Soviet Grand Campaign (DLC 42 v1.1)(03/07/25)

[nikivdd]

The development of DLC 42 update news:

A small update about DLC 42.
Four scenarios have been created, two require still a playtest and possible tweaks.
Those scenarios have been named: Gorky, Demyansk42, Izium, Fredericus. A triumph at Gorky will allow you to chose between Demyansk42 and Izium scenarios, a victory will continu the campaign at Izium.
There will be a few capturables in DLC 42, there will be two new heroes but later more about that.

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[Vano2004]

Will collaborators ' units be shown in your missions ?
https://war-book.ru/trofejnaya-broneteh ... uzhbe-ger/
http://beutepanzer.ru/Beutepanzer/su/t- ... e_t-34.htm

[nikivdd]

Will collaborators ' units be shown in your missions ?

I'm using those units available in the vanilla equipment file. German panzers in Soviet use will be taken from the British section of the equipment file.

[Vano2004]

Will collaborators ' units be shown in your missions ?

I'm using those units available in the vanilla equipment file. German panzers in Soviet use will be taken from the British section of the equipment file.

EDITED by thread owner: Firstly i don't want to see any symbols in this thread which are forbidden by law in Belgium. Secondly, these kind of posts can be confusing for (new) people who start to play this campaign; this is not the actual graphical representation of the scenarios i designed. Thirdly, you can always tweak scenarios with units of the graphical mod which you are using, like swapping out capturables.
I have also edited your previous post, where i removed the last screenshot for the first reason i mentioned. I could have deleted more of them for the second reason.
I have already explained that the campaigns i design should be compatible with any graphical and custom equipment file mods out there, that should be sufficient.
Now i would like to ask kindly, to refrain from posting such screenshots in the future or any which are irrelevant and annoyingly page filling.
Thank you for your understanding.

[nikivdd]

My campaign flowchart designing software.

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[imp44791]

I've played through to Bessarabia (halfway). I chose the Avon Head path to see the new scenario. I use "chess", partly because I think the RNG in Panzer Corps is dreadful, and partly because that's the way to test the design. I play on Normal, because I don't like ahistoriocal boosts to the AI, dumb as it is.

So far it's been good fun as expected. It's quite nice to have so many scenarios with the crappy 1939 Soviet equipment - makes you really plan. The "Denisov" I-16 is quite powerful, which helps, without it the air war would be very problematic even against Poles and Finns. Same holds for the "Lavrinenko" T-34, which augments the power of the better equipment. It's not unbalancing though, it's just right. It forces you to plan with these central units, plus the 203mm arty, plus the SE BT7. It gives structure to the core.

The turn limits are a little generous in the beginning, but in Poland and Finland are just right. I am a strong player, I think, and I won the last 3-4 scenarios before Bessarabia on the penultimate turn - just perfect.

Prestige awards are generous, which is fine for the Soviet side. You should be limited by the equipment file and core limits as the Soviet player, not prestige.

The one annoying thing, which I am not sure how it can be fixed, is the AI tendency to spawn numerous Vickers and TKS units all the time next to every city it controls. The Bofors AT is another popular choice, but I am less annoyed with that than with the tankettes. It feels ahistorical to see the historically underequipped Finns/Poles in 1939 sending swarms of these silly tanks, instead of infantry/cavalry, and to do that so close to the front line. I know the AI is dumb and we can direct it only so far, but perhaps you could limit the spawn points to some cities at the back of the enemy's territory - to reflect "reinforcements". There are so many open cities, especially in Bessarabia and Finland, that I am forced to run some fast units next to a town, simply to prevent the spawning of these silly tanks.

That's it so far. It's a fun campaign. It's not as "flashy" as Soviet Storm with its flamboyant equipment file, but it doesn't have the miserable "grind" feel of the latter, with its endless units entrenched to level 8 or 10 and the resulting infinite "Rugged Defense" messages.

I will update with my impressions of the rest of the campaign.

[imp44791]

Case in point. I have now crossed the river in Bessarabia (Turn 3) and seen what is around the target cities: 3 tanks around each (R35, Vickers and TKS) obviously just spawned. It's annoying rather than difficult, and VERY ahistorical. I don't think that the Romanian army had so much armor even in Summer 1942 when it was creating its ill-fated "Panzer" division (with captured R35s mainly). In 1940 it feels a bit silly.

I honestly don't know what could be done to stop this. Perhaps take away spawning for the AI entirely and just give it extra units at the start? Perhaps raise the prestige cost to convince the AI to buy infantry instead?

[nikivdd]

Case in point. I have now crossed the river in Bessarabia (Turn 3) and seen what is around the target cities: 3 tanks around each (R35, Vickers and TKS) obviously just spawned. It's annoying rather than difficult, and VERY ahistorical. I don't think that the Romanian army had so much armor even in Summer 1942 when it was creating its ill-fated "Panzer" division (with captured R35s mainly). In 1940 it feels a bit silly.

I honestly don't know what could be done to stop this. Perhaps take away spawning for the AI entirely and just give it extra units at the start? Perhaps raise the prestige cost to convince the AI to buy infantry instead?

Thank you for your input.
Here are some answers which will explain some things.
I can define how many extra units the AI will spawn, but i kept the "extra" units pretty low, they are mostly auxiliary units. I do have the tendency to raise that number slightly when the "enemy" has the initiative. Unfortunately, there is no designer control where and which units the AI will purchase and place. But still the AI does not create "wagon trains" like in Panzer General because i don't set the number of "extra" units that high. In the official German Grand Campaign there are also plenty of scenarios in which the AI can deploy extra units; but perhaps that is not so obvious or easier overlooked. A good example is the Albert Canal mission (upper left objective). If there are any particular scenarios in Poland or Finland where it is too much, just let me know and i will reduce that number of "extra" units.
Yes, the equipment file is not so flamboyant but creating this campaign with the vanilla equipment file does have its advantages. Either it can be played with the vanilla units we are so accustomed to or chose to play with a "flamboyant" or user created extensive equipment file, like some that have been developped or being developped in this section of the forum.
Now about Bessarabia. The major setback of panzer corps 1 is the lack of axis minor equipment (especially armor). This means i need to be creative. In this scenario i used, and you can check each such unit individually, the tks as R-1, the vickers as R-2 tankette/tank unit. If i read well, by that time Romania received a batch of R-35 tanks. None of the armor is spawned, they were placed there by myself in the editor. The direct approach to chisinau is not the easiest way, on purpose designed.
I hope this answers some of your remarks/questions.

[guille1434]

Hello imp44791... May be it can be tried to add the trait "nopurchase" to the cheap tanks that the AI likes so much to spawn, and to balance things a bit, some scripts can be added to that scenarios adding some armored reoinforcements for the AI forces (in case that was more or less the case "historically" speaking).

[nikivdd]

Hello imp44791... May be it can be tried to add the trait "nopurchase" to the cheap tanks that the AI likes so much to spawn, and to balance things a bit, some scripts can be added to that scenarios adding some armored reoinforcements for the AI forces (in case that was more or less the case "historically" speaking).

In the scenarios where the Axis have the initiative, i mostly script reinforcements. The spawning of AI units is determined by its amount of prestige and by the value set in those parameters defining how many units the AI can have on the battlefield at any given time . AI spawning of units can easily be undone but it was so programmed by the game (not mod) designer, the minimun value of AI units in the parameter settings must be minimum 1. The disadvantage of denying the AI prestige is that it will not be able to reinforce damaged units, which is only a good thing in the early warming-up scenarios.
Scripted reinforcements come in three ways: the so-called units that appear out of thin air anywhere on the map, units that appear at the edge of the map and groups of units that are already placed on the map at the beginning of the scenario which are in passive mode until a trigger activates them.
I'm hoping i am making any sense here.

[imp44791]

Hello imp44791... May be it can be tried to add the trait "nopurchase" to the cheap tanks that the AI likes so much to spawn, and to balance things a bit, some scripts can be added to that scenarios adding some armored reoinforcements for the AI forces (in case that was more or less the case "historically" speaking).

In the scenarios where the Axis have the initiative, i mostly script reinforcements. The spawning of AI units is determined by its amount of prestige and by the value set in those parameters defining how many units the AI can have on the battlefield at any given time . AI spawning of units can easily be undone but it was so programmed by the game (not mod) designer, the minimun value of AI units in the parameter settings must be minimum 1. The disadvantage of denying the AI prestige is that it will not be able to reinforce damaged units, which is only a good thing in the early warming-up scenarios.
Scripted reinforcements come in three ways: the so-called units that appear out of thin air anywhere on the map, units that appear at the edge of the map and groups of units that are already placed on the map at the beginning of the scenario which are in passive mode until a trigger activates them.
I'm hoping i am making any sense here.

You are. I am sure it's not easy. For the record, I really enjoyed Bessarabia otherwise, it needs a bit of a strategic approach rather than a head on blast (I rolled them up North to South). It's just that eight tankettes on the map at one point felt really weird.

I'm trying Brody now, and really keen to see Kashira (thank you again for considering this one).

[nikivdd]

You are. I am sure it's not easy. For the record, I really enjoyed Bessarabia otherwise, it needs a bit of a strategic approach rather than a head on blast (I rolled them up North to South). It's just that eight tankettes on the map at one point felt really weird.

I'm trying Brody now, and really keen to see Kashira (thank you again for considering this one).

The AI as the attacker are the most difficult missions to create. The AI is not the smartest. When there are rivers involved, it is even harder. So in some instances you can give the AI a helping hand (like the "appearance" of bridge engineers) or by zoning try to guide the AI to certain areas in the map.
I tweaked Kashira a bit after my initial playthrough, but in the end it is the player's tactics that will determine how far the enemy will advance, core composition and the level of difficulty of course.
The scenario Voronezh42 i'm working on, is another such challenge. To speed up things where possible, i am using a GC 42E map.
I will have a look into Bessarabia, there are other options for some of the tankettes.

[imp44791]

I had forgotten what a good scenario Brody is. Skin of the teeth stuff trying to block 4 major battlegroups in two directions. Excellent.

[imp44791]

Right, Mogilev. Lovely mission, makes you really plan and think your approach. The warping in of invisible units from the north of Roslavl is however too visible to the player. I had units holding the river crossings to the north, which proved to be next to the warp zone. So, I was flanked by the two tanks and two motorcyclists who literally popped in on the next hex. I was also sniped at for two rounds from an invisible SiG33 before I finally moved my troops away to allow it to materialise, so that I could kill it with my reserves. Nothing too dangerous concerning the DV in the mission, but it breaks immersion. May I either suggest moving the warp zone further to the Northeast, or perhaps put in a German owned village with a garrison so that the player is not tempted to defend too close to the warp zone. My preference would be for the first option, plus a warning message "Caution, intelligence is telling us that the Germans are trying to outflank us from the Northeast".

Very nice mission though, keeps you on your toes all through.

[nikivdd]

Right, Mogilev. Lovely mission, makes you really plan and think your approach. The warping in of invisible units from the north of Roslavl is however too visible to the player. I had units holding the river crossings to the north, which proved to be next to the warp zone. So, I was flanked by the two tanks and two motorcyclists who literally popped in on the next hex. I was also sniped at for two rounds from an invisible SiG33 before I finally moved my troops away to allow it to materialise, so that I could kill it with my reserves. Nothing too dangerous concerning the DV in the mission, but it breaks immersion. May I either suggest moving the warp zone further to the Northeast, or perhaps put in a German owned village with a garrison so that the player is not tempted to defend too close to the warp zone. My preference would be for the first option, plus a warning message "Caution, intelligence is telling us that the Germans are trying to outflank us from the Northeast".

Very nice mission though, keeps you on your toes all through.

"Unwarped" for the next update! Thanks for your feedback.

unwarped Mogilev.png (326.23 KiB) Viewed 2871 times

I don't have time to test the update, but i am sure it should be working as intended.

Mogilev41 unwarped.zip

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[imp44791]

Thanks. I will not replay it, as I think it will work fine.

I've started Kashira. Once again, thanks for considering this. It needs a few tweaks in my opinion. For an aggressive Soviet player who knows how to defend forward, this can be quite easy. The first air wave by the Germans is unsupported by fighters and can be massacred if the player places fighters forward in the airfields at Tula itself and the little airfield to its NE. Add an anti-air at Tula and the existing auxiliary AA in Stalinogorsk and the mobile AA unit, and it's an instantaneous flip in the air war from Turn 1- especially if Turn 1 is clear (since one of the Stukas goes right for Stalinogorsk and gets massacred by the AA on the airfield). Allowing forward placing of fighters also meant the doom of the two para units before they dropped. I saw them since the town and airfield at Bogorodisk start as mine, and next turn the Yaks made short work of them. No drops were made.

The second problem is that the player can place too many ground units too forward. Once again, it allows putting KVs in Tula and T-34s rushing down from the little airfield NE of Tula and from Kashira itself. By Turn 3 I am among the Germans, slaughtering happily with my superior armor. I've retaken Stalinogorsk and now am ready to deal with the next wave.

My suggestion is to restrict the placing of core units too far south. Historically too, the tide was turned by Belov's 2nd Cav (later 1st Guards Cav) Corps, a mixed force of cavalry and tanks. That intervention relieved Kashira and threw back the pincer. At the same time Tula was relieved by a southward help from the main Western Front. This means a core rushing to save the auxiliaries in a battle of encounter. In turn, this necessitates restricting the core placement far from the initial fight.

In my opinion you could change the setup as follows:

a. Allow only 1-2 hexes of ground core placing within Tula. Make the player think hard what to put there. To help the city hold out, put extra, decent auxiliary infantry/AT/arty and entrench them.
b. Place one core placing zone round Serpoechov, to correspond to the relieving force that cleared the Moscow -Tula highway.
c. Place another core ground placing zone (the main one) well north of Kashira, to the edge of the map pretty much. Add a couple of auxiliary cavalry of decent quality around Kashira itself, corresponding to Belov's horse component. The player can either wait for his main units to come to Kashira, refuel and go south together with the cavalry, or risk sending these good auxiliary units by themselves early and possibly have them killed. Perhaps you can even make one of these cavalry units a core gift, like the core gifts at Lake Khassan or Yelnya. This should make the player be even more careful of sending these units south early.
d. Restrict the placing of air units around Tula to max 1-2 hexes. Don't leave it defenseless from the air, but don't give 5 placing hexes near it either. The rest of the planes can come south and rebase in turn 2-3. That should allow the Germans to do their para drop etc without being massacred.
e. Give some fighter cover to the original German air force around Stalinogorsk.

As always, these are merely suggestions, make what you wish with them.

[terminator]

New track added (The Hunt for Red October):

Soviet Grand Campaign (Music) (2).JPG (41.64 KiB) Viewed 2739 times

Link: https://www.mediafire.com/file/t4t1svnu ... ).zip/file

[nikivdd]

In my opinion you could change the setup as follows:

a. Allow only 1-2 hexes of ground core placing within Tula. Make the player think hard what to put there. To help the city hold out, put extra, decent auxiliary infantry/AT/arty and entrench them.
b. Place one core placing zone round Serpoechov, to correspond to the relieving force that cleared the Moscow -Tula highway.
c. Place another core ground placing zone (the main one) well north of Kashira, to the edge of the map pretty much. Add a couple of auxiliary cavalry of decent quality around Kashira itself, corresponding to Belov's horse component. The player can either wait for his main units to come to Kashira, refuel and go south together with the cavalry, or risk sending these good auxiliary units by themselves early and possibly have them killed. Perhaps you can even make one of these cavalry units a core gift, like the core gifts at Lake Khassan or Yelnya. This should make the player be even more careful of sending these units south early.
d. Restrict the placing of air units around Tula to max 1-2 hexes. Don't leave it defenseless from the air, but don't give 5 placing hexes near it either. The rest of the planes can come south and rebase in turn 2-3. That should allow the Germans to do their para drop etc without being massacred.
e. Give some fighter cover to the original German air force around Stalinogorsk.

As always, these are merely suggestions, make what you wish with them.

Excellent suggestions.
The armor in my army core are more T-34's than KV's. It remains interesting how different core compositions can affect the eb and flow in missions. It reminds me how i have been trying different core compositions in the German GC.

@Terminator: thank you for the music for the campaign.

[imp44791]

The armor in my army core are more T-34's than KV's. It remains interesting how different core compositions can affect the eb and flow in missions. It reminds me how i have been trying different core compositions in the German GC.

I am always aiming for 50-50 heavy-medium mix (so, KV1-T-34, eventually IS2-T34/85) with one arty per 2 tanks. That's my "core" core approach. 1 heavy-1 medium-1 arty piece. The artillery is 2:1 skewed towards tube vs Kat. Eventually I want 4 tubes (203s obviously) and 2 Kats minimum, rising to 8 if core limits allow (the God of War, and all that!). When SU-152 becomes a thing I will convert some tubes to them, unless I have been lucky with "Range" or "movement" heros on the way which counteract the slowness of the tube artillery. I also try to nurture 1-2 ATs in the early war to switch to (I)SU-122s later. Infantry is whatever I am given, so usually 6-7. A couple of engineers, the rest Regular, and then Guards. Planes I go fighter heavy in the beginning to build up experience: half Yaks, half LaGG/Hurricanes which then switch to La-5s. The piggy back in quality between Las and Yaks in different times of the war make it important to have both sorts (so, when Yak-7 gets outmatched by La-5, don't convert all because Yak-9 and Yak-3 are just around the corner and they're pretty good. I only have 1 strike aircraft (initially a Tu-2) which I hyper-protect when the Luftwaffe is still a threat. Then I pad out with Sturmoviks as the core allows, to an eventual 50-50 ratio with fighters. I usually add a level bomber to deal with later German tanks that have AA ability and attrite my Sturmoviks when unsuppressed.

It works for me. I will also have 1-2 AAs (1 in your campaign, 2 in Soviet Storm) for the early Barbarossa/Blue scenarios when 109s are tough to deal with for Yak-1s and LaGGs.

[imp44791]

I finished Kashira which was fairly easy with forward defending. I will re-test it if you make any tweaks in the future.

I don't know if it was the RNG up to its tricks, but I got very little snow weather - mostly clears and cloudies. Perhaps 3 snow turns out of 20. It felt weird for the famous 1941-2 winter (granted, we start in November here) to have so little snow. It made my playthrough even easier since, as I described above, I had massacred the Luftwaffe on Turn 1. Russian air supremacy and clear weather in 1941 is death for the Germans who not only have the vicious Russian tanks on the rampage but also have to deal with the rather decent Tu-2 bombing them as well.