Sudden Strike - German Campaign - Mission 8 "Encirclement"

Описание: Playthrough of German Campaign in Sudden Strike 1.
Mission 8 "Encirclement"


In this mission our task is to conquer the east part of the map. Sounds simple, but there are 2 catches:
1. Most of our troops are inexperienced, which will result in enemy soldiers spotting them, before they start to fire. We have however some fully experienced officers, so try to keep them alive as long as possible. This mission will get very hard without them.
2. Enemy has artillery (lots of it) and we don't. We get however a rocket mortar, which to be honest, seems like the most important unit in this mission.

Personally I usually take the way to the north and then to the east, as it allows to bypass most of enemy units. I start by backing troops behind the bridges back to the island and then blow up the bridges. Then set up few cannons/tanks in case enemy tries to attack.
I didn't find much use of a troops in the south - I just leave them to be.
Once our base is secured, we can start to capture all the bridges on the river on the west part of the map. Of course we blow them up and set some defenses, to keep enemy off our back.
At the start we can send some troops to the west of second bridge to spot some Russian AT cannons. It is better to blow them up, as AI will often send another troops to man them.
Next we capture bridge a little north of them - at this point bring your mortar and blow enemy on the other side of the bridge. Its good to leave the blindage in usable condition for future spotting.
After that its time to start a long march towards the northern city. At this point assume that enemy is in every building, so heavy use of mortar is advised. After all you don't have to worry about war crimes as long as you win. Also from time to time its good to leave one building intact to hide an officer there, to help with spotting.
Since our troops have almost no experience, keep an ambulance nearby and try to save them. They will get lots of XP when wounded, so if you manage to do it several times, you should start to have some battle hardened squads.
Once you capture nearby bunkers, send some troops to find mines on the sandy field north of your base.
Also at this point, enemy will start to constantly send few troops in our direction. They aren't much of a threat (as long as we are not in range of artillery), but be prepared for them.
Capture the village to the north and set some rifleman near the small river passage to the east of it - those troops I mentioned earlier will start to go that way, once other bridge is destroyed.

Once we cross bridge to the north, our troops will get into enemy artillery range. There are 3 cannons in the north city that could be captured to help us destroy enemy artillery. They are lightly defended, but be careful no to destroy them with your mortar of tanks (as I did :) ).
The best tactic I found is to send motorcycles to scout a bit ahead, to make sure that mortar won't destroy them. It is however risky due to all tanks and AT cannons in the town, so caution is advised. Also troops with panzerfausts can be useful here. Most of enemies will stand in place, so it is possible o to sneak up on them.
Once artillery is captured it is a matter of patience to reach the east part of the map. Just move on and shell everything in your direction. Near last island it is also possible to create a pontoon bridge, to have more wide area to attack from. It can be ignored, but please note that there are some troops in the forest north of that place and they will spot your troops when passing the northern road.
At the end I got quite impatient and decided to do few massive assaults, which all ended poorly. Enemy has lots of AA/AT cannons, tanks and infantry there, which are also supported by ton of artillery.
Eventually I decided to drop paratroopers behind last bridge in attempt to destroy enemy artillery, but it turned out that it ends the mission. Probably should have made more methodical approach, but at least I managed to destroy enough AA, so planes were shot down after drooping troops :)

Mission highlights:
2:19:42 - attack on the forest
2:42:25 - storming a hill
2:57:30 - securing a perimiter near end of the map
3:01:30 - first failed massive attack on enemy possitions
3:05:54 - second failed attack
3:09:22 - next attack...
3:12:32- and another one...


Rules:
normal difficulty
no pause
no save/load
no farming exp (solders can only gain experiance in combat)