Locarnus Addon 2025-10a, for Battlefield Europe, Afrika Korps and Grand Campaign East

[Vano2004]

https://warspot.ru/11379-autocannoni-er ... lya-afriki



http://military-chronicle.com/ru/avtopushki-mussolini/



https://koleso.temaretik.com/2150741382 ... j-mirovoj/



https://nashi-avto.ru/ru/gaz/s/спец_газ-аа.html



Outpost "Snipe" — to hold at any cost
https://warspot.ru/12199-forpost-snayp- ... boy-tsenoy


https://warspot.ru/12067-afrikanskie-troyki-v-plenu



https://kongo-mueller.livejournal.com/1500.html

[Locarnus]

Here are my thoughts. Pz3 has limited capabilities once into late 42. that is why the German army switched their focus on Panzer 4 for its capabilities to handle a bigger gun. My advice is keep the stats where they are at. The tank stars for experience make the soft attack appealing to some players where the hard attack stars of experience will appeal to most players as it appealed to the Wehrmacht. Pz3 tank gets +1 soft attack and hard attack for every star. StuG only gets +2 to hard attack for every star, their soft attack does not increase. Consider allowing tanks to have a blitz category which allows them to go 1 space farther but their attack and defense is less. This is what Lennis did in one of his mods and it was a nice feature.

Due to the StuG being now in the tank class, it also gets the tank class experience boosts (that is hardcoded).
So I looked again at some soft attack values and rebalanced them for several vehicles. Also taking historical reload times into account, which are not implemented as "rate of fire" buffs for some vehicles (eg Panzer III, short barrel 75cm gun and so on). Those units got a soft attack buff. Especially the Panzer III N variant now has a real niche for some time.

Thinking more, PzC 2 handled this problem by making all infantry default at 15 strength. Would this be possible here? Conscripts already have this. This change would accentuate the differences between the actual predominant force on the ground and specialized units. This would also partially obviate the (working reasonably well now, although awkward to upgrade) 7 strength early German tanks, which could just keep their "mechanical" failings.

Edit: this would also allow moving up attack-defense values of other classes of units to help avoid cheap shots and nonsensical stuff like infantry destroying PzIIIs in open terrain.

The 15 strength units are an interesting concept. Though it would take quite some testing effort to account for all the potential balancing changes. At the moment I'm lacking the necessary time for that.

Anti-tank self-propelled artillery unit 7,62 cm F.K.36(r) auf Panzerjäger Selbstfahrlafette Zugkraftwagen 5t "Diana"
https://shnyagi.net/271978-Trofejjnye-s ... emcev.html

Thank you!
There is a lot of potential with those makeshift glass cannons and your pictures provide a great motivation to take a deeper look at them.

Speaking about conversions, I also lacked the time to include some aspects in the current patch.
Alternate modes for some Italian artillery as well as more Italian bombers and so on unfortunately did not make it.
Several British strat bombers were severely nerfed by BE, and I put them roughly back to their original values.
But for the next patch I'll have to take a more serious look at bomber values in general. I also want to review the glass cannons again, before adding to them.
And then also take another look at BE balancing, both in terms of unit availability and pre-scenario balancing.
Unfortunately some Marders and soviet TDs had to be somewhat adjusted (Marders nerfed, but cheaper) to be in line with general unit balancing. Which makes the Marders even less desireable, though they still have value as stop-gaps to preserve the chassis. Until upgrades to self propelled artillery can be made in early 1943 (eg Panzer II and Panzer 38(t) chassis to Wespe and Grille).

For Afrika Korps I finally managed to make some winning path scenarios compatible, up to and including Persia. Since Persia starts on 12.04.1943 and Tunisian Bridgehead (from the losing path) starts on 20.04.1943, it did not require additional unit reviews.
Unfortunately Persia is a scenario where the US and the Soviet Union is involved on desert terrain. And due to the BE mechanic of handling desert movement, those units should also get desert movement. Unfortunately that is a lot of work for that single scenario, so in this patch they have to make due with normal units.
There were also several instances where I had to stop myself from changing too much, to keep the campaign close to the original. For example in the Suez Canal scenario the cities are on the wrong (eastern) side of the canal. Or "Arab volunteers" are overstrength Wehrmacht infantry units. Perhaps I'll revisit those issues in the future, when I have the time to deal with the balancing ramifications of more historically accurate adjustments.


2022-05 Download: https://bit.ly/3wUAgug
General changes:
- Horse and horse-drawn desert movement buffed (might require new campaign, movement updates are strange)
- Early TDs adjusted (initiative, prestige), especially SU TDs rebalanced and unfortunately most Marder II & III nerfed
- New basic Italian 1942 Infantry version and buffed 1944 version (1 more initiative)
- New Italian G.56 fighter variant for the ahistorical "winning path" of Battlefield Europe
- New British fighter variants/splits (Spitfire)
- Some fighter rebalancing (Italy, Germany, US, Britain)
- New He 111 H-21 variant, new icons for He 111 thanks to guille1434
- Panzer II Luchs (available earlier) and some Panzer III variants a bit cheaper
- Several Panzer III, IV, Sherman, and other tank variants adjusted against soft targets
- 21 cm Mrs 18 range increased to 4
- British 5.5 inch artillery split into 2 versions (early 100lb range 3 and late 82lb range 4)
- Italian 90/53 towed and truck version available much earlier (Dash to the Wire)
- New icon for Fiat626, thanks to guillle1434
- British strat bomber values somewhat returned to pre-BE ones

Gamerules:
- Cheaper overstrength (200% instead of 300% modifier in the gamerules)

AK scenarios/campaign
- Initial scenario compatibility for the winning path, up to and including "Persia"
- Dash hangar markings changed to "B", reduced number of possible locations, fixed reward spawn mechanic
- Kasserine SE Tiger gifted to player, with special mechanics (bonus unit, morale loss at unit loss/sale)
- Kasserine, Mareth and Tunisian Bridgehead core slots & turns adjusted, also to compensate for gifted SE Tiger
- Tunisian Bridgehead Me 323 reinforcements nerfed (only sub 12 ton units)

[guille1434]

Hello Locarnus:

Thanks for a new update on our mod add-on! Also, here you have two versions for the Mosquito aircraft in desert colors. A bomber (with "glass" nose) and a fighter-bomber variant (with "solid" nose and underwing rockets). Have fun!!

[NOVO2005]

Hello Locarnus:

Thanks for a new update on our mod add-on! Also, here you have two versions for the Mosquito aircraft in desert colors. A bomber (with "glass" nose) and a fighter-bomber variant (with "solid" nose and underwing rockets). Have fun!!

Excellent desert camouflage )

American light tank M5A1, equipped with a loudspeaker installation.

- I say hello to everyone )

[faos333]

Mosquito aircraft in desert colors, I was missing that aircraft so much in BE !!

[Locarnus]

Hello Locarnus:

Thanks for a new update on our mod add-on! Also, here you have two versions for the Mosquito aircraft in desert colors. A bomber (with "glass" nose) and a fighter-bomber variant (with "solid" nose and underwing rockets). Have fun!!

Thank you very much, right what I needed!

If you find the time, might I also trouble you about a UK Typhoon aircraft in desert camo? The official Africa Corps DLC uses lots of those as fighter bombers and I have a hard time substituting them, without either reducing the fighter or the bomber aspects.

Another BE compatible desert camo request would be the Cromwell, especially the Mk IV. Also for the later scenarios of the Africa Corps DLC, where the original designer used masses of them. Though imho they would also be nice for an ahistorical Battlefield Europe playthrough, eg if the player turns towards Basra in 1944, only after dealing with the Americans in Tunisia.

Mosquito aircraft in desert colors, I was missing that aircraft so much in BE !!

Agreed, BE scenario could use some more desert unit variants for ahistorical playthroughs!

Excellent desert camouflage )

American light tank M5A1, equipped with a loudspeaker installation.

- I say hello to everyone )

Greetings!
Nice find with the Stuart picture. I always liked that versatile light tank concept in Company of Heroes 1. I wish CoH 3 would provide something in between recon cars and medium tanks/tank destroyers for the German side as well (Pz 38(t)?). I guess I'll have to check out the CoH 1 Blitzkrieg mod again.

[guille1434]

No problem, I will add Typhoons and Cromwell tanks in the income line to the paint shop to be painted in desert camo!
I will be making those icons, and the other, older ones pending as soon as my work allows me to...

[Locarnus]

No problem, I will add Typhoons and Cromwell tanks in the income line to the paint shop to be painted in desert camo!
I will be making those icons, and the other, older ones pending as soon as my work allows me to...

Thank you!
McGuba has provided the Cromwell with desert camo, so only the Typhoon remains on the todo list for the rest of the winning path Africa Corps scenarios.

Wasn't there another post here with a modified T-34? Was that one in another thread and I'm misremembering things?

Well, I watched the new playthrough by goose_2 for Afrika Korps, this time on Rommel difficulty without FM.
And we talked a bit about possible unit upgrades for the next scenario "Ras el Mdauuar", which he showed at the end of this first video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2Y5U0L ... k1t2KkL4dD

Arty choices were one topics and since arty balancing was already a topic in this thread a few pages back, I took the opportunity to test some stats against bunkers (strength 20 units used, but extrapolated to 100 strength for the statistics below):



Unit purchase and upgrade thoughts for the next scenario "Ras el Mdauuar":
Ras is a scenario with lots of bunkers, and there is even a special mission for destroying 4 specific overstrength bunkers (for some very limited prestige on Rommel).
Therefore it might make sense to adjust the core force especially against bunkers for this scenario, and then cheaply adjust it back to a general purpose force after that.

The bunkers are heavily entrenched, so lowering that entrenchment is the first priority and suppressing the bunkers is the second priority. But in this specific scenario, no airforce is available, leaving only artillery for that task.
An auxiliary Obice 149/13 is provided in the South, and the player also receives two smaller core artillery in the first turn. An Obice 75/18 also in the South, as well as a Cannone 100/17 on the north-western road, just in front of the players main force.
From the previous scenario, a Cannone 105/28 and a 10.5cm leFH are brought over and can be deployed in the West or the South. This makes for a total of 4 smaller core artillery and one 149mm aux howitzer. Not much against so many heavily entrenched bunkers without airforce support.

So, what arty to buy/upgrade to?
These would be the results, if a theoretical 100 strength unit of the following type would fire on a 100 strength Strongpoint (bunker) with 3 entrenchment on fortification terrain (initiative cap 3):
Obice 75/18 (towed, rof 11, range 2) ~14 suppressed & ~1killed
Cannone 100/17 (towed, rof 10, range 2) ~ 17 suppressed & ~1 killed
Cannone 105/28 (towed, rof 10, range 3) ~ 17 suppressed & ~ 1 killed
10.5 cm leFH 18 (towed, rof 10, range 3) ~ 17 suppressed & ~ 1 killed
10.5 cm sK 18 (towed, rof 8, range 4) ~ 14 suppressed & 1 killed

Obice 149/13 (towed, rof 8, range 2) ~ 17 suppressed & 2 killed
15 cm sFH 18 (towed, rof 8, range 3, fortkiller trait) ~ 26 suppressed & ~ 6 killed
15 cm Nblwf 41 (towed, rof 12, range 2) ~ 22 suppressed & ~ 2 killed

Wurfrahmen 40 (half-track, rof 8, range 1, ammo 3!) ~ 26 suppressed & ~ 6 killed
StuG III B (tracked, rof 10, range 1) ~ 13 suppressed & ~ 1 killed
Bison I (tracked, rof 7, range 2, fortkiller trait) ~ 23 suppressed & 5 killed

1) Despite the 8 rate of fire, the italian Obice 149/13 is a bit better against protected hard targets, than those 100 - 105 mm towed artillery pieces with 10 rof.
2) The 15 cm sFH 18 is by far the strongest towed artillery against bunkers, mainly due to the "fortkiller" trait (which provides +5 attack against bunkers).
3) The 15 cm Nebelwerfer 41 is surprisingly effective for suppression even against those harder targets, due to the high rate of fire (12).
4) A Wurfrahmen 40 is as good against bunkers as the towed 15 cm sFH 18, but has to park right next to the target (range 1) and has very limited ammo (3). Situationally amazing, but requires careful use.
5) The StuG III B is the worst arty against bunkers and also has to get close (range 1). But at least it has some armor and can take some hits.
6) And last but not least, the Bison I (Sturmpanzer I) is the second best arty against bunkers (fortkiller trait again), even though it only has a rate of fire of 7 in arty mode. It is the only range 2 self propelled arty at this time.

Based on those findings, I recommend for arty:
A) Buying a new 15 cm Nebelwerfer 41 unit, and/or a Wurfrahmen 40 (they share the same upgrade group, so you can start with a cheaper 15 cm Nblwf and eg upgrade later). For 210 prestige + transport.
B) Upgrading the Panzerjäger I to a Bison I (Sturmpanzer I), since they are in the same upgrade family. It is the only range 2 self propelled arty unit for a while and the 15 cm caliber provides the fortkiller trait. For 106 prestige.
C) A new 15 cm sFH 18 unit could help a lot in the future and could train up during Ras. For 336 prestige + transport. The similar italian Obice 149/19 will only become available for Gazala Line (eg as an expensive upgrade to the Obice 75/18).


Direct fire units (100 strength) against bunkers (100 strength, 3 entrenchment on fortification terrain - inititative cap 3):

Wehrmacht Inf casualties: 36 vs Bunker casualties: ~ 21
Grenadiere casualties: ~ 28 vs Bunker casualties: ~ 26
Pioniere casualties: ~ 37 vs Bunker casualties: ~ 53
Jäger casualties: ~ 37 vs Bunker casualties: ~ 21
Fallschirmjäger casualties: ~ 27 vs Bunker casualties: 40

Flammpanzer II (rof 11) casualties: ~ 44 vs Bunker casualties: 34
Bison I in tank mode (rof 6) casualties: ~ 46 vs Bunker casualties: 44
8.8 cm BuFla (rof 9) casualties: ~ 43 vs Bunker casualties: 57
8.8 cm Flak 36 (towed, rof 10) casualties: ~ 35 vs Bunker casualties: 63

7) Infantry should only attack bunkers, if the bunker is suppressed. Attacking Grenadiere and Fallschirmjäger take the fewest casualties (28/27) against unsuppressed bunkers with 3 entrenchment.
8 ) Pioniere inflict far more casualties on unsuppressed 3 entrechment bunkers (53), but also suffer greater casualties (37), compared to Grenadiere. High bunker entrenchment makes Pioniere much more valuable.
9) Fallschirmjäger are very expensive, have low ammo (4) and ground defense (6), but they also have high initiative, attack stats, the fortkiller trait (like Pioniere, but no engineer trait to disregard entrenchment) and Jäger movement type.
10) Flammpanzer II, Bison I (in tank mode) and 8.8 cm BuFla can inflict many casualties on bunkers, but those bunkers certainly should be suppressed, to prevent them from shooting back.
11) The towed 8.8 cm Flak is considered a soft target, and thus takes less damage from bunkers (soft attack 8, hard attack 10) compared to eg the 8.8 cm BuFla.

Direct fire units, upgrade recommendations:
D) Wehrmacht Inf upgrade to Pioniere, same upgrade group, same desert movement range, for 72 prestige. The Italians can later on fulfill the role of light infantry without needing transports (Bersaglieri or even Sahariana with included transport).
E) Panzer II C upgrade to Flammpanzer II for 17 prestige. It is a good bunker buster, but only if the bunker is already suppressed. The mission provides enough aux recons for the scouting role.
F) The 8.8 cm BuFla for 422 prestige is the hardest hitting, self-propelled unit for quite some time. It is in the same upgrade group as the towed 8.8 cm Flak 36 (274 prestige + transport), when both are in anti-tank mode. But eventually the glass will outshine the cannon.

C and F might not fit both into the budget, since there are also some necessary direct upgrades (3.7 cm to 5 cm Pak), Bf 110 D to E and so on. But the L6 is rather useless, aside from being a flavor unit (ready to be sold?) and can provide some prestige.

[Locarnus]

Unit icon request: Italian artillery tractor "Breda TP40".

https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breda_TP40





The bigger, improved brother of the TP 32, which is already in BE 2.3:

https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breda_TP32

Italian_Breda.png (26.84 KiB) Viewed 2565 times

[sbpc1]

for the afrika corps map/maps the inconsistent scale of the slitherine published maps/scenarios always drove me mad. i had grand plans at one stage to have make one map stretching from el aghelia to el alamein that would cover all 1941-1942 battles. never happened of course. if you are getting busy with the scenario editor anyway maybe you are the man to make it happen?

[faos333]

for the afrika corps map/maps the inconsistent scale of the slitherine published maps/scenarios always drove me mad. i had grand plans at one stage to have make one map stretching from el aghelia to el alamein that would cover all 1941-1942 battles. never happened of course. if you are getting busy with the scenario editor anyway maybe you are the man to make it happen?

Never thought of that, very interesting idea

[Locarnus]

for the afrika corps map/maps the inconsistent scale of the slitherine published maps/scenarios always drove me mad. i had grand plans at one stage to have make one map stretching from el aghelia to el alamein that would cover all 1941-1942 battles. never happened of course. if you are getting busy with the scenario editor anyway maybe you are the man to make it happen?

Interesting concept! The different scales are also a problem for aircraft ranges and so on (something I had to compensate for with more airfields, for the Afrika Korps scenarios using the equipment file for Battlefield Europe).

Probably very hard to get the triggers and balancing right, with the PzC 1 editor.
Battlefield Europe event scripting is one of a kind, due to this editor being not designed for such vast and complex scenarios. The Battlefield Europe event scripting list in the editor is a huge struggle.

Sorry, just too much for me at this time, I currently have my hands full with existing compatiblity and rebalancing issues.

Though I wonder what happens when snipping off the northern part of great Battlefield Europe scenario? Would the African part still be playable, sort of as a reduced version of BE? Would Sardinia make sense as the cut off line? Or perhaps the Alps, thus extending to the Caucasus as well? What about the eastern cutoff, or leave it at Basra where it is, for some ahistorical options of the AK pushing towards Persia and even Baku?

[PeteMitchell]

I think the count of the hexes starts in the north-west... so likely scripts might get confused?

[Locarnus]

I think the count of the hexes starts in the north-west... so likely scripts might get confused?

Yeah, the scripts based on specific coordinates would have to be adjusted, but the ones using zones should be fine?
Though sorting out all the issues might be more work than creating it from scratch.

[Locarnus]

Finally completed the Africa Corps campaign compatibility with BE+Addon.
Some annoying original campaign issues were not resolved so far (like Indus river 250km too far east and in the desert!) and there is always room for finetuning. But the whole campaign is now playable with all the great unit variety, from Libya to India!

Another main topic of this patch is the massive fighter rebalancing.
PzC fighter experience provides more attack boni than defense boni. This leads to far more late game aircraft casualties. I attempted to deal with this imbalance (edit: so far without editing the exp.pzdat). It is not perfect and also a work in progress, but it offers some very interesting gameplay ramifications as well as far fewer random air battle outcomes in the late game.


2022-06 Download: https://bit.ly/3I3KlKC
General changes:
- Major fighter aircraft rebalancing (edit: resulting in generally lower kills and casualties)
- Several new "+" late variants of existing units (eg for Bf 109 G-6, Re.2005, Pz II Luchs)
- Some movement rebalanced (half-track, all-wheel), might only affect new campaigns due to PzC engine limitations
- New italian tractor Breda TP40 (from mid 1942 onwards),
- Several german and italian transports rebalanced (eg SdKfz 250 and 251 got their anti air fire back and prices adjusted)
- Artillery fortkiller trait more consistent among nations (149mm up, now including italian arty, also some units below that threshold)
- Italian 1942 infantry stats changed (-1 initiative back to 0, +1 ground defense up to 7), makes them less susceptible to eg arty damage
- Italian 90/53 and Lancia da 90/53 rebalanced
- Mosquito and Cromwell desert camos included, thank you guille1434 and McGuba
- Some unit stats adjusted (eg italian M13/40 buffed a bit)
- Nebelwerfer units have reduced damage and are a bit cheaper
- 15cm Nebelwerfer 41 rate of fire decrease from 12 to 11, but movement increase to 2
- 10.5 cm sK 18 rate of fire buff from 8 to 9 and now cheaper than 15cm sFH (also one more ammunition)
- 17cm Kanone 18 buffed a bit and now in same upgrade family with 21cm Mörser 18 (both also with one more ammunition)
- SdKfz 8 tropical version added (eg for towing the 17cm Kanone 18 or 21cm Mörser 18 during Africa Corps campaign)
- New start screen background should now be working for everyone

AK scenarios/campaign
- Now all Africa Corps DLC scenarios are compatible with the BE Addon in campaign mode (added the last 5 "winning path" ones)
- Ras el Mdauuar provides additional italian core units (Bersaglieri with transport, 149/13 arty), several campaign transitions compensate by giving less prestige
- Recon in Force scenario Bersaglieri transport removed (makes for good upgrade to Sahariana)
- Losing path AK scenarios "countryside" terrain adjusted to look less "green" on the map
- Losing path AK scenarios are now individually available from "scenario" screen
- Removed one of the aux 8.8 cm Flak from Battleaxe scenario, replaced another one with a core italian 90/53 flak
- Italian infantry upgraded to new 1942 version in AK scenarios (eg Gazala to Mareth Line)
- Sorry for not correcting some of the original DLC design choices (Suez canal cities on the wrong side, Indus river 250km too far east and in the desert, and so on)

[goose_2]

This is great...reallly enjoying this fun addition to a great campaign

[sbpc1]

i'm in favour of fighter rebalancing but whats hardcoded? you can edit exp.pzdat. in gereneral i've edited mine to give more + to defensive values than offensive values for all classes in general (survival skills rather than marksmanship)

[Locarnus]

i'm in favour of fighter rebalancing but whats hardcoded? you can edit exp.pzdat. in gereneral i've edited mine to give more + to defensive values than offensive values for all classes in general (survival skills rather than marksmanship)

Yep, sorry, I'll edit the patchnotes.
Hardcoded are only the battle mechanics, not the experience boni.
I plan to rebalance the exp.pzdat in one of the next patches. I probably should have done it the other way around and change the exp.pzdat first and fighters second. I just assumed that a general exp.pzdat rebalance would have wider ramifications and shied away from that. At least without fully understanding and being able to simulate the battle mechanics (which I now do, the fighter rebalancing was something of a by-product of that).
After finishing basic compatiblity for Africa Corps, this rebalancing effort is now my main modding focus. Though mod development usually slows down over the core summer months.

[sbpc1]

here is my exp.pzdat for your consideration. pm me for lots of boring details. tested with the GC DLC's

as far as fighters (class 7) are concerned i've never quite got round to a definitive rethink but general my feeling is less initiative (-2), more gd (+1) less ad (-1, -2?)
the AI gets suckered into using them for useless ground attack so i'd consider giving them sa=0 and ha=0. ground attack is the job of class 8 units.

[Locarnus]

here is my exp.pzdat for your consideration. pm me for lots of boring details. tested with the GC DLC's

as far as fighters (class 7) are concerned i've never quite got round to a definitive rethink but general my feeling is less initiative (-2), more gd (+1) less ad (-1, -2?)
the AI gets suckered into using them for useless ground attack so i'd consider giving them sa=0 and ha=0. ground attack is the job of class 8 units.

I'm very interested in any details. Either per pm or here in this thread (not much else going on in this thread and forum at the moment).
After basic compatibility with Africa Corps is finished with this patch, that rebalance will be my main addon focus now. At least for the summer, where my actual modding time in front of a computer is rather limited (perhaps making more room for conceptual considerations).
The strict differentiation between class 7 fighters and class 8 tac bombers is problematic for Battlefield Europe. Due to the "aircraft ferry" mechanic, the player needs an empty airfield to switch from secondary mode (eg fighter) back to primary mode (eg tac bomber in case of the Me 110). That would also impede aircraft like the italian Re.2002, for which that "switch" distinction has not yet been made.