Battlefield: Europe MOD v2.4

[hugh2711]

Has anyone managed to take leningrad in the new (1.7) version? If you have managed to do it please could you say how?. I normally do it early on from the finnish side but it seems impossible now with the big mortar karl neuterd (and of course losing one of its 5 strength when all the other units do bringing it down to a useless 4) and it impossible to get near the fort with other artilliary. How?. Thanks for info

[Uhu]

I did it, how I could have done other way a DV?
Look for the "Tipps for playing the Battlefield Europe mod" topic. http://www.slitherine.co.uk/forum/viewt ... b7#p610793
I just made a guide for you and others, who need some help about the successful siege.

Has anyone managed to take leningrad in the new (1.7) version? If you have managed to do it please could you say how?. I normally do it early on from the finnish side but it seems impossible now with the big mortar karl neuterd (and of course losing one of its 5 strength when all the other units do bringing it down to a useless 4) and it impossible to get near the fort with other artilliary. How?. Thanks for info

[hugh2711]

Thank you Uhu

[Uhu]

V1.7 battle finished - DV at turn 54!

Nice! So it seems that v1.7 is not much harder than v1.6. Actually I did not really want to make it harder, just more interesting and fun. And more historically accurate, of course, as always!

It is definitiely harder, but I also invented new methods.
- England is much more harder to invade.
- Leningrad is not harder, just much more interesting, realistic and fun.
- With expanding the map to the east, the goals of the Middle East seems to get harder, but I don't think so, because Basra is easier accesible as earlier the last oil field on the "island" between the two river.

- I found almost no bugs (but I have admit, that I cannot say anything beyond turn 65 - the earlier try)

Ahh, good to know, at last! It is time to have a definitive version after more than two years of development.

Maybe one: after capturing Mozahysk, still a conscript unit appears, if nobody is at the town.
Oh and I don't know, when shall King George VI speaking, but last time, he spoke, after some turn, when I captured Basra and surroundings and scuttled the HMS Revenge (Engladn already turns earlier captured), this time he doesn't spoke to me.

Hopefully I will make an AAR and a replay video about the gameplay. But it takes time...

Hopefully, yeah. I have been waiting for a while for a full AAR from you with all the tips and stuff. I am pretty sure that many players would find it useful as well. Especially those who think it is "impossible" to achieve a Decisive Victory in this mod.

I know, I know.. But I created a Tipps topic already.

AG 12 has indeed the recon version (Ju 88D) added by the latest version of the mod.

Ah, so many times I forgot about it and tried to use as a normal Ju88A bomber! Still, it is a very useful unit with a lot of fuel and good visibility.

[Uhu]

By the way, I had no rest, until I could finally make the DV at turn 50.

The only thing, what I this time changed, that I used an additional fighter instead of a Panzer from France on. And I upgraded the hero-Pz38(t)E to a PzIV at Barbarossa, so no PzIV was missing from the arsenal. (OK, it had a minimal xp, so I had carefully develop it .) I think, it is a fair change, because the upgrade cost a hell of prestige.

[Uhu]

Finished the walkthrough of the successful siege of Leningrad at the Tipps section.
Part 2 can be read here: http://www.slitherine.co.uk/forum/viewt ... 6e#p611514

[hugh2711]

When the units lose a point in approximately turn 12 - i believe its only the units in russia? where exactly does the boundary for this stop? at the vistula?. I am saving a few 2 star units for later when better equipment becomes available so want to move them out but dont want to take them any further than i have to so i need to know the exact boundary. thanks for info

[McGuba]

Maybe one: after capturing Mozahysk, still a conscript unit appears, if nobody is at the town.

Ok, I fixed it, thanks.

Oh and I don't know, when shall King George VI speaking, but last time, he spoke, after some turn, when I captured Basra and surroundings and scuttled the HMS Revenge (Engladn already turns earlier captured), this time he doesn't spoke to me.

Sometimes the messages are not displayed even though they should. Dunno why. Probably too many of them in this mod.

Finished the walkthrough of the successful siege of Leningrad at the Tipps section.
Part 2 can be read here: http://www.slitherine.co.uk/forum/viewt ... 6e#p611514

Thanks, it is quite useful. So it seems it works more or less as it should.

When the units lose a point in approximately turn 12 - i believe its only the units in russia? where exactly does the boundary for this stop? at the vistula?. I am saving a few 2 star units for later when better equipment becomes available so want to move them out but dont want to take them any further than i have to so i need to know the exact boundary. thanks for info

It should be the area beyond the Neman-Bug-Southern-Bug rivers. But keep a few more hexes to be sure. Basically the area where the Axis troops start the scenario should be safe. Anything beyond is cold.

[hugh2711]

Thanks McGuba

[GeneralWerner]

So now after round 99 some experiences.

The plan:
Overall strategy:
1) Occupy convoy lanes as long as possible
2) Capture Tobruk and move to Egypt with the Afrika Korps. Stop the British tank armies that appear in parallel to Torch in Egypt.
3) Defend Tunis later with a second army (including the Tiger and the main core of the Italian fleet) against the American Torch invasion
4) Hold the siege of Leningrad
5) Carefully move to Moscow
6) Invade the Caucasus and then move south with a battle group to capture the oil fields in Iraq
7) Try to defeat the Russians before Overlord starts and stop the Allied invasion somewhere in France.

The results after 99 rounds was a victory:
1) Used the prestige of the first year mainly to upgrade tanks to type III. Finally when Overlord came there was no German fleet anymore. Except one submarine all was gone in the fight in the Atlantic.
2) The campaign in North Africa and Palestine was very succesful. With 4 artilleries, 4 anti tank, Rommels III tank (later upgraded to Panther), some infantry and bombers/fighters it was possible to destroy the British forces in Egypt, capture Palestine and move through the desert to the southern oil field at the Persian Gulf.
3) Tunis was defended mainly by infantry in the hills, 2 88ers, one artillery, some bombers and the Tiger division easily. Critical was the attack of the Allied fleet that included 4 strong battleships. After the Italian fleet and bombers defeated the Allied fleet the rest was easy. In the end all cities in North Afrika, Palestine and Iraq were captured kicking out the British from this area (providing some prestige)
4) That did not work really. After six rounds of the siege all of the defenders lost a point. But then only one infantry lost additional points. After two years of siege there was one infantry in Leningrad with 6 points, all the other units were beyond 10, for example the artillery still even 12. I lost patience and started the classical storm on the city. Captured it summer/fall of 43.
5) Moscow was captured in winter 42/43. In winter 41/42 stopped the attacking T34s mainly with entrenched infantry and AT. In winter 42/43 very strong Russian attack in the center (Kursk) and the south (Rostov) of the front (had to fight it with IIIM tanks and the first Stugs III) but no strong Russian forces near Moscow and in the Caucasus. So Axis attacks there could even continue in winter 42/43. In winter 43/44 the Russians had already lost Moscow, Leningrad and the Caucasus and their defence was strongly weakened.
6) A battlegroup with a Panther, 2 artilleries, 3 infantry and a recon tank moved through the Caucasus and destroyed a British army with 5 tanks divisions that were on the way north. The fight happened in the southern mountains of the Caucasus, so infantry could fight the tanks very well. Near Bagdad this army was fused with the Afrika Korps moving north from the Persian Gulf to completely capture Iraq and the last oil field.
7) Russians were defeated in summer 44. Most of the heavy weapons were already transfered to France to fight the Allied invasion in the Normandy. In advance I have sent a lot of infantry to the beaches and tried to force the Allies to make the invasion not in the Normandy but more in the east where there is much better area to fight with my superior Panthers and Tigers. But that did not work. Strong Allied tank forces and infantry invaded the Normandy and the main fight was done in the Bocage area. The Allied with their long range artilleries, battleships and bombers were succesful to supress my artilleries again and again and the strong American infantry and tanks made me really problems. In a single round I lost the Tiger and two Panther divisions and was really in worry! The sky was filled with Allied planes. There seem to be much more than in the past (feels like double?). I upgraded nearly all my fighters to ME262, the only fighter that can compete with the Allied fighters. Around round 96 the last American forces in Normandy were overrun by my Panthers.

At the begin prestige was no problem due to the convoy lanes. I did not repair the German battleships but sent them in like they were. At the climax I had a fleet with 8 to 10 units at the northern convoy lane that was then decimated by the Allies one after the other. Then prestige was short in winter 42/43 and I could not repair many of my expensive units (bombers) for several months. After capturing the Caucasus situation again became better (like it was planned) and at the end by holding all oil fields prestige was again no problem. I had 10 ME262, a Tiger II, a Maus and a Ferdinand (elephant) in the Normandy. The Maus comes so late that it can't really show its power. But the Ferdinand is a real beast and showed its power already in the east.

[Uhu]

I wrote several tipps about:
- Taking Malta
- Dealing with subs
- Taking Tobruk
- Defending Tunis

You can read them in the Tipps topic: http://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtop ... 39#p612339

Another tipp will soon follow about the defense in Russia in the winter of 1942/43.

[Uhu]

So now after round 99 some experiences...

Congratulations, nice gameplay!

My thoughts:
- I always wonder, why is it useful to tranport the Tiger to Tunisia? Not just the high risiko of the transport, but this beast's traits cannot be really used in the close defense hills of Tunisia. While in the east, it is a real Deus Ex to stop the swarms of Soviet tanks - and later to block the desperate attempts of the Soviets to cross the Don river at Voronezh.
- I don't see, that the Me262's are so strong: they are much more fragile, than the late war Fw190's and then the Ta 152's.

[Uhu]

.

[Uhu]

The walkthrough for the defense of the Tula-Voronezh-Rostov line in the winter of 1942/43 is finished! You can read it here: http://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtop ... 44#p612344

[Uhu]

By the way, I couldn't resist the temptation to play the Normandy save with the v1.7 with Rommel diff (manually calculated), with dice chess setup.
It is not harder, I could achive the Draw, but this time I also could recapture much lost territories:
- France mostly, while cutting the supply line of the Allied forces in the Brest-Paris axis.
- Middle Italy, with Rome.
- Riga, Tallin, Kaunas, Bialystok, Warsaw, Brest, Lutsk, Zhitomir, Vinnitsa
- Romania and the Balkan

V1's, V2's all sent to South London. (prestige was really needed)

[DJ88]

Having trouble with installation. I already have the generic mod installer on desktop. And it loads the mod...but when I lauch the game (using the recommended shortcut) it just loads the regular base game. Do I install the individual files under the "MODS" folder installed under PanzerCorps folder? Or do I need to extract the files to "MODS" folder? Tried both and doesn't work. Maybe I need to start over with the trace. Any help appreciated.

[DJ88]

Please disregard. All I had to do was re-configure GME. Very nice work on this mod!

[Sparatacus]

Played to turn 20ish very addictive scenario loving the scale and the attention to detail with the authenticity of the unit ratios and the historical events and all the modded units look great! Thanks for making this McGuba its awesome!

[DJ88]

Yes I'm on turn 10 now...just like you said very well made with the authenticity of units and events. I especially like the naval engagements and battle for Malta. Truly an island fortress. Leningrad is likewise an extremely strong fortress city. Yes thank you McGuba!

[Ceek]

I replayed the scenario at default settings (General, AI = 2, normal dice) from the beginning and just secured a decisive victory by focusing first on the USSR and then invading England in '43. Previously, I had only been able to secure DVs through a Sealion '41, which has never been too satisfying to me from an operational point of view.

What follows is my AAR of how it all played out.

My decisive victory depended significantly upon what happens in '41. I was able to capture and hold Moscow by November while also winning the encirclement battles in Minsk and Kiev, which removed large numbers of Soviet forces off the map. Capturing and holding Moscow before the onset of the winter counterattacks seems to change much of how the War in the East plays out. Not only do you get a much-needed 1500 prestige boost, but Moscow itself serves as a magnet (and killing field) for Soviet counterattacks. During late '41 and early '42 I rerouted almost all available infantry by rail to the Moscow zone to bolster reinforcements while also the surrounding forests to contain and destroy Soviet armor with infantry attacks. Using this strategy, I was able to beat back the counterattacks with relative ease while reinforcing my core forces with prestige to spare.

Winning the Battle of Moscow left my forces well prepared for an advance along in all fronts in '42. "All fronts" included focusing on taking Malta (during the winter months, I transferred Rudel to the Mediterranean Theatre and a number of forces in Southern Europe to North Africa in order to push towards El Alamein all while rebuilding the Italian Navy. At Leningrad, I eschewed the use of air units and instead simply used the Finnish forces to loop around Lake Ladoga and, with a reinforced Army Group North, surrounded the city while pummeling it with four artillery pieces in order to win the seige by mid-'42. Malta fell on almost the same turn (Rudel can consistently reduce the fortress by 2-3 points on a clear turn!). Winning these victories added 3000 more prestige that allowed me to maintain elite reinforcements and upgrades for all my tank units in Army Groups Center and South to Pz IIIJ-1s and IV-F2s.

The second half of '42 was an all-out drive eastward from the axes of Moscow, Voronezh, and Rostov. Each arm was essential in keeping pressure on the Soviets on all fronts and not allowing any to get over-extended relative to the others. A key was crossing the Don as quickly as possible as Voronezh is surrounded by well entrenched artillery and AA that can wreak havoc if left to their own devices. Despite the increasingly early appearance of attacking T-34/43s (mid 1942!), I was able to establish a front line running from Nizhny Novgorod in the north through the forested areas east of Voronezh and Rzhev to midway to Saratov before the onset of winter. In doing so, my forces managed to destroy or damage about half of the Soviet winter counterattack located north of the Don. At the same moment, the Rostov advance had seized Stalingrad and entrenched behind a wall of artillery just prior to the onset of winter. With the northern attack weakened, the city proved excellent defensive terrain to withstand the Soviet assault pushing forward from Astrakhan.

(Gameplay tip: At this point, If you don't already know, a key tactic in limiting damage from Soviet winter counterattacks is to simply keep your forces just out of their units' site ranges on "snowy" turns and let them plow into you on the AI's turn. In this way, even your weak Romanian and Hungarian soft infantry can score "ambushes" and weaken even T-34/43s and KV-1s at which point your Panzers can come into clean up the mess while taking minimal damage--key when prestige is so precious. You can also attempt to construct traps that allow you to surround, suppress, and force surrender Soviet T-34s and KV-1s for massive prestige boosts.)

By early '43, with the Soviet offensive capability appearing increasingly feeble, and my North African forces holding off both the recent Torch landings while also holding their own in the Suez (despite a strong Allied counterattack), I decided that to play for the decisive victory. This meant transferring forces Westward for a Sealion '43 scenario. I began this by moving all but minor nations' air forces back to Germany, particularly the heavy bombers in early '43. By spring of '43, I also began transferring a small amount of my crack ground forces as well (though the bulk of my forces continued to push simultaneously northward, eastward, and southward to finish off the Soviets in the foothills of the Urals, in the Caucasus, and at Archangelsk, respectively).

By summer of '43, the crux of the scenario was at hand: the invasion of England. I was still fighting off the Allied counterattack at the Suez and Operation Torch in Tunisia, which had made prestige scarce. Nonetheless, I began spending ~150 a turn to methodically rebuild the pocket battleships on the French coast while also beginning a second Blitz over southern England, attacking coastal fortifications, radar stations, AAs, and any other beachhead barriers in earnest. These efforts were complicated by the arrival of the 8th Air Force, whose P-49s and 51s were strong enough to pick off my weaker air elements. Nonetheless, through a combination of air and naval bombardment, I managed to savage enough of their coastal forces so as to make possible a few small-scale landings near Plymouth and Dover.

Sealion was more of a slow burn than a bang. My landings were mere toe-dippings quickly surrounded by Allied forces. While their attacks failed to destroy my expeditionary forces, they did weaken them and prevented reinforcements through ZOC rules. With an offensive too risky in these conditions, I decided to simply occupy territory while the Luftwaffe fought to wrest total control of the skies from the 8th Air Force and RAF. With air dominance secure by August, I was able to suppress some units and force surrender them to clear further beachhead space. I landed four tanks, a few infantry and an artillery, primarily on the Plymouth coast, before the Home Fleet descended from Scapa Flow to cut off further resupply and deal my Kriegsmarine some savage blows.

The return of winter weather coupled with the Home Fleet's entry into the Channel made me fear whether my expeditionary forces could survive without further air or sea support. The Kriegsmarine was too weak to attack the fleet directly and the winter weather prevented significant air strikes. As it worked out, luck was on my side. Several overcast turns allowed me to keep the skies clear of enemy forces; also, the Home Fleet lined right up against the coast of France for a turn, where my land forces took turns assailing them w/ a fusillade of small arms fire that knocked off just enough strength points to give the tatters of the Kriegsmarine a chance to pick off some of the wounded. At the same time, my expeditionary forces proved their tenacity on the beachheads thanks to their 2.5/3 stars of experience carried with them from the Eastern Front.

By the time the weather had returned to clear skies, England did not have long to live. During the winter, I had been buttressed by the additional 3500 for conquering the Caucasus and capturing all Soviet objective cities, forcing the Soviet surrender. I was able to not only reinforce my weakened Luftwaffe but add to service a ME163s and some FW-190 A8s. Those additions, combined with the arrival of the Italian air forces from the successful defense of Tunisia, meant I was more than a match for the veritable mass of air units pouring into the UK in the summer of '44. June 6th, 1944 came and went as a sunny, uneventful day on the Normandy beaches as my forces had already conquered London and were moving inexorably north. Glasgow and Basra fell on the same turn (71), and a decisive victory was mine.

As always, a delightful return to your mod, McGuba. I'll now have to give the in media res save state "scenarios" (i.e. '43 and '44) a try to see how I manage. What was exciting for me about this playthrough was that I was genuinely uncertain whether it would be possible to launch a Sealion '43 invasion as has been posited since the days of the original Panzer General. I didn't think a.) I could knock out the USSR in time, or b.) the UK would be penetrable at that late stage of the game. It was a very close run thing, but with almost no gameplay mistakes and several fortunate outcomes (the early conquests of Moscow, Malta, and Leningrad) it was (just) possible. Kudos again to all your work on this very deep and engaging scenario!