Ghost Division, hello.... with spoilers

[Trenchard]

Scenario 7. Kursk time. Not as hard as scenario 5 (or maybe my plan wasn't as half-baked as it was for 5).

Taking out the prestige and special objectives gives a clear path to flanking the fortifications blocking the road. So in spite of minefields everywhere and lots of dug in defenders there's room for maneuver rather than pure grinding. I liked this scenario.

[Trenchard]

A general observation: I really like the larger maps with relatively fewer units compared to most other campaigns. Bigger map, not overstuffed with units and enemies, means there are many options for how to approach the scenario... and you're not forced to go make a cup of coffee while you wait, and wait, and wait for the enemy's turn to end.

[Trenchard]

I took the bait. I upgraded a 21cm artillery unit to big Karl the morser. Well, Karl can't be repaired and I can't downgrade back to a 21cm. By design.

I HATE THIS. Karl should be a purchase or award, not something you have the option of wasting an experienced artillery unit on.

[Trenchard]

THANKS, KARL. I'm re-playing the road to Prokhorovka. It'll be easier, obviously. But Karl can morse off.

It's a bit late in the war for the Wacthtruppe to turn into anything interesting so I'm gonna go ahead and upgrade them. I was hoping for a narrative easter egg.

Doesn't look like the fraulein ever thinks about anything but propaganda either.

[Trenchard]

Prokorovkha road take 2. *All* my infantry are pioneres now. Same pincer movement on special and prestige objectives. Same prioritizing of airflields (my favorite trick is to capture the airfield and rebase fighters there to hammer their airfleet). NO KARL.

If i were to do a run from the beginning I think I'd cross-grade the antitank unit early, to a tank. It takes quite a while before the Germans have decent antitank units and when they do, they cost a lot of slots, and if you have Panzer General trait and Blitzkrieg trait (or whatever they're called) tanks are faster and you get a slot discount.

88s are better antitank guns than any other option up to '43, and as an added bonus they shoot down planes. In American scenarios, it's different, tank destroyers were integral to doctrine and you get some nice units like the M36 (and Tamiya is now releasing one in 1/35 if there are any other scale model dorks around here). For the Germans, however, I'll likely cross convert my default AT units to AAA or tanks early on in future German campaigns. My AT unit only had 2 stars' experience so I gave in and converted to a flammpanzer. I haven't used a zippo before, and I'll probably upgrade to a 'real tank' when I get the slots.

Awww Karl I ain't mad at ya. Bought a Karl. New, inexperienced. will retire it when it gets too beat up, as I hate losing core units (main thing I do to avoid it is overstrength every unit I can afford to, and just have fewer units).

This customizability of one's force is exactly what i mean about my favorite thing about PC2 i(and PC) is that you can adjust doctrine to suit yourself.

[Trenchard]

2nd time through the road to Prokorovkha I still stepped in some traps LOL. The Soviet hard counterattacks can have more tanks than you're ready for. Took better car of ol' Karl, by keeping the spotter plane over him when no fighters were available.

This time when I positioned a bridging unit near Prokorovkha road hex, the Soviets had *not* moved all their armor back to defend it. Taking the hex was simple, just blasted the minefield with heavy artillery and walked in without killing everyone.

My main hero unit is a Tiger with Consolidator, VIgilant and Double Attack heroes so the first time though I just mopped them up quickly.

Note that in 2 attempts at this scenario the Soviets defending the main objective on the west side of the river did *not* have a go at taking my supply hex. Makes sense, I have another one down south.

[Trenchard]

Scenario 8. Courland pocket. If you have taken the prestige objective, you've got more than enough prestige to fill up your slots with the cool toys that are now available. Me 262s are cheap as chips. The limited stock jets from the special objective aren't very useful IMO. The Gothas are great in this game, but I tend to max out strength on fighter units and there are only 15. The TA-183s are hideously expensive prestige-wise, and not THAT big of an upgrade on the ME262. meh.

Another big wide open map. They're attacking you this time. If you look at it and see you control 5 out of 6 of the primary objectives you might worry that you'd end the scenario quickly if you take that last one. By turn 2 you'll see that's not an issue, even if the objective turns out to be to *hold* the objectives til the end.

[Trenchard]

First 5 turns of scenario 8 are rough. I 'surrendered' about 4 times before I played it all the way through. It's hard to do without losing any core units.

Karl' wasn't particularly useful here.

[Trenchard]

Scenario 9. Interesting map, interesting objective. You have 10 civilian units, save 5. Typical late-war Soviet scenario, they have massive quantities of tanks and men and have no problem watching them all die.

It's quite easy to get 5 units out, avoiding losing core units is a bit harder. If it happens it'd be in the first 5 turns.

I finished in 11. A bit disappointed that evacuating civilians didn't activate a new objective: get your units out of there.

A good campaign, I enjoyed it, but as i said before would have liked to see it fleshed out a bit more. Hopefully it will do well enough to lead to more elite campaigns. An SAS/LRDG elite campaign would be a awesome.... as I've said around 234 times LOL

[milliethedog]

Hi, i found "Karl" a real game changer, i suppose it is how you it and what heroes you use. I upgraded a 21 cm to Karl with Double attack, phased move and either zero slots or lethal kill. I cover it with an 88mm AA ( i am playing no air force). In this set up it will wipe out anything. the phased movement allows it to move to attack and then retreat from attack. so far i have had no issues using it other than on large maps you have to think of its limited move of 3.

Martin