GabeKnight wrote:PS: And am I really the only one who loves the armoured train? Was the new mechanic (cannot enter enemy supply) used on the armoured train as well, or just the transports?
Well, don't know if I'm that enthusiastic about the train but it sure is well worth its price. I just didn't remember I had one at first. I checked the mechanic and it does not apply to the train. So just get on board and drive straight to Seoul... sorry, this was not 1950... drive to a town of you choosing!
Btw., have you ever used it for "tanking"? If yes, was it any good? IIRC it was not easy to capture at Warsaw scenario.
CoolDTA wrote:
So it is the game and designers that are wrong. Hmm... okay.
Yes, your core is viable, but if it were powerful, then why have you had so much difficulties after Stalingrad? That's what you have told. I think the number of RPs was ok all the way. With the exception of the price of Panther and Tiger of course.
I definitely agree with the extra land CPs without additional resources in Kursk being useless.
Btw. I think it is a very good thing that even a campaign this hard can be completed with very different cores, don't you agree?
I wouldnt say the designers are wrong; rather that the adaptions made after the first few beta rounds (tanks were way more expensive then) did not cover later models. So this is a balancing issue.
Difficulties - well, I could not always buy some of the stuff I wanted. But I did not ponder upgrades forever and had not made it that far in the beta. Difficulties winning? No. Feeling that equipment I'd like to try was beginning to be too expensive - yes.
And yes, it is good to know that you can finish this with various cores and playstyles.
I think I'll wait for the next patch and then replay the campaign and see what has changed. I think with what I know now about the cost paths of several upgrades, my core might look different, but only slightly.
CoolDTA wrote:
Btw. I think it is a very good thing that even a campaign this hard can be completed with very different cores, don't you agree?
Yes, and makes the campaigns replayable using different cores and tactics.
CoolDTA wrote: I checked the mechanic and it does not apply to the train.
Thanks! Good. I loved the armoured train because of the incredible range (no difficult terrain and forrests penalties). And because the rails usually follow different paths than roads, it could often cut off the supply lines and help encircle enemy units. Or fall back really fast if some enemy unit was endangering the flank. Admittedly weak against arty and air, it had good defensive values against inf/mech units. It was cheap to repair and only used up 2 CP, if I remember correctly. And I really missed an armored train core unit in Erik's campaigns...
Sorry, I don't know what you mean by "tanking".
I just replayed Stalingrad, and that scenario seems to be pretty well-crafted, because no matter how I play it, it ends up being a meatgrinder.
The artillery east of the city seem to be the most significant factor in this.
My first time through, I used my air force to knock out the barges and artillery, which chewed up my entire air complement. This time, I sent a decoy stuka to allow my escorts to beat down the red fighters, then sent the other stukas after the barges afterwards.
I left the artillery until I could put them in range of my 17cm guns. Then once they were weak, I sent in a bomber to finish them off quickly; though the coastal boats forced me to avoid the shoreline in some places still.
If I play it again, I am going to look into maybe just dropping a paratroop onto each island to hopefully knock them out quickly that way.
Heading into Stalingrad Trap; loaded the mission, and it has me starting with 1800 RP. Going to upgrade any tanks that have defensive-bonused commanders to Tigers in order to try those out. However, I do have some repairs that need to be done to my air force. My stukas are badly chewed up, and I may sell them to transition over to bf110e's, so I can later upgrade them to me410's.
My core (1800rp available) :
4x paratroopers
4x heavy infantry
5x 17cm artillery (8-range)
5x panzer iv f2
1x armored car scout
2x bf109g
1x fw190a
3x stuka
1x arado scout
SS (300rp available) :
1x infantry (formerly wiking)
1x engineers
1x 17cm artillery (8-range)
1x panzer iv f2
hrafnkolbrandr wrote:If I play it again, I am going to look into maybe just dropping a paratroop onto each island to hopefully knock them out quickly that way.
Heading into Stalingrad Trap; loaded the mission, and it has me starting with 1800 RP.
Wow, that's a lot of RPs! I only had about 700 and 200 after evereone was fully healed up and good to go. You actually have the points to use the Tigers. They should be impervious against the enemy. Tell us how it went. Such a great core you have!
I think Stukas and 17cm guns are the best way to eliminate the Soviet arty. Paratroops would be unsupplied and heavily bombarded so I'm not sure their efficiency would last long enough. And IIRC you can't get them off the islands.
GabeKnight wrote:Sorry, I don't know what you mean by "tanking".
I just meant using the train offensively. I have only used it as an arty behind the front line. But from what you told you have used it offensively and with success. I think I will do that too in the upcoming 43-45 DLC.
Chir river defense line maintained and 6th Army "unlocked"
Manstein's forces:
1x Tiger, 1x Pz IVF2, 1x StuG IIIF, 2x HvInf42(mot), 1x Wurfrahmen + several heavy and light artillery, light inf and AA units
Chir river forces:
1x SS-Marder, 1x StuG IIIF, 1x 88mm Flak(mot), a lot of light inf and all ss-inf units, several artillery and AA units + Romanian army support
Do STuG's support adjacent units the way anti-tank guns do? I am considering switching some of my panzers for them, while I still have time to get them some experience.
hrafnkolbrandr wrote:Do STuG's support adjacent units the way anti-tank guns do? I am considering switching some of my panzers for them, while I still have time to get them some experience.
hrafnkolbrandr wrote:Do STuG's support adjacent units the way anti-tank guns do? I am considering switching some of my panzers for them, while I still have time to get them some experience.
Yes, they behave like classic AT guns
Color me intrigued. Not sure if I can afford to ditch my panzers for them and still get Tigers though. Plus my Panzer IV F2's are already pretty fantastic.
I'd love to set up a pair of Tigers with the heavy treading defense specialization, with a trio of STuGs using the pakfront specialization, to build a wrecking ball armored spearhead.
I think the Panzers have better defense than the STuGs though, so there is that. I like to limit my losses, and it isn't like I am having great difficulty with enemy armor already. It would be nice to have the STuGs able to backup my nearby infantry also.
My Panzers just chill nearby while Fritz takes T34's to the face.
So I've made it to Operation Star, and I ran afoul of the Turn 11 victory bug.
Despite the bug, I actually feel okay with continuing at this point; I don't really care for defense scenarios that much since Winter War. I had only taken a grand total of 2 damage to ground core units up to that point, and only about 10 to air units.
The Red Air Force was swept from the sky, except one strategic bomber which wasn't long for this world. The town in the north had some mines and was supported by Stukas, and I had security detachments posted to ensure my core units would get down the highway toward Kharkov unmolested while the aux unit held them off, as I had done with the other towns. All other highways to the final objectives were extensively mined in multiple places thanks to bautruppe and numerous cheap engineers, who were standing by to mine the final highway once the security detachments fell back. My three 17cm artillery were almost set up between the two final objective cities, and were going to be joined by three more after the withdrawal. Around those objectives, we were going to form our defensive line.
What I am disappointed by, is that because the scenario ended prematurely, I did not get the bonus objective for the tanks, but I was getting there. I looked in the scenario editor, and all you get is 100 RP. I am going to ignore it, and just assume that would have accounted for the repairs I would have made if the scenario had continued to completion. My recon planes couldn't find a single soviet tank anywhere near my lines that had more than five strength. I'm reasonably sure we would have polished off the objective in short order near Kharkov.
Core is currently:
1x bautruppe
2x engineers
4x paratroopers
4x heavy infantry
5x 17cm artillery (8-range)
3x panzer iv f2
1x stug g
2x tiger h
1x armored car scout
2x bf109g
2x fw190f
3x stuka
1x arado scout
As for the bugged Operation Winterstorm, I achieved all objectives, but I understand that is bugged. When I get to Kursk, I am just going to use the cheat to add 3 more ground CP to account for saving the 6th army, and I'll just buy myself the panzer or nashorn that I would have gotten for the scenario.
Okay, played the whole campaign again on 5.2.9. (Posted mostly in the beta thread)
I think the DLC works a lot better now, still some of the later heavy tanks are mostly too expensive for me, still.
What I changed in my core composition and gameplay (mostly due to having more credits to spend) is going PzIV latest model exclusively and Stug III G. Even though I would consider a lot of the commanders here infantry commanders (defense and entrenchment bonus and so on), I put them all in Stugs and tanks this time. Reduced my injured commander problem massively. Also, I only used elite reinforcements when any units threatened to drop below two star exp. This also proved to save a lot of money.
Andy2012 wrote:Also, I only used elite reinforcements when any units threatened to drop below two star exp. This also proved to save a lot of money.
I usually don't bother about elite, but I slowly notice a difference especially with aircraft in PK when the AI gets more default xp. Having 1-2 stars more than the AI with direct-attack units should indeed pay off. In the BK campaign, I've wasted too much left-over RP that should have better been invested in experience of my core instead of upgrades that didn't come anymore.
Has anyone tried Kharkov 42 in 5.2.9 ? When I watch Mojkos replay from his AAR thread he has a 7.5cm aux artillery and a 5 cm aux AT and thats recorded in 5.2.0. All the Foxholes are halved aswell and I really miss those aux units!
Halvralf wrote:Has anyone tried Kharkov 42 in 5.2.9 ? When I watch Mojkos replay from his AAR thread he has a 7.5cm aux artillery and a 5 cm aux AT and thats recorded in 5.2.0. All the Foxholes are halved aswell and I really miss those aux units!
I remember that there are aux units in the west (Stug, inf, light arty), north (heavy inf), northeast (light AT, inf) and southeast (heavy inf). Also, the Hungarians in the south. Are they missing in your build? Odd.
Andy2012 wrote:I remember that there are aux units in the west (Stug, inf, light arty), north (heavy inf), northeast (light AT, inf) and southeast (heavy inf). Also, the Hungarians in the south. Are they missing in your build? Odd.
The inf and the heavy inf and Stug are there but not the light art and light AT unit but the Romanians are present as expected !
about the train but it sure is well worth its price. I just didn't remember I had one at first. 
I checked the mechanic and it does not apply to the train. So just get on board and drive straight to Seoul... sorry, this was not 1950... drive to a town of you choosing! 
I only had about 700 and 200 after evereone was fully healed up and good to go. You actually have the points to use the Tigers. They should be impervious against the enemy. Tell us how it went. Such a great core you have! 
