Locarnus Addon 2025-08, for Battlefield Europe, Afrika Korps and Grand Campaign East

[eskuche]

Oh shoot!
Look at all that os you gave yourself. No way can I fford that kind of coin. Was that necessary or is that always how you play with a fully loaded force?
I plan on doing that sort of for Kursk, within reason, but this is full bore all out spending on a level I just never do.
Thanks for the update and insight.

Have to spend money to save money! I am very careful to try to avoid getting attacked as much as humanly possible, and this involves deterrence with high strength units. If I were playing on lower prestige it may be much harder to do this, in which case I would not venture out as much I think. The only times I try to get attacked are fighter traps and flag-capture traps (very very helpful in Kiev by putting, next to a flag, a city infantry or open terrain AT and enemies will autoattack them. When there is risk of a snow or rain turn, you have to avoid ambushing enemies by putting these cornerstone tanks right next to enemies in their vision so you don't randomly take no-initiative trades. If I'm on my game, I will only be taking chip damage to artillery (1% chance) or from SPAAG to air.

Nice screenshot with that 14 str 3 hero Panther vs that enemy 13 str IS-2 (1943).
I see neither Tiger P nor an Elefant, but instead an overstrength Nashorn! Did the Nashorn work ok for you?
The Jagdpanther is tough to balance, Germany should have produced many more of those. Probably the best allrounder TD of WW2.
I also like the Jagdpanzer IV /70. It is practically a better Panther against enemy tanks in the open, except for the mobility issues. And it has camo AT mode, something the Jagdpanther lacks.

- Correct, I don't have a tiger P. It does limit my spearhead surface area a bit. Ferdinand was not deployed here due to bad cost/ROF ratio here when I need to take out lots of artillery in the starting turns. I wasn't quite sold on overinvesting in these, since they will have a harder and harder time one-shotting enemy armor and thus risk taking damage on expensive strength points.
- Nashorn is doing excellently. Granted, I converted Pein infantry gift hero (+ 2 move, +3 initiative) to him, which means I can keep it hidden much more, and it basically never takes damage. The mobility switch when needed makes it much more flexible than the 8.8 cm PaK, which still is doing okay as a recon ambush killer with a move hero.
- I will keep an eye out for the PzIV variants which I never had to use before...I think my armor slots are almost completely filled (Tiger II, Su-100, Jagdpanther/tiger is it right?). I am way more concerned about getting enough infantry for Berlin. I will have 7 standard infantry and Dir and looking to convert Allenberger, Sutkus, and my 5 star initiative artillery to grenadier, ?jager, and ?fallschirmjager. I have made due with no other core infantry thus far but city fights have been tough, especially since my infantry upgrade slower than the soviets.
- I lost my first non throwaway core unit... Heinrich Bar crashed in Dniepropetrovsk due to lack of fuel unbenownst to OKH until months later.

[eskuche]

Interesting sequence of upgrades for this movement hero on my Wespe that I wanted to move to an 8.8 cM without paying twice for overstrength.

[thejf]

Wow, already at Kremenchug! That's some serious blitzing. Did you DV everything along the way (guess so considering the strenght of your core)?
When did you start os'ing your frontline units? I've not done this so far as they are drawing limited fire, guess that will change soon.

Wrapped up Ponyri yesterday. First half was tough, requiring a lot of careful manouvering to efficiently break through the defensive belts. Luckily most of the small T34 counterattacks hit my aux units. The main counter around Ponyri ran straight into my full battle line and as a result was swiftly dispatched. In the end I even had two turns to spare to farm the units at the bottom of the map. Got the DV and the capturable, with that I about broke even prestige wise (not counting all the upgrades done at mission start).
Got a bunch of new heroes but must were rubbish (again). The staff officer at HQ who thought that my +1M Ferdinand needed a spotting hero needs to be reassigned immediately...
Only bright spot was a +3D hero on my +2A StuH42, he will move back into the tank class after the full second hero picture is clear.

[tactical22]

I'm trying to finish the next 2024-04 Addon update.
If there are any last minute requests?

Please Locarnus, add whatever you can increase the playability of the game in the big map. For instance, new operations, changes, battles, what if...changes like Turkey or Spain entering the war...
Thanks a lot for all the effort you put on the mod!!

[eskuche]

Wow, already at Kremenchug! That's some serious blitzing. Did you DV everything along the way (guess so considering the strenght of your core)?
When did you start os'ing your frontline units? I've not done this so far as they are drawing limited fire, guess that will change soon.

I was extremely limited on OS up to the beginning of '42 then maxed out. In retrospect, I probably could've added some more points early on to FlaK, but my tanks always would take damage so didn't find it worth it. I took the southern route and last-turn DV'd all Kursk missions except armory, where I was very conservative and just took the bonus units.

One trick for preserving my frontline is having a throwaway unit, e.g., in a truck, one hex behind the frontline but within range of enemy artillery. That way they are much much more likely to hit that for guaranteed kills than risk chipping away at my tanks. Similarly, I bait a Ju-52 transport in front of my visible fighters for SPAAG to hit.

[goose_2]

One trick for preserving my frontline is having a throwaway unit, e.g., in a truck, one hex behind the frontline but within range of enemy artillery. That way they are much much more likely to hit that for guaranteed kills than risk chipping away at my tanks. Similarly, I bait a Ju-52 transport in front of my visible fighters for SPAAG to hit.

throwaway like auxiliary or throwaway as in se unit that you use as bait?

[eskuche]

throwaway like auxiliary or throwaway as in se unit that you use as bait?

Aux if available, Italians (maybe volkssturm/landwehr later if stats are better) if not. Very much worth the 1 core slot and repair is super cheap, like 5 prestige per strength point vs. up to 200-300 for one overstrength point on a tank.

[Locarnus]

- Correct, I don't have a tiger P. It does limit my spearhead surface area a bit. Ferdinand was not deployed here due to bad cost/ROF ratio here when I need to take out lots of artillery in the starting turns. I wasn't quite sold on overinvesting in these, since they will have a harder and harder time one-shotting enemy armor and thus risk taking damage on expensive strength points.
[...]
- I will keep an eye out for the PzIV variants which I never had to use before...I think my armor slots are almost completely filled (Tiger II, Su-100, Jagdpanther/tiger is it right?). I am way more concerned about getting enough infantry for Berlin. I will have 7 standard infantry and Dir and looking to convert Allenberger, Sutkus, and my 5 star initiative artillery to grenadier, ?jager, and ?fallschirmjager. I have made due with no other core infantry thus far but city fights have been tough, especially since my infantry upgrade slower than the soviets.
- I lost my first non throwaway core unit... Heinrich Bar crashed in Dniepropetrovsk due to lack of fuel unbenownst to OKH until months later.

Ah, yeah, Ferdi/Elefant suffers from strength 8, but so do all the really big boys for the Axis until the end of 1944, except the Jagdpanther.
Tiger II also only has 8 str until end 1944, Jagdtiger has low rof and low strength (until Berlin) for very high costs.
The ahistorical full strength Jagdsturmtiger is only available from end of 1944 (practically Elefant stats on normal Tiger chassis, but more expensive). SU-100 is closer to the Jagdpanzer IV /70 than the Jagdpanther.
Given those other choices, the Elefant is still one of the best defensive front units until Berlin!

German inf upgrade 43 was far later than the Soviet one, but at least there is a 44 inf upgrade on top of it. With your prestige available you can then convert some other units to inf for the last stand.
Yep, losing a good air unit that way happened to me as well, more than once. I wish there was an end of scenario statistics screen, showing such losses. Or a message or something.

Interesting sequence of upgrades for this movement hero on my Wespe that I wanted to move to an 8.8 cM without paying twice for overstrength.

One of the weird aspects of this Addon mod, sometimes the upgrade paths can be convoluted in order to save prestige and overstrength.

Got a bunch of new heroes but must were rubbish (again). The staff officer at HQ who thought that my +1M Ferdinand needed a spotting hero needs to be reassigned immediately...

I'm amazed at your ability to take that hero rng.
How is your airforce doing? With all those +1 attack heroes, how did the air war go for Ponyri?

Please Locarnus, add whatever you can increase the playability of the game in the big map. For instance, new operations, changes, battles, what if...changes like Turkey or Spain entering the war...
Thanks a lot for all the effort you put on the mod!!

I'm slowly trying to work on BE as well. The german multiplayer match between Duedman and HerzogSieg provided quite a few lessons applicable to singleplayer as well. While I'm still hesitant to work on big events with complex triggers, perhaps I'll be able to include some smaller ones in the future!

[Locarnus]

Not enough time now for more writing, but I underlined some of the more interesting aspects of this larger than planned update.


2025-04 Update "Locarnus Addon" Download: https://bit.ly/42oFBLk

This is only an update to the Addon and requires the 2025 base version of the Locarnus Addon to be installed already. All previous updates to the 2025 base version are included in this one.

UI & Library changes
- Major overhaul of the movement entry in the library (thank you eskuche)
- Updated and corrected the German Upg Groups entry (thank you thejf)
- New Grand Campaign Bonus SE Upg Options library entry

Movement changes
- Changes to movement costs only affect new campaigns!
- Each GC chapter counts as a new campaign
- Non-train movement on rails equals countryside movement costs
- Cavalry has faster movement on dry roads, worse on muddy roads
- Frozen Lake movement normalized to frozen river movement
- Wheeled movement on frozen water adjusted
- Several minor movement cost adjustments for consistency

Battlefield Europe, Afrika Korps, GC & original PzC campaign compatibility
- BE Major geography, rail and road changes around Volga, Don, Donetsk rivers
- BE Additional low str AT guns guarding the many more Donets river bridges
- BE Gorky & Ryazan cities moved one hex and areas remodeled
- BE Also rail and road changes in the Soviet rear (guarding ATs added)
- GC Kübelwagen for simple cross class upgrades for bonus SE unit roster
- GC Horse drawn 7.5cm arty as a bonus SE unit available from 1.1.1943
- GC & AK captured Soviet 7.62 ZiS-3 arty/AT gun from 8.1942 (FK 288(r))

Unit Changes:
- Changes to movement costs only affect new campaigns!
- Wespe graphics replaced with RCS modified AMULET icons!
- Soviet armored TDs nerfed ground defense on many (including SU-122)
- StuG IV as well as Stummel StuG III & SdKfz 233 now in same arty family
- Early StuG III soft attack nerfed in tank and AT mode
- Brummbär rebalanced, more graphics, late version added
- StuIG & StuH more expensive, later Pz IV a bit less expensive
- JPz IV/70 buffed GD, but also more expensive
- Late Tiger P and Elefant less expensive
- Semovente 75 & 105 versions rebalanced (eg SA in tank, HA in arty mode)
- 7.5 GebG (1943) additional late version with better HEAT ammo
- Ju 388 rebalancing (eg less ini, more vision)
- IS-2 (1944) and ISU-122S have anti air MG (-1 AA rating instead of 0)
- Some cost adjustments to T-34 and SU lineup
- German 21cm Mrs and 17cm K 18 arty costs are closer together
- Some smaller German availability adjustments for 1943
- Mid to late 1944 availability adjustments
- Me 262 split into Schwalbe and Sturmvogel variants
- Volkssturm stats closer to BE
- Toldi tanks (Hungary) have reconmove in tank mode, like recon Pz II
- Pz I B recon bonus SE unit added (before Toldi tanks)
- Experimental switchable 15cm sFH long range version added for testing!

[eskuche]

Got a bunch of new heroes but must were rubbish (again). The staff officer at HQ who thought that my +1M Ferdinand needed a spotting hero needs to be reassigned immediately...

I'm amazed at your ability to take that hero rng.
How is your airforce doing? With all those +1 attack heroes, how did the air war go for Ponyri?

I almost feel like I'm cheating but I haven't rerolled any heroes! Though the gift heroes are probably making my game a lot easier than others'.

Thanks for the update. Wasn't sure if I would start '44 today

[eskuche]

'44 core starting prestige 48.9k on FM Rommel. Missed an attack + range AA I had deployed already and an + 3A GebG (in storage until Allenberger finishes getting to 500). Overall, very impressed with the fortitude of the core after heavy training in earlier years. Unless I super blunder, AI doesn't tend to actually attack my units and so prestige loss is low. A lot has been to fully optimize class switching, especially getting the gift fighter heroes to 5 star ASAP. Almost all of my core units are 470+ experience, which means I can spend fewer slots training units in future maps. It looks like I overbudgeted for number of units. I would probably focus slightly more on farming the first hero in future runs at 50% experience, but probably do the same strategy on 25% experience. (By the way, I play with animations turned off by renaming the efx file in graphics folder, speeds up enemy turns a LOT, FYI in case you didn't know).

Infantry: Still no extra infantry. Lack of bonus infantry transport has hurt some scenario DVing, such as kursk armory, but I can live with it. As mentioned above, looking to convert a few to PzGren and fallschirmjaeger (definitely Sutkus +DefIniSp, probably Allenberger +AttDefIni), although slightly limited by rule of 1, which doesn't apply to basic infantry as I understood it. Also toying with changing the trusty D6 KV-1c to an infantry, which could have up to 21 GD as a grenadier... with the advent of bonus unit artillery, my last 3 bonus units should be able to get to at least hopefully 3 stars.

Tanks/AT: Seemingly still quite anemic, with only 7-8 dedicated units (the T-34 has been out of commission for most of '44, not sure where to convert it to), including fragile camo anti-tanks. The role of these units is primarily to hold important hexes and deliver knockout blows when needed. The massive artillery corps helps ensure initiative bonuses to avoid losses. An important point here is to note that the secondary point of tanks, i.e., soft target killing, can easily be double dipped into by primarily artillery StuG and anti-air after air threats are neutralized. Notably, the Brummbar is quite good stats-wise (initiative and att/def) in finishing off T34/41 and weaker soviet AFVs. Having the move heroes on the nashorn and 8.8 cm PaK has been crucial. I am considering a second nashorn ('44 and '43 variants), perhaps using the morser, as the movement won't be as crucial in more defensive missions coming up. Initiative bonus 5 star kubelwagen is the only other slated for conversion unit, although we will receive Hetzenauer and Litzke in '44.

Recon: not much to say. I just converted spotting heroes to them. They are essential in grabbing more surrenders and flipping flags to flag attack-bait in big city situations. The 5 cm variants are interesting but haven't found a super good use or necessity with the movement difficulties and presence of Aufkl plane.

Artillery: I've been having a lot of fun with the different variants. Add-on specific has been the GebG line, which is cheap to interconvert, depending if you need more ammo or more movement to ensure steady experience gain. The kettenkrad mount is also great. No major changes definitively, but possibly converting the Att Range Grille to the 3 range '44 karl-gerat (!). With a maximum of 5 shots at 45 HA, vs. 4 shots and 70 of the Gustav, the main point is that it can move while firing and provide crucial IS/ISU suppression. Not absolutely sure yet. I have not thought yet about the new 4 range 15 cm sFH. I think in most cases in later game the mobile artillery trumps range with simple positioning, and the times that you need to suppress an out-of-range artillery on the defense actually seem to decrease dramatically as the years progress, mainly because enemy artillery 1) becomes less suppressable, 2) has only 2 range, and 3) cannot penetrate your frontline StuG/brummbar support, so it's not as important. The other contender for the range upgrade would be a towed nebelwerfer. Initially I wrote this off as too cumbersome with the nerf in attack values, but it is very cheap and may be important for frontline city tank suppression. I think with rof8 it is still a bit too weak; besides, it costs as much as (or more than) a wurfrahmen when factoring mount into the equation.

AA: I changed my mind about 88s. As long as they have move heroes, they are quite nimble in the backline protecting artillery and mortars. They are also the only guns able to consistently hit enemy fighters for 5-6 strength. The italian truck has been reliable thus far! Strat bombers will actively attack my 10/4s, which I have phased out. It's important not to commit to 88s early with the wrong heroes, as they gain experience slowly. Both of mine were converted from random other classes.

Fighter: As mentioned, I lost Bar to a fuel accident, oops. After barkhorn, I will have 5 fighters and the Me-410, which strangely seems to be ignored by enemy fighters thus far. Not sure I absolutely need a sixth; I seem to be handling enemy air reasonably well.

Bombers: Strat bombers are my preferred variant to get more surrender prestige. The stuka sure feels good, but with the reintroduction of -1 AA attack of late game soviet tanks, I see little reason to use them. Rudel and a few of the +attack fighters are able to strafe light targets effectively. Plus, direct attacks into enemy entrenchment (last few maps) are very weak. I may end up with 4 strat bombers and no tac bombers vs. prior playthroughs 3 strat bombers and rudel on tac.

[thejf]

I'm amazed at your ability to take that hero rng.
How is your airforce doing? With all those +1 attack heroes, how did the air war go for Ponyri?

Well, I'm still keeping my fighters at 12 strenght which has been sufficient to prevent direct attacks. The new Yak 9D's are a full match for my fighters but still at 10 strenght so too weak to attack me. They are, however, very difficult to kill without losses. What I would give up for some INI heroes!
I usually select one fighter to take all counterfire hits to preserve the os on the others.
About half my air force got through Ponyri without any damage. It did help that including the aux's I had 6 SPAAG's running around setting traps and softening up their fighters. Looks like in Olkhovatka I'll also have plenty of SPAAG's to help out.

If I make it to the Armory, would it be worth it to keep any of the units captured there? Guess not considering the upgrade option of the KV1 into the KV85?

Thanks for the background on your os logic, eskuche. With my weaker core I guess I'll have to go all out as well, hopefully my prestige bank can take the hit.

[Locarnus]

[...] (By the way, I play with animations turned off by renaming the efx file in graphics folder, speeds up enemy turns a LOT, FYI in case you didn't know).

Ah, yes, some of the animations really take some time. Not sure I want to play totally without them, but a faster setting would be nice.

Infantry:

I find the normal Wehrmacht Inf to be a pretty decent allrounder (and it is the unit not limited by rule of 1), the 43 and 44 versions of it even have SdKfz transport access. Just not the bonus SE ones to simulate that underequipment aspect of the late war.
My favorite inf addition from the Addon is probably the Jäger. 6 ammo, 3 movement (with lower rough terrain and bad weather movement costs for eg hills and forest), kettenkrad transport choice, and rather high stats including close defense rating on grenadiere and Falli level.

Tanks/AT: [...] An important point here is to note that the secondary point of tanks, i.e., soft target killing, can easily be double dipped into by primarily artillery StuG and anti-air after air threats are neutralized. Notably, the Brummbar is quite good stats-wise (initiative and att/def) in finishing off T34/41 and weaker soviet AFVs. Having the move heroes on the nashorn and 8.8 cm PaK has been crucial. I am considering a second nashorn ('44 and '43 variants), perhaps using the morser, as the movement won't be as crucial in more defensive missions coming up. [...]

An overstrength Flammpanzer III can be a really great soft target killer, due to its high rate of fire. 15 strength Flammpanzer III with 12 rof has 18! shots. Similar to the high rof AA guns, but with better soft attack stat.
It's initiative is capped in close terrain, but it has the military engineer trait, so enemy units only need suppression, not deentrenchment. It can really help your inf out, bestwith attack and defense heroes.

I always like having 1 movement for tactical flexibility. Also note that 0 means, that a unit can not retreat at all and simply surrenders when overwhelmed.

Recon: not much to say. I just converted spotting heroes to them. They are essential in grabbing more surrenders and flipping flags to flag attack-bait in big city situations. The 5 cm variants are interesting but haven't found a super good use or necessity with the movement difficulties and presence of Aufkl plane.

The just introduced Panzer II 44 tank/recon has 7 wide tracked movement and that 5cm gun. Imho making it the best aggressive recon allrounder.

Artillery: [...] No major changes definitively, but possibly converting the Att Range Grille to the 3 range '44 karl-gerat (!). With a maximum of 5 shots at 45 HA, vs. 4 shots and 70 of the Gustav, the main point is that it can move while firing and provide crucial IS/ISU suppression. Not absolutely sure yet. I have not thought yet about the new 4 range 15 cm sFH. I think in most cases in later game the mobile artillery trumps range with simple positioning, and the times that you need to suppress an out-of-range artillery on the defense actually seem to decrease dramatically as the years progress, mainly because enemy artillery 1) becomes less suppressable, 2) has only 2 range, and 3) cannot penetrate your frontline StuG/brummbar support, so it's not as important. The other contender for the range upgrade would be a towed nebelwerfer. Initially I wrote this off as too cumbersome with the nerf in attack values, but it is very cheap and may be important for frontline city tank suppression. I think with rof8 it is still a bit too weak; besides, it costs as much as (or more than) a wurfrahmen when factoring mount into the equation.

Oh that would be the full trifecta of overly big german arty. Karl, Gustav and the the 28cm K5. Very expensive to fully overstrength, but you have the prestige for it.
The new 15cm arty is a bit of a UI/UX experiment. It can switch between range 3 rof 8 and range 4 rof 7 mode. Intention is to simulate the use of rocket assisted projectiles to keep up with the superior range of some soviet arty. While also retaining the normal usage as well. Imho it is a decent game mechanics compromise, after getting used to switching before moving.
Towed Nebelwerfer only really has the advantage of bringing 1 more ammo (and being a soft target with better air defense instead of being a hard target). It is probably more useful in Battlefield Europe, when used with cheap horse transport for an affordable defensive arty.

AA: [...] It's important not to commit to 88s early with the wrong heroes, as they gain experience slowly. Both of mine were converted from random other classes.

I guess the 88 has a similar problem as the Fw 190 fighters. Their high attack ratings are really bad for earning experience with the PzC 1 formula.
1944 will also be the year where high rof AA guns were put on decent tank chassis. More costly than the half tracks, but better ground defense as well.

Fighter: As mentioned, I lost Bar to a fuel accident, oops. After barkhorn, I will have 5 fighters and the Me-410, which strangely seems to be ignored by enemy fighters thus far. Not sure I absolutely need a sixth; I seem to be handling enemy air reasonably well.

Bombers: Strat bombers are my preferred variant to get more surrender prestige. The stuka sure feels good, but with the reintroduction of -1 AA attack of late game soviet tanks, I see little reason to use them. Rudel and a few of the +attack fighters are able to strafe light targets effectively. Plus, direct attacks into enemy entrenchment (last few maps) are very weak. I may end up with 4 strat bombers and no tac bombers vs. prior playthroughs 3 strat bombers and rudel on tac.

The late Bf 110 / Me 410 are still rather overpowered against enemy fighters, especially in 43 and 44.
One of the things I did not have the time for in this update.
The Me 410 also get some big cannons for anti tank duty now, making them pretty decent allrounders again.
While the Ju 87 is ready for retirement, shortly after their cannon armed second heyday in mid to late 43.
The -1 AA is a problem on the (now) hordes of 76mm Shermans and late war IS-2 (1944). But all the other tanks will still be great tac bomber targets without that -1 AA, eg none of the grand campaign ISU and so on got that AA rating back.

End of GC 44 East make the Me 262 available in two configurations. With the soviets not having anything comparable and logistics/operational restrictions not being simulated, they are expensive game changers.

Well, I'm still keeping my fighters at 12 strenght which has been sufficient to prevent direct attacks. The new Yak 9D's are a full match for my fighters but still at 10 strenght so too weak to attack me. They are, however, very difficult to kill without losses. What I would give up for some INI heroes!
I usually select one fighter to take all counterfire hits to preserve the os on the others.
About half my air force got through Ponyri without any damage. It did help that including the aux's I had 6 SPAAG's running around setting traps and softening up their fighters. Looks like in Olkhovatka I'll also have plenty of SPAAG's to help out.

If I make it to the Armory, would it be worth it to keep any of the units captured there? Guess not considering the upgrade option of the KV1 into the KV85?

Yep, air war is getting really tough now, without drastic hero and experience advantage!
SPAAG's and AA in general are still nerfed due to BE balancing, but with enough of them they can make enough of a dent to allow your airforce to get the upper hand.

I would not keep any more captured units, they are imho just a good source for income since the prestige difficulty slider does not apply to them when sold.
The only core additions from here on are the yearly random bonus SE units and those 3 special bonus SE units in 1945.
The SE Maus and the two SE fighter heroes, which imho do not fall under the no named hero rule because of their irreplaceable bonus SE status.

[eskuche]

An overstrength Flammpanzer III can be a really great soft target killer, due to its high rate of fire. 15 strength Flammpanzer III with 12 rof has 18! shots. Similar to the high rof AA guns, but with better soft attack stat.
It's initiative is capped in close terrain, but it has the military engineer trait, so enemy units only need suppression, not deentrenchment. It can really help your inf out, bestwith attack and defense heroes.

The just introduced Panzer II 44 tank/recon has 7 wide tracked movement and that 5cm gun. Imho making it the best aggressive recon allrounder.

The problem (IMHO) with flammpanzer is that if you are already suppressing 90% then you can just have any tank or infantry do the hit, the latter doing so without much danger of losing strength. I hate losing strength points when not needed, and even a very very high defense bonus flammpanzer will still have a 10-15% chance of losing an OS point. The other main problem with the flamm is that it is extremely attention needy positioning and support-wise to not random get chunked for half its strength from a random wide-tracked SU-85 crossing frozen hexes and thus takes more resources to keep in play than another main battle tank. As you see from my screenshot and core, I play fairly sparse with my front line, using 3 hexes separation where possible; I suspect most other people use around 2 hexes separation. The flamm will not get use every turn, whereas mobile AA can be used at least as a deterrent and not hog anti-air protection resources. Basically, (for me) it is not turn or action-efficient.

I will look into the Luchs though! What I really want is a 4 spotting all-terrain recon...it can have 1 attack for all I care
I did just roll a second spotting on Rondorf for a total of 2, though, so that is now two main line tanks with 4 spotting, perhaps all I need.

[eskuche]

Possible bug:
100 12.8 cm FlaK 40 r8 (noAT) does not seem to show up as a valid unit in 1944, even though its start date is 1/1/44. The unit from poltava works correctly but I cannot purchase.

[eskuche]

Annd...just going to try to finish the campaign up this week. FM Rommel '45 start:

'44 recap. DV everything except the last mission since I played extremely conservatively given defending in snow.
No major issues except a few turns when Katyushas really upset my infantry-heavy composition. I don't recall any major open terrain battles so have converted some of my best units into infantry. Core will be cheaper and more resilient but take armor fights slightly slower.

- Overall: 52 + 7 bonus units (12 named heroes, 13 if you include recon rudel; I lost Heinrich Bar to no fuel in '43)
- 10 Infantry, with 12-13 planned (one panzerwerfer and one GebG still)
- 9 tank/AT, including one towed
- 2 recon
- Excluding the planned infantry conversions, 9 dedicated artillery and 3 heavy/railgun and three extra moderate experience artillery
- 5 flexible mobile artillery with direct attack mode for cleanup
- 2.5 8.8-12.8 cm and 3 mobile AA
- 4 dedicated fighters, one Me-410 which is still not being attacked, two leftover fighters, one planned conversion
- 1 tac, 1 recon, 4-5 dedicated level bombers

No extreme difference from the prior year. I have been doing best in city fights where finally '44 infantry have 3 initiative and 3 more with experience. Unfortunately I rolled no initiative heroes on my bonus infantry. Fighting generally has been hold with infantry in close terrain and nuke the aa first and then the SP arty then go in by massing surrenders with recon help. I may grab the non-limited tiger II and the jagdsturmtiger, otherwise front line core is pretty set. I converted the 6 defense KV to the JagdPzIV/70. It can hold its own at 481 prestige with a whopping 32 ground defense. As I mentioned before, the elephant and other strength/ROF restricted AFVs have been underperforming by risking taking damage so I don't plan on using the Jagdtiger. Sturmpanther and sturmtiger still a maybe. Overall very comfortable with the prestige banked up even with prestige-inefficient conversions. I did not start with a harder difficulty in expectation of a very difficult time without 7 SE Tiger II's but things have been okay mainly by utilizing city terrain and smart recon-enabled surrenders. The air war hasn't been bad at all, but I imagine it might be different, possibly 400-500 more prestige per map, without the named heroes.

Unit class thoughts:
- Infantry: No complaints. I found krad and cav difficult to use. Easier in mods with default recon movement on infantry class.
- Tank: Reasonable options all over. I talked about my thoughts of the flammpanzer above. May be more relevant in BE. StuG options are good for experiencing up, but I found no need/good use for them in direct attack, including PzIVs in '44. Maybe in EXTREME prestige situations, but at that point I'd rather just play more infantry instead of risking a whole unit loss with poor positioning. Direct fire arty/AA is good cheap options for soft target control.
- Recon: I (still) don't really like the recon lineup with the movement changes and the lower movement. It's extremely hard to predict when you have one more hex left, and that can make the difference between a botched turn and a chain of surrenders.
- AT: No big comments, I just really enjoyed the GebG for farming experience later on. I'm not sure the UE stuff is really useable ever, I didn't bother. Marders have a short useful time window, as historical I guess.
Arty: I think I used every single arty model except the 30 cm nebel, which I may begrudgingly use in berlin. It offers no/barely any advantage compared to the wurfrahmen (in fact I regret not keeping a '41 model, but I only had 2 range heroes). The sIG series ROF7 is crippling and almost unuseable as soon as StuGs come online (even though it's much more expensive to repair StuG III early models compared to vanilla). The soviet SP arty has caused me the most trouble and random strength point loss when I don't have decoy fire units around.
- AA: No major complaints. Don't see the use of towed AA as with mounts they will be as expensive as self-propelled. They will rarely see action and thus not gain experience. 2 cm FlaK is pretty bad, averaging like 2 str points even fully overstrengthed.
- Fighter: Fw seem very nerfed; repeating, I would probably use none of them. The fighter/bomber switch is too finicky given the pace (4-5 turn waves) in the campaign. I don't quite know the specifics of armement but would prooobably expect them to have maybe 1-2 more points of attack. Fighter Ju line is cute but never got a spotting hero so didn't feel the need for them.
- Tac: Barely used; without named hero AFVs may need more in other playthroughs.
- Strat: Heavily used, especially to experience up. Useful in fighting with a weaker core; you can retreat and hold terrain while concentrating artillery fire with just one fighter guard. Not sure if this tactic holds up if you can't afford to consistently fully overstrengthen them.

[goose_2]

how many 3 heroed units are you taking into 45? What type of unit are they?

I am extremely curious about this, but am having trouble visualizing your list of units

[eskuche]

Right click image and open in new tab for expanded view. Looks like 11 x 3-hero units, although again according to discussion above I think the most important is having 5 stars on almost everyone.

[Locarnus]

Possible bug:
12.8 cm FlaK 40 r8 (noAT) does not seem to show up as a valid unit in 1944, even though its start date is 1/1/44. The unit from poltava works correctly but I cannot purchase.

I think I excluded them from the purchasing screen of everything except BE, because they were almost always used in stationary mountings. Or later on railway cars against strategic bombers over Germany itself. I think they tried to use the 10.5cm Flak in a towed frontline role, but found it too cumbersome. Afaik for the 12.8cm Flak even the barrel was removed for street transport.
Afaik the 8.8cm Flak 41 (and similar 8.8cm developments) were the best ones used on the frontlines.

How to change that:
Those very heavy Flak units have the codes "01" in the "Th"eater column (betweeen the "Multip"urpose switch ID column and the "Usable Transports" column in the equipment file).
Those codes are used to exclude the unit from the purchase screen for scenarios with that code. Normal scenarios are exluded by putting the 0 there, Afrika Korps ones are exluded with the 1, and Battlefield Europe (with Addon) would be excluded by code 8. The codes are not separated, making them single digit, thus there can only be 9 codes as far as I know.
The system is also used for excluding bonus SE units, tropical/non-tropical variants and some others.

[eskuche]

Possible bug:
12.8 cm FlaK 40 r8 (noAT) does not seem to show up as a valid unit in 1944, even though its start date is 1/1/44. The unit from poltava works correctly but I cannot purchase.

I think I excluded them from the purchasing screen of everything except BE, because they were almost always used in stationary mountings. Or later on railway cars against strategic bombers over Germany itself. I think they tried to use the 10.5cm Flak in a towed frontline role, but found it too cumbersome. Afaik for the 12.8cm Flak even the barrel was removed for street transport.
Afaik the 8.8cm Flak 41 (and similar 8.8cm developments) were the best ones used on the frontlines.

How to change that:
Those very heavy Flak units have the codes "01" in the "Th"eater column (betweeen the "Multip"urpose switch ID column and the "Usable Transports" column in the equipment file).
Those codes are used to exclude the unit from the purchase screen for scenarios with that code. Normal scenarios are exluded by putting the 0 there, Afrika Korps ones are exluded with the 1, and Battlefield Europe (with Addon) would be excluded by code 8. The codes are not separated, making them single digit, thus there can only be 9 codes as far as I know.
The system is also used for excluding bonus SE units, tropical/non-tropical variants and some others.

That's interesting, I wasn't aware of that aspect of modding! Too late, however, as I am in Budapest once agains and aim to finish the campaign by weekend. May stream/record the two Berlin scenarios, though I can't imagine it being terribly interesting. I'm up to 12 mostly 5-star infantry for core.