Road To Leningrad - Loss

[stryc]

T'was my first ever game, 100 difficulty, with full manual control. (Even the air war which I'm still somewhat mystified by.) I failed, Soviet Minor Victory, with 1 turn short of surrounding the city. (Heavy rain for 8 of the last 10 turns didn't help the advance.) Interestingly, my final position pretty much matched the historic position, except I did make it to the city limits but just failed to cut off the Karelian Isthmus.

I've got to be honest, I wasn't expecting 2700 defensive value on the city itself! I know the city wasn't cut off and I knew the game was over so I threw everything at it anyway. Suffice to say I was able to muster a mere 250 attack.

What's the best way to crack a city fortress like that? The scenario doesn't have enough turns to simply wait out a siege so assaults must happen. (With better weather [luck] and better play, now that I have a bit of experience, I think I could maybe claw back 2-3 turns extra to use at the city itself.) Forward corps were all gunned up to the nines with heavy guns and engineers. Is it best to attack with everything all in one assault, or break the attacks up into one full hex stack at a time, or something else?

(Air power was all but useless in the final attacks on the city. In fact it was of only very limited use throughout.)

[stryc]

Also, re Air power, I wasn't sure how the sequencing worked for Recon and Ground Attack.

For example, I set up Recon for D1 & D7 over an area where a series of Ground Attack ADs were set for D3-5. Does the Recon have to happen after the GA ADs, or does it all sort itself out with the D(ays)? In that even tho the Recon technically runs first, when the Ground phase starts will I see the recon effects of the bombing runs that happened in the intervening days?

[carlkay58]

City Forts are much easier once they are isolated. Do this first and then worry about reducing the forts. It is close to impossible to take a city fort without isolating it first if it has had time to supply and refit its garrison.

[stryc]

ORIGINAL: carlkay58
City Forts are much easier once they are isolated. Do this first and then worry about reducing the forts. It is close to impossible to take a city fort without isolating it first if it has had time to supply and refit its garrison.

Yeah, expected as much.

Question still stands in general tho regarding attacks: is it better to have all available units attack all at once or to perform separate attacks of mixed unit group sizes?

[russkly]

I took the Leningrad city VP by positioning a corps from the 18th Army in each of the 2 southern hexes bordering the VP hex.

Air war was fully AI, but I ensured that Luftflotte 1 was following the 18th.

I wasn't allocating SU manually, but after 2 turns, i.e. 4 separate attacks, I took the VP.

Got an Axis Minor Victory, which after having lost the scenario about 5 times previously felt like a big deal.

Very, very tough scenario.

[carlkay58]

You CAN actually win the scenario WITHOUT taking Leningrad but it is hard to do. This is a challenging scenario for both sides but particularly the Axis. You can't afford many mistakes of any kind.

[jacktimes2]

I got my clock cleaned playing as the Axis in this scenario. Fun, but brutal.