Case Blau will make or break Germany
Mission 19: Case Blau 1: The Seizing of Rostov.
Difficulty: Hard
This is a bit of a prelude to what the missions are going to be like now. On the plus side, it is also the first official 1942 mission. You no longer have to worry (mostly) about not being able to kill an enemy tank with your own. The StuG F and Panzer IV Gs are very adequate vehicles. You might be tempted to keep a Panzer III, but the PzIV is better I think. But you should feel some ominous feelings because Case Blau includes the battle of stalingrad, what's thought of as the definitive turning point in the war where the Germans now had no more chance of winning...
Your first order of business is that some enemies will start out attacking you in the right corner of the map. Put your infantry in defensive mode and fight them off. Eventually the shelling from the deep long-range howitzers and the train artillery will start. But we'll deal with those. For now, kill those artillery, pull back, and get your other units out of range of anything being shelled. After that gather your core units on the left side of the map. We are going to attempt a 'spoiler' operation. (That is, launching a small attack to destroy some vulnerable important target, then retreating the hell out of there before they counterattack and destroy us.)
The target is the train station. It's amazingly poorly guarded. All you have to worry about are some AA guns. And of course the train itself. The armored train has a gigantic artillery gun on it, and some AT guns attached. Destroy them both with all of your tanks (after you finish off the AA guns). Note that the Soviets have large AA guns that can now hit any aircraft in the air. You must be even more careful with your air force now.
Once you accomplish this (it may take a few tries) get the hell out of there because the large howitzers will start shelling you (if they haven't all ready). At this point, you should be setting up your own large caliber guns. You upgraded to the largest artillery possible didn't you? They can attack anywhere on the map and need no moving around. If you look at the 'destroy the enemy artillery' objective, you can see it is based around the south where there are some various obvious cliffs. Suppressive fire those cliffs and hope that you destroy them before the Soviets return fire. You may, or may not, get the object complete message here. If you do, great! If you didn't, that means you haven't destroyed the Katyusha rocket trucks which will give you problems later, but if you don't, then it's not worth worrying about too much.
Now you must take the village. Attack with most of your infantry through the main road, and roll your tanks over the open field where the church is. There are anti-tank mines all around the main road, so that is why our tanks avoid that place. There are no huge surprises here really.
Next you must slog through the town. And oh god this is a pain. There are infantry in many buildings and AT guns and mine traps around every corner. There is no easy way to do this other than to set up 'properly' for a long siege. Here is the best method for taking the town I've found.
1. Attack the small houses on the outskirts from the direction of the train station, which is the weakest defensive point. Clear them all out, get rid of the trenches of infantry, and get the supply depot.
2. There is a small opening on the edge of the river that leads into the town. This is the easiest way to avoid mine fields and such, but you will need infantry support to pick off stary enemy infantry that's left after a building is leveled.
Other than this, don't slapdash this attack. Bring up nebelwerfers, 88mm guns to protect from air attack, mortars, etc. Whatever you got.
Eventually, through bombing, shelling, attacking, and bringing up engineering trucks to take care of mine fields after clearing out enemies, you will get to a chokepoint: a strong KV-1 tank and a strong new T-34 model are both sitting opposite behind a building. It's at a point you cannot simply rush some tanks in and kill them both. You're best off trying to attack with infantry and tanks at the same time. Target the T-34 first, it'll be destroyed easier. Also watch out, because there's a T-34 hiding in the buildings right after the dock.
After this stress point, it is not so hard to reach a path to the river. Here's where you should start worrying about those Katyusha trucks if you didn't bomb them all ready. Either shell some more until you get them, or call out heavy bombers/stukas once you use the air superiority trick below.
You must get air superiority now. The Soviets have probably all ready been calling out ground attack planes to you many times, and if you've played defensively, you should only have called out fighters to defend the areas not covered by 88m guns.
Now you must move your 88mm guns as close to the front as you can get without being overrun. Right behind your advanced tanks. Then call out a recon plane to explore the area just in front of you. Assuming there's no AA gun to shoot it down right away (there just might be, shell it if there is) then the Soviets will call out their fighters, shoot down the recon plane, then be shot by your 88mm guns. Do this until the Soviets stop calling out fighters.
You can call out your own fighters to give air support, but their victory against soviet fighters is not guaranteed now. It's a lot safer to just use the 88mm guns and nothing else.
After that... you have the tedious task of crossing the bridge. Of course there are tons of troops waiting on the other side. Also you should notice next to where the artillery was is another conspicuous cliff. This has a KV-1 gun, and there's no easy way to take that out. I suggest calling out paratroopers and dropping them right on top of it, then grenading it down to a point that a tank can kill it with a lucky hit.
Once you cross the bridge, destroy the troops at the other end of the bridge in the corner. Be prepared for a fight, the Soviets have a large stack of tanks here which will all swarm when provoked. But you will win. Now you must destroy the rest of the troops in the city. Don't try to attack over the bridge again, attack from the side. You will probably run into mines, but there are not other huge surprises. Shell everything, bomb everything, use the recon plane to pick off straggling units, and you get that objective.
Last is to take the 'secret' camp. This is the easiest objective to complete. The only surprise is there is one small AA gun here, so use your heavy bombers if you use your air force here. There are a few straggling tanks and some infantry in the buildings, but after that you are done with this map!
The city is by far the hardest point. But this is only the first bump in the road. Next stop: the Caucasus! (Not Stalingrad... yet.)
Difficulty: Hard
This is a bit of a prelude to what the missions are going to be like now. On the plus side, it is also the first official 1942 mission. You no longer have to worry (mostly) about not being able to kill an enemy tank with your own. The StuG F and Panzer IV Gs are very adequate vehicles. You might be tempted to keep a Panzer III, but the PzIV is better I think. But you should feel some ominous feelings because Case Blau includes the battle of stalingrad, what's thought of as the definitive turning point in the war where the Germans now had no more chance of winning...
Your first order of business is that some enemies will start out attacking you in the right corner of the map. Put your infantry in defensive mode and fight them off. Eventually the shelling from the deep long-range howitzers and the train artillery will start. But we'll deal with those. For now, kill those artillery, pull back, and get your other units out of range of anything being shelled. After that gather your core units on the left side of the map. We are going to attempt a 'spoiler' operation. (That is, launching a small attack to destroy some vulnerable important target, then retreating the hell out of there before they counterattack and destroy us.)
The target is the train station. It's amazingly poorly guarded. All you have to worry about are some AA guns. And of course the train itself. The armored train has a gigantic artillery gun on it, and some AT guns attached. Destroy them both with all of your tanks (after you finish off the AA guns). Note that the Soviets have large AA guns that can now hit any aircraft in the air. You must be even more careful with your air force now.
Once you accomplish this (it may take a few tries) get the hell out of there because the large howitzers will start shelling you (if they haven't all ready). At this point, you should be setting up your own large caliber guns. You upgraded to the largest artillery possible didn't you? They can attack anywhere on the map and need no moving around. If you look at the 'destroy the enemy artillery' objective, you can see it is based around the south where there are some various obvious cliffs. Suppressive fire those cliffs and hope that you destroy them before the Soviets return fire. You may, or may not, get the object complete message here. If you do, great! If you didn't, that means you haven't destroyed the Katyusha rocket trucks which will give you problems later, but if you don't, then it's not worth worrying about too much.
Now you must take the village. Attack with most of your infantry through the main road, and roll your tanks over the open field where the church is. There are anti-tank mines all around the main road, so that is why our tanks avoid that place. There are no huge surprises here really.
Next you must slog through the town. And oh god this is a pain. There are infantry in many buildings and AT guns and mine traps around every corner. There is no easy way to do this other than to set up 'properly' for a long siege. Here is the best method for taking the town I've found.
1. Attack the small houses on the outskirts from the direction of the train station, which is the weakest defensive point. Clear them all out, get rid of the trenches of infantry, and get the supply depot.
2. There is a small opening on the edge of the river that leads into the town. This is the easiest way to avoid mine fields and such, but you will need infantry support to pick off stary enemy infantry that's left after a building is leveled.
Other than this, don't slapdash this attack. Bring up nebelwerfers, 88mm guns to protect from air attack, mortars, etc. Whatever you got.
Eventually, through bombing, shelling, attacking, and bringing up engineering trucks to take care of mine fields after clearing out enemies, you will get to a chokepoint: a strong KV-1 tank and a strong new T-34 model are both sitting opposite behind a building. It's at a point you cannot simply rush some tanks in and kill them both. You're best off trying to attack with infantry and tanks at the same time. Target the T-34 first, it'll be destroyed easier. Also watch out, because there's a T-34 hiding in the buildings right after the dock.
After this stress point, it is not so hard to reach a path to the river. Here's where you should start worrying about those Katyusha trucks if you didn't bomb them all ready. Either shell some more until you get them, or call out heavy bombers/stukas once you use the air superiority trick below.
You must get air superiority now. The Soviets have probably all ready been calling out ground attack planes to you many times, and if you've played defensively, you should only have called out fighters to defend the areas not covered by 88m guns.
Now you must move your 88mm guns as close to the front as you can get without being overrun. Right behind your advanced tanks. Then call out a recon plane to explore the area just in front of you. Assuming there's no AA gun to shoot it down right away (there just might be, shell it if there is) then the Soviets will call out their fighters, shoot down the recon plane, then be shot by your 88mm guns. Do this until the Soviets stop calling out fighters.
You can call out your own fighters to give air support, but their victory against soviet fighters is not guaranteed now. It's a lot safer to just use the 88mm guns and nothing else.
After that... you have the tedious task of crossing the bridge. Of course there are tons of troops waiting on the other side. Also you should notice next to where the artillery was is another conspicuous cliff. This has a KV-1 gun, and there's no easy way to take that out. I suggest calling out paratroopers and dropping them right on top of it, then grenading it down to a point that a tank can kill it with a lucky hit.
Once you cross the bridge, destroy the troops at the other end of the bridge in the corner. Be prepared for a fight, the Soviets have a large stack of tanks here which will all swarm when provoked. But you will win. Now you must destroy the rest of the troops in the city. Don't try to attack over the bridge again, attack from the side. You will probably run into mines, but there are not other huge surprises. Shell everything, bomb everything, use the recon plane to pick off straggling units, and you get that objective.
Last is to take the 'secret' camp. This is the easiest objective to complete. The only surprise is there is one small AA gun here, so use your heavy bombers if you use your air force here. There are a few straggling tanks and some infantry in the buildings, but after that you are done with this map!
The city is by far the hardest point. But this is only the first bump in the road. Next stop: the Caucasus! (Not Stalingrad... yet.)