Slitherine

KesaAnna wrote: ↑Wed Aug 12, 2020 11:20 am
--- and the Allie AI isn't that bad ! Actually it's pretty darn good for an AI , at least in my opinion.

The ai is horribly bad: Yesterday: They should attack the victory city of ... i think teurel and what did this idiot ai ? It went NORTH, no Victory hex there when i order attack. North ! They ai wanders in the wrong directions OFTEN. I hate that.
It resulted in having no good infantry at the main objective and forced me to take unnecessary losses to win.

Or in ebro: No matter what i order, infantry nb. 7 doesnt move. It blocks the only good hex behind a victory hex, all the time. I would have gladly paid 200 prestige, if i could KILL this so called ally. (saadly its not possible to disband this useless enem...ähm allies) Because alive, it costed me much more (my core had to bleed unnecessary again) AND he sucked my prestige too. I hate aux troops (they are weak as shit and arent worth the air they breath...) but compared to the so called allied ai i love them.
The good thing bout allied ai: I learned that i wont buy any dlc when its new and let the others test it. If it has broken features like allied ai, then i only buy it in a sale.

My conclusion about the spanish dlc: without allied ai, or at least only in one or two scenairos, it would have been a good start. So it was a pain in my ass, i never had to force me that much, to play a panzer general like game. Superior equipment, numbers (when i look on ebro: with such masses of troops the republicans should have conquered the world, must be more then at kursk, they have more planes then the western allies in 45), supplys for the enemy and i get idiot ai that steals my prestige and makes precise plans a roulette game. Hope that editor will be improved soon, so i can change all i dont like by myself. With some serious work of mine, this dlc might be good. I give 1 of 10 for this dlc, because it brought me so much frustration and anger. Hope the next is better. Sorry, just my little opinion.

"Conflicting-Impulses-AI":
o_t_d_x wrote: "The ai is horribly bad: Yesterday: They should attack the victory city of ... i think teurel and what did this idiot ai ? It went NORTH, no Victory hex there when i order attack. North ! They ai wanders in the wrong directions OFTEN. I hate that".

I can see or understand that what you experienced "o_t_d_x"… could definitely happen!.

For myself... I had already realized that the 'Potential-Problem' existed or was 'lying-in-wait' to sabotage' my efforts... so then I decided that instead of just permitting my "AI" to just aimlessly wander about like 'Brain-Dead'...'Zombies'... doing their own thing... that I would on the other-hand... watch them or monitor them carefully... to see where they were going and then assist them in their efforts as best as I could.

I knew that the "AI" units were "programmed/scripted" to make direct-assaults on 'Victory-Hexes'... as well as on to targets that you had pre-softened-up with 'Artillery-and or Bomber Air-Bombardments.. or both!. Preparing-Targets ahead of time...then results in both or either instances... that they [AI] would diligently go after those targets. You also need to... to the best of your abilities... to try to determine where they would likely be able to go next!. When you have determined what their next-targets are likely to be or might be... then try to apply the Artillery and Air-Assets that you have at your disposal... to soften up the next potential targets... so that they... the "AI"... has something else to go-after!.

Personally... I found this methodology to work quite-well... and as a consequence... had no major-issues using the "AI{.

ledrobi wrote: ↑Mon Aug 10, 2020 1:32 pm You will have to carefully navigate the (relatively) peaceful annexation of Czechoslovakia with a carefully measured hand instead of barging in and destroying everything in sight (that comes later, don't worry). For those with the knowledge and abilities to carefully control enemy positioning through suppression and retreat, another unique reward awaits. But just to make sure our first mission isn't stonewalling our players right out of the gate, preservation of hostile forces is of course only a bonus objective.

I just hope the AI won't suicide units into my forces and make me fail the objective. While rare, it did happen to me a few times in SCW.

GUNDOBALDO08 wrote: ↑Thu Aug 13, 2020 11:37 am ok I know i'm paranoid, but even in the editor there is no finnish infantry unit ... I hope it is added with the 1939 dlc. One or more scenarios of the winter war only with german units would be unacceptable!

Sorry mate, I was at today's stream and specifically asked about Finnish units in chat, but I don't think any devs were present... so a few more days of agonizing for you, alas!

Edit:

The Steam page for this DLC has launched and it has the scenario line up (partitioning with boldface done by me, I think it's correct). As you can see, Finnish Winter War is represented by 2 scenarios:

Czechoslovakia
- Czechoslovakia

Saar offensive
- Sarreguemines
- Warndt Forest
- Orenthal
- Forbach
- Saarbrucken

Poland
- Battle of the Bzura
- Modlin
- Brest Litovsk
- L'vov
- Wlodawa
- Warsaw

Finland
- Raate Road
- Taipale

Denmark
- Denmark

Edit 2: fix after Kerensky's post. Thanks Kerensky!

PS The poor lad still doesn't know if we'll get to play Finnish troops

One correction, Sarreguemines is part of Saar Offensive, not Czechoslovakia.

And yea, Poland gets the lion's share of content, as befitting the most important/well known theatre of 1939. But we definitely wanted to explore more stuff, especially places the original Grand Campaign nor Panzer Corps 2 base campaign visited.

Definitely a lot of interesting places to visit (and enemies to fight) coming up soon!

Kerensky wrote: ↑Fri Aug 14, 2020 7:34 pm And yea, Poland gets the lion's share of content, as befitting the most important/well known theatre of 1939. But we definitely wanted to explore more stuff, especially places the original Grand Campaign nor Panzer Corps 2 base campaign visited.

I'm actually surprised that the Saar Offensive gets 5 scenarios, only one less than Poland. I don't mind btw, fighting French heavy tanks with Panzer I and II is a fun challenge ("Where are my Stuka's?!") and 6 Poland scenarios is a very good number. Also, I am assuming you put Denmark (1940) into the 1939 DLC because there is too much stuff to put into a 1940 DLC already. Glad you try to put these "little" events into the game, Czechoslovakia and Denmark are the scenarios I'm really curious about.

Tassadar wrote: ↑Fri Aug 14, 2020 7:00 pm
I just hope the AI won't suicide units into my forces and make me fail the objective.

Part of manipulating the AI is understand what it can, and can't see. The AI doesn't cheat with full map vision in Panzer Corps 2. If you blind it, it will be blind. Scenarios where you need to make your forces properly visible to the enemy is a facet of more than one 1939 scenario in fact.

Unfortunately this one of the bigger controversies we ran into while BETA testing. Turns out a whole heck of a lot of people care so much about bonus objectives, they don't care that they are just bonuses. They consider losing the bonus objective as total scenario failure.

Which is a compliment on the new bonus objective system I guess.

But it also means as a result of testing, we slammed the breaks on this particular scenario. It changed probably more than any scenario changed in any BETA testing run we've done. Net result is that it should be impossible for the AI to get itself ambushed and self kill itself to disrupt the bonus objective. Should be...

I would have preferred less offensive of the Saar and more campaign of Poland and Winter war

GUNDOBALDO08 wrote: ↑Fri Aug 14, 2020 8:22 pm I would have preferred less offensive of the Saar and more campaign of Poland and Winter war

And I did my best getting answers for you (there is no pleasing some people...)

Will there be a splitting of our core forces? The Saar Campaign was happing simultaneously with the war in Poland.

Snake97644 wrote: ↑Sat Aug 15, 2020 4:46 am Will there be a splitting of our core forces? The Saar Campaign was happing simultaneously with the war in Poland.

Historically:
-Saar Campaign: 7–16 September 1939
-Poland Campaign: September 1, 1939 – October 6, 1939
So it is still possible to go to Poland after the Saar Campaign.

GUNDOBALDO08 wrote: ↑Fri Aug 14, 2020 8:22 pm I would have preferred less offensive of the Saar and more campaign of Poland and Winter war

I am of the 'Contrary-Opinion'... Yes!... the "Saar-Offensive" historically... didn't achieve any meaningful changes in the overall stand-off situation between the two opposing sides.

However!... now with "British-Support" [Perhaps even the 'British-Expiditionary-Force]... if it is part of this challenging effort... could really have had some chance of severely crippling the Germany's Military or even disrupting its military 'Steamroller-Impetus' enough so much so... that the entire picture of the war could now change. Remember!... at this very moment in time... the vast-bulk of the German armed forces were very-busy in 'Poland'.

So... here now is a 'Fleeting-Opportunity' to put the 'Hammer' to 'Hitler!'.

GUNDOBALDO08 wrote: ↑Fri Aug 14, 2020 8:22 pm I would have preferred less offensive of the Saar and more campaign of Poland and Winter war

Winter war could be a DLC apart (Winter War, Continuation War & Lapland War).

terminator wrote: ↑Sat Aug 15, 2020 6:19 am

GUNDOBALDO08 wrote: ↑Fri Aug 14, 2020 8:22 pm I would have preferred less offensive of the Saar and more campaign of Poland and Winter war

Winter war could be a DLC apart (Winter War, Continuation War & Lapland War).

"terminator post": "Winter war could be a DLC apart (Winter War, Continuation War & Lapland War)".

Yes!!!... somewhat along the lines of what "OoB" has done with that campaign!... I heartily-agree... that would just be another fantastic edition to the 'DLC-Line Up'.

terminator wrote: ↑Sat Aug 15, 2020 5:49 am Historically:
-Saar Campaign: 7–16 September 1939
-Poland Campaign: September 1, 1939 – October 6, 1939
So it is still possible to go to Poland after the Saar Campaign.

Ideally, there should be a campaign tree choice to either take part in the Poland campaign from the start, or to move your troops to the West to "guard" that front & face the Saar offensive + eventually go to the final scenarios of the Poland campaign.

It would be interesting to have a late Poland scenario where your mission is a race to beat the Soviet forces to certain Eastern Polish objectives. After all, this is also what happened historically. FM von Leeb's son was KIA in such an action which he was furious about because the territory was soon afterwards just handed over to the Soviets per their agreement anyway (another ideological pissing contest). The Soviet forces would be allied, but fully AI controlled like in one of the post Stalingrad scenarios. Your core troops coming from the West while the AI's coming from the East (right side) of the map. No Attack, Defend, or Hold commands available to you.

Perhaps this is what they did with a map like Lvov??

ledrobi wrote: ↑Mon Aug 10, 2020 1:32 pm

as may you find yourself already running afoul of Soviet forces advancing from the other direction...

Opportunities abound to acquire new equipment to outfit your personalized force with, so always be on the lookout for various secrets and other non-standard ways of procuring new weaponry!

We might tangle with Soviet Forces in Poland ? And we might see some action again against Soviets in Finland ?

I guess it is too late to bring it up , but I'm hoping for an opportunity to scavenge some more Russian 203mm 1931 howitzers.

I have really fallen in love with this gun. I still have 14 spares , but I sure seem to be obsessively careful with this unit on account of I only have 14 spares !

My guess would be it is not actually as good as the German 21cm Mrs 18 ?

But it certainly is a good heavy gun , and like the Trubia , it has this wonderfully exotic , cute , steam - punk vibe.

I'm sure I'll have to retire the Trubia at some point in the not - distant future , but this howitzer could serve throughout the war --- if only I can scrounge up some spares !

---

By the way , I'm just now finishing up the Battle of the Ebro , and have NEVER seen the Republicans field the 203mm 1931 howitzer.

Did I steal their entire stockpile ?

Maybe they finally show up in Catalonia or in Madrid final ?

It's an odd thing.

adiekmann wrote: ↑Sat Aug 15, 2020 6:24 pm It would be interesting to have a late Poland scenario where your mission is a race to beat the Soviet forces to certain Eastern Polish objectives. After all, this is also what happened historically. FM von Leeb's son was KIA in such an action which he was furious about because the territory was soon afterwards just handed over to the Soviets per their agreement anyway (another ideological pissing contest). The Soviet forces would be allied, but fully AI controlled like in one of the post Stalingrad scenarios. Your core troops coming from the West while the AI's coming from the East (right side) of the map. No Attack, Defend, or Hold commands available to you.

Perhaps this is what they did with a map like Lvov??

I'm not sure, but if the player is not allied with the Soviet AI in this scenario, wouldn't you then not be able to see the Soviet encirclement lines?

Depending on how the "Saar-Offensive_ Gambit"... ends up resulting in what-ever final situation?... not that I would think that 'Herr-Hitler'... would now be able to continue on with his former grandiose plans as he did before... after this catastrophic' Saar-Intrusion-Event'!.

Either 'Hitler' will then have to determine whether he still could fashion some kind of effort to try to manage to stabilize the chaotic-situation. Maybe??? by trying to make an attempt to seriously-cripple the Western Allied Armies enough-so...so as to get a permanent cessation of hostilities... then re-direct his concerns as to what to do with the Russians.

On the other hand... he could preferably surrender to the Western Allied Forces... and then decide what to do after that. In the mean time... whilst the Russians... now re-energized and emboldened by the removal of the 'German-Threat'... continue doggedly-on ever-forward... with their 'Master-Plan'. Their 'Russian-Conquest-Master-Plan' as it has always been [Even till now... at this moment in time]... which is to try to secure all of Europe in order to put it all under Russia's dominion or control!.

So!... now the war would still continue... with or with-out Germany... to now try to stamp out the Russian-Menace. "Operation-Unthinkable"... could now start... 'Ahead-Of-Schedule!'. "General George S. Patton"... would be very happy indeed... about that... that is for darn-sure!.

"The Saar-Offensive! ???":
"Wot!!!"...… no counter-idea's??? or alternate idea's???... no accolades of 'Rahh!...Rahh!'... or disparaging commentary?... to either add to the concept and promotion of the prosecution of 'The Saar Offensive' or too... on the other-hand... to... pick-it-apart for the delusional concept's that I have put forward on this particular topic!.

I...and perhaps others as well [We!]… are anxiously awaiting to hear what you others have to say... You!!!... and your thoughts do really matter!. This subject matter... "The Saar Operation/Offensive" "has never" been previously developed or executed into a WWII Game Simulation/Re-Creation!. So!...as the 'Olde' mostly forgotten "quip/saying" goes... "Spake-Forthe-Zarathustra"... let us hear your thundering voice!.