village is taken.

Funkspruch an Division:
“Moskovisky eingenommen.

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Solid scenario. There were more T-70 tanks than I expected. I would have preferred to have a dedicated Forward Observer than having the A0 unit doing that job.

I expected to be able to pick off the T-70s at range but had to move under 700 meters to be effective with the Pz IIIs.

Found no problems with the OOB or the map. The Soviet defenders do not counterattack at the end.

[wulfir]

Scenario 01: Arbuzov

12.15 Uhr, Radio message to Division:
“Burmeister an ARBUZOV angetreten. Brücke südwestl. Ortschaft mit Masse überschritten. No enemy.”

12.30 Uhr, Radio message from 6./PzRgt 201 to Kampfgruppe:

“Grahn! Achtung! Feind greift mit 20-30 Panzer an! They are T-34s!”


Turn 1-18

Kompanien Grahn and Ott deploy south of the village while Fechner (PzIIf) is held in reserve. Fechner now numbers only three running tanks. Lieher brings his dismounted rifle squads into the village. A wave of Russian tanks, mostly T-34s, crash into the killing ground set up by the II./PzRgt 201. Fehrenberg, commanding the single PzIV Lang, opens up at long range and picks off three enemy tanks but a Russian panzergranate – one of few fired in return – hits Fehrenberg penetrating his front. Einst das treulose Glück, Fehrenberg and his entire crew is killed. The PzIV Lang is a total loss.

The Russian tanks attack into the fire of Grahn and Ott's tank companies and are massacred. A few attempt to escape the carnage but most are destroyed when Grahn initiates the pursuit. More than 30 Soviet tanks litter the fields south of ARBUZOV.



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Being a little cautious the Russian tank attack took time to defeat leaving me with few turns to spare in order to take the Soviet Victory Hex...

I'm not sure what the secret objective was. (I did not kill off the Soviet HQ).

No problems with units or the map.

[DRG]

Originally Posted by wulfir

I changed the names of the leaders for the tank company and the PzGren HQ squad to historical names drawn from officers of the 23. Panzer-Division.

Ulf

Do you still have that modified version ?.....if yes post it or just send it to me directly

Don

[Warwick]

Very much enjoying playing this campaign, however have run into problems due to malign interference with my computer. When I finished one scenario and tried to load the campaign the next session I got an error message "Unable to load campaign due to missing file ucampo57.dat" I was able fix this by copying the correct file ucamp019.dat and renaming to ucamp057.dat. However when I finished the first scenario of Act2, one unit upgraded and the campaign just went to the save section and stopped. I can post saved games if required. I thought I had squashed this interference when I started running from a battery instead of the mains, but obviously more work needed. Any help appreciated, my computer does not connect to the internet and I have removed the wireless card.

Thanks, Warwick

[DRG]

FYI........The reason I didn't put this in with the 2017 patch was you had marked it as "WIP" and BETA

Don

[Ts4EVER]

No, the reason you didn't put it in was because I posted it after the patch was released...




( sorry.... clicked on edit instead of quote )
Don

[DRG]

REPLY:
Ah......yes.............. But the reason for my confusion about that will be clear by the end of the month


Don

[wulfir]

Scenario 02: Martynovka

Turn 1-13

The attack on MARTYNOVKA opens with a Luftwaffe strike. Divisional artillery (10,5cm) strikes the southern part of the town. Grahn (6./PzRgt 201) and Ott (7./PzRgt 201) lead the attack over the bridge which is taken basically without enemy resistance.

10.30 Uhr, radio message to Division:

“Burmeister, Brücke in meiner Hand. Wir kommen rasch vorwärts. Encountering tanks and cavalry. Light enemy mortar fire slowing down our infantry.”

Mixed groups of Panzers and mounted riflemen assault the town. Air and artillery target enemy mortar positions and all enemy armour discovered. During the fighting a gun halftrack (7.5cm) is knocked out. The Kampfgruppe suffers no other vehicle losses. Ott leading the attack on the northwestern part of MARTYNOVKA encounter two damaged T-34s. One enemy crew flee on foot while the other continues to fight from the immobile tank. Until death.

Turn 14-20

The southern Russian defences collapse. A nearly intact T-34 is captured. Then the northwestern part of the town falls. Friendly losses are light. Enemy resistance weak. Retreating

11.30 Uhr, radio message to Division:

“Feind weicht nach Westen aus. Town captured. Beutemeldung: two lightly damaged T-34s, two medium mortars, two light Pak.”

11.40 Uhr, radio message from Division:

“Anerkennung für heutigen Erfolg. Reinforcements and supplies will be arriving shortly.”

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Another solid scenario. Found no problems with the units or the map – there are two places with trees being placed over roads (which is easy enough to do) but this does not impact the movement of units.

[wulfir]

Scenario 03: North of the Terek

(With the build points I repaired all the units of the Kampfgruppe. Instead of upgrading any tanks I bought two scout teams and two AT-rifle teams with the remaining points. Yeah, I know - but in advance they will be worth their weight in gold.


Turn 1-23

The Kampfgruppe is split into three roughly equal size detachments and sent into the advance. In the north is Grahn's reinforced 6./PzRgt201 who encounter the bulk of the enemy Panzer force and do most of the work.

In the south, advancing into the thick of the wooded area is Soltmann's group with the main combat element the reinforced light tanks of Fechner's 5./PzRgt20. They sustain the heaviest casualties.

Lieher, the commander of the SPW-Kompanie, is responsible for the center. He sustains no losses.


Radio message to Division:

“Burmeister, Gebiet gesäubert! Fdl. versprengte Truppenteile vernichtet. Six tanks and three anti-tank guns destroyed. Own losses include one Pz IIIL, two Pz II, one Sdkfz 222, one 37mm Pak SPW.
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No problem with the map. I played a little sloppy, all my losses happened at the end when I thought I was more or less done. There were still sizable intact Russian forces intact at the end (reduced company size with two AT-guns). Game ended on turn 22 (of 32). No Soviet counterattack at the end.

The new “do you really want to enter a rough hill slope Y/N” feature saved me twice from potentially getting bogged down tanks in the woods.

No problems with the units or the map that I could find.