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1st attempt at scenario mission. "Road to Leningrad". Being a noob, I’ve been rather cautious with my supply lines and have therefore arrived at the gates of Leningrad and found them looking more like the gates of Mordor!

This scenario ends in 5 turns!

The Finns are still sitting on their arses way up north for some reason.

I don’t have the time or the resources to try and encircle and cut off Leningrad by crossing the Volkhov and taking the lake ports.

I am attempting to pocket the outer line south of Pushkin, but after that......

Can anyone offer some sagely advice? Have I dawdled too long?

The Finns start the game frozen, but you can attack with them after the first couple of turns. (Just put a cursor over a Finn unit on the border and it will say FZN x with x = number of turns). The northern part of the line becomes free first and then the rest go active shortly after that.

The scenario overall is a tough one for the Germans and is a good one in teaching that the Germans need a good speed of advance in order to get their infantry up to Leningrad in time so that they have time to reduce the city and also not allow the Russians to dig in depth in front of the city.

Also, if you have the AGC guys up there (green), what is going on to the south? There are victory locations down there that need to be captured as well. (You can click on the flag on the control panel to see where various victory locations are). Usually those guys cover the southern part of the line while 16th and 18th Army are further north.

Start again and focus on getting your infantry up more quickly using tanks to clear the way for them to admin move

ORIGINAL: coolts

1st attempt at scenario mission. "Road to Leningrad". Being a noob, I’ve been rather cautious with my supply lines and have therefore arrived at the gates of Leningrad and found them looking more like the gates of Mordor!

This scenario ends in 5 turns!

The Finns are still sitting on their arses way up north for some reason.

I don’t have the time or the resources to try and encircle and cut off Leningrad by crossing the Volkhov and taking the lake ports.

I am attempting to pocket the outer line south of Pushkin, but after that......

Can anyone offer some sagely advice? Have I dawdled too long?

The Finns should start becoming active around July 10th. But you're in control of them, they don't move on their own.[;)]
Try to avoid mixing troops from different armies as they AFAIK do get penalties when they need to cooperate.
I would restart, this can only end in embarrassment.[:(]

I can only tell you what worked for me in this scenario: Use your panzers to push along the line Pskov-Novgorod, use air-supply to bring them fuel and supplies. Then as the control of the hexes up towards Novgorod changes, bring as much as possible of your infantry up there as fast as you can. Use only minimum forces for the Baltic states and the southern flank (with southern flank, I mean everything south of Lake Ilmen. I used only the AGC units that are in this scenario for that). Take Novgorod and secure a crossing of the Volkhov river, then push for the town called Tikhvin (it controls rail-supply to the entire Leningrad area and is accessible without having to wade through the swamps). This push will take a few turns, and you shouldn't be afraid to break up divisions to secure the flanks of the salient it creates. Meanwhile, use two or three infantry corps to establish a siege perimeter as close to Leningrad as possible. Push along the hexes west of the Volkhov up towards Ladoga if you can to help the left flank of your main thrust, but don't waste your troops in attacks on heavily defended hexes just yet. Also, repair the rails from your starting positions up to Riga, then on to Pskov, Novgorod and then up towards the siege line. Once you capture Tikhvin, the defenses around Leningrad should start to disintegrate as the AI senses the pocket forming, and the link-up with the Finns along the Svir river is only a few hexes away, completing the total cutting off of Leningrad's supply. After that you can begin your heavy attacks against the city hexes and wear them down.
This is very likely not the best possible strategy, but I got a major victory which is better than the Germans did IRL.[:)]

Aha! I had no idea that i had to control the Finns! (slaps forehead).

Klydon - I have left a SEC Div at each captured city.

I noticed that there is a regular convoy of Russian units moving north towards Leningrad east of the lakes. If they've been doing that all the time i was farting about practicing my "perfect pockets" back east of Poland that would explain the fortress i see now.

Fanrik - i will try this next time i give this scenario a blast, (need to read some more of the manual, especially concentrating on 'supply')

Cheers for the advice guys.