Grand Campaign Unit Revisions - Update for GC42-43West

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orlinos
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Re: Grand Campaign Unit Revisions - Update for PzC v1.10

Post by orlinos »

deducter wrote:[...] I'd love to hear about Kiev43 [...]

O. My. God.

I have finished 1943 and I’m starting Korsun Pocket with 6555 prestige. Is it enough for 1944? I have spent most of it on fighter elite replacements.
EDIT: I do have quite a few almost unused captured units but I itend only to sell them in the darkest hours...

Crawl through the south part of the Kiev43 map was generally OK, apart from the fact that these damn paratroopers are mean killing machines. One of them took 3 point of my 2 star Tiger. In clear weather… I finally killed everything in the south but did not dare cross the river.

The Kiev itself… I did much better with Russian fighters this time. I bought a second Focke Wolf (upgraded it from a +2 Ini hero fighter). Overstrengthened, they were great at protecting other planes and ground units. Other fighters I often kept behind, but the Reds molested them anyway, despite high experience.

Bf 110G works great as a bomber killer. I still have 14 strength points on it (haven’t used it for a while) and it killed most Russian bombers in one shot. Of course, I took great precautions to screen it properly.

I had two 88 guns, an SdKfz 7/1, an SdKfz 7/2, a 2 cm Flavierling 38, and one FlaK 3,7 cm with no transport (very cheap but quite powerful.) I learned it pays well to have a diverse range of AA guns – those with higher ROF are good at suppression - so they protect ground units from harm, the more powerful ones I used to actually kill things. Haven’t yet bought a flakpanzer, but the auxiliary ones seemed OK. At least OK in screening they did not do much killing.

I still have trouble adjusting to a totally different style of play. Towed artillery is better kept in the back during defense, since otherwise it will be destroyed. I have two Range heroes, so I used them to take some points of enemy artillery. Still, only AI’s stupidity saved me from enforced surrender on few occasions.

I used shuffle technique to make enemy tanks enter city hexes – I moved my infantry back and forth, sometimes taking them out completely to reinforce and leaving a StuG IIIG inside. Also, I often took back a Victory Hex with recon unit and then moved it out. Without this technique I probably wouldn’t succeed.

“Shuffle” must be used extremely carefully, on my first tries it often ended with Russian infantry just pouring in and slowly depleting ammo and strength points. I need to guard chokepoints well.

I’m scared of 1944. At this point, I definitely need prestige, fast.

EDIT:

I do not know how they will work in 1944,but I had great trouble using Stukas. They became one-hit units, since Russian fighters would concentrate on them and hit very hard even through cover. I had more luck with Fw 190F, it did less damage, but wasn't reduced to half strenght after one attack.
Piotr 'Orlinos' Kozlowski
4kEY
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Re: Grand Campaign Unit Revisions - Update for GC42-43West

Post by 4kEY »

deducter wrote: You want to try to unlearn the concept of overstrengthing all artillery and all bombers, which was by far the best use of prestige in the stock eqp file, but this is no longer the case.
Deducter, why exactly is this? Mechanically speaking. I thought overstrength increased ROF? (I did notice an overstrength 350 exp 17cm did not have increased ROF with v1.84)


I'm very happy with the way the Russian campaign plays. Not too easy, generally - the Russian heavy tanks aren't tough when served with combined arms. The most casualties I've taken have been in dealing with Soviet aircraft. I never know where they're gonna show up and don't like to deploy flak yet. A few other comments: At Minsk41 I upgraded a 10.5 with an A3 bonus into a 17cm to aid with the siege of Brest-Litovsk, only to find the gun was completely worthless until I reminded myself that the total attack must be higher than the total defense of the unit being pummeled. I ended up waiting for Karl to catch up. THAT is an awesome gun. / At Smolensk there was an instance where I said to myself, laughing, "stupid russians"...after being most pleased with myself. I lost focus and made a stupid mistake which lost a unit on the next turn. I call this the Hitler Maneuver :mrgreen: / Zhitomir, the situation south of the Teteriv River - Korostyshiv and Kocheriv - (and the bridgehead at Krasnobirka) - combined with having to halt North of Kiev out of necessity was probably the most fun I've had with the mod so far.

edit: I updated to the latest version. The +1 ROF on the 17cm seems to be a notable improvement. Keeping the ammo at 4 is good.
deducter
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Re: Grand Campaign Unit Revisions - Update for GC42-43West

Post by deducter »

4kEY wrote:
deducter wrote: You want to try to unlearn the concept of overstrengthing all artillery and all bombers, which was by far the best use of prestige in the stock eqp file, but this is no longer the case.
Deducter, why exactly is this? Mechanically speaking. I thought overstrength increased ROF? (I did notice an overstrength 350 exp 17cm did not have increased ROF with v1.84)


I'm very happy with the way the Russian campaign plays. Not too easy, generally - the Russian heavy tanks aren't tough when served with combined arms. The most casualties I've taken have been in dealing with Soviet aircraft. I never know where they're gonna show up and don't like to deploy flak yet. A few other comments: At Minsk41 I upgraded a 10.5 with an A3 bonus into a 17cm to aid with the siege of Brest-Litovsk, only to find the gun was completely worthless until I reminded myself that the total attack must be higher than the total defense of the unit being pummeled. I ended up waiting for Karl to catch up. THAT is an awesome gun. / At Smolensk there was an instance where I said to myself, laughing, "stupid russians"...after being most pleased with myself. I lost focus and made a stupid mistake which lost a unit on the next turn. I call this the Hitler Maneuver :mrgreen: / Zhitomir, the situation south of the Teteriv River - Korostyshiv and Kocheriv - (and the bridgehead at Krasnobirka) - combined with having to halt North of Kiev out of necessity was probably the most fun I've had with the mod so far.

edit: I updated to the latest version. The +1 ROF on the 17cm seems to be a notable improvement. Keeping the ammo at 4 is good.
Rate of Fire (ROF) is a hidden attribute that cannot be seen on the purchase screen, but it can be seen in the combat log and in the equipment file. A unit's current strength multiplied by its ROF determines how many dice rolls it gets in combat. In practice this a bit more complicated, since the number of dice rolls for "melee" units depends on initiative and some combat dice roll values. But stacking strength points (and hence dice rolls) for ranged units guarantees extra dice rolls. Furthermore, artillery and bombers are really cheap in the default equipment file, and the AI isn't always the brightest when it comes to dealing with those units (although since patch v1.10 the AI is very fond of switching its assault guns to artillery mode to attack the player's artillery, but I reduced that tendency in v1.90 of my mod).

The other good use of overstrength is on units with high INI and Attack that are also reasonably cheap. This is why overstrength Tigers, Panthers, and especially King Tigers are really good in the default equipment file. Those units can fire first and prevent the AI from attacking back and knocking off the player's strength points. This creates a snowball effect, where the more you elite reinforce and overstrength your Tigers/Panthers, the more prestige you end up with. This effect is obvious to powergamers, and I actually voiced this concern way back in GC42East beta testing, but during GC43East testing a lot of players hated not being able to field the best units at maximum experience/strength, and that's what the default powergaming state ended up like.

In MP play, a common mistake I see is that players always go for the best, most expensive units, because those work the best against the AI. That doesn't work out due to the very limited prestige and the much more skillful play of top MP players. The stock eqp file is balanced quite well for MP play (although improvements could still be made) but not for 70-scenario long campaigns against the AI.

The way I addressed this issue in 1943 is
1)I made elite reinforcements and especially overstrength much more expensive
2)I made normal reinforcements more attractive by reducing the experience penalty lost and upping the rate gain for units with 200exp or greater
3)I made the ranged units (artillery) and the best German units with high attack and INI like the Fallschirmsjäger, Panthers/Tigers much more expensive. Actually in all these cases I've improved their stats when compared with the stock eqp file, but it's balanced by having them be more expensive.

As for Brest, the fortress there is a special unit with super high defenses, and only the Karl Gerät will reliably kill it. No standard German artillery works. Also keep in mind that the 17 cm artillery is meant as a Corps-level special unit and you aren't really meant to mass deploy them. The 10.5 cm and 15 cm were the standard divisional-level artillery and are meant to be the most commonly used units. I use them from 1939-1945.
deducter
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Re: Grand Campaign Unit Revisions - Update for PzC v1.10

Post by deducter »

orlinos wrote:
deducter wrote:[...] I'd love to hear about Kiev43 [...]

O. My. God.

I have finished 1943 and I’m starting Korsun Pocket with 6555 prestige. Is it enough for 1944? I have spent most of it on fighter elite replacements.
EDIT: I do have quite a few almost unused captured units but I itend only to sell them in the darkest hours...

Crawl through the south part of the Kiev43 map was generally OK, apart from the fact that these damn paratroopers are mean killing machines. One of them took 3 point of my 2 star Tiger. In clear weather… I finally killed everything in the south but did not dare cross the river.

The Kiev itself… I did much better with Russian fighters this time. I bought a second Focke Wolf (upgraded it from a +2 Ini hero fighter). Overstrengthened, they were great at protecting other planes and ground units. Other fighters I often kept behind, but the Reds molested them anyway, despite high experience.

Bf 110G works great as a bomber killer. I still have 14 strength points on it (haven’t used it for a while) and it killed most Russian bombers in one shot. Of course, I took great precautions to screen it properly.

I had two 88 guns, an SdKfz 7/1, an SdKfz 7/2, a 2 cm Flavierling 38, and one FlaK 3,7 cm with no transport (very cheap but quite powerful.) I learned it pays well to have a diverse range of AA guns – those with higher ROF are good at suppression - so they protect ground units from harm, the more powerful ones I used to actually kill things. Haven’t yet bought a flakpanzer, but the auxiliary ones seemed OK. At least OK in screening they did not do much killing.

I still have trouble adjusting to a totally different style of play. Towed artillery is better kept in the back during defense, since otherwise it will be destroyed. I have two Range heroes, so I used them to take some points of enemy artillery. Still, only AI’s stupidity saved me from enforced surrender on few occasions.

I used shuffle technique to make enemy tanks enter city hexes – I moved my infantry back and forth, sometimes taking them out completely to reinforce and leaving a StuG IIIG inside. Also, I often took back a Victory Hex with recon unit and then moved it out. Without this technique I probably wouldn’t succeed.

“Shuffle” must be used extremely carefully, on my first tries it often ended with Russian infantry just pouring in and slowly depleting ammo and strength points. I need to guard chokepoints well.

I’m scared of 1944. At this point, I definitely need prestige, fast.

EDIT:

I do not know how they will work in 1944,but I had great trouble using Stukas. They became one-hit units, since Russian fighters would concentrate on them and hit very hard even through cover. I had more luck with Fw 190F, it did less damage, but wasn't reduced to half strenght after one attack.
6000 prestige is plenty for a player who has seen the content before and has pretty good tactical skills. But if you've never seen the battles, well, that can be rough. Given that it's your first playthrough, don't feel bad about giving yourself a couple extra thousand prestige via cheat codes. And try to settle for MVs instead of DVs.

I highly recommend upgrading your towed AA guns (except the 88s or the 12.8 cm one) to the mobile versions. The FlakPanzers in particular are good quite, and the AI won't often attack them with artillery/bombers.

Don't underestimate high defense artillery like the StuH 42, StuG IV, or the Grille.

As for the air war, another trick is to pay attention to the type of fighter the Soviets use. The Bf 109G is a a favorite, especially with heroes, against the La-5FN or other inferior models. But it suffers against the advanced Soviet fighters, especially the Yak-3 and La-7. The Fw 190 series can take on any Soviet fighter (with the exception of the Yak-9U) with good results. The best way to tackle the Soviets is to let them attack, wear them down with FlaK, and counterattack with your own fighters. But losses are inevitable in 1944, and you might want to switch more to AA and deploy only your strongest fighters with the best heroes.

I personally don't even like to use Stukas in 1944, although I usually keep one around to be my "Hans Ulrich Rudel." The Fw 190F and Fw 190G are both quite powerful and durable, so I think employing them is a better choice if you're worried about survivability.

The Bf 110G is best to unleash on those pesky Il-2s. If you can knock out their fighter cover, the Bf 110G will devastate them with ease. But fighter cover for it is vital, or, alternatively, be sure that the AI can't get spotting on it.
borsook79
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Re: Grand Campaign Unit Revisions - Update for GC42-43West

Post by borsook79 »

I have just tried the mod out, I must say that I love the rebalancing between the units, finally, more unit types work and make sense. Great job with that!

What I do not like, and frankly do not understand, is why so many unit types are not available anymore - Koening Tiger, Elephant etc. I guess this might be for historical realism, but this takes away a lot of choice and a lot of fun... it would be great to have an even more softcore version, that does not take away any units.
"Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it." - G.B. Shaw
orlinos
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Re: Grand Campaign Unit Revisions - Update for GC42-43West

Post by orlinos »

Borsook wrote:I have just tried the mod out, I must say that I love the rebalancing between the units, finally, more unit types work and make sense. Great job with that!

What I do not like, and frankly do not understand, is why so many unit types are not available anymore - Koening Tiger, Elephant etc. I guess this might be for historical realism, but this takes away a lot of choice and a lot of fun... it would be great to have an even more softcore version, that does not take away any units.
But they do are available! King Tiger is moved to the start of Vilna, Elephant is only available to get once - just before Kursk - so you either get only one unit (like I did - with reform units cheat it will never leave me permanently) or have to heavily invest in few more. Which I think is fair, because it's a super unit and gameplay would suffer if players could field too many.

I think only Do 335A and Maus are truly anavailable (also Maus is capturable, if I understand correctly). Kavallerie used to be unavailable at the beginning, but it is no longer a case.
Piotr 'Orlinos' Kozlowski
deducter
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Re: Grand Campaign Unit Revisions - Update for GC42-43West

Post by deducter »

Borsook wrote:I have just tried the mod out, I must say that I love the rebalancing between the units, finally, more unit types work and make sense. Great job with that!

What I do not like, and frankly do not understand, is why so many unit types are not available anymore - Koening Tiger, Elephant etc. I guess this might be for historical realism, but this takes away a lot of choice and a lot of fun... it would be great to have an even more softcore version, that does not take away any units.
There are very few units that are restricted. The Do 335A and Maus (you can get two in GC45 from scenario rewards) are unavailable for purchase. The Elefant is unavailable for purchase except at the very beginning of the Kursk scenarios in GC43East. I intend to add an opportunity to buy one in GC44West, since historically some Elefants were indeed sent to Italy. The JagdTiger is available at the start of GC45East, but is also limited like the Elefant. There is an opportunity in GC44East to obtain a JagdTiger prototype. The King Tiger is fully available towards the end of GC44East (Vilna), and this was done to make sure the three previous Bagration scenarios were suitably hard.

Furthermore, all of these heavy armor units have serious limitations in fuel and ammo. They are not meant to be mass deployed. Instead, you are meant to use mostly the units like the StuG IIIG, Panzer IVH/J, and the Panther, as is more historically realistic. If you look at the stats for those units, all of them have been improved, and the StuG IIIG and the Panzer IV are even cheaper in 1944 than with the stock eqp file, while the Panther is now only slightly more expensive. An elite, experienced Panther can take on any Soviet AFV including the IS-2 with no problem. You are also meant to use a good number of infantry. No more garrisoning towns with King Tigers, not only because it would be ineffective from a game mechanics standpoint to do so, but also because King Tigers are so rare.

Furthermore, there are other units in your arsenal with very high INI and attack. Take a look at the Nashorn and the towed 8.8 cm Pak 43/41. Both of them have very good INI and HA = 24, the same as a King Tiger/Elefant, and they are available for only a tiny fraction of the price.

If you are really bothered by these few restrictions, you can use the "all eqp" cheat to enable their purchase. However, just don't complain when your 5-6 Elefants/King Tigers bankrupts you and all become stuck due to their very limited fuel.
borsook79
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Re: Grand Campaign Unit Revisions - Update for GC42-43West

Post by borsook79 »

I had no intention of having 5-6 elephants, rather 1. :) What you say is very reasonable, the only thing I can object to is for all of it to work nicely the player has to apply the cheat every time a scenario is started... I'm afraid to rely on remembering to type something in everytime I play :)
"Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it." - G.B. Shaw
deducter
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Re: Grand Campaign Unit Revisions - Update for GC42-43West

Post by deducter »

Borsook wrote:I had no intention of having 5-6 elephants, rather 1. :) What you say is very reasonable, the only thing I can object to is for all of it to work nicely the player has to apply the cheat every time a scenario is started... I'm afraid to rely on remembering to type something in everytime I play :)
If by cheat you're referring to the "reform units" cheat, until the game supports this as an option, there is simply no way around it. I cannot mod the game engine in any way.

I also forgot to add that the JagdPanther is available in time for the Bagration scenarios. It has an excellent mix of mobility, firepower, and defense, and I'd argue it is the best overall German AFV. Its gun is the same as the Elefant/Tiger II. It is quite expensive, at about 1000 prestige, but it's an investment well worth making.

But as for purchasing units, the available and ending dates are part of the balance.
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Re: Grand Campaign Unit Revisions - Update for GC42-43West

Post by IdleCleese »

First I would like to thank Deducter, you did awesome job. Now this game is very much different than original panzer corps.

My next mission is Mogilev, the start of Bagration offensive. I am playing on Rommel difficulty and I try to play in Ironman mode; very few times I have reloaded game.
I have 7000 prestige points.

At this point in my previous games I would usually have an army with all overstrength units, mostly Tigers.
Now situation is quite different and my best units are overstrength PZ IVH (4 tanks) :)
One PZ IVH has 2 defensive heroes (D2, D3) and it is really excellent unit
In 1943 I have converted all 3 SE tanks to Tigers and I think that was mistake because I couldn't afford to give them elite reinforcements; they have 2-3 stars
I have 2 Panthers but they lack experience like Tigers
I am still using one T-34 and 2 KV-1B tanks; when they have artillery cover they can be very useful
AT units are one pak43 and 2 Nashorns, I keep them in reserve and mostly deploy only one of them
I was using 2 210 artillery, but I decided to downgrade them to 105; much less expensive for overstrengthing
Also I have 2 150 arty, 4 stug IV for protecting armour columns and sometimes I use captured SU122
My best units are 3 SE grenadiers and one paratrooper (3 heroes - D3, I2, M1) and they all have 15 strength. They can easily take out any tank in close terrain

Air force is: 4 bf109g, 2 fw190a, 3 me410a, 1 ju87g and ju188a

I believe coming battles will be very hard since I don't now how my tanks will perform against IS-1, IS-2 and SU-100. I think most effective tactic against these tanks will be to lure them in close terrain and finish them off with elite infantry.

Also Deducter, I watched all your videos on youtube and I think they are great! I would really appreciate if you can find some time to play and record videos for rest of 43, 44 and 45
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Re: Grand Campaign Unit Revisions - Update for GC42-43West

Post by borsook79 »

Yes, indeed this is the cheat I meant.

And please don't get me wrong, with your mod the game is so much better than vanilla, plays more realistically and it's really close to perfection. I just don't like this particular feature as I think it is hard to discover (i.e. Elephant available to purchase only once, what if the player thinks it will be available from this point onward and does buy it?) I would rather prefer the special units to be available all the time, just maybe insanely expensive. E.g. the said elephant could later cost 3000 prestige points. If somebody considers that to be a good investment why not let him? :)
"Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it." - G.B. Shaw
deducter
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Re: Grand Campaign Unit Revisions - Update for GC42-43West

Post by deducter »

IdleCleese wrote:First I would like to thank Deducter, you did awesome job. Now this game is very much different than original panzer corps.

My next mission is Mogilev, the start of Bagration offensive. I am playing on Rommel difficulty and I try to play in Ironman mode; very few times I have reloaded game.
I have 7000 prestige points.
I'm glad this worked out exactly as I intended. If you can start the Bagration scenarios on Rommel with minimal reloads and 7000 prestige, then you are a very good player!

I must warn you: DVs on the Bagration scenarios are very difficult. The first one, Mogilev, isn't so bad if you start with a mostly overstrength core, but they get progressively more brutal. MV, on the other hand, is reasonable to achieve, and if you are willing to settle for that you can get through the scenarios with your core in good shape.
At this point in my previous games I would usually have an army with all overstrength units, mostly Tigers.
Now situation is quite different and my best units are overstrength PZ IVH (4 tanks) :)
One PZ IVH has 2 defensive heroes (D2, D3) and it is really excellent unit
In 1943 I have converted all 3 SE tanks to Tigers and I think that was mistake because I couldn't afford to give them elite reinforcements; they have 2-3 stars
I have 2 Panthers but they lack experience like Tigers
I'm glad this worked out exactly as I intended. The idea isn't that you are artificially capped in the number of Tigers you get, rather, that if you choose to get more Tigers, you have to sacrifice something. In your case, you are finding it difficult to feed them elite reinforcements due to their very high base cost and the new reinforcement rules. In fact, the vast majority of your prestige throughout the Grand Campaigns won't be spent on purchasing new equipment, but rather on reinforcements. I'm curious though, how often you use normal reinforcements both at deployment and in scenario. I want to make sure that all reinforcement options are viable, rather than the vanilla technique of only elite reinforcing during deployment.
I was using 2 210 artillery, but I decided to downgrade them to 105; much less expensive for overstrengthing
Also I have 2 150 arty, 4 stug IV for protecting armour columns and sometimes I use captured SU122
Surely you have some more ranged artillery right? I keep about 6-7 in 1944. Don't forget that the StuG IV can be switched to AT mode, in which case it functions like the StuG IIIG.
My best units are 3 SE grenadiers and one paratrooper (3 heroes - D3, I2, M1) and they all have 15 strength. They can easily take out any tank in close terrain
That's the general idea. Due to the new experience rules, 5-star infantry are really, really good, but it takes a long time to get there, and should be expensive to keep them at that level.
Air force is: 4 bf109g, 2 fw190a, 3 me410a, 1 ju87g and ju188a
I am a little surprised by all those Me 410As.I personally think the Fw 190 ground attack models are much more versatile. I had intended the Me 410A to be somewhat better against air units, especially slow-moving bombers, but to be much worse against ground units. I just don't want the Me 410A to be by default the best fighter-bomber.
Also Deducter, I watched all your videos on youtube and I think they are great! I would really appreciate if you can find some time to play and record videos for rest of 43, 44 and 45
I know, I haven't forgotten about the video series. It's just that so much of my time is occupied. I'm working on a significant revision of the manual atm. I'm trying to find a clear, elegant way to present the data for all of the important units.
Borsook wrote: And please don't get me wrong, with your mod the game is so much better than vanilla, plays more realistically and it's really close to perfection. I just don't like this particular feature as I think it is hard to discover (i.e. Elephant available to purchase only once, what if the player thinks it will be available from this point onward and does buy it?) I would rather prefer the special units to be available all the time, just maybe insanely expensive. E.g. the said elephant could later cost 3000 prestige points. If somebody considers that to be a good investment why not let him? :)
Hmm, I had originally intended units like the Elefant to be a very, very limited unit. The manual states clearly that the Elefant is only available for purchase at the beginning of Kursk. I like the current implementation mostly because I don't want players to be progressively upgrading their AT units to Elefants. Keep in mind that Kursk gives you 40 core slots, one of the highest for scenarios in all years, while most of 1944-1945 are fought with smaller core slots. So it makes logical sense for someone to buy a new Elefant to fill one of those slots at that time. That said, if enough players feel that way, I can change the availability of the Elefant, since it has such serious limitations that I doubt anyone will deploy them in large numbers.

Upping the prestige cost of the Elefant won't work, since most of the player's prestige is spent not on buying new units, but on reinforcements. At 3000 prestige, 1 strength point loss = 225-300 prestige (depending on the year) to elite reinforce at the deployment stage, which is truly prohibitive. Only the Maus, a unit that you can get as a special reward, comes close to that price. And that's mostly because I want the player to feel like disbanding the Maus for more reinforcements should be a very good choice.
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Re: Grand Campaign Unit Revisions - Update for GC42-43West

Post by IdleCleese »

I'm glad this worked out exactly as I intended. If you can start the Bagration scenarios on Rommel with minimal reloads and 7000 prestige, then you are a very good player!
Before I started to play your mod, I was playing on Manstein difficulty and most of my victories were MV and few DV. I had dozen 15 strength Kingtigers and game was very repetitive and little boring, steamrolling Soviets tanks. In your mod things are quite different, game is much more fun and challenging. So far I have achieved all DV with exception of Orel mission which was MV.
I must warn you: DVs on the Bagration scenarios are very difficult. The first one, Mogilev, isn't so bad if you start with a mostly overstrength core, but they get progressively more brutal. MV, on the other hand, is reasonable to achieve, and if you are willing to settle for that you can get through the scenarios with your core in good shape.
Now I am at 15 turn on Mogilev scenario. I decided not to defend forward outposts but to retreat to left river bank. 3 Elite infantry, plus one tank and 5 artillery (2 of them auxiliary) successfully repelled all attacks and destroyed majority of Soviet tanks.
On northern flank I decided to allow Soviets to cross river and lure them into trap. All advancing Soviet troops were quickly surrounded and destroyed in few turns.
Northern group (2 PZ IV, 1 Panther, 1 Tiger, 2 Stug IV, 2 Elite infantry, 1 Mobile AA) quickly advanced forward and captured northeast objective. IS-2 and KV-85 attacked in same turn my elite PZ IVH which had support from Stug IV and PZ IVH didn't suffer any losses, while inflicting substantial losses to Soviets.
2 T34 run into ambush and they were instantly destroyed, while elite infantry destroyed 3 T34 in forest without taking any losses.
After that Northern group destoyed all remaining Soviet forces without taking any substantial losses.

Southern mobile group wasn't lucky as northern group and 2 units are badly damaged; one PZ IVH has strength 5 and Nashorn has strength 6. Anyway, I believe they still have enough force to push forward and capture southeast objective. Also I will try to capture far southeast city to get prototype Jagdtiger, which most probably i will sell later on.

I will try to win DV on this map and next turn Norther group will swing south and flank Soviets in center. Ideally I would like to flank Soviets from both sides but unfortunately, I can't expect to get any support from Group South since they barely have enough resource to capture remaining objectives.
I'm glad this worked out exactly as I intended. The idea isn't that you are artificially capped in the number of Tigers you get, rather, that if you choose to get more Tigers, you have to sacrifice something. In your case, you are finding it difficult to feed them elite reinforcements due to their very high base cost and the new reinforcement rules. In fact, the vast majority of your prestige throughout the Grand Campaigns won't be spent on purchasing new equipment, but rather on reinforcements. I'm curious though, how often you use normal reinforcements both at deployment and in scenario. I want to make sure that all reinforcement options are viable, rather than the vanilla technique of only elite reinforcing during deployment.
There is no simply answer to this question. I believe following factors are most important when I decide about reinforcements: tactical situation, unit type, unit strength, unit experience

My overall rules: I never reinforce air units and I never use elite reinforcements in battle.

Regular infantry - all non overstrenght infantry - I reinforce them in game with regular reinforcements. If they lose some experience it is not a problem
Elite infantry - I don't reinforce them during battle. I play very carefully with them so they almost never lose too many points
Elite tanks (5 stars) - My elite tanks are PZ IVH, usually I don't reinforce them during battle
Regular tanks - very often I reinforce them with regular reinforcements, experience loss is acceptable
AT (Nashorns) - very often I reinforce them with regular reinforcements, experience loss is acceptable
Artillery - if artillery is damaged then I reinforce them with regular reinforcements. Experience loss is not too high and artillery can get experience very fast

I think in your mod regular reinforcements during battle are much better option than in vanilla game. However, elite replacements during battle, especially on Rommel difficulty, are not suggested.
Surely you have some more ranged artillery right? I keep about 6-7 in 1944. Don't forget that the StuG IV can be switched to AT mode, in which case it functions like the StuG IIIG.
In 43 I had more ranged artillery, but in 44 I decided to upgrade 2 Wurfrahmens to Stug IV. Wurfrahmens are very vulnerable to air attacks and one of them was almost completely destroyed in 43. Now i have 2x105, 2x150, 1 Nebelwerfer, 4 Stug IV and 2 SU122 which is 11 artillery in total. Since one Stug IV has R1 hero, I have 8 artillery with range 2+. In Mogilev I decided to deploy 8 artillery (Nebelwerfer and 2 Su122 remained in reserve)
I am a little surprised by all those Me 410As.I personally think the Fw 190 ground attack models are much more versatile. I had intended the Me 410A to be somewhat better against air units, especially slow-moving bombers, but to be much worse against ground units. I just don't want the Me 410A to be by default the best fighter-bomber.
I agree Fw 190 is better than Me410 but I still didn't make a decision for upgrade. I have already made a mistake when I have upgraded 3 SE tanks to Tigers and I don't want to repeat same mistake. When I upgrade to Fw 190, this unit will be more expensive for maintenance and I will lose 200 prestige. Most probably I will upgrade one Me410 to Fw190 when it gets decent hero.
One great quality of your mod is that denies to player to upgrade all equipment to newest models. For example, I was using PZ III very successfully during whole 43 campaign. In vanilla game, all PZ III were upgraded in last scenario in 41.
I know, I haven't forgotten about the video series. It's just that so much of my time is occupied. I'm working on a significant revision of the manual atm. I'm trying to find a clear, elegant way to present the data for all of the important units.
Besides I have enjoyed watching your videos, most important thing that I have learned is to keep into considerations what units are visible to AI. Before I always underestimated this aspect of game which is extremely important. Good unit positioning can tempt AI to abandon good defensive positions
borsook79
1st Lieutenant - 15 cm sFH 18
1st Lieutenant - 15 cm sFH 18
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Re: Grand Campaign Unit Revisions - Update for GC42-43West

Post by borsook79 »

I have another (small this time) question - does the mod affect Afrika Korps in any way?
"Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it." - G.B. Shaw
deducter
Lieutenant Colonel - Fw 190A
Lieutenant Colonel - Fw 190A
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Re: Grand Campaign Unit Revisions - Update for GC42-43West

Post by deducter »

Borsook wrote:I have another (small this time) question - does the mod affect Afrika Korps in any way?
No, this doesn't support Afrika Korps at all. I may one day do something for Afrika, but it won't be as simple as just copying over a bunch of values.
borsook79
1st Lieutenant - 15 cm sFH 18
1st Lieutenant - 15 cm sFH 18
Posts: 838
Joined: Tue May 29, 2007 5:51 pm
Location: Poland

Re: Grand Campaign Unit Revisions - Update for GC42-43West

Post by borsook79 »

deducter wrote:
Borsook wrote:I have another (small this time) question - does the mod affect Afrika Korps in any way?
No, this doesn't support Afrika Korps at all. I may one day do something for Afrika, but it won't be as simple as just copying over a bunch of values.
I'm actually asking being on the verge on buying AK - will the mod break it somehow or will they work fine side by side?
"Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it." - G.B. Shaw
orlinos
Administrative Corporal - SdKfz 251/1
Administrative Corporal - SdKfz  251/1
Posts: 126
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Re: Grand Campaign Unit Revisions - Update for GC42-43West

Post by orlinos »

Borsook wrote:
deducter wrote:
Borsook wrote:I have another (small this time) question - does the mod affect Afrika Korps in any way?
No, this doesn't support Afrika Korps at all. I may one day do something for Afrika, but it won't be as simple as just copying over a bunch of values.
I'm actually asking being on the verge on buying AK - will the mod break it somehow or will they work fine side by side?
No, it won't. Since mod files are added to the DLC folders, if you play vanilla campaign or AK campaign, DLC equipment files are never used.
Piotr 'Orlinos' Kozlowski
4kEY
Sergeant First Class - Panzer IIIL
Sergeant First Class - Panzer IIIL
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Re: Grand Campaign Unit Revisions - Update for GC42-43West

Post by 4kEY »

Vyazma...too much mucky-muck.

Even if I hadn't lost track of time I would not have gotten DV on this one.
4kEY
Sergeant First Class - Panzer IIIL
Sergeant First Class - Panzer IIIL
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Re: Grand Campaign Unit Revisions - Update for GC42-43West

Post by 4kEY »

Deducter, did you use a different Eqp file as the base for v1.9?

I started '42 and the old Sdkfz glitch is back. The one with the _'s

EDIT: A good way to fix this without having to reload the campaign and re-deploy all over again is to make duplicates in the efx file, one with the extra space and one without. Make duplicates of the graphics as well. The units effected were the Sdkfz10/4, 251, and SS 251.
orlinos
Administrative Corporal - SdKfz 251/1
Administrative Corporal - SdKfz  251/1
Posts: 126
Joined: Sun May 27, 2012 8:29 am

Re: Grand Campaign Unit Revisions - Update for GC42-43West

Post by orlinos »

4kEY wrote:Deducter, did you use a different Eqp file as the base for v1.9?

I started '42 and the old Sdkfz glitch is back. The one with the _'s

EDIT: A good way to fix this without having to reload the campaign and re-deploy all over again is to make duplicates in the efx file, one with the extra space and one without. Make duplicates of the graphics as well. The units effected were the Sdkfz10/4, 251, and SS 251.
Strange, I just checked: in my versions of 1.9 - spaces are no more. Are you sure you have a correct version installed? A good way to check is to find whether 76.2mm Model 1939 has 11 or 10 ROF (it was changed to 10 in 1.9).
Piotr 'Orlinos' Kozlowski
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