Hero traits by importance

[JagdpanzerIV]

i made a spreadsheet to share with the community. Maybe it could be improved...

[armedevil]

Nice effort, but many of the choices are not so convincing, and there may be more traits (e.g. there is also a Entrenchment Killer x3).

Maybe start with the reasoning, like with 'Crippling Blow', which boosts all attack values +5 if the target is full strength:

A unit that is a bit underpowered vs its usual targets, like a Fighter plane (both vs enemy air and ground units) and has a decidedly attacking role, often vs newly encountered enemy units, stands to profit greatly.

Best used for Fighters imo, as air supremacy means killing enemy air units on first opportunity, and an effective first hit can make all the difference. Especially because return damage is a problem with air-to-air, and other 'booster' traits are not for air targets (butcher, flag killer, etc).

So I do not agree with your 'C' rating for Fighters here, at all.

Also, a trait like 'Fast Learner' is inferior to 'Aiming Assistance' in almost all cases, as it is fairly easy to position your unit for best effect, and several times in the same turn it can enhance an attack and thus add to the experience of the unit with the hero. Even air- and ground-units can cooperate using the trait. I find 'Aiming Assistance' quite useful.

But I'll stop here, as the effort in evaluating all traits is considerable (I started above with ' Nice effort' )

[armedevil]

There is a *very* lengthy video of TheEdmon: Panzer Corps 2 Guide - All Heroes and Abilities Tier List

Although 4 years old, it is a well reasoned overview and I mostly agree with it (but not always).

For example, Vigilant is clearly S-tier for powerful tanks, enabling them to crush infantry in cities and other close terrain. With an engineer to counter the base-entrenchment and scouts to increase accuracy, it makes short work of well defended supply-hex cities (unless there is strong AT-support). Plus, it makes tanks almost untouchable in close terrain (watch out still for AT- and air-attacks however).

And for AT-units 'Hit and Run' is just as good as 'No Retaliation' thanks to their high initiative. Certainly not C-tier!
On a high-initiative recon such as the German AB 41 it is also quite useful, rather than 'tier-F useless'. Remember that it also has 1,5x rapid-fire, 11-strength and generally high experience. Where attacking with recons is often avoided due to high return-damage, the 7-initiative AB 41 + Hit and Run *can* attack, without getting damaged.

[JagdpanzerIV]

I'm taking notes, thanks for your replies so far!

[DefiantXYX]

Well, there are some strange classification. Just some thought. Would take hours to check everything.
Overall I have the feeling, that you are not playing on very hard settings. At some points you need to farm stuff, to stay alive. Lethal attack for art. for example would break my whole game. If my art is killing everything I am running out of prestige. I need to suppress and force stuff to surrender.
And I need the AI to attack my stuff, I dont have the turns otherwise. If my art has lethal attack, they are too strong.


Distraction ==> one Hero I recycle for prestige. Its something normally you can easily play around.
Prudent ==> never useless. Especially not on planes, I think if your planes dont need it your setting are too easy. This trait is gamebreaking good.

Recon:
- S: Overrun ==> very useful yes, but at some points they cant hurt several units.
- Great: Ignores ZOC, Double Move ==> These traits are completly useless, since a recon move step by step
Liberator ==> Its good for recons, but especially in lategame it doesnt make much sense if you have other heroes. You get your prestige by forcing units to surrender.

Why is camo and provocater useless? These heroes are never useless tbh.

Arty:
Some traits heavily depend on the unit you are using. Double attack is crap if you only have 3 ammo. Anti-Tank makes no sense on several units, because they already have this trait. Rapid Fire is only good, if you want to kill stuff.
Survivor ist nice to have, you should try to get the award, but dont waste a hero slot for this. If your arty gets attacked that hard you already did someting wrong...

AA:
Ignores Entrechment is always a good thing, but you should not put it on aa gun. Reduced slots depends on the unit and the year. For a sdkfz its wasted. I sometimes use that hero on a 88gun in the early years of the war.

Fighters:
Ignores Entrechnment in A Class again. Imo if you can use your fights for bombing, you are playing on too easy settings.

Evasive in A but Rapid Fire just B? 10% defense is better thatn 50% offensive?

Tac Bombers: (A)
AT/AS Support. How often you have your bombers in that position? Normally you cant let your bombers guard, they have a job to do.
First Strike ==> Why? Only makes sense vs AA guns. And thats something normally you can play around. Art fire on AA guns and you dont need first strike.

Strat. Bombers: (A)
Ignores Entrechnment ==> Why? There job is to remove entrechnment, not to kill units.

(B) First Strike for these units makes even less sense compared to Tac Bombers.

[armedevil]

Prudent ==> never useless. Especially not on planes, I think if your planes dont need it your setting are too easy. This trait is gamebreaking good.

Surprised to read this. I always try to get rid of the enemy air force asap. Otherwise, guarding artillery, tanks and bombers is a pain. Also, enemy planes can expose the position of my units. It is seldom that my air units will be attacked at all (except for recon planes where damage can be ignored).

In general, I try to avoid getting attacked, let alone getting a unit killed. So Prudent is not relevant to my game.
However, it can be used for making cheap conscripts or bridging engineers into defensive powerhouses.

[armedevil]

For convenience, a list of potential Hero Traits (a few may be less relevant):

- AA Support: Provides support fire against air to ground attacks. Will shoot at any fighters and bombers attacking friendly ground units within its firing range
- Aggressive Counterattack: +3 attack when defending
- Aiming Assistance: +10% accuracy to all adjacent friendly units
- All-Weather Combat: Immunity to weather effects
- Alpine Troops: Gets +5 attack and +5 defense in hills and mountains and also ignores enemy High ground bonuses and entrenchment in such terrain
- Ambusher: Always Triggers an Ambush when attacked
- Artillery Support: Provides support fire to adjacent friendly units attacked by enemy unarmoured units (with "Soft" target type).
- Anti-tank support: the unit provides support fire against hard targets (basically the same ability as tank destroyers)
- Avenger: Gets attack bonus for each point of lost strength
- Bridging Unit: Acts as a bridge when positioned on a river
- Bunker Killer: +5 attack against structures
- Butcher: +5 attack against infantry units
- Camouflage: Can only be detected by recons or adjacent ground units
- Cheap Replacements: Replacements in battle cost as on deployment phase
- City Fighter: Combat Bonus in city terrain
- Combat Luck: Combat Results can never be worse than predicted
- Consolidator: +5 maximum overstrength
- Counter Battery Fire: Will fire at any attacking artillery units within its firing range
- Crippling Blow: +5 Attack against full strength units
- Distraction: Enemy units next to this unit do not provide support fire
- Double Attack: Unit gets 2 attack actions per turn
- Double Mass Attack: When participating in Mass Attack, contributes double effect.
- Double Move: Unit gets 2 move actions per turn, without increasing the number of movement points
- Double Support: Provides support fire twice for each enemy attack
- Entrenchment Killer X: Destroys X points of entrenchment with every attack
- Entrenchment Support: All adjacent friendly units entrench at 2x speed
- Envelopment: Prevents enemy units from retreating, so they surrender instead
- Evasion: Has a certain chance to completely avoid enemy attack (Submarines)
- Evasive: -10% accuracy to enemies shooting at this unit
- Expert Recon: Provides 3x accuracy bonus on adjacent enemy units
- Expert Support: +20% accuracy when providing support fire
- Exterminator: +5 attack against units below 50% strength
- Famous: Generates 20 prestige per turn
- Fast Deployment: can unmount from organic transport and fire after movement
- Fast Entrenchment: Gets 2x entrenchement speed
- Fast Learner: 2x Faster experience growth
- Fast Rebase: Aircraft does not spend Move Action on rebase
- Fast Retreat: +2 movement points when unit's strength is 33% from maximum
- Fearsome Reputation: All Adjacent enemy units get +3 suppression at the beginning of their turn
- Ferocious Defense: Entrenchment of this unit cannot be ignored
- Field Repairs: Restores one point of strength every turn the unit did not attack. Applies to Vehicles
- Fierce Fighter: +1 attack for each adjacent enemy unit
- Fighter Support: Provides support fire against enemy fighters attacking friendly bombers. Will also intercept enemy bombers attacking friendly ground units in adjacent hexes
- First Aid: Restores one point of strength every turn the unit did not attack. Applies to Infantry.
- First Strike: Unit always attacks first
- Flag Killer: +5 Attack when attacking enemy flags
- Hit and Run: When attacking, enemy units with the lower initiative do not shoot back
- Ignore Mass Attack: Immunity to mass attack
- Ignores Entrenchment: Ignores enemy entrenchment level
- Ignores ZOC: Ignores zone of control projected by enemy units when moving
- Last Stand: Ignores all penalties from encirclements
- Leadership: +1 initiative to all adjacent friendly units.
- Learns from Mistakes: 3x experience for suffered casualties
- Legendary: Generates 50 prestige per turn
- Lethal Attack: Half of suppression caused by this unit is converted to kills
- Liberator: 2x prestige for all flags captured by this unit
- Lightning Attack: Immune to all types of support fire
- Low Profile: Enemy units get -20% accuracy when shooting at this unit
- No Entrenchment: Unit does not entrench
- No Surrender: Unit never surrenders
- No Retaliation: enemy units will not return fire if attacked by that unit
- Overrun: Can destroy (Overrun) weakened enemy units without spending move or attack actions. The way it works is, after and overrun attack, move and attack actions of the unit will be replenished
- Overwatch: Attacks enemy units which enter this unit's ZOC
- Overwhelming Attack: Any Damage to enemy units is enough to force them to retreating
- Phased Movement: Can move in steps within its movement point limit (like recon)
- Provocator: Adjacent enemies attacking other friendly units will attack this unit instead
- Prudent: Gets defense bonus for each point of lost strength
- Rapid Fire 1,5x or 2x: Makes 1,5 or 2 times more shots. Does not lead to more ammo spending
- Readiness: Strikes first when defending
- Reduced Slots: Unit slot cost is reduced by 50%, rounded down.
- Resilient: Cannot lose more than 50% of maximum strength in one go
- River Assault: Ignores combat penalties from rivers
- Scavenger: Captures 2x equipment from surrendering enemies.
- Shock Tactics: When attacking, pins enemy unit in place by destroying all its movement points
- Sixth Sense: Immune to Ambushes
- Steamroller: Any kill triggers an Overrun
- Superior Maneuver: Gets +1 initiative for each point of movement speed advantage over the enemy
- Survivor: As long as this unit has more than 1 strength, it will always survive enemy attack
- Tank Killer: +5 attack against tanks
- Tenacious Defender: +1 defense for each adjacent enemy unit
- Thorough Preparation: Initiative bonus +5… +1 on the first five turns of every mission
- Unyielding: Unit cannot be suppressed by enemy fire
- Vigiliant: Prevents enemies from using unit's Close Defense rating
- Zero Slots: Unit slot cost is reduced to zero

[JagdpanzerIV]

Well, there are some strange classification. Just some thought. Would take hours to check everything.
Overall I have the feeling, that you are not playing on very hard settings. At some points you need to farm stuff, to stay alive. Lethal attack for art. for example would break my whole game. If my art is killing everything I am running out of prestige. I need to suppress and force stuff to surrender.
And I need the AI to attack my stuff, I dont have the turns otherwise. If my art has lethal attack, they are too strong.

I play on field Marshall, and yes i find it too easy, in AO1946 i have 200k prestige. The toughest was AO Spanish civil war.
Indeed it requires a lot of testing and hours to classify all the hero traits. I never pretended my classification was perfect, and will never be, because of each individual playstyle!

I already modified my spreadsheet according to the comments i received so far!

Recon, why is ignore ZOC useless? doesn't it allow the unit to move freely through enemy lines?
Liberator, is even more useful in late game, instead of claiming 3000 prestige you claim 6000 ! on certain objectives. On certain maps it means 18000 more prestige collected because of that trait. Also, in late game it's not always easy to force a lot of enemies to surrender to get prestige. It's a lot easier in early AOs.

Also keep in mind that this spreadsheet is not for individual unit, more like a general idea to where we could assign a hero to a unit type. Instead of going through the internet or youtube, a player can assign a hero, albeit it needs a basic understanding of what the hero does, to a unit quickly.

Fighters, sometimes they don't have enemy aircrafts to attack, so strafing entrenched unit helps. Late in the game, some fighters have good soft attack, with double attack they can cripple enemy infantry badly. Or any soft targets.

Tact. bombers, first strike helps to attack aircrafts (few bombers have air attack but some does) or attack first when enemy AA is present.

[DefiantXYX]

Prudent ==> never useless. Especially not on planes, I think if your planes dont need it your setting are too easy. This trait is gamebreaking good.

Surprised to read this. I always try to get rid of the enemy air force asap. Otherwise, guarding artillery, tanks and bombers is a pain. Also, enemy planes can expose the position of my units. It is seldom that my air units will be attacked at all (except for recon planes where damage can be ignored).

Yeah, depends on that you are playing. I cant remember the vanilla campaign, I recently played the mods. There you fight against other planes almost all the time and the AI has a lot of overstrengh, they sometimes shoot down even your strongest fighters. Prudent is forbidden in this campaigns, but would be a game changer.

I play on field Marshall, and yes i find it too easy, in AO1946 i have 200k prestige. The toughest was AO Spanish civil war.
Indeed it requires a lot of testing and hours to classify all the hero traits. I never pretended my classification was perfect, and will never be, because of each individual playstyle!

Play it again with David vs Goliath. Its a completly different game. First you might think its impossible, but it is. If you manage it, you will never ever play without it.

Recon, why is ignore ZOC useless? doesn't it allow the unit to move freely through enemy lines?

You can simply move hex by hex. Its the same, you just have to do some clicks

Liberator, is even more useful in late game, instead of claiming 3000 prestige you claim 6000 ! on certain objectives. On certain maps it means 18000 more prestige collected because of that trait.

Ah, you talk about AO 1946? I had pushed that out of my mind Yes indeed, that makes sense, but at that point of the campaign I also had >100k prestige.

Tact. bombers, first strike helps to attack aircrafts (few bombers have air attack but some does) or attack first when enemy AA is present.

Nothing you really need. I also like to run a BF110 and do stuff like that, but the best way is to use fighters for air combat and bombers for ground units. If I get a first strike heroes I give it to inf, tanks or anti tanks first.