POLL: Difficulty

[kondi754]

My question is addressed to players who play OoB at the highest level of difficulty.
Please, let everyone who plays on the 5th level sign up.
Another request is the answer to the question whether developers should introduce an additional level of difficulty (6th) and your opinion about that.
Should enemy units have 14 or 15 HP? Or maybe the player should have fewer units? Other proposals will also be appreciated.
Thanks a lot (in advance) for your participation

IMPORTANT FOR ME: For obvious reasons, I am asking everyone who does not play at the highest level to refrain from writing in this thread.

[kondi754]

Nobody is playing at level 5, really?

[GabeKnight]

Hi Kondi,

I don't know actually, I've played all the official campains, up until Burma Road, I think, at level 5 at least once. Knowing the scenarios (never played a new DLC at level 5 on the first try), it was quite well achievable, with all objectives, no (important) core losses, enough RP to spare and well within the turn limits. On many of Erik's Germany Grand Campaign scenarios though, I wouldn't dare to do so.

And I remember an enemy tank with full strength and efficiency catching one one my forward aux. inf. units (no star, 8-9 strenght, maybe about 70% efficiency) by surprise - not an ambush, just open terrain - and killing them instantly. So I really don't know how a 15/10 advantage would pan out. I mean, at level 4 you get 12 strenght and at level 5 just one more. I think the testers knew why they haven't got the strenght points up more.

[WarHomer]

I always play lvl 5. Its challenging and you need a few playthroughs to get the right strategy.

I dont know if there´s a need for a higher difficulty level, but some other sort of challenges, ie like the Italian Challenge in PC, could perhaps be fun. The average number of missions in each campaign might be a bit too low for something like the Italian Challenge. Maybe some more secondaries.

[Mujado]

I don't play because of that exactly, you have to min-max every situation, playthrough the scenario few times to know where units are and where AI tends to move around. It turns into a grind rather than a fun game.

But that could be because I'm not good enough player

[Taare]

i used to, but with every dlc income has gone down, therefore you can afford no mistakes or try out new tactics. this leads to a save/load kinda thing where you have to play the map over and over and position things thereafter, it becomes a grind and takes out all the fun of trying out new tactics. This could be ok if money wasn't so tight.

[GabeKnight]

I'd really like to see an "Operation Cannibal" (Burma Road) replay at level 5 with all VP's and Akyab taken within the given turn limits... I gave up on that one.
Would like to see the required core and approach for that mission.

[13obo]

As luck would have it, I am about to start the mission tonight with the following core: 2 british infantry, 2 gurkhas, 1 engineer, 1 heavy infantry, 2 crusader MKIII, 2 towed howitzer artillery, 2 bishop artillery, 3 spitfires, 1 tactical bomber (forgot name), and 2 air recons. Will update accordingly!

My input so far on the campaign is indeed that in terms of RP, it feels like Winter War where resources were just too much. I have enough RP to upgrade everything to the latest units as soon as it is possible though I'm still trying to be frugal and manage the expenses (think I have around 1k RP after upgrade/refit to start the Burma mission with). Blitzkrieg and Panzerkrieg were unique in terms of their balance for RP and upgrades available where one has to be very careful with any expenses till the end.

[kondi754]

As luck would have it, I am about to start the mission tonight with the following core: 2 british infantry, 2 gurkhas, 1 engineer, 1 heavy infantry, 2 crusader MKIII, 2 towed howitzer artillery, 2 bishop artillery, 3 spitfires, 1 tactical bomber (forgot name), and 2 air recons. Will update accordingly!

My input so far on the campaign is indeed that in terms of RP, it feels like Winter War where resources were just too much. I have enough RP to upgrade everything to the latest units as soon as it is possible though I'm still trying to be frugal and manage the expenses (think I have around 1k RP after upgrade/refit to start the Burma mission with). Blitzkrieg and Panzerkrieg were unique in terms of their balance for RP and upgrades available where one has to be very careful with any expenses till the end.

Do you play at the highest diff.?

[13obo]

Yes. Always.

[GabeKnight]

My input so far on the campaign is indeed that in terms of RP, it feels like Winter War where resources were just too much. I have enough RP to upgrade everything to the latest units as soon as it is possible though I'm still trying to be frugal and manage the expenses (think I have around 1k RP after upgrade/refit to start the Burma mission with). Blitzkrieg and Panzerkrieg were unique in terms of their balance for RP and upgrades available where one has to be very careful with any expenses till the end.

I don't remember the lack of RP's being the problem for me, too. But it's somehow streched out with many entrenched positions to take out and quite a few land CP available. By the time my forces arrived down there, they were worn down and/or had to wait for other units to catch up, the naval landing in the southwest went miserably and I had just no more turns left to take on the well defended Akyab position. That's where I switched to middle difficulty and restarted. And it was still quite hard to achieve then. It's been some time since I played the mission last time, though.

Will update accordingly!

I'd really appreciate any help and will be grateful if you could make the replay available. Thanks.

[13obo]

It's overstretching that forces me to restart most of the time too. Also rushing to capture stuff and then getting supply cut-off by silly unit I missed...

Thankfully, in OOB, unlike PzC, you have a lot more turns to complete missions, so I try to take my time . This has actually had the opposite effect of what one would expect- you complete missions faster because even though your initial progress is slower, you need less time to recover and make up for it in the end.

Will post feedback and a reply once finished! Still at work (though not really working, as one can see).

[13obo]

"Operation Cannibal" one was the slowest scenario so far! It was comparable to the grind of Blitzkrieg/Panzerkrieg, which certainly wasn't the case until now. Finished on turn 38 though the map continues till turn 42 for some reason.

Anyway, nothing unusual about the mission except that it's really slow and you need to take your time and not overstretch. Because your CP are so little, you really have to focus your attacks together with all your units else you'll grind to a halt. I maintained two fronts at all times that pushed in the two directions.

Replay of mission attached.

Slugfest.7z

(17.42 KiB) Downloaded 185 times

[GabeKnight]

Replay of mission attached.

First of all, thank you very much for this!

But the replay as such is somehow screwed, at least for me: it begins around turn 4-5 on the eastern part of the front. I've had this problem before, and maybe it's really just me. Could you (or someone else) please check if you can watch the replay yourself? If everything looks okay around turn 10 and you haven't noticed anything odd, then the problem's on my computer.

EDIT: Actually, watching this was quite funny (but not helpful): At some point one of your planes was attacking one of your units and your adjacent fighter planes delivered support fire back at your plane. I think you even shot one of your own planes down that way.

[13obo]

Lol! Actually, it started well for me, but after the second turn, things started to mess up when my heavy infantry attacked from over 3 hexes away an anti-tank gun... Something seems to be getting messed up with these replays?

[GabeKnight]

Lol! Actually, it started well for me, but after the second turn, things started to mess up when my heavy infantry attacked from over 3 hexes away an anti-tank gun... Something seems to be getting messed up with these replays?

Thank god, it's not just me... Maybe I should start a new thread in tech support?

But as said, thanks anyway. I got the overall strategy you used. As always, I think my ego got in the way. Being unpatient and advancing too fast and BOOM, or going into a forest/city hex that I knew I should have scouted beforehand and BOOM or flying into a small portion of fog-of-war, and of course there's AA, and BOOM.

Also you held your two fronts steady and went for the objectives. I guess, I'd be a miserable soldier. It seems that mostly I like destroying enemy units more than advancing and following orders. For example I'd chase those commando units forever and problably destroyed all bunkers/foxholes on the way, and not bypassing them, like you did with some of the enemy units. Maybe I'm just way too paranoid of being outflanked. Your approach was effective, and I would have liked to see the final storm on Akyab.

[13obo]

Thank you! And yes, that's basically it- advance slowly with leap frogging your units, scout everything suspicious like a forest hex that the road goest through (though you cannot foresee every mine/foxhole), and rest your units before attacking. I think this strategy is something you learn as you play and also something you have to keep telling yourself to be mindful of (I still overextend as it's just so easy to do).

For example, I keep asking myself: do I really need to move the maximum 3 hexes with the infantry or is it fine to end after 2 hexes in a forest? Most of the times, the answer is yes and you're saved from an onslaught in open terrain.

[kondi754]

How do you rate the level of difficulty Kursk scn?
Have you succeeded in completing this mission successfully?

[NightPhoenix]

I personally find many of the mission to be just right when played on 5th difficulty. At least that's my experience so far. I just started the Blitzkrieg campaign and am at Fall Rot now. All objectives are possible, but you need all the time to do it now. Usually if you play on 3rd you finish missions in 1/2 - 2/3 of the alloted time. Now i need all of it. The 3 extra str on enemy units can be tough, but ultimately isn't that bad. Though this might change in Panzerkrieg, unsure yet but i'm excited to find out. I don't think there is a need for a 6th difficulty. You might get in trouble with mission length / achievability of the secondary objectives. ( I needed 35 turns exactly for Belgium for example, the max amount of turns for the secondary objective ) I don't think i would've been able to get that on a 6th difficulty level.

I think conscripts could have more HP, 18-20 could be a thing. They are really weak now.

So far i'm optimistic of this difficulty level, looking forward to future missions. Of course i already went through the campaign once on 3rd, so i roughly know what to expect.

[GabeKnight]

@kondi754

How about playing terminator's " Battle of Kursk (Soviet Corps) 1.04 / Zombie Army" challenge at level 5? If you're still considering an additional level of difficulty of 15 HP after that, I've got your back.