Slitherine

impar wrote:In Norway I moved a Ju52 with paratroopers above an airfield, in the Ai turn the enemy infantry, that was in the adjacent city of the airfiled, moved from the city to the airfiled as to block my paras from jumping into the airfield and taking it.
It was a moment.

When you say "Norway" You mean "Oslo" right?
Not bad for an AI move, eh?

Kerensky wrote:When you say "Norway" You mean "Oslo" right?
Not bad for an AI move, eh?

Yep, the first norwegian map.
Not a bad move at all.

Although, I have to say that the first two nowergians maps were too easy.

Nice tipps!

I would give another one: use many artillery pieces!
I already learned their extreme power in the original campaigns. They are extreme supresser + they effective defense each other and the units around them. There, they are not only at sieges useful, but almost every loss will be lower (which is at Rommel mode quite a destination...)
At the original campaign, I had about 7-8 21cm guns, later, when I played the italian campaign (custom), I also realised, that I have only chance to win with my weak units, if they are supported with many 149mm's.
Now, I finished the DLC 39 with 7 guns (all 10,5cm + 1 captured 105mm) and didn't feel, that they were too many.
So: use artillery!!

impar wrote:In Norway I moved a Ju52 with paratroopers above an airfield, in the AI turn the enemy infantry, that was in the adjacent city of the airfiled, moved from the city to the airfiled as to block my paras from jumping into the airfield and taking it.
It was a moment.

Kerensky wrote:

impar wrote:In Norway I moved a Ju52 with paratroopers above an airfield, in the Ai turn the enemy infantry, that was in the adjacent city of the airfiled, moved from the city to the airfiled as to block my paras from jumping into the airfield and taking it.
It was a moment.

When you say "Norway" You mean "Oslo" right?
Not bad for an AI move, eh?

It depends how you look at it. The AI did the same thing in my game and I just dropped straight into the city. Didn't have to fight for it since the defender went for the airfield and abandoned all entrenchments it had in the city.

Piatek map for DLC 39 (Poland). Hardest map by some margin so far in this DLC for me. Players of 'normal' ability may find these tips of use, not for those super human tacticians that play on Rommel!!

I earned a DV on this at the 3rd attempt last night, General setting, while keeping my core force intact.

Defend the bridges on your side of the map to form bottlenecks, do not try and move forces across initially. Make sure you have 3 artillery units in your core army, I also had 2 Stukas. Upgrade at least 1 tank to the 38 model.

Keep the bulk of your forces, especially artillery and AT on the left side of the map, as this is where the majority of the Polish offensive seems to come from. About 2 or 3 infantry, 1 recon, 1 tank & 1 artillery should be enough to hold the right flank then as the offensive on the left slackens you can gradually move units across.

Use recon units for forays over the bridges to capture cities when the opportunity allows, as this will give a much needed prestige boost but withdraw them asap. Do not get bogged down fighting on the Polish side, just hold a line!!

Don't be afraid to cede territory, as this can be retaken once the Polish offensive loses steam and the DV achieved.

On to Kampinoska Forest now .

Congratulations

As far as Kampinoska is concerned, a few tips that people might find useful

- This map is only available as a DV victory in Piatek, and is harder than the MV scenario (Wyszogrod) that plays on same map but has completely different objectives and flow

- Really, this scenario is deceiptive : it looks easy, but there are a lot of pitfalls that can hurt ...

- There are a lot of cities on the map, but only a few objectives inside the forest are really needed for any (DV or MV) victory (and the DV objective trains are there anyway). It is tempting to go after the non mandatory cities for the extra prestige grab, but at a risk of spreading yourself too thin (the turn count is quite low, and you don't have a large core able to sustain multiple spearheads at this time in the campaign)

- Most battle with take part in the forest, in close terrain, low visibility, low movement (for tanks) terrain, against enemy cavalry. Your troops, and especially your armor, are at a serious risk of beeing murdered if you aren't extra careful. Scout as much as you can (hint : you have aux cavalry units at your disposal :p ), don't use unprotected panzers on front line (their close defense is pitiful), and always make sure that your advanced units have proper artillery support.

Spoils of war 1939 DLC, god I just love it, I Can see the eastern front will be fun in the next DLC-s
I sent units forward as fast as possible since the map is a land grab, and to my suprise, a big counterattack decimated my tanks, and I had to replay it My troops pushed forward too fast, overextended themselves and got butchered by soviet armor lurking in the far east part of the map. The KV tank appeared, my panzers looked like children compared to its strenght, I surrounded the beast and it got out of ammo, it should not had moved out of its lair!

Kerensky wrote:

impar wrote:In Norway I moved a Ju52 with paratroopers above an airfield, in the Ai turn the enemy infantry, that was in the adjacent city of the airfiled, moved from the city to the airfiled as to block my paras from jumping into the airfield and taking it.
It was a moment.

When you say "Norway" You mean "Oslo" right?
Not bad for an AI move, eh?

AI moving into an empty airfield hex when your fallschirmjager are poised to drop on it is nothing new. It happens in the stock (non-DLC) Panzer Corps campaign. It happened to me when I attempted to para-drop onto Retimo airfield (Mick Mannock's custom campaign) and one or two other scenarios during the course of the campaign. Its not a "new" AI move.

Never saw it happening before the DLC.
It happened to you before patch 1.04?

impar wrote:Never saw it happening before the DLC.
It happened to you before patch 1.04?

Yes, currently still playing the stock campaign with Patch 1.02.

I have played all the way through the 3 DLC's on a fairly easy setting and am now going through again on a slightly harder setting (Still only the middle default one)

Things I have noticed....

Never bother with recon, it always gets killed, this is the opposite of what some have said.
Don't bother with anti tank none of it is any good
Likewise don't bother with anti aircraft either.
My strongest element is air, build up to 3-4 stukas and 3-4 me109's This early in the war you don't even need to bother escorting the stukas, losses are rare and the ME109's have very good ground attack capability. Always kill all enemy aircraft as soon as they appear.
Joint 2nd strongest element is infantry and artillery. Towed artillery is very effective, infantry are generally very effective. I keep tank numbers quite moderate, they are useless against infantry and whilst ok against tanks stukas are even better.

I am assuming once tanks progress to the Panzer IV F2 or better this will change and I will increase the armour content a little. I increased it a little once the Panzer III F and Panzer IV D became available as at least these have some capability. Panzer 1, 2 and 38t are mostly useless, stukas are far more effective.

Love the DLC's looking forward to 1942.

Andy

andywatkins1963 wrote:Never bother with recon, it always gets killed, this is the opposite of what some have said.

They are crucial to take undefended cities\airfields and still keep moving.

andywatkins1963 wrote:Don't bother with anti tank none of it is any good
Likewise don't bother with anti aircraft either.

You didnt try the 8.8 in AT mode?

impar wrote:

andywatkins1963 wrote:Never bother with recon, it always gets killed, this is the opposite of what some have said.

They are crucial to take undefended cities\airfields and still keep moving.

andywatkins1963 wrote:Don't bother with anti tank none of it is any good
Likewise don't bother with anti aircraft either.

You didnt try the 8.8 in AT mode?

I like the 88 for both roles in the DLCs. Some enemy tanks have decent armour and the 88s can really chew them up. Also good for saving 1 fighter turn in killing off an enemy plane. (or defending artillery groups, which are always a target for enemy airpower)

I also use recon a lot. Tho it sometimes gets itself into trouble.

Yes the 88 is ok but very slow and the resource is better spent on a stuka.

I don't like units that die. Recon die. they are ok in 1939, after that just too weak.

Only what I have found, some of you have played and beaten the game on much harder settings than I have

Andy

An experienced, overstrengthed 88 can absolutely destroy Char B1s and even KV tanks while taking minimal damage in return. The stukas are invaluable support units, but I rarely use them to deliver the final, killing blow. The 88, however, racks up hard target kills without trying, AND it can be converted to AA to shoot down the many, many waves of AI fighters/bombers as needed. The 88 may be a bit too powerful, but since for inexperienced players it can be tricky to use optimally, and historically it was a wonder weapon of sorts, I think it is fine.

And destroys fortifications.

'41 Crete, airborn invasion, seriously?

Hi, is it meant seriously that I can deploy my core land forces on Crete on deploy phase? You can probably imagine, how easy it is when I deploy StuG PzIV and 8.8cm on Crete before battle starts ))

Koeppke, this was indeed my beef with Crete:
If you take "Airborne" you can place your heaviest tanks and artillery on Crete. You totally trump the defenders.
-> If you want less units on Crete, "NAVAL" is your choice. Makes the Crete scenario much more difficult.
You can access the now open Beta forums. The intention was to prevent major core unit losses to the player, unlike the historically loss heavy battle battle of Crete.
It was left for the player to make a choice if they really deploy tanks on Crete, but this sort of self-restraint and roleplaying is IMO rather the exception.

Longasc wrote:Koeppke, this was indeed my beef with Crete:
If you take "Airborne" you can place your heaviest tanks and artillery on Crete. You totally trump the defenders.
-> If you want less units on Crete, "NAVAL" is your choice. Makes the Crete scenario much more difficult.
You can access the now open Beta forums. The intention was to prevent major core unit losses to the player, unlike the historically loss heavy battle battle of Crete.
It was left for the player to make a choice if they really deploy tanks on Crete, but this sort of self-restraint and roleplaying is IMO rather the exception.

I thought it was the other way around and choose the "naval" option. It kind of understood that this variant would allow me to deploy more heavy hardware. Net result - it was the hardest scenario for me in the 41 DLC. I barely scored a tactical victory and lost two units in naval transports to the Royal Navy ( not to mention a mounted panzergrenadiers lost to the counterattacking British armour )...