Axis Operation 1944 Review

[DefiantXYX]

I finally finished the ahistorical.

First of all, one more time its a great DLC. For all pc2 fans its a must have.
Its fascinating, the backstory of the game is sometimes even more fun than the game. Its the first DLC without any historical base and imo you guys did a good job in so many details. Its not just playing and fighting, there are so much infos about ressources, tactics, political acts and so. I dont want to spoiler to much but 1944 perfectly fits in, the war is not won, the war its not lost. You just want to find out how its going on...

The map design is awesome. Any map is different, there are so many different objetives and stuff, never thought there is so much potential in the game.
On the other side I started to miss some basic scenarios. 20 turns, you start left and have to fight until you reach the right side. Right now you are kind of forced on any map. Do this, kill that, protect this...you might have 20 turns but you might win or lose in 7 turns because of some events. Especially the last mission was confusing, so many primary targets and suddenly tha game ends way to early, because a russian general comitted suicide.

That leads me to the special obejectives. Very nice idea, especially since its not just killing random stuff! Unfornately the rewards are arguable. First hero is great, after that you only get stuff you dont really need. The tanks in the last mission are like Panther G tanks. This is the special reward in late 1944?!

Finally I have to talk about the balancing, since I was complaining a lot, that 1942/1943 were really boring because of the overpowered cores. Actually I did a big mistake starting without david vs goliath, so the first 2 maps very really boring.
After that, with david vs goliath, it was very balanced, very challenging.
Even my best units were never completly safe, since the AI also got extremly overpowered units. If you are careless you will loose units, even you best tanks. That is how it should be!
I dont like the cheap way to steal you prestige with the sink for no rewards. If I had continued with 100k it would have still been too easy, but with 9500 you have to think twice before you repair a tank for 750.
But to be honest after 1943 I never thought the game could be really hard for more core, but because of the prestige sink and some crazy obejetcies it actually was. So, very good job to all the designers.

Right now I am not sure about your allies. Most of the time there are a lot of armies and units that are fighting each others. On the one side thats something i want to see, to have a better feeling that you are part in the war. On the other side if you watch and AI turn it either takes ages or you dont get what was going on and you have to check everything after the turn.
And and it was very strange to fight your allies in 2-3 maps. Kill an army, just to deliver some ressources...hmmmm.

And one last thing. Finally there are a lot of maps that help you do understand where you are fighting. Thanks a lot

Btw. my highlight was Wagner and Galland talking about idiotic german leaders

Well, lets check out the historical part.

[Ryba666]

Yes, very interesting DLC, we are figthing in snow, sand, air, steppes, against Brits, soviets, hungary, americans. And only in 10 scenarious, but ONLY in 10 scenarious.

[kverdon]

I tend to agree with the OP. I'm playing the Alternate History AO1944 campaign and the Narrative part of the campaign is very well done and I'm enjoying it alot. The actual game play and scenarios, not so much. I'm finding them meh at best. I'm in a good ways in and there is only 1 I've actually enjoyed. There is one scenario that I find to be my least favorite since since AO39. This one has you ordered to defend a River and, if you follow your orders and advice from your "expert", it is extremely boring and over in about 8 turns. It also makes no sense. The objective of the scenario is to lose. Yep, that's right. There is an obscure "elite" objective that is mentioned nowhere in the narrative (which should have been included) that is not remotely intuitive. I finally was able to accomplish the goals of the scenario to my satisfaction by using a cheat code to ensure the scenario did not end too quickly. May some more playtesting on that one might have helped.

The DDay scenario was also a bit lack luster. You are an observer for 4/5's of the turn and that really is the problem. I think I would have enjoyed it much more to just handle the Air battle and not have to watch the painful moves of the AI allies and Allied Forces. Thinks like rushing Panther's and King Tigers into the woods to see them slaughtered by infantry is just painful and frustrating to watch as it watching the Quixotic attempts of your allied ground units trying to attack the Naval Units offshore. A good move here would have been to remove the naval attack from the ground units to prevent such wasted effort.

One thing I would like added to the game is some sort of description or hint as to what accomplishing these "Bonus" or "Elite" objectives accomplishes. Is it going to be worth my time to do? I'm also assuming that the purchase of stocks of what would normally useless Allied equipment is to get around the "denied" train limitations? Otherwise none of it is remotely worth swapping out my core forces equipment for.

To Give Credit Where Credit is due, I did think both narratively and gameplay wise, the following Operation Panzerschreck and Kolozovar were well done and enjoyable.

[DefiantXYX]

And finally I just finished the historical campaign.

Was way easier. Although I played with delayed technologie or whatever this trait is called, that means no Tiger II, no Panther G no Me262, just prototypes, some maps were just too easy. Warsaw, and the last maps were a walk in the park again, compared to other maps no very well balanced. Sad and annoying is, you got only one map where you can use your full core and its a fake map...
Compared to the ahistorical campaign it feels a bit lovesless and unfinished. No words about the war in the west, just one line to the attack on the führer, no overviewmaps between the scenarios. Ana Sophia writes in her later she is afraid of a invasion in the west, that in oktober 1944. Did the D-Day not happen or does she simply not know?!
No galland, no rommels, just a random girl in the end who is translating some messages.
It is still a good campaign but not as outstanding as some part of the ahistorical version.

All together it is a very good DLC. I am forced to play david vs goliath and some other stuff to make it halfway interesing, but thats ok. It somehow is a good feeling that you will need all your strength in 1944, so you have work in every earlier DLC in your core army, to make it as strong as possible.

Last but not least I have to talk again about the general traits. There should be a rebalancing with every DLC.
I used "old guard" for the first time for 1 point. Thats ridiculoulsy overpowered, doesnt even matter if you lose some of your core units, the come back with 3000 exp. and will be completly restored 2-3 maps later.
Retrograde, I think that is the name, gives you only 2 points and hurts you a lot. I thought I get all the stuff in early 1944, so I might play half of the year without the best stuff. Hugh mistake like I already said above, I denied myself all the overpowered stuff.
Industry connection costs only 1 point and you get the best stuff you could imagine. Mouse, E75, Panzer VII...I really like it but it should cost you at least 2 points.
Denied artillery is 3 free points, like always...
Slow modernization for once is very well balanced this time. 2 points is ok, since its only 10 scenarios you normally you have to upgrade a lot.
It like with the heroes, you have to somehow punish yourself or force yourself not to pick the overpowered. Imo everything should be balanced or at least better balanced, so that you cant easily manipulate the game experience too much with general traits. I know there is a slider for general points, that is very good, but doesnt change the fact, some some traits are changing with every DLC.

[terminator]

The look of the partisans does not really suit me especially in winter :

Soviet partisans (1).jpg (151.16 KiB) Viewed 3385 times

Changing the camouflage, it goes a little better :

Soviet partisans (2).jpg (205.75 KiB) Viewed 3385 times

[Wagner0445]

My biggest criticism is that some Elite objectives are just not mentioned at all. On my first try I didn't find the camouflaged poles(the new rule makes that extremely hard) and during the last mission in the ahistoric path I had to restart three times because first I searched the last Marschall between the normal units which made me kill the second Marschall accidentally, then I captured ever soviet Army Bases which are located behind the soviet bunker defenses and only after I looked into the mission files I found out I need to take the city on the other side of the Danube.

Also, the missing Caches is something I find sad.

And, my last criticism is that they already started to foreshadow how the ahistoric story will end with their side note of new American B-29s being transported to England instead of the pacific. Hinting at the Nuke ending.

[Bee1976]

Hinting at the Nuke ending.

I dont think this is the intention, because it would be ver disappointing to get an ahistroic path where winning the battles matters and still lose at the end, because german yis nuked into oblivion.
My guess is, that this will lead to a "real" sea lion to stop the B-29s from taking off or getting those nukes. Or maybe the next air onl mission to intercept that bombers.

but im really bad with guessing. Kerensky surprised me with nearly every single mission on the ahistroic path.
My biggest concern is still the time. With the US, GB and the Soviet Union there are still 3 big and scary enemies on the table, and if the team deliver again 10 missions for the ahistoric path in 45, this means 3.3 missions to beat SU, 3.3 missions to beat GB and 3.3 missions to beat the US.

To be honest, 10 missions doenst seem to fit to beat just 1 faction in the last year of the war.
But maybe we will see a "win" vs GB and US on the ahistoric patch for AOWEST DLCs.
Unfortunatly there is no roadmap or something for the near future.

[Wagner0445]

Hinting at the Nuke ending.

I dont think this is the intention, because it would be ver disappointing to get an ahistroic path where winning the battles matters and still lose at the end, because german yis nuked into oblivion.
My guess is, that this will lead to a "real" sea lion to stop the B-29s from taking off or getting those nukes. Or maybe the next air onl mission to intercept that bombers.

but im really bad with guessing. Kerensky surprised me with nearly every single mission on the ahistroic path.
My biggest concern is still the time. With the US, GB and the Soviet Union there are still 3 big and scary enemies on the table, and if the team deliver again 10 missions for the ahistoric path in 45, this means 3.3 missions to beat SU, 3.3 missions to beat GB and 3.3 missions to beat the US.

To be honest, 10 missions doenst seem to fit to beat just 1 faction in the last year of the war.
But maybe we will see a "win" vs GB and US on the ahistoric patch for AOWEST DLCs.
Unfortunatly there is no roadmap or something for the near future.

I also really hope that it doesn't come to that but I have this strange feeling. But a Sealion wouldn't really fit the tone either just like an America campaign.
I do believe Russia will be finished off in 1945. Fuchs already hinted at the possibility of encircling Soviet formations in the north. Which could mean that the Soviet Union finally collapses. Even in our timeline, the soviets used up most of their reserves so in the ahistoric one the soviet union has to be on its last breath after the massive losses of 1943 and 1944.
And honestly, that's why I fear the nuke ending.

I personally hope for a collapsing Soviet Union and a separate peace between Germany and the western allies. Maybe with the last mission being an air-only mission aimed at stopping the nuke drop. Because even with B-29s a Germany that has masses of trained pilots flying Me262s and masses of Oil is nearly impossible to bomb.

[DefiantXYX]

My biggest criticism is that some Elite objectives are just not mentioned at all. On my first try I didn't find the camouflaged poles(the new rule makes that extremely hard) and during the last mission in the ahistoric path I had to restart three times because first I searched the last Marschall between the normal units which made me kill the second Marschall accidentally, then I captured ever soviet Army Bases which are located behind the soviet bunker defenses and only after I looked into the mission files I found out I need to take the city on the other side of the Danube.

Well, elite objectives shouldnt be very easy to get. Tbh the last one was very obvious, why do you think are a lot of strong units on the other side of the river, where they can do nothing?

Also, the missing Caches is something I find sad.

True, but like I said in a different topic it makes to sense to find equipment if its useless compared to german stuff. But you could still find some other stuff like prestige, supplies ==> core slots, heroes ==> captured german soldiers.

Unfortunatly there is no roadmap or something for the near future.

Yeah, I would really like to see a roadmap. I could imagine one last AO East with a success over the soviets and peace in the west. But if they dont waste time one DLC could be enough.
In 1944 the soviets failed again with their attacks, you can end this in 2 huge battles and finally one last attack on moscow.
Since we alreay had sealion i guess it hard to create something completly different, so 2-3 scenarios for conquering london might be enough as well. Still plenty of time to conquer the USA. Or we might see something new, AO 1946, fighting in america vs the USA and all the remaining units of the allies.

[Bee1976]

Since we alreay had sealion i guess it hard to create something completly different, so 2-3 scenarios for conquering london might be enough as well. Still plenty of time to conquer the USA. Or we might see something new, AO 1946, fighting in america vs the USA and all the remaining units of the allies.

London might be some reaaaaaal evil slog way worse than Stalingrad. i would like that

Crazy idea:
Beat the sovjiet union in AOEast ahistorical
Beat Great Britan in AOWest ahistrocial
Beat the USA in Pacific ahistorical

Im afraid we wont see any 1946 ahistoric DLC. This woud be neat, but a lot of people might get upset about something like that. AO series is fun, but there is so much the fans are wating for (at least i am waiting for ...):
AOWest
Soviet Corps
Allied Corps
Afika Corps
Pacific (ok another team)

and of course flavour DLCs like:
new music or zombiemode (hehe) or DLCs that fill up the existing AOs (Winter war for example) or Kurland pocket additions and so on.
A fictional 1946 ahistoric DLC would be great for me. buuuut im pretty sure it wont come

[88Flak]

Now that I've gotten through both historical and NH, I had a few thoughts as well.

Based on where we finished 43NH, I was expecting to be launching an offensive into the Soviet southern flank and driving them back. I was ok with having to consolidate against the UK, but not really engaging the Soviet hordes until July didn't make sense to me. Especially since they were rampaging across northern Europe driving directly towards greater Germany.

There are a couple of spectacular battles in both campaigns, but not enough of them. I'm a bigger fan of large tank battles instead of special operations and clandestine operations. Using multiple opportunities to fight rebellious Romanians, traitorous Hungarians and Polish partisans is not what I want to be doing with my Panzer Corps but rather necessary situations to set up the bigger confrontations. I get the need to have different types of operations for different interests.

The paths should have been split into 2 DLCs and given 14-15 scenarios each. Having the special operations would have been a welcome respite and allowed us to rebuild our damaged Corps in between large-scale engagements.

The narrative was really well done, interesting and feasible.

The struggle to recover around Korsun was interesting and set up the historical path nicely. It was running really well until you end up fighting around Minsk without your units in a battle you are supposed to lose and then spend the bulk of your time dealing with former allies.

AO44 is really close to being great and would have been with more titanic battles against the Soviets.

[UncleAi]

It is really hard to believe Soviet can still organize massive attack in ahistorical path. They shouldn't have that many tanks. Germany has much better manpower, fuel and aerial superiority status than history. And Soviet suffered much bigger loss. Who is commanding Army Group North? How could Soviet even reach East Prussia? How could Finland surrender that easily?

We should be the main attacker in 1944. The game is like sacrifice history logic to make sure there is strong enough enemy. Most WW2 games split ahistorical path in Moscow 1941 for a reason. When we reach 1945, atom bomb will be a inevitable problem. It is still possible for ally to control temporary, part region aerial superiority. What if they make a bold gamble?

[Wagner0445]

It is really hard to believe Soviet can still organize massive attack in ahistorical path. They shouldn't have that many tanks. Germany has much better manpower, fuel and aerial superiority status than history. And Soviet suffered much bigger loss. Who is commanding Army Group North? How could Soviet even reach East Prussia? How could Finland surrender that easily?

We should be the main attacker in 1944. The game is like sacrifice history logic to make sure there is strong enough enemy. Most WW2 games split ahistorical path in Moscow 1941 for a reason. When we reach 1945, atom bomb will be a inevitable problem. It is still possible for ally to control temporary, part region aerial superiority. What if they make a bold gamble?

That's pretty believable. The soviet Reserves were huge and they had a pretty big industry. It's more realistic that the soviets get defeated in 1945 than it is in 1941.

[Wagner0445]

Now that I've gotten through both historical and NH, I had a few thoughts as well.

Based on where we finished 43NH, I was expecting to be launching an offensive into the Soviet southern flank and driving them back. I was ok with having to consolidate against the UK, but not really engaging the Soviet hordes until July didn't make sense to me. Especially since they were rampaging across northern Europe driving directly towards greater Germany.

There are a couple of spectacular battles in both campaigns, but not enough of them. I'm a bigger fan of large tank battles instead of special operations and clandestine operations. Using multiple opportunities to fight rebellious Romanians, traitorous Hungarians and Polish partisans is not what I want to be doing with my Panzer Corps but rather necessary situations to set up the bigger confrontations. I get the need to have different types of operations for different interests.

The paths should have been split into 2 DLCs and given 14-15 scenarios each. Having the special operations would have been a welcome respite and allowed us to rebuild our damaged Corps in between large-scale engagements.

The narrative was really well done, interesting and feasible.

The struggle to recover around Korsun was interesting and set up the historical path nicely. It was running really well until you end up fighting around Minsk without your units in a battle you are supposed to lose and then spend the bulk of your time dealing with former allies.

AO44 is really close to being great and would have been with more titanic battles against the Soviets.

Well, at least historically there weren't really any big Tank Battles in 1944. Especially ones Germany won. And they said they wanted to stop letting you win battles but still lose the war like in the past.

[Wagner0445]

My biggest criticism is that some Elite objectives are just not mentioned at all. On my first try I didn't find the camouflaged poles(the new rule makes that extremely hard) and during the last mission in the ahistoric path I had to restart three times because first I searched the last Marschall between the normal units which made me kill the second Marschall accidentally, then I captured ever soviet Army Bases which are located behind the soviet bunker defenses and only after I looked into the mission files I found out I need to take the city on the other side of the Danube.

Well, elite objectives shouldnt be very easy to get. Tbh the last one was very obvious, why do you think are a lot of strong units on the other side of the river, where they can do nothing?

I thought the same about the Soviet Army bases on the upper left side of the map. In my book commanders like Marshalls sit in bases not on the front line.
Honestly, I never saw them. And I love hard special goals(they could be harder) but I hate it when the game fails to give you a hint about what you have to do.

[VirgilInTheSKY]

I thought the same about the Soviet Army bases on the upper left side of the map. In my book commanders like Marshalls sit in bases not on the front line.
Honestly, I never saw them. And I love hard special goals(they could be harder) but I hate it when the game fails to give you a hint about what you have to do.

I think there were actually a lot of generals on both sides that were KIA during the frontline engagement, both German and Soviet ones. The two armies both happened to have many commanders (and conmissars for the soviets) leading the charge to inspire their men, and the Red Army even once put a ban on high rank officers doing that at some time iirc because the rate of losses among offiers were even higher than the soldiers they led.

[88Flak]

No offensive battles in the same sense as Kursk, but massive operations nonetheless.

Leningrad-Novgorod offensive
Operation Bagration
Crimea
Lvov-Sandomierz
Jassy-Kishinev
East Prussia

All could provide a plethora of additional opportunities to put your Corps in front of the advancing Soviets to try to slow them down.

I see your point about winning every battle but still losing. But even if you win all your engagements in 1944, it wouldn't be enough to change the initiative on the Eastern Front. The results would still be historic.

[DefiantXYX]

Well, you guys are talking about the problem all panzergeneral games have.
Your army is winning everything but somehow you are still losing the war?!
AO 1944 does something which I also dont like very much, but its something like a good side trick. You dont fight where the enemy is winning. Instead of deafeting the russians again and again you have to deal with your own allies...kind of ridiculous, since your army is the best and you won everything in the past. But thats the only way to make it possible, that the russian and attack and have great success. Otherwise the game would end in 1944 or you could not understand you why are somehow losing and some places.

So once again you have to say, that all other german generals just suck and you are still general, not Feldmarschall

[Bee1976]

Your army is winning everything but somehow you are still losing the war?!

Germy did win retreating battles on the eastern front and lost the war. And the label says it all, they were retreating battles. So there is potential to win battles and lose the war. The fact that "High Command" gave real stupid orders was the next problem.

Some historicans believe, if the german army had retreated way faster and formed a new and prepared frontline at a point far behind the "real" frontline, they might have forced the russian army into a stalemate. But the Wehrmacht was nearly everywhere always in fighting retreats and if one operation was successful and even counterattacks were succesful, they had to fall back to avoid beeing encirclet.
So it is possible to offer the player battles and operations that they can win, but still lose the war. But it feels bad for the player.
The russian army was huge, the frontline was really long, and the soviet forces were real skilled in moving their troops alongside that frontline, to put pressure on the german forces that won minor operations. As mentioned even successful counterattacks were stopped and the german forces had to retreat to avoid an encirclement. And of course, that way of fighting retreats had a high price on men and material (and supplies).

That skilled movement of russian troops is reflected quite nice in the ahistoric part of the game aswell. While we are fighting in the south, a big part of the russian army used the momentum and attacked in the north.

[VirgilInTheSKY]

Well, you guys are talking about the problem all panzergeneral games have.
Your army is winning everything but somehow you are still losing the war?!
AO 1944 does something which I also dont like very much, but its something like a good side trick. You dont fight where the enemy is winning. Instead of deafeting the russians again and again you have to deal with your own allies...kind of ridiculous, since your army is the best and you won everything in the past. But thats the only way to make it possible, that the russian and attack and have great success. Otherwise the game would end in 1944 or you could not understand you why are somehow losing and some places.

So once again you have to say, that all other german generals just suck and you are still general, not Feldmarschall

Think it this way, the resources others could have used to achieve something on their frontline was transferred to supply your forces because you are doing well and on the main operation direction. YOU DRAINED THEIR RESOURCES to achieve your victories, and makes it looking like all the others are not doing their job at all because they can't get what they need to do so.
Germany did have severe logistic problems during the whole eastern campaign, from its start to the end, which halted many operations that could have been done, and ruined many operations that could have succeeded. War is not won by one army, and your enemies are not fools who always strike at the toughest place where your forces are deployed. They will try to pick easy fights and reduce your effectiveness as a whole, which is completely reasonable. The reason they are assaulting Hungary and Romania in this year have executed this strategy well enough.