Overview
Map walkthrough !
Sealion 45 – Field Marshal – Minor/Decisive Victory !
For those who are interested – playing on field marshal difficulty ( i posted this guide because of the complexity grade of the scenario – to know in advance what are the enemies moves and what to do first to counterattack ) :
First of all i have to say that my core army didnt had a lot of experience because i choose in the last missions to recruit normal replacements and they were not overstrength beyond 10 except some AIR units – i still had the heroes for different units and kept at least 1000 prestige points in reserve !
Core units : INFANTRY : 1 Wehrmacht inf 43 / 6 Grenadier 43 / 1 Pioniere 43
SE Units in this category – 1 Gebirgsjager 43 / 1 Wehr Inf 43 / 1 Grenadier 43
TANK/ANTITANK : 1 Tiger / 3 King Tiger / 6 Maus / 2 Elefant / 1 Jagdpanther / 2 Jagdtiger
SE Units in this category – 2 Panther G
ARTILLERY : 3 Sig 38 (T) M / 3 Brumbar ( 1 had loger range )
FIGHTER/BOMBER : 1 Ta 152 H / 8 Me 262 A / 2 Go 229 A / 2 E 555
SE Units in this category : 1 BF 108 G / 1 BF 110 G
( note – pay close attention to the composition of forces – a strong numerical fighter jets corps is required to be successful – ex – i have 11 core fighters + 1 SE fighter + the additional support fighter jets provided by the scenario !
– i did not use any kind of anti-aircraft guns – choosing to focus the strength on fighter jets – only during the course of the mission I replaced some planes destroyed with AA guns for protection ex – in the Bristol bridge area ) !
GRAF ZEPPELIN
The key in this very hard last mission is to deny aerial supremacy to allied forces – and keep maximum atention to the time when the waves aerial/naval come ( which turn ) timing is essential – to know in which turn to act accordingly and take the initiative – practically you have to defeat all english aerial waves up to turn 20 – then when the americans enter the action ( turn 20 – when all your fighters should move to intercept in the Bangor / Liverpool / Warrington areas ) – you have to inflict as much damage as possible starting first with destroyng all of their fighters ( ex – i was successful in this task and from the 34 round until the end the enemies had only 6 planes in the air – me only one – not enough to pose a problem and they were concentrated in sinking my ships in Liverpool ) – and use the fleet – especially the U-Boats as decoy / bait for their remaining bombers in the Liverpool area !
You should be able to destroy all enemy aircrafts ( 7 bombers + 1 fighter – 8 in total and damage greatly the fighter in North Walsham ) in the area ( including the 3 planes above London ) in the first round ( if you follow the instructions in the long range rockets section ) !
All your Strategic bombers and the auxiliary ones should stay in France to be deployed against the american fleet in the S when the 2nd wave of british fighters and bombers which apears in the Bristol area in turn 6 has been intercepted and destroyed !
A key factor is to move ahead ( not wait for their planes to come ) and intercept the english aerial wave in round 6 Bristol area and the american aerial wave in turn 20 Liverpool area !
Pay close attention with the deployment , and choose the targets to be destroyed with your long range rockets V1 and V2 in a very smart manner as exemplified bellow !
Keep in mind that Aerial Supremacy in this scenario is your primordial task – the V1 and V2 rockets from the first round should all be used to destroy/damage the enemy Anti Aircraft guns ( vital are the 2 big ones – the one in S London and the one in the airfield near Maldon ) + the coastal ones , for your Fighters to be succesful ! Your 2nd round V1 should be used against the coastal infantery + 1-2 QF 17 and the Rochester area ( the tank and the artillery piece ) ! The fourth round V2 weapons should be used to destroy at least 2 Artillery pieces in London , including the big one + some other artillery pieces and as much as possible the Big static anti-tank guns S of London ( QF 17 ) !
Your 4th wave from the 18 round of V1 and V2 should be moved inland in England and deployed by railway to Oxford and Glouchester ( but some V2 can be fired from close to London ) for vital help in dislodging the Liverpool and Sheffield areas !
Your fleet should deploy N to destroy the british fleet with 0 damage to your capital ships by using the smaller ships as bait – all your SE U-Boats should move to the S not engaging the fleet in the N which is a very easy task – than quickly move the fleet to the south where the rest of the U-Boats have regrouped and in conjuction with your bombers shoud destroy the american fleet in the S ( after the 6th round english aerial wave has been destroyed ) !
Your U Boats ( 3 ) in the NW should try to destroy some landing ships in turn 8 when the americans are landing – then be redeployed along with your 4th lonely U-boat from the S ( if he has survived ) to block the Gulf area between Haverfordwest and Exeter awaiting the fleet wich has destroyed the S American fleet to arive and do the rest of the damage against the 16 round 2 wave of naval invasion in SW – Falmouth area ( you should be able to sink all landing ships between Haverfordwest and Falmouth in conjuction with the bombers ) – then you should move all available fleet and all U-Boats wich is vital because the U-Boats will be used as decoy/baits for the remaining american bombers to Liverpool , and bombard the infantery unit duged there !
As a side note , at the start deploy the long range artillery in the S and the close suport range artillery ( ex – Brumbar ) in the SE !
Important – after you conquer Bristol all your units should move N ( NOTE – thats if you want minor victory and you feel weak in strength – but you can go past the bridge and destroy the units there for decisive victory – i only advise this if you destroy 80-90% of all american landing ships from round 16-18 ) – except the ones holding the bridge N of Bristol ( use strong units in this area becuase this point is vital ex – Maus tank ) and i used 4 infantry units to conquer the rest of the S region after destroyng the tank in Lime Regis – so dont keep units in the South at all !!!
Huge exploit that you can use against the AI in the first rounds after landing that clears the path for you in NE up to York and enables you to make a blocade there stoping a lot of american armor and paratropers coming from Blackpool-Bradford ! – here it is ;-D – lack of space – read the comments section ;-D !
To summarize:
turn 6 intercept and destroy the wave of british planes in Bristol area
turn 8 destroy some landing ships and move to block the gulf with 4 U-Boats
turn 16 destroy the landing ships in Falmouth area with your fleet in conjunction with the bombers
turn 20 intercept and destroy all american fighters in the air Liverpool area and some bombers gradually
I achieved Minor Victory in the very last turn with the help of 2 V1 and 1 V2 rockets in Liverpool ! Because of lack of prestige i spawned only this type of units to replace the destroyed ones in the later parts – 43 falschirmjager / kavallerie / Wespe and Sig 38 T !
Revisiting this scenario , based on my previous knowledge i achieved decisive victory in round 35/40 not needing the 4th wave of V1&2 rockets in the process – so its definitely doable a decisive victory as long as you deny aerial supremacy and destroy the american landing ships from round 16-18 ( you gotta move quickly with the navy tho — no time to waste – also be prepared to sacrifice a lot of planes with the sole objective of sinking the landing ships ) ! Good luck fellow gamers ;-D !
Blitzkrieg – Sieg oder Tod 😀