Slitherine

Wow, what a fantastic update! I have been living abroad for the past half year without access to my gaming computer, so it was a very pleasant surprise to find a new version of my favorite mod awaiting my return. Over the past week, I played through it from the beginning and was able to secure a victory at default setting, conquering the Soviet Union and the Middle East with relative ease, but without ever attempting to invade England. Now I think I will attempt to play it from Barbarossa only with a Sealion in early '42 and see how I fare.

Overall, I noticed and appreciated lots of little changes. The Allied Torch fleet in the Med seems much more nimble and responsive to my counterattacks and I found tackling them much more of a challenge than in previous iterations. Likewise, I felt like the Allies in the Middle East put up much more of a fight rather than passively await my attacks. The Russian bear remains a formidable foe, and I've no doubt I would have struggled more if not for having brought a long a carefully curated core from previous scenarios, along with the additional prestige. Luckily, I was able to manage my forces and my reinforcements well enough that I was able to slowly strangle him through cautious but continuous advance (and lots of luring their tanks into forests). :p

My only issue at this point is with getting those saved states working. I would really like to try tackling the scenario at later points in the war, but right now when I try loading the games, they fail to load and I am left staring at the title screen. I don't see anyone else with this issue so I am wondering what I am doing wrong. I don't (to my knowledge) have any modifications made to the game and have disabled all other mods in GME. I would really like to fight some losing battles without having to play historically to get there. So, any suggestions on how to get the saves to work would be welcome.

Otherwise, I don't have much else to suggest in terms of improvement. It's a really exceptional accomplishment, McGuba, and Slitherine should pay you a boatload of money and make it part of some official Panzer Corps super-deluxe anniversary edition rerelease!

Ceek, you should make a clean install with the mod and see, what happens. I always encountered such situations, what you described, when some of the critical files were modified and the mod got then not compatible.

Ceek wrote:My only issue at this point is with getting those saved states working.

In version 1.6 Has anyone managed to take the UK and if so when? and with what? I find it impossible - specially with the mines and the engish navy is too strong

Hello Hugh
in my current play I started the invasion in winter 41/42 (avoiding the British planes). The beach head was south of London. It became difficult when the British fleet from Scapa came south and nearly destroyed all my battleships and even some troops transports on the eastern side of the channel. I concentrated my battleship fire on the British destroyers. So my submarines survived and blocked he channel for the enemy ships. After that it was possible to finish the fleet with my submarines and three strategic bombers.

I suggest to move your ships very carfully near the French coast not to provoke the British ships and bombers to come too early.

Now I face the Torch fleet and this fleet also seems to be stronger than in V1.5.

Thank you for that herr general. I tried landing on east anglia but the fleet came south on turn 9 and wiped me out. I hadnt established a safe enough area for bombers by then. I will try south of london although i ruled that out before because of the big fort with range three, did you take out that fort first?. Thanks for info

I dont try to deal with torch directly, I let them land and take them out with a defensive line of disposable italians supported by artilliary on a line of kasserine pass and constantine, thier armour cant do the hills. i then also take out the ones coming the other way by squishing them against the mareth line with fleet bomabardment help, i get alot of prestige by forcing surrenders there.

I think where ever you try to land in England, you will have to pay. The fort near London destroyed some of my units while I was landing. I used tanks and Pioneers to land first and attack the fort. I supressed it with naval bombardment when it was possible. JimmyC also tried to land in the east and failed. I guess without first destroying the fleet in Scapa Flow each landing in the east will end in a desaster. But JimmyC was successful from the west. I prefer the south because of the short routes from the French coast and my 88ers at the coast can cover a little bit the invasion fleet against the RAF.

hugh2711 wrote:In version 1.6 Has anyone managed to take the UK and if so when? and with what? I find it impossible - specially with the mines and the engish navy is too strong

I did not try it with 1.6, but I earlier did always choose the South-Western approach at Plymouth and additional to Cardiff. The trick is to be undetected as long as possible:



1., After powering up all the ships in France, destroy with 2 U-Boats the naval defense south of Plymouth.
2., Under the coverage of rainy weather, destroy the radar stations near to Plymouth and Cardiff.
3., Do not waste your U-Boat power at south to go to the convoy route - you will need them to stop the upcoming British naval forces from the North-East!
4., Bring your navy from Kiel and east to the North and take part in the convoy/destroyer fights, but do not let them to take casualties (I mean the capital ships - destroyers are disposable and can be used also to collect prestige for staying on convoy routes)!
5., Under the coverage of the snowy weather, carefully make your way with the Northern fleet to the French shores and use them too to soften the defenses around Plymouth.
5., I do not remember exactly, but using the coverage of the snow, transport most of the landing forces to the seas west of Cardiff. Land with one inf unit at the far South-Western hex of England, which can be made undetected in bad weather, even, when the strongpoint next to it still exists.
6., Destroy the strongpoint, destroy the AA battery, take Plymouth, make a second, supportive landings west of Cardiff (again, in bad weather it can be done undetected, if the radar station is gone).
7., The fights from Plymouth in the direction of London and also around Cardiff are extreme hard (at least, if you brought just limited resources, because the rest is needed elsewhere. ), I use many Gebirgsjäger and Alpini units, because of the hilly terrain.
Mostly, I got a few total destruction of inf units, but I take it, because England has to be captured!
...at it has to be captured as fast possible, because, otherway the hornet nest will be opened maybe around mid 1943 and your forces will be attacked with a swarm of bombers!
+1., The British fleet of Scapa Flow appeared after the landings around Kiel and made a very difficult situation, because they started destroying my precious AA batteries... Some U-Boat and supported naval bombers can slowly contain that threat and destroy that +%"T=!%!+"! fleet.

Hope, I could help.

YESSSS, finally, I could beat McGuba's Normandy save on Rommel level!
(prestige income calculated/halfed always manually with the prestige cheat)

I have to say, this was the far hardest game mode, ever played with the Bf! About ten times did I restarted, until I got the DRAW. Luckily though, that in this mode, I had to restart just from turn 73 and not from turn 1...as with normal game modes, or from Kursk on.
This game mode is so hard, that it can happen, that if you just loose one critical unit on a given region, the whole frontline will crumble... Anyway: in this mode, absolute not faults are allowed! Prestige is extreme short. So all unit-capturings, town, airport recapturing are important!
I tried to play it mostly historically, for example, I did not use Finnishe airforce elsewhere as over Finnish territories, I did not let touch Hungarian units Romanian land before the Romanian side-change, I used Italian units just in Italy and on the Balkan. I also made some roleplaying to use the destroyers to evacuate the civilian population from Riga, Tallin, Königsberg and Danzig to Coppenhagen and Kiel. Still, I had to do some trick, to secure Bucharest and the Ploiesti oil fields fast, other way the defense of the Reich, would have been doomed. I think, anyway the proper attack and defense of the Romanian region is one of the key to make a draw. (As roleplaying, I see this so, that from intelligence sources, I got the information about the possible side-change of the Romanians. But I do not want to make the first aggressive move. So, my troops around Galati are there "to prepare for next big offensive in the east". )

****************ACHTUNG! SPOILERS!*************************



1., First, you have to destroy/drove away the Soviet tanks (other armor do not count, but of course it is useful, if they will be also destroyed) from zone 32! If you cannot do it, Romania changes sides in the next turn... The script is, if there are more, than 1 Soviet tanks in zone 32, Romania will change side. So, collect whatever German forces you can transport fast to this location and make an attack! The Southern Bug river is a favorable defense line to lure the Soviet armor on the river and destroy them relative easy.



BUT!
Winter will coming...and the rivers will be no more helping us...
So, you have to act timely. Best is to leave the Southern Bug river line around late October, a few turns, before winter comes.
BUT!
2., It is not enough to drive your attacking/defending forces from the east to recapture the Ploiesti and Bucharest region! You will have no time and the brutal Soviet armor will be on your tail. So, while defending the Bug line, you have to collect a a strong force next to Ploiesti and Bucharest. With that force, you can relative fast smash the Allied Romanian forces AND build a defense line in the South-East of the Carpathians and at Galati. If you can hold out in winter, than the impassable Danube river delta from spring on will hold the Soviet armor at bay for the rest of the war. There will be some Romanian units respawning around the Ploiesti, Bucharest region, but I could live with it and consider it as the Romanian rebellion. Later I could even recapture the rest of the Balkan and Bulgaria. Which is no way a must, but it was a good feeling for me.



- Italian theater: quite hard, if you do not bring extra forces (and you cannot, because they are needed elsewhere in more important regions). I just brought an extra 88mm AA battery and a few jagdpanzer units here, but I also took the PzIV. If you work very carefully and you have also a little luck, the frontline can be hold. With the extra enemy forces, coming from Southern France, the situation will be more difficult, but with smart mobile defense, it can be halted and even destroyed. But do not let yourself think, Italy can be taken back completely - you can try it, but the results will be, that your forces will be destroyed by the upcoming waves of Allied units, swarming from the South... As a maximum, I could capture Rome for 2 turns, but that's all. Anyway, it is not a victory-important theater, but still again, it is a good feeling to hold the Italian territories.
- France: The key is to hold Paris (and Orleans as long as possible without heavy losses). Paris acts like Caen acted in the real war. With careful built defenses, you can hold it relative long without heavy casualties. If you manage to hold the line also in winter, than after that, even if you suffered heavy casualties, the Allies will have no time to reach the German objectives. Do not forget, that if you do not hold France, you will not have the space for the V1, V2's...which are badly needed prestige income sources!
One tricky objective is Strasbourg, which can be reached in winter trough the river band. So, it is advised to build up a small force, consisting a few inf, AT gun and at least a 105mm arty.
- Middle Germany: you have to build up a chained, strong AA force here.
- Russia: well...not easy...because you need most of the strong forces in Romania! But with the Tiger I and a Panther, it can be made the "hold as long as possible at the rivers, than retreat to the next defense line" tactics. Warsaw will be a partisan hornet nest, when the Soviets are next to it, so it is advisable to leave it far. So, first, try to hold the Soviets for a few turns at the Minsk area (you will have casualties, but still, it is needed to buy time), then holding the Neman river line, and hopefully just in spring 1945, holding the Vistula line. Here the tricky objective is Breslau, which I could retake in the very last turn (!), so pay attention to it!
- Eastern Carpathians: with a few inf units, the passages can be held. Just do not let the Soviets to reach the land inside the Carpathians! That is no more defendable.

I will post soon a few pictures from the end with comments.

Thanks for listening and good luck!

And thanks again, McGuba!!!

The end of War.

Norway: with a limited force, it is left in Axis hand.


Middle Germany: thanks to the strong AA defense and a few fighter, jagdbomber units, even the swarms of the Allied bombers could do not much problems. Only a few times got I prestige penalties.



France, Paris: with enormous struggle and heavy fighting, the Allied attackers could be held at bay and also all of the V's could be launched.



France, South: after defending in heavy engagements the attackers from Operation Dragoon/Anvil, the way opened to recapture some lost territories.



Northern Italy: with smart defense, the line could be held and for a few weeks, even Rome could be recaptured. So, Northern Italy stayed in Axis hands!



Middle Balkan: the region could be held, or recaptured.



Greece: could be held, or recaptured.



Bulgaria: could be recaptured and held.



Western shores of the Black Sea and the Bucharest, Ploiesti region: the ports and the capital and the oil field could be recaptured and held.



The South-Eastern Carpathians and Romania West: the geographical circumstances gave an excellent opportunity to hold even such a strong attacking force at bay. See the second, zoomed out picture for it too!





The Eastern Carpathians: strong Soviet units did not have the time to reach it, or were used elsewhere. The few defenders could hold the passages firmly.



Breslau and the Vistula region, east from Berlin: it was the weak spot, where I almost loose the war! Still, it could be recaptured in the last week of the War, although the attackers get extreme strong in the last months! See the second picture for it too!

Ceek wrote: Now I think I will attempt to play it from Barbarossa only with a Sealion in early '42 and see how I fare.

Good luck!

Ceek wrote:Overall, I noticed and appreciated lots of little changes. The Allied Torch fleet in the Med seems much more nimble and responsive to my counterattacks and I found tackling them much more of a challenge than in previous iterations.

Good spotting, if I remember well I did add a few extra scripts to make those ships a bit more active.

Ceek wrote:My only issue at this point is with getting those saved states working. I would really like to try tackling the scenario at later points in the war, but right now when I try loading the games, they fail to load and I am left staring at the title screen.

Sorry, I have no idea what it can be. If you are using PzC v1.22 and installed the mod and the saves correctly they should work. A possbile problem might be if you are using the steam version of the game as I made the savegames with the non-steam PzC v1.22 and then it might not be compatible with the newer steam version. Dunno.

Ceek wrote:Otherwise, I don't have much else to suggest in terms of improvement. It's a really exceptional accomplishment, McGuba, and Slitherine should pay you a boatload of money and make it part of some official Panzer Corps super-deluxe anniversary edition rerelease!

Many thanks for your kind words, but this mod will remain free to download. However, I am aware that unfortunately only a small portion of the players know about the existence of this and the other great mods. And installing complex mods like this needs some above-the-basic computer skills, which not everyone has. So it would be nice if they added the workshop feature to the steam version of the game which would boost access to mods like this or if they would just make installing complex mods easier than it is now. And if they would draw a bit more attention to the finished mods. But if you ask me I do not think it will happen until they continue to release DLCs with a price tag. No company would really advocate a free competition to its own priced products. Or maybe there is an exception?

Even then, I (we) have to be very thankful for the creator(s) of this game that it is so easy to mod and it even came with its own built-in editor. I remember when I started modding good old Panzer General I had to use like 5-6 different editors.

hugh2711 wrote:In version 1.6 Has anyone managed to take the UK and if so when? and with what? I find it impossible - specially with the mines and the engish navy is too strong

GeneralWerner wrote:I think where ever you try to land in England, you will have to pay.

Exactly. There is not only one (recommended) solution, but several alternatives. The AI cannot "think" so I tried to make all possible alternatives hard enough, but they are far from being impossible. However, I would say it is best to start it in early 1942, when the Luftwaffe can assist as well with the weather improving.

Historically the Royal Navy had suffered some serious losses in the previous months, losing a number of battleships and battlecruisers in 1941: the Hood was sunk by the Bismarck, the Valiant and the Queen Elizabeth were put out of action by Italian frogmen of the Decima Flottiglia at Alexandria, the Malaya was torpedoed by a U-boat in the Med, and the Prince of Wales and the Repulse were sunk by Japanese aircraft in the Far East in December. Additionally, they also lost a number of carriers, cruisers and destroyers to various causes and with the entrance of Japan the remaining fleet was streched all over the globe. These losses severly weakened the British navy and it took some time until the US mobilized, not to mention that they also lost their battleship force at Pearl.

On the other hand, the German Kriegsmarine was still quite strong: even though it lost the Bismarck, it was soon replaced by the Tirpitz and it still had the Scharnhorst and the Gneisenau and the pocket battleships and the cruisers, and this force, if used together and supported by U-boats and aircraft, could have challenged the British Home Fleet in a surprise attack, until at least considerable number of troops are landed. After that it is all up to who can gain air superirority.

So, from a historical point of view I would say that an unexpected landing in 1942 could have been more sucessful than a very much expected one in 1940. Also, by 1942 the Luftwaffe had mostly replaced its short ranged Bf 109E fleet with longer ranged Bf 109Fs and superior Fw 190s. With those they could have provided a better cover for the invading fleet and the landing forces. Luckily for the British though, the bulk of the Wehrmacht and the Luftwaffe was deeply involved in a protracted war in the East at that time, and the capital ships of the Kriegsmarine were wasted one by one, but in this mod everything is possible, isn't it?

Uhu wrote:YESSSS, finally, I could beat McGuba's Normandy save on Rommel level!
(prestige income calculated/halfed always manually with the prestige cheat)

I have to say, this was the far hardest game mode, ever played with the Bf! About ten times did I restarted, until I got the DRAW.

Haha, lol, I only hope you slept sometimes a bit as well...
Nice job indeed, but somehow I knew it is possible to do it. I made it on General though, but by losing Romania in turn 75, and never took it back, which wastly reduced my income so in effect it was similar to Rommel. Also I could not hold Paris for long and did not take Rome back and could not launch all the V2s which further reduced my income. Anyway, playing according Rommel rules is still somewhat harder, so congratulations and thanks for your late war AAR!

Thank you very much UHU (and general werner, for the details of your uk invasion). I am not good at naval invasions and maneouvres but i think the mines in 1.6 make it much more difficult and i cant see how you can sneak your ships down the channel in 1.6 without critical losses because of the mines.

And once again thank you McGuba for a truly outstanding mod, i agreee with ceek - slitherine would be very smart to find a way to assist hosting and/or pass on this mod to registered users

McGuba wrote: Haha, lol, I only hope you slept sometimes a bit as well...

Not much...

McGuba wrote: Anyway, playing according Rommel rules is still somewhat harder, so congratulations and thanks for your late war AAR!

Thanks!

Some bug reports:
1., Sometimes (50%?) I got the Volksturm window, but no Volksturm units showed up anytime.
2., I got never information about the 77. AT, Hetzer unit, but it was there.
3., Jagdpanther not always showed up, but in that I'm not 100% sure.
4., For me, some stats of several units were strange, but we discussed this already several times.

You are welcome!

hugh2711 wrote:Thank you very much UHU (and general werner, for the details of your uk invasion). I am not good at naval invasions and maneouvres but i think the mines in 1.6 make it much more difficult and i cant see how you can sneak your ships down the channel in 1.6 without critical losses because of the mines.

And once again thank you McGuba for a truly outstanding mod, i agreee with ceek - slitherine would be very smart to find a way to assist hosting and/or pass on this mod to registered users

hugh2711 wrote:Some bug reports:
1., Sometimes (50%?) I got the Volksturm window, but no Volksturm units showed up anytime.

Which is quite strange. The message should come up every time and also at least some units should appear near Berlin, unless the Allies hold at least 1 main vicotory objective city in Germany in turn 87.

Uhu wrote:2., I got never information about the 77. AT, Hetzer unit, but it was there.
3., Jagdpanther not always showed up, but in that I'm not 100% sure.

I am aware of these and noticed as well them during the making of the savegames and they are supposedly fixed in the current final version. You just have to restart the scernario.

hugh2711 wrote:Thank you very much UHU (and general werner, for the details of your uk invasion). I am not good at naval invasions and maneouvres but i think the mines in 1.6 make it much more difficult and i cant see how you can sneak your ships down the channel in 1.6 without critical losses because of the mines.

Naval mines in v1.6 are actually much less dangerous, they are more like obstacles blocking the way of naval units. So I would say if you have decided on the right place to land, you should clear that area of mines by using tactical bombers and destroyers, if possible. If not, you just have to navigate your landing ships around them, which obviously takes time during which you have to cover them from the air and from the sea. The more you wait with the invasion the more mines will eventually appear. There is a certain randomness in it so might need some luck as well.

Excellent mod, but unfortunately I never manage to get past turn 11 in the last scenario. This is on W7 with the latest game patches installed, using GME and a proper /nocache switch.






The log says

Duplicate string ID in the strings file: IDS_Bulgaria1
Version 1.22 (Dec 18 2013)
WINDOWS VERSION: 6.1.7601. Platform ID: 2. CSDVersion: Service Pack 1
Duplicate string ID in the strings file: IDS_Bulgaria1
(last line repeated many times more)

Hm, that's strange. The error log refers to an actual bug indeed, but I cannot see how and why could it result in a crash as early as in turn 11 as it should not be a serious issue. And this bug seems to be with the mod since v1.5 and no one else has reported it so far. Anyway, the issue mentioned in the error log is with the "strings.pzdat" file which can be found in the Data folder of the game. At the end of it there are the referencies for the new Minor Axis awards added by this mod:

IDS_Bulgaria1 Bulgarian Medal for Merit
IDS_Bulgaria1 Order of St. Alexander

I erroneously gave the same string ID (IDS_Bulgaria1) two times in the modded strings.pzdat file which might cause some trouble. It should be:

IDS_Bulgaria1 Bulgarian Medal for Merit
IDS_Bulgaria2 Order of St. Alexander

One can easily fix it by simply opening that file with any text editor. Or alternatively here is the fixed strings.pzdat file as well:

http://www.mediafire.com/download/f6jv6 ... ings.pzdat

It shold be copied into the "...Panzer Corps\Mods\BattlefieldEuropev1.6\Data" folder and reinstall the mod with GME or directly into the "...\Panzer Corps\Data" folder if the mod is installed to overwrite the old strings.pzdat file.

It should fix the issue in the error log, but I think only if the scenario is restarted.

Got it to work by doing the suggested edit and loading an older saved game turn. Thanks a lot, now I can get back to getting my lower back end thoroughly kicked

What is the trigger for the english fleet coming down from scotland to engage on the east coast of the uk?.
I have managed an english invasion for the first time, on the east coast. I should have london in a few turns but i could have done it earlier if i could have lured the fleet down earlier into a trap and time of my choosing and i dont want to waste hours trying to work it out for next time.

Also; will the allies still invade if I have london and a large chunk of england?. I am on field marshall level and turn 66 (22 feb 44).
thanks for info

hugh2711 wrote:What is the trigger for the english fleet coming down from scotland to engage on the east coast of the uk?. I have managed an english invasion for the first time, on the east coast. I should have london in a few turns but i could have done it earlier if i could have lured the fleet down earlier into a trap

I do not remember the exact trigger, but it is like having more than a few (like 3-4?) naval transports around the English waters. But I regard luring the British fleet down in a way like that a kind of cheating.

hugh2711 wrote: Also; will the allies still invade if I have london and a large chunk of england?. I am on field marshall level and turn 66 (22 feb 44).

As long as the Axis owns at least one victory objective city in England the Normandy invasion(s) does not happen. So you do not have to worry about it I guess. And the game difficulty level does not have an effect on scripts. It only affects prestige, unit experience and stuff like that.

However, they might still invade in Southern France, depending on how you are doing in the Mediterranean.