GC east ipad balance fix?

[lortt1]

Thank you for the great game, I'm enjoying it a lot on my iPad. However, I am playing gc east 45 with colonel difficulty and I find it really challenging. Tried to search the forums and found that so called soft prestige cap is messing up currently gc east balance. Any plans for fixing it? I beat the Afrika Korps campaign rather easily on same difficulty so I believe I can't be that bad player...

[proline]

If you can't beat it, turn down the difficulty or improve your play. The prestige cap probably makes it really hard to beat at Field Marshall or higher, but colonel is very beatable. I would suggest restarting from the beginning though- you will have a better core and more money now that you know the game better.

[lortt1]

In beginning of gc 45 i have around 6k prestige and full force of 13 str king tigers, panthers, elefants, jagdtigers, strong luftwaffe etc. I think i get DVs rather easily but finally I am running out of prestige around Breslau scenario. Would it be better to start again with more cheaper core?

My gc 44 core has 20k starting prestige and gc 43 core 34k prestige.

[proline]

In beginning of gc 45 i have around 6k prestige and full force of 13 str king tigers, panthers, elefants, jagdtigers, strong luftwaffe etc. I think i get DVs rather easily but finally I am running out of prestige around Breslau scenario. Would it be better to start again with more cheaper core?

My gc 44 core has 20k starting prestige and gc 43 core 34k prestige.

Sounds like your core is OK but you lost too much money in '44. Maybe restart from there? Here's some tips for money saving that are most relevant to you, there are many more out there if you search the forum:

-Don't over-strength: you pay a prestige penalty for each point over 10 AND they count more against the prestige cap
-Use more anti-tank and infantry as they cost less to operate (lower replacement costs) and have a lower cap hit. However, you need to replay from earlier to do this, because you can't buy anti-tank or infantry in '43 or later as they die too easily to gain experience
-You seem like the type that doesn't have enough or the right artillery. See the many excellent artillery posts
-Don't use bombers except in very specific scenarios that call for them, because they cost a lot in replacements, they tie down your fighters on escort duty and prevent them from going after enemy bombers and protecting your tanks, they take expensive damage from AA which is everywhere in this game, they don't do much damage, and they don't attack much due to weather. They suck. Exception: Rudel (who is historically accurate btw)

[Philwd]

In beginning of gc 45 i have around 6k prestige and full force of 13 str king tigers, panthers, elefants, jagdtigers, strong luftwaffe etc. I think i get DVs rather easily but finally I am running out of prestige around Breslau scenario. Would it be better to start again with more cheaper core?

My gc 44 core has 20k starting prestige and gc 43 core 34k prestige.

I will echo what Proline said. I had over 20K more prestige than you starting every year and started the last battle, Berlin Redux, with 200 after final upgrades. I completely agree about artillery. I ran with 9 varied arty as they are all weather and flak can't shoot them down. A couple of Wurframmen for infantry lol fun, a couple Hummels and rest 21cm to have a chance at suppressing the heavy Russian tanks. I ran with 5 fighters, 3 FW tac air and Rudel and 1 strategic that got left home alot in '45. Actually my tactics revolved around flak suppression so my tac air could get in without damage. A 15 strength Rudel with other defense heroes quite often takes ZERO damage attacking light flak. Also baiting the AI with flak and fighter traps to take out his bombers. I did overstrength more than Proline and I found the stronger units deterred most attacks allowing me to choose the tempo. But with my prestige base I could afford the extra points.

My tank force was 1/2 Panthers, a couple Tiger1, 3 or 4 Tiger2, 2-3 anti-tank usually Ferdis plus the proto JT you get. When Maus became available I had the 2 the game gives you plus converted 2 5* Panthers over. That really sucked down the prestige but was sooo worth it. I would screen the front with the AT and KT. The AI will rarely attack them but ISU-122 and IS-2 will attack Panthers and just destroy them. Don't expose them until the Russian big tanks have taken a beating. 15 strength Ferdis or JT do a wonder on either. You will lose a point or 2 in return but the exchange rate is far better than any other attack.

Also try and have your infantry do the attacking on big Russian tanks. Artillery suppression causing retreats into rough or city hexes followed by SE Grenadier and bye bye Rusky. The couple points you lose are very cheap to replace. I especially loved to see SU-85 or -100 as they have 0 close defense. Infantry just tears them up.

You don't mention it but did you sell off all the extra units you got but never use like all the extra flak or Rusky KV-85s? I think you will only get like 45 or 46 units to place at Berlin. All extra can be sold for prestige.

[BiteNibbleChomp]

'45 was hard historically - I'm not too surprised your having trouble (I'm not quite up to it yet)

In '44 a loss of 2/3 of your prestige seems quite painful. I stuffed it in '43 and lost 60k or so (from 110k at Stalingrad - but I play on Lieutenant so it would be somewhat easier).

However in '44 it is certainly possible to stabilise your balance. I'm at Vilna with 54k and entered Korsun with 46k (Minsk was ~51k). The trick: use AA, and a darn lot of it (like 10 12.8s or so). Most of my core except tanks is on 0-2*, but the scenarios have been kind enough to give me cash to pay for infantry and other trash each mission, leading to a net increase. As long as the experienced stuff (and the most expensive stuff) is kept alive, no real trouble will be found.

Of course, a better player could lead this strategy far better than I.

- BNC

[RVallant]

Sounds more like the prestige was spent on strengthening super-units, I think if the core was more balanced then there wouldn't be a prestige issue.

[lortt1]

Thanks for the advice. I started over from DLC 42 and now at DLC43 #4 I have 54k prestige. Now the prestige cap starts to affect and lets see how I manage the difficult Kursk scenarios with diversed core. I made following changes to my core:
- no overstrength
- more infantry
- more AT stugs and marders
- no bombers, only Rudel and the other tac bomber hero.
- upgraded only SE tanks to tigers

Bit worried how I handle packs of t34/43s with pz4g, they seem to get bloody nose most of the time.

[proline]

Bit worried how I handle packs of t34/43s with pz4g, they seem to get bloody nose most of the time.

Fighting Russian tanks with your tanks is generally not a good idea. Sure, there are isolated cases where it works, such as Tigers in early 1943, but most of the time is just isn't cost effective. Here's the efficient ways to kill them:

1) Artillery + AT: This is the best way to kill them in open terrain. Look for tanks that have no retreat so you can take them out in one hit after they get suppressed by artillery and you can get surrender prestige. The Elephant is extremely good from 43-45 and fights tanks just as well as the costlier and much later tiger II. Remember that good AT rarely get attacked by tanks because of their punishing attack bonus on defense.

2) Rudel: Also a good option for open terrain. I would say other tac bombers, but the truth is Rudel is the only cost-effective one. Other tac bombers get good attacks, but take costly damage from increasingly mechanized AA and require a fighter for protection leading to an extremely high true cost.

3) Artillery + Infantry: This gives you a cheap kill in close terrain. Use grenadiers for their hard attack and initiative. Paras also hit hard and have good initiative and are very cheap if they don't have a transport (grenadiers generally require a truck).