1939 Impossible Campaign Documentation

[Kerensky]

So I've been playing a few times, and with the new BETA thought I'd try my hand at the impossible campaign again. I'm intentionally using at little prestige as possible (Note prestige number in the top right corner of screenshots), because I know when I get to USA it's going to eat a massive prestige amount.
No cheats used, no reloading, lost core units in bold.

Poland: 1 Infantry
Decent start to the campaign, not too difficult, minor losses. Finished turn 9 of 17 (the review battlefield button always adds 1 turn to the clock)


Norway: 1 Infantry, 1 Armor, 1 Recon
I played very aggressively to prove a point that the nerfs to this scenario result in a very quick end to Norway (paratroopers moved forward, Namsos removed as objective). As a result of this aggression, I lost a few core units though. Finished turn 10 of 25.


Low Counties: 0 Losses
Only won (decisively) on the very possible last turn. Turn 18 is Decisive, Turn 19 is Marginal. I preserved my units, and thus my progress was slowed considerably. Finished turn 18 of 25.


France: 1 Armor
Lost 1 armor in the initial French counter-attack, but otherwise this scenario is a complete steamroll. Finished turn 13 of 22.


Sea Lion: 1 Artillery
Getting past the enormous British Fleet and air force hurts, and one artillery went to the bottom before even landing. I took my time with this scenario though, and only ended with a minor victory. Finished turn 15 of 19.


Barbarossa: 2 Infantry
The gigantic Russian air force takes a serious toll on any German units in transport, which is where I lost my 2 infantry. Once the skies are cleared, scenario is a breeze.
Brest is ridiculous (Defense values in the 30s) and there way too many high caliber Russian AD units (100% of them are 85mm), need a lot more lower calibers. Finished turn 13 of 23.


Kiev: None, absolute steamroll scenario overrun. Finished turn 9 of 23


Moscow 41: 1 Armor
25% chance for rain is too much, mud is your worst enemy in this scenario, I only lost one armor rushing to take the 4 hexes of Moscow because I almost ran out of time. This scenario needs serious revision. Bad luck with weather completely ruins any chance for a decisive victory, I think I had 8 straight turns of mud, then 8 more of mixed Mud and Snow. Even playing this scenario on easy mode, I probably wouldn't have had a decisive victory because mud isn't any easier to deal with in easier difficulties.

Consider how fast I've completed previous scenarios, this one I finished turn 21 of 22. You will also notice on the minimap there is a large abundance of green I had to simply bypass, fighting 1/2 strength during rain and mud I had to bypass a lot of Russian units and cities or risk completely running out of time. NOTE: I gave myself a decisive victory to continue down a campaign path that would take me to USA.

The difficulty of this scenario, due only to weather, is jarring compared to the rest of the campaign. So either impossible level needs to bring all scenarios up to this level in difficulty or this scenario needs to be toned down to the level that other scenarios currently exist as.


SeaLion42: 1 Artillery, 1 Tactical Bomber, 1 Anti-tank, 2 Armor... as of turn 7
I haven't finish this scenario yet, but those core losses speak volumes. There are way too many British ships, too few AUX escorts, and your transports start practically on top of the British fleet, resulting in massive losses of 3-4 star 13-14 strength units sunk while still in transport.
I received 3 AUX fighters and 2 AUX Strategic bombers to fight 9 Fighters and 3 Tactical bombers (Ouch)
I received 6 submarines, 2 destroyers, 1 cruiser, 1 battleship to fight 9 Destroyers, 5 Cruisers, 3 battleships (OUCH?!?)

Absolute bloodbath. Final losses of core units stands at
SeaLion42: 2 Artillery, 1 Tactical Bomber, 1 Anti-tank, 2 Armor, 1 Infantry
Except the 2 artillery guns all of those core units were 3, 4, or 5 star units. This was the first scenario that was actually costly and forced me to spend a little bit of prestige to replenish my losses. It was also the most entertaining scenario I've played so far. I adore costly bloody combat, although I do wish I lost less of those elite forces to the navy and more of them were lost assaulting fortress London. I would rather play SeaLion42 100 times rather than suffer through the travesty that is the weather of Moscow. Finished on turn 12 of 19 for a decisive victory, and it's off to America.

[OmegaMan1]

This is a great AAR, thanks for sharing. In general it seems that "impossible" might be not tough enough sometimes (such as France and Kiev)? I've asked this before, but how does the difficulty level affect gameplay -- more experience for the AI units? more prestige? more units?

Anyway, looking forward to seeing how this campaign turns out.

[Rudankort]

Great post indeed.

About difficulty settings, they will be completely revamped very soon (probably in the next update), so there is no use giving details on them now. But I'll share details with you as soon as this aspect is finalized.

[Kerensky]

USA East Coast 0 losses
Finished turn 14 of 18 for marginal victory, sad considering it’s complete streamroll, I didn’t get a major victory because the map is simply too big, I completely steamrolled all opposition. Almost all combat looks like:
and
Upgrades absolutely destroy my prestige. I dropped all the way down to 37 and turned my core into 4 pioneer, 1 infantry 43, 1 grenadier 43, 5 PV IVJ, 3 King Tiger, 1 recon, 4 150cm artillery, 7 ME262, 4 HE117. All units are up to minimum 10 strength, but many units are not fully overstrengthed.
So my prestige was ~9000, drop to 37, and now after USA East Coast I have 5522 prestige again. This prestige fluctuation, plus the ease of US East Coast, absolutely convinced me the campaign needed to continue. And so it now does.


USA MidWest Losses: 1 Armor, 1 Recon, 2 AntiTank
Great armored battle across the Great Plains of the US Midwest. Not as difficult as I thought it was going to be, considering the recent buff to Allied armor and nerfs to German armor. Mainly too easy because the Me262 completely rules the skies and my well experienced units were more than a match for most Allied armor. With one exception. Patton hurts.


Finished on turn 14 of 20 for a decisive victory, this speedy victory was partly due to good use of paratroopers that were able to bypass the American Armored Group you see in the below image.


USA West Coast: Losses: 6 Infantry, 2 recon
It's the end of the campaign, I got pretty aggressive with my units, heh. The whole Los Angeles area is a serious obstacle that takes many turns to completely subdue, with the second hardest obstacle being San Francisco and Sacramento hiding behind San Francisco Bay and The Sierra Nevada. All other objectives didn't really put up much of a fight.
Finished for decisive victory turn 16 of 24.

[Kerensky]

Final verdict. Most scenarios are okay, but sooner or later the experience gaps creates a major problem where the enemy is massively outclassed. Right around the time the player gets to Barbarossa, the experience gap becomes a serious problem and the game turns into roflstomp steamrolling (Kiev and Moscow, except Moscow has abominable weather.)

Scenarios that need to be harder: France and Kiev.
Scenario that needs clearer weather and stronger enemy troops: Moscow.
Scenarios that are a little too crippling against the player core: Sea Lion 42. This is mostly because of the terribly imbalanced naval action though, my normal unit attrition to secure a decisive victory would probably have been 3 core units total, which is a fairly acceptable amount of losses.

Prestige numbers up until USA are way too high, but once you cross from 1941 or 1942 to 1945, 9000 prestige vanishes instantly because units and upgrades are incredibly expensive. I would reduce the prestige the player receives through-out the entire campaign, but also reduce the price of all late war units, otherwise the player will be crippled trying to take USA with ME109s and PZ IVs.

If every scenario played like Sealion42(minus naval attrition) or USA Midwest in terms of core casualties (3-4 core units dead per scenario) that seems like a good amount of units to lose. We are talking about 'impossible' mode here, afterall. Combat should be fierce and bloody, not your usual steamroll battles.

[OmegaMan1]

Prestige numbers up until USA are way too high, but once you cross from 1941 or 1942 to 1945, 9000 prestige vanishes instantly because units and upgrades are incredibly expensive. I would reduce the prestige the player receives through-out the entire campaign, but also reduce the price of all late war units, otherwise the player will be crippled trying to take USA with ME109s and PZ IVs.

Excellent point. I noticed this too when I finished the campaign; it was pretty frustrating having all those nice upgrade options available and not being able to afford them.

[Kerensky]

/bump for new forum users to review.

[Kerensky]

France multiplayer, just like in campaign play, appears seriously imbalanced in favor of the German forces.
The initial French lines of defense get completely clobbered by superior equipment and air forces, and there is practically no French reserve to defend the vulnerable interior once the front lines are decimated.

[heinrich]

Thanks for this AAR! It´s a very challenging way you played the campaign. I wonder how you got through it so easy This hole report animates me to start over the campaign a 4th time. Thanks for that^^

[Kerensky]

I dunno, 7 core losses in Sealion 42 wasn't what I call easy, heh.