The Right Next Grand Campaign

[lhughes]

Hi,
I enjoyed Africa Korps at General level in "iron man" mode (no reload (normally )). I found it to be an excellent challenge forcing me to play very carefully to succeed. I have now just gone back to my 1941 Grand Campaign (just did Yugoslavia) and on these settings found it a push over so far. My goal is to find a further Grand Campaign that poses a challenge in the spirit of Africa Corps. I realize I could raise the setting in the 1941 Campaign to Field Marshall. But I am concerned that will simply challenge me by flooding me with enemy units. Blah.
An example campaign that sounds like it would be challenging akin to Afrika (i.e. cleverly placed opposing forces on the flanks, changes of objectives at bad times etc ) would be the recent Western 42 one. The Wargamer reviews makes it sound cleverly designed. So that is where I will go next if I get no further advise. But I am hoping that perhaps the 1941 Campaign will improve its challenge level in later scenarios??? Or maybe not but the 1942 is a good challenge and therefore I should soldier on through 1941. Put another way I am concerned that the level of craft in the 1941 campaign and other earlier campaigns is just not like the heights reached with Afrika Korps because the Slitherine Team was still learning
So bottomline, using Afrika Korps as a model, what DLCs would folks suggest as a good challenge at General Level and Iron Man? Or would you really advise going that Field Marshall is still interesting (rather than just an enemy unit flood) in the 1941+ campaigns?
THanks!

[robman]

My (admittedly dim) understanding is that the only difference between general and FM is that in FM, you have a negative experience modifier (1/2 of general). The AI settings are the same, so shifting from General to FM shouldn't lead to an enemy unit flood (beyond what you would encounter anyway).

43 East is a real challenge on FM. Try that one.

[Kamerer]

I would also suggest unlocking the bonuses difficulties and playing on "Rommel." It is much more challenging because you have 1/2 prestige points awarded. Experience is bumped back up from FM so that helps mitigate it a little bit. It forces refined, more thoughtful tactics, unit management, upgrades, etc. There are not extra enemy units on the highest levels, like robman said.

You can unlock the bonuses levels through winning the USA scenarios in the basic game, or making a registry edit to the game file (search the forum for details on that; don't have them handy). The other bonuses difficulty levels - are less practical (much reduced turn count, massively overstrength enemy units). But Rommel provides a real - and very winnable - challenge to refine game skills.

[AgentTBC]

The conclusion I've reached about Rommel difficulty is that it doesn't make the campaign harder in the long run, it just makes the beginning a bunch more difficult and the middle a little more difficult, but the end is just as easy. Because it doesn't stop you from upgrading all your units into super uber elite stuff, it just kinda delays how early you get everything upgraded.

Take the 42/43 West campaign. I played it on Rommel difficulty with a NON imported corps. That makes the beginning very interesting because you are quite short on prestige and have crappy inexperienced units. So the first half or so is quite fun. But by the last mission I had like 8 tigers and panthers and 7 FW-190a plus assorted artillery etc. So the rest of the campaign should be very easy since I'm now ahead of the curve. If I start '44 with a non-imported corps (which I may do), I expect the same thing. Very short on prestige at the beginning, starting to get a handle on things by the middle, and a corps which will steamroll by the end.

I wish there was a way to extend the interesting early bits of the difficulty curve through the whole campaign. I guess that's tough to do, though, without arbitrarily limiting your unit upgrades.

[soldier]

I found out in my customised campaign on field marshall that my prestige never snowballed into the massive amounts sometimes mentioned here. If you heavily cut the rate that your units gain experience in gamerulz you are almost always forced to spend all your money on getting elite replacements because if you don't (and get regulars) your guys will never get any stars or lose the ones they have very quickly. Of course you don't wan't to be fielding units with no stars against the experienced red army in 1943, so you have to spend.
I actually did this because i didn't like the idea of an experience cap but found out by 42 that i had to be quite careful with replacing heavily damaged units lest i actually run out of cash. Getting elites during the scenario was usually quite risky and expensive but generally i had enough to go around at the end (if the battle wasn't a total bloodbath). It also was more difficult to upgrade to the latest and greatest equipment and as my units had less experience and never ran into the cap they probably copped a little more damage throughout the campaign which also forces you to spend more. I'm up to late 44 now and with some careful management and good tactics i have most units on about 4 stars (give or take the odd shade of red). If combined with rommel difficulty this setting may really force you to be careful with your prestige.

The rate at which the first star is gained is 100 by default in gamerulz but in my version its only 20 so you have to work pretty hard and spend a lot on elites just to gain a star by the end of the polish campaign.

[El_Condoro]

Check out the diff.pzdat file in the data folder. It is a text file that allows you to modify the difficulty settings. Just make a backup of the original before you start!

[Kamerer]

I wish there was a way to extend the interesting early bits of the difficulty curve through the whole campaign. I guess that's tough to do, though, without arbitrarily limiting your unit upgrades.

There are two ways to achieve that partially. One is to play with Deducter's modded equipment file, which raises prices on certain units to make them very expensive, thus rationing them. Another way is to limit any type of upgrade to one per month (or another unit if you find that to generous), which also rations them so you have more different unit types and models at most all times. I play this way, and enjoy it.

Even on Rommel you can achieve consistent DVs, but it is indeed harder and the play style has to be more refined - a challenge worth trying if you like the game and want more difficulty. What I heard from the OP in his question was that he was looking for a way to play that was more challenging, not one that prohibited victory or made it unlikely. As a last note, starting with the stock core in 42/43West is not comparable to starting with a stock core in DLC '39 - the '43 West one is very buff to start with some multiple heroes and good experience and strength right away. It is certainly not a stretch to take that to the end and make it very nice, but reduced prestige does make it more challenging.

[lhughes]

Thanks to everyone for your replies. Very helpful. I have run across PG mods in past that make fancy units expensive and I like that approach because then one has a more historical force mix because one can't afford the rarer beasts.

[Kamerer]

Here is what I do to make the game stay "challenging.":

1) Rommel level for reduced prestige.
2) New air/ground units: one model can be purchased every month, except for:
3) New artillery upgrades: one model can be purchased every two months.

Note this is per calendar month - sometimes several scenarios are in one month. These are pretty simple rules which don't require much extra work.

This makes things fairly hard until mid-'44, depending upon your playing style. You have to be very mindful of damage/losses, and you can't just upgrade to the latest of anything right away. It puts lots of variety into your core, increases combat value of infantry, and makes DVs not at all impossible, but require more work. Partly because of the reduced strength of armour, but also because of the reduced strength of artillery. I used to play with that per month, then switched to bimonthly to slow it down.

Playing the whole GC this way 39-45 will still let you win in '45, but it takes much longer to build up a "power core." It also changes equipment strategy a bit, and tactics as you deploy units of much more varied ability. For example, in addition to capture equipment, in '42 you will be fielding Pz.IV/G, F/2, and F models throughout the year - this really reduces your punch when you can't just make them all G models at once. Also your TD units take on much greater importance. Many examples abound and it requires more thought and strategy, which is fun. This also works pretty well for toughening up AK, too.

[deducter]

Nice to hear a shout out about the Unit Revisions mod, but I'd like to point out that my efforts do more than simply make some of the top-end equipment more expensive. There are hundreds of changes that affect almost every unit in the game. The biggest changes include more potent/durable infantry in 1943, variable unit costs depending on the year, experience and reinforcement rule changes, and the boosting of various German medium tanks. My goal is to produce a "historical feeling" while maintaining powergaming options. There should be no need to artificially restrict your core or your upgrade options.