Locarnus Addon 2025-06a, for Battlefield Europe, Afrika Korps and Grand Campaign East

[Sleezly]

I like the work you are doing with this! Thank You!

[Locarnus]

I like the work you are doing with this! Thank You!

You are welcome!


Also, goose_2 made a youtube video with Richard Martin, discussing his 1940 Grand Campaign progress with Locarnus Addon and Napoleon difficulty ("rule of one", double Rommel, double Field Marshal and so on, a new level of extremely hard).
Link to this youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-k1Hqi ... Z&index=25

Compared to pretty much every other grand campaign playthrough so far, prestige is rather tight, unit experience is lacking, heroes are sparse and horse transports still present.
goose_2 did a great job adapting to this meme difficulty, especially with that varied core due to the "rule of one".
Now the Italians are available as well, lets see how they fare against the Soviets.

[goose_2]

I like the work you are doing with this! Thank You!

You are welcome!


Also, goose_2 made a youtube video with Richard Martin, discussing his 1940 Grand Campaign progress with Locarnus Addon and Napoleon difficulty ("rule of one", double Rommel, double Field Marshal and so on, a new level of extremely hard).
Link to this youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-k1Hqi ... Z&index=25

Compared to pretty much every other grand campaign playthrough so far, prestige is rather tight, unit experience is lacking, heroes are sparse and horse transports still present.
goose_2 did a great job adapting to this meme difficulty, especially with that varied core due to the "rule of one".
Now the Italians are available as well, lets see how they fare against the Soviets.

Hey Buddy,

I know we had a deep discussion about Metaxas Line, and I misspoke about the speed of the tanks in the scenario. Those Valentine's are turtles, but tough little turtles. I finally recorded a good enough 1st part of the battle last night with the units I already discussed with you. I have taken some damage, but nothing too painful except 3 on my green Italian AA.

I am debating just buying regular replacements for that green unit at the end of the battle as it will be the first time buying replacements even though it is its 2nd deployment. (I will check with Richard before I make that decision.)

Anyway it is going well like I said in the discussion, each map is like a puzzle, it is up to the player to figure out the key to solving that puzzle.

As always I make a couple of mistakes, but nothing scenario shattering and one was because I had lousy rolls on trying to wipe out their air force on Round 2 and they were able to use that strat to cripple my green Italian AA in a truck. (oops)

I am really enjoying myself, and hope to post again on Sunday.

Blessings,
Dave

[goose_2]

I like the work you are doing with this! Thank You!

You are welcome!


Also, goose_2 made a youtube video with Richard Martin, discussing his 1940 Grand Campaign progress with Locarnus Addon and Napoleon difficulty ("rule of one", double Rommel, double Field Marshal and so on, a new level of extremely hard).
Link to this youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-k1Hqi ... Z&index=25

Compared to pretty much every other grand campaign playthrough so far, prestige is rather tight, unit experience is lacking, heroes are sparse and horse transports still present.
goose_2 did a great job adapting to this meme difficulty, especially with that varied core due to the "rule of one".
Now the Italians are available as well, lets see how they fare against the Soviets.

Hey Buddy,

I know we had a deep discussion about Metaxas Line, and I misspoke about the speed of the tanks in the scenario. Those Valentine's are turtles, but tough little turtles. I finally recorded a good enough 1st part of the battle last night with the units I already discussed with you. I have taken some damage, but nothing too painful except 3 on my green Italian AA.

I am debating just buying regular replacements for that green unit at the end of the battle as it will be the first time buying replacements even though it is its 2nd deployment. (I will check with Richard before I make that decision.)

Anyway it is going well like I said in the discussion, each map is like a puzzle, it is up to the player to figure out the key to solving that puzzle.

As always I make a couple of mistakes, but nothing scenario shattering and one was because I had lousy rolls on trying to wipe out their air force on Round 2 and they were able to use that strat to cripple my green Italian AA in a truck. (oops)

I am really enjoying myself, and hope to post again on Sunday.

Blessings,
Dave

Finished Metaxas last night and this morning. I am disappointed in the painful damage I racked up in the battle, but got 3 heroes in the 2nd broadcast that I think make up for it. Not sure, may try it one more time to avoid some of that painful damage, but I do not know. I think it is more important to have good heroes, and 1 of the 3 was outstanding, the other 2 were good, not great

[Locarnus]

Finished Metaxas last night and this morning. I am disappointed in the painful damage I racked up in the battle, but got 3 heroes in the 2nd broadcast that I think make up for it. Not sure, may try it one more time to avoid some of that painful damage, but I do not know. I think it is more important to have good heroes, and 1 of the 3 was outstanding, the other 2 were good, not great

Great to hear that Metaxas went well, against those Valentine hordes.

Honestly, I find a Let's Play series with a bit of struggle (ie damage taken) more interesting to watch.
Don't get me wrong, the playthroughs by Delta66 and SorenTjerry offer some great insight, but imho feel more like an elaborate puzzle, rather than a dynamic game. Something that also bugs me a bit about eg the Unity of Command game type.

The "Napoleon" difficulty imho would also fit a bit better with that sort of dynamic "damage taken and adjustments on the go", rather than the "perfect play on attempt number 5".
Especially since both the Napoleon difficulty, as well as the Addon mod are both pretty much "work in progress" (the Addon in particular). Adjustments and balancing are dependent on feedback, so imho there is a tremendous benefit of the Let's Play "going further, faster" instead of the "perfect but slow" approach.
Eg the Napoleon "extra hard" rule of elite reinforcing below experience x in year 194y might not be viable in the later years, as mentioned.

Your playthrough is like a trailblazer for both the Napoleon difficulty setting and the Addon in terms of balancing, so showing damage taken and possible reactions are extra valuable, for making them both more viable for other players as well!

[goose_2]

very well, i will keep as is...now to decide between Crete Airborne or Crete Naval.

I am leaning towards Crete Airborne

Oh yeah and the Kettnekrad, did you say that the parachute artillery can fly without needing to abandon the Kettenkrad or were you meaning something else?

[Locarnus]

very well, i will keep as is...now to decide between Crete Airborne or Crete Naval.

I am leaning towards Crete Airborne

Oh yeah and the Kettnekrad, did you say that the parachute artillery can fly without needing to abandon the Kettenkrad or were you meaning something else?

Good choice!
To be fair, I would also retry if a towed arty got a spotting hero or similar. We all have our limits of rng tolerance.

With Metaxas complete, perhaps even a Friday stream?

Just can't wait to finally get to something different than the French and British.
Though I'm doing another tank balancing pass. So I hope to get the next Addon version out on the first weekend of June, hopefully still in time for Barbarossa.

Kettenkrad:
At the moment the Fallschirmjäger and parachute arty can fly with ANY transport still attached (even those that clearly should not be able to parachute, like horses, trucks and halftracks). But with transport, they need to board the planes at an airfield.
The air start for those parachute units works only if they do not have ANY transport at all attached. This just seems to be a game engine limitation?
So if you do not yet have Kettenkrad on any parachute unit for Crete airborne, you might want to remove the existing transport (I think pack horses from former 7.5cm GebG). Then use those parachute units with air start, but without transports for Crete. And then purchase those units a Kettenkrad only for Barbarossa?

[Locarnus]

Oh yeah and the Kettnekrad, did you say that the parachute artillery can fly without needing to abandon the Kettenkrad or were you meaning something else?

Forgot to mention in the previous post:
If you want to deploy your parachute inf and arty directly on the island and thus do not need an air start for them, you can of course give them the Kettenkrad for Crete.

After all, this was actually where it was first used. Although the Ju 52 transports flying in the Kettenkrad actually had to land on the airfields previously secured by Fallschirmjäger. But that is pretty impossible to model with existing game engine limitations.

Though it could be argued that this situation is exactly what the scenario starts with. First Fallschirmjäger have secured the airfields, now the second wave can bring in the equipment that can be transported by Ju 52, but not use parachutes.

Unfortunately the game engine limitation and thus the scenario design allow the player to place any ground unit on those deployment hexes around the airfields.

=> Imho the scenario design is more important here, and that is simply not balanced around historical limitations. I would thus play the scenario at hand, with what you have available. Napoleon is difficult enough, can't also fight the scenario design with even more self-restrictions.

[goose_2]

With Metaxas complete, perhaps even a Friday stream?

Actually, I think I will have to wait until Monday for Metaxas, as I want to try and record more episodes, maybe as early as tonight, but probably this weekend.

I set up what I think I will bring for Crete Airborne as I want to use the mechanics of the game to my advantage. I believe this will be a great opportunity to get most if not all my Italian units to one star. the hardest will of course be the AA/AT unit Locutus.

I went through upgrades and replacements and have once again dropped down to next to 0 in prestige. I love the tension and feeling of desperation it creates in me playing with these debilitating conditions.

I am sure that after the first 2 battles in Russia I will get some prestige relief as I will be forced to sell 4 units that will make me very sad. Rondorf, Wirnsberger, and both Rudel's

That is a potential cash cow for me to count on. Also my replacements should diminish this year, I hope based on the better more durable equipment as the exp and unit quality will improve the further we get into the year.

1942 may get even better, until the end of the year, but I plan on avoiding the most difficult battle Tatsinskaya.

I guess what I am saying I have hope for this campaign, not sure it will always feel that way, but as of right now. Yeah, hope is what I feel.

Which is funny, would not the average German soldier have said the same thing in the Spring of 1941?

Not sure what that means but I am sure it is a metaphor for something.

I hope to be able to chat while I work on Monday.

[Locarnus]

I set up what I think I will bring for Crete Airborne as I want to use the mechanics of the game to my advantage. I believe this will be a great opportunity to get most if not all my Italian units to one star. the hardest will of course be the AA/AT unit Locutus.

Imho the Italian Flak will have ample training opportunity against early Soviet tanks, no need to rush its training?

I am sure that after the first 2 battles in Russia I will get some prestige relief as I will be forced to sell 4 units that will make me very sad. Rondorf, Wirnsberger, and both Rudel's

That is a potential cash cow for me to count on. Also my replacements should diminish this year, I hope based on the better more durable equipment as the exp and unit quality will improve the further we get into the year.

Oh, yeah, forgot about the prestige from selling both Rudel units. And that sales revenue will not even be reduced by the difficulty.

I don't want to spoil too much, but while there are more durable units incoming, some overpowered stuff has been nerfed as well, both for Axis and Soviets. Eg no more overpowered Fw 190, especially once the Soviets fighters catch up in 42/43 and only German experience can hold them back.

I hope to be able to chat while I work on Monday.

Unfortunately my ability to attend live broadcasts will be rather diminished outside of the weekends (probably for the coming weeks). But I'll try to catch up in the youtube comments or on the forum.

[goose_2]

I tried playtesting Crete last night. Not having much success, yet. Need to rethink a few things, and unit placement

It is a puzzle, and I will figure it out. The problem I am running into is those darn ships. They are painful and I have to mitigate their effect better than I currently am doing. It will come.

I have rethought my next broadcast as I want you available for the first broadcast, so I will set up for Sunday normal time.

Monday will be Soviet Storm.

See you Sunday where hopefully I will have good news about my solution to Crete.

[goose_2]

Quick Update:
I could not sleep on Sunday night so I ended up staying up way too late and playing the start of Minsk, and I am sure glad I did as I am crushing the scenario like I expected, but I also was awarded 2 great heroes. So elated.

Just had to share, no spoilers though

[goose_2]

I ended up finishing Minsk this morning. (I could not wait to finish.) It went very well in terms of hero acquisition. 2 more super great heroes, making 4 great heroes in 1 scenario. Super happy.

I made some mistakes and took some risks to attain kills for my green units and as such am paying the price for that.

I actually almost lost a unit because of my stupidity.

But based on my heroes and training of my green units I am super pleased that I made an extra effort to get it played this morning.

Do I have to wait for the next update to start Smolensk? When is that expected?

[Locarnus]

I ended up finishing Minsk this morning. (I could not wait to finish.) It went very well in terms of hero acquisition. 2 more super great heroes, making 4 great heroes in 1 scenario. Super happy.

I made some mistakes and took some risks to attain kills for my green units and as such am paying the price for that.

I actually almost lost a unit because of my stupidity.

But based on my heroes and training of my green units I am super pleased that I made an extra effort to get it played this morning.

Do I have to wait for the next update to start Smolensk? When is that expected?

Congrats on those heroes, so important with Napoleon difficulty!
Limited strength losses for great first heroes seems like a fair trade.
Unit losses (even with "reform units" option on) would hurt a lot more, since experience is so hard to come by.

I guess no technical reason to wait for update for Smolensk.
Just a some stat changes, but those go in both directions for this timeframe.
Hopefully I am able to use some time this weekend to finish the update, but unfortunately no guarantees at the moment.
So if you currently have the time to start Smolensk, I would recommend doing it.

If you did not do so at the start of Minsk, I also recommend doing a whole force review at the start of Smolensk.
With the early 1941 focus on the Italian integration, there are probably some German upgrade options that passed out of mind.
Thankfully you already found the bonus SE tank destroyer, which passed out of my mind.
There are also more transport options like the Kettenkrad for mountain and Para units (including mountain arty).
Or the expensive but considerably buffed (both compared to BE 2.4 and unmodded PzC) SdKfz 250 and 251 for infantry and lighter towed units (GebG arty family, non 8.8cm Flak).
The Bf 110 E versions I already mentioned on youtube, but many aircraft got updates, even before the very early Fw 190 comes along (though I think after Smolensk).

[goose_2]

Hello Locarnus,

I was doing some deep game thinking on my walk yesterday and came up with some thoughts/ questions.

1) I have been reluctant to upgrade my Bf-110's because they already do so well as is, and the upgrade is not any increase in attack strength, but based on the damage I sustained in Minsk on my Bf-110's I have decided to upgrade 1 of them.

2) You need to discuss with me some reasons for upgrading transport. I really hate spending prestige on transports. I see them as mostly unnecessary and costly, so not sure I can be convinced otherwise, plus Richard has stipulations around motorized transport that I may or may not be violating already.

3) I took a brief look at some of my oldest videos and saw the layout I used for Stalingrad Ruins on my Super Hard Playthrough. I had over 9000 in prestige by that scenario. I was playing with 25% prestige, as well as other difficulties. I do not see it possible for me to attain the same prestige accumulation by that point, but I will try. It is nice to have some kind of goal to attain.

4) In thinking about the West Campaign I really think it is silly for me to sell the Super Heroes once I transfer to that way. I really need to discuss this with Richard, because I can see not needing to finish the East Path but the necessity to finish the West path. (With that in mind, the 2 Panzer Grenadiers special units are the same transport at Anzio, could you make them 2 different transports.) (Same for the 2 Conscripts and 2 T-34/H's in Bayone) Same for the 2 Fw-190A's and 2 7.5cm PaK's in Dieppe. Same for 2 Gotha Go-229 fighters in Liege.
I know this is a lot, but you have some time and gives me some serious surprise factor to see what you come up with.

Blessings,
Dave

[Locarnus]

1) I have been reluctant to upgrade my Bf-110's because they already do so well as is, and the upgrade is not any increase in attack strength, but based on the damage I sustained in Minsk on my Bf-110's I have decided to upgrade 1 of them.

Imho +1 ini and +1 def (ground and air def) on Bf 110 E-2 vs C-7 for 20 prestige is well worth it.
Damage taken is so costly with those difficulty settings.

2) You need to discuss with me some reasons for upgrading transport. I really hate spending prestige on transports. I see them as mostly unnecessary and costly, so not sure I can be convinced otherwise, plus Richard has stipulations around motorized transport that I may or may not be violating already.

The Kettenkrad is cheap, while providing not the fastest, but instead very reliable movement.
Especially in terms of ground conditions, because it is currently in the "alpine" movement family, like Gebirgsjäger.
So I would honestly get those for every unit that can have them (leG/GebG arty, non 8.8cm towed AA - if you still had any, as well as Jäger/Gebirgsjäger, perhaps except Fallschirmjäger infantry to retain their air start).
It will be 10 prestige more costly in the next update, which is still cheap considering the significant mud and frozen terrain utility.

The SdKfz 250 and 251 are very expensive, but offer enormous movement.
And contrary to the simply Opel Blitz, they can also attack in that mode.
Thus they could have the speed to make an additional encirclement possible, while even providing the mass attack bonus for it. Or alternatively, dealing the killing blow itself.

They also make the units attack and defense heroes useful for transport mode.
Which might make them more useful for your Grenadiere with +2 defense hero, instead of your Pioniere with movement hero.
Might even make the more expensive SdKfz 250 worth a consideration for your Grenadiere, they rarely take damage anyway.
Could then lead to a few more surrenders, or alternatively, could mean that you use that rather defensible unit instead of a rather "naked" arty in transport mode for encirclement. Either way, an improvement worth some prestige difference.


Imho that rule of not having infantry transports, except for bonus SE units, is not applicable with Locarnus Addon.
Since the units in need of transports (eg Pioniere and Grenadiere) are not available as bonus SE units with Addon.
And bonus SE infantry units can not have transports with the Addon (except bridge engineer).

3) I took a brief look at some of my oldest videos and saw the layout I used for Stalingrad Ruins on my Super Hard Playthrough. I had over 9000 in prestige by that scenario. I was playing with 25% prestige, as well as other difficulties. I do not see it possible for me to attain the same prestige accumulation by that point, but I will try. It is nice to have some kind of goal to attain.

That would be quite a challenge.
Though I would not sacrifice upgrades or experience retention for it.

4) In thinking about the West Campaign I really think it is silly for me to sell the Super Heroes once I transfer to that way. I really need to discuss this with Richard, because I can see not needing to finish the East Path but the necessity to finish the West path. (With that in mind, the 2 Panzer Grenadiers special units are the same transport at Anzio, could you make them 2 different transports.) (Same for the 2 Conscripts and 2 T-34/H's in Bayone) Same for the 2 Fw-190A's and 2 7.5cm PaK's in Dieppe. Same for 2 Gotha Go-229 fighters in Liege.
I know this is a lot, but you have some time and gives me some serious surprise factor to see what you come up with.

Unfortunately the West path might even stay incompatible with Addon.
It is just so differently "balanced", with quite some unit availability issues.
I struggle to find a viable approach to integrate it in a satisfactory manner.
Which also means that I currently find it hard to justify spending more time on the West path at all, when I instead could spend that limited time on modding other stuff (with less dubious results).

That might change in the future, as I'm slowly inching my way through something that could have the side effect of making the West path less tedious to integrate.

[goose_2]

3) I took a brief look at some of my oldest videos and saw the layout I used for Stalingrad Ruins on my Super Hard Playthrough. I had over 9000 in prestige by that scenario. I was playing with 25% prestige, as well as other difficulties. I do not see it possible for me to attain the same prestige accumulation by that point, but I will try. It is nice to have some kind of goal to attain.

That would be quite a challenge.
Though I would not sacrifice upgrades or experience retention for it.

4) In thinking about the West Campaign I really think it is silly for me to sell the Super Heroes once I transfer to that way. I really need to discuss this with Richard, because I can see not needing to finish the East Path but the necessity to finish the West path. (With that in mind, the 2 Panzer Grenadiers special units are the same transport at Anzio, could you make them 2 different transports.) (Same for the 2 Conscripts and 2 T-34/H's in Bayone) Same for the 2 Fw-190A's and 2 7.5cm PaK's in Dieppe. Same for 2 Gotha Go-229 fighters in Liege.
I know this is a lot, but you have some time and gives me some serious surprise factor to see what you come up with.

Unfortunately the West path might even stay incompatible with Addon.
It is just so differently "balanced", with quite some unit availability issues.
I struggle to find a viable approach to integrate it in a satisfactory manner.
Which also means that I currently find it hard to justify spending more time on the West path at all, when I instead could spend that limited time on modding other stuff (with less dubious results).

That might change in the future, as I'm slowly inching my way through something that could have the side effect of making the West path less tedious to integrate.

Oh Man! This makes me super sad.

I was really hoping to be continuing this both East and West. I guess I will hope and pray that by the time I get to that point in the game, you will have things figured out to go either way

[Locarnus]

Oh Man! This makes me super sad.

I was really hoping to be continuing this both East and West. I guess I will hope and pray that by the time I get to that point in the game, you will have things figured out to go either way

Irecommend just keeping the end of 1941 savegame/core save.
It is very improbable that the West will be compatible once you reach the end of 1941.
But I might be able to pick this back up later on, once the side effects of some other work make that easier to tackle.

So barring some breakthrough balancing idea, it seems much more feasible to plan it like Afrika Korps - first one path to the end, then the other, rather than parallel playing both of them.

In terms of balancing, I would really prefer that the super heroes were not necessary for the West part.
Even if that requires some manual increase in core size to compensate.
I really came to dislike the game changing super heroes and would prefer consistency in that regard.


Also thought a bit more about infantry transports.
New wish, if you can spare the prestige:
One SdKfz 250 or 251.
I highly recommend the Grenadiere with the +2 defense hero for it, to give it some more protection.
Just to see how well that works. I ll even put both the 250 and the 251 in the same upgrade family, so you can start the experiment with the cheaper one.
After all, the Brückenpioniere were well worth the try, probably turned out to be your best bonus SE unit.

[Locarnus]

Do not install this patch during an ongoing Battlefield Europe campaign (Poland to BE scenario).
(The BE campaign structure had to be changed, to allow compatibility with the original PzC campaign)


Quite a bit of structural preparation work.
I'm not a great fan of the original campaign (eg too much early war focus, not enough late war scenarios, and too many passive units), but its size makes it much more approachable than the Grand Campaign.
So with GC East already being compatible, the additional work required for the eastern portion of the original campaign is more manageable.
I hope that it goes the other way as well, ie that original campaign compatibility helps with the work required for GC West...

The other main aspect of this Addon update is the tank/big gun rebalancing.
Values are generally closer together, thus even late war game changers (like King Tiger) require a bit more support to avoid taking damage. Hopefully preserving a bit more of the tactical challenge from early war encounters.

The Grand Campaign captured Somua now gets a special treatment, putting it in the Panzer III upgrade family (making it more feasible for players to use it until eg mid GC 1941 as a Somua).
The captured Somua in the Battlefield Europe scenario is not affected (it remains non-upgradeable, as before).






2024-06 Complete "Locarnus Addon" Download: https://bit.ly/3z3I1Db

Do not install this patch during an ongoing Battlefield Europe campaign (Poland to BE scenario).
(The BE campaign structure had to be changed, to allow for compatibility with the original PzC campaign)

Battlefield Europe, Afrika Korps & original PzC campaign compatibility
- Most BE scenarios renamed, BE campaign is now started from top right campaign picture
- Very slowly on my way to GC West compatibility, I'm also working on base campaign compatibility
- Still lots of work to do for both, not sure if I can find a workable balance for them
- Original PzC campaign with Addon unit rebalancing now starts from top left picture
- Though this original PzC campaign is not yet fully compatible, in-game warning is shown!
- Decluttered the campaign/scenario selection screen (incompatible DLCs hidden)
- Semovente 47/32 added as bonus SE unit for GC from 10.5.1942 onwards

Unit Changes:
- Somua now in Pz III upgrade family! Less close def & picture corrected, lowered fuel value
- Muddy terrain penalty higher, for wheeled vehicles in clear and countryside terrain (only new campaigns)
- Major tank rebalancing across nations, overall smaller ini and rof differences, armor adjustments
- French Char and British Matilda II buffed again, make sure to prepare for them with heavy AA etc.
- Big guns (Soviet 122 and German 88) initiative nerfed, Italian 75/46 Flak buffed to range 3
- Some T-34 buffed, Sherman rebalanced, later Pz IV nerfed and availability adjusted
- Several later German tanks and tank destroyers nerfed, Panther and Jagdpanther buffed
- German HEAT ammo another ~7 weeks later (short 7.5cm gun), He 177 available 2 months later
- Char B1 buffed ini and hard attack, significantly lower fuel value
- Hungarian arty fixed for GC compatibility, German BA-64 unit icon fixed
- Bonus SE unit availability adjusted (only 1942 and later units), Italian inf stats unified
- Ju 87 gets fortkiller trait (except G variants)
- Some additional late war paper units (for ahistorical USA and GC West scenarios):
- Added Panzer VII "Löwe", Pz IV K, Fw 190 D-12, readded Go 229, and so on

[goose_2]

Made the upgrade, and Somua is not in the Panzer 3 upgrade family