Grand Campaign "Push to the Volga" is complete. KG_Loki (aka CC_Infected_x_X) and I started this GC back in December 2016. I asked for a campaign already started as I hate beach maps. That is, attacking out of a small square against superior positions on day one. The campaign was on turn two of day one. We carried on from here until the end. Germans set to line and Russians on recruit and 15 minute games. Recruit gives the Russians more tanks and a handful of tanks in units that otherwise would not have them. We chose to view each others force pools prior to battle but not actual units chosen for the battle. We played over 300 battles playing for around 65-70 hours total over six months.
220 battles were recorded using Bandicam. They are available to watch on Youtube at Stalingrad Unedited. They are unedited and not narrated, just raw in game video.
German Plan
Grand Strategy - My strategy was to meet Loki's armour with mine in the center and move all my infantry units north around RO Settlements through Sculturny Park to get behind the T-34s. This flanking migration of infantry took days and careful planning that strategic moves did not get messed up. Southern strategy was to check the Russians in Grain Elevator and Southern Ferry Terminal. The southern area below Chuikov's HQ and Tsarista Crossing remained quiet for most of campaign after the Russians were pushed back to the Southern Ferry Terminal.
Armour Tactics - Russian armour was very centralized, in about five battle groups. Upwards of 20-25 T-34s in four of them and 30 odd KV-1s in the fifth. Any armour losses suffered reverberated throughout the campaign so I used them carefully. Brute force could not be used against the Russians for fear of a devastating loss of armour. I was usually attacking out of a box with limited sight. My tactics were threefold to beat Russian armour. First German armour would be grouped, sometimes five tanks parked side by side. This would overwhelm any single tanks spotted. Secondly, airstrike support was exclusively targeted on enemy tanks. Finally, all my attacks had the exit VLs in mind. I was never able to force a breakthrough with these tactics but I did force the Russians back very slowly.
Infantry Tactics - German infantry was far superior to Russian and more numerous. While attacking I knew my losses would be greater, and at times much greater. I learned quickly to run my men only to the outer walls of buildings, not to rush in. Once they got to the wall they would fight with grenades first then small arms all together. If I had them rush in, they would get mowed down by waiting Russians. The infantry fighting was brutal. One map in particular that was the most frustrating was Mokraya Mechetka, the northern most center map. I spent days trying to remove the Russians. The map favours defence with its deep gullies and a dry river bed bisecting the map laterally. Each gully had the steep slope terrain element which made infantry movement extremely slow. I ended up attacking from three different directions with three different units. Eventually the Loki just retreated from the map.
Russian Plan (from my perspective)
Grand Strategy - Loki fought a delaying actions most of the game. In the first couple days Loki retreated east quickly to ensure better defensive positions. These days are crucial for the Russians. If the Germans make a breakthroughm, there are no Russian units in depth to stop them, the Russians have only a single line of defence, Loki ensured it was not broken by the early retreats. Loki's armour was deployed to center of the map, in and around RO Settlements, Mamayev Kurgan, Shooting Range, Barracks Hill and West Stalingrad. Infantry units made up the northern flank. In the south a single Guards infantry unit held the Ferry Terminal for most of the game.
Armour Tactics - T-34s were deployed mainly in a static defence role behind natural obstacles and buildings. They had superior firing positions with their turrets already facing the proper direction. German tanks had to roll into their LOS and traverse to shoot. Loki's armour units were deployed to maps that favored long lines of sight and few buildings. Mamayev Kurgan is the best example of this deployment. I was disbanded two or three times attacking into this map. The KV-1s were mostly a deterrent for most of the game, they were used very sparingly.
Infantry Tactics - Russian infantry was sub par is most battle groups. Loki made the best of this ambushing my men. There were two notable ambush spots. The first being in the bottom of a gully in a trench. German infantry would crest the top of the gully hitting the steep slope element and get picked off by one by less superior infantry. The second ambush spot was within ruined buildings in the second room. As Germans would enter the first room blind, Russian infantry would pick them off as they entered. I dealt with this effectively with the tactic I mentioned above, it was still costly.
Lessons Learned
Russian Maxims are the top machine gun in the mod. German machine guns do not compare.
Panzer3 tanks seemed superior to T-34s, Panzer4 were not.
German ATRs would not perform nearly as good as Russian ATRs. Russian ATRs worked great against ATGs.
Russian T-60 and T-70s are hard to destroy. They would take many hits leaving crew injured but would not die until hit with sustained fire.
Stugs would get damaged in all encounters with tanks, ATGs and ATRs. Not a reliable tank. Most Stugs were gone by mid campaign.
Mortars were only effective at killing standing infantry. No ATG or open topped vehicle was killed due to mortar fire.
Final casualties and positions.
Want to download CC5 Stalingrad? Here's the Installation Guide to get you started.
Thomm's overview maps provide a very clear view of line of sight in the planning and combat stages. They are very useful when setting up troops as they show precisely where your line of sight ends or what is partially blocking it. To install the mod download CC5_Classic_ThommsOVM_plugin.zip. Unzip the archive to the /Config Manager/Plugins/ folder. The overview maps are good for CC5 v5.01 only. They are not compatible with any other mods or submods of CC5. The plugin will replace every stock CC5 map, here's a preview of some of them.
As previously announced we would release an update to fix reported bugs found in Scheldt mod version 1.0. Scheldt mod v1.1.2 is a small update over version 1.0. It addresses some minor issues in graphics and data.
* Assault fire off for bolt action rifles, squad MG's and PzFausts.
* Weapons - minimum distances decreased.
* Minor changes in spelling and denomination.
* Minor changes in teams and soldiers.
* Command teams - Highest rank in infantry command teams is now Leader.
* Some guns coded to be bigger.
* Some changes in elements file.
* Soldier styles amended.
* Soldier Ranks amended.
* Allied star has been changed to Canadian Maple Leaf.
* Height numbers added to several church towers.
* Revision of certain dike heights.
* Trees on Putte fixed.
* Several mistakes in map elements fixed.
* StuG IV image fixed.
* Not fixed - turret misalignment and perhaps some other things.
Furthermore we would like to make two other announcements. The revival of the Ortona '43 mod for CC5. As some of you might know PT commenced work on the Ortona '43 mod years ago. He shared images of his beautifully drawn maps with us as far back as 2005 and has kept us wanting to play this mod since. However there had not been any news about its progress for years. Several months before the Scheldt mod was finished Buck Compton contacted PT about the status of the mod. When it turned out that real life obligations would not allow PT to finish the mod we proposed to finish it for him and he agreed. Nearly all maps had been drawn (one map has been done by Buck) so that most of the work will be in coding, stratmap, the roof files and data. We expect to finish it this year.
At the same time we have commenced another project, a mod for Close Combat The Longest Day. Thinking about which theatre of operations would be interesting for a mod we realized that there were hardly any mods dealing with battles on German soil. We again looked close to home and went for a Battle of the Rhineland mod. More specifically operations Blockbuster, Veritable and Grenade. Given the size and shape of the area we decided that the CC TLD stratmap was what we needed. We have a firm idea of what this mod should look like but have not made any definite decisions about which areas to include. This is definitely going to be a 64-map mod with a variety of nations and units. ETA: ask again in 3 years!
The Battle of the Scheldt mod for Close Combat Invasion Normandy attempts to recreate the World War 2 battle for the Scheldt estuary which is the seaway from the North Sea to the port of Antwerp, Belgium. This battle took place in October and November of 1944 in the aftermath of the Market Garden offensive. While Market Garden was a partial success for the Allied forces it left the High Command with a thus far underestimated problem: quenching the supply thirsty Allied forces. Finally it was recognized that the supply lines to the front were too long to keep the offensive going. The Canadian First Army was ordered to clear both sides of the Scheldt estuary of the German defenders.
The Battle of the Scheldt mod was started back in 2004. At the time Buck_Compton was to mod making as he was to the military on his first day: clueless, overwhelmed and lost. With help of Close Combat community members he has come a long way since. The final result is impressive with an all new strategic map and 44 maps created from scratch. All maps were hand drawn after aerial reconnaissance photographs of the actual battlefields.
Buck_Compton would like to thank in particular: JimRM2 for putting up with his endless list of questions and for the beautifully drawn sea water, Tejszd, Atilla for their help on so many things, Manoi and Dodam for their gorgeous Photoshop textures and their help on Photoshop, Norden for his unparalleled German bunker drawings, plus a variety of other textures, PT for advice and critique on mapmaking, Mopa for vintage photos of Canadian troops, CCS and MOOXE for hosting the download files and the dedicated forum, 7A Clan for play testing and Pete for comments on the map designs, unit and data research, game data (with Dima’s TRSM as starting point), play testing, mental support and so on. Furthermore we would both like to thank anyone else who has offered any sort of help and the CCS forum members for their interest in the mod.
In August of 2004, Zappi, Homba, Bambam887, RedScorpion and MOOXE all pitched
in to create this Close Combat site. I would to thank all the people who have visited
and found this site to thier liking. I hope you had time to check out some
of the great Close Combat mods and our forums. I'd also like to thank
all the members of our volunteer staff that have helped over
the years, and all our users that contributed to this site!
