Rommel difficulty : feedback on prestige after completing 42

[Ursulet]

Hi,



I played DLC from 39 to 42 (staring kharkov 42) twice, once with 1.04 rules and one with the current ones.



Here is a little feedback on the two plays:



I know the maps quite well for I have played them several times before but only once with the 1.20 rules (the current game). I tend to delay upgrades (had only 3 pz 38T and one se PZ3 till Belgrade), then I bought some PzIV, I didn’t do any cross upgrades (pz 4 to pz 3 or pz3 to pz4) . I disbanded all captured units except first two kv tanks.



Starting Kharkov 1943, I had 23274 prestige with the 1.14 rules whereas I have 29334 with the new rules. The difference of prestige is due to:



- no over strengthening except for 2 stugs 3 that I OS to 12 whereas in the previous game I used to OS bombers, stukas, arty and infantry in special cases like storming Stalingrad and Stalingrad docks. That means that I never was hit by the soft cap till Kharkov 1943.

- in the first run I didn’t use any of the heroes that are given because my game was on a late version so they were not available. The heroes make quite a difference (even though I disbanded rudel back in 1939 because it felt it was too overpowered). The fighter heroes with initiative bonus are huge once they get some xp, and once you give them FW, they almost never suffer casualties. +, with the 2 tanks, the fighter bomber, 2 fighters and 3 infantries, you save +/- 2200 prestige.



- I almost never reinforce during the game but almost never reinforce for free my troops as I want them to have the most possible xp for performance reasons. I did the same for both plays.



So, If I add in the 2200 prestige saved from the free units, the savings from not over strengthening is +/- 3900 prestige. But it cannot be assumed it is the actual saving of just not OS, as heroes were quite different in both runs. Having these good fighters units with initiative bonus is a big boost on prestige as the plane losses are significantly lower. In the same time, in the previous play I had some bad heroes for my fighters (mainly spotting or movement whereas in the second play I had some +1 initiative and +3 attack and +2 bonus) so it makes it hard to fully analyze the impact, as my other heroes on artillery are worse the second time (more defense/attack whereas the other one I had been lucky with 4 +1 range heroes).



Now regarding the difficulty, I didn’t notice any difference until I reached Stalingrad. In Stalingrad, I changed my usual two groups tactics to go for an all south attack, reason for this is that I never managed a DV on this map (which doesn’t bother me much) so I decided to go for a MV. Prestige wise, as I let the partisans get the airports, it was quite good (I took a lot of flags), and the troop and artillery concentration in the south meant that the attack went quite well until turn 15 or so. At which point, the weather turned bad and the losses started to increase , and Ivan surprised me by sending most of its troops from the north down south which really slowed down my progress and increased my losses. Overall, fighting over-strengthened SMG, arty and tanks is really getting harder.



Then I went to the Stalingrad docks, here again no OS, I’ve always managed DV there. Always. But not this time. I was very unlucky with the weather that time and suffered some high losses from smg attacks, so I couldn’t capture pavlov’s house, I would have needed one more turn. Yet again, I felt the difference for not OS as the fights are getting bitter and bitter.



Then escape from Stalingrad, that went well, but here again I couldn’t get a DV. Not that I had many losses, but killing off ivan took more time than expected, I went down south as usual (always worked before) but my 10 str bombers failed twice (may be due to bad weather) to neutralize the cities down south when I wanted to cross the river so ivan bought 8 KV1 and blocked the bridges, I started to fight them but it took more time than expected and was too late to go through the north road. So I settled for a MV.



Then Tatsinskaya… I’ve always managed a DV there and yet again I failed this time. With OS arty, it is getting harder and harder to suppress those big nasty red tanks. Meaning I suffered more losses (still make some juicy prestige from surrendering) and took more time to finish off the first and second wave. So I couldn’t capture the last two VH in the east without exposing dangerously my depleted core units.



I don’t mind not getting as many DV as I used to, as I always put the safety of my core units first but I’m still puzzled regarding the best strategy for prestige.



No over strengthening means always getting full prestige but it also means more losses.

One thing I haven’t tried yet is to always go for green reinforcements, that surely would save at least 10 to 15k of prestige but I’m sure that would also mean some precious core units losses and the front lines would struggle to get to 4* and more difficult fights in 1942.



It is hard to find the right balance, prestige wise, between green or experienced reinforcement, between OS or not OS.



I’m gonna give 1943 a go without OS but I expect to really start to feel ivan’s breath on my neck…



In 1943 my core is composed as follow:



1 reco SdKfz 222 with 3*



2 inf 43

2 pionere 43

5 grenadiere 43

3 paras 43

1 SE grenadiere

2 Gebirgsjäger 43



Some of them have trucks, no halftracks except for the se grenadiere.

All with3 or 4*.



Artillery:



3 stugs 3

1 21cm gun

2 10.5 guns

1 stuh 42

1 su-122

2 21 cm Nblwf 42



All with trucks, no halftracks.



All arty have 4*.



1 7.5 cm Pak 40 with 4*

2 stug 3G with 4*



Tanks:



6 panzer IVG

2 KV-1B



5 tigers ranging for 3* to none.



2 88 AA with 3*

All with trucks, no halftracks.



Luftwaffe:



3 FW

4 Bf 109G

2 he 117A

2 stukas 87D

1 BF 110G

1 Me410A



I’m still slightly below the 400 cap as i calculated my average core value is +/- 395. But for how long without paying too much the price can I remain below, that is the question…

[Ursulet]

I would appreciate to hear from those who do not buy elite reinforcement until very late in the war. How much prestige do they have i' 43, do they OS some units? How much xp so their front units have, do they struggle in 42?

[Kerensky]

Never was a fan of Rommel mode, the prestige snowball really builds up hard, especially in the late Grand Campaign. More of a Manstein difficulty player here, sorry.