Is this a bug? One cannot deploy in a certain victory city (the one in the north central area with like five bridges), no forces can get there in less then two turns, and the Soviets take it the first turn for a victory. Is there a trick? If so, please let this old fool on to it because this kills the entire campaign - one can go no further!

The last time i played it you could deploy at the city+1 hex south&north of it, three more a few hexes north and 2 or 3 a few hexes west of the city.

If you can't deploy any Units at all at/around the city it can be a bug but more often it happens because players closed/leaved the deployment screen, lets say to save and play on later. Most the time this isn't a problem but at Novgorod the Hexes at the central north city are not scripted as normal deployment hexes but as jump off/one time deployment hexes as some call them. If this i the reason you can't deploy at the city, your only chance is to reload a pre-Novgorod-save.

I think this thread may be mixing up campaign and stand alone scenario. In the campaign, the deployment hexes are there as described. In the stand alone scenario, they are not and the only deployment is well behind the lines.

Has anyone won the stand alone scenario as the Germans ? Seems to be impossible to me! And one of the hardest one in campaign mode too!

The other posts all discussed the campaign one - there you have to deploy at start. To be exact, the discussed victory hex is only available for deployment in the deployment phase, not anymore at start of turn 1.

About the scenario variant of the game: See the starting deployments in the attached screenshot (created with Luis Guzman's Suite PG2). Avoiding the stretch of land along the river where most Soviet units are deployed and rushing down between the next two rivers might be key.

I experimented a bit with the start: Retreat all units on the southwestern riverbank out of view except the one (two?) closest to the north which moves northwest of the city to help the other units there (should the artillery also be moved initially? the fighters are a danger for it). The northernmost artillery attacks the visible artillery, the infantry goes onto the river hex adjacent to the enemy artillery and spots and artillery next to that one. Bomber and artillery in the city attack it and hopefully destroy it. The infantry on the river hex finishes the northern artillery. The tank moves southeast of the city to prevent any enemy unit reaching our artillery in the city. An infantry remains south of the city to prevents attacks from there but will get take heavy damages during the enemy turn and move away from the front line in our next turn and be replaced with a fresh unit.

During the enemy turn, the T34/41 with 13 strength points attacks the infantry on the river hex which takes losses between 50-100% and retreats or not. The 2 artilleries in range attack the tank as does the bomber. If the infantry is still on the river hex, it might inflight 3 strength point damage now (with luck more) and cause the retreat of the tank on the eastern river hex where a fighter can finish it.

The next step seems to be the destruction of the artillery SSE of the city with bomber and fighters attacking while tank and infantry making progress from the north. It's not obvious when the other T34 and the KV-1 waiting in the east move westwards and attack (depending on damage taken by the Soviet side?) but the plan to counter should be to have the own tank at the western end of the long bridge, maybe already with artillery backup. I have seen the KV-1 attacking alone at the few hexes southern and being able to deal out damage with tank and infantry because it was on a bridge/river hex. But in another attempt, both attacked at the same time...

Does it make sense to move all southwestern units up to the north? When left unattended after the initial retreat, an enemy infantry will try to cross after a few turns. Having the Panzer IVD to attack it (and take the artillery fire) looks like the only way to prevent a breakthrough which would allow a deluge of enemy units behind the own northern line.

Got a tactical victory on the last turn.

Round 1
The units in the south which are in the spotting range of the enemy infantry retreat to a position where they cannot be seen. The soutern anti-tank gun moves to a position where it and the other AT can fire on most of the river hexes.
The northernmost artillery attacks the visible artillery. It's unlikely the attack will destroy it. In this case the strongest infantry can step onto the river and finish it (prepare for a T34/41 tank attack on the unit in the enemy turn) or also attack with a fighter. The artillery south of it gets shelled with the artillery in the city and the bomber attack after it will destroy it. The tank moves southeast of the city, an infantry unit northeast, the infantry unit in the north moves south, the artillery southwest of the city fires and moves closer to the city (outside of the 2 hex spotting range of the enemy infantry). The two infantry units near it also start their journey to the city while staying out of view for the units on the other side of the river.
The other fighter gets move to the northwest of the city as a 'nice' surprise out of view when the enemy fighter tries to attack the artillery in the city.
To lure a tank into an ambush later on, the northern enemy infantry on the island east of the city will be spared from attacks initially.

Round 2
If the T34 hasn't shown up: The artillery in the city and the bomber destroy the artillery SSE of the city, else they will be busy attacking the tank, which will get attacked by an infantry afterwards and should retreat onto the river where a fighter destroys it. The artillery west of the city attacks the infantry 2 hexes SE of it, then the infantry NE moves adjacent to it and attacks it, then the tank finishes it or causes a retreat (then the fighter attacks it). The artillery NW of the city moves SE of it
and will be bait for the infantry SSE of it which will move onto the river hex to attack but the artillery in the city will break it up (and the tank will finish it with an overrun attack in the next round).

Round 3
The tank finishes the infantry on the river hex, the bomber attacks the artillery 5 hexes south of the city and the tank destroys what's left of it. The other units close to the city focus on finishing the infantry units east of it with the infantry most advanced securing a position at the NW end of the causeway or one hex north of it, as an ambush for the KV1 coming to the rescue for the enemy infantry north of it. It might also approach normally using the bridge without triggering an ambush.

Keeping the artillery in range of the difficult targets (e.g. the first air defense) is key. The pair of artillery formed at the city is effective to weaken tank attacks. In the first half of the game, the prestige is spent on replacements for weakened infantry. Later a unit of paratroopers gets purchased, flown to the southern victory hex and attacks it several turns from the south (first pushing an infantry from the street) with a fighter reducing the entrenchment. The eastern objective more to the south gets captured by a battle hardened infantry with the support of a purchased Ju 77B bomber (should have sent an artillery along). Another purchase was a Pz IIIH tank but it never got to the frontline.

Noticing when the infantry vacated the western bank in the SW would have sped up the attack there. 2 infantries moved SW and then recaptured the non-victory hex and attacked the victory hex in the last turns from the SW while other units did from the NE. The enemy infantry had moved east and been destroyed except for one. Having multiple units attacking the city prevented the recapture during the last turn (the enemy artillery south of it seems out of reach).