Vanilla Campaign with 1.21

[KeldorKatarn]

Has anyone recently played this? With the better AI and the new ruleset and all it seems incredibly dificult. Poland is already difficult, Sealion next to impossible and for some reason the russian Air Force is nearly kicking my butt in Barbarossa, I have to use my fighters extremely defensively or the air force will wreck my ground units. Tanks are taking huge hits against direct infantry attacks... all in all I have no idea how to get decisive victories here without taking horrendous losses, which I cannot afford on Rommel. Ah well.

[bebro]

I remember trying the GC after the AI learned to use unit switches. Suddenly all those Soviet 85mm ADs popping up around cities became a real danger to '41er tank models Though after some time I was able to get them on the wrong foot mostly (attacking by air when they're in AT mode, and by ground whent hey're AD)...

[KeldorKatarn]

Those are an issue yes, but something else has changed also I think. I don't remember the enemy air force to be this devastating. The early war Red Air force used to be a joke. Now I-15s do 3-5 damage to my tanks with strafing attacks...

[Tarrak]

Those are an issue yes, but something else has changed also I think. I don't remember the enemy air force to be this devastating. The early war Red Air force used to be a joke. Now I-15s do 3-5 damage to my tanks with strafing attacks...

The strafing attack damage is probably just a streak of bad luck. Their ground attacks still sucks but at some point, i don't remember the patch version anymore, the whole russian airforce was quite seriously buffed. If you finished the vanilla campaign early and haven't replayed it since then you may still be used to it's first incarnation which was considerably weaker then it is now.

[KeldorKatarn]

The strafing attack damage is probably just a streak of bad luck. Their ground attacks still sucks but at some point, i don't remember the patch version anymore, the whole russian airforce was quite seriously buffed. If you finished the vanilla campaign early and haven't replayed it since then you may still be used to it's first incarnation which was considerably weaker then it is now.

I noticed... as for the strafing attacks, nope. They do consisent damage between 1 and 5. If their ground attack isn't good then my air defense on the tanks certainly isn't also. They do immense amounts of damage. Once a I15 even strafed infantry in the open for 5 damage. NOT in a truck. I take a lot of losses in russia, not from tanks, but from the red air force. The T34s are so far not even an issue.

Later on I'd understand this, but for early Barbarossa where the Germans quickly built up air superiority this kinda feels out of place... the pure amount of devastating air power that is thrown at me... hmm. Ah well.

[ThvN]

To give some ballpark figures: most early tanks have AD values of 7-10. An I-16 (I-15 must be from a mod?) has HA=1, and will (on average) have a 17%-10% chance of a kill with each shot against a tank in the open. It also has SA=2, kill chances against basic infantry seem around 6%. Make sure it doesn't get your sIG (Sturmpanzer) mobile artillery, as it will be hurting a lot (it only has AD=5).

I've been looking at the air power for a mod I've been slowly working on, and some of the figures are quite high, one of the problems is that initiative doesn't play a role, so wether the unit has an AA attack (or AA cover) can make a lot of difference.

So if the I-16 consistenly gets better figures than that, check the combat log to see if the values are the stock ones and not modded or something. About the game being harder, this could well be the case as the new rules favour entrenched troops on the defense. The artillery is slightly less useful, I started to use more strategic bombers and infantry as a result.

[KeldorKatarn]

I-16 I meant sorry. I already have an infantry heavy force but still... jesus. Just played Moscow 41. I didn't intend to go for Decisive since I want to prolong the campaign but... I barely made it in 20 turns, could have done it in 19, already took quite some losses but 15 turns? I don't think it's possible to dig out those forces that fast without taking major losses...

[Tarrak]

I-16 I meant sorry. I already have an infantry heavy force but still... jesus. Just played Moscow 41. I didn't intend to go for Decisive since I want to prolong the campaign but... I barely made it in 20 turns, could have done it in 19, already took quite some losses but 15 turns? I don't think it's possible to dig out those forces that fast without taking major losses...

Tbh a DV in the first Moscow scenario always was only possible for me if i had absolute luck with the weather: meaning not more then two or three days of rain so my air force don't get grounded to much and more importantly the whole map doesn't turn into mud and even then it needed insane rushing.

[KeldorKatarn]

Luck in weather definitely. Last try I had 3 turns of mud... bah

[Horseman]

I have to agree that a DV in Moscow 41 requires some luck as well as some risky rushing