GC 39 Equipment

[Imminence]

When I saw this game I was really pleased, because PG from SSI and the sequels were my all times favourites.
Until now I purchased the GC's 39 and 40.

When I started the first time, I was a bit confused, because there was -besides the Pz I and II - only the Pz38(t) as "best" tank-unit available. No Pz III and no Pz IV.
The same with infantry: Only the '36-version, no "Kradschützen"

I checked the forum and found all these mods (great!). I downloaded the MPC 37-39 and tried it. In this mod I could buy all units, which were available between 37 and 39.

My question:

What might be the idea behind the original design to restrict the available units to a minimum?

[Craw]

Not sure. Though forcing you to use the Pz1a and PzII is historically accurate (they outnumbered the newer German tanks 10 to 1), PzIII and PzIV were actually more common than the Pz38(t) in Poland. If I recall, PzIII becomes available at some point in the GC39.

[huertgenwald]

GC 39-40 use the original "vanilla" Equipment of Panzer Corps, where Panzer III-IV weren't avaiable in the "early" days, neither were Kradschuetzen (added later with a patch).
According to Wikipedia Pz III and IV were only available in very small numbers and were mainly used for testing and training purposes.

[Imminence]

Well, in Poland were 98 PzIII and 198 Pz IV, but only 57 Pz 38(t).
Both infos are, too, from the "Wikipedia". The English section about the same topics varies a bit about the total numbers (e.g. 211 Pz IV), but are quite congruent.

The "Kradschützen" were deployed between 1934/35 and had their share in Poland from the beginning (I had an uncle, who was one of them).

But of course it is not really important to have history accurately reproduced in a game.

If it's not a bug, I can live with it, but would appreciate an info about a mod or a hint about which script to alter to change this.

[KeldorKatarn]

Pz III and IV were probably left out due to balance reasons. Kradschützen were probably an oversight since they were introduced for Afrika Korps and got their introduction date only set early enough to be usable in that campaign. Probably nobody thought about their use in the original campaign and GC...

[Brindlebane]

Well having just got into the game.I bought AK and then 40 and 41 DLCs right off the bat.Now i've tried starting both the DLC campaigns and really struggled in both to get through the first few missions of both.Then it hit me why.I made the mistake of getting the best of everything then having little prestige to play with and getting no experience because all i could afford was green reinforcements.

I decided to check out the stats too and realised some of the earlier equipment is far cheaper to handle and better suited to the job for the period.Stukas-cheap and brutal against the hard stuff,109Es more firepower than the later versions and PIIIs more hardier than P4s.I was normally getting the best Strat Bombers,fighters and tanks,ending up broke,units not levelling and getting nowhere.Now i get the cheap earlier stuff,more of it and i'm getting somewhere.

i'm scouting now also.The AI will send waves at you and pick off your units individually.When i see this coming now,i'll let the AI run into a brickwall and then decimate it.This games not exactly historically correct or a grogs paradise but it's really a lot of fun and totally absorbing.Somehow i think i'll get everything i can lay my hands on for the franchise.............after France falls of course

[huertgenwald]

According to wikipedia (german) 2500 tanks were used in Poland:

a) 98 Pz III
b) 198 Pz IV
c) Rest mainly Pz I and II

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panzerkamp ... Nordafrika
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panzerkamp ... Nordafrika

[ThvN]

Well, one of the problems of the original equipment file is that all the expansions where designed around it. Any changes to it might unbalance the difficulty, making the game very tough or very boring, depending on what you change. So the developers are rightly hesitant to introduce changes, but some units are overpowered or underwhelming (or absent) as a result.

But making simple changes such as the introduction date is fairly easy, in the 'Panzer Corps\Data' folder is a file calles equipment.pzeqp, which can be edited with Excel or Notepad (unicode format), but make a backup before you try to modify it. If you just need some simple changes I can do it for you and upload a modified file, as I've edited it a lot for my own use already.

In my experience, allowing the PzIII and PzIV from the beginning might make it too easy. As an example, most of the heavy artillery was in reality available from the beginning as well, but in the game these are also introduced in slow steps. I guess this is to enhance the feeling of progression, you start out as a field commander and you have to work hard to get access to the best toys. And remember that some units (such as the infamous Sturmpanzer artillery, of which only a few dozen were built) would not have been available in any reasonable number at the time. But the game gives you unlimited access to some of those rare units. I always purchase just one Sturmpanzer, the rest of the artillery has to be towed, and this gives a nice challenge without making it overly difficult.

The Pz38(t) is already very good, and it creates an interesting dilemma when the PzIII and PzIV get introduced: upgrade the Pz38(t) or sideline them and buy these new Panzers 'green', to make sure you have decent numbers of experienced troops later on. And there are plenty of mods with extra units available. Before the latest beta-test, I was running a private mod with a Pz35(t) available, which fits between the Pz38(t) and PzII. In reality it was available in the early campaigns, and it was also featured in the original Panzer General.

[Horst]

In my game, I’ve created (pre-production) Pz IIID and IVC units which are only available on the first day of the Poland invasion. As player, you are limited this way in the GC39 to about 4 units of these until France.
However, there is a bonus opportunity during GC39 for the Spoils of War map which allows you to buy and upgrade the (pre-production) Pz IIIE from 1st to 15th October against the strong Soviet units. I’ve extended the duration to the 15th October because it’s the first day of a player custom-campaign map fighting in the Saar region.
After this time, you can’t buy or upgrade to these pre-production tank units during Norway until the full-production tank variants Pz IIIF and Pz IVD appear for invasion of France. Meanwhile, the Pz 38(t) will be the best buy-/upgradeable tank among Pz I and II then.

[Brindlebane]

Having now bought the GC 39 i can see the OPs point of view,the only really choice of tanks are the Czech ones.I expected this campaign to be a breeze and it's not quite.God do i hate cavalry.To hell with history,to hell with tanks,Poland meet my cavalry

[KeldorKatarn]

Historically that cavalry was a big problem for the Germans. All those "attacking tanks with sabres" was just propaganda. Those guys were though and had some really good anti tank rifles.

[captainjack]

I wouldn't mind seeing a Pz35t and maybe one or two early variants for the Panzer 2, but I do accept that general availability of some of the more powerful (but rarer) early units could distort game balance.

I had problems downloading the 37 -39 mod recently, but the all eqp cheat allows me to get a unit of Kradschutzen in 1939 (them and their +2 attack hero met a sad end in Amiens yesterday and I hadn't switched on Reform Units....),