Tank Destroyers in Panzer Corps campaign game

[testarossa]

New to the forum after just stumbling on Panzer Corps a few weeks ago. My all-time favorite is Panzer General, but now have a new obsession with Panzer Corps.

In the old Panzer General architecture it seems to me there was an advantage with having a TD or two to engage other TD's. Reason being that the TD's in PG had the highest initiative, but only aginst non-tank opponents. Does that hold true in Panzer Corps, and is it worth it in the campaign game to have a TD unit?

Testy

[Tarrak]

TD's are defensive weapons. They usually got stronger hard attack values then similar tanks and are cheaper. The initiative is about same as comparable tanks. The main advantage of the TD's is their lower price. The downside is TD's, and all fixed turret vehicles, suffer an initiative penalty when attacking. As you are mostly on the offensive in PC and PG, tho this changes often in DLC 43 and later, and prestige seldom is the limit factor but rather core slots are you get more bang per core slot from tanks then TD's. This doesn't mean TD's are bad or useless, they are fine but i personally prefer tanks over TD's.

[deducter]

TD's are defensive weapons. They usually got stronger hard attack values then similar tanks and are cheaper. The initiative is about same as comparable tanks. The main advantage of the TD's is their lower price. The downside is TD's, and all fixed turret vehicles, suffer an initiative penalty when attacking. As you are mostly on the offensive in PC and PG, tho this changes often in DLC 43 and later, and prestige seldom is the limit factor but rather core slots are you get more bang per core slot from tanks then TD's. This doesn't mean TD's are bad or useless, they are fine but i personally prefer tanks over TD's.

Actually this is not the case. AT units generally have -3 INI relative to its tank equivalent, for instance, the JagdPanther and the Tiger II have the same gun, but the JagdPanther has INI = 11 while the Tiger II has INI = 14. This is because when a AT unit is attacked by a unit with a turret (tanks and recon), the AT unit gains a hardcoded +3 INI. This rule is especially useful in bad weather and when AT units are attacked by tanks in close terrain.

[Tarrak]

You are right Deducter. I stand corrected. I was comparing the Jagdpanther to the Panther and not the Tiger so obviously you are right when comparing the same guns TD's get less Initiative. But there is a further initiative penalty when attacking a tank with a TD isn't it?

[deducter]

You are right Deducter. I stand corrected. I was comparing the Jagdpanther to the Panther and not the Tiger so obviously you are right when comparing the same guns TD's get less Initiative. But there is a further initiative penalty when attacking a tank with a TD isn't it?

There isn't a further INI penalty. That was back before patch v1.03, when TD has the same INI as tanks but had a penalty to INI when attacking.

[testarossa]

So seems like Panzer Corps adds initiative when an ATG/TD is attacked by a tank, wheras it was a fixed intiative in this case in PG. In the opposite case in Panzer Corps when the ATG/TD attacks the tank, its initiative remains fixed (set lower than equivalent tank) but in PG there was an initiative debit to counter. Seems like in tank vs td the relative initiatives are relatively equal, but in TD vs other targets the Panzer Corps initiatives may be lower, but relatively high and probably adequate to get the first shot on other targets