Line of Europe

* Belgium (Turn 10)
* Netherlands (Turn 10)

**Line of Europe** is the first mission on the NATO side of the Cold War in World Conqueror 4. It is followed by Korean War.

## Overview:

### Briefing:

"The Soviet Union has bigger ambitions after its victory against Germany in the East battlefield. Obviously, they seek to gain more interests while taking advantage of the weakened European countries. At present, every country in Europe is no match for the powerful Soviet Union, so you must combine forces with other European countries to stop its expansion." - Montgomery

### Objective:

Normal mode: Hold at least one of the following for 20 rounds: Cologne, Hamburg and Munich.

Hard mode: Hold at least one of the following for 22 rounds: Cologne, Hamburg and Munich.

 Walkthrough:

### Normal mode:

The mission begins with the player controlling Cologne and Munich as the re-militarized Wehrmacht, with two separate strike groups occupying the cities as well as two of the spaces around them.

The northernmost objective, Hamburg, is initially held by an allied strike group led by General Erich von Manstein as well as Colonel Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb.

To the east lies Russian-controlled Berlin, which is surrounded by two hostile strike groups (army group "centre" commanded by Colonel Ivan Bagramyan, and army group "south" commanded by both Major-General Aleksandr Vasilevsky and Lieutenant-General Ivan Konev) with one intending to push north toward Hamburg while the other pushes west towards the player. Directly north of Hamburg lies another hostile strike group (army group "north", commanded by Lieutenant-General Konstantin Rokossovsky) alongside hostile reinforcements stationed in and around Copenhagen. Please note that although other enemy forces besides the aforementioned army groups "north", "centre", and "south" are present, they normally do not directly interact with the player and as such are deemed irrelevant to the overview of this mission.

Normally when players are first able to access this level, they lack any superior advantage over their enemies (in the Cold War scenarios, the enemy units will have increased progression in the tech trees, easily outclassing players who are negligent about upgrading units). As such, it is extremely difficult to get 3 stars when first attempted. The typical stratagem is to simply invest all resources into protecting Munich and Cologne, with Hamburg falling behind enemy lines.

#### With generals:

Put your tank general in the t3 heavy tank and artillery general in the super artillery. Build a national monument that increases income in Munich so you can build a light infantry every turn if under siege. remember to never place your generals in the cities unless you have nothing else because the AI will target them. Allowing Hamburg to fall will lead your French and British allies to join the war on your side. Also strafe artillery and infantry generals like Konev and Vasilevsky.

### Hard mode:

Same objectives, hold Munich, Cologne and Hamburg, allowing Hamburg to fall will result in France and Britain joining you, however, the Netherlands and Belgium will join USSR at turn 10.

#### Without both generals and only with minimum tech to beat level:

Players without any generals or upgrades will find it extraordinarily difficult to complete this mission in normal mode; as such it is impossible to complete the hard mode variant without the two necessities stated above.

## Mission level is based on

This scenario is based on Operation Unthinkable, which was the name given to two separate war plans by the British Chiefs of Staff to potentially combat the Soviet Union. The two plans were made after the end of WWII in Europe. The original plan was one of offensive priority, with a surprise attack on the Soviet units occupying Europe; however, it was deemed unfeasible considering the near 1:2.5 ratio the Soviet forces held in terms of available units.

"Line of Europe" follows the second strategy composed in case of Soviet attack. This defensive strategy concluded that although British naval forces could hold the Soviets from crossing the English Channel, the United Kingdom would have little defence against suspected rocket attacks.

## Historical Errors

1. Manstein was not actually present in real life 1946 Germany when this scenario takes place.

2. Zhukov appears twice, once on a motorised infantry and then on rocket artillery, which is obviously incorrect as generals are killed when the unit they are on dies

3. Netherlands and Belgium is deemed to join the NATO forces rather than the WTO forces if war breaks out.