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Hello,

I would enjoy getting tips from you regarding how to conquer larger cities such as Odessa. What I've tried so far: I've increased the combat units surrounding the city to almost 100 CPP, I also controlled all the Naval fields in front of the port, bombarded the port (100% Dmg), attached "Pioneers" to the best divisions. Nevertheless, I do not succeed in taking Odessa: I lose 15,000 men in the first attack. This, although I let attack beside the Romanian units also two German divisions, which are strongly equipped. Tips?

With kind regards,
Rudi DUTSCHKE

Here's a pretty simple plan. It's a bit overkill but it should easily roll over anything the Soviets can have there in July:

• You start with 8 German divisions in Romania. Rail in 4 more German divisions on T2.

• Put Model in charge of 11th Army.

• Assign all 12 German divisions directly to 11th Army. (The 11A corps commanders are pretty sad.) Re-assign all Romanian divisions to Romanian armies.

• Add 3 German pioneer battalions to each division. That's a total of 36 pioneer units, you'll have to go through the map and reassign them to OKH the turn before.

• The only support units in 11th Army HQ should be artillery and mortars of caliber 210mm and larger. Make sure you have at least 10-15 of them.

• Preferred ground support is Ju88 with 1000kg loadouts. Make sure you have at least 2-3 groups with decent escort.

K62's plan is solid 100% success.

But you probably only need those 8 german division in romania, some pioners fill out divisions with any other available support unit, add as much artillery as you can get, a few decent corps commanders, isolate with naval patrol preferably from turn 2 onwards, cutting the rail links as early as possible could potentially help as well and most importantly a few week or so rest for the divisions in the assault.

Might not work for a player game but against the AI its enough add in some decent romanian formations to soak up bullets they aren't useful for anything else.

Here's what I did in the game I'm now playing against both Odessa and Sevastopol with each falling on the first push.

First, I isolated the cities by sea. I ran Naval patrol using Flieger Fuehrer Ostsee and KG27 fitted out with mines. I made sure to NOT isolate the city by land before isolated by sea. Isolating by land first triggers a sharp supply build up by sea thus making capture more difficult.

Once isolated by sea, I closed land access to the city and let the city sit and rot for two or three turns. During this time, in addition to continuing to run Naval patrol, I also ran ground attack with one of the other KGs using 1000 lb bombs against the RR depot (supply depot).

For the actual assault I used 3 German and 3 Romanian infantry divisions all under German leadership in the 11th Army. German divisions had CPP of 100 and Romanians were above 60. All divisions were loaded with Pioneers, heavy seige weapons and a Flammpanzer. I also used ground support during the assault.

This is the formula that worked for me. Hope it helps and good luck!