[updated 28 July 2023]
Theater of War Mission Pack: Operation Barbarossa
Mission: Schildkroteberg
“Turtle-town” is a potentially great mission, spoiled by the devs’ incompetence and neglect.
The mission is severely unbalanced on General (Hard) difficulty. If you play in the normal way, without exploits, the Russian swarms are too large and powerful to withstand for more than a few waves. There is, however, an exploit that works, though it’s hardly realistic: You let the first wave of lightly armed frontoviki/conscript infantry come in and shoot ineffectually at your base, for however long you need (30-60 mins) to build up your forces. When you do it that way, a 20 to 30-minute first wave should get you enough resources to survive through wave 7 (the basic victory condition), and ~50-60 minutes will give you the resources to get a full pop-cap force including tanks.
At Captain (Normal) difficulty, the mission is still challenging but do-able without the wave 1 exploit:
Start, in the 90-second prep period, by building a semicircle of three bunker HMGs to protect your base buildings. (See image below.) While you’re building, go to battle phase 1.
Then tech for and build a 251. Upgrade with a flamethrower asap. It is especially important to do this before the wave 2 assault hits. From wave 2 onward, Russian advanced infantry—penals with satchel charges (wave 4) are the worst—will get close to your bunkers and smokescreen/bypass, damage or destroy them, unless you can hit the enemy with other weapons first.
Don’t build more units than you need, because your manpower points rate of increase drops a lot every time you bring in a new unit, and can quickly get so low that you have no chance of getting to full pop cap. It is better to let your MP allowance build up when the rate is high.
Your next two units should be 251s with flamethrowers. These are your most efficient infantry-wiping machines, and with three you can cover all the approaches. These vehicles should operate well in front of your bunkers to prevent attackers from getting any closer. When one would otherwise be idle, have it join the others to speed up the killing.
After you have your three 251s, get two Pak-40s, and thereafter bring in either a Panzer IV or some panzergrens (upgrading with panzerbuchse AT rifles plus captured Russian PTRSs asap). In wave 4, the Russians will bring in a ZiS-3 gun so you can capture that too. Your Panzer IV and panzergrens, because of their greater mobility, are your best weapons against T-70s. Your three AT guns will be your best weapons against T-34s and the KV-1.
You get more munitions and fuel at the end of each wave, and after a few waves you’ll be able to use the call-in railway artillery or Stuka CAS. The former is not worth the muni points, since the Russian units on this map are always moving. Stuka CAS is useful but not as effective as it could be, because you cannot call it in on your own territory—you must instead target the nearest point on the tanks’ expected path that is still in Russian-held territory. There will be some overlap in coverage, and you can maximize your CAS’s effectiveness by doing whatever is needed to keep Russian armor near the call-in point, e.g., putting a captured Maxim in the building that is just N of your base to draw Russian tank fire.
Try to capture a Russian T-34 if you can—one of those can make all the difference. Mortars, HMGs, grenadiers and StuGs are not going to help you much.
Note that your bunker-HMGs often will not suppress Russian infantry very well. Also, due to extreme Russian buffs, your AT weapons will take a long time to kill even T-70s.
Wave 1: Frontoviki conscripts and raw conscripts; no special weapons other than Molotovs.
Wave 2: Frontoviki and shock troops.
Wave 3: Guards rifle infantry (only one squad has PTRSs), scout car, Maxim HMG.
Wave 4: Penal squads (mostly with flamethrowers), ZiS-3.
Wave 5: Frontoviki with SMGs, penals with flamethrowers, GR squads (some with PTRSs), shock troops.
Wave 6: GRs, snipers,
Waves 7, 8, 9: Various infantry (including GRs w/PTRSs) plus T-70s and T-34s.
Wave 10: T-34s and a KV-1
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