Locarnus Addon 2026-03, for Battlefield Europe, OC, AK, SC and Grand Campaign East

[Locarnus]

The Battlefield Europe mod by McGuba is a true masterpiece and significantly expands upon the traditional Panzer Corps experience! A lot more strategic decisions are available, like prioritizing whole fronts.

With some spare time, I originally made some minor modifications to this great mod. Trying out some ideas like cross class upgrade options, multipurpose aircraft and different topographical and unit details.
However the "modding of the mod" continued to grow in scope and it is now a full addon to BE 2.4.


<< Ongoing BE + Locarnus Addon playthrough by eskuche >>
It is a classic picture and text AAR on 75% player prestige, plus 50% AI experience, plus 1 AI strength settings:
https://tinyurl.com/y8euym2r


<< Ongoing Grand Campaign East Locarnus Addon playthrough by goose_2 >>
Youtube playthrough on double Field Marshal, double Rommel difficulty plus rule of one and no super heroes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFieC-H ... 61Emy2K5bz


<< Ongoing Originial Campaign Locarnus Addon playthrough by goose_2 >>
Youtube playthrough on double Rommel difficulty plus rule of one and no super heroes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0UmJXn ... FssRp8ZU5p



And the Afrika Korps DLC campaign is more significantly rebalanced by the Addon (see "How to start the campaigns" section in this post)




Changes made by the "Locarnus Addon" mod
(for the Battlefield Europe mod, Afrika Korps DLC, as well as the Grand Campaign East)

Unit changes
+ Chassis based upgrade options and families (eg Panzer I upgradeable to Panzerjäger I and Sturmpanzer I)
+ New units (eg 15 cm sIG, 8.8cm Bunkerflak, Jäger light infantry, Tiger P)
+ Many more variants and versions of existing units (eg Flammpanzer III, Sturmtiger, Fw 190 Sturmbock)
+ More switchable units (eg multipurpose aircraft, direct fire mode for many AA and Arty, recon mode for light tanks)
+ Cross class upgrade options (eg all fighter, tac and strat bomber Ju 88 variants are in one upgrade family)
+ Rebalancing of many units (eg taking early T-34 ergonomic failures into account)
+ Early heavy tank versions start understrength until production ramps up (eg early Tigers in 1942)
+ Experience levels give more balanced boni

UI improvements
+ The crucial rate of fire stat is now displayed to the player (especially important for artillery)
+ Special icons showing the state of switchable axis units
+ Unit family separators for the purchase and upgrade screens (eg "Panzer III chassis, see screenshot")-
+ Slightly larger font size for unit info panel on the right side (ammo, entrenchment)
+ Custom unit names can now be considerably longer (just do not have a long word in the middle of the name)

BE 2.4 main scenario rebalancing
+ Several Eastern events changed, like Leningrad siege mechanics, Soviets less dependent on Leningrad and Moscow
+ Mediterranean consequences, eg for holding or early abandoning Africa, taking Malta provides much less benefit
+ Purchasable strategic transports (air, sea, trains) and smaller warships (DDs, submarines)
+ Adjusted topography and rail lines in several regions (eg Baltics, Alps, Caucasus)
+ Some rebalancing, eg tougher Soviets & Western airforce has higher ground defense against AA
+ Quality of Life adjustments, like preventing Axis ship stranding a few hexes away from ports
+ Different transition from early BE scenarios to main BE scenario (6 customizable units, but no prestige crossover)
+ More player choices => Read difficulty and house rules recommendations section
- Unfortunately no support for the multiplayer scenario of BE 2.4

Afrika Korps campaign (separate from BE & grand campaign)
+ Major rebalancing of the whole campaign, as well as individual scenarios (based on extensive player feedback)
+ Many topography fixes (eg less flat land south of the Caucasus, Indus river not flowing through Thar desert)
+ Primarily balanced for "rule of one" => Read difficulty and house rules recommendations section
+ No special SE unit slots, core numbers increased to compensate (SE are not feasible with all the additional units)

Grand Campaign East
+ Primarily intended for "rule of one" => Read difficulty and house rules recommendations section
+ Bonus units mainly represent the weaker units within a class (standard infantry, slow AT & captured tank conversions)
+ Only the very first scenario (Poznan) had to be adjusted for compatibility reasons (starting core, Recon Rudel)
+ Updated units, eg Allies use fighters that are more up to date
+ GC 45 East enemy experience increased usually by 100 points (1 star)
+ Scripts fix aux unit experience, as those should not be affected by field marshal difficulty



A screenshot of a small portion of the massive Battlefield Europe scenario from the start of Operation Barbarossa.


Battlefield Europe purchasing screen (note the upgrade family separators and different versions for desert terrain).




German heavy tanks are initially available in limited numbers (understrength units), until production increases and teething problems are fixed. This is also intended to limit the ahistorical "Tiger and Panther" spam, as soon as those become available.





Difficulty recommendations and house rules

For the Addon + Battlefield Europe:
Since Panzer Corps has an old, somewhat unfinished engine, there are many workarounds and quite a few issues that can be exploited (in the base game as well as this mod). I strongly recommend some house rules:

1. Battlefield Europe is balanced around the "General" difficulty for first time BE players.
If you have already won the BE scenario (and thus are not playing it "blind" anymore), I strongly recommend the "FieldMarshal" or Rommel or even combined custom difficulties. Also note that player prestige reductions are much more punishing in BE than in other campaigns (prestige is much tighter to begin with and you do not have cheap deployment phase replacements during the main BE scenario)!

2. I highly recommend "normal RNG", so that the player has to deal with full unit losses, not just the AI.
"Dice Chess" considerably reduces RNG, which mainly reduces expensive player casualties. A higher general difficulty is thus recommended if "Dice Chess" is used. Eg a 30% reduction in player prestige (player prestige 70% instead of 100%) to offset the "Dice Chess" setting compared to the "Normal RNG".
"Chess" without randomness at all is not recommended for the Battlefield Europe experience, it distorts the unit balancing a lot.

3. The Battlefield Europe map is at a much different scale than vanilla PzC, which brings range balancing issues.
3a. Eg paradropping extremely far behind enemy lines is possible, exploiting the poorly implemented range/fuel mechanic. My house rule is, that I do not use more than 2 paratroopers behind enemy lines and I do not drop them in bad weather or more than 1 turns flight away from their starting airfield (12 hexes).
3b. Also, keeping artillery ranges somewhat tactically consistent between models allows you to shoot at England with some long range normal artillery. I recommend the house rule of just not shooting at England with artillery from the continent!
3c. "Hunting" enemy aircraft with AA units might be fun in the usual Panzer Corps campaigns, but in Battlefield Europe this practically takes out much of the Axis challenge from the strategic bombing war over Germany. I thus HIGHLY recommend to NOT USE AA against enemy aircraft over Germany AFTER MOVING your AA unit!. This house rule is very important for an enjoyable, balanced experience! Even though it might appear harsh when coming from normal PzC campaigns, making no exceptions here improves the scenario feel and balancing so so much! Especially for the aerial "bomber" war over Germany, while the rule can be relaxed or even ignored for the more standard frontline fights, if it feels too harsh.

4. And then there is the other more obvious stuff like exploiting the phased recon move mechanic for resupply, or exploiting the 0 minimum prestige limit. Or simply disbanding the fixed Axis units that are visible at the map edge of the Libyan desert in order to free up the transports instead of paying for them...



For the Addon + Afrika Korps as well as the Addon + Grand Campaign East:

1. I highly recommend a house rule of "1 unit per unit version" (except for basic infantry). This "rule of one" provides far more historical gameplay variety and interesting choices. Especially in combination with limited player prestige (eg Rommel difficulty) and the chassis based upgrade families unique to this Addon. Eg try to only have one "Panzer III J" unit. If you want another tank you could choose eg a "Panzer III H" (previous version) or a "StuG III B" (same chassis) or even a "Panzer IV F" (different chassis).

2. I recommend less player prestige (eg "Rommel" difficulty means 50% player prestige) for experienced players trying my version of Afrika Korps, and "General" difficulty for less experienced players. The Grand Campaign East is surprisingly doable with 25% player prestige setting for veteran players, even in combination with "Field Marshal" player experience reduction. Due to AI not being able to spam units and no prestige soft cap, so you do not have to save up a mountain of prestige for GC 44 and 45!

3.The "Dice Chess" option reduces RNG and thus mainly player casualties, a complimentary combination with a higher difficulty is therefore recommended. Eg having player prestige reduced to 70% when playing on General or FM difficulty with "dice chess". Or reducing player experience to 70% when already using Rommel difficulty.

4. Activating the game option to "reform units" keeps unit losses expensive (in terms of lost experience), but not devastating (in terms of kills/heroes and prestige, which is important for FM, Rommel or combined difficulties).



This Addon for BE is balanced around those "house rules". Though of course these are just my personal recommendations.
BE itself tends to go the other route and restricts or cuts some stuff that is too easily exploited (like long range arty and paratroopers). The BE approach is crucial for fair multiplayer, but comes at the expense of unit variety. Imho both are valid approaches and it is up to personal preference.




For an idea of the unit variety with Addon and cross-class upgrade options.
Here is a GC 39 & 40 time frame unit stats & availability spreadsheet (dropbox.com with preview 2025-09): https://bit.ly/4mUGDa2
And the full equipment file as of 2026-03 in a downloadable, more readable format (eg for libre office or ms office): https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/of8riki9 ... psjwn&dl=0

There are currently no bonus SE/Std units for Afrika Korps, the core slot limit for the AK campaign has been increased instead. So this library table showing bonus SE/Std availability only applies to the Original & Grand Campaigns. Where bonus SE/Std units are worse instead of better than the normal core units to encourage unit variety instead of Tiger hordes (an up to date version can be found in the in-game library, the screenshots below are missing some recently added early artillery options):






How to start the campaigns

The Grand Campaign East can be started as usual, by selecting GC 39 from the extra campaign folder in the bottom right.

Make sure your language is set to "English" for Battlefield Europe, other languages might appear fine at first but then issues will most likely pop up, perhaps hours into the game (see Install instructions step 5 of 5)!
Afrika Korps, the Grand Campaign and the still somewhat experimentally compatible original campaign will probably work with german and russian language settings as well. As far as i know, the french translation of PzC did not extend to the campaign texts, but at least the UI texts are in french? If issues with german, russian or french arise, please default to the english setting.

The separate Afrika Korps campaign can be started from the bottom left image in the campaign selection screen.
The Africa Corps campaign tree can be found here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... =244331746

Unfortunately the Battlefield Europe multiplayer map is not supported by the Addon. Only the single player BE map and campaign are supported.
It is highly recommended to start the main BE scenario from the bottom right campaign picture instead of the scenario list (1941-1945 picture, "1941 - Barbarossa" title when clicking on it).
The earlier BE campaign start from the top right picture is adjusted for 6 core units only. And for balancing reasons, neither reserve units nor prestige does carry over from the early BE campaign scenarios to the main BE scenario.






Install instructions:

1 of 5: Prepare PzC for modding by first updating to PzC version 1.32
I strongly recommend that you follow the step-by-step preparation guide linked here, you only have to do this once (due to PzC itself not being updated anymore), enabling you to play this and every other PzC mod without issues.
Detailed Preparation Guide: http://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtop ... 7&t=106604

If you do not follow that detailed guide, make sure to first update Panzer Corps with the correct PzC 1.32 patch (the early version of this patch has a serious bug):
Panzer Corps 1.32 for Steam (bug fixed): https://bit.ly/43Wb2KY
Panzer Corps 1.32 non Steam (bug fixed): https://bit.ly/3P2wE4h

And start the game from the /nocache shortcut, that is described in the detailed preparation guide above and in the Battlefield Europe 2.4 thread from the next step below!


2 of 5: Download and install Battlefield Europe version 2.4 mod with the desired optional addons (eg using JSGME, see step-by-step guide above)
Make sure to only use the "Battlefield Europe v2.4" folder, which is inside the downloaded "BattlefieldEurope24.zip" together with other files and folders you do not need (like a "Save" folder). If you use JSGME, put only that "Battlefield Europe v2.4" folder into the MOD folder of your Panzer Corps install (MOD folder is created by JSGME).
The BE 2.4 download and the optional addons (eg blue axis strategic symbols) are available in the first post of McGuba's Battlefield Europe thread (the differently colored strength plates are already included in the Addon):
http://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtop ... 47&t=47985


3 of 5: Download and install the 2026 base version of the "Locarnus Addon" to BE 2.4 (eg using JSGME, see step-by-step guide above)
The Addon base version is named "Battlefield Europe v2.4 Locarnus 2026 base" and can be downloaded here with this link:
https://bit.ly/45RT53D
The base version of the Addon has to be "activated" after the "Battlefield Europe v2.4" folder and any optional mods in the JSGME (see screenshot below).


4 of 5: Download and install the "Locarnus Addon" update on top of the "Locarnus Addon" 2026 base version (eg using JSGME, see step-by-step guide above)
The latest Addon update has a month suffix and is named "Battlefield Europe v2.4 Locarnus yyyy-mm" and can be downloaded a few paragraphs below (top entry of the version history). The Addon update has to be "activated" last in the JSGME (see screenshot below).


If prompted by JSGME that it modifies existing files, click "yes", since there can only be one relevant equipment.pzeqp file and so on. The Generic Mod Enabler should look like this when everything is done correctly (and Panzer Corps itself should be version 1.32):




5 of 5: Make sure that you have your language set to "English"!
Make sure to switch to "English" language on the start screen (left most "British flag" icon among the flags at the very bottom).
Battlefield Europe campaign and scenario are not compatible with other languages.
Some measures were taken to make the other campaigns (original, Afrika Korps and Grand Campaign) compatible with non-english language options, but those campaigns were not yet tested with those other languages. If you do test them, please provide feedback! (Also note that Afrika Korps? and the Grand Campaign were only translated to german and russian in the base game, as far as I know.)




Your in-game start screen should then look like this (for the 2026 base version, it will say 2026-09 with the 09 update):





Thank you very much to all contributors!

Standing on the shoulder of giants, I thank McGuba himself, as well as goose_2, Uhu, Marginaldefeat, faos333, George_Parr, hugh2711, PeteMitchell, uzbek2012 and JimmyC for their feedback on Battlefield Europe.
"Kanthe" for his museum, providing inspiration for new units, and the whole Panzer Corps community still working on this 10 year old title.
Also thanks to faos333, for the early encouragement, as well as uzbek2012 and sbpc1 for all the inspiration in this forum of near silence.
And nikivdd for the many great campaigns over all those years and Uhu for his Italy campaign inspiration.
The unit rebalancing is based on the work of deducter, McGuba (BE) and Messmann (Amulet mod), with some inspiration from Akkula's "Modern Conflicts" mod.

Thank you very much goose_2, guille1434, JanD, jeffoot77, uzbek2012 (in his various incarnations), eskuche, seperon, caesar67, thejf, RobertCL, Anderkav, DONAR444, AYM78 and everyone else for the direct feedback to the Addon.
The AAR playthrough of Battlefield Europe with Addon by eskuche and his feedback and suggestions was invaluable for major bug fixing, script and mechanic rewriting (Leningrad, upgrade scripts) as well as balancing progress and library documentation.
The youtube playthroughs of Afrika Korps, Grand & Original Campaigns by goose_2 himself helped tremendously with the feedback, development and balancing, including many new units for the Italians, strat fighter conversions, reintroduction of bonus SE/Std units and variety and more.
The youtube playthrough by Patrik of the Original Campaign inspired many changes and renewed interest in this part of the mod, both by myself and by goose_2 whoe started his own playthrough.
The playthroughs and feedback of Grand Campaign East with Addon by thejf and eskuche helped a lot with the balancing and difficulty tuning.
The AAR replays by JanD (AAR forum), as well as his detailed lists of error and inconsistency reports, are invaluable for balancing and bugfixing, especially concerning the equipment file!
The youtube playthrough of BE + Addon by Duedman led to a great many improvements, both for that huge scenario as well as the Addon unit roster!
The youtube playthrough of Grand Campaign 39 by Richard Martin helped a lot with polishing the early WW2 Addon balance.
The Grand Camapign core and feedback reports by eskuche and thejf provided enormous insight and motivation for bringing the library up to date, and movement and GC balancing!
Anderkav beginning his RKKA addon mod prompted my rework of the Soviet unit roster (Soviet Addon to the Locarnus Addon to Battlefield Europe to PanzerCorps)! And his RU language feedback fixed the language bugs.
Those playthrough reports have great effect on further development, both in terms of feature implementation as well as motivation to work on this Addon!

Special thanks to the modders who provide free unit icons, camo schemes and tools to the community:
For example the StuIG33, Eisenbahn-Flak, BuFla, Sturmpanther, Jagdsturmtiger and many, many other icons from the great "guille1434" himself: https://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=36536
And the 105mm Leichtgeschütz 42 icon from "phcas", as well as eg the Flakpanzer I and Panzer II H icons from "AKRebel", both co-authors of the incredibly detailed PAK mod: https://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=92787
While the PAW graphic and Char B arty conversion was made by Birgeria: https://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=103166
The Panther F, Lorraine Schlepper arty and several more base icons for DCS from "flakfernrohr": https://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=42725
From zombiehunter1977 came the sIG graphic: https://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27244
The AMULET mod from Messmann has many great graphics with masks, eg Wespe, Hummel, 10.5cm leFH 18/40, 12.8cm Pak and PzA inf graphcis (Jager icon in AMULET): https://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=63616
Puma's Bastelecke on the Streitmacht forum provided the rare VK 4502(P) Ausf B and Pantherturm graphics: http://www.streitmacht.com/viewforum.php?f=406
Dwight's Camo Sprayshop by "rezaf" was invaluable and used to great effect (eg for later german heavy tanks): https://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=33526
"The Grand Armory" thread by "rezaf" also helped a lot for unit inspirations: https://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=46156
And of course "Rudankort" himself, who made all this possible with his work on Panzer Corps and even provided patches years later to unlock new possibilities for modders (patch 1.32)!




Downloads and version history:

Panzer Corps version 1.32, BE 2.4 & "Locarnus Addon 2026" base version are required to be installed in that order, before installing the latest Addon update on top of all three of those (see install instructions above).
Make sure you have the right version of patch 1.32 installed
(there is an old PzC v1.32 which has a bug, see install instructions above).



2026-03 Update "Locarnus Addon" Download: https://bit.ly/3ZZADD3

This is only an update to the Addon and requires the 2026 base version of the Locarnus Addon to be installed already on top of BE 2.4 and the bugfixed PzC patch 1.32 first. All previous updates to the 2026 base version are included in this one.

UI & Library changes, thanks to eskuche BE playthrough
- BE Upg family separator for Hungarian & Romanian Bf 109
- BE Upg family separator for Finnish Inf/Jäger
- BE Finnish Inf 39 versions adjusted in purchase/upg screen

Technical fixes and graphics, thanks to eskuche BE playthrough:
- Changed Southern Tunisia snow/swamp graphics (visual only)
- Changed Bremen channel to river appearance (visual only)
- Graphics changed for several mountain tiles (visual only)

Battlefield Europe (thanks to eskuche), GC East, AK, SC & original campaign
- BE Core slot scripts reduced by 10 for each step (eg 190 instead of 200 turn 2)
- BE Some British Empire destroyers replaced by weaker and slower corvettes
- BE Deactivated strat bomber replacement units (formerly spawning near Frankfurt)
- BE Hs-129 spawn message fixed (turn 21 instead of turn 40)
- BE Würzburg radar costs 320 instead of 245

Unit Changes, thanks to eskuche & goose_2 playthroughs:
- 76mm ZiS-3, 57mm AT, 100mm AT, 8.8cm Pak nerfed defense
- Western Allied (UK, US) aircraft reduced GD again by 1 (still higher than 2025)
- 8.8cm L56 Flak slightly more expensive, 10.5cm Flak slightly cheaper
- Corvettes introduced for BE (weaker and slower destroyers)



2026-02 Update "Locarnus Addon" Download: https://bit.ly/3ZEiSJi

This is only an update to the Addon and requires the 2026 base version of the Locarnus Addon to be installed already on top of BE 2.4 and the bugfixed PzC patch 1.32 first. All previous updates to the 2026 base version are included in this one.

UI & Library changes, thanks to eskuche BE playthrough
- Library now includes most BE events and special upgrade scripts up to turn 20!
- Library also includes the special BE turn 22 Fw 190, and turn 50 Panther upgrades

Technical fixes and graphics, thanks to eskuche BE playthrough:
- BE Fixed Minsk surrender for enemy overstrength difficulty settings
- BE Heavy arty winter str loss fixed (but now only 28cm K5 and Karl-Gerät)
- BE Fixed Mines around Tobruk not losing strength after city is captured
- Fixed Soviet 120 Mortar upgrade family, and AI issue by unitID swap, see below
- Saharan Inf wheeled move sound, since it recently changed to wheeled move type
- Enemy Captured SdKfz 222 has different paint (eg 44 East - Warsaw scenario)
- Shortened trop to tp in several aircraft names

Battlefield Europe (thanks to eskuche), GC East, AK, SC & original campaign
- ALL After deployment elite replacement costs reduced from 75% to 65%
- ALL Elite replacement costs during deployment phase unchanged (50%)
- SC 120mm Mortar team unitID replaced due to AI issue with its switching ability
- SC For ongoing campaign, please upgrade your 120 Mortar after updating the Addon
- BE Kübelwagen and Italian Command unit no longer available in BE main scenario
- BE Experimental switchable Pz III => Pz IV upg family connector for BE (28.11.1942)
- BE Convoys higher strength, better defense, but also 120 instead of 100 reward
- BE All US & British Emp. units +2 exp per turn, if no Axis navy on convoy routes
- BE All US & British Emp. units 0 exp per turn, if 1 Axis navy on convoy routes
- BE All US & Brit. units -1 (-2/-3) exp per turn, if 2 (3/4) Axis navy on convoy routes
- BE Convoy unit kill gives 120 prestige to Axis instead of 100, same for Allies loss
- BE Leningrad siege cycles 1 & 2 always reduce Strength (not 90% like cycles 3+)
- BE Leningrad siege cycles 3+ also reduce maxStrength, but only outer ring units
- BE Leningrad siege each turn lowers Allied prestige by 30
- BE Leningrad special mortar unit that can not switch & has self-defense AA rating
- BE Leningrad special mortar has hero, Olga Bergholz representing morale boost
- BE Scripted upgrade options to Fw 190 earlier (turn 22) & cheaper (120 prestige)
- BE Scripted Fw 190 upgrades now have a safety switch (Bessie in Lake Balaton)
- BE Scripted Panther upgrades have a safety switch (Cessie in Lake Constance)
- BE 28cm K5 railway arty classified as armored train in BE (no protective fire)
- BE Player purchased 28cm K5 railway arty does not lose str in first winter
- BE Soviet reinforcements from Persia now come from the map border
- BE Additional warning for Eastern Med spotting (amended Gibraltar message)
- BE Düsseldorf added to strat bomber trigger zone 22
- BE Several replacement and later units come in more modern versions
- BE Increased Moscow, Stalingrad & Malta prestige rewards by 200/100/100
- BE KG 40 with Fw 200 Condor gets Petersen hero
- BE British destroyer gets Walker hero
- BE Non-replaceable Do 17 stats adjusted (no changes for BE fighter exchange)
- GC 44 East Warsaw captured units adjusted, +1 upgrade city (thx goose_2)

Unit Changes, thanks to eskuche & goose_2 playthroughs:
- Fw 200 all nerfed ground def, C-3 and later versions buffed ground attack
- He 162 one more air defense, due to its ability to disengage from every enemy
- SdKfz 222 and 234/1 buffed self-defense air attack value
- PzSfl IVb has 6 ammo (instead of 5), also more fuel, but costs 40 prestige more
- Std Panzer III M+ changed to Pz III N 44 & different paint
- Romanian 3.7cm Flak unified values including rof 11
- Infantry mortars buffed air defense (Soviet, German)
- Brandenburger units a more expensive (BE and USA branch of original campaign)
- Bf 109 G-6+ GP reduced air attack by 1, later G-6/U2 not changed
- 28cm Kanone 5 slightly buffed ground attack, significantly buffed naval attack
- Re 2000 and Heja 2000 a lot more expensive (but lowers gap to Re 2001)
- Jagdsturmtiger gets one more soft attack
- Jagdsturmtiger tropical s8 earlier, for ahistorical Afrika Korps path (25.4.1944)
- Jagdpanther G3 & full str Jagdsturmtiger added, late ahistorical (8.6.1945)
- Removed confusing "Rec" from the name of Bf 109 E-8 and G-4, no stat changes



2026-01 Update "Locarnus Addon" Download: https://bit.ly/4ad4fT8

This is only an update to the Addon and requires the 2026 base version of the Locarnus Addon to be installed already on top of BE 2.4 and the bugfixed PzC patch 1.32 first.

Technical fixes and graphics:
- OC Kursk scenario fixed for de, ru and fr language settings
- Library entries fixed for de, ru and fr language settings
- Ar 234 has switch indicator icons and ferry mode
- FW 190 A-3 & 4 and tropical versions of A-5 to 8 use different McGuba graphics
- SC Sinyavino (Leningrad) captured Tiger I r9s8 gets new Soviet camo icon
- SC Battle of Caucasus captured Fw 190 gets new Soviet camo icon

Battlefield Europe, GC East, AK, SC & original PzC campaign compatibility
- BE Air war changed, by giving all West Allied air units 2-3 more ground defense
- BE Minor adjustments, like Caucasus Soviet inf slightly repositioned
- BE A few more hold position active instead of hold position passive stances
- BE One Grenadiere unit changed to PzA/Sd250, Balck hero added, repositioned
- BE Pioniere unit in front of Brest changed from Sd 250 to Sd 251 transport
- BE KV-2 near Lvov has only 1 ammo, thank you eskuche
- GC East Vilna has more useable upgrade hexes, thank you goose_2
- GC West Sealion 45 has Tortoise defenders
- OC USA East Coast scenario has two free aircraft upgrades to Do 335 & Ar 234
- OC USA East Coast scenario has one free ground unit upgrade to Tiger II B++
- SC Sinyavino & Caucasus scenarios Axis unit upgrades for fighters & few inf
- SC Sinyavino (Leningrad) captured Tiger I is only the early r9s8 version

Unit Changes:
- British and US air units get 2-3 more ground defense
- Soviet organic transports rebalancing, especially heavypull, eg much slower S-2
- Soviet organic transports are mostly in the same upgrade family per weight class
- SdKfz 250/11 and /9 basic versions reactivated, but now in Sd10 tank class family
- PzA / Sd250 vision reduced from 3 to 2, early hard attack buffed in infantry mode
- New Italian infantry mortar unit (switchable between elite inf and 75mm arty classes)
- Several Italian unit names shortened
- British Tortoise buffed



------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


2026 base version of the "Locarnus Addon" Download: https://bit.ly/45RT53D

This is the 2026 base version of the Locarnus Addon. It has to be installed third, after first updating PzC to the bugfixed 1.32 (see install instructions above) and second installing BE 2.4.

Technical fixes and graphics:
- Added VK 4502 (P) Ausf B, thanks to Puma graphic
- Added Pantherturm for Battlefield Europe, thanks to Puma graphic
- Added Panzer Aufklärer mobile inf, with Messmann (AMULET) icons (Jager)
- Added 12.8cm Pak 44, thanks to Messmann (AMULET) graphics
- Fixed misaligned road tiles for North-Northeast-Southeast connection
- Several visual adjustments for BE main scenario, like desert rail thx to McGuba
- Italian cross class switchable ground unit has different icon (thx to Messmann)

Battlefield Europe, GC East, AK, SC & original PzC campaign compatibility
- BE Norway German iron ore convoy disruptions, thanks to bondjamesbond
- BE D-Day buffed, but only if Italy invasion was averted
- BE Additional M3 Lee spawn for Soviets if Africa is abandoned before turn 31
- BE Kiel Canal moved a bit for functionality, Zealand changed topography
- GC Campaign more Addon Advice translations (de, ru)
- GC West 44e2 Cassino truck "heroes" adjusted, trucks a bit faster than unmodded
- GC West 44e2 Cassino terrain a lot rougher around the mountain
- GC West adjustments due to player taking whole GC 1941 core to GC 42-43 West
- GC West experience levels increased, usually by 100 for the enemy (42-45)
- GC West some former core additions are now just aux units for that scenario
- GC West enemy aircraft adjusted for several scenarios (usually buffed)
- GC West "experimental" early Ta 152 and Do 335 core additions are now Fw 190
- GC West bonus SE/Std Bf 109 G-10 "Adler" script upgrades to K-4 in first 45 scenario
- GC West Sealion 45 can deploy 50 core units instead of 42
- GC West Sealion 45 german aux aircraft changed & 1 fewer, but additional axis airfield
- GC West Sealion 45 some additional enemy units, like T28 super heavy TD
- GC West End on the Elbe scenario player can deploy 50 core units instead of 38
- GC West End on the Elbe length increased to 30 turns instead of 22
- GC West End on the Elbe US has higher strength & all enemies have more experience!
- OC Kursk the player has 21 instead of 18 turns, thank you @goose_2 for feedback!
- OC Kursk enemy forces types and deployment numbers & locations rebalanced
- OC Kursk new enemy counterattack from NE of Shchigiry (22;16) after turn 8
- OC Kursk 2nd enemy counterattack from NE of Shchigiry (22;16) after turn 14
- OC Kursk fewer german aux aircraft, more german aux ground units
- OC Moscow 43 aircraft deployment hexes switched to now include airfields
- OC Moscow 43 gets 25 instead of 22 turns, but turn 21+ ones are 70% snow
- OC Moscow 43 new enemy counterattack E of Moscow after turn 12
- OC Moscow 43 starts 15d earlier (1st October), some aux Jäger are normal Inf
- OC Moscow 43 aux infantry is 42 model instead of 43, but more aux units
- OC Moscow 43 towed aux arty has some transports instead of none
- OC East Coast another core hero addition, Klingenberg with Brandenburger unit
- OC East Coast increased starting core limit to 36 again
- OC Mid and West scenarios adjusted, eg added M28 super heavy tank destroyer

Unit Changes:
- Soviet cross class switchable unit GAZ-67, like German Kübelwagen
- Soviet infantry (incl 120mm mortar) can use air and glider, but only without transports
- Panzer Aufklärer new mobile infantry, switchable to SdKfz 250 (Sd 10 tank family)
- Mobile infantry unified rebalancing (eg Kradschützen and Sahariana)
- New special 12.8cm Pak 44, switchable to arty, icons thanks to Messmann (AMULET)
- Panther G Vampir added (one more ini than G, 23.3.1945)
- Löwe tank faster, stats buffed and cheaper (s8 version 8.6.1945, s10 on 4.7.1945)
- VK 4502 (P) Ausf B r9 added to the Porsche Tiger family (available like Löwe)
- Tiger II additional late version with 5 movement (8.6.1945)
- Jagdtiger s10 a few days earlier (21.2.1945), Jagdsturmtiger later (1.2.1945)
- Go 229 name again and another rebalancing as advanced jet fighter bomber
- Me 163 and He 162 rebalanced, He 162 later (01.03.1945)
- Ju 388 a few days earlier (24.12.1944)
- SdKfz 250 & 251 transports are in the same upgrade family as Sd 10 transport
- 10cm Nblwf can use Sd 10 and 11 transports
- Ju 87 B-2 tropical variant added
- Italian L3 is now in same upgrade family as L6
- Italian Obice 149 are now in same upgrade family, additional late model with range 4
- Additional late italian versions, like P30/43+ & Obice 149+ thanks to markthorn3351
- Italian Bf 109 are now regular units, with all terrain air movement for compatibility



Older version history moved to the third post of this thread (below), the version history stretching back even further is now included in the download (LocarnusAddon-Info.txt file).

[moonwalker]

Very nice and precise work.
It would be a dream to play your mod with the giant map from hinryu70
and play the whole game with over 200 turns.

Regards
moonwalker

[Locarnus]

edited in older version history:
(I reached the character limit of this post, so the rest of the history dating back to 2021 was removed, I'll add it as a text document at some time)




2025-12b Update "Locarnus Addon" Download: https://bit.ly/4aFqSAm

This is only an update to the Addon and requires the 2025 base version of the Locarnus Addon to be installed already on top of BE 2.4 and the bugfixed PzC patch 1.32 first. All previous updates to the 2025 base version are included in this one.

Technical fixes and graphics, thanks to Gooseboy:
- SovietCorps Gribovski glider fixed, repairs Sinyavino (Leningrad) scenario

Battlefield Europe, GC East, AK, SC & original PzC campaign compatibility
- BE Trains are purchasable from day 1, thanks to RobertCL feedback
- GC 44 Mogilev scenario aux Me 163 now has 3 stars, fixed via script
- OC USA East Coast 3 hero units join core (tank, 2 fighters), fewer core slots
- OC USA Mid West, hungarian aux units, Maus aux also in campaign mode
- OC USA West Coast, 40 instead of 42 core, more hungarian aux, E.555 aux strat

Unit Changes:
- Bf 109 G-14 and G-10 gun pod variants have 1 more soft attack
- He 162 has 1 more hard attack
- Me 163 has some soft and hard attack rating
- SU-100 more expensive
- Grenadiere a bit more expensive
- Ar 234 cheaper
- Go 229 renamed to Ho 229, rebalanced more for fighter role
- Panther G BeWg removed the G from the name


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


2025 Base Version "Locarnus Addon" Download: https://bit.ly/4a7Nnvv

This is the 2025 base version of the Locarnus Addon. It has to be installed third, after first updating PzC to the bugfixed 1.32 (see install instructions above) and second installing BE 2.4. From now on, updates to the Locarnus Addon have to be installed on top of this base version (fourth).

UI changes, thanks to caesar67 for the request!
- Moved the A, B, C, $ map markers a bit away from the center of the hex
- This makes those markers more visible with move indicator or unit on top
- Added several markers, used for the Battlefield Europe scenario
- Three rail graphics corrected (wrong connections even in the vanilla game)

Battlefield Europe, Afrika Korps, GC & original PzC campaign compatibility
- GC & OC scenarios now ALL have at least 1 black cross marked upgrade city
- GC compatibility KV-85, IS-1, IS-2, M4A2(76) unit ID switcheroo
- GC unit ID switcheroo between german captured KV-1S and T-34-85
- GC Bonus SE Marder III H added, Marder III M moved several weeks back
- BE trigger conditions for soviet Valentines added (no spawn if Sealion)
- BE Leningrad defenders beginning strength increased
- BE Leningrad siege faster (90% chance every 5 instead of 6 turns)
- BE Leningrad capture gives prestige reward again (500)
- BE Minsk cauldron surrender changed to new zone 189 (includes Minsk)

Unit Changes:
- Unit ID switcheroo between german captured KV-1S and T-34-85
- Soviet KV-85, IS-1, IS-2, M4A2(76) unit ID switcheroo for Grand Campaign
- IS-2 split into early and late version, early IS-2 graphic thanks to guille1434!
- ISU 122 range in arty mode increased from 2 to 3
- German SU-122, SU-85 & SU-100 nerfed soft attack
- StuG III F/8 and E+ have 13 instead of 14 ground defense
- StuH 42 tank mode & Panzer III N+ have 1 less HA
- Marders are more expensive, Grille is less expensive
- German Ostwind SPAAG available much later, Ostwind II added
- Minor changes for some very late german aircraft (eg Do 335)
- Panther G and Jagdpanther available a few weeks earlier
- Some late german heavies (Elefant, Tiger II based ones) have higher GD
- Tiger I (non P) has 1 less GD, Panther has 1 more GD
- Big german TDs with camo in AT mode have only 1 movement in AT mode
- Fw 190 F & G series aircraft rebalanced (nerfed), F-8+ and G-8+ added
- He 111 H-11 version added for Stalingrad Docks
- Switchable cavalry for Hungarians, Soviets and others
- All switchable cavalry can attack in recon mode, but rof reduced to 7
- Panzer III M & Wurfrahmen 43 version have camo thanks to DCS!




Original third post of this thread:

Very nice and precise work.
It would be a dream to play your mod with the giant map from hinryu70
and play the whole game with over 200 turns.

Regards
moonwalker

Thank you! I have seen this great map! There really needs to be an enhanced edition of PzC, doing away with all those game engine limitations and providing a more modular approach to scenario editing.

Some more info on the stat changes:
I wanted to give the player a bit more agency regarding strategic decisions, including unit production like special weapons. After all the player is now coordinating more than the military itself. But for now I mostly focused on the Axis (player) units, to keep the work manageable.

I also added the rate of fire (thus number of attack rolls) information to the unit name, eg unitname r6 means that this unit has a rate of fire of 60%, r14 would mean a rate of fire of 140%.

Changed upgrade paths, including "cross class upgrades" through switching mechanic (eg cheap, organic upgrade option between Panzer I, Panzerjäger I tank destroyer and Sturmpanzer I artillery).

a) Infantry (1939, 1942, 1943, 1944 versions for many of those), Jaegers are more expensive, especially Fallschirmjäger
- Regular: Wehrmacht Inf, Grenadiere
- Cav: Cavalry
- Jaeger: Fallschirmjäger, Brandenburger, Gebirgsjäger, Skijäger
- Engineers: Pioniere, Brückenpioniere

b) Tanks, which now includes "tank destroyers". Those are generally more expensive now (prestige cost)
- Pz I: Panzer I tank variants, Panzerjäger I tank destroyer, Bison I (Sturmpanzer I) artillery
- Pz II: Panzer II tank variants, Pz II recon variants, Marder II family, Bison II (Sturmpanzer II) and Wespe artilleries
- Pz 38(t): Panzer 38(t) tank variants, Marder III and Hetzer tank destroyers, Grille artillery and Flakpanzer 38(t) AA
- Pz III: Panzer III tank variants, StuG III assault guns (includes all TD and arty variants)
- Pz IV: Panzer IV tank variants, Nashorn and Jagdpanzer IV tank destroyers, StuH 42, StuG IV, Hummel and Brummbär assault guns/arty, as well as Möbelwagen, Ostwind, Wirbelwind flak panzers
- Pz V: Panther tanks and Jagdpanther
- Tiger I tanks
- Vk4501 chassis Ferdinand and Elefant
- Tiger II (King Tiger) and Jagdtiger in same upgrade path

c) Recon, no relevant changes beyond the Pz II recon vehicles being upgradeable through the tank class

d) Anti-tank
Self propelled anti tank units are now part of the tank class, so that they do not receive the unfair +3 initiative.
You can now upgrade along the "gun paths", eg 3.7cm Pak 36 with one transport to a 3.7cm Pak 36 with another transport.
Or you upgrade along the "transport paths", eg from a Opel Blitz towing a 3.7 cm Pak 36 to an Opel Blitz towing a 5 cm Pak 38.
The transport paths are still simplified, so Krupp Protze, SdKfz 10, SdKfz 11, horse and RSO still share the same upgrade path.
And the UE upgrade path is still lacking.

e) Artillery upgrade paths are usually based on the weapon system, except for StuGs and StuHs which are still chassis based even in artillery mode.
Artillery values were rebalanced, especially rate of fire and max strength on the higher range weapons, which are now available for purchase again (eg railway guns). Some costs changed. Also some self-propelled artillery now have a historical "tank" mode (direct fire), where they can use their big guns like the Soviets used their eg SU-152.
- leFH (light field howitzer): 10.5 cm leFH (not the 10.5 cm sK!), Wespe
- sFH (heavy field howitzer): 15cm sFH, Hummel
- Nblwf (Nebelwerfer): all towed and self propelled Nebelwerfer units
- sIG (heavy infantry gun): Bison I and II (Sturmpanzer I and II), Grille, Brummbär
This means, that eg you can cheaply upgrade from Panzer I to Bison I artillery (in tank mode), switch to Bison I artillery mode, cheaply upgrade to eg Brummbär artillery (artillery mode), switch to Brummbär artillery tank mode and then cheaply upgrade via the Panzer IV upgrade path to a Jagdpanzer IV(70) or a Wirbelwind flakpanzer. Far fewer upgrade dead ends!

f) The anti air units are somewhat rebalanced as well, smaller calibers rate of fire nerfed a bit, larger caliber rate of fire buffed a bit (from the nerfed 70% to now 80%). Putting a towed AA unit in alternate mode still makes it an AT class unit (thus providing bonus initative against attacking tanks and recon).

g) The other units are hardly changed yet and the old order and upgrade paths are still in effect.

While most of the changes only effect Axis units, some Soviet units had mostly rate of fire nerfs. Especially the early T-34 variants because of their 2-person turrets and generally bad ergonomics. As well as the units using slow loading two-part ammunition. For example the 122 and 152mm calibers. This brings them in line with the units of other nations, using similar calibers.

[PeteMitchell]

I like map adjustments to reflect the historical setup more accurately.

[PeteMitchell]

Will changes in upgrade paths require different amounts of available prestige to be given? I understand this was also somehow linked / balanced?

[Locarnus]

I like map adjustments to reflect the historical setup more accurately.

Perhaps I have gone a bit overboard with the rail and road connections (experimental). I tried to get a more pronounced contrast between central european connectivity (which also has downsides when defending) and eastern european conditions at that time. Though I wish we could have another road type, one which deteriorates to near uselessness during rasputitsa...

Will changes in upgrade paths require different amounts of available prestige to be given? I understand this was also somehow linked / balanced?

A lot of stuff has been changed, many things only partly (air force nearly untouched, allied forces pretty much only rough artillery adjustments). This is still very experimental and I hesitate to dig deep into the fine tuning at this early stage.

Some changes which affect balancing in terms of fighting power and prestige:

1. Upgrade paths and opportunities
Fewer dead ends and cheaper upgrades results in better Axis units for less prestige. But on the other hand, upgrading takes time (shuffling back, upgrading, deploying to the front again). More upgrade opportunities may result in less actual fighting power at some stages. It is easy to focus too much on the upgrade minigame and get distracted from the frontlines. Also there are fewer expendable units now, which might result in a less risky (and fast) approach.
=> Though overall the effect should be positive in terms of fighting power and prestige.

2. Unit costs
While some units got cheaper (eg some arty), "elite" infantry and most tanks also got more expensive (eg by about 100 prestige).
=> Since tanks and infantry take more casualties, this should be a negative in terms of prestige and fighting power (overstrength costs).

3. Unit stat changes
- Some towed units have their movement changed and are now unable to fire after moving (17cm artillery, Karl and so on).
- Heavier artillery has been somewhat improved in terms of hard attack, but got rate of fire nerfs (eg 150mm/6inch artillery rate of fire from 90% to 80%). This provides a better distinction between the smaller caliber "suppression" role and the heavy artillery "destruction" role. Generally the similar caliber guns have been brought closer together across nations.
- More Axis self propelled artilleries (especially 150mm ones) have a direct fire mode, comparable to the Soviet SU-152. Providing them their historic effectiveness for finishing off suppressed enemy armor (not so healthy against unsuppressed ones).
- Soviet units relying on 2-part ammunition have their rate of fire nerfed. Eg SU-152, IS-2 and so on. They still hurt when they hit, but they take time to reload. While there has been an ammunition capacity nerf for eg the SU-152 and ISU-152, it is still above historically warranted levels (20 rounds historically is just not great).
- Early Soviet T-34s rate of fire nerfed (eg to 80%), due to their 2-men turrets and generally bad ergonomics, targeting and communications. The 80% is still generous for gameplay reasons.
- German Gebirgsjäger and italian infantry buffed a bit. The italian infantry buff is experimental.
=> Overall a buff for the Germans and a nerf for the Soviets. It should result in more historical outcomes on the unit level. To keep the balance on the strategic level, some of the AI nerfs can be rescinded (units holding position without fuel instead of actively fighting). Testing will show. To evaluate that, I built a little nasty surprise into the scenario (based on several historical incidents), hopefully the AI is at least somewhat able to use it.

4. Special unit availability
Quite a few nopurchase units have been reintroduced, with rebalanced stats. So far the maximum strength in combination with nopurchase and noupgrade traits have been used to keep special units from being overpowered. Imho this made the "special units" too squishy, especially on higher difficulties. The max strength restriction does not scale well.
So I removed most max strength limits and replaced them with rate of fire nerfs. Giving the units more staying power, while usually keeping the low hitting power (a bit like the soviet units which use big guns). Some units seem obscenely OP at first glance, eg buyable railway guns firing 6 hexes, especially against the UK. But once prestige is as tight as it is supposed to be, their prestige efficiency is questionable. No firing after moving, low rate of fire, low ammo capacity and so on. For impressive prestige costs.
Fallschirmjägers can be bought again, not sure how exploity that can be.
=> Imho the special units make the game more interesting and it is worth the balancing experiment. Might be overpowered, might be prestige sinks. Will be interesting to hear feedback on those.

5. Scenario changes edit: This section has been adjusted to the 2021-08-04 version.
I tried to somewhat balance between a scenario start and a campaign start.
I considerably relaxed the core slot limit (from turn 2 since 2021-08-04). Imho it is an important strategic decision if you want to put prestige into the fleet rebuilding or overstrength (not good before first winter), or new air force units, or more artillery or save it for bad times or whatever. For that reason I had to remove the 1000 prestige point loss on the end of the first turn, it would have hurt the savers too much (I lowered the initial prestige from version 2021-08-04). I tried to take away prestige from the campaign starters [...].
=> Overall the Axis from scenario start has a 300 less prestige and campaign starts get another 500 deducted). (1000 more prestige before 2021-08-04, rest of the paragraph is irrelevant as of 2021-08-04 version).


Overall in this experimental version, the Axis got perhaps buffed (edit: less so in 2021-08-04 version). Even though the higher replacement costs for some more damage prone units will be felt as casualties increase during the first winter.

Feedback is needed on how much this affects the balance of power. Imho it is most likely that this will allow the unshackling of some Soviet forces from artificial restraints. And PzC 1.32 offers many more zones than the 32 ones currently used, allowing for more scripting. Which in the long run hopefully results in a more dynamic campaign in the east.

[PeteMitchell]

This sounds all very interesting. I am really curious to hear what McGuba will think about all these ideas / suggestions!

[jeffoot77]

nice improvment ! the more strategic options there are, the more awesome this mod (battlefield) is . My dream in this excellent mod is that player could attack Turkey and Spain ( to attack then gibraltar by land) , and aslo all neutral countries(like swiss) as Hitler could have planned it .

[McGuba]

This sounds all very interesting. I am really curious to hear what McGuba will think about all these ideas / suggestions!

For sure, I will have a closer look later but for now I am busy at work for the time being.

Just out of my head now, I think some map adjustments make sense. But for example I was also thinking about adding the Curonian Lagoon just north of Königsberg (today Kaliningrad) as you did, but the problem here is as it is clearly seen in your screenshot that it would mean that some ground units would be standing on water hexes in turn 1 which looks weird/unprofessional in my view. Which is something I would like to avoid and due to the lack of room in that area to place those units elsewhere I just opted to leave it for now. The Vistula Lagoon looks nicer (between Danzig and Königsberg) and should not cause such problems so that may find its way into the next release, just as some more railway connections.

The various unit stat/upgrade changes are much more complex and may affect the well tested balance of the mod greatly. I also understand the logic behind providing more freedom to the player by allowing him to have a greater control over what to produce and in what numbers but my original idea was to find out what were the chances for an Axis victory by using more or less the same equipment that was historically available. By allowing the player to have e.g. more railroad guns or more self propelled artillery as early as in 1941 and relatively easily, would push the mod more towards fantasy and away from the historical realities in my view. But of course if this is what somebody wants, why not? The vanilla campaigns of PzC1 and PzC2 also contain a number of unhistorical things and units and most players seem to be happy about them as long as they can win more easily. It is just the thing that in this mod I tried to recreate the historical realities as much as possible within the limitations of the base game which may or may not be the right way.

Another thing I am not sure is whether if it is a good idea to move tank destroyers into the tank class. I think these are fairly well modelled in the base game and they rightfully get a bonus when on defense as these were mainly used in ambushes and/or in static defense and were less usefull in attack due to having a fixed turret. With this move you are making a significant game rule change as players are used to the current system. I am not sure if everyone will like this, to be honest.

Finally, since you are only focusing on the single player "real+" version, some changes may unbalance the multiplayer or the other versions, further complicating things. E.g. players who get used to these new rules may find themselves in trouble if they try the multiplayer version later, unless it also gets the same treatment (and testing of course, which is probably the hardest part).

So in a nutshell, all I can say is that I think it requires a lot of testing and some of the changes may not stand the test of time, but nevertheless I wish you all the best of luck with this project!

[Locarnus]

nice improvment ! the more strategic options there are, the more awesome this mod (battlefield) is . My dream in this excellent mod is that player could attack Turkey and Spain ( to attack then gibraltar by land) , and aslo all neutral countries(like swiss) as Hitler could have planned it .

With the additional 1.32 zones, this should be somewhat possible, though there still is the issue with the amount of units. Unfortunately my time is fully taken up by the current changes, even that will take quite a while. Not to speak of all the fine tuning that went into BE itself, including multiplayer. McGuba really created a masterpiece, and I can only reiterate that it is something I would gladly pay money for in the form of an official DLC.

This sounds all very interesting. I am really curious to hear what McGuba will think about all these ideas / suggestions!

For sure, I will have a closer look later but for now I am busy at work for the time being.

Just out of my head now, I think some map adjustments make sense. But for example I was also thinking about adding the Curonian Lagoon just north of Königsberg (today Kaliningrad) as you did, but the problem here is as it is clearly seen in your screenshot that it would mean that some ground units would be standing on water hexes in turn 1 which looks weird/unprofessional in my view. Which is something I would like to avoid and due to the lack of room in that area to place those units elsewhere I just opted to leave it for now. The Vistula Lagoon looks nicer (between Danzig and Königsberg) and should not cause such problems so that may find its way into the next release, just as some more railway connections.

The various unit stat/upgrade changes are much more complex and may affect the well tested balance of the mod greatly. I also understand the logic behind providing more freedom to the player by allowing him to have a greater control over what to produce and in what numbers but my original idea was to find out what were the chances for an Axis victory by using more or less the same equipment that was historically available. By allowing the player to have e.g. more railroad guns or more self propelled artillery as early as in 1941 and relatively easily, would push the mod more towards fantasy and away from the historical realities in my view. But of course if this is what somebody wants, why not? The vanilla campaigns of PzC1 and PzC2 also contain a number of unhistorical things and units and most players seem to be happy about them as long as they can win more easily. It is just the thing that in this mod I tried to recreate the historical realities as much as possible within the limitations of the base game which may or may not be the right way.

Another thing I am not sure is whether if it is a good idea to move tank destroyers into the tank class. I think these are fairly well modelled in the base game and they rightfully get a bonus when on defense as these were mainly used in ambushes and/or in static defense and were less usefull in attack due to having a fixed turret. With this move you are making a significant game rule change as players are used to the current system. I am not sure if everyone will like this, to be honest.

Finally, since you are only focusing on the single player "real+" version, some changes may unbalance the multiplayer or the other versions, further complicating things. E.g. players who get used to these new rules may find themselves in trouble if they try the multiplayer version later, unless it also gets the same treatment (and testing of course, which is probably the hardest part).

So in a nutshell, all I can say is that I think it requires a lot of testing and some of the changes may not stand the test of time, but nevertheless I wish you all the best of luck with this project!

You are right, it looks kinda weird having that tank in the sea/lake. I'm somewhat ok with the coastal battery, worse but somewhat similar to Kronstadt in front of Leningrad. For the next version I moved the halftrack flak to Königsberg and put the Panzer in its spot. Not great, not terrible, the additional roads also partially make up for it by increasing the mobility in this sector.

Yep, the balancing went back from "fine tuned" to "prototype" for this version. Imho it is just a matter of perspective. For the first year or so BE 2.3 feels more like playing all Generals at once, with the power to assign industry output to reinforcements, but not new units. While I'm aiming more towards the replacement for the political and military "leader", with the power to create new units. Though obviously it all abides by game engine limitations. For example the player can't refuse to declare war on the US. And as soon as the first turn is done, imho it all becomes some sort of realistic fantasy. The player can decide not to invade the Soviet Union at all. Maybe not meeting KV-1 tanks or capturing Bazookas for a long time. So all the tech availability beyond the starting date would be affected by the players actions and there is a wide spectrum of reasonable approaches to those causality issues.

About the special weapons, imho those make the game more realistic. Germany historically spent a lot of resources on special projects, sometimes those were effective, but they were rarely efficient in terms of result per effort. I wanted to have those options available, but it will depend on balancing efforts to make them "interesting but probably not too efficient".

I thought a lot about the tank destroyers, especially considering the German/Soviet turretless approach and the US turreted approach compared to rather standard tanks. What I really dislike about the original PzC approach is the fact that tank destroyers get a bonus for something that is not a vehicle specific characteristic, but rather a tactical decision on how to deploy the vehicles. There is no vehicle specific reason why a tank destroyer should get an initiative bonus when attacked by a tank. This becomes even more problematic when the American turreted tank destroyers are considered. Why does a Hellcat get a bonus but a Sherman does not? Both can be used defensively from prepared positions.

My original idea was to make every tank/tank destroyer a switchable unit. In tank mode they get the normal stats. But in AT mode they get drastically reduced movement, simulating some time to setup defensive positions for which they get the initiative bonus. I'm not sure if this is worth it, the whole switching around for so many units. And then there are the units which already have 2 modes. I also considered the other way, putting tanks into the TD class, but that would make them better defensive weapons. Not sure how to procede, but I really dislike that units get arbitrary boni, which are in no way based on the characteristics of the unit itself.

I'm still working mainly on Germany, but I'll eventually spend more time on the Allied units as well. I found it quite intimidating that you have essentially 4 versions of the same scenario. Thus if I wanted to change stuff at all, I had to pick one, and it appeared to be the most complex and popular one. Especially since PzC2 only left the die hards for PzC. Not sure about the multiplayer, this experimental version is way too young for such levels of balancing and fine tuning. I hope that for the time being it is different enough to avoid confusion . The small "switch mode" symbols beneath some units may provide enough of a visual indicator that it is not the fine tuned BE itself.

[PeteMitchell]

Please allow one question: have you thought of working together with McGuba, e.g. like the Pak-mod team?

Not sure two very similar mods will fly in the end...

There was also a suggestion, besides many others over the time, to add the Spanish Civil War prior to the Poland scenario?

[Locarnus]

Please allow one question: have you thought of working together with McGuba, e.g. like the Pak-mod team?

Not sure two very similar mods will fly in the end...

There was also a suggestion, besides many others over the time, to add the Spanish Civil War prior to the Poland scenario?

Collaborations/teams are imho great for long term projects. For short term experiments and trying out new stuff, imho there are advantages in having more agile "brainstorming" versions and then trying them out. I remember many ideas from different projects, where I was very sceptical when discussing them theoretically, which were amazing or at least interesting when actually using them. McGuba released his work under "attribution, non-commercial" license and thus I will follow that for my work on this mod. So perhaps some of the ideas I try out with this experimental addon do not work well for BE, but perhaps another mod could use them? With this they are out in the open and available for the whole modding community.

After so many years, BE evolved from a tinkerer and tuner mod into a fine tuned masterpiece. Imho this experimental version is like a tinkerer and tuner version of the mod, exploring options that might not fit the general taste. And perhaps some of the experimental stuff makes it into the bigger version, but of course the audience shrinks with each specialization. For example on youtube there are far more people trying higher difficulty playthroughs of the official campaign than there are BE playthroughs. (Though BE youtube videos seem to have a larger audience )

In the end, this will most likely be a fun and sometimes annoying experiment, and then after some time McGuba decides what aspects have value for the long term BE project.
Spanish Civil War sounds interesting, but I have only limited time. And I'm still focused on the whole units/upgrades/switching aspect, as well as some scenario tinkering and keeping it all at acceptable balance.

So, new version from 2021-08-04: (download link in original post)
- Corrected some errors from last version (30cm Nblwf range, missing Limassol port flag)
- Added Wurfrahmen 43 vehicle variant
- Lowered initial prestige and shifted core slot increase to second turn (allows purchase of new units, but prestige for that is not abundant)
- Changed experimental deployment zones (when from campaign path) back closer to original ones
- Changed Batumi/Poti relevance
- Shifted 4 Soviet unit positions a few hexes (non-frontline), 2 of them regarding Batumi/Poti
- Shifted 3 German frontline unit positions in Prussia, so that the tank does not start on a lake/lagoon hex

[PeteMitchell]

Thanks, makes a lot of sense and sounds great!

[Locarnus]

new version from 2021-08-06:
Probably the last version for a while
- All TDs from all nations changed into tank class for consistency (no reason why US Hellcat should have extra bonus over Sherman)
- Arty/SPArty has spotting range 2. Increasing consistency, preventing class switching for recon purposes for player and buffs the AI which is not so good at recon
- "Nasty Surprise" nerfed a bit
- Novorossyisk area changed a bit (stronger defense)
- Heavy flak now shows rate of fire for AT and AA mode in name

https://www.dropbox.com/s/uqw1duqk4eb86 ... 06.7z?dl=0


I removed the "experimental" from the thread title, since at this version the balance and consistency is quite good afaik.
There are still experimental aspects, like the buffed italian infantry or the special unit availability. But overall the prestige situation in the realistic + scenario, which is the one that is changed by this addon, is quite tight and thus limits any exploit potential.

I would love to hear some feedback. Eg testing the first 6-12 turns.
The cross class upgrade possibilities give quite a few new options and make the older but experienced tank units more valuable (less prone to sacrificing).

[goose_2]

wow the modder world is the future of Panzer Corps. This game will keep me in the pink for the rest of my life.

[criscarlucci]

Hi Locarnus... Simply question by a new gamer

I have to use your MOD over the BE v.2.3 or on a vanilla version of PzC?
Thanks

[Locarnus]

wow the modder world is the future of Panzer Corps. This game will keep me in the pink for the rest of my life.

Yep, unfortunately modding (making the mods and installing mods) is a bit cumbersome. I made a new step-by-step guide for it, since the video from PzCorps Mods is a bit outdated (using only patch 1.31): viewtopic.php?f=147&t=106604&p=937685#p937685

Hi Locarnus... Simply question by a new gamer

I have to use your MOD over the BE v.2.3 or on a vanilla version of PzC?
Thanks

Over BE 2.3. I just wrote a more detailed guide on how to prepare PanzerCorps for modding:
viewtopic.php?f=147&t=106604&p=937685#p937685

Then install BE 2.3 and the desired optional mods (I personally use BlueAxisSymbols and PG Style Strength Plates as shown in the screenshot in the updated install instructions, see original post of this thread).
On top of that, install BE 2.3 Locarnus yyyy-mm-dd from the link in the original post of this thread or the link below:


New Version:
2021-08-08 I had some unexpected time yesterday and did another consistency pass
- "Big gun" consistency with earlier rebalancing improved (eg StuH42 also uses 2-piece ammunition, decreasing its rate of fire)
- Close defense values for various vehicles somewhat rebalanced (especially "fixed turreted" ones)
- StuH42 upgrade path corrected to PzIII

https://www.dropbox.com/s/oc91dyb1k0txy ... 08.7z?dl=0

[Locarnus]

New Version 2021-08-13
Major update
- Map errors corrected (eg no flag for Civitavecchia, wrong terrains)
- Upgrade cities reduced again, closer to original (original + Batumi, Athens, Haifa, Leningrad and various Axis minors)
- Various equipment file errors corrected
- Rate of fire adjustments for German small caliber flak, closer to original
- German recon units have rate of fire nerf (20%) in recon mode, but Defense +1 (using terrain, survival is priority), does not affect PzIIs in tank mode
- Rate of fire stat better visibility (long unit name closer to other stats in purchase and upgrade screen)
- New units (Sturm-Infanteriegeschütz 33B on Pz III chassis, Leichtgeschütz 40 artillery for paratroopers), thanks to the unit modding community!
- Most axis minors now have 43 and 44 infantry versions
- Upgrade paths for paks and transports adjusted

Download: https://bit.ly/3xKlIfs

[faos333]

Good work, now is needed some testing, has anybody tried this add-on yet?

[Locarnus]

Good work, now is needed some testing, has anybody tried this add-on yet?

I started playing for an AAR yesterday, but instead I made a last updated before going on holidays. Especially fixing my bugs which prevent upgrades in some German cities.

The plan was to start a kind of "succession" type AAR, where someone plays for a few turns and then someone else picks it up from there.
For example, I wanted to start and play 6 turns, write a short AAR about those first 6 turns and then upload the savegame at the end of Axis turn 6 (so the next player can analyse the situation and the AI response, to get into the game).
In terms of roleplay, this would have been a leadership change after 3 months .

The advantage of such a succession type of game would be:
1. Every new player needs to deal with the situation left behind by the previous players. That is especially interesting with respect to strategic decisions.
2. No one has to commit for a long playthrough, but everyone can experience a part of it (either by playing or by reading others experiences).
3. Since the savegames every 6 turns would be public in the AAR, it is possible for AAR readers to really analyse the situation, instead of being restricted to images and text of the written AAR.
4. Or even two players doing the same 6 turn interval and then discussing tactics and strategies.

Unfortunately I had to prioritize the patch below, but if anyone is interested in starting such a succession AAR, I would be more than happy to take over some 6 turn interval after the holidays.

2021-08-14
Last version before holidays
- Fixed my bugs that prevented upgrades in some German cities
- Minor map changes (connection Bremen-Hanover, around Linz and Lviv)
- More axis minors now have 43 and 44 infantry versions
- Some more switchable arty units have adjusted icons (gun aiming horizontally)
- Tropical versions of some additional units (Hummel, Brummbär)
- Basic german 1939 and 1942 infantry versions are switchable between normal and tropical icon (visual, no non-functional upgrade required)
- Flammpanzer III missing bigunit image added

https://bit.ly/2VTu2MM