experience gain mechanics

[yossariano]

Hello there,

Really enjoying the game on xbox one (apart from the load and AI turn duration

Quick question - does anyone have any recommendations for campaigns / units for levelling up to five stars for certain unit types?

Currently playing Blitzkrieg -> Panzerkrieg -> Endsieg cycle. I'll take a 50% hit on XP between the first two campaigns but hope to hit 5 starts in Endsieg

Recon - I'm going for the SdKfz 232 8Rad
AT - starting off with a gun and will upgrade to Stug asap.

Any recommendations for strat bomber, best artillery, recon, AT etc would be most appreciated. If there is another DLC campaign more condusive I'd also be interested.

XP stars seem hard to get for recon. I got 3 kills with my Sdkfz 232 mopping up in the first scenario, but not even half a star. Any insights into the XP mechanics would be of great interest - kills, damage based etc etc

Thanks Guys

[stevefprice]

I'd not worry about xp for recon. It'll make little difference since as you progress other units get tougher so you'll not use it so offensively.

If your air have no visible chance of a doing damage attack a ground target anyway, it'll gain xp just for firing its guns

[yossariano]

Thanks for the air tip - that's interesting. I wonder if recon has a similar mechanic based on distance travelled.

I want to five-star it and the other units for the achievement. I've 5-starred tank, anti-air, fighter, tactical bomber so far but they're pretty easy.

The recon seems tough (submarine sounds really bad). After the Polish scenarios in blitzkrieg, my recon has ten kills, did 34 damage and only has half a star exp. Seems a bit spartan.

[Erik2]

I wish experience was gained only when units cause damage to an enemy.
In a campaign units often end with 5-6 exp wich means they are usually a lot stronger than the AI units in the latter scenarios.

[Epperaliant]

For artillery and strat bomber do not pay attention to the attack values, the most important things are the entrenchment damage (the "lightning bolt" value) and the efficiency damage (the "explosion" value).

[yossariano]

Thanks for the arty advice. My Heinkel 111 H is doing pretty well and the recon is up to 1.5 stars as we start the Dunkirk scenario in Blitzkrieg. Just got my 88 upgrade to a Panzerjager which hopefully will soon be a stug and later in later campaigns.

[Epperaliant]

Frankly, your best recon is load/save game, I do not bother having recon units.

They have no important bonus and cannot hold and capture territories.
They are only good to finish off damaged units and a standard infantry unit can do that as well many other things.

The real only purpose I got out of them is to spot hidden units in town so I can bombard them with artillery and then retreat to avoid retaliation.

[stevefprice]

The real only purpose I got out of them is to spot hidden units in town so I can bombard them with artillery and then retreat to avoid retaliation.

Err...you mean like reconnaissance? Which is exactly their purpose

[Epperaliant]

The real only purpose I got out of them is to spot hidden units in town so I can bombard them with artillery and then retreat to avoid retaliation.

Err...you mean like reconnaissance? Which is exactly their purpose

But most of the times you can do that with a tank.
The enemy infantry will be battered by the artillery and won't attack the tank, so it's fine.

[yossariano]

Just a steer - my OP and line of questiong was regarding how to best five star the different unit types for the achievements on xbox, not on the virtues of the unit types or their value on the battlefield. I'd add though that save/load as recon is painful on xbox due to the horrendous load times. I'm no newcomer to save scumming though, having played all the xcom series wink wink.

Update I just managed to get my 8Rad recon up to five stars last night in Greece. It was actually a great unit for mopping up stragglers while the main thrust continues without worrying about riff raff in the rear.

My Heinkel 111H is up to 3 stars (strat bomber class) and that's cool, we're up to Minks now, maybe the last 3 scenarios could see enough action to get to 5 stars. I really don't want to import it into Panzerkrieg and take the XP hit.

That just leaves my AT and Arty. I chose to keep my AT at the Flak 88 and it's dual role was superb in Greece, once I knew where the air attacks would come from. I think I shot down 2 or 3 with it.

The real pain is the artillery. It's still at 1 star after hammering it over nine scenarios. That's definitely gonna be an import.

[GabeKnight]

Between the AT, AA and ART class, there's "cross-upgrading" possible. Like switching an ART unit to AT or AA unit to AT. Especially with German units you can 5-star an AT-unit very fast (e.g. StuG) and then "convert" it to one of the other classes for the achievment.

And there's some spec. with the Jap. campaign that gives the first two purchased planes like 3 exp. stars. Use that with a strat. bomber. Then assign it some "bomber" commander, go after enemy AT and ART units (or naval transports) and you'll 5-star it in no time.

[stevefprice]

Just a steer - my OP and line of questiong was regarding how to best five star the different unit types for the achievements on xbox, ......

My Heinkel 111H is up to 3 stars (strat bomber class) and that's cool, we're up to Minks now, maybe the last 3 scenarios could see enough action to get to 5 stars. I really don't want to import it into Panzerkrieg and take the XP hit.

......

The real pain is the artillery. It's still at 1 star after hammering it over nine scenarios. That's definitely gonna be an import.

I don't really understand the issue, your posts suggest you'll not import 5star XP units because you'll lose xp but will import low * units.

The logic defies me. If you take new units instead of importing they'll have even less XP. Sure, the RP cost is more but if you've played well you should have a surplus.

If it helps, think of it as troops being disperesd to spread experience ans taking on new recruits.

It's not like you'll not be able to gain XP rapidly again.

[yossariano]

So this post was all about how best to rank up units to five stars for the achievement, and I was wondering how say bombers and artillery gain XP the best. So far I'm just using them as much as possible.

I'm playing Blitzkrieg, I've just done Minsk which leaves 2 scenarios left.

My strat bomber is at 3.5 stars, AT (Flak 88) is at 3 stars. Arty (18cm) is 1.5 stars.

I think you've read too much into my posts.

All I was saying was that say I get my strat bomber to 4.5 stars by the end of Blitzkrieg, to continue in it's quest for five stars I'll import into Panzerkrieg campaign but therein take a big experience hit, think it goes back down 50%. Same for the other units,

I don't have an issue with that, other than it's a bit strange that there are some unit types that need at least 2 campaigns to 5-star, artillery could take 3, time will tell. The achievements themselves are attached to the base-game but they NEED you to buy DLC realistically to say get the achievements for all unit types. I havn't mentioned submarines yet

Recon I got to 5 stars after 12 scenarios btw.

[GabeKnight]

You can get all the achievements playing the "original" Pacific campaigns. US or Japanese. One campaign is enough, trust me. For example, you could 5-star a sub during two scens, basically.

You'll get experience by doing DAMAGE to enemy units.

(fun fact: you get more if you clear mines; even your own. With enough RPs, you can 5-star engineer units during one scen - and then convert them to heavy inf. or paras... )

[yossariano]

Thanks Gabe that's exactly the sort of steer I was after. I must admit I thought the US pacific campaign was going to just cover the naval units though, and is next on my list. Thanks for the tips there - that's going to be very useful.

I just completed the Blitzkrieg campaign (for second time) and managed to five star all ground and air based units EXCEPT artillery which I got up to 4 stars. As you say it certainly appears experience is purely related to damage inflicted, but not sure if damage / casualty ratio plays a part. Maybe that's why arty is so slow to level up, it's often in the rear and too safe.

I've imported my blitzkrieg core into Panzerkrieg to continue plugging away at the arty.

May I ask if you got your land units five starred?

[GabeKnight]

I've imported my blitzkrieg core into Panzerkrieg to continue plugging away at the arty.

May I ask if you got your land units five starred?

Well, I've got all the Steam achievements, if that's what you're asking - the only units that I have trouble getting 5-starred are carriers...

For land units, especially AT/tank units, playing Panzerkrieg and Endsieg will get them all the experience they'll ever want.

I think my "Hummel" mobile arty was 5-star after 2-3 scens (Endsieg, after importing it from my Pazerkrieg core) and the "88" is an AT/AA switch unit, so you'll get both achievements.

It's not necessary, but it helps if you play on higher difficulties, as the enemy units will have more HP to do damage to...

But if you go for the achievements, you sometimes need to concentrate on doing max. damage with the unit you want to have an experience gain with. I mean shooting on enemy units just for the damage instead of some tactical advantage.

[yossariano]

I should check out the Hummel. My german 18cm is at 4 stars now after 5 scenarios into Panzerkrieg (it got to 4 stars in Blitzkrieg, before taking the xp hit during import). The Hummel looks great, maybe I should've skipped panzerkrieg and gone from Blitz' to Endskrieg for the later units of 1943.

All the others were five starred ok within Blitzkrieg. AT used the Flak 36/47 88, once you get it into the action it's great.

yeah I totally farm / milk it once the game is almost won, the arty is best used on fresh groups entrenched, but I've never had more than 3 damage. Very true about higher difficulties, I think that's why I failed to 5 star artillery in blitzkrieg. I was playging on easy and literally ran out of targets. When it gets to 4.5 stars I just go balls out on a salient with it.

I've heard carriers are a nightmare.

Thanks for the tips. I had a spreadsheet that tried to track how much damage each unit type needed to get a star of XP, I think it was about 25-30 for artillery