Slitherine

Played 1.7 campaign 2 times + Normandy save

1st Campaign.

Difficulty General except AI prestige +200%. I prefer to play somewhat historically and do not intend to invade England. (I do enjoy the air war in the west. Balance between Bomber Command / 8th Air Force vs. Luftwaffe is great and it evolves very nicely over the years.)
Core changes before Barbarossa. 3x PzKw IV, StuG (just because), 2x Bf109F and due to abundance of prestige I did change Stuka unit to Bf110.

Plan

Rush and capture Moscow before end of ’41.
Move focus to Leningrad. Units: 3x Art + Karl-Gerät, 6x Inf + Spanish inf, 2x AT, Kriegsmarine and after Moscow 4x Strat Bombers. Capture Leningrad within ’42.

As much as possible prestige from Atlantic while trying to keep most of the U-boat force alive.

Reinforce attack to Malta with NJG 1 in ’41 and if necessary with Rudel in ’42.

Reinforce AK with 1x Tank later to be upgraded to PzKw IV, 1x Inf upgraded with trucks, JU88 and DO17 upgraded to DO217. Defeat Tobruk and deliberately advance and capture Middle East oilfields.

Upgrade Bf109’s into Fw190’s in the West. Upgrade several obsolete tanks to PzKw IV, 2x 20mm AA to SPAA and 1x Romanian Art to halftrack equipped 150mm. Form 3 battle groups with each having core of 3-5 up to date Tanks, 1x StuG (Art), 1x motorized Artillery and 1x SPAA. Later upgrade 2x Bf109 to Fw190 in East.

As soon as possibly capture Sevastopol / Crimea and eliminate Soviet Navy.

Then defeat Soviet winter offensives with Inf + Art in favourable terrain and with mobile defensive maneuver in open terrain. Here StuG’s should excel in “force multiplier” role. As they did some 75 years ago.

Then the pivotal point of the war – Torch landings. Here the successful recipe should be 4x Gebigsjäger, 2x Alpini, 2x Art (upgraded to Semovente), 2x 20mm Breda (it should be enough to take edge out of the Allied air attacks), 2x towed AT and some Italian Inf for garrison purposes. By using flexible defences in the hill country destroy attacking forces.

East – Slowly execute massive pincer movement by Army Group North (+ Finns) and by Army Group South. This while Army Group Centre destroys inevitable attacks of Soviet heavy armour with elite core Tank units.

Then “just” capture Caucasus, repel Normandy Invasion and gain air supremacy over Continental Europe. 

Outcome

And that is pretty much how it went. Game was challenging up to early ’44. After the SU capitulation and because I did not target England the rest of the war went by in swimming in the sea of prestige.

2nd Campaign

Difficulty General except Player prestige 50% and AI prestige 200%. Huge difference – This quickly forced to adapt totally different approach. Due to lack of prestige I barely managed to upgrade Core to 3x IV, StuG, 2x Bf109F and to latest Stuka R model before Barbarossa.

Plan

Initially the same as before – But that was thrown out of the window after few turns.

So the 1st priority became Moscow, Leningrad and Malta. With extra prestige upgrade key units and then update the plan.
Targets were captured but the extra prestige barely covered the losses accumulated during first winter in the East. Only one Bf109 could be upgraded to Fw190 in West – which was crucial for that theater.

From the little available prestige the allocation for elite reinforcements did go to Fighter units in following priority order, 1st German, 2nd Finnish and Hungarian, 3rd Romanian and Italian. Target was to eventually have several 3 star Fighter units. These would be required in East but especially in Western front ’44 and ’45. The main difference between 2 and 3 star Fighters is that 3 star units typically take less losses from the combat against experienced adversary. And losses HQ could not afford.

Due to dire need of prestige HQ formulated a plan to mount amphibious and airborne assault to Caucasus with 2x Fallschirmjäger, 3x Gebigsjäger, 2x Romanian Mountain Troops, Alpini, 3x horse-drawn Artillery, 2x AT and 2x Romanian Inf which would act as a rear guard.

In beginning things were going reasonably well. SU Navy was relentlessly attacked from the air and troop transports suffered only minor losses. But then, to HQ’s surprise, enemy Tanks, Inf and Air units immediately attacked landing force on the beaches which caused disarray and delayed advance to Grozny. Eventually task force managed to seize the oil field next to Grozny but heavy land an air attacks stalled the planned quick advance through the mountains towards remaining oil field. Advance in the open terrain was not possible as Tanks could not be spared for this operation and available airfields were too far away for effective air support.

Tobruk was captured, but AK did not get reinforcements. One extra PzKw IV unit and local air superiority, which would have been difficult achieve with semi obsolete Italian Fighters, were deemed necessary for successful attack against El Alamein line. Again, no prestige for upgrades. Thus decision was to fortify Tobruk and keep AK units as a mobile reserve.

Then came the Torch landings. Plan was to upgrade 4x two star German Inf to Gebigsjäger and quickly ship and fly them to Tunis. But despite the best efforts no prestige was available for upgrades. War in the Atlantic was not going too well and only one SU oil field had yet fallen into Axis hands.

So the original defence plan was scrapped. HQ decided to pull AK and most of Italian units from NA. Italian units would then fortify Sicily and Sardinia. As a backup, German Inf would man the line at Monte Cassino.

New plan was to defeat invasion of Sicily by wrestling the local air superiority from Allied AF with JG27 and Italian fighters and the bring in the Strat and Tac bombers. Sardinia would act as an “unsinkable aircraft carrier”. 2x AA on the island would tax nearby flying allied planes. Meanwhile Regia Marina would do as much damage as it could.

Plan succeeded. Allied managed to capture Palermo, but were eventually driven back into the sea. Allied Navy was also decimated. But that came on a cost of losing practically whole Regia Marina surface fleet, many ground units, one MC.200 and one SM.79. On a positive note this freed the two star German Inf units from Italy to be moved to France where they would garrison key points on the Atlantic Wall.

On a side note, the AB41 and Sahariana units were left behind in NA. These units later made hit and run attacks on Allied airfields and undefended cities. This was very useful in denying some of the airfields from Allied aircrafts. Though AI does leave Tanks here and there so this enterprise is also very dangerous.

East – Again execute pincer movement from North towards Novgorod and from South, Rostov -> Stalingrad -> Samara while Centre tries to deal with enemy attacks towards Kursk. Due to prestige shortage – The war in the East would have to be won, or lost, with existing 4x PzKw IV, 4x PzKw III, Tiger, StuG III G and captured T-34.

Advance was slow. During ’43 and up to mid ’44 the skies were heavily contested by SU fighters. Luftwaffe was unable to properly protect ground units and enemy bombers took their toll on advancing forces. Heavier hitting power of Fw190’s would have been very useful. Anyway HQ estimates that SU can be defeated – But not before Western Allied Forces make their move.

Therefore 2x 3 star Inf units, 2x horse-drawn Art, 4x Flak, 2x AT and 2x obsolete Tanks + Italian 2x Art and 2x AA were railroaded to Normandy. Target was to contain Allied landing forces in bocage until SU is defeated.

West – D-day, Allies have landed. But Wehrmacht is ready – Entrenched, upgraded to ’44 standard and backed up with Art and Flak. Fighting is heavy but lines hold. Flak concentration works. U-boats wreak havoc around English Channel using Le Havre as a base.

End game

SU capitulates in later half of ’44. Panzers, Panzergrenadiers and Luftwaffe move to West. Caucasus is captured. Elite Panzers attack Allied forces in Normandy. After fierce fighting and some losses Luftwaffe gains air superiority over Europe. Allied land forces driven back to the sea before mid ‘45. Majority of the Allied navy sunk on the coast of Normandy by LW bombers.

Continental Europe, Russia and Caucasus are now firmly in Axis hands.

To be continued.

glaude1955 wrote:Hello McGuba,
I play with the version 1.7 "English".
I have a problem with the Wurzburg radar.
I press the button swithch and the radar takes the form of a train. I move the train to another city and the following turn, the switch button becomes available so I pressed it.
Nothing happens, the radar does not land from its transport and keeps the appearance of a train.
What to do ?

Regards

Yves

You pressed the wrong button. You have to press the switch button (or "W" on the keyboard). The Würzburg radar is a multipurpose unit with train and radar mode and can be switched anywhere to and from on a railroad hex and not only in cities.

P210 wrote: by P210 » 27 Jul 2016 10:00

Played 1.7 campaign 2 times + Normandy save

Thanks for your AAR. These reports help me the most to improve the mod over time. Currently I am under the impression that it is a bit too easy to beat the mod on "normal" (General) difficulty. It should not have been that easy historically. So in v1.8 I plan to increase the difficulty and to make it more accurate historically at the same time.

Firstly, I plan to further increase the number of enemy air units, mainly in the east. It should be beneficial for BOTH gameplay AND historical reasons. For gameplay reasons I think it is better to increase the number of enemy air units at this stage than to increase the number of ground units. As you wrote as well in your report, you had no real difficulty countering the AI's ground offensives by clever use or terrain and "force multipliers". Unfortunately, the AI is just not good enough to do the same or to counter it, so further increasing the number of enemy ground units would only lead to endless waves of "kamikaze" units running into their quick fate. However, as you also pointed out correctly, enemy air superiority can actually create a serious problem at times and is harder to counter and also I feel that the AI is somewhat better in its use. E.g. by providing fighter escort to bombers, mass attacking player units at times, making both harassing and effective bombing runs, etc. And sometimes just doing all of these seemingly randomly, which is good IMO. If it is unpredictabe, it feels more "intelligent". Having more AI air units over the frontline has the added "advantage" of providing more recon info to the AI so that it is better in finding the weak spots and less likely to run into and ambush. Generally, the more it "sees" the better the AI is in this game.

And then there is the historical reason: for most of the war the Luftwaffe had something between 3.500 and 4.500 servicable aircraft. Of these there were around 2.000 deployed to the east for most of the time as the Luftwaffe was unable to significantly increase its strength due to the losses and the lack of fuel. Even though they produced more and more aircraft, their losses were also becoming comperatively higher, especially in the west. And the lack of well trained and experienced pilots was an even bigger issue. On the other hand, the Red Air Force was able to steadily increase its strength, and even though initially the Luftwaffe enjoyed relative qualitative and quantitative superiority, by early 1945 the 1.800 German aircraft had to face ten times more(!), some 18.000 Soviet combat planes, many of them being just as good or even better than the Geman ones. And then there was the over 10.000 excellent quality US planes in the West, plus the British Royal Air Force. Currently this huge disparity is not represented in the mod, if played historically. I compared the numbers and ratios in the mod in my historical play through with the actual historical ratios and numbers and found that I would need to double the number of AI air units in the east to get somewhere near. But I do not want to make such drastic changes as it would have unwanted snowball effects as well, so for now I will try with a 50% increase and see what happens. And even this 50% more air units would only appear if the mod is played historically i.e. none of the main objectives are taken. I also noticed that the AI tends to keep a large portion of its air force in the hinterland, like a real STAVKA reserve, so probably only a portion of the new planes would actually reach the fronline at any time. Anyway, hopefully a stronger AI air force will make the mod more challenging, even at lower difficulty levels.

I do find difficulty to be little bit too easy on General level. But one reason might be that I have never allowed myself to not make an all out attack towards Moscow. Same applies to Leningrad. So I do not actually know what happens if Moscow and Leningrad remain on Soviet hands at end of '42. I find these targets to be so critical that that I just cannot play "badly" on those cases.

Very shortly about Normandy save. Version 1.7 result was a Draw. The same as with v1.6.
But the difference was that in v1.6 turn 99 the Allied land forces were pretty much depleted and I could comfortably say that the lines will hold.
With v1.7 turn 99 the front lines were practically in the same locations as with v1.6 but both the Western and Easter enemy land forces still had considerable number of formidable units left. Every single unit I had was committed and there was absolutely no reserves left. Thus I do believe that by next winter, when rivers freeze, I would have lost the game.

Normandy save air war was also very difficult and I had to focus just on survival. Control of the air level was mostly Air Denial, except in some critical locations for a limited time Air Parity.

Thought - If player now ends up in the losing path there will be more enemy units, but if player manages to capture critical targets there will be less enemy units. This makes perfect sense, but from game point of view I would suggest that Soviets gets it's full reinforcements despite losing Moscow, Leningrad or Stalingrad. Player is anyway rewarded with prestige and capturing these objectives is anyway a prerequisite of victory.

Possible increase of enemy Aircraft - If SU really had so many more planes then we of course need to have that modeled in the game

But with one note. SU JaBo's never got the reputation to be as effective as Western JaBo's were perceived to be. Was it training, tactics, communication, co-ordination..?
This can seen from war pictures. German vehicles in the East have less consideration and camouflage against the Aircrafts compared to West.
Anyway, the Allied Tac. Bombers generally tend to have remarkably high attack values. It is good for helping AI, but if number of Tac. Bombers is heavily increased maybe these values could be slightly revised? Or at least experience values for Tac. Bomber units in the East could be relatively low to reflect the huge number of pilots which all would need to be properly trained. And I presume SU really did not have resources, or even will, to do so.


Changes in v1.7 are very, very good.

Some notes on units

Panzergrenadiers cannot keep their existing trucks when upgrading to '44 standard. Minor issue, just asking if it is intentional.

Romanian Mountain Inf. cannot be air transported. Minor issue.

Strat. Bomber naval attack values could be lower. At least on the ones which were used only for level bombing. Level bombing was proven to be almost totally ineffective against ships on the sea.

I think the changes to leningrad, the uk (and other changes) make it ALOT harder - a bigger step up than other mod incremental upgrades so i disagree that it is too easy. The air war is only just doable, if you make it harder the axis will be completely overwhelmed and without the prestige to ever recover and then you will not be able to keep any ground units alive. making it more realistic does not neccessarily mean better gameplay.
If you are going to do this i suggest you also keep the previous version(s) link there as well.
Also I am sure it is easier on general but I would rather it is played on field marshall

P210 wrote:Very shortly about Normandy save. Version 1.7 result was a Draw. The same as with v1.6.
But the difference was that in v1.6 turn 99 the Allied land forces were pretty much depleted and I could comfortably say that the lines will hold.
With v1.7 turn 99 the front lines were practically in the same locations as with v1.6 but both the Western and Easter enemy land forces still had considerable number of formidable units left. Every single unit I had was committed and there was absolutely no reserves left. Thus I do believe that by next winter, when rivers freeze, I would have lost the game.

So far so good. Starting at Normandy it should be very hard to achieve a draw and in v1.8 it will be even harder.

Normandy save air war was also very difficult and I had to focus just on survival. Control of the air level was mostly Air Denial, except in some critical locations for a limited time Air Parity.

Again, it should be even harder. Luftwaffe was pretty much non-existent by early 1945 in most theatres.

Thought - If player now ends up in the losing path there will be more enemy units, but if player manages to capture critical targets there will be less enemy units. This makes perfect sense, but from game point of view I would suggest that Soviets gets it's full reinforcements despite losing Moscow, Leningrad or Stalingrad. Player is anyway rewarded with prestige and capturing these objectives is anyway a prerequisite of victory.

I was thinking about it as well but the fact is there were many important factories in those places and a lot of people living there so their capture should have an impact on Soviet efforts. However, I think it is fair to assume that in case they were captured the Western Allies would have sent even more aid so probably I will increase the number of Land Lease units a bit instead. And I might also reduce the reward for their capture. Just small steps as I do not want to break the balance too much. There will be more air units anyway, so...

Possible increase of enemy Aircraft - If SU really had so many more planes then we of course need to have that modeled in the game

Sure, for a long time I also thought that in 1944/45 the SU had more tanks and the US had more aircraft in Europe, but now it seems that the SU had more aircraft, too. Although the US produced more aircraft a great many of those were deployed to the Pacific, while the SU could deploy everthing in Europe.

But with one note. SU JaBo's never got the reputation to be as effective as Western JaBo's were perceived to be. Was it training, tactics, communication, co-ordination..?

Probably all. But they had a lot more Il-2s so it is hard to say which one was more effective in general, quantity or quality. And the effectiveness of ground attack planes in ww2 is debated by many nowdays. It seems that they made huge overclaims in terms of destroyed tanks. After action analysis of battlefields concluded that the large majority of tanks were actually destroyed by towed ATs, mines and tank guns. And it was like that both in the west and in the east. So the percieved effectiveness of the western ground attack planes against tanks is also debated. In most cases only a direct hit on a tank proved to be fatal and it was very hard to achieve such a hit from an average ww2 combat plane. The armour protection of those tanks was usually good enough against up to 20mm guns and the higher caliber guns had a significantly lower rate of fire making it quite difficult to achieve direct hits. Unguided rockets and bombs were again not very precise for direct hits. However, and here comes however again , while those planes had seemingly ineffective armament against tanks they had to be quite effective against all those light vehicles which were vital for the armoured divisions: ammunition and fuel trucks, halftrucks, recovery and maintenance vehicles, etc. And decimating these was usually enough to hamper the effectiveness of the panzer formations. And in case of the SU, the Il-2 had a rather effective anti-tank weapon the PTAB, a casette with hundreds of small 2.5 kg bombs of which one was enough to destroy a tank. Basically it was the aerial version of the Hedgehog anti-submarine weapon.

Panzergrenadiers cannot keep their existing trucks when upgrading to '44 standard. Minor issue, just asking if it is intentional.

It is indeed a bug, will fix it.

Romanian Mountain Inf. cannot be air transported. Minor issue.

same, thanks

Strat. Bomber naval attack values could be lower. At least on the ones which were used only for level bombing. Level bombing was proven to be almost totally ineffective against ships on the sea.

true

hugh2711 wrote:I think the changes to leningrad, the uk (and other changes) make it ALOT harder - a bigger step up than other mod incremental upgrades so i disagree that it is too easy. The air war is only just doable, if you make it harder the axis will be completely overwhelmed and without the prestige to ever recover and then you will not be able to keep any ground units alive. making it more realistic does not neccessarily mean better gameplay.
If you are going to do this i suggest you also keep the previous version(s) link there as well.
Also I am sure it is easier on general but I would rather it is played on field marshall

Even with the increased air threat the Axis will not be completely overwhelmed before 1944/45, if played a little bit carefully. And by then the player should defeat or nearly defeat at least one of the main adverseries so that he is able to concentrate all the available assets against the other. My original aim was to make total victory nearly impossible and marginal victory very hard. Even a draw should be a nice achievement for most players, comparing it to the historical outcome.

I like what I am hearing as the proposed changes for 1.8, and I agree that it's currently a bit too easy to maintain a powerful air force, and I think I agree that boosting the Soviet air units makes sense historically in terms of numbers and quality of opponent--and that it should have a trickle-down effect of improving the Red Army's offensives.

I would suggest that depending on how much of a bump you give the Allies' air forces, though, that you compensate for the Axis either in terms of a slight prestige boost for replacements or perhaps more free static and mobile AA units as the campaign drags on.

As several armored vehicles - Pz IIC, IIF, Luchs, Sdkfz 222, 231, 232, 234-1, AB 41, L6/40 - used a 20mm autocannon(but not the Toldi I, which used an AT rifle), which fired not just a single bullet, I would suggest, that they all get the kwk20mm sound, or another similar sound and animation.

?
But they have. Which version are you playing? Cause in v1.7 all these units have autocannon animation and sound - same or similar as the 2cm FlaK.

Oh I see now, you are right - I just use my own efx file, where the new units will be added, but the old ones will be not refreshed (mostly). It's a little mix-max like in this case, but on the other hand, my version of equip-stats are important to me.

McGuba wrote:?
But they have. Which version are you playing? Cause in v1.7 all these units have autocannon animation and sound - same or similar as the 2cm FlaK.

Hello everyone, I own Panzer Corps Wehrmacht on steam without DLC, will I be able to play this without DLC and with steam and if yes where do I need to copy files. Please help guys I am really interested in this campaign

Forsa1994 wrote:Hello everyone, I own Panzer Corps Wehrmacht on steam without DLC, will I be able to play this without DLC and with steam and if yes where do I need to copy files. Please help guys I am really interested in this campaign

Sure it works without any DLC and only the base PzC game (the base game units database is updated as new DLCs are published and contains every units), and it works with Steam version too.

I know its explained somewhere, but I cannot find it anymore:

If I have installed Battlefield: Europe and want to play the standard campaign and the DLCs, how do I switch the Mod off?
I know I can do them with the Mods rules and limitations, but I rather would have the normal thing for that.

IttoOgami wrote:I know its explained somewhere, but I cannot find it anymore:

If I have installed Battlefield: Europe and want to play the standard campaign and the DLCs, how do I switch the Mod off?
I know I can do them with the Mods rules and limitations, but I rather would have the normal thing for that.

Hello IttoOgami,

McGuba wrote
"Panzer Corps v1.25 or later is needed!
JSGME is highly recommended for installation (JSGM and install guide included in the zip)
Recommended difficulty level: General (for experienced players) "

Use JSGME and especially well learn to use it.
Time spent studying this fabulous tool will be largely compensated later.
It is simple to use and easily allows you to test all the mods without fear of sacrificing the basic game.
No mistake possible.
Play peace of mind!
Regards
Yves

IttoOgami wrote:I know its explained somewhere, but I cannot find it anymore:

If I have installed Battlefield: Europe and want to play the standard campaign and the DLCs, how do I switch the Mod off?
I know I can do them with the Mods rules and limitations, but I rather would have the normal thing for that.

It depends on how you installed the mod. If you used GME, which is the recommended method, you just need to run it and uninstall (disable) all mods with the button with the arrows pointing to the left. The other possible install method is to make a copy of the base game in another folder and then copy the mod over it, overwriting the vanilla files. In that case you just need to delete that other folder and keep the original one with the vanilla game.

An easier and more user friendly method for installing complex mods like this would indeed be a blessing for the community, but unfortunately the developers have not done it yet, despite countless requests by players. Let's just hope they will do it at some point.

hi McGuba,

i got back to play version 1.7 as i played the prevous one having a lot of fun. It seems that the mod is really on an optimum now!.

i have some noob question for u:

- how do i sell units? i would like to get better core units so i would like to sell some during the preparatory scenarios.
- i just ended the polish schenario saving a huge amount of prestige, but when i start the second scenario i don't get this prestige back .... is that correct? the same seems to happen with core units: the old ones are gone when i start france


than some general questions ...

- now that the module seems to be very complete, why don't u try to make a version 2.0 where u try to balance the game for 2 players???? i would love to play it mayself in hotseat mode!!!!
- another chanche would be to take the opportunity to develop a WWI Battlefiled!!!!!!

i just played 3-4 turns on barbarossa ... just to get the feeling of it ... it must be really fantastis by what i could see
congrats, cheers

cicciopastic wrote: .../...
i would love to play it mayself in hotseat mode!!!!

How do you play Hotseat mod?
I'm very interested by this but i don't find the method.

Yves

From cicciopastic post:

- how do i sell units? i would like to get better core units so i would like to sell some during the preparatory scenarios.
You can't sell units. You can disband them (by pressing the "delete" button). But you won't get any prestige for them.
- i just ended the polish schenario saving a huge amount of prestige, but when i start the second scenario i don't get this prestige back .... is that correct? the same seems to happen with core units: the old ones are gone when i start france
You have selected to play the individual scenario. Instead you have to select the campaign. That way you can bring over prestige earned and your core force.

than some general questions ...

- another chanche would be to take the opportunity to develop a WWI Battlefiled!!!!!!
Bitenibblechomp made one called WWI Mod Kaiserschlacht
i just played 3-4 turns on barbarossa ... just to get the feeling of it ... it must be really fantastis by what i could see
congrats, cheers[/quote]
It is indeed a great scenario. Just wait until the winter though - then you will feel the true power of the Russian hordes!

False. You can sell units between scenarios with D button (if that was the question) and you get full prestige for them, if they are on full strenght. But because between scenarios, green replacement is free, it is no problem.
I always sell and buy several core units after Poland, see the tipps section.

JimmyC wrote:From cicciopastic post:
- how do i sell units? i would like to get better core units so i would like to sell some during the preparatory scenarios.
You can't sell units. You can disband them (by pressing the "delete" button). But you won't get any prestige for them.