Stalingrad.

[goose_2]

I had a go at Ruins to see how I got on. I tried the Mushroom approach where you drive hard for the northernmost airfield and then come back down.

It was surprisingly easy until I decided that I could easily get the last two victory hexes. I don't know if I triggered a counter attack or if I was just in the wrong place at the time it triggered, but the last few turns were a mix of controlled withdrawal in some areas and desperate (and ultimately successful) attempts to extract a couple of badly damaged 4* units. Surprisingly it didn't feel like a claustraphobic grind nlike the previous two Stalingrads but more of an exercise in logistics and controlled aggression to clear hexes quickly without exposing units and while managing ammo and fuel to minimise risks from swarms of SMG infantry or T34s just out of spotting range (it's best to assume they are there).

The follow up Kotelnikovo (?) wasn't too bad, apart from the impact of snow on fuel use and a dumb mistake where a lone infantry got within spotting range of a reserve group of tanks.

So did you get a Decisive on Ruins? That is unclear in your post, just clear you saved your 4 star units.

I was unable to get Decisive on Manstein, but got Decisive in Kotelnikovo.

Those are no cake walk, just easier then Tatsinskaya which is hard at any level...

[captainjack]

No I didn't get the Decisive. I really needed to set up for that a couple of turns earlier so lacked numbers to recover from the counter attack - too many troops a bit too far away. When snow stopped my airforce intervening at the critical moment I was faced with a choice of guaranteed MV or salvaging veteran units and hoping enough troops could make it across in time to secure the left hand victory hexes. After checking I could carry on after a loss I decided to save the veterans. A few heroics from the Italians and a bit of luck allowed the reinforcements time to save the MV.

If I was a better general I would have been prepared to take the opportunity instead of realising too late what I could have done.

[loganfive]

I found Ruins easier than the first two Stalingrad battles.

I used basically the same grand strategy, playing at Field Marshall. I limited my air force to 5 units (3 fighter and 2 bomber), and added 3 AA units to maintain control of the skies. That allowed me to deploy 11 infantry (including 7 Pionieres) and 11 artillery out of the remaining slots. I made a strong effort to keep the Italian units alive, because their artillery units and Bersaglieri infantry are quite useful.

Compared to Storming and Docks, the only thing more difficult about Ruins is that there is no real front line for much of the battle. The trick is to stay in formation and assign assign some "sentry" units at various points on the map. In the early stages I concentrated on clearing out the Northwest corner where the airfields and most of the Soviet armour were concentrated, and sent a smaller task force plus most of the Italian units to advance slowly towards the victory hexes in the Southwest. The way this scenario is scripted, sometime around Turn 10 all the Soviet units emerge from their flag hexes and get very aggressive in terms of going after your units and recapturing victory hexes. The bulk of the Soviet onslaught, including all the remaining armour, comes from the Southwest. The good news is that if you manage to survive the counterattack, destroy all the Soviet units in the East and get to garbage time by Turn 18, there are a lot of empty flag hexes for the taking. There is a huge prestige bonanza in this scenario if you stay under the cap and take all the minor flags.