Panzer Corps East - The struggle for Russia "Grand Strategy"

[nikivdd]

Impressive progress Chris but unfortunately you still have tough nuts to crack (AI scripting/testing and cursing). I'm curious about the number of units the player starts with btw and about all the different emblems for the units, how did you do that?

[Chris10]

Impressive progress Chris but unfortunately you still have tough nuts to crack (AI scripting/testing and cursing). I'm curious about the number of units the player starts with btw and about all the different emblems for the units, how did you do that?

thnx Nico...I hope I find some nutcracker on my way but anyway Iam trying to crack these nuts one at a time ...
with bear hands if I have to
I will do quick first alpha test only with starting armys when I have placed soviet units...just to get an overall feeling for the dynamics and I want to ckeck certain things like finding out how quick a player can reach the Moscow line...from there I will decide the final turn numbers and how the game will work out..the AI scripting doesnt give me that much headachel ..Iam more concerned about other things...
The balance is set by the historical result...I only have to work the math out correctly and no big testing is needed.
The only remaining question then is...can PanzerCorps armchair generals achieve a different result from history when given the same means
and facing the same odds ?

I'm curious about the number of units the player starts with btw and about all the different emblems for the units, how did you do that?

I would guess about 400 units for axis to start with (including country stock units like rear guards units etc..)
How did I what ?..The emblems..well..only unique units have these..so their number is stll manageable...
At game start there is only a few ground units like 1st,2nd,3rd and 5th SS and a bunch of air wings...it actually doesnt look bad ingame
and it gives these untis some extra immersive touch ..

3rd SS Totenkpf is in reserve of Army Group North


2nd SS Das Reich is in Panzer Group 2 in Army Group Center


1st SS LSSAH and 5th SS WIKING stand as reserves in Radomsko and Opoczno close to Lodz in the rear of Army Group South

[Chris10]

Finally the Karpathian Army Corps and Hungarian 1st, 2nd and 3rd Army have occupied their positions....

[Chris10]

So while tired of fiddeling around with units for the moment I compiled a completely new soundtrack consisting of new main menu music and a new ingame soundtrack of 25 minutes which will give the entire game the neccessary epic framework .

[airbornemongo101]

[4kEY]

So while tired of fiddeling around with units for the moment I compiled a completely new soundtrack consisting of new main menu music and a new ingame soundtrack of 25 minutes which will give the entire game the neccessary epic framework .

[Shrike]

Given the massive amount of units on both sides, I'm wondering how you will go about the number of allowed sea/air/train transports. This will have a very large impact on how this map plays.

Keep up the good work

[Chris10]

Given the massive amount of units on both sides, I'm wondering how you will go about the number of allowed sea/air/train transports. This will have a very large impact on how this map plays.

Yes...This is well intended and part of the "grand strategy setting". I hope I can create an enviroment where strategic deployment by rail and transport will become vital and highly important in order to overcome a lack of forces in certain areas (during a counterattack maybe or partisan raids) . Driving the Tigers and Elephants from Berlin to the Danube isnt quite an option, is it ?

Subject: A case of magically appearing enemy units

.....for me it wasn't so much about losing the core units in itself that was upsetting, but rather the degree of onslaught from a totally invisible enemy force. I had enemies spawn in the same hex as my own units (!), move next to them and block their movement.

well...I hope you wont be dissapointed but partisans always come out of the nowhere..thats why they are partisans...
with russian regular units its not supposed to happen though but the partisans can hit anytime/anywhere without notice

[Chris10]

Finally managed to deploy ALL axis ground units including rear and garrison untis...
479 axis ground units deployed...next is axis air units...then russian ground and russain air
this is exhausting...especially when deploying on correct positions with mostly correct names...once Iam done with
axis air I need a few days off...

[RobertCL]

Great!

Do you include partisan units in Yugoslavia preventing the player to move all his European units to the Russian border ?

When I see your map, the first thing I do if I know there will be no attack in my rear is to move all units I have (even in Berlin) to the Russian border so that they can reinforce all other units after the initial onslaught...

[Chris10]

___________________PanzerCorps East - The struggle for Russia_______________________


1st Ingame Footage

Showing ingame map, axis deployment, recon planes and new soundtrack ...
hope it meets up with expectations...once ingame everything seems even bigger....
I recommend watching full screen but its low quality since I didnt wanted to waste time in encoding big video

When I see your map, the first thing I do if I know there will be no attack in my rear is to move all units I have (even in Berlin) to the Russian border so that they can reinforce all other units after the initial onslaught...

If you do that you soon have a problem in your rear areas...

[airbornemongo101]

Love the recon aircraft Chris....great job

The music sounds great also.

I love the way the recon erases the fog of war....the clicking of the cameras is a nice touch

I can tell you did alot of research of the unit placement as well as the cities...awesome job and thanks for the effort

Oh..btw,did I mention I just love the recon wings??

[4kEY]

King Arthur! YES!

I have a shortened track #3 as part of the in-game playlist, but I used almost the entire album the last time I played through the Eastern Front

[RobertCL]

Excellent, I love the recon aircraft with specific sound...

Excellent map too, surely the best mod for Pz Korps!

OK the game remains real: impossible to forget Tito's partisans...

I know I already raised the question but isn't it a possibility to win the war on the Eastern front (even at easiest level) ?
I know you told me Russians troops will be so strong that victory would be impossible.
I just thought the player should have the hope to win the campaign (even if this is not realistic from a historical point of view).

[naughtybalrog]

Great idea to have Hans Zimmer's King Arthur music - truly epic in nature! Funny, I already have that playing in the background when involved in combat operations...

Digging the Recon Move for recon aircraft.

[Tarrak]

"Unfortunately, this EMI-music-content is not available in Germany because GEMA has not granted the respective music publishing rights."
Sigh bloody content industry lobby .. where is my trustworthy Tiger when you need one to pay them a visit. Will watch the video later when i find time to fiddle around with proxies.

[Shrike]

Subject: A case of magically appearing enemy units

.....for me it wasn't so much about losing the core units in itself that was upsetting, but rather the degree of onslaught from a totally invisible enemy force. I had enemies spawn in the same hex as my own units (!), move next to them and block their movement.

well...I hope you wont be dissapointed but partisans always come out of the nowhere..thats why they are partisans...
with russian regular units its not supposed to happen though but the partisans can hit anytime/anywhere without notice

Given the size of your map, I hardly expect the same to happen as when I got cornered on the Messina map

Those recon planes in your movie look nice btw! Did you use Fraps to check the frame rate in game? Makes me curious about your hardware setup. I went ahead and built a new machine a while back, but currently it's only got video form the CPU's built-in GPU, which has sufficed for playing Panzer Corps comfortably so far.

[Chris10]

thnx guys...
glad you are enthusiastic about the project...I give my very best in order to try to make this the definite Panzer General game...something you can still come back to even after years in order to try a different strategy..to find the perfect turns to play the perfect campaign...

"Unfortunately, this EMI-music-content is not available in Germany because GEMA has not granted the respective music publishing rights."
Sigh bloody content industry lobby .. where is my trustworthy Tiger when you need one to pay them a visit. Will watch the video later when i find time to fiddle around with proxies.

Dont you worry...for my fellow countrymen in Germany where Youtube blocks the video cause of the hilarious quarrel between super greedy GEMA and Youtube I add a link...simply download the mp4 video and watch it at your PC...its only 15Mb...
http://www.file-upload.net/download-670 ... e.mp4.html

I know I already raised the question but isn't it a possibility to win the war on the Eastern front (even at easiest level) ?
I know you told me Russians troops will be so strong that victory would be impossible.
I just thought the player should have the hope to win the campaign (even if this is not realistic from a historical point of view).

I didnt said its impossible to win...My goal is only to recreate the comparitive strength of both sides and then let players find out if it was impossible or if it could have been done with the given forces....
On a sidenote: After loosing 6th Army at Stalingrad the german army was still strong enough to reach a complete stalemate in the east (maybe more with the arrival of Panthers,Tigers and other high tech german equipment like the 1st Assault Rifle Stg44) as it was tactical far superior and the combat value of a german division was still surpassing the combat value of a comparitive russain division multiple times (1 german division equaled aprox 2-3 russian divisions) but due to overall wrong strategic decisions and Hitlers constant fiddeling with military operations down to the brigade/regiment level made an effective usage of the Wehrmachts real strength (mobile/blitzkrieg warfare, yes Blitzkireg work in defense too > see Charkow beginning 43..10 russian divisions outmaneuvered and destroyed or severly damaged) impossible..instead it was weared down in an attrition war forced upon the army by Hitlers oder to defend each meter of ground with a static defense...
So ultimately i dont know if you can win..I think you can...but its up to each players personal skill level and the set ingame difficulty I suppose

Those recon planes in your movie look nice btw! Did you use Fraps to check the frame rate in game? Makes me curious about your hardware setup. I went ahead and built a new machine a while back, but currently it's only got video form the CPU's built-in GPU, which has sufficed for playing Panzer Corps comfortably so far.

I only have an average rig, lower middle class...I5 Quadcore, 4GB RAM, 1GB Nvidia GT430...nothing from another world
I dont know...these frames are supposed not to show up in the video ...have to check the fraps manual...
since this is an IGOYOUGO game framerates are sort of irrelevant as when you dont do nothing nothing is moving anyway...and generally the whole frame issue is utterly overrrated and over discussed as anything above 35 per second can not be detected by the human eye anyway ...

[4kEY]

I didnt said its impossible to win...My goal is only to recreate the comparitive strength of both sides and then let players find out if it was impossible or if it could have been done with the given forces....
On a sidenote: After loosing 6th Army at Stalingrad the german army was still strong enough to reach a complete stalemate in the east (maybe more with the arrival of Panthers,Tigers and other high tech german equipment like the 1st Assault Rifle Stg44) as it was tactical far superior and the combat value of a german division was still surpassing the combat value of a comparitive russain division multiple times (1 german division equaled aprox 2-3 russian divisions) but due to overall wrong strategic decisions and Hitlers constant fiddeling with military operations down to the brigade/regiment level made an effective usage of the Wehrmachts real strength (mobile/blitzkrieg warfare, yes Blitzkireg work in defense too > see Charkow beginning 43..10 russian divisions outmaneuvered and destroyed or severly damaged) impossible..instead it was weared down in an attrition war forced upon the army by Hitlers oder to defend each meter of ground with a static defense...
So ultimately i dont know if you can win..I think you can...but its up to each players personal skill level and the set ingame difficulty I suppose

Independence Of Command.

[blindsey]

Chris
I just noticed that version 1.11 and GC '42-'43 West are available, so I just downloaded them. Will your Mod be compatible with v1.11 or should I hold off and leave it at 1.10?
Regards,
BLindsey