How do you take Kerch?

[Bismarck2761]

I'm playing Tappen-J (1.05b). I cannot seem to find a way to get anywhere near Kerch by the deadline, or with one or two extensions (e.g., still outside June 10). Any tips on tactics?

[Bonners]

It all depends on your opponent I think. In my game with Reconvert he is struggling, but as Soviet I have sacrificed a lot of units and a lot of airpower to stop him. If the Soviet player does that you may struggle, but remember the Soviet player will suffer for stopping you. I have lost a lot of my fighters interdicting his interdiction of my supply.

If the Soviet player does not go all out then the best thing to do is to transfer as much of your level bombers as possible to the Crimea. Just by being there they will gradually interdict the supply to the Soviet units. As the Soviet units begin to lose supply they should be easy to pick off.

[Reconvet]

ORIGINAL: Bonners
... In my game with Reconvert he is struggling ...

Sorry mate, that was last year. *g*

[Reconvet]

Back to topic:

I struggled and had to play several more time cards because Bonners threw all his fighter force to defend the sky over the Crimea. One of these days my AAR will catch up.

My recipe for capturing Kerch:

1) Keep Kerch harbor bombed to zero from turn 2 on. Starting on turn 1 will put too much hurt on your level bombers, I wouldn't do that again as long as AAA of soviet ships within harbours has not been toned down. You have to bomb Kerch to limit the supply flow for soviets units west of Kerch. If you don't do that your forces tasked with capturing Kerch will suffer enormously while fighting through fully supplied red units. Less than full ammo for soviet defenders means less losses for axis attackers...
My procedure for this: Facing a soviet player who fights for the skies over Kerch, each turn I conduct 2 fighter sweeps over cities suspected of basing soviet fighters east of Kerch (should be enough to prevent red fighters intercepting your levelbombers), then bomb Kerch with your KG (4-5 KG on the first turn you bomb it, after that 60-90 planes should be enough to reduce the repaired city back to zero).

2) Wait a bit with frontal ground attacks west of Kerch until the supply level of the soviet defenders has dropped a bit. Idea is that soviet units forced to retreat won't be able to regain readiness due to lowered supply, therefore you'll encounter less and less resistance right until attacking Kerch itself. Try to only conduct 2- or 3-hex attacks until you don't face soviets with full readiness anymore. Keep an eye on readiness and ammo levels of your own troops. Low readiness causes higher casualties.

Hope this works for you.