what is to be gained

[scorehouse]

or lost by playing the "Raid on the French" battle where you try to capture supply dumps, hangars and confuse the French into fighting each other? thanks

[dalfrede]

Commendation points
The next sceanario allows you to buy OlehDir and a Somua tank.
You can not afford both with out them.

[VirgilInTheSKY]

iirc there is also one or two cache of Char B1 tanks in that scenario from capturing locations. That S35 is NOT a gift unit, but the event also awards quite some spare, iirc 35 with a unit of it directly on the battlefield, so it is still advised to grab it, as S35 is the best tank you can have before T-34 and KV series comes.

[scorehouse]

why do you like the S tank better than the Char? where do i capture them? I'm fired up cuz I stopped playin waiting on responses to my post before proceeding. thanks and additional replies or suggestions appreciated

[nexusno2000]

why do you like the S tank better than the Char? where do i capture them? I'm fired up cuz I stopped playin waiting on responses to my post before proceeding. thanks and additional replies or suggestions appreciated

S35 is faster and cheaper - and overall has very good stats.

[adiekmann]

why do you like the S tank better than the Char? where do i capture them? I'm fired up cuz I stopped playin waiting on responses to my post before proceeding. thanks and additional replies or suggestions appreciated

I'm not a big fan of that French Forbach (sp?) scenario either but learned the hard way if you skip it. You cannot get the free Somura tank without it like the previous posters have already stated.

What's better about it versus the Char tank? Its answer is similar to the answer to "What's better about the PzIIIF vs. the PzIVD?" Except include greater mobility with regards to the French tank comparison, and that extra movement point really matters to me.

It's why I never use the KV-2 tank that I get at Denmark. It's too slow, plus it costs a ton of slots.

[nexusno2000]

why do you like the S tank better than the Char? where do i capture them? I'm fired up cuz I stopped playin waiting on responses to my post before proceeding. thanks and additional replies or suggestions appreciated

It's why I never use the KV-2 tank that I get at Denmark. It's too slow, plus it costs a ton of slots.

No OS 15 Rapid Fire Vigilant Zero Slot KV-2??? #easymode

[VirgilInTheSKY]

why do you like the S tank better than the Char? where do i capture them? I'm fired up cuz I stopped playin waiting on responses to my post before proceeding. thanks and additional replies or suggestions appreciated

Depends on your playstyle and general traits. S35 has superior status than you 38(t) and early Panzer III/IVs, while keeping the same 5 speed with them, The Char B1 is 4 Speed, while on defensive it is better, the speed disadvantage can halt it back from combats when you need to push quickly. Those move faster can slow down to wait slower ones, but slower one cannot speed up to go with faster ones in any way.

[adiekmann]

why do you like the S tank better than the Char? where do i capture them? I'm fired up cuz I stopped playin waiting on responses to my post before proceeding. thanks and additional replies or suggestions appreciated

It's why I never use the KV-2 tank that I get at Denmark. It's too slow, plus it costs a ton of slots.

No OS 15 Rapid Fire Vigilant Zero Slot KV-2??? #easymode

I do play with Force Concentration, but I haven't been getting many Zero/Reduced Slot heroes in my last several playthroughs so it's a tough choice. The two or so that I do get usually go on my heavy artillery units (21cm/203mm gun and Wurf40). In the end I prefer to field three other units in place of that one monster tank. Otherwise, yes I would. Same situation goes for the Il-2 that you get at Warsaw. Its benefits over the Stuka are minimal, but it is more expensive slot-wise. Therefore it too doesn't get into many battles either. I use the first training mission to bring up its experience instead.

[scorehouse]

Hey i always like your replies. I've got a couple of more posts I'd like you to read. thanks

[Gfot]

why do you like the S tank better than the Char? where do i capture them? I'm fired up cuz I stopped playin waiting on responses to my post before proceeding. thanks and additional replies or suggestions appreciated

I'm not a big fan of that French Forbach (sp?) scenario either but learned the hard way if you skip it. You cannot get the free Somura tank without it like the previous posters have already stated.

What's better about it versus the Char tank? Its answer is similar to the answer to "What's better about the PzIIIF vs. the PzIVD?" Except include greater mobility with regards to the French tank comparison, and that extra movement point really matters to me.

It's why I never use the KV-2 tank that I get at Denmark. It's too slow, plus it costs a ton of slots.

The Char and KV are great if you get a Vigilant hero. They're basically Speed 4 (tracked) infantry after that point (and they are absolutely fantastic if you play with Master of Blitzkrieg). You can use them to assault cities, and sometimes city flags are only supported by guns with Artillery support, so you don't get hit by support fire and can attack at full strength. The KV has the added benefit that even if you can't get to the target hex, you can switch it to Artillery and attack the target hex from two hexes away (and once you do that units placed next to it get the benefit of artillery support). With an AT support hero it becomes an absolutely amazing support unit even in tank mode. It's one of my prime candidates for Zero/Reduced Slot heroes (after 21cm but before Rocket arty) as I feel it benefits more from OS than a Rocket arty unit.

[PaxusZero]

My KV 2 is a readiness, vigilant, aggressive counterattack, provocateur. The AI will recognize arty or AT (that doesn’t have camo) but won’t recognize provocateur.

[scorehouse]

I thought the Provocateur Hero was meant for a Recon or less valuable unit so the enemy wastes ammo etc. attacking that unit then your Tanks, etc. can move in for the kill?

[PaxusZero]

I thought the Provocateur Hero was meant for a Recon or less valuable unit so the enemy wastes ammo etc. attacking that unit then your Tanks, etc. can move in for the kill?

Oh, not at all. The KV2 takes no damage from attacks. Park it in the front, or even better in a town or forest. Vigilant means infantry won't use close defense, they have to go against regular ground defense. Readiness means it will attack first. Infantry just disappears when they attack it (have to attack it.) Tanks do no better. If you really want to be gross, put a camoflaged artillery or AT gun (with an AT or Artillery hero on it, just to be super sick.) Instead of those, however, I use a Panzer IIIN with both heroes on it. The AI can't handle it.

[scorehouse]

I haven;t had a Vigilant or an AT Support Hero thru both 39 and 40!!! got plenty of Avengers, Rudent, Superior Maneuver, etc. hell I can't even get a Counter Battery Hero. Hal used to give more of those than I ever have long range Artillery Units

[Scrapulous]

I thought the Provocateur Hero was meant for a Recon or less valuable unit so the enemy wastes ammo etc. attacking that unit then your Tanks, etc. can move in for the kill?

Any tank with high ground defense (Char B1, the KV family, PzIII L or N, PzIV G) does very well with Provocateur. The AI especially doesn't seem to factor Provocateur into its calculations, so you can trick it into making attacks it otherwise wouldn't. For instance, the AI generally won't attack a KV-2 that is supported by artillery. But it will attack the artillery. And if that artillery is next to a KV-2 with Provocateur, and if the AI can only make this attack from a hex next to that KV-2, then it's going to attack the KV-2 and take the support fire from the artillery first. Here's an example:

provocateur tank trap.jpg (239.95 KiB) Viewed 1962 times

A is a BT-7A in artillery mode with an AT support hero.
B is a 15 strength KV-2 (ground defense of 23) with a Provocateur hero and the Albert Kerscher hero (+3 initiative, Tank Killer, Aggressive Counterattack).
C is an armored train that the AI really wanted to kill.
D is the burning wreck of a T-34/40 that tried to attack the train, but wound up attacking the KV-2 because of Provocator. First the BT-7A got its AT support fire in, then the KV-2 got to do most of its attacks first because of its higher initiative (9 against the T-34's 5) and it hit hard because of the Tank killer. It took no damage. The battle was a total loss for the AI for no gain. The T-34 was the second tank that tried that in that turn - a BT-7 had gone first and suffered the same fate.

This isn't an ideal situation (the BT-7A is not great support for this purpose, and the armored train is not the best bait), but it was a defensive line I threw together on short notice to absorb a sudden spawn of enemy units, so I used what I had available, and it at least illustrated how Provocateur can be used to cheese the AI behavior.

[VirgilInTheSKY]

This isn't an ideal situation (the BT-7A is not great support for this purpose, and the armored train is not the best bait), but it was a defensive line I threw together on short notice to absorb a sudden spawn of enemy units, so I used what I had available, and it at least illustrated how Provocateur can be used to cheese the AI behavior.

Exactly what I did with Provocator, in my case I used a 21cm as bite and KV-2 has a 15cm backing it up.

[Scrapulous]

This isn't an ideal situation (the BT-7A is not great support for this purpose, and the armored train is not the best bait), but it was a defensive line I threw together on short notice to absorb a sudden spawn of enemy units, so I used what I had available, and it at least illustrated how Provocateur can be used to cheese the AI behavior.

Exactly what I did with Provocator, in my case I used a 21cm as bite and KV-2 has a 15cm backing it up.

I think that's basically the ideal situation. The only other change I'd make from my screenshot to ensure the trap is ideal would be to ensure that the only hex available for the AI to approach the bait is the one that is also adjacent to the KV-2. My screenshot has some cover from the river, but there's a hex to the northeast of the train that isn't covered by Provocateur. If the AI had been coming from the northeast instead of the east, the trap wouldn't have worked.

[scorehouse]

IN what Campaign/battle did this occur?

[Scrapulous]

The screenshot I shared was from Rzhev '42, the first scenario of the AO '42 East DLC.