Ebon-Emael
-Very fun map at the start, the 0 ammo fortresses that you have to deal with, plus the special deployment and the potential to place a fallschirmjager plane overhead the fortresses. Good positioning of your units can further limit potential resupply for expert players. Otherwise quite an easy scenario, I was hoping for a bit more of a Belgian or Dutch counterattack after breaking through the fortifications.
Albert Canal
-Masterfully done, I love the wave-like nature of the AI attack, which is exactly what the mission briefing stated. I nevertheless advanced somewhat incautiously, especially with aux units, and got them killed.
-Maybe add two more British infantry to the defense of Antwerp itself, which was fairly easy to take.
-Made DV in 16/21.
-Add like 15 inactive units in the Brussels area, so the human player won’t go after them. Historically Brussels would not fall this early.
The Hague
-Now the scenarios are getting interesting! After a cakewalk in 1939, we arrive at some harder missions
-Massive Dutch counterattack is impressive. On Manstein I can see how DV can be luck based. I lost some on the initial Dutch counterattack. As it were, after my main force reached the paratroopers, I started sending them out to help in the attack. More Dutch units in the fog came out and destroyed one, and I was down to 3, not enough for DV! I have no one to blame but myself. Generally the Dutch attacks are very good, I lost another core Wehrmacht infantry that I sent out, isolated.
-I also ran out of prestige, mostly because I overstrengthed/elite reinforced away all of my 1000+ prestige that I accumulate up to now. I only did this to actually feel short of units. I think so far in France, the prestige is not quite as abundant as in Poland, which is good.
-On turn 12, a fortified Dutch unit in a forest activated! It had 6 entrenchment and looked like one of those AI units that would just sit there. Very nice, I’ve been wanting stuff like this for a long time.
-On turn 13, the AI did a human-esque move! Basically it retreated 2 infantry out of fortress terrain to cover one of its artillery, and the cover was perfect, I had no units that could reach the artillery now. I was sure the old AI would never do something this impressive.
-I know I couldn’t make DV, but after I captured 3 objectives the game still continued. So I captured all the objectives, and the game still continued. Rework the MV victory conditions, it should probably fire as soon as 3 objectives are held and there are 3 or fewer auxiliary units alive. As it stood, I used cheat codes to go to whatever scenario MV gives.
-Overall my favorite scenario thus far in the DLC, a masterpiece! I will have to pay attention from this scenario on.
-I know some human players don't like how good the Luftwaffe is so far, because it is basically invincible, while Stukas are incredibly powerful. I actually think this is just right, on more than one occasion I've called in Stukas to blast away opposing armor or strike at artillery, just like in history. I believe historically the stukas and the panzers (which were equipped with radio unlike the Allied tanks) communicated to each other and if a panzer commander can call in an air strike, stukas show up in half an hour for ground support. It is nice to see how the game mirrors this. The Germans did have air superiority during Fall Gelb, and again this is reflected quite well.
Campaign 40, Rommel
Moderators: Slitherine Core, The Lordz, Panzer Corps Moderators, Panzer Corps Design
Sedan
-Ah, starting out with 440 prestige. What shall I do? Regular reinforce, of course!
-Again a French infantry activated and flanked one of my artillery! I really have to start paying attention to these little maneuvers, which are very effective.
-Landed a Fallschirmjager near Raucourt, and what do I see except a mass of French tanks preparing to counterattack? These French units killed the offending Fallischirmjager, and let’s see whether they move up to attack.
-The French attempted to counterattack with tanks (I assume purchased with prestige) from Charlesville-Mezeires, but could not reach any of the VH in time.
-DV 15/18, lost two core units, including a veteran pioneer which was just destroyed by good French attacks. Well done.
-I think this scenario is mostly balanced, I’d put like 1 or 2 more infantry for the French to the north and south of Sedan to counterattack from the eastern side of the River after German units cross it. Just to make things interesting. All it’d really require are 1-2 German units to hold onto the VH hex of Sedan, but could surprise some unprepared players.
Maubeuge
-1.4k Prestige to start, meaning I gained about 1k, seem like quite a bit.
-The scenario objectives seem screwed up, there are no aux units in this battle, so for DV it doesn’t make sense that I have to “save” x. Double check the victory requirements.
-Stukas lead the way once more. What’s this, a French counterattack with cavalry? Not if my stukas get there. Oh no, a Matilda and a Cruiser blocking my way. Not for long once air support arrives.
-I like the British attacking piecemeal with their tanks, from a historical perspective that is appropriate. This is suboptimal tactics of course, but fine for here.
-Add a few more infantry to the British forces, historically the British did send over a lot of infantry but not that many tanks.
-Made DV with several turns to spare.
Arras
-DV is 7 objectives, MV is 6? They are too similar. I did see lots of British units near Arras, but it wasn’t a problem to defeat.
-Won DV in 10/24 turns, this mission is way too easy. Admittedly I did push my troops hard, and lost a PzIV and a PzIII, but still, way too easy.
-I’d add another British army. Also, should the German player’s forces capture 6 VH OR approach Arras, ALL the British forces should activate and attack. I never got to engage General Edmund or the British force in the northwest.
-Might want to give the British 2 or 3 more air units.
-The focus on tanks is fine, this map seem designed for a nice tank battle.
-Since this is supposed to be a defensive map, give the British the initiative.
-Yes, PzIIIs don’t do well against cruisers or Matilda IIs. But 88s completely crush them, and you are given 3 auxiliary ones, in addition to several anti-tank guns. The enemy strength needs to be buffed for this, but I’m not quite sure how. All in all, the difficulty here was too low compared to the challenge of the Hague for instance.
-Ah, starting out with 440 prestige. What shall I do? Regular reinforce, of course!
-Again a French infantry activated and flanked one of my artillery! I really have to start paying attention to these little maneuvers, which are very effective.
-Landed a Fallschirmjager near Raucourt, and what do I see except a mass of French tanks preparing to counterattack? These French units killed the offending Fallischirmjager, and let’s see whether they move up to attack.
-The French attempted to counterattack with tanks (I assume purchased with prestige) from Charlesville-Mezeires, but could not reach any of the VH in time.
-DV 15/18, lost two core units, including a veteran pioneer which was just destroyed by good French attacks. Well done.
-I think this scenario is mostly balanced, I’d put like 1 or 2 more infantry for the French to the north and south of Sedan to counterattack from the eastern side of the River after German units cross it. Just to make things interesting. All it’d really require are 1-2 German units to hold onto the VH hex of Sedan, but could surprise some unprepared players.
Maubeuge
-1.4k Prestige to start, meaning I gained about 1k, seem like quite a bit.
-The scenario objectives seem screwed up, there are no aux units in this battle, so for DV it doesn’t make sense that I have to “save” x. Double check the victory requirements.
-Stukas lead the way once more. What’s this, a French counterattack with cavalry? Not if my stukas get there. Oh no, a Matilda and a Cruiser blocking my way. Not for long once air support arrives.
-I like the British attacking piecemeal with their tanks, from a historical perspective that is appropriate. This is suboptimal tactics of course, but fine for here.
-Add a few more infantry to the British forces, historically the British did send over a lot of infantry but not that many tanks.
-Made DV with several turns to spare.
Arras
-DV is 7 objectives, MV is 6? They are too similar. I did see lots of British units near Arras, but it wasn’t a problem to defeat.
-Won DV in 10/24 turns, this mission is way too easy. Admittedly I did push my troops hard, and lost a PzIV and a PzIII, but still, way too easy.
-I’d add another British army. Also, should the German player’s forces capture 6 VH OR approach Arras, ALL the British forces should activate and attack. I never got to engage General Edmund or the British force in the northwest.
-Might want to give the British 2 or 3 more air units.
-The focus on tanks is fine, this map seem designed for a nice tank battle.
-Since this is supposed to be a defensive map, give the British the initiative.
-Yes, PzIIIs don’t do well against cruisers or Matilda IIs. But 88s completely crush them, and you are given 3 auxiliary ones, in addition to several anti-tank guns. The enemy strength needs to be buffed for this, but I’m not quite sure how. All in all, the difficulty here was too low compared to the challenge of the Hague for instance.
Mauberge is a strange problem, something went wrong with the pzloc file apparently. Definitely will need a fix there.
If you won Arras on turn 10 of 24, you encountered only about 40% of the total British units on the map. In other words, you blitzed them and pre-maturely ended the scenario... which is interesting if you think about it.
If you are faced with a defensive scenario, but you instead go for a risky gamble and surge forward, you can preempt the enemy offensive and demoralize them/force them to give up. If your gamble hadn't paid off though, you could have potentially ended up in a very bad situation. For example if the British units had all activated at once when you got too close to victory, they could have all slammed into you at once.
Even so, once a few more people experience this scenario and add in their input, it'll go through some tweaking, especially with objectives.
If you won Arras on turn 10 of 24, you encountered only about 40% of the total British units on the map. In other words, you blitzed them and pre-maturely ended the scenario... which is interesting if you think about it.
If you are faced with a defensive scenario, but you instead go for a risky gamble and surge forward, you can preempt the enemy offensive and demoralize them/force them to give up. If your gamble hadn't paid off though, you could have potentially ended up in a very bad situation. For example if the British units had all activated at once when you got too close to victory, they could have all slammed into you at once.
Even so, once a few more people experience this scenario and add in their input, it'll go through some tweaking, especially with objectives.
Calais
-Again the British strength and units and counterattacks are good, and this will surely sound like boasting, but through skillful maneuvers and a bit of luck I’ve on several occasions extricated my heavily damaged frontline units, put my forces in a nice defensive formation, then crushed the British armor completely. I think the AI did an admirable job, but basically I was too on fire this mission. I dare say I felt like Rommel himself, wrecking vastly superior Allied forces with tactical brilliance.
-A British spitfire actually engaged one of my BF109s and did a good job, they were fairly evenly matched.
-Made DV in 14/19 turns. Lost one recon unit. Despite my brilliant tactics and quick victory, this scenario should challenge most players adequately, due to the many high strength British units and that most VH have a reasonable number of defenders so they aren’t easy to grab. Lots of close terrain will punish a careless human player, but a skilled one can turn that into an advantage. I notice the AI does do a good job, where it can, of avoiding close terrain with armor.
Dunkirk
-Of course I have to play this scenario! I’m not waiting for orders, and if time High Command asks, I’m just running reconnaissance in force!
-A lot of swamp, nice touch, as Dunkirk was historically very swampy.
-Good British attacks, again and again I push my units forward too much, and I lost a PzIII, a PzIV, and one of my veteran SE units, the first SE infantry I got from Poland. Plus a recon car I think. Ah well, my tactical brilliance from the previous scenario couldn’t be maintained. Part of it was a desire on my part to rush for victory to force a British surrender, this scenario created that atmosphere very well.
-If I wanted to be more cautious, I probably wouldn’t have lost anything except the recon unit and the PzIV. The AI did a supremely good job of isolating and destroying it, almost like a human in a multiplayer match.
-The AI fought brilliantly for the most part, except when I approached the northeastern most VH with a recon car, and it moved units out of cities to attack it. Those units were heavily entrenched and guarding river passes, I feel they should not move out. In general units guarding bridgeheads shouldn’t move unless outflanked.
-HOWEVER, the victory conditions are bugged. I killed everything outside the Dunkirk pocket, wiped out every British ship on 14/16 turns, but I didn’t get a DV. I suspect there are probably more trains/ships that needed for DV. Plus the briefing didn’t say that VH were needed, yet there were several on the map. You need to get the victory conditions fixed. I recommend DV being capture all VH and kill most of the evacuation trains/ships, but not all of them. So I had to use cheat codes to get DV.
-I like the reinforcements that show up several turns in, but I think there is truly quite a few. Again on Manstein, that force isn’t so great, but on any other difficulty it is more than enough. I don’t know, it is probably fine, but maybe remove one or two of the torpedo boats.
-After taking De Panne (21, 5) I got a captured Matilda as a core unit, very, very interesting! Incredibly nice touch. Will we see captured T34 during Barbarossa? That would be sweet and historically accurate.
-This scenario has the potential to be one of the most exciting and probably one of the best of all time, but fix the bugs please!
-Again the British strength and units and counterattacks are good, and this will surely sound like boasting, but through skillful maneuvers and a bit of luck I’ve on several occasions extricated my heavily damaged frontline units, put my forces in a nice defensive formation, then crushed the British armor completely. I think the AI did an admirable job, but basically I was too on fire this mission. I dare say I felt like Rommel himself, wrecking vastly superior Allied forces with tactical brilliance.
-A British spitfire actually engaged one of my BF109s and did a good job, they were fairly evenly matched.
-Made DV in 14/19 turns. Lost one recon unit. Despite my brilliant tactics and quick victory, this scenario should challenge most players adequately, due to the many high strength British units and that most VH have a reasonable number of defenders so they aren’t easy to grab. Lots of close terrain will punish a careless human player, but a skilled one can turn that into an advantage. I notice the AI does do a good job, where it can, of avoiding close terrain with armor.
Dunkirk
-Of course I have to play this scenario! I’m not waiting for orders, and if time High Command asks, I’m just running reconnaissance in force!
-A lot of swamp, nice touch, as Dunkirk was historically very swampy.
-Good British attacks, again and again I push my units forward too much, and I lost a PzIII, a PzIV, and one of my veteran SE units, the first SE infantry I got from Poland. Plus a recon car I think. Ah well, my tactical brilliance from the previous scenario couldn’t be maintained. Part of it was a desire on my part to rush for victory to force a British surrender, this scenario created that atmosphere very well.
-If I wanted to be more cautious, I probably wouldn’t have lost anything except the recon unit and the PzIV. The AI did a supremely good job of isolating and destroying it, almost like a human in a multiplayer match.
-The AI fought brilliantly for the most part, except when I approached the northeastern most VH with a recon car, and it moved units out of cities to attack it. Those units were heavily entrenched and guarding river passes, I feel they should not move out. In general units guarding bridgeheads shouldn’t move unless outflanked.
-HOWEVER, the victory conditions are bugged. I killed everything outside the Dunkirk pocket, wiped out every British ship on 14/16 turns, but I didn’t get a DV. I suspect there are probably more trains/ships that needed for DV. Plus the briefing didn’t say that VH were needed, yet there were several on the map. You need to get the victory conditions fixed. I recommend DV being capture all VH and kill most of the evacuation trains/ships, but not all of them. So I had to use cheat codes to get DV.
-I like the reinforcements that show up several turns in, but I think there is truly quite a few. Again on Manstein, that force isn’t so great, but on any other difficulty it is more than enough. I don’t know, it is probably fine, but maybe remove one or two of the torpedo boats.
-After taking De Panne (21, 5) I got a captured Matilda as a core unit, very, very interesting! Incredibly nice touch. Will we see captured T34 during Barbarossa? That would be sweet and historically accurate.
-This scenario has the potential to be one of the most exciting and probably one of the best of all time, but fix the bugs please!
I underestimated the interesting in taking on the BEF over taking on the French.
I'll see what I can do about improving Maubeuge and Arras. I hope you play the French alternate path at some point, I think it will be a better indicator of the level of polish that Mauberge and Arras should of had.
I think Dunkirk is already fixed, but it was done too late to make it into the BETA package everyone received. Expect an improvement here either way.
I'll see what I can do about improving Maubeuge and Arras. I hope you play the French alternate path at some point, I think it will be a better indicator of the level of polish that Mauberge and Arras should of had.
I think Dunkirk is already fixed, but it was done too late to make it into the BETA package everyone received. Expect an improvement here either way.
Reims
-I lost a PzIV crossing the Aisne River, to a strong French counterattack from the east. After that, I positioned my units very well, and with consummate skill completely crushed the French attack force with minimal strength losses. Truly a callback to my brilliance at Calais. Otherwise the scenario was pretty good, I won 17/20 DV.
-Add a few more French units to oppose an advance from the west.
-Add maybe an artillery and two more infantry to Reims.
-Otherwise I think this is well designed. Honestly the French attacks from the east are very good, and I suspect many players may be surprised and/or suffer some losses from them.
Dijon
-A rush scenario huh? Recon cars should be invaluable then.
-A well designed rush scenario, there are a few points of enemy resistance but no major battles to speak of. Not too much to say, I pushed my panzers hard and made DV in 14/18. This large size of the map might give other players some trouble.
Maginot Line
-An interesting map, is this a semi-historical scenario? I mean, the Germans did attack the Maginot Line somewhat, but ultimately the French surrendered and the forts were disbanded after that. Very few were captured in the actual attack.
-Regardless, it wasn’t very hard, there’s no French air presence, and only a few tanks. A small counterattack by good French tanks from the south was fun, killed one of my core Wehrmacht that I left on a fortress hex.
-I tweaked my core slightly, added another pioneer and strategic bomber. Wouldn’t have mattered, made DV with several turns to spare. Not too hard.
-I dearly wish that with Fallschirmjager you have two options to deploy, either deploy them on ground or already in planes. Sometimes I just want my paratroops to proceed on foot at the start. As it stands, you have to purchase a vehicle to convert them to ground troops, but then they can’t board planes.
Campaign 40 overall thoughts:
Seems somewhat more buggy than Campaign 39, but the challenge is much higher, as is the fun factor. Missions have quite a nice variety. Lots of exciting battles. An unprepared player might struggle to get DV in some missions.
I would emphasize a bit more in the briefings about the weakness of the Allied air force/antiair and the advantages of using bombers. Having a few stukas are absolutely critical to a successful campaign, I think.
I think most players will enjoy Campaign 40 immensely, assuming the bugs are fixed and the missions balanced a bit more. I also think the veteran players will find the difficulty suitably challenging but not too hard, personally I wouldn’t mind if the missions were a bit harder. Although I have not played the French path, which I may do later.
One thing to note is that I never felt short of prestige, even on Rommel difficulty. This may be because I had quite a bit saved up from Poland. I suspect if I were to play Campaign 40 by itself, the prestige amount may be just about right, but still, I did use up most of my prestige at the Hague just to see how the rest of the campaign would play out. It might still be just a bit high.
I may play through again on Manstein difficulty, although I’ll wait for either a release version or an updated closed beta version.
-I lost a PzIV crossing the Aisne River, to a strong French counterattack from the east. After that, I positioned my units very well, and with consummate skill completely crushed the French attack force with minimal strength losses. Truly a callback to my brilliance at Calais. Otherwise the scenario was pretty good, I won 17/20 DV.
-Add a few more French units to oppose an advance from the west.
-Add maybe an artillery and two more infantry to Reims.
-Otherwise I think this is well designed. Honestly the French attacks from the east are very good, and I suspect many players may be surprised and/or suffer some losses from them.
Dijon
-A rush scenario huh? Recon cars should be invaluable then.
-A well designed rush scenario, there are a few points of enemy resistance but no major battles to speak of. Not too much to say, I pushed my panzers hard and made DV in 14/18. This large size of the map might give other players some trouble.
Maginot Line
-An interesting map, is this a semi-historical scenario? I mean, the Germans did attack the Maginot Line somewhat, but ultimately the French surrendered and the forts were disbanded after that. Very few were captured in the actual attack.
-Regardless, it wasn’t very hard, there’s no French air presence, and only a few tanks. A small counterattack by good French tanks from the south was fun, killed one of my core Wehrmacht that I left on a fortress hex.
-I tweaked my core slightly, added another pioneer and strategic bomber. Wouldn’t have mattered, made DV with several turns to spare. Not too hard.
-I dearly wish that with Fallschirmjager you have two options to deploy, either deploy them on ground or already in planes. Sometimes I just want my paratroops to proceed on foot at the start. As it stands, you have to purchase a vehicle to convert them to ground troops, but then they can’t board planes.
Campaign 40 overall thoughts:
Seems somewhat more buggy than Campaign 39, but the challenge is much higher, as is the fun factor. Missions have quite a nice variety. Lots of exciting battles. An unprepared player might struggle to get DV in some missions.
I would emphasize a bit more in the briefings about the weakness of the Allied air force/antiair and the advantages of using bombers. Having a few stukas are absolutely critical to a successful campaign, I think.
I think most players will enjoy Campaign 40 immensely, assuming the bugs are fixed and the missions balanced a bit more. I also think the veteran players will find the difficulty suitably challenging but not too hard, personally I wouldn’t mind if the missions were a bit harder. Although I have not played the French path, which I may do later.
One thing to note is that I never felt short of prestige, even on Rommel difficulty. This may be because I had quite a bit saved up from Poland. I suspect if I were to play Campaign 40 by itself, the prestige amount may be just about right, but still, I did use up most of my prestige at the Hague just to see how the rest of the campaign would play out. It might still be just a bit high.
I may play through again on Manstein difficulty, although I’ll wait for either a release version or an updated closed beta version.