eskuche wrote: ↑Mon Feb 02, 2026 1:20 am
FWIW, I've only played through vanilla BE 2.4 once, 3-4 years ago. I've never played add-on BE before. I'm partially worried that I won't be able to assess any changes made meaningfully if I'm hyperfocused on not actually playing a PzC-style game. For example, would not the most optimal play be to actually skip the first winter entirely after Smolensk/Kiev? One would save about 2-3000 prestige in repairs and 15% (ish) experience on all units. Of course, then that is meta-gaming quite heavily.
There is of course a small aspect of sour grapes here
as I've lost significant naval assets to unknown spotters. However, I do think there is something to be said about quite literally not being able to use the experience system whatsoever in FM Rommel. At some point it'd almost be more effective just buying new units straight up if units never have a star of experience. It's also a bummer that the penalty hits EVERY single German unit, which kind of blows up the historical premise of at least some very experienced units having an impact on the front.
I will think about it some more though...!
Will fix the heavy arty strength loss issue for the next update, but I can not make that work for player purchased units (since I need to reference specific unit names). So it will only apply to the aux 28cm K5, the aux Karl and the normal core 21cm Mrs 18 that is already on the map.
I remember an old BE youtube attempt where the players tried to avoid the first winter casualties. Did not end well.
You need time to cover distance. And while the first winter brings casualties, it also marks the end of the very static enemy forces. And static enemies are a lot less annyoing than moving ones.
If you only played BE 2.4 once, then another frustration might come into play, which I had to get used to as well.
In normal PzC, we experienced players do not lose units (except disposable aux units). It took some time for me to get accustomed to all those unit losses in BE. Especially irreplaceable ones like ships or hero fighters that dared to much with too little remaining strength and so on.
It is still possible to have experienced units, but it is mainly dependent on their usage. Eg if you use 2-3 specific tank units only when the enemy is fully suppressed, and always have them guarded by arty and an aircraft above, then they will retain experience since they won't get damaged. And then spend your prestige on elite replacements for that handful of units, if they take 1-2 damage from time to time, rather than spending it on any new units at all.
Though it is imho much more important to keep experience on fighters than on any other unit class, since those still get the +2 attack bonus per experience level.
My overall focus is usually Baku, and thus Rostov crossing of the Don in the first winter, instead of Moscow. But also starting Leningrad siege asap, to whittle down those massive strength numbers.
In Africa I usually leave the vulnerable and expensive Italian fleet at home and use mainly aircraft against allied ships. While focusing on Tobruk early on, with help from the units that start out on Crete (Fallschirmjäger have fortkiller trait against those bunkers).
However that only works if I can actually take Baku and hold it until repaired...
). Are there many more zones left? I would be happy to suggest some changes to spice up the game a bit...