War in the East 2 Advanced Tutorial - The siege of Odessa, Leningrad and Sevastopol

In this tutorial we are going to talk about a topic particularly dear to Axis players: how to conquer Odessa, Leningrad and Sevastopol in a reasonable time. Additionally, any strategies that are better (and quicker) than those described will be welcome in the comments below.

[@klo3496]

Thank you for the information. When I start playing WITE2 again I will use your tips.

[@marcinex46]

I have watched whole tutorial series, great work :)

[@Julius_Hardware]

I think having the super-heavy artillery damaged is fair, as they needed a lot of servicing after use which had to be done back in Germany. But then you should get them back.

[@henrikrothen]

It would seem that sieges heavily favour the Germans in 1941 at least. Any discussion or tips how to actually defend vs. the siege tricks? Or is the best solution just to abandon Tallinn, Odessa and Sevastapol before an assault? It would certainly seem so, which isnt a great way to simulate these battles.

[@fraulens]

@@henrikrothen it depends. If you are facing the AI, I would recommend holding Odessa, Tallinn and Sevastopol for as long as possible. The Axis AI always sends the Romanians to besiege Odessa and, if you build an air base in Yevpatoria (Crimea), your MiG-3 do have the range to reach Odessa and deny the Axis naval interdiction. In Tallinn, I always send in the fortress the Militia Rifle Divisions arriving between T3 and T4, they are usually enough against the German infantry divisions.
In MP/PBEM, I have never seen anyone defending neither Odessa nor Tallinn, as against a decent Axis player, you have bigger problems to face.

[@henrikrothen]

@@fraulens I agree. Opposing a player, it seems best to evacuate before being isolated...

[@dpancerovas]

Hi, thanks for the video! I have a few questions, maybe you can help.
1) Does adding artillery units to the storming HQ still cause the cannons lost? I stormed Krasnodar recently, and it seems I didn't lose any K3 guns. Maybe this issiu was fixed?
2) I usually leave all heavy artillery, pioneers and other specialized SUs in the OKH, and add them to a division or corps if necessary. Am I missing anything by doing this? I mean, maybe keep specialized SUs at the level of armies?
Thaks for great totorials!

[@fraulens]

1) It depends on the terrain type. City, Urban and Heavy Urban terrain types are classified as close-quarter combat hexes and in those you might lose your heavy guns if they get involved into combat.
2) This is the best strategy ever, and it works even better if you have the OKH near a NSS or on a level 4 depot (I usually set Königsberg to level 4 throughout the whole campaign), so that during each turn all your SU will receive replacements. I just manually assign artillery and pioneers to individual Corps and Divisions roughly 4 turns before planning an important offensive.

[@vetami1601]

Thanks for the video, I have a few questions. Why does the enemy have supplies in Odessa if I send naval patrols around the port? And why can't I attach artillery to my infantry divisions?

[@fraulens]

Thank you for your questions! So:
1) Odessa, Leningrad and Sevastopol will always receive supplies and stockpile them, as they start the 1941 scenario as ports with depots. Regardless of the depot priority, there will always be some freight in those locations at the time of their isolation. One suggestion that I can give is to bomb the depots to disrupt the freight and force the local AA units to consume even more in an attempt to shoot down your bombers.
2) You cannot attach artillery to any division because the independent battalions/batteries shown ingame represents the Army Corps, Army, Army Group/Front-level artillery assets that where generally directed by the (in case of the Germans) Höherer Artillerie-Kommandeur or HARKO. These were artillery officers whose task was to organize the divisional and corps artillery to fire on specific objectives. Hence why artillery, mortars and rocket launcher battalions/regiments can only be attached to HQ units.