Kriegsmarine: Operation Torch (defend the coast)

[Mojko]

I don't really see how is it possible to achieve the secondary objective "protect at least 1 French VP for 8 turns". And it's not because it's hard or anything. It's just that all your deployment zones are so far away you can barely effect the coastal defence. The best approach I see it to send two condor bombers but these will not arrive before the US landing and after that you can't really do much.

I suspect that some deployment zones may be missing in this scenario.

[TripleCP]

The only way I've found is to select Plan Z and Flugzeugtrager as your specializations and deploy two Stukas armed with bombs in place of the Condors (they have eight movement vs six). You don't need to purchase Graf Zeppelin, and probably won't have enough spare points for that anyway. If you take out the three supply ships, the effectiveness of the US landing forces will be reduced enough that the garrisons will survive a little longer (both made it through eight turns when I tried this). A "French Pride" event was triggered, but I didn't complete the scenario yet so I'm not sure what the reward is.

[NightPhoenix]

It seems this mission is made especially for those people who have clairvoyance and go immediately for Plan Z and Flugzeugtrager. Given the movement of 8 of the bombers they can be exactly on the hex on which the support ship lays. Anything short of 8 movement will be on the beaches on turn 5 and thus too late as the French units will get destroyed on turn 5/6. You conveniently have 7 air command points ( if you had 8 you might be able to keep all the enemy infantry at a low efficiency by keeping attacking them, as now always 1 will restore to good strength, if that would be a viable tactic as i found the enemy still very willing to attack even at their lowered efficiency). I have tried ( i think ) every single other combination possible, and if you do not get the bombers for carriers, you simply cannot achieve this objective.

[Mojko]

Thanks for clarification. The objective reward is not a big deal which is also a little bit odd considering how much you have to commit to get it.

[kverdon]

I went with the Flugzeugtrager route and bought 2 Naval Stukas and then sunk the Supply ships as described. If you get the 2 Stukas then the next mission, NorthCape is a cakewalk. I was able to use the 2 Stukas and my Condor to finish the mission only 3 damage to my surface units and the loss of a type IX uboat that I lost because an AI ship blundered into it. You think that they would have fixed the issue where you can detect a sub with ANY ship by accidentally entering the same hex but Nope!

[alexthorn]

I succes without Flugzeugtrager
My Sp: Torpedo Improvements + Wolfpack but in my opinion they not really apply.
I also use leader +2 vs small

If I place my north forces more to the left map edge then alies ships will be more left too (this happend at last for first spoted ships on this map). Also I notice that if this more left placement happend battleship not support with fire landing in france. I also place 3desc + sub in south and fast storm right to alert ships to they move my way.

Next step was fast swim with submarine (oversea) to the right supply ship. Before it reach coast canon of coast defence reduced it to 6. Then I go undersee and torpedo it to 2. Final move over see and shot reducing to 0. Next turn alies red supply.

Sorry for poor english anyway there is option without Flugzeugtrager

[Mojko]

That's very interesting. Thanks for sharing.

[NightPhoenix]

I forgot to mention this, my mistake. You can (probably?) get the secondary objective if you are playing on difficulty level 1 or 2. Because of the strength of the enemy units being either 6 or 8 your units hold out for some time. I was suggesting my advice at the intermediate level (level 3), the one in the middle? (don't know the admiralty name) You should not be able to reach the supply ship before it reaches the coast. It always starts moving towards the coast on turn 1, it's movement is 3, submarine movement is also 3. Maybe the AI behavior is different on those levels? It is impossible to reach close to the French coast with any ship before turn 7 except the pre-deployed submarine which can reach it on turn 5. As the maximum movement of any of your ships is 4 and the closest distance is at least 30+ hexes. I have tried going for this objective for at least 15-20 times with different combinations and i have never seen the AI ships move away from the coast. The battleship is also not needed. It never fires upon the French units. The combination of the 2 destroyers dealing 2 damage to an 8 str French infantry on turn 6+7(+8) is enough. It's efficiency will drop significantly, and so any attack has a very high chance to push it off the Casablanca hex if it doesn't already outright kill it, which it often does. Again this only applies if the strength of the destroyer is 10, if it's strength would be lower i see the damage decreasing, allowing the french troops to take more hits. Without flugzeugtrager you cannot and destroy the right-most supply ship before turn 6 and destroy the two supply ships on the left. Meaning that or the 2 inf in that right corner will be able to attack Casablanca, or the 2 in the left will. They do this on turn 6 maximum turn 7. So to rephrase.
The objective is impossible if you are playing on the middle difficulty without Plan Z and flugzeugtrager and the bombers. Sorry for the misunderstanding. ^__^';;

p.s. I have not tested whether it is actually possible with this combination on that difficulty. I didn't have flugzeugtrager on my playthrough, and it might be that getting the objective is outright impossible playing on level 3. I just based the possibility on getting it on the previous comments.