So I want to bring up some points to your attention where I see major differences between single player and multiplayer games in Panzer Corps. Within the tournament I had some games where it was quite obvious that my opponent was playing a single player style. So if you start playing multiplayer you need to throw away some of your behavior you have learned within the campaign.
Core units and non core units:
Within the campaign non core units (grey numbers) are an add on to your core force. Most times they are weaker, because they lack heros and are not choosen according to your strategy. They are just placed by the scenario designer and the are expendable. Better to loose a non core unit than to loose a core unit together with a hero. They are cannon fodder.
These roles are switched in multiplayer games. Those non core units are not replaceable. If you loose them, they are just gone. Core units are replaceable. So in the beginning of a game non core units are more valueable then core units of the same type, because you will not get a free core slot by loosing a non core unit. So in the first turns I try to eliminate especially those valueable non core units, even if they are low value units. Later on when you are not any longer able to field a full set of core units, there is no difference any more.
So learn to guard your non core units, learn to love your non core units.
The keyboard:
There are some important key you should know about, so Panzer Corps is not a mouse only game. Some feature are just accessible by hotkeys. Some are helpfull within the campaing as well.
C: This will open a dialog with the lost units. Ok nice statistics
But in some maps you do have more core units on the map then available core slots. So you have to loose some units before purchasing the first new unit. So it might help to keep an eye on your losses to see when the first purchase will be possible.
Ctrl + Click: This will open an extended combat prediction window. There you learn about the initiative, all the bonuses for this combat and the chances you will have to kill and suppress an opponent unit. This is very usefull to learn about the combat mechanics, if you use this whenever you do not understand why a short prediction for an attack is very bad or very good. This is required to plan your artillery attacks, because the short prediction will just show kills. Most unexpected combat results are cause by initiative or close combat values against infantry.
In this window for some units you will find a rate of fire, when it is different to 100%. This does means they do roll less or more dice than there strength indicates. For example most heavier artillery just has a rate of fire of 80% or 90% (Gustav just has 40%), so they are not as strong as they seem to be. Other units like StuG III has a rate of 110%. With strength 10 they will roll 11 dice instead of ten. The german flame tank has a rate of fire of 140% and is much better then you think about it while having a view to the in game stats.
Most things you are able to learn about the calculation of combat figures are visible in this dialog.
The greatest problem with dialog is, that it is only available if you can do the attack, not when you have to move first. Usally you are playing without the undo option in multiplayer, so you have to use both the short preview and the extended one.
Some things you cannot learn from the extended combat prediction window. So whenever a combat result has unexpected figures hit the key L.
L: This will open a combat log of the last combat you have initiated. This almost looks like the extended combat prediction window but it contains all the dice which were rolled.
Whenever you lost a combat you had checked before with Ctrl + Click you should check what was going wrong:
-The easiest solution is just bad luck. The opponent just rolled 98, 99, 97, ... Nothing to figure out here, you cannot control luck.
-You have lost initiative. There is a roll for initiative before combat. In preview you had initiative and your losses should be moderate. But you lost the initiative roll and now more opponent dice are rolled to hurt you. So your losses are higher then expected and now you are rolling less dice. Again you cannot control the dice, but you can check if there is a risk and if it is usefull to bring in a supporter to get a mass attack bonus.
-A rugged defence was rolled and this often has a major effect to battle.
When you lost a battle just check if this was just bad luck or if there is some game mechanic you did not know or forget about. If you just blame bad luck you will not improve your skills. While learning Panzer Corps about 66% of bad combat results are not related to bad luck, but very often the dice are blamed.
D: This will disband the active unit. This is very usefull for core units, because it will free up a core slot.
In the current tournament we are playing historical campaign maps. In first turn ofter there are units which are expendable. In most cases this are AT or AA units sometimes weak recons. So if you have enough prestige get rid of them and buy more valueable units. For example in Kiev in the north there is a mobile AA and a Marder and in Kiev you are very short with core slots. Well you will find some better units to purchase in turn 1.
Sometimes it is even worth to sacrifice a valueable troop to buy a specialist, especially a bridge builder.
Some units are getting obsolete after some time of combat. For example in Norway or Greece the allies do have just one fighter. If this one is shot down it is unlikly the will buy a new one, so disbanding all your fighters is an option. Fighter still have a use to scout and to reduce entrenchment but it is limited. Additional ground units may speed up the advance better then fighters. In both sceanrios I dispanded expencive figthers and bought cheap mountaineer.
To repair a unit is much cheaper then to buy a new one, but sometimes you do not have time to do that. So disbanding a unit and buying a new unit in near position might be an option. Sometimes you can think of paying a cost to teleport a unit, by disband it somewhere and buy it somewhere else.
I do not remember a game where I did not disband at least one unit.
So if you never used your keyboard, give it a try. You will not believe that there was a time before you start to use it
