Locarnus Addon 2026-02, for Battlefield Europe, OC, AK, SC and Grand Campaign East

[goose_2]

By the by, what happened to the Scenario's strat bombers? There were 4 in Soren's playthrough but as of yet I do not think I have seen a single one?

[Locarnus]

<< Ongoing BE + Locarnus Addon playthrough by eskuche >>
It is a classic picture and text AAR on 75% player prestige, plus 50% AI experience, plus 1 AI strength settings:
https://tinyurl.com/y8euym2r


<< Ongoing Grand Campaign East Locarnus Addon playthrough by goose_2 >>
Youtube playthrough on double Field Marshal, double Rommel difficulty plus rule of one and no super heroes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFieC-H ... 61Emy2K5bz


<< Ongoing Originial Campaign Locarnus Addon playthrough by goose_2 >>
Youtube playthrough on double Rommel difficulty plus rule of one and no super heroes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0UmJXn ... FssRp8ZU5p

ad 3: Sanctuary cites could be something like Minsk, Kiev and the whole Crimea?

I would consider like the major Russian cities Novgorod, Pskov, Smolensk, Mogilev, Bryansk, etc. Perhaps all major victory hexes. Simply add a +1 strength trigger before the -1 strength trigger. Or honestly I would just redesign it with some zone painting, excluding those cities. If you changed winter attrition to be more geographically realistic, it could be like 4 turns Pripyat marshes and north, then every other turn for two turns south of that.

Edit: Heavily suggest not deploying Africa SAS until guaranteed winter turns are over. Having super vision into the snowstorm is a bit nonsensical

I very much like the zone instead of radius from Tula idea. Afair there were some complaints a few years ago that the effect was not actually at the border as written. So using a zone would fix that and could also exclude eg Crimea.
Having many cities excluded could make a significant difference for first time players compared to players who already know the mechanic.
Currently at least the player has to significantly rail back expensive troops in order to protect them, but with those sanctuary cities the opportunity cost is much lower. Making it much easier for non-blind players to also preserve overstrength.

I was also wrong about Warsaw. You can bring 36 units like Vilna and is a huge focus on arty blasting. I will not be looking to update any artys until after that battle, and plan on bringing every single one of them to get exercise. I am realizing that getting to 5th star experience is going to be harder than I hoped, where as 4th stars is very attainable.

Not sure what else I can do to try and get units to 5 stars except with arty training, so since my infantry are at 4 stars continue to work with them to get the 3rd hero allocation then switch them to arty for final 5th star training, while other arty's trade up for infantry kill training, and just switch back and forth between them.

Something similar may need to be considered with my air force, as it scares me how willing they are to attack my 4 starred fighters.

At least more and more units are getting almost or over 1000 kills for 3rd hero reaping in 45.

I will post the final Moscow 41 for Friday, but will not be on chat as will be in office.

Imho a few units that already have 460 experience or so could realistically be trained to 5 stars with arty and strats.
But trying to train units in the 400 - 430 experience range would imho be counterproductive. They not only can't reach 5 stars, they also take away training time from those units that might.


Aircraft training is pretty much set, since you absolutely decided against using more strat bombers for training.

Now it is about getting Slender to 5 stars as soon as possible (the only unit that both can and has to reach 5 stars).
Fighter Ace can reach 4 stars as is, but probably will need fighter cover.

CouchOffiziell getting a hero would be nice, but not necessary if he ends up as a strat bomber anyway. And he has to become a strat bomber to get him at least to 4 stars. Your choice if you want to make life harder for yourself by trying to get a second hero with him before the conversion to strat.
He 177 strat is of course an option, but the much less damage dealing Ar 234 can switch between strat and tac mode (jet bomber available first scenario of GC45east), if you really refuse to give up on getting kills with him. As a jet bomber it does not have any defensive fire, but at least it has very high air defense rating.

With Slender not ready for fighter duty, RMA901 could take the Me 262 in the last scenario of GC44east, if you want any chance for RMA901 to get a second hero.
Slender could either take the other Me 262 model once he is ready, or wait until near the end of GC 45east (Budapest 1945) for the other, weaker but much cheaper He 162 pulse-jet fighter to become available.

By the by, what happened to the Scenario's strat bombers? There were 4 in Soren's playthrough but as of yet I do not think I have seen a single one?

Fewer than 100 Pe-8 were produced.
I thus gave its unitID to the Tu-2 tactical bomber, which was numerous (>5k) but strangely absent from the unmodded game. The Pe-8 got a new unitID, though mainly for Battlefield Europe purposes.
Thus the Tu-2 shows up in the grand campaign where the scenario designers put the Pe-8.

[Locarnus]

The main thing is not to let the player get bored !
[...]
And I really hope that someday there will be an Asia Battlefield add-on, because from 1937 to 1945, events there were no less significant and bloody than in Europe.

Many incoming changes to BE already, from eskuche playthrough feedback.

Imho the European theater simply has much more ground and air unit variety.
Especially due to Germany not yet grasping the advantages of mass production, unlike Soviet Union and USA.
While Japan and China lacked the industry for all that variety in terms of technical stuff, with Japan focusing their limited industry on the navy anyway.

Turn 14
Enemy Turn/Surrenders/Casualties (underlined < 50% str): First U-boat loss. One recon in AGN lost to two sudden tank attacks. Nope…crash again. Rewind. We get a defensive hero for our efforts.
Atlantic/Western: Retreat for a while and let the planes do their job. All subs are out of ammo with 191, 196, and 206 experience.

Crashes are very worrying.
Should not happen.

Are they always in the Allied turn?
If yes, do you remember which Allied units moved before the crash?

[bondjamesbond]

The main thing is not to let the player get bored !
[...]
And I really hope that someday there will be an Asia Battlefield add-on, because from 1937 to 1945, events there were no less significant and bloody than in Europe.

Many incoming changes to BE already, from eskuche playthrough feedback.

Imho the European theater simply has much more ground and air unit variety.
Especially due to Germany not yet grasping the advantages of mass production, unlike Soviet Union and USA.
While Japan and China lacked the industry for all that variety in terms of technical stuff, with Japan focusing their limited industry on the navy anyway.

https://ron84z.neocities.org/
I partly agree with you, but there was definitely more infantry there than in Europe. Maybe there weren't such grandiose large-scale tank battles as at Dubno and the Kursk Bulge, but there were Chinese Stalingrads.
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Битва_ста_полков
https://ron84z.neocities.org/40/09/images/400920c

[goose_2]

I was also wrong about Warsaw. You can bring 36 units like Vilna and is a huge focus on arty blasting. I will not be looking to update any artys until after that battle, and plan on bringing every single one of them to get exercise. I am realizing that getting to 5th star experience is going to be harder than I hoped, where as 4th stars is very attainable.

Not sure what else I can do to try and get units to 5 stars except with arty training, so since my infantry are at 4 stars continue to work with them to get the 3rd hero allocation then switch them to arty for final 5th star training, while other arty's trade up for infantry kill training, and just switch back and forth between them.

Something similar may need to be considered with my air force, as it scares me how willing they are to attack my 4 starred fighters.

At least more and more units are getting almost or over 1000 kills for 3rd hero reaping in 45.

I will post the final Moscow 41 for Friday, but will not be on chat as will be in office.

Imho a few units that already have 460 experience or so could realistically be trained to 5 stars with arty and strats.
But trying to train units in the 400 - 430 experience range would imho be counterproductive. They not only can't reach 5 stars, they also take away training time from those units that might.


Aircraft training is pretty much set, since you absolutely decided against using more strat bombers for training.

Now it is about getting Slender to 5 stars as soon as possible (the only unit that both can and has to reach 5 stars).
Fighter Ace can reach 4 stars as is, but probably will need fighter cover.

CouchOffiziell getting a hero would be nice, but not necessary if he ends up as a strat bomber anyway. And he has to become a strat bomber to get him at least to 4 stars. Your choice if you want to make life harder for yourself by trying to get a second hero with him before the conversion to strat.
He 177 strat is of course an option, but the much less damage dealing Ar 234 can switch between strat and tac mode (jet bomber available first scenario of GC45east), if you really refuse to give up on getting kills with him. As a jet bomber it does not have any defensive fire, but at least it has very high air defense rating.

With Slender not ready for fighter duty, RMA901 could take the Me 262 in the last scenario of GC44east, if you want any chance for RMA901 to get a second hero.
Slender could either take the other Me 262 model once he is ready, or wait until near the end of GC 45east (Budapest 1945) for the other, weaker but much cheaper He 162 pulse-jet fighter to become available.

You gave me a hard pill to swallow, that I think you are unfortunately right about. I was always thinking that I had time to train my units and get them ready for the final 2 battles in 45, but you are probably right about getting them to 5 stars and as such I will need to rethink my plans for final training. Sheesh, nothing like being a realistic wet blanket to just send me in a tizzy.

Cursory question?

I will get Brodrick to 4th star in Vilna, which i was thinking training him as best I can as an arty to try and get as much experience as possible before 45, but should I instead switch Paul Wilde for the last 2 to try and get him to 4th star exp?

I was trying to focus on him getting a 3rd hero as he is doing so well as a Hetzer, but maybe I need to get absolutely evry one of my se units to 4 stars ASAP?

[Locarnus]

https://ron84z.neocities.org/
I partly agree with you, but there was definitely more infantry there than in Europe. Maybe there weren't such grandiose large-scale tank battles as at Dubno and the Kursk Bulge, but there were Chinese Stalingrads.
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Битва_ста_полков
https://ron84z.neocities.org/40/09/images/400920c

I agree, Asia and Pacific certainly have more infantry, but imho PzC engine and visuals are mainly good for the equipment focus of combined arms variety (contrary to the organizationally focused approach, which is much more prevalent).
So eg to represent an army corps in the Panzer Corps engine, you could use 3 infantry units, 1 artillery unit, 1 AT unit, 1 AA unit, with the organizational HQ being abstracted away.
While in organizationally focused games you just put 3 infantry divisions and 1 HQ, with all the arty, AT and AA being included within the infantry divisions and thus abstracted away. Like in the Strategic Command or War in the East games.

But that equipment focus requires more equipment variety to be interesting for gameplay.
Eg the player can decide to make a self-propelled StuG III in arty mode protect an anti-air gun that is used on the front line in ground attack mode.
That is imho the core of the Panzer Corps gameplay.
With another pillar of PzC being the unit upgrade and core composition choices, taking that unit variety into account.


On the other hand, the Pacific/Asian theater requires an engine that does well with logistics and naval combat (combined with air combat). Imho the Panzer Corps engine is particularly bad at those two (or three), with naval combat being hard for any turn based game anyway. Or at least I have not seen any turn based game doing naval combat particularly well...
Strategic Command has a Pacific theater in its World War scale, though imho that game series hast its own problems.

You gave me a hard pill to swallow, that I think you are unfortunately right about. I was always thinking that I had time to train my units and get them ready for the final 2 battles in 45, but you are probably right about getting them to 5 stars and as such I will need to rethink my plans for final training. Sheesh, nothing like being a realistic wet blanket to just send me in a tizzy.

Cursory question?

I will get Brodrick to 4th star in Vilna, which i was thinking training him as best I can as an arty to try and get as much experience as possible before 45, but should I instead switch Paul Wilde for the last 2 to try and get him to 4th star exp?

I was trying to focus on him getting a 3rd hero as he is doing so well as a Hetzer, but maybe I need to get absolutely evry one of my se units to 4 stars ASAP?

I mean, I'm not certain about the cutoffs and how much experience you can still gather if you focus on that.
But since you also have units that are not even on 4 stars yet, you already have to focus on training those and the few others that are already close to 5 stars.
The "watering can" principle of distributing experience has its merits, but mainly in (practically) open ended situations. While here there is a clear deadline ahead and in PzC a 493 experience unit is technically the same as a 400 experience unit for combat in Berlin.
If it then requires effort (or rather opportunity cost) to bring a unit from 400 to 493 xp, then that effort is totally misplaced and would have been much better spent on getting 3 other units eg from 470 to 500 experience.

1) Imho first priority is getting all units using initiative to 5 stars, which can realistically get there. Since 5th star gives ini bonus on top of attack and defense bonus.

2) Second priority get every unit to 4 stars.

3) Third priority would be getting second heroes.

While getting a third hero is imho no priority at all. It is simply a nice to have luxury if and only if all other priorities are dealt with.

[Locarnus]

Edit: Heavily suggest not deploying Africa SAS until guaranteed winter turns are over. Having super vision into the snowstorm is a bit nonsensical

Would certainly make more sense in terms of in-game events.
I just can't help the feeling that the British counterattack would have been much less dangerous without the AI having that unfair advantage. And that this unfair sight advantage partially balances out the fact that Panzer Corps just does not handle logistics issues at all. With those being one of the historical reasons that made the British counterattack more potent (or the German situation less tenable).
Perhaps unfairness cancels unfairness?

Turn 15
Refit/redeploy/Heroes: New semovente, M14/41, Sdkfz 252 recons. Massive redeployment now that winter is over.
Upgrades/purchases/repairs: Final winter repairs across the board.
Prestige: 1377. Hopefully this will go only up from here.

Looks like everything is stable and you got rather well through the winter, with decent prestige to properly start into the spring offensive.

Turn 16
Enemy Turn/Surrenders/Casualties (underlined < 50% str): Lost the Finnish Jager with only 1 strength, but it accomplished the task of taking out the critical enemy artillery. Fairly good defensive casualties inflicted on the northern front.
Atlantic/Western: DD/BB/convoy in Mediterranean ambushed. One DD destroyed on shipping lanes. One DD destroyed at Tobruk, and last BB HMS Queen Mary weakened and finally some surrenders set up for next turn.

Refit/redeploy/Heroes: More reinforcement of the frontline. Few more cloudy/snow turns.
Upgrades/purchases/repairs: N/A
Prestige: 1312

Mediterranean theater seems to be much better, British counteroffensive is practically repulsed.
Leningrad siege nearly resumed, still quite a few enemy tanks around Moscow. Unfortunately looks roughly 2 turns of winter will be missing for crossing the Don near Rostov while frozen.
But always a tough call whether to push there, at the cost of losing strength on expensive units due to the winter effect.

Turn 17
Enemy Turn/Surrenders/Casualties (underlined < 50% str): Lost a Romanian infantry in Crimea. Battleship and tank pushed it into Maxim Gorky.

Some forward motion. Need to upgrade IIIJ/1s and shuffling them back slowly.

Waiting for enemy fighters to sortie out.
Refit/redeploy/Heroes: N/A
Upgrades/purchases/repairs: Few remaining Moscow front line units getting repair.s
Prestige: 1687 (surrenders restarting again!)
Balance: I am very scared of approaching Western fighters. I saw a 3.7 star Polish fighter. Oof. I think the AI is out of prestige…they spent a LOT on overstrengthening units and declined to repair the Tobruk hurt units.

Panzer III upgrade to the longer 5cm variant now (still decent against soft targets), or wait until the long barrel, multi-purpose but weaker against soft targets StuG III becomes available a few months later? I like those dilemmas.

Thinking a bit about your observations that the AI is running out of prestige.
It might be that the 150% AI experience boost from the difficulty setting has pushed a sufficient number of their units to a point where they can take one more strength of even more expensive overstrength.
I guess the AI is terrible with prioritizing replacements in the BE setting. So it will be interesting to see that play out.

[eskuche]

1. I'm not sure I can breech the Mareth line with no access by ships and with only 2-range Italian artillery. It seems like it would take up to 1944, and I'm sure the units could be put to better use elsewhere.

2. I was really curious why my unit baiting wasn't working so I looked for the SAS unit (with cheats), which is now gone?! I guess that adds some uncertainty in terms of *ahem* abusing the AI, but was completely unexpected.

3. Yes, I think I should have kept my 13 str Morser on the frontlines. It would've helped a lot and I believe should skirt the winter rules (in spirit, at least).

4. I checked some AARs, and it seems Case Blue extended till 1943 for some people, so I think I'm still ahead of schedule a bit.

5. Perhaps elite/overstrength prices can be revisited. Since we have so few core units, and really the only time the player will be elite reinforcing is before the prestige wipe in add-on, I would suggest a minor reduction in elite replacements by say 10% and an increase in overstrength pricing (contrary to grand campaign) to discourage AI use of it. If you significantly increase OS cost, maybe giving the AI a bigger baseline income can be useful to avoid the problems above (and get me more surrender prestige, heh).

[Locarnus]

1. I'm not sure I can breech the Mareth line with no access by ships and with only 2-range Italian artillery. It seems like it would take up to 1944, and I'm sure the units could be put to better use elsewhere.

2. I was really curious why my unit baiting wasn't working so I looked for the SAS unit (with cheats), which is now gone?! I guess that adds some uncertainty in terms of *ahem* abusing the AI, but was completely unexpected.

3. Yes, I think I should have kept my 13 str Morser on the frontlines. It would've helped a lot and I believe should skirt the winter rules (in spirit, at least).

4. I checked some AARs, and it seems Case Blue extended till 1943 for some people, so I think I'm still ahead of schedule a bit.

5. Perhaps elite/overstrength prices can be revisited. Since we have so few core units, and really the only time the player will be elite reinforcing is before the prestige wipe in add-on, I would suggest a minor reduction in elite replacements by say 10% and an increase in overstrength pricing (contrary to grand campaign) to discourage AI use of it. If you significantly increase OS cost, maybe giving the AI a bigger baseline income can be useful to avoid the problems above (and get me more surrender prestige, heh).

ad 1: I agree, Suez and beyond is a luxury target. Nice to have, but not cost efficient to bind resources for it.

ad 2: Ah, seems McGuba put a script somewhere to disband it even in 1942. I noticed it not being there in an attempt years ago, but only after I had taken Egypt and parts of Arabia, so I assumed that it becoming useless anyway was the trigger.
On that attempt I spent so much on going from Tobruk to Iraq, that I stalled far too early on the Eastern Front.

ad 3: With the next Addon update only the specific aux Karl-Gerät and all the 28cm rail arty will be exempt from the winter strength drain. By putting those 28cm rail arty in the armored train class for Battlefield Europe main scenario, I can target that class with the editor scripts. Thus it works for both the aux and any purchased 28cm rail arty.

ad 4: Yep, an early crossing when the Don is still frozen is possible, but takes away forces form other areas plus the winter strength drain. Historically the Axis reach the area pretty early but then had to turn around before trying again. Only crossing the Don near the end of July 42.
There is some more resistance on the road to Baku compared to earlier BE scenarios, but the oil is still well worth it.

ad 5: Great idea. Making in scenario elite replacements cheaper could also solve the issue for the non-BE campaigns. Currently most players do not use elite replacements during the normal campaigns (except for special situations like Napoleon difficulty with rule of 1).
The cost difference compared to the deployment phase is just too big.
By lowering the scenario elite replacement cost by 10 percentage points, from current 75% to 65%, the difference to deployment phase elite reinforcements (50%) would then be 15 percentage points. Which is the same as the difference for regular reinforcements with the Addon (25% in scenario, 10% during deployment phase).

As a start I would only go for the cheaper in scenario elite replacement costs and see how that works out, before touching the overstrength costs as well.
So far, overstrength is very rarely given by players in BE, reducing the strategic options. Making the overstrength choice a bit cheaper during the scenario would make that option more viable, increasing choices.
Normal campaigns would be practically unaffected, since os would still be much cheaper during the deployment phase (and those costs are not altered).


So many great improvements, thank you very much for all the feedback!

[Locarnus]

Turn 18
Enemy Turn/Surrenders/Casualties:
Atlantic/Western/Mediterranean: No fighters showed up at Tobruk…however, the Atlantic situation is progressing nicely. One bomber shot down over Hamburg.

Gebirgs divisions are moved to Rostov and Crimea. Slow and steady push that is sustainable is the name of the game. We will attempt Case Blue, but uncertain about Suez. (Honestly I don’t know the Torch triggers and how they relate to Suez and if I’ll get completed pasted for advancing to Alexandria too much.

Refit/redeploy/Heroes: N/A although several non-base core units are eligible for heroes…
Upgrades/purchases/repairs: Italian 90/53 AA for Sicily to try to take some points off the Malta planes. Slightly more cost effective than German.
Prestige: 1529. Unclear how much I need to save up here or if I could get a few more units. I have 13 more core slots and 6 more turns until core slots increase. I decide to grab one of the new 12 cm mortars (2 range, 2 move) for the Finnish approach to Archangelsk → 1303 prestige.

Africa decision time. Keep units near Tobruk and prevent being historically sandwiched by British forces advancing from Egypt and the US landings from the West?

There will be a (rather late) warning message for Operation Torch. As far as I know, Torch scripts are pretty independent from Suez situation?
If I remember correctly, the warning suggests 1-2 units per class (though significantly more fighters than just 2...) to hold off the invading forces from capturing Tunis.
Though I usually tend to err on the side of caution (2+ units per class) and have a pretty repaired and useful Italian fleet, when not attempting to follow history. I also have not tried with 150% AI experience setting.
The player losing Tunis is the trigger for the next invasion stages towards Italy and so on.

Imho your prestige looks good so far, but summer time is strat bombing time, which can get costly rather quickly.

Speaking of 12cm mortars, I noticed that the Soviet one in Leningrad has switched to infantry mode for some strange reason. Which renders it rather useless for defending. I will try to fix this in the next update.

Turn 19
Enemy Turn/Surrenders/Casualties/Additional units: Rostov recon (helped push enemy artillery back), Romanian infantry in Crimea.+Sdkfz 250/11 r8. Surrender Valentine, T-34 at Rostov.
Atlantic/Western/Mediterranean: Strategic bombing actually matters outside of the triggered events (unfortunately). Fortunately, so does convoy bombing.

Refit/redeploy/Heroes: Nothing significantly different.
Upgrades/purchases/repairs: IIIJ/2 upgrades continue. 12-str flamm never saw action and will be converted to more useful artillery.
Prestige: 1818
Balance: T-34s and KVs take over the entire front that they show up in for a turn at this stage unfortunately.

Yep, looks like your investment into the Atlantic theater pays off. Your bombers are absolutely crushing them.
Both the arty and recon Panzer II options are nice. A bit more armor on your recons could help, as well as the tracks for the next mud and winter.

Turn 20
Enemy Turn/Surrenders/Casualties: One precariously motorized grenadier died near Moscow. However, it contributed to ~250 prestige in surrenders last turn so not all a waste…
Atlantic/Western/Mediterranean:One beaufighter down over the radar, but enemy fighters are NOT shy about attacking us. JG 1 has 237 experience and may be green replaced and sent to the Eastern front (or for Fw replacements as soon as that’s available actually). Ditto Africa. Perhaps I need to take a point off and force a regular replacement to drop below 3 stars…hopefully the radars will help a lot.

Also need to be careful in the Atlantic..I think x=29 is the furthest east I’ll go based on airfield and fighter fuel.

I forgot a bridging engineer…

Refit/redeploy/Heroes: Still no heroes.
Upgrades/purchases/repairs: Bison II, PzIVF, Fw to A-3, which has a LOT more attack than I thought (16).
Prestige: 1905. But weekly prestige and minors prestige increase should help this a lot. Also got two convoys.

Those surrenders are so important to keep your prestige going.

Fw 190 upgrade script works from turn 24 onward.
I'll have to remember to work on that script. It should get some safety switch, so that the player has more control when it fires. Due to the PzC engine not being able to distinguish well enough between units.

Ah, British response in the Atlantic, sending fighters to harass your strat bombers. Great to see so much action there.

Bridge engineer will also be very nice to have beyond the Don, when fighting your way towards Baku.

Yep, Fw 190 is a great bomber killer. I'll also lower the cost for those 4 special upgrades in the next update, from 200 down to 120. Since the Fw 190 is more situational with the Addon, compared to being straight up better than the Bf 109 until 44 without the Addon.



Great work!
Turn 20 and going strong. AI experience buff instead of player experience nerf worked out really well.

[Locarnus]

Eskuche proposed a lowering of elite replacement costs during the scenario by 10 percentage points for Battlefield Europe.
Imho that would make the choice of elites much more viable and thus interesting, compared to going for normal replacements and purchasing new units with the saved prestige.

It would also lower the additional expense of using in-scenario elites instead of deployment phase elites for the non-BE campaigns. The absolute difference between in-scenario and deployment times would then actually be the same for normal and elite replacements (25 - 10 for normals with Addon, and then 65 - 50 for elites):

ScnReplaceCost ..... 25
ScnEReplaceCost .... 75 => 65
CamReplaceCost .... 10
CamEReplaceCost ... 50

Battlefield Europe, original campaign, Afrika Korps and Soviet Corps have to use the same gamerules file, so I can't differentiate between those. Grand Campaign could use a different file, but imho it would be very confusing to have that behave differently than all the non-BE campaigns.

So my question is, whether this change would feel to be going in the right direction for you, based on your playing experience with current GC & original compaign plus Addon?

[Locarnus]

Turn 21
Enemy Turn/Surrenders/Casualties/Spawns: No casualties, although Azul division at Moscow outskirts got mauled. JG 101 from KG retraining #1 has appeared. 1 star Bf 109 F-4. Hs 129 B-1 R11 with +2 attack hero is here.
Atlantic/Western/Mediterranean: 2 convoys down from the scourges. 3- and 7- strength sub take 70 prestige to repair 4 SP, oof. 2 new subs at Kiel last turn. 7 in the Atlantic in some capacity available.
Misc. triggers: Italy, 24, 9/8 infantry; Romania, 18, 6/6; Hungary, 9, 6/3; Croatia, 6, 3/2; Bulgaria, 3, 1/1; Slovakia, 3, 1/1. Extra 63 * 75% = 48 prestige per turn, although rounding off individual triggers might make this a bit different. The minors infantry are pretty useless in the front lines, so they will have to be rail patrol. Not sure if it’s worth heavily entrenching some in, for example, Tobruk.

Somehow the AI had units patrolling this far north and even sandwiched this destroyer!

Radar makes a massive difference. Massed 88s, while relatively expensive, also prove their worth in weakening the enemy.

Refit/redeploy/Heroes:
Fitting that the unit that breached Moscow fortification got a hero (initiative). May deserve a promotion to Marder! Partial recall from Tobruk. I have no idea what the Torch trigger is and how much I should leave down there or if should, for example, be after Case Blue is (?) successful. Should those units pursue Arabia from the north?
Upgrades/purchases/repairs: Italian small AA from Tobruk to be upgraded to mobile 88 equivalent. Waiting for Fw upgrade opportunity.

That first Hs 129 B-1 is rather meh, but the second version just a few months later shows some teeth against armored targets. Can be used as a "firefighter" unit against those T-34 showing up, when the Marders and long barrel tanks need help.

Really great to see the battle of the Atlantic going on. With great successes and also some losses, keeping the tension!
Axis destroyers have a hard time surviving and are even more expensive that the subs, both for repair and purchase (also no steady supply stream for them).

Yeah, partisan duty works well for those infantry units from the minor Axis nations. Especially since their stats are less useless in close terrain.

Arabia from the North is definitely an option. The rail line through Persia is guarded on the way south, but if cleared provides at least some option for a faster return to the frontlines, after a successful campaign for Basra. Unfortunately it is not connected to the Soviet Union rail network, but even with that gap it still helps to get close to it.

Turn 22
Enemy Turn/Surrenders/Casualties/Spawns: DD in Atlantic dies. We take about 20 damage from enemy artillery. Surprise enemy tanks with massive movement take out a Kradschutzen and an Sdkfz 222. Heaviest casualty turn so far. 3 units, 250 prestige surrenders.
Atlantic/Western/Mediterranean: The strategic bombing has begun in earnest. Level bombers show absolutely NO respect for heavy, concentrated anti-air, which…is certainly interesting.

Not sure how I feel about this…but I guess they are sitting ducks, kind of? The appearance of 5 in a single turn was quite overwhelming, though. 1.5 downed. Recalling fighters from Africa, but the Russian VVS is getting stronger by the day…

AK withdraws, with air elements already deployed to Ukraine. We will heavily entrench, however, and make any British offensives costly. If needed, we can deploy (buy) extra units onto forts.

Refit/redeploy/Heroes: N/A
Upgrades/purchases/repairs: Italian light AA to full, Pz IV/2.
Prestige: 2307
Balance: N/A

Radar, wall of AA and the varied fighter force on the western front looks great. Also nice to see that the AI can still break through with wave attacks.

Surrenders keep the losses at bay, overall prestige is increasing.
Long barrel Panzer IV F2 & StuG as well as Marders and the Hs 129 will level the playing field against those pesky T-34.
Looks like a great and interesting fight on nearly every front, with Africa action taking a break before the coming storm.

Turn 23
Enemy Turn/Surrenders/Casualties/Spawns: No losses! JG 104 (KG conversion).
Atlantic/Western/Mediterranean: Bombers thinned out a bit. 1.5 shot down over Hamburg. There is still a lot of destroyer activity, and it’s difficult to not be in range of 3 at once.

Rostov is overrun, and very motorized forces are set to breakthrough. We must be careful of the known T-34 here. Long-range recon will help.

Refit/redeploy/Heroes: N/A
Upgrades/purchases/repairs: Hungarian AA upgraded to 15 str, 11 ROF nimrod. Marders ahoy.
Prestige: 2584
Balance: T-34s are hard to kill. I think I have only 4 MBT units.

I feared that your massive air power investment towards the Atlantic would crush the Allies in that theater too quickly.
Seems they are still hanging on, though badly mauled already.

Great milestone breaking through at Rostov. Now the long drive to Baku is next!

15 strength Nimrod is quite a beast.
I noticed the absence of tank units in the pictures from previous turns. Especially Panzer IV chassis seems to be a rarity on the frontlines.

[goose_2]

Eskuche proposed a lowering of elite replacement costs during the scenario by 10 percentage points for Battlefield Europe.
Imho that would make the choice of elites much more viable and thus interesting, compared to going for normal replacements and purchasing new units with the saved prestige.

It would also lower the additional expense of using in-scenario elites instead of deployment phase elites for the non-BE campaigns. The absolute difference between in-scenario and deployment times would then actually be the same for normal and elite replacements (25 - 10 for normals with Addon, and then 65 - 50 for elites):

ScnReplaceCost ..... 25
ScnEReplaceCost .... 75 => 65
CamReplaceCost .... 10
CamEReplaceCost ... 50

Battlefield Europe, original campaign, Afrika Korps and Soviet Corps have to use the same gamerules file, so I can't differentiate between those. Grand Campaign could use a different file, but imho it would be very confusing to have that behave differently than all the non-BE campaigns.

So my question is, whether this change would feel to be going in the right direction for you, based on your playing experience with current GC & original compaign plus Addon?

Hey, I am ok with anything you do buddy. I have a tough time with unit nerfing once I get used to my more buffed stats, but I get it when it happens.

I finished the 3rd broadcast last night and this morning, and finally think i have the sound issues fully figured out, hopefully, sorry this has taken so long, I think you will finally hear my voice much much better, but it will have to wait for 3rd Vilna broadcast.

Hope you enjoy today's losing side broadcast without me, and i hope to have 1st Minsk for Sunday

Blessings!

[eskuche]

15 strength Nimrod is quite a beast.
I noticed the absence of tank units in the pictures from previous turns. Especially Panzer IV chassis seems to be a rarity on the frontlines.

Whoops, 15 air attack Nimrod
I declined to upgrade any tanks to Pz IVs for the off-family cost (though I suppose I could, for example, that initiative hero flamm), and only one is provided. The use case scenario where it's better than other things is very narrow, and usually combined arms can take care of enemies, like Marders with sufficient mass attack bonus.

I'm not sure how comfortable my prestige cushion is, as I don't have upgrade expenses memorized. If I did know, I would probably sink even more into new units earlier on. As it is, I am seeking the most cost-effective solutions with 0 star units, which seems to be doing okay.

[bondjamesbond]

https://ron84z.neocities.org/
I partly agree with you, but there was definitely more infantry there than in Europe. Maybe there weren't such grandiose large-scale tank battles as at Dubno and the Kursk Bulge, but there were Chinese Stalingrads.
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Битва_ста_полков
https://ron84z.neocities.org/40/09/images/400920c

I agree, Asia and Pacific certainly have more infantry, but imho PzC engine and visuals are mainly good for the equipment focus of combined arms variety (contrary to the organizationally focused approach, which is much more prevalent).
So eg to represent an army corps in the Panzer Corps engine, you could use 3 infantry units, 1 artillery unit, 1 AT unit, 1 AA unit, with the organizational HQ being abstracted away.
While in organizationally focused games you just put 3 infantry divisions and 1 HQ, with all the arty, AT and AA being included within the infantry divisions and thus abstracted away. Like in the Strategic Command or War in the East games.

But that equipment focus requires more equipment variety to be interesting for gameplay.
Eg the player can decide to make a self-propelled StuG III in arty mode protect an anti-air gun that is used on the front line in ground attack mode.
That is imho the core of the Panzer Corps gameplay.
With another pillar of PzC being the unit upgrade and core composition choices, taking that unit variety into account.


On the other hand, the Pacific/Asian theater requires an engine that does well with logistics and naval combat (combined with air combat). Imho the Panzer Corps engine is particularly bad at those two (or three), with naval combat being hard for any turn based game anyway. Or at least I have not seen any turn based game doing naval combat particularly well...
Strategic Command has a Pacific theater in its World War scale, though imho that game series hast its own problems.

Perhaps you are right again, as the frozen Panzer Corps 2 Pacific eloquently demonstrates that creating a game about the carnage in Asia is not so easy. But let's not lose faith, we already have excellent mods where Asians fight their colonizers and companies for the Japanese in the first Panzer Corps.


In the meantime, let's have some fun on the European theater of war )))


Experimental jet fighter manufactured in Italy by Caproni Campini N.1 in the sky, August 27, 1940
.At the time, it was believed to be the world's first jet aircraft to take to the skies,but in fact it was the second.
The first was the Heinkel He 178, which took to the skies on August 27,1939, but this information was kept secret.


British paratroopers of the 1st Parachute Brigade in action near Majaz el Baba,Tunisia, 1942.



German soldiers of the 1st Ski Jäger Division, armed with StG 44 assault rifles, Ukraine, February 1944.


Panther tank versus American M3 Grant/Lee tank during obstacle testing, 1944.






Footage from the cameras of American bombers and fighter jets

[Locarnus]

Hope you enjoy today's losing side broadcast without me, and i hope to have 1st Minsk for Sunday

Blessings!

Great, looking forward to better sound and the broadcasts Sunday and today.

Whoops, 15 air attack Nimrod
I declined to upgrade any tanks to Pz IVs for the off-family cost (though I suppose I could, for example, that initiative hero flamm), and only one is provided. The use case scenario where it's better than other things is very narrow, and usually combined arms can take care of enemies, like Marders with sufficient mass attack bonus.

I'm not sure how comfortable my prestige cushion is, as I don't have upgrade expenses memorized. If I did know, I would probably sink even more into new units earlier on. As it is, I am seeking the most cost-effective solutions with 0 star units, which seems to be doing okay.

Ah, forgot that you brought only a Panzer III with your starting core.
Thus only the one Panzer IV unit with Kurt Knispel hero is on the map anyway.

Perhaps there could be a special upgrade offer, like there is for the Panther later on. To upgrade one tank unit to Panzer IV.

Your prestige cushion is imho very nice for ongoing replacements and in-family upgrades and so on.
It only gets expensive if you have expensive full unit losses you wish or need to replace, like an experience fighter getting absolutely squashed by terrible rng. Or if you want to do out of family upgrades.
I would also stay with the Panzer III chassis for now. There are more cross class upgrade options becoming available in late 42 and then 43 anyway.

Turn 24
Enemy Turn/Surrenders/Casualties/Spawns: Lost the PaK that facilitated the surrender of the KV at Leningrad. Still probably worth it. A sub randomly found a Crete DD and sank it. Bridging engineers are high value/low defense enough to absorb all of the artillery, which is nice. KG 4 replacement from fighter conversion He 111 H-2 is here now.

…T-34/42 may be overbalanced a bit with 15 ground defense, but maybe also historical. It’s survived at least 10 attacks so far.

The enemy air presence seems to be increasing despite me shooting down 2-3 SU planes a turn. Note the conveniently left alone 305 prestige value artillery there…

Refit/redeploy/Heroes: 18. Pz (Flamm II) near Voronezh got spotting. Yay.
Upgrades/purchases/repairs: StuG IIIF (I guess).
Prestige: 2825
Balance: The StuG IIIF is…whelming compared to the IIIJ/2. 5 ammo and 2 less soft attack trading for 1 hard attack and AT mode with camo. I guess it’ll still be good for ambushes. Falco I to II for 86 prestige does not seem worth 1 attack and defense. Upgrading a Bf110 C to F-4 for 33 prestige gives me 2/1 defense, 3 air attack, 1 spotting, and other things.

Yep, AI targeting priorities, using cheaper Bridge engineer like a normal campaign aux unit.

15 ground defense on T-34/42 is a significant problem for the older guns, but manageable for the newer ones brought by Marder, Pz IV F2 and long barrel StuG. And while the T-34 is hard to crack, its offensive capability is still plagued by 2 man turret, bad optics/situational awareness and underwhelming communication (represented by pretty low ini and only rof 9).

Panzer II chassis with spotting hero makes for a decent recon Panzer II . I agree that the random heroes you got so far were not too helpful.

StuG III F not only has 1 more hard attack, but also 1 more ini when in tank mode (9 instead of 8 for Pz III J2), thus putting it 3 ini above the T-34/42 (6 ini). In the right weather and terrain, that can somewhat compensate the still lackluster ground defense values.
The long barrel StuG III versions can also switch to range 1 arty mode now (added a few updates ago), just like the short barrel ones (though with rof 10 instead of the rof 11 of the short barrel ones). Combined the with tank and camo AT modes, it is thus a very versatile unit and gets even better with the F/8 upgrade in October 42. While the Panzer III gets its significant armor upgrade already in July 42.

I'll increase the price for the Falco I to lower the gap to the Falco II, it is indeed out of whack.

[goose_2]

goose_2 youtube playthrough GC Napoleon difficulty
GC 1944e9 start upgrade recommendations
8565 prestige, after elite replacements to full strength for all understrength units and selling excess captured units.

red marker for a) no or 1 hero, b) <800 kills, c) <350 experience
blue marker for a) 3 heroes, b) >=1500 kills, c) >= 450 experience

UnitType ....... transport ... Hero ... SubscriberName ... KillCounter ... Experience with elite replacements


45 Ground units

Non-hero bonus SE units

plus 1 non-hero bonus SE units for 45 grand campaign

Infantry


Towed AT

Towed Arty

.15 sFH range3 r8 ..... Sd7 .......... r1 ... Raduku ............... 662 ... 460


Eskuche needs kills, so vehicle with high rate of fire?
Similar for Raduku, but perhaps 5 stars first, then high rof mobile AA as well, that can also use the range hero?
PeteMitchell could use a bit of arty experience training to reach 4 stars.
Artemis is practically ready to become something else. The newly introduced PzA /Sd 250 lineup would be nice to replace the Kradschützen, though the movement hero might be more useful on Fallschirmjäger? Lots of close terrain coming up in Warschau, where paratroopers do well.


Tanks
.Tiger II B r9s8 .................. m1a2 ... Raunosavolainen ..... 1004 ... 501

.Panther BeWg ................... s1a3 ... MichalGolaszewski ... 1239 ... 473

.Tiger I 44 ........................ d2a3 ... Temis .................. 1185 ... 439

.Nashorn 44 ....................... a1i1 ... ForestLaw ............ 1280 ... 461


Mobile Arty

.StuG IV+ .............................. r1 ... RayCaster .............. 716 ... 482

.Semovente 105/25 ................. d2 ... RightSide .............. 854 ... 474
.Panzerwerfer 42 r12 ............... a3 ... Singer .................. 909 ... 426
.Wurfrahmen 43 r8 ................ r1r1 ... Dneos .................. 933 ... 457



Kapl can still reach 4 stars using the Sturmpanther, which becomes available at the end of GC 44. I would not go for another Panther until that cross class upgrade option is available.
Soren needs constant training, both for reaching 4 stars and to free up the Hummel, in order to give Raduku a way out of arty class.
PanzerVorwärts and Reoguru are ready to take on something else, in order to get more kills and thus the second heroes.
Brummbär direct fire is decent, but limited by 8 rof. Using the Brummbär => Nashorn => 8.8cm Pak 43 path could be an option to employ that movement hero and bring another long 88 into play.
PanzerVorwärts needs fewer kills for the guaranteed 2nd hero. Perhaps I would just go from Grille => StuIG 33B => Flammpanzer III for Warschau city map and then see what hero he gets there.
Rightside I would train to 5 stars first.
Singer gets those missing kills simply by shooting at enemy soft targets with his rof 12.



15 Airforce

Single engine Fighters & Fighter Bomber

.Fw 190 A-8/R ....................... d1 ... Richard .............. 568 ... 500 ... ==> Fw 190 A-8+ or /R+




Multi engine Fighter / Strat Bomber
.He 111 NJ ........................... a1 ... RMA901 ............... 574 ... 506
.He 111 H-20 ........................ a2 ... MafujKhan ............ 870 ... 404



Tac Bomber / Strat Bomber
.Ju 188 A-2 .......................... d2 ... Alvarez ................ 507 ... 407
.Ju 188 E-1 ........................ i1i1 ... Slender1870 ........... 872 ... 454

Dedicated Strat Bomber


As usual I would train as many units in strat bombers as possible.
CouchOffiziell and vonThüringen need 2nd heroes, especially as the Bf 109 core time comes to an end. Potentially changing one or both to a permanent strat, like He 177 or Ar 234?
Both GC 45 bonus hero units will be Bf 109 already and the first one (Bf 109 K-4+) joins at the start of GC 45.
FighterAce needs that 4th star against enemy fighters in 45.
Both Me 262 variants will be available at the end of GC 44.

The above units I see as the only viable options to reach 5 stars do you disagree?

List any others you think are viable.

What this shows me is that I made a mistake in training, and would try and focus more heavily on getting experience max in early years, maybe or at least 2 stars in first 2 years, 3rd star for almost all by 42
but maybe I could not reach 5 stars no matter how hard I worked.

The only thing I can think of is switch more air units early one between fighter/Strat training, and inf/arty training.

Having an early on arty option between inf and arty to train units early would have helped, and same for Fighter/strat training as I see it almost impossible for me to reach 5 stars for almost all of my units.

That sure was a tough pill I needed to swallow you dropped on me a couple of days ago. I really looked at the 4th star as just the start but it turns out it will be mostly the finish line for most of my army.

Thoughts? As I have been in this rabbit hole ever since you dropped that on me.

[Locarnus]

The above units I see as the only viable options to reach 5 stars do you disagree?

List any others you think are viable.

What this shows me is that I made a mistake in training, and would try and focus more heavily on getting experience max in early years, maybe or at least 2 stars in first 2 years, 3rd star for almost all by 42
but maybe I could not reach 5 stars no matter how hard I worked.

The only thing I can think of is switch more air units early one between fighter/Strat training, and inf/arty training.

Having an early on arty option between inf and arty to train units early would have helped, and same for Fighter/strat training as I see it almost impossible for me to reach 5 stars for almost all of my units.

That sure was a tough pill I needed to swallow you dropped on me a couple of days ago. I really looked at the 4th star as just the start but it turns out it will be mostly the finish line for most of my army.

Thoughts? As I have been in this rabbit hole ever since you dropped that on me.

Hm, I don't think that Temis can reach 5 stars, since there is no Tiger chassis artillery for him. The Sturmtiger is more like a meme, its abysmal 4 rate of fire makes it totally unsuitable for experience training.
And upgrading him to a proper arty training unit for full price just for the 5th star is probably a waste as well.
I would rather consider converting Temis with 4 stars to the Jagdsturmtiger, which is practically the Elefant within the normal Tiger upgrade family (also limited to 8 strength and 4 movement, just like the Elefant). At least if Temis suffers the losses to put him at 8 strength anyway.

MafujKhan and Alvarez are very far away from 5 stars as well.
Especially considering that Slender1870 needs to train in his strat every single time to reach 5 stars asap.
And CouchOffiziell will also need strat bomber training to even reach 4 stars.

If you want to bring Alvarez to 1000 kills, he should also start with that, instead of going for a 5th star he might never reach. Thanks to Alvarez already being in the Ju 88 family, there are even some cheap options to train kills.
In addition to the familiar Ju 88 night fighter lineup (currently Ju 88 G-1), there is also the Ju 88 P-4 available from the last GC 44east scenario onwards and the Ju 388 available from the first scenario of GC 45east onwards.
Ju 88 P-4 is practically the Me 410 B-2/U4 with one less air attack and movement, but 7 instead of 5 ammo and more fuel. Can switch between fighter and tac bomber modes, just like the Me 410.
Ju 388 is a specialty, since it can switch between strat bomber and fighter modes. It has the Ju 188 A-2 strat bomber stats when in that mode, but can switch to the Ju 88 G-6 fighter mode stats.

MafujKhan has slightly better chances to reach 5 stars than Alvarez, due to his attack +2 hero. But he would also need deployment every time, just to rather unlikely get 1 more attack and defense at the end of 45. High risk to put effort there, with limited reward. Imho better to deploy some other aircraft to gain kills or so, when possible.

[Locarnus]

Experimental jet fighter manufactured in Italy by Caproni Campini N.1 in the sky, August 27, 1940
.At the time, it was believed to be the world's first jet aircraft to take to the skies,but in fact it was the second.
The first was the Heinkel He 178, which took to the skies on August 27,1939, but this information was kept secret.

Makes one wonder what could have been.
Italian industry and state were just not able to keep up with what industrial designers and engineers were coming up with.

What this shows me is that I made a mistake in training, and would try and focus more heavily on getting experience max in early years, maybe or at least 2 stars in first 2 years, 3rd star for almost all by 42
but maybe I could not reach 5 stars no matter how hard I worked.

The only thing I can think of is switch more air units early one between fighter/Strat training, and inf/arty training.

Imho you did really well with what was possible at the time.
The bonus SE/Std roster was limited to infantry, the normal infantry did not have upgrade paths to artillery classes for training, strat bombers did not have paths to fighter class for cheaper swaps and so on...

Your playthough was the catalyst to implement those workaround to the skewed Panzer Corps experience gain mechanic.
So with all those limitations still in place for most of the run and considering the extreme Napoleon difficulty, 5 stars across the board were not possible.

5 stars were also not necessary when the run started, since the GC 45 East enemy experience buff did also not exist yet.
So many great improvements based on your feedback and requests, thank you for all of them!

[bondjamesbond]

Experimental jet fighter manufactured in Italy by Caproni Campini N.1 in the sky, August 27, 1940
.At the time, it was believed to be the world's first jet aircraft to take to the skies,but in fact it was the second.
The first was the Heinkel He 178, which took to the skies on August 27,1939, but this information was kept secret.

Makes one wonder what could have been.
Italian industry and state were just not able to keep up with what industrial designers and engineers were coming up with.

https://ru.pinterest.com/pin/855895104178297368/
https://ru.pinterest.com/pin/1692368984 ... cta&rs=pin

Italy couldn't keep up with progress. But still, they had some strengths. For example, their torpedo boats were good and achieved much more fame than their cruisers and battleships. An easy victory over the savages turned the Duce's head.
https://en.topwar.ru/159359-boevye-samo ... -byli.html
https://en.topwar.ru/162602-oruzhie-vto ... atera.html