Combined arms.

[stormbringer3]

I bought Panzer Corps Gold and have been playing it on and off for years. When you play the German Campaign and you get to 1943-1945 years the only good strategy is to be very tank heavy. Will the German Campaign in this game let the player use a combined arms approach? I really like using infantry and other unit types not just focusing on tanks.
Thanks for any opinions.

[StuccoFresco]

A couple players have posted AARs covering the Soviet campaigns and the combined arms approach is the best so far provided you have the right units. Infantry Corps made by infantry and heavy infantry holding the frontlines with AT-guns backing them and artillery to soften up and shellshock targets is capable of handling most combats. You just need some tank to do the counterattacking bit against the now weakened enemy units that try to assault your Infantry Corps. You can form an Armored Corps with tanks and Assault Guns like ISU-122 as spearheads. AA guns are good too, keep them close to your COrps.

[GabeKnight]

Will the German Campaign in this game let the player use a combined arms approach?

Definitely. And it's the most efficient way, to be honest.

But from experience I can tell that you can score major wins with a heavy tank/armour core composition, too. It's costlier, but also doable. That's the great aspect of this game: Different approaches, varied tactics, same result.

[TheFilthyCasual]

A combined arms approach is safest, in the sense you have a bunch of cannon fodder with artillery backup to take the big hits for you.

Using an actual panzer corps can work, you just have to be really careful that you don't, say, run into an ambush and lose half a veteran tank unit that has a repair cost in the hundreds or you'll quickly run out of troops.

[Erik2]

Switchable AA/AT or Art/AT units are nice for a combined team, especially when you can't afford to purchase one of each unit type.

[Shards]

As the above posters have said, there's rarely one Uber solution to an oob mission.

I vary wildly between slow creeping advances and massively risky cavalry tank and paratroop assaults and have met success and failure through both!

[conboy]

Back to the original post -
I have heard it said many times that tank-heavy cores are the way to go but I've never been able to make it work.

You need tanks for a breakthrough, but infantry and arty and AT with a couple medium tanks is a better bang for your buck.

There are many discussions in this forum about how to take down heavy tanks without equivalent armor. Once you bust a tank, its useless until you can safely rest it. Fat chance against a good opponent.

Balanced combined arms give you many more options in a particular scenario, and enable you to meet a broader array of challenges in a campaign.

So, back to the original post, and echoing the other posts, it is not necessary or even advisable to go tank-heavy, even in the late war campaigns.

2 cents worth

conboy

[prestidigitation]

I consider this my all around answer to the question of force composition.

viewtopic.php?f=264&t=101735&start=40#p893522

The core of the answer is always going to be campaign dependent though. I very much doubt anyone can make a mech heavy force work in the Pacific or Finnish campaigns for example.