DLC 42/43 West BETA 2 Changelog

[Kerensky]

We strongly encourage players to test out the new early scenarios, but we especially need more feedback on the later scenarios of Sicily and Italy especially. As always, thanks for all of your input and help to make the best DLC campaigns we can!

Increased core size for all scenarios except St. Nazaire.
Prestige will now reset near the start of St. Nazaire scenario.
Various text corrections.
A few visual map improvements.
Increased some late scenario prestige rewards
Added some more historical flavor text

St. Naizare
All references to this scenario renamed to St Nazaire (A glitch actually forces us to use the mispelled scenario name for now, but this will definitely be corrected for release)
Campbeltown should no longer get stuck at the wrong location and the raiders will always assault the docks.
Campbeltown is now extremely difficult to destroy
Improved pre-made CORE
Images for pre-placed heroes now display correctly

Bayonne
Removed short range Allied aircraft

Hardelot
Panzer IILuchs replaced with Panzer IIF (this is why we can't have nice things)
Added some entrenchment to all installation structures

Dieppe
Fixed a problem where Allied infantry units were being placed at incorrect locations
Scenario will now end in Decisive victory instantly if all Victory Hexes have been captured by the player
Reduced turn count by 1
Moved a few Wehr Reserve away from the coast and reduced their strength
Buffed a few Allied fighters
Removed one captured Churchill

Gironde
Fixed issue where ground units could walk across Naval mines
Changed all references to this scenario to Gironde
Removed four Allied tank units to decrease pressure on player forces

Syracuse
Removed Italian infantry from 3,13
Added an additional trigger in the event that enough Italians have been evacuated, turns run out, and there are still Italians left behind on the map to reward Decisive Victory.

Etna Line North AND South
Added 150 prestige per turn to German player
Added more difficult terrain around VH nearest Allied advance to create better defensive advantage for player to hold these positions
Added a warning for when the player should expect the final and most powerful Allied force to attack. Also added a reminder that Italian AUX need to be evacuated.
Added a few out of the way evacuation zones throughout the map to allow for Italian AUX forces to be heavily engaged in battle but also still have enough time to be evacuated.

Messina
Fixed a problem where Allied units were being placed at incorrect locations
Increased strength of Allied ground forces
Decisive Victory has been reworked significantly
At least 18 ground units must now be evacuated. The 4 AUX AD units already on the Italian mainland do count towards this total.
Allies must be held to 2 or less victory hexes controlled, so a defensive line must be maintained in Sicily
Decisive Victory now awards the player with advanced equipment, to match increased difficulty and the need to preserve Italian units from last several scenarios
Allied aircraft have been added to attack waves

Taranto
Adjusted AI settings for allied units in naval transport
Added fuel to recon flight unit
Added a pair of capturable Italian units

Salerno Landing
Removed one victory hex from the map
Trimmed Allied second air wave slightly
Added a german airfield

Salerno Counter Attack
Increased turn total to 20
Adjusted P51B
Added capturable unit

Volturno Line
Reduced american bridge engineers to only one unit that is now randomly placed

[Kerensky]

Reposted information:

The fun stuff
Afrika Expansion brought a wealth of new features to Panzer Corps, and the new West Front DLC aim to make the most of these. To that end, we are particularly interested in feedback regarding new scenario types and objectives. Is any wording confusing? Were you not able to understand a mission's objectives? Did you find any bugs with triggers and scripts?

While dealing with commando raiding in France, you might notice not only is your CORE pretty small, there isn't a whole lot of prestige to go around either. At the same time, you will notice you are constantly 'fed' a variety of units, many of them units you would not normally be able to buy. It's up to you to decide if you wish to keep and to use these units provided, or you can disband them for prestige during deployment phases to re-use the prestige as you see fit. Thoughts and comments on this method are very much encouraged.

Once the campaign moves to Sicily, the role of Italians takes on a new life. These maps have been configured in such a way, you can actually bring auxiliary units with you from map to map. So if you don't throw them all away in the first scenario you see all the Italian auxiliaries, you can actually get some good use out of them through-out the Sicilian campaign. The idea was to organize Italians in such a way that:
They are still aux, thus not taking up CORE slots.
They aren't totally expendable, it helps to keep them alive and cart them around for a few scenarios.
They help a lot in boosting your CORE size, as you would otherwise be quite restricted in how many units you could deploy on the field.

General information
With the re-introduction of the DLC campaigns, we wanted to give these new DLC a new flavor. While late war East Front DLC mostly contained very large and very tank orientated scenarios and combat, this does not really reflect an accurate picture of what was going on in the West Front. To better emulate this, and also to give new DLC some nice variety, West Front DLC CORE sizes are significantly smaller than equivalent East Front years. While it is possible to important a 1941 CORE into 42/43 West, after this point the two mega-campaigns will no longer be interchangeable. In other words, DLC 43 West cannot import into DLC 44 East, and DLC 44 East cannot import into DLC 45 West.



Scenario listing:
St. Nazaire
Bayonne
Hardelot
Dieppe
Gironde

Syracuse
Etna Line North
Etna Line South
Messina

Salerno Landing
Salerno Counter-Attack
Catanzaro
Taranto
Volturno Line

Campaign layout:
Campaign divides after Syracuse, players can either play Etna North or Etna South.
Campaign divides again after Messina, players can either play Salerno scenarios or Catazaro and Taranto.


Good luck, have fun, and we look forward to your feedback!

[Zhivago]

I haven't gotten the Beta 2 key E-mail. Is there a delay?

[IainMcNeil]

It was sent Friday afternoon.

[Zhivago]

It was sent Friday afternoon.

Never got it, but others on the forum helped me figure out how to install the September 21, 2012 version of the game, and my passcode from the September 14, 2012 worked during the install.

[ThvN]

I went through the beta2 DLC campaign, should I try to (re)play certain scenarios that require extra feedback? I did the Salerno ones mostly because I saw the least feedback on those, I hope it was helpful. I don't know if there will be another beta version, so if any scenarios need more feedback just let me know, I have some time to spare the next few days.

[Kerensky]

At this point, we're looking to wrap up this BETA pretty shortly. I would say if you have any more particular feedback you feel is important, now is the time to share, but for the most part we aren't looking for more. We've received an overwhelming amount of good feedback, and it's been a great help in fixing this DLC up and generally improving it before it becomes available publicly.

[msu7151]

I have now played this scenario many times. Normally I play as a LT. and sometimes as a Col. However, in this scenario, as a LT. I can get through the first battle and sometijmes the second, after that I get killed. The second battle kills off most of my units and I can';t compete anymore. It appears to me that this scenarion is just way too difficult. As a Sgt. I can win, but the enemy is so wimpy that its like taking candy from a baby.