Mareth Line

[johndoe2]

Anyone played Mareth Line yet? Balanced? Thoughts?

[johndoe2]

Experience? What experience?
Prestige? What prestige?
Won the battle - lost the war.

I would have liked to see this scripting in Prokhorovka (Kursk) and especially Seelow Heights - here is bit harsh. Harsh mainly because of the starting scenarios and lack of prestige to keep your units gaining experience. They're not and this hits you hard latter on - won the battle - lost the war.
Of course there is only one scenario left Tunisia so there is slight hope I might win another battle. Still my feeling is that bit more prestige early on would have made things more fun in the long run.



Spoilers (kind of)

[johndoe2]

Almost forgot - why do I have to lose at Alam Halfa in order to play the historical path? Shouldn't this be made optional?

Actually it should have been made optional

Thanks to Tarrak for posting the campaign tree otherwise I would have gone the other way

[Kamerer]

I have played through Mareth from the beginning on "Rommel" and found it a winnable scenario on that level of reduced prestige. The entire DAK - either path - is winnable on that reduced prestige level. I used a cheat code to force/toggle a loss at Alam el Halfa so I could go that route to play the historical scenarios.

The DLCs give easy opponents early on (39 to 41) so other than the first few Poland scenarios, you bank a lot of prestige while you are learning to get the technique right. Which is historically accurate. DAK is not as long, so you have to be efficient from the start to succeed with minimal prestige. Which is also historically accurate.

I agree it would be perhaps a little better to make the "historic" path more obvious or optional as I just don't think too many people will lose at Alam el Halfa the way it is structured. But I understand why you have to lose there (Alam el Halfa) to go that path - because that is how it played out in history. Had the DAK won there, and ULTRA neutralized, the alternate path was a real possibility.

[Bonners]

I guess this is the place for this question. Playing the Mareth Line, I have a message 'Mission Objectives have changed', preceded by a message saying 'the enemy has outflanked us'. The only thing is I cant see in what way the objectives have changed?

Spoiler....



...the only thing I can see is that Gabes is an objective hex, was it always an objective?

[johndoe2]

Honestly I did not pay attention, I presumed the message is just a warning that out of the desert something evil is coming my way and acted accordingly

By the way I started this scenario with 4890 prestige and ended up with 605 Lost few units as well (including a tiger)
Don't even want to start thinking playing Tunisia

[Bonners]

Honestly I did not pay attention, I presumed the message is just a warning that out of the desert something evil is coming my way and acted accordingly

By the way I started this scenario with 4890 prestige and ended up with 605 Lost few units as well (including a tiger)
Don't even want to start thinking playing Tunisia

Just started Tunisia now, played the first turn and gulp!

Anyway, finished Mareth Line, and yes, checked on an earlier save and that was the change, which actually worked out well for me. My headlong retreat to Gabes actually worked in my favour, got them away from their artillery and AA and managed to pulverize their forces in the open and somehow managed to get a DV on the last turn. Much good did it do me, IIRC had a couple of hundred prestige for taking the objs at the end of the scenario and that was it. With the prestige for a DV I havent even been able to get enough units back up to strength to fill all the slots, so I've started with a few units at 5 or 6 strength in Tunisia; yes I got the Mareth line DV but at too high a cost! Loved it!

[johndoe2]

Buy the way how did you fare at Kasserine ?

After the easy victory at El Alamain I went pretty relaxed - imagine my surprise when I got one big fat LOSS on my screen
Can't remember any scenario where I got loss before...

[Bonners]

Buy the way how did you fare at Kasserine ?

After the easy victory at El Alamain I went pretty relaxed - imagine my surprise when I got one big fat LOSS on my screen
Can't remember any scenario where I got loss before...

I thought it was fairly straightforward TBH. No mucking about, just two straight thrusts up each road. Just remember when sorting which units is that you only need a few attacking units on each axis of advance, then you keep swapping them out. Cant remember my exact mix, but I know I used every artillery piece and aircraft available to keep plugging away. The important thing was to just keep moving and destroy every unit along the way. On the left hand advance I stopped to take out every unit on the flank to stop them bothering me later. I reckon that was the right move. Again it was time that became a factor as IIRC it was another DV on the very last turn.

[johndoe2]

Interesting, my strategy (the second time around) differs completely. I felt that it was BECAUSE of the planes and stopping to destroy the few troops in the lover left that I lost the game. The second time around left the planes home and used arty instead, bypassed the enemy troops on the lover left. It was the right decision for me.
The enemy planes hit against my AA and got finished my by lone SE plane. As to the bypassed troops I was happy to see them leave the security of the mountainous terrain and entrenchment to get slaughtered in the open field by the two panzer I left behind. So much easier then fighting them in the mountains. Still I got DV no sooner than the last turn...