Black Turn "Prestigeless" BV Campaign

Let's keep only one thread active per scenario. What do you think about a particular scenario. Was it too easy, too hard? Did you win or lose at first? Post descriptions of your brilliant victories and unfortunate defeats here.
ssg_butcher
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Re: Black Turn "Prestigeless" BV Campaign

Unread postby ssg_butcher » Mon Dec 30, 2013 8:08 pm

Taifun
The mother of all scenarios, as well it should be. You can really tell the Devs put their heart and soul into this one. I thoroughly enjoyed slugging through the mud and snow to acquire the feeling of absolute dominance over my enemy.

-The first thing I do is reassign the 20th panzer east of Roslavi, the division is too far away to help out on the 1st turn and the extra steps will add much needed firepower to newer/better panzer divisions
-Often times during this scenario I will also reassign a few of the lagging infantry units. I use the extra units to beef up my Pioneer units and Motorized Infantry units throughout the scenario
-In the south my plan was to push east towards Kursk and then move north to Tula and Moscow beyond, ignoring the forces north of the Sejm River I pushed past them and took the eastern bridge along the river
-Another good reason to ignore the forces north of the Sejm is the large amount of specialist steps attached to the infantry units there, I made sure to avoid ending a turn with one of my units adjacent to an enemy with a artillery attachment as they would be sure to attack me on their turn

End of 1st turn in the South:
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What to do with the center army could be a great debate among players. If you head north to support the attack on Vyazma it becomes a slugfest trying to move your armor through dug-in infantry in large forested areas. This causes a ton of crowding of your forces and also allows the enemy to send forces to harass your southern advance. Attacking towards Briansk and north along the Desna River causes the enemy to keep his forces in place. It also allows for a chance to cut the enemy supply line to Briansk and forces south of it. I chose the latter.

-I began to move the bulk of my center forces towards Briansk and towards the river, in the very north my Pioneer infantry and other units would attack towards Vyazma

End of 1st turn center:
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-In the north my choices were much fewer than other parts of the battlefield, I had to take Vyazma by turn 4 and subsequently Mozhaysk by turn 7, I opened up my attack in an attempt to take positions along the Dnieper so I could cross on the next turn, I was not as successful as I hoped to be but hoped to make up for it on the next few turns,
-In the extreme north my Pioneer unit crossed the Dvina to enable harassment attacks in the following turns

End of 1st turn in the North:
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-Back in the south I made my way towards Kursk and prepared to encircle the city on turn 3, I placed my infantry units along and on the other side of the Sejm River to protect my supply lines
-In the center my forces crossed the Desna taking Briansk

End of 2nd turn in the South:
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-In the north I was able to push through the forests southwest of Vyazma and take up positions along the river

End of 2nd turn in the North:
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In the South my strategy for taking Kursk, Orel, and Tula along the route is to surround the city first, attempt to bomb the city with air attacks in hopes that a few steps will be killed or suppressed, and then follow up with strong armor attacks or wait until the city runs out of supply. Adding two steps to two of the panzer divisions in the south goes a long way in destroying these fortified enemy units as they can usually attack the city without having any casualties themselves. Just be aware they need to regain their veteran status prior to doing so.

-I encircled Kursk on turn 3 and cut off a few more of the southern enemy units
-In the center I slowly pushed out from Briansk keeping many units occupied

End of 3rd turn in the South:
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-In the north I was able to take up positions adjacent to Vyazma with no doubt I would capture it on turn 4

End of 3rd turn in the North:
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Turns: 4-6
-During turn 4 I captured both Vyazma and Kursk
-Breaking through at Briansk allowed the center and southern forces to link up
-On turn 5 in the southeast I surrounded Orel with my mobile army and was able to land a few good blows with my Air Force suppressing 5 steps, unfortunately the weather turned ugly on turn 6 and I would not be able to take Orel until the following turn
-In the north on turn 5 I moved to capture the zone of control next to Mozhaysk

-Turn 6 in the north deserves special mention as it gave me a great opportunity to secure a position on the opposite side of the river north of Mozhaysk and at the same time cut the supply line to the enemy forces in the extreme northwest.

End of 6th turn in the North:
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-On turn 7 in the southeast I captured Orel and destroyed blocking units sent from Tula
-In the north I secured my position on the opposite side of the river from Mozhaysk to make preparations to attack Kalinin
-Turn 8 I landed a few good blows on Tula with my 6 step armor units and consolidated my forces in the north

End of 8th turn:
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I have been burned at this same point in this scenario before. I sent just enough forces that I thought I needed to capture Kalinin by turn 11 and failed to do so. All of my hard work gone to waste I was not going to make the same mistake again. This play through I decided to send a ton of forces at Kalinin as you have ample amount of turns for them to return and assist in the attack on Moscow.

-On the 9th turn in the southeast I captured Tula a full three turns early and moved my forces north towards the final objective
-On turns 9 and 10 in the north I moved a very large force to capture Kalinin

End of 10th turn:
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Although I understand why Moscow has a supply point within the city itself, I would have thoroughly enjoyed surrounding it and watching the enemy defenders starve to death. Ah well.

-During turns 11 and 12 I surrounded Moscow by bringing my forces back from Kalinin and crossing the rivers south of Moscow with my southeastern forces
-On turn 13 I attacked the Moscow defenders with my Pioneer unit successfully breaching them and then finishing them off with my panzers

Beginning of 13th turn:
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Great Success!

ssg_butcher
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Re: Black Turn "Prestigeless" BV Campaign

Unread postby ssg_butcher » Tue Dec 31, 2013 1:59 am

Dash to the Donets
Another fun and fairly easy scenario even if it does feel a little anticlimactic after taking Moscow. I use infantry exclusively to take Kharkov in the north and my mobile forces for everything else.

-In the north I open up by attacking both infantry units with T-34 specialist steps attached to them, getting rid of these early makes life easier as they are much stronger on attack than they are on defense
-In the center I attack across the Dnieper cutting the supply line to the enemy units in the south
-South I take out the enemy's artillery unit making a slight breakthrough in his line

End of 1st turn:
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-Turn 2 I was able to push back the enemy to Kharkov and assume a zone of control adjacent to the city, in the south I linked up my center and southern forces destroying the enemy lines and pushing towards Mariupol
-Turn 3 my forces captured Kharkov then attacked south to link up the supply lines, in the south poor weather hampered efforts to capture Mariupol
-Turn 4 I captured Mariupol and was well in position to take Stalino on the next one

End of 4th turn:
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No real need to explain much else, I took Stalino on the march on turn 5 and Mius Bridgehead easily on turn 6.
Last edited by ssg_butcher on Tue Dec 31, 2013 1:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.

ssg_butcher
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Posts: 30
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Re: Black Turn "Prestigeless" BV Campaign

Unread postby ssg_butcher » Tue Dec 31, 2013 2:48 am

Lake Ladoga
I consider this scenario to be moderately difficult as it takes a bit of luck to smash your way into Leningrad. Once you have done this most everything else falls into place.

-I began with my air force bombing the enemy unit directly to the south of Leningrad, after destroying him I was able to assume the zone of control adjacent to the city. I also brought in one of my panzer divisions and a mobile infantry unit to assist in the attack on the city.
-In the south I crossed the river drawing the attention of some enemy units up north
-In the northeast I crossed the bridge hoping to break out and cut the enemy supply line north also possibly take Tikhvin

End of 1st turn:
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-Turns 2-4 I secured Leningrad and the supply line that runs through the city, my mobile forces were able to join the others attacking the eastern objectives and my forces in the northeast held a zone of control near Tikhvin but were unable to take the objective due to enemy reinforcements

End of 4th turn:
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-By the end of turn 6 I had easily captured both objectives due to the enemy being cut off from his supplies for many turns, on turn 7 I was able to finish off Tikhvin with my mobile units

End of 6th turn:
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Last edited by ssg_butcher on Tue Dec 31, 2013 1:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.

ssg_butcher
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Re: Black Turn "Prestigeless" BV Campaign

Unread postby ssg_butcher » Tue Dec 31, 2013 12:30 pm

Donbas Nip
What's amazing is that the Soviets are able to launch any kind of offensive exactly two months after Moscow has fallen. That's some resolve huh? ;) I really enjoyed getting my butt kicked time and again on this scenario. However I do believe I have found a sound way to beat this one after probably the most tries I have ever performed on any scenario in UoC. "Perfect 1st turn" applies here more than any other scenario. Even if getting a good first turn does feel a bit gamey.

-1st launch two air attacks on the infantry unit 56A 343 RD on the east side of the river, your attacks must make two good hits at least suppressing 4 or 5 steps
-Next launch an attack with the 14th panzer division causing the enemy to retreat
-Cross the river with the 13th panzer division and attack 56A 106 RD also causing them to retreat
-After that cross the bridge with units of your choice destroying what you can but most importantly getting most of your powerful units on the eastern side of the river
-Retreat your units to a good defensive line utilizing the river in the northwest and distance in the center, retreating your units almost to the supply line in the center causes the enemy to hesitate as it is outside his ability to resupply his units

End of 1st turn:
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From here I'll just tell you what I did:
-On turn two I formed a tentacle with my units on the eastern side of the river stretching all the way to the Donets
-I had every unit on the eastern side attack as much as possible while maintaining this line of support

End of 2nd turn:
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Cutting off the enemy from their supply line via along the Donets causes some of the hexes in the area to no longer be supplied, this is significant as the enemy will want to keep pressure on your units in this area however it will cause him to have to move units in and out of the area as they lose supply

Supply line to the enemy after cutting off the Donets:
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-Next I swung the tentacle east putting myself in a position to attack Kamensk and take the objective on turn 4, inserting an armor unit here I can secure the farthest objective and turn my attention to the other ones
-I also moved an infantry unit adjacent to Rostov ready to cross the Don River moving south

End of 3rd turn:
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-Inserting the panzer on turn 4 I also moved another infantry unit to surround Rostov

End of 4th turn:
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-On turn 5 I swung the tentacle north and secured a position adjacent to Voroshilovgrad
-My infantry units south also cut off supply to Rostov
-Believing my western supply line to be secure I brought a couple of infantry units east

End of 5th turn:
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-On turn 6 I attacked units in and around Voroshilvgrad, I had the opportunity to take the objective but I did not dare to, if you take the objective now the enemy will throw everything it has at you to try and retake it, better to capture it simultaneously with Rostov
-I took control of a hex adjacent to Rostov ready to take it on turn 7
-Since it was the final turn I moved every unit I possibly could to the eastern side of the river, I probably didn't need to do this but since it was my final turn I wanted to give myself the best chance to win

End of 6th turn:
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-Most of the enemy units were pretty much in shambles on turn 7 and taking the last objectives proved easy

Victory!:
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ssg_butcher
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Re: Black Turn "Prestigeless" BV Campaign

Unread postby ssg_butcher » Tue Dec 31, 2013 2:21 pm

Done! 8-) Amidst a week without power from an ice storm, work, and other things I am glad to have finished this one. Drop a comment if you have any questions about a scenario. I hope everyone out there has had as much fun with Black Turn as I have. Once again thanks to the creators for a great game and I look forward to more games from you guys in the future.

kamerad
Second Lieutenant
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Joined: Sun Dec 01, 2013 10:47 am

Re: Black Turn "Prestigeless" BV Campaign

Unread postby kamerad » Tue Dec 31, 2013 11:30 pm

Send replays, please :)

ssg_butcher
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Joined: Sat Dec 22, 2012 3:50 am

Re: Black Turn "Prestigeless" BV Campaign

Unread postby ssg_butcher » Tue Dec 31, 2013 11:51 pm

Hmmm...I'm fairly certain that once you start a new campaign everything is overwritten making it impossible to copy and paste any sort of old replay on here. Sorry man.