Open Panzer – Huertgen Forest Walkthrough

Great name, good game. Open Panzer, the web browser reincarnation of Panzer General, is on iOS and its scenarios are challenging even for the seasoned war gamer. One of the toughest is Huertgen Forest from the Big Red One campaign. It is essentially impossible to win as a single scenario, so this walkthrough assumes you have reached this point in your campaign, and that you have built a battalion of core units with a good mix of infantry and artillery.

The simple strategy is to break the weakest point in the German line. That is, attack the middle, break-through and then flank the rest of the German defenses. The West and East points in the line are well-defended with obstacles, artillery and flak. It is almost impossible to take these points head-on and have enough men left for the other objectives, especially when the barbed wires fire at you (still not sure why).

To start, place your core units in the center and Southeast. Hopefully, you will have several infantry units supported by 2-3 mobile artillery. From there, move North toward the first main objective in the Eastern part of the map. This first objective in the East should be taken rather easily.

In the West, avoid the roads in the forest or you will be ambushed. Instead, swing the two tank platoons and the infantry around to the center of the map avoiding the forest in the west. Concentrate all of your non-core units to the center of the map. Push through the woods, take the center objective and fight off the armored counter-attack.

This is what you DON’T want to do. Avoid frontal in the West or you will be bogged and ambushed.

Avoid engaging your aircraft in support of your troops early on. The line is well-defended with flak and other anti-aircraft units. Instead, use your bombers and fighters to the north or northeast. There are light air defenses in these areas and you can easily weaken the troops guarding the objectives. Once the flak guns are destroyed at the line, then it’s easy pickings for your airmen.

Once the central and western objectives are taken, send 2-3 infantry to the Northwestern objective supported by 1-2 artillery. Destroy the artillery and flak guns and it should be easy to overwhelm the enemy infantry. Once the Northeast objective is taken, swing south and take the West objective from the rear.

At the same time send the rest of your troops north. There are 4 enemy units guarding this objective, but they have only a mortar for support. Still, it will take several reinforcements to defeat this garrison. Once near completion, move your units East and take both of the objectives in the Northeast. If you were smart with your aircraft and artillery, it won’t be very difficult to sweep up the remaining enemy resistance.

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