The Wehrmacht’s campaign in Poland doesn’t get much war-game coverage, perhaps because it was a relatively easy blitzkrieg-in-the-park. Well, the first battle of Open Panzer’s Fall Weiss campaign was anything but easy. It took me several weeks, and several re-starts to finally achieve victory over the Poles in the 25-turn Lodz-Warta River scenario.
The objective is to cross the Warta River, control it, and take the city of Lodz in the East. The map is divided into three sectors: North, Center, and South. The primary strategy is to cross the river at the weakest point in the enemy line, penetrate and flank the enemy at the river, and still have enough strength to attack the heavily-defended city of Lodz.
North, Center, South. Attack like a door. Open in the south, swing shut in the North.
North:
The river’s North has the stiffest enemy defenses. There are two main fortifications supported by several infantry, artillery, armor and an anti-aircraft gun. Every time I tried to attack head-on, my troops got completely annihilated. I tried crossing in the far northern edge of the map where there are no defenses, but the troops got wiped out once discovered. Eventually, I kept my infantry back and waited for my troops in the Center and South to break through. Once they broke through and reached the North, I assaulted the enemy from both the front and rear. Even surrounded, the Poles wiped out most of my men – probably an entire battalion.
I snuck my scout unit across the river in the far north and had them take undefended mini-objectives in the nearby areas, including the airfield, which becomes important mid-game. I also sent the group’s howitzer south to support the assault in the Center. I kept all my other infantry back and placed the anti-tank gun defending the objective hex. The gun will get bombarded and will need to be reinforced several times. This was essential because it kept their artillery busy and prevented the Poles from counterattacking in the North.
The survivors. This was all that remained of the battalion+ men that assaulted the river’s northern defenders.
Center:
The defense in the Center is tough, but with the support of three howitzers and reinforcements several turns in, it should fall by turn 10. Once crossed, the enemy will counterattack with cavalry. Yes, horses! But disrespect them, and your men will be run down like a sloth on the autobahn. Once the counterattack is defended, send two of your artillery, your AA gun and several infantry to attack the defenses in the North. Send as many as you can. Everything else, including troops from the South will move across the center of the map toward Lodz.
South:
The South is the easiest to penetrate. Rush your troops across the river head-on and overwhelm the defenders. Support them with artillery and both fighters. Once across the river, move most of your men up north to assist the Center group. Once the Center is clear, move them east toward Lodz taking other objectives along the way.
The only unit that didn’t head north was my recon car, which I sent directly east to take several undefended mini-objectives to acquire much-needed prestige points. Reinforcements arrive in the southeast mid-game, including a couple of fighters. Be smart with them and they should be able to take the three main objectives south of Lodz without assistance.
The map should look like this around turn 17.
The final two objectives should be the river’s North and Lodz itself. Reinforce your troops as much as possible, and throw everything you have on these two points. Don’t focus on the enemy’s support units or the static emplacements. Assault the unit guarding the objective hex, and then assault them again. Use suicide attacks. Get kamikaze with your aircraft. Take that objective!
Additional tips:
When crossing the river, think “wedge”. Open a hole and pour your troops through that hole making it wider. Ignore outlying pillboxes and bunkers.
Aircraft is valuable. Save them. Be smart with them. Don’t use them in AA-infested airspace unless it’s near the end of the game.
Victory at last!
Very good strategy game..
Please, please bring some fixes for this little problems:
# Some missions in “das reich” are Not possible to Win (Need to conquer 4 hexes but the Enemy has only 3…)
# paracuting Units can sometimes Stack on other Units, Even if they are “dismounted” out of the plane, Even anti-Air can still fire on them
(~ small Problem (?): winning brillant bring’s a new prototype Unit.. If You Win several battles brillant, your core gets very big, and the next missions become very easy..)
(~some of the Prices for Units/upgrades are Not so balaced: upgrading a old tank Nearly so expensive äs buying anew One… So better take the new + keep the old.. Two Units are better than One)
## biggest Problem: the battle at the hedgerows: i won brillant.. But the Level does Not end.. Next Time i load the game… The game does Not Start: grey backround.. Menu-Box, without any Buttons.. So i can no longer Play.. And i have no Chance to get the savegames… ( playing with the app on ipad)
Deleting the game and install new, will lead to loss of my savegames (very sad, loosing the whole core-Army.. And all the prototypes)
I will wait for the next update.. Maybe Starting the game can always Beginn with the Tutorial… So That Problems in the Last savegame would Not lead to Long-lasting game-blackout
It would be great if the units or some of the units could be transferred to the next mission – including experience and leaders.
Great game Nicu,
I still have a hard time with the Lodz campaign even after following this walk through. One issue I have is with the reinforcements coming from the SE. They end up getting anililated since there are a large number of Polish units in that sector. Either way, it’s I great game and I will continue to try until I succeed!
How do you end your turn?
Hit the hour glass on the right side of your screen.
Tell me about it, this was the most difficult campaign to playtest for real. Actually in next version starting prestige is 700 instead of 0. The fact that bridge engineers aren’t working properly yet adds to frustration, so some starting prestige would at least give player the possibility to upgrade to those units. I could just replace them, but fix is incoming in 2.9.0. Thanks for the time and effort you put in these walkthroughs, they are helpful to me in understanding how others see this game.
Nicu, I love your game and looking forward to playing more scenarios. There were some bugs but it was part of the challenge for me, and not really frustrating. I’ve been playing war games like these forever — going back to bookcase games like Squad Leader, and this one was the toughest, and the one of the most enjoyable because it was challenging. Thanks for a great game!
Hey, Nicu, very work on your game. My enjoyment of the game was only limited by the very small size of units because I cannot zoom into the map. It is sometimes difficult to select a unit because of that. Also, it is tricky to select an aircraft if it is stacked on another unit. Also, for some reason, the supply indicator for ammunition on aircraft sometimes changes to zero if the plane is over a target, but indicates supply remaining if the plane moves off target. Also, at least one of the artillery pieces disappears if you move it with transport and reappears only next turn. And some games the HUD showing my available units disappeared for the whole game. In spite of these few glitches, I find your game very intelligently designed and very addictive, much better than any other I have yet played on my Ipad. Congratulations on an amazing achievement. I wish you lots of success. Virgil
Sorry, I meant to type “very nice work on your game…”