Grand Campaign West

[PanzerTax]

I am currently doing GC East and on the forum we generally talk about GC East.

What are people's experiences with West? How do you make up your core? Hows many slots do you have? Is there a significantly different play style?

What are the main problems? Given the reality of massive Allied air and sea superiority, would it be effective in the game to build an extremely strong air force to destroy both?

[Resolute]

First of all you can import your core from the East campaign which helps a lot especially the SE units are free slots and those heros like Oleh Dir are a big help but importing your core is optional.
Your tanks will be pretty much superior to anything that the Allies bring to the table but you're up against a lot of airborne units but overall I find the West campaign does allow for a more diversified core force which is great.
The first two campaign are probably my fav. ones but the last one just does not work so well with the new rules since with the new entrenchment rules it takes a lot of effort to dig those highly entrenched units out.
I usually settle for about 6 air units (same like in the East campaign) and probably two AA units as well. You're not going to need that much infantry in the first two campaigns but in the last one quite a few.

[timek28]

West DLCs are really great. I advise you to buy them!

You get around 25 slots in 44' (with 5 SE units), while you start with about 15 or less (if I remember correctly). Which is completely enough.

As far as play style goes, as Resolute said German tanks are superior to any allied tank out there. On the other hand allies spam the infantry and airforce, which is somewhat historical.
Playing on FM difficulty without imported core I found it very hard to defend my units solely with FW190 fighters (although I have 5 fighters in total). On FM fighters gain experience very slowly (as other units too), so
having 2.5 stars in 44 will not cut it. Instead I went for 4 12.8 cm flaks which lay havoc on anything enemy throws at me in terms of planes. Thus I strongly advise using fighters as cover only if playing on colonel.

Also have rocket artillery (Nebelwerfer, or preferably Wurf40). It is much more effective against allied infantry, and you can cover your tanks without any fear even in bocage.

All in all it is a great experience, completely different then DLC East, although AI still uses same spamming as in DLC east, but overal AI units are completely different.

[BiteNibbleChomp]

2 main things I have noticed

1- they are sooooo much easier
2 - no matter if you destroy D-Day completely, you still lose. (In the east you fight a small part of a large war - the west it is a different story, at least until the end of '44)

Note I am mostly reffering to '44.

Still think the East is better though (even though I hate hard scenarios, with the exception of Mons18), simply because I like to "turkey shoot" Russians in scenario after scenario

- BNC

[ThvN]

Notes on core size: 10/2 means 10 regular core slots and 2 SE slots.

GC ’42-’43 West starts with a core of 9/4. The last scenarios allow 20/4.

The first missions are mostly fast-paced and full of (expensive) surprises. Prestige is somewhat tight but many free units are handed out, not all of them worth keeping. Later on the fights are more regular but Italians are added to the mix to keep it interesting.


GC’44 West starts with 22/5, near the end 28/5.

The increasing number of AI tanks and planes can be taxing, and the incoming waves of aircraft become more noticeable, so timing can be everything. Some scenarios (initially) spread out your forces a lot and will have several groups fighting without much mutual support, and sometimes a lot of difficult deployment decisions have to be made. DV’s can be very costly and unnecessary.

GC’45 West starts with 30/6, in the end 37/6 for the historical path or 42/7 if you choose the ahistorical path.

This GC has a lot of secret weapons to play with, the V-weapons which are often part of the mission objectives are a nice touch.

The first missions are dominated by snow and bad weather; so plane-heavy cores will suffer, and it can be hard to exploit any qualitative advantages on the ground as well. Also, you will run out of fuel amazingly fast, so some logistical management is helpful. As the weather clears and you finally can start to make faster progress the dreaded Allied air forces return, for example the second Bastogne scenario (after which the campaign splits) has 19 Allied air units in four waves, and you will need to capture some better airfields if you want your fighters to be effective as well.



Overall, choosing an airforce can be tricky, especially because some bonus units are fairly good airplanes. I often use very few tactical and strategic bombers.
Strategic bombers gain experience very quickly and are not really necessary so I usually only bought/used any relatively late, but if you go for a massive airforce they can provide very good suppression to minimize the casualties on the ground.

Tactical bombers are a mixed bag, and I’m still not sure what the best choices are. I usually go for a lot of fighters and one or two AAA to cover my units while the airforce limps back to safety to patch up their bullet holes. Speaking of bullet holes: The new experience rules make AAA much more deadly, this also means the AI will eat away your expensive toys if you are not careful; I use my fighters very defensively and try not to get too enthusiastic when chasing after ground targets. Adding ‘green’ fighters very late in the war is an expensive recipe, so plan ahead.

I haven’t played through GC’45 West with the new soft cap, but during 43 and 44 West I seriously started looking into other units as prestige is already tight sometimes. A favourite of mine is the StuG IV, it is an AT unit with a good amount of fuel and it can gain experience relatively fast by using its artillery mode; this means it can be added to your core relatively late but still end up experienced enough to be effective.

Any unit with poor air defenses will be pounded badly if left unprotected, but they also make excellent bait for fighter/FlaK traps. Timek's suggestion for a Nebelwerfer is a good one, very good for quickly digging out infantry. I still have good memories about a towed 30cm with +1 move...

[PanzerTax]

Thanks guys, that was really interesting. I can't wait to get my teeth into that. Still on East and have badly embarrassed myself at Prokhorovka. I was methodical for 12 turns, but got hasty

Cheers

[ThorHa]

Thanks guys, that was really interesting. I can't wait to get my teeth into that. Still on East and have badly embarrassed myself at Prokhorovka. I was methodical for 12 turns, but got hasty

Cheers

Haste especially in the last turns for Prokhorovka is the exact recipe for a desaster. Not converging on the last VHs with at least 2/3 of your full fighting strength means losses, crippling ones .

Regards,
Thorsten