New to PC

[Forefall]

I just got IPad PC and am having trouble figuring out which campaign and difficulty setting I should use. I'm played PG in the past and usually play most games on near the hardest difficulty ironman style, but I hate to lose a campaign half way through. I'm also unsure if I should play the GC or the vanilla PC campaign first.

Any advice?

[hs1611]

I only have it for PC, but assuming it's not too different on the iPad I would try vanilla first. I suggest on Colonel.

When you switch to the GC it won't really matter because you can change difficulty levels between Campaigns (years).

[Tarrak]

Actually at least on the Windows version you can switch difficulty as well between the single scenarios of the same campaign. Unless it got removed from IPad version due to UI issues it should be possible there as well. You still may end in a problematic position if you started the campaign on to high level as you may just run to low on prestige to be able to survive the later years of the war.

As to the decision between the Vanilla and the Grand Campaign: The vanilla campaign is a lot more similar to PG campaigns. It's a lot shorter then the GC and a bit more basic in the design. As PG veteran you may want to start with it and then move to the Grand Campaign and enjoy the length of it and the diverse scenarios. Other way around it may be a bit more difficult. After one get used to the improved scripting and design in the GC it's hard to go back to basic campaign.

Difficulty wise i would say try not to high at the begin. PC while seemingly being similar to PG got a few different twists and is generally a bit more difficult imho. Colonel or General should be right. If it turns out to be to easy you can always either crank it up or replay the campaign later on higher difficulty for more challenge.

[Forefall]

Thanks for the responses guys. I'll give the vanilla campaign a whirl on general.

[BiteNibbleChomp]

I do suggest that when you play the Grand Campaign, play it 1 difficulty easier than the vanilla campaign. More prestige is needed in the GC, and the scenarios seem a lot harder. I'm struggling after having 110k pp at the end of GC42 (Thanks, Sergeant difficulty for saing my guts!) - Spent half of it by the end of GC43 (Eastern Front). Then gave up on the GC because even Sergeant didn't save my guts at Korsun in '44.

- BNC

[Forefall]

Thanks for the tips. Breezed through most of vanilla campaign on General, but got to Sea Lion (Invasion of Britain) and the start cost me several of my experienced units. Radar and Air/Navy is tough.

[Tarrak]

Thanks for the tips. Breezed through most of vanilla campaign on General, but got to Sea Lion (Invasion of Britain) and the start cost me several of my experienced units. Radar and Air/Navy is tough.

Sea Lion is a bit of try and error campaign imho. Without previous knowledge of the enemy fleet placement it's really hard to manage to land in England without so heavy losses that you already lost before the invasion started. i think it took me three tries to be finally able to get a DV first time i played it. First attempt was an utter disaster with losing third of my troops before they even landed. On the second attempt i managed a Minor Victory and the third one was a Decisive Victory tho still my losses was quite high.

[shawkhan]

I must agree with Tarrak' assessment. The SeaLion scenarios are the hardest ones to win in my not so humble opinion. I still haven't managed to win SeaLion '45 and wonder if there is anyone out there who has.

[generalhex]

What is "Vanilla campaign"? Is it the 1939-45 campaign that is included in the initial iPad purchase?

GC is Grand Campaign, a separate purchase in iPad, am I correct?

I think I'll (first) go with 1939-45 with Colonel. I already tried with sergeant but that was way too easy. Made it to the Low Countries until I inevitably realised that this is not the way.

[huertgenwald]

a) Vanilla Campaign : Yes
b) On PC yes. Don't know about iPad but most probably yes, too

[Molve]

The "vanilla" campaign (the whole war in a single campaign) is simply put an easy campaign.

Sure some individual scenarios are far from trivial, but on the whole it is constructive it was designed with newcomers and beginning wargamers in mind (much like the Panzer General campaign).

Reading the forums, my observation is that veteran wargamers tend to need to play it on Field Marshal or Rommel (one of the special difficulty settings) to be properly challenged.

Also, I would note that on every level below General the AI actually isn't playing on the highest level. And with a game with such mediocre AI I see no reason why you would play on any level where the AI is actually handicapped.

So I would recommend General for anyone with any confidence of this sort of game at all, and Field Marshal if you're really worried you'll be wasting your time with trifles...

(The DLCs are a completely different matter)

[BiteNibbleChomp]

I must agree with Tarrak' assessment. The SeaLion scenarios are the hardest ones to win in my not so humble opinion. I still haven't managed to win SeaLion '45 and wonder if there is anyone out there who has.

Sea Lion '40 is only difficult if you don't split your forces. I usually have 3 groups. I reckon that Vyazma (GC41) is actually the hardest scenario. That or Gazala

- BNC

[Tarrak]

We must have totally different play styles BNC. For me Vyazma is a pushover compared to Sea Lion.

[BiteNibbleChomp]

- BNC

[shawkhan]

Sorry, BNC, but didn't refer to SeaLion'40, but SeaLion'45, a completely different animal.
SeaLion'45 is the last scenario in the game,after defeating both the Russians and the Western Allies. It features a huge allied air force, and nothing but the very best allied armor. It is an incredibly frustrating attritional meatgrinder that I have not been able to beat.
Vyazma is simply not that hard, once you realize the Luftwaffe won't be that great a factor.
Simply make two kampfgruppen, one for the north that sweeps around Vyazma from the north, capturing the airfield to the north then continuing on to Moscow.
The southern gruppe takes the airfield to the south, then sets up for the Russian attack coming from the East.
You need to keep one infantry in the city on the river in the center. I play with 4 armor in each kampfgruppe, backed by 3 towed artillery each, and at least 3 infantry in each wing. I use a minimal Luftwaffe because of the lousy weather. I keep 4 fighters, Hans Rudel's Stuka and Helmut Lent, along with one or two Strats. Even in the worst playthroughs, you can expect 2-3 turns of clear weather and that is when Vyazma will be blitzed from the south.
I last played this scenario yesterday and finished with 3 turns to spare. Could have finished earlier but wanted to capture every city on the map.
I

[Turboheizer]

I had to try twice, but I just finished Sea Lion 45 and thus the whole GC West. Of course, a lot depends on your force and the amount of your victory points. I managed to start with around 5000 cash and had just some 2000 left at the end. If you know when and where the Allied reinforcements will arrive, it is not that difficult anymore. If possible, start with many overstrength units.

1.) Establish two beachheads on English soil, one in East Anglia and one on the Channel coast. Concentrate your fleet in the north and crush the British fleet defending the North Sea while rushing most of your U-Boats to the Irish Sea. The Luftwaffe should concentrate on defeating the Allied Air Forces first, your bombers can await the outcome in France. The Jagdverband 44 should stay at top strength, if so, it can even finish off a Meteor unit with a single attack. The V-Weapons pick off key Allied units like artillery or air defense.

2.) Advance your troops to the Great Ouse crossing in the north, the Oxford gap in the center and the Reading-Southampton Line in the South. The Kriegsmarine, after destroying the garrisons of the coastal towns in the North, moves into the Channel and then west. The U-Boats cannot stop the first wave of reinforcements arriving northwest of Wales (around turn 10), but sink some key units. Let the surviving Americans butt their heads against your line and get punished. All the time, keep weakening the London defenses from the outskirts and cut them off from supports. When the second wave of reinforcements arrives all along the British West coast, receive them with your U-boats and level bombers with long-range escort. You should have air supremacy by now, and the next Allied Air reinforcements arrive only several turns after the ships. Concentrate on sinking Pershings, Jacksons and M12 guns. Spare your last batch of V-Weapons and move them north by sea.

3.) When the last US offensive has petered out (around turn 25), your fleet should already be on its way around Cornwall into the Irish sea. Your army should have cleared London now and moves north, taking the Midlands and surrounding the Manchester area. Use light and fast forces to take Cornwall and Wales, supported by your fleet, bombers and the Fallschirmjäger. They can be dropped twice on the most remote cities. Most towns in the Western area are only defended by weak Home Guard units. Between turn 30 and 40, attack the last Allied redoubt around Manchester from all directions - across both the Severn and Trent, from air and sea. Pick off vital units like guns, AD or AT with the V-Weapons and attack tanks from the air. The area around York is lightly held, if you can break through there, the enemy will be surrounded. I managed to win during the last turn, but it was a close call.

Good luck!

[BiteNibbleChomp]

I made it one of my new years resolutions to beat Sealion 45! Your help will make it a lot easier! Using my 50k prestige at Normandy like a total cheapskate (though it didn't stop me from getting 4 Konigstigers!). I think that a good strategy will be to hold 40+k until that Berlin scenario (seriously, why is that even there? This is called '45 WEST! - not east), then blow 20k against those Russian IS-2s and etc. (Russia has a habit of killing 10k from me every scenario), and then blow the other 20k on Sealion.

My secret on getting so much:

Step 1: Play Grand Campaign '42 (Eastern Front) on Sergeant
Step 2: Lose half of your newly-earned 110k on GC43
Step 3: Decide Russians are too hard. Write down core force and use cheats to get it into GC44W
Step 4: Play on Lieutenant (what I normally do), but with 200% prestige for player instead of 150%
Step 5: Take over the World!
Step 6: Waste all the cash on Sealion. Decide that theres no use having it later, so blow it all now.
Step 7: This step doesn't exist yet!

Just realised this is my 225th post! Yay!

- BNC

[shawkhan]

As I only play at Field Marshal w/o any cheats, I find it necessary to outsmart the AI in order to survive. I have used most of the strategy Turbo has advocated. I can defeat the Allied forces once ashore but run out of time. Sending all my U-boats to contest the convoy landing sounds like a good idea but at FM level the AI is quite good at sinking them quickly. The three U-boats starting West of England don't last long against the British Tacs and DDs. Moving the V weapons across the channel before launch is something I never thought of. I will try it.
With the new update I find the game is even harder than before and the soft prestige cap is making it really hard to conserve as I know the final scenario is so heavily attritional.
It costs a fortune for replacements to TigerIIs and Jets. If I can start this scenario with enough prestige I think it doable.

[Turboheizer]

I forget to mention that I played Sea Lion 45 without the latest update and on the Colonel level. I also started with more prestige than I thought, around 7000. I don't use cheats, but I saved very often and replayed actions that went awry.

I will explain my strategy with a few screenshots: Here, you can see that by turn 10 my troops have established a firm foothold on English soil, with one battlegroup moving towards Oxford in the North and the other bypassing London to the south. My fleet has done its job in the North Sea and is on its way south. On the small map to the right, note the US reinforcements and my U-Boats in the Irish Sea.



By turn 15, the American reinforcements are blocked at the Great Ouse and Oxford while my Southern wing swings around London to the South. The fleet marches west through the Channel. My U-boats now form a cordon off Wales (small map).



Turn 20: The northern troops stay on the defensive as new US troops arrive in the West (small map). In the south, my army approaches Reading and Southampton while the Kriegsmarine attacks the Allied fleet. London has been considerably reduced.



Turn 25: While London has now fallen to the Wehrmacht, the Americans attack my Southern troops but are defeated. To the north, my advance elements have crossed the Great Ouse (small map).



By turn 30, the remnants of the US army are hemmed in around Oxford. My Southern troops, supported by the fleet, clear Devon and Cornwall. To the north, the Trent has been crossed and my units approach York. Note the V-Weapons arriving by sea.



With only a few turns remaining, Southern England is under my control and my troops have entered Wales. The fleet is coming up the Irish Sea to help bombard the coastal towns. In the center, my troops gather for the final attack on the Midlands and the Manchester area from all directions. The V-Weapons are ready, and my army has taken York in an effort to surround the enemy.