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12. Strategy/tactics Scenario Specific
Vs. the AI by Carl Fago
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Note: Your opponent may be reading, so be careful

Some general comments first.

The AI is weak on the attack and more to the point, all these
scenarios are simple matters to win as the defender against the
AI. Just keep putting units between the enemy and the victory
point hexes. Fall back enough to reduce your losses and always
have a second line of defense. Given this rather simple tactic
when playing the defender against the AI I won't go into great
deal as to the individual scenario tactics to employ against the
AI.
1. To The Volga

This is a tough little scenario as the Germans. The main point of
the attack should be toward Crossing 62. Cut that off and the
rest of the Soviet forces will fall like flies. The Germans will be
hardpressed toactually get it but it should be the main focus of
the attack.

The secondary focus should be between the Brick Works and
the Red Barricades Factory or the Red Barricades Factory itself.
Having captured this area, the Brick Works will fall shortly.

Don't spend a lot of time worrying about the south part of the
battle. The Soviet forces are too strong to be able to make any
real headway.

2. A River Too Far

A very nice scenario to play in an evening. Again, the Germans
are on the attack since the Russians own most of the VC hexes
to begin with.

First off, ignore the VC hexes to the east, Antonov and Zhutova
Station. Concentrate on getting to the northern VC hexes. These
are the ones which will bring you victory.

The Russians may try to head down the east side of the map to
reinforce the south east sector. Let them go. Then head north
and northeast punching up to take Gromoslavka and then
Nizhne-Kumski and finally Chernomorov.

The Rumanians that come in as reinforcements should be used
to guard the northern boundary of the Russian south-east sector
forces. Don't use valuable German attack units for this purpose.
You can leave some artillery down to agitate the south-east
sector but leave only enough to keep the Russians bottled up.

3. Manstein's Solution

This one has the German as the defender (I call them the
defender because they'll get the majority of the VC hexes and
the Russians have to take them from the Germans.)

As the Russians, you have to take the obvious VC hexes, Lozhki
Station, Osinovka and Malaya Donshchinka. Send the 4th Tank
southwest toward Morozovsk and/or Oblivskaya. Against the
AI, you might be able to take
one of these towns and kill an HQ along the way.

Send the northern cavalry forces to the east to take Osinovka
and hold it. Send the rest of the northern forces south toward
Kalach. Look for ways to encircle the Germans and bottle up the
tremendous number of
reinforcements that they will get.

The southern forces should have one of the mechanized
divisions racing west toward Nizhne Chirskaya. Set the AA unit
and the AT unit and the mechanized division's HQ into Lozhki
Station to hold it. The rest of the forces should push north
toward Kalach and try to cut off what German forces it can.
You'll have plenty to handle in a couple of days
when the German reinforcements come on.

To win as the Russians against the AI in this one, you need to
take several of the German VC hexes for at least a few turns.
You may lose them to the German reinforcements but the points
gained by a few turns' possession should win you the game if
you work at killing German units.

As the Germans in this one, you should have a very easy time
against the AI. First, be sure to have someone occupying your
initial VC hexes at all times. Second, there should be no reason
why the Russians should come within even two hexes of Kalach.
Send your forces far and wide to intercept and encircle the
Russian forces. The exception to this is the south-eastern forces.

The south-eastern forces consist of two groups, one north and
one south. The north group should run to Kalach and beyond.
Send the armored units and motorized infantry units beyond
Kalach to intercept the oncoming Russian forces. Use strategic
movement at all times. Don't be afraid of a few ambushes.
Your forces are strong enough to handle it and the further from
Kalach that you intercept the Russian forces the better.

The south group should send some forces south and the
majority west, south of Kalach. Try sending a quick one down
to Lozhki Station via the railway. You might get lucky and get
the VC hex ahead of the Russians.

I like putting the medium range (4) artillery units in the towns
south east of Kalach and putting the long range (6) artillery just
south of Kalach. I then like to put the two HQs in the south
force in the same hexes, one per artillery unit. They can then
dig in to provide protection to the artillery units and a fallback
position to guard the approach to Kalach from the east. Don't
worry too much about losing forces down there. Just keep the
Russians at bay. In a couple of days you'll get all the
reinforcements you need and the Russians will be stopped dead.

4. Rattenkreig

As the Germans the key is to attack to pinch off the two bulges
in the lines and then attack toward the Volga to cut the Russian
forces in several pieces. In the north, send someone south very
quickly to the Skudry Crossing and then just sit on the crossing.
The rest of the north forces should cut off the forces around
Orlovka. You should be able to get a big chunk of the Russian
forces in this area.

In the west, cut into the bases of the bulge between Tsaritsa
Gorge and Dubovaya Gully. In addition, some forces north of
this bulge ought to be able to strike out in the direction of
Mamayev Kurgan.

The southern forces should just roll up the Russian forces in the
south along with cutting them off around the Univermag and
north of the Central RR Station. The goal should be to get at the
landing sites. These sites are the key to the Russian supply. Cut
them off and the Russian can't stand too long.

The German forces ought to be able to completely clean up the
entire west side of the Volga by about Turn 70 or so.

5. Wintergewitter

I haven't played this one much so someone else will have to fill
in.

6. Quiet Flows the Don

Now we have the Russians on the offense. The point to
remember about Quiet is to use the Schwerepunkt theory
espoused by the Germans. Pick a point of attack and focus your
all of your attack on this point. Achieve local breakthroughs.

Quiet allows this quite well. First, there should be three
breakthrough areas. The first is just to the east of the north-
south road west of Serafimovich. Attack against the couple of
Rumanian units in this area and achieve the breakthrough.
Once the breakthrough is achieved the forces in this area should
do several things. First is to head toward Bokovskaya, the
second is to turn the Rumanian west flank to join up with forces
coming from the east and the third is to head south toward
Morozovsk.

The second area is the area between Kletskaya and
Serafimovich. This breakthrough area should look at striking
west to link up with other Russian forces coming from the west
to create a Rumanian pocket. And the bulk of the forces should
head south to Vlasov.

The third area is tougher but none-the-less do-able. This area
is against the west flank of the Germans just east of Kletskaya.
Use the AT units to head south toward Kalach, which they won't
get to before the German reinforcements arrive, and Surovikino
and Nizhne Chirskaya. The latter two will be unguarded by the
AI so just run down there with these AT units regardless of
supply. Then, just sit in those hexes. The rest of these units
should try to turn the German flank and also help out the forces
heading to Vlasov.

Once Vlasov is taken, head for Kalach. It can be taken by the end of the
game though it is tough. At least, you should be able to encircle Kalach
by the end of the game.

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