Two questions

[kerrak]

I'm relatively new to the game, but i've played plenty of wargames both pc and board. I know my basics, read the manual, and toyed with the game to have a solid grasp of what's going on. Yet, I've found two situations that puzzle me.

First. Having isolated an enemy unit (Matilda II), it has only one health point left and has one point of suppression. Open ground. I have two units (grenadier infantry and Panzer -not sure the model but enough to cause losses to the Matilda-. Well, after 3 turns of both of my units firing (expected losses is always 1-0), the Matilda does not surrender nor is eliminated. I refuse to assign a tactital bomber to finish off the unit, because i have missions with bigger priority for it. If i allow the Matilda to move by retreating my Grenadiers, it moves toward my ungarrisoned rear VP. So yes, i have to finish it off. How is this supposed to happen? What am I doing wrong? What's the base formula of damage when armor is involved?

Another thing that puzzles me is that after playing two vanilla campaigns (Poland and AK), i failed after 3 or 4 missions, because i needed one more turn in order to take the last VP. The result is drastic. Game over. I have the option to restart the mission, but it already starts with some deficit in prestige, so again, i'm not sure what i'm doing wrong, because in order to win i would have to restart the campaign. I understand that probably i'm not making all the optimal decisions. Yet, i tried to game the system, particularly with the traits system. Using 3 heroes, movement in 2 steps, and a few other. My current campaign (Barbarossa), i feel like i'm cheating compared to my other campaigns. With my 3 heroes i have a tremendous advantage. Is the game supposed to be that "gamey"? Am I playing poorly or are there some balance issues?

Thanks in advance for the answers

[scorehouse]

you need to check the Matilda for its special traits and entrenchment. if it has the no surrender trait unless you surround it to totally cut off supply nothing will change. for your second question, i always start from the beginning and import my core so i can't help you. are you splitting units to make surround and surrender easier?

[VirgilInTheSKY]

By default (there is an "Advanced Options" before you start a campaign) the prediction is with 50% randomness, so even with a 1-0 prediction you may still get 0 damage, when you take it into consideration that Matillda has very heavy armour in its own era.

Powerful hero combinations is good as long as you are feeling that way, there is no "cheat" to have them when you can.

[Bee1976]

First. Having isolated an enemy unit (Matilda II), it has only one health point left and has one point of suppression. Open ground. I have two units (grenadier infantry and Panzer -not sure the model but enough to cause losses to the Matilda-. Well, after 3 turns of both of my units firing (expected losses is always 1-0), the Matilda does not surrender nor is eliminated. I refuse to assign a tactital bomber to finish off the unit, because i have missions with bigger priority for it.

Another thing that puzzles me is that after playing two vanilla campaigns (Poland and AK), i failed after 3 or 4 missions, because i needed one more turn in order to take the last VP. The result is drastic. Game over. I have the option to restart the mission, but it already starts with some deficit in prestige, so again, i'm not sure what i'm doing wrong, because in order to win i would have to restart the campaign. I understand that probably i'm not making all the optimal decisions. Yet, i tried to game the system, particularly with the traits system. Using 3 heroes, movement in 2 steps, and a few other. My current campaign (Barbarossa), i feel like i'm cheating compared to my other campaigns. With my 3 heroes i have a tremendous advantage. Is the game supposed to be that "gamey"? Am I playing poorly or are there some balance issues?

Thanks in advance for the answers

The first Problem might be just "bad luck". The Mathilda II has thick armor. And unless its in a City or close terrain tile, its quite normal that infantry cant deal much dmg to it. The name of the Panzer would be helpful. There some tanks that just dont do much damage to other tanks, Of course you got the combat prediction, but if you havent changed the random factor in the advanced option, there is much rng in it. With the mentioned "bad luck" its possible to get 6 "low rolls".
For example a good old flamepanzer II with low experience (0-2 stars) fighting a supressed mathilda II with 1 point left, might take some time to get a "good roll"
You can change that in the advanced options, before you start a campaign. I suggest lowering it to 0% or a little higher if you like some "spice". Of course in wars erverytime strange things happen, and a high rng factor reflects that in my opinion, but for a new or newer player, i think its helpful to reduce the rng factor.

The second question isn`t easy to answer.
Barbarossa gets MUCH harder later, even with superior heroes or broken hero combinations.
But i can agree, the first missions, when u have to act with weak hardware and low experience are hard for the first time.

A good army composition can help a lot. I would suggest 2-3 artillery piece, 1 strat bomber to soften your enemies. For infantry only pioneers, slow but effective vs infantry in city tiles. Especially if you used your artillery to supress them.
As panzers only IIC for the start, no at guns, 1-2 recons and airforce as you like. That should help a little. But my english isnt that good. If you want some pro help, there are some real good playthroughs and guide on youtube. i.e. theedmon. He is doing real good guides, tips and tricks, and you can learn tons of usefull stuff just in his deployment phases.

Im not sure if im allowed to link it here, but i think he will post the links when he discovers your thread or just search on youtube

[PoorOldSpike]

..after 3 turns of both of my units firing (expected losses is always 1-0), the Matilda does not surrender nor is eliminated. I refuse to assign a tactital bomber to finish off the unit, because i have missions with bigger priority for it.

Never pass up the chance to kill a 1-strength Mat II, a tac bomber should finish it off easily enough, so f you've got the shot TAKE IT while you still can!
Mat II's are tough cookies and as good as if not better than anything jerry has in 1940/41 so if one is on its knees throw everything at it to finish it off quick.
The SS tried to mess with Mat II's and were left with egg on their faces..-

BRITS PANIC SS-TOTENKOPF, France 1940
Guderian quote from 'Panzer Leader' page 114-
"On the 21st of May a noteworthy event occurred to the north of us: English tanks attempted to break through in the direction of Paris.
At Arras they came up against the SS Division Totenkopf which had not been in action before and which showed signs of panic"

Matilda II's

[scorehouse]

he does go on toe say how they stopped the Matilda's

[PoorOldSpike]

he does go on toe say how they stopped the Matilda's

Yes, Rommel had to bring in 88's to deal with the Mats..

From the net-"Facing the British Matilda tanks, the Germans found their 37 mm guns useless against the heavy armour, and a battery of 88 mm guns had to be brought up to deal with the threat, with Rommel personally directing the fire."
https://www.liquisearch.com/erwin_romme ... e_of_arras

It also applies to wargames too, namely to bring up the most powerful units you've got, so full marks to Rommel.
One of my philosophies is-
Never fear to use insanely overwhelming firepower, let the fear be your enemies..

[kerrak]

Thank you all for your answers. Yet, the Matilda II case is still open for me.
I managed to recover from an autosave the situation. In fact i had an antitank Pak 36 (14 hard attack) and a Panzer III G (16 hard attack) vs 18 defense of the Matilda II (grenadiers were there on a previous turn). No special trait or experience on the Matilda. 6/7 unsupressed points of health for both the Pak and the PzIII. I redownloaded the autosave multiple times. This Matilda was almost inmortal (more or less one shot in 8 attempts managed to kill the thing). I have no "unluck" trait or similar in my campaign.
There must be some sort of bug. We all know the Matilda II are really tough, but it doesn't make sense that i was able to reduce it to 1 point (multiple Matilda II multiple times), and then it was almost impossible to reduce the last point.

Concerning the historical references they are much appreciated. Unless i'm missing something, i think we can't use our 8.8 cm FlaK as offensive AT weapon, and, you guessed it, my Inmortal Matilda II had no ammo nor fuel.

As for the campaign, i'm in the second mission (Kiev detour) in turn 13 of 30 and everything is shaping to finish really quickly as i'm in the outskirts of Kiev already, i have encircled more than 20 units and have a prestige surplus. No immortal KV2 neither. Nothing to do with my first two campaigns, yet my playstyle has been very similar. Traits and heroes are having a noticeable impact on the de facto difficulty level.
Don't get me wrong, i enjoy the game and take it as it is even if it has a few "gamey" mechanics.

Massive encirclement

Kiev.jpg (227.26 KiB) Viewed 1619 times

[dalfrede]

Concerning the historical references they are much appreciated. Unless i'm missing something, i think we can't use our 8.8 cm FlaK as offensive AT weapon, . . .

All AA units are switchable in PzC2, almost all switch to AT.
The offensive use of the 88 as AT is limited by its 1 movement, but to finish off a surrounded unit that is only a minor problem.
Note: The Stuka works well too.

[Scrapulous]

I can't find the Matilda in your screenshot.

[kerrak]

The screenshot is the encirclement from the Barbarrossa campaign.

[Scrapulous]

I see.

If the Matilda II case is still open for you, I recommend loading up your save, attacking the Matilda, then hitting the L key to bring up the detailed battle results log. It might take a while to get familiar with it, but reading through that combat log will show you what's happening numbers-wise. If you still feel like something is wrong, you can paste the log here and the rest of us can investigate, too.

[PoorOldSpike]

This Matilda was almost inmortal (more or less one shot in 8 attempts managed to kill the thing). I have no "unluck" trait or similar in my campaign.
There must be some sort of bug. We all know the Matilda II are really tough, but it doesn't make sense that i was able to reduce it to 1 point (multiple Matilda II multiple times), and then it was almost impossible to reduce the last point.Concerning the historical references they are much appreciated. Unless i'm missing something, i think we can't use our 8.8 cm FlaK as offensive AT weapon, and, you guessed it, my Inmortal Matilda II had no ammo nor fuel.

Think "feeding frenzy", namely don't just hit the victim with a few shots, but bring up everything you can lay your hands on to finish him off with multiple punches.
As regards 88 Flaks, hit the 'switch' button to switch them to the AT role like Dalfrede said and trundle them up to the victim and let fly; there's no way he's going to walk away from that..

[kerrak]

Didnt know about the L key. It is extremely helpful in these situations. Unfortunately my autosaves are overwritten. When a similar situation arises i'll use it for sure.