Slitherine

As others have said thanks for selecting me. I found a typo in the Modlin briefing. It mentions troops converging on Warsaw and uses "ing" when I don't think you should have. I will get the exact screen and message tonight. Also, not a fan of the exp. stopper. I understand why you capped it I think, but that takes away from a large part of the game. Also, allowing the Germans to use captured Polish equipment might have some appeal. There is no new German equipment allocated til Norway. Still fighting through Norway for me. Like the add on very much, brings a lot to the game!! Thanks again!

Hi. I am rather new to slitherine forum, but have played similar titles. Polish scenarios are rather easy which is good for people who haven't played such games. But I was wondering about map: of course there is the mini map with goals to achieve indicated. I was lacking some kind of roadsigns which allow me to have a quick look at situation without mini map. Yes I know that when I get cursor over city, it's name will be displayed (rather small). Nevertheless when I have a goal to achieve (capturing certain city) I would like to know which direction I should take. There's a little confusion for me looking at both maps. I'd like some advice if I get the right direction.
And second of all - I didn't noticed if you considered polish anti tank rifles they rised some hell for germans during september 1939.

Jorgusson,

Glad you are enjoying the game! This game is fantastic I think. Cities that are required to take to complete the objectives, the flags are surrounded in gold. Also, on the mini map, they have an additional circle around them. Let me know if you see that.

I have a pretty good balance of troops - 6 infantry, I believe (all Pioneers in half tracks), 4 tanks (all 3 F's), 2 AT, 2 AA, 2 artillery, 2 recon, 2 fighters and 2 tac bombers. Big difference in '40 campaign between lieutenant and sergeant levels. Lieutenant is a little too tough, IMHO, especially in the Albert Canal scenario. Awfully easy at sergeant, as are subsequent scenarios. At Lieutenant level there seems to be endless Dutch troops appearing in the Albert Canal scenario, especially from the left side of the map, 10, 11, 12, 13 strength. At the sergeant level, allied troop strength is between 1 and 5. Don't know if this is more realistic, but at the lieutenant level I don't think it is realistic. Lastly, on the '39 Campaign, I believe the scenario to capture Warsaw s/b toughened. Warsaw is only 1 hex (when it s/b 3 or 4) and looks like any other small village or town. It needs to be more heavily defended. It is too easy to take.

mrgolf wrote:I have a pretty good balance of troops - 6 infantry, I believe (all Pioneers in half tracks), 4 tanks (all 3 F's), 2 AT, 2 AA, 2 artillery, 2 recon, 2 fighters and 2 tac bombers. Big difference in '40 campaign between lieutenant and sergeant levels. Lieutenant is a little too tough, IMHO, especially in the Albert Canal scenario. Awfully easy at sergeant, as are subsequent scenarios. At Lieutenant level there seems to be endless Dutch troops appearing in the Albert Canal scenario, especially from the left side of the map, 10, 11, 12, 13 strength. At the sergeant level, allied troop strength is between 1 and 5. Don't know if this is more realistic, but at the lieutenant level I don't think it is realistic. Lastly, on the '39 Campaign, I believe the scenario to capture Warsaw s/b toughened. Warsaw is only 1 hex (when it s/b 3 or 4) and looks like any other small village or town. It needs to be more heavily defended. It is too easy to take.

If you are struggling, I recommend dropping your AT and AA to pick up extra tanks, artillery and tactical bombers. All pioneers with all half track is very expensive, you may want to trim that down a little bit too and spread that prestige around.

As for Warsaw... I don't think you're talking about Warsaw but some other scenario. Warsaw is approximately 20 hexes large. Can you double check exactly what scenario you were talking about?

Blitz1945 wrote:Jorgusson,

Glad you are enjoying the game! This game is fantastic I think. Cities that are required to take to complete the objectives, the flags are surrounded in gold. Also, on the mini map, they have an additional circle around them. Let me know if you see that.

Yes I noticed that, but in my opinion they should be more visible on main map cause I don't like jumping from main map to mini map and back (I am very lazy ) Maybe it's silly but I am lacking some kind of hint on the main map like very obvious roadsigns "WARSAW 13 km". When I was playing Panzer General 2 and now Panzer Corps I was focused on action and had symptom of "...please, only one more turn". And sometimes I was missing important city cause I didn't noticed it on mini map (like I said maybe it's for my laziness).

And when we came to II world war, it seemed that troops used maps and roadsigns for movement. In 1944 in Ardenes german squads even sabotaged road signs to delay allied troops.

With Beta 3, the "More Campaigns" option should be more clearly displayed.

Kerensky-

Thanks for the advice. Pioneers in half-tracks are expensive, but Germany's best infantry, and they can shoot while still loaded. Can't do that in soft trucks. I love tanks the best, but need that good infantry to dislodge well entrenched infantry units in city hexes. Can't do that as well, or too well, even with Panzer 4's. I got Campaign '39 confused with original Panzer Corps. The first scenario in that one has Warsaw as single city hex. Has to be re-worked. That's ridiculous. Even PG from 17 years ago had a much more realistic setup for Warsaw.

mrgolf wrote:Keresky-

Thanks for the advice. Pioneers in half-tracks are expensive, but Germany's best infantry, and they can shoot while still loaded. Can't do that in soft trucks. I love tanks the best, but need that good infantry to dislodge well entrenched infantry units in city hexes. Can't do that as well, or too well, even with Panzer 4's. I got Campaign '39 confused with original Panzer Corps. The first scenario in that one has Warsaw as single city hex. Has to be re-worked. That's ridiculous. Even PG from 17 years ago had a much more realistic setup for Warsaw.

Pioneers also have a problem of being somewhat ammunition deficient, and that gets chewed up even faster if you use their half-tracks to shoot.

Well I can't speak for the current Poland map, I imagine it was designed the way it was because it is the introductory scenario of the original campaign.
What is your opinion of the new Warsaw map that exists in DLC 1939?

As I am not sure I will have the time to play much further, I'll give my detailled feedback to the specific questions asked. My other report can be found a few posts before, page 3. Reminder : Colonel level, played up to Kampinoska with beta 1, up to Eben-Emael with beta 2

* How hard did you find the scenarios? Too easy, too hard or just right?
Well balanced overall. I found Kampinoska (beta 1) and maybe the early Norway scenarios (beta2) a tad easy (not counting Poznan, I think it is supposed to be that way). Spoils of War (beta 2) a bit too hard (in a pyrrhic victory way). Piatek, Warsaw, Narvik, Eben Emael were spot on.

* Were your scenario objectives clear enough - we're there any areas that were confusing or needed mroe explanation?
Overall, the missions briefing were excellent and appropriately described what you had to do on the scenario. As many have suggested, having some in game counters to track objectives completed (especially for the trains in Kampinoska) will be a plus.

* How far in to the game did you get? Did you play the '39 campaign, '40 campaign, both of bits of both.
39 fully+ Eben Emael

* When posting any gameplay feedback let us know the difficulty setting you were using.
Colonel

* Did you feel like you had enough presitge, too little or too much?
I had comfortable prestige, and could mostly reinforce with elite during the deployment phase, but I am probably a slightly advanced player for Colonel maybe, and half of my campaign was with beta 1 (with higher prestige).

* Did you enjoy the scenario briefings? Is there anything they could have explained better or done differently to improve the atmosphere?
See above. They were great. What could be good is to have a real map (not the in game map) image associated with the briefings too, to see where the objective are, etc ... and add to the immersive factor.
Maybe having the mission briefing accessible during play could be useful too, now that briefings are more than flavor text, but actual "strategic advices" that help to understand the scenario scripting.

* Did you like the "special scenario objectives" mixed in with the standard victory hex grabbing missions, or do you prefer purely just going after victory hexes?
Yes, absolutely. Special scenario objectives+scripting make the game experience vastly better (both on the gameplay side, and on the historic/immersive side).
Plus, I like the DVs tied to actual objectives, not timers.

* Did the AI perform well in the missions? Were there any scenarios that the AI underperformed
Had only one issue : see my beta 1 Danzig Corridor report, when several enemy units got trapped between my troops and the Vistula and surrendered. More globally, I think it is a bit too easy to take advantage of the AI on scenarios where bridge victory hexes are involved.

* Hero and medal aquisition have been slowed down for the extended campaign. Did the progression feel right?
Felt better as soon as I upgraded to beta 2

* Do you find the experience cap on units annoying?
Annoying no, but it takes a bit of time to become accustomed too, and it is not very intuitive (should I elite reinforce, or should I normal reinforce as I will meet the exp cap quickly anyway ? some "gamey" questions here)

* Capturing enemy equipment is a new feature of DLC 1940 (it has not been implemented in DLC 1939). Can you let us know your thoughts on it.
Great !
Would it be possible to extend the system to allow the purchase of other Axis powers units (or get them as rewards) for the 1941+ campaigns ?

* Do you have a favourite mission and if so what is it you like about it. Similarly are there any missions you didn't enjoy and why.
Favorite mission thus far : Narvik. Norway was one of my favorite scenarios in the basic campaign. I like the diversity of the map, with a lot of things to take into account : air, sea, land, auxilliary units, weather ... challenging without beeing punishing.
Least favorite : Spoils of War. Couldn't be motivated by a non historic scenario, plus it is a bit punishing for an optional one. But, well, it is optional

Kerensky-

I've looked briefly, through the scenario selection, at one of the Warsaw maps. I see what you mean about all of the hexes for that city, and that is just Warsaw North or South. Looks very good, but I have not played the scenario yet. I downloaded beta 3 last night and am starting both campaigns from scratch again (tonight?). It looks like it wll be tough to take on colonel level. I will let you know my impressions after playing the scenario(s).

mrgolf wrote:Looks very good, but I have not played the scenario yet. I downloaded beta 3 last night and am starting both campaigns from scratch again (tonight?). It looks like it wll be tough to take on colonel level. I will let you know my impressions after playing the scenario(s).

An unfortunate result of the testing process, having to start over constantly, but we appreciate you and everyone else's efforts.

Kerensky-

No problem. Starting over gives me a chance to hopefully play better. First impressions on starting over on Campaign '39, beta 3, colonel level. First scenario went okay, but only got a marginal victory. 2nd scenario is Danzig Corridor, and air forces seem to be out of whack. Ground units are okay, but Polish air units outnumber German ones. You're only given 1 fighter and 1 tac bomber in 1st scenario. Didn't lose any units in the first scenario, so can't increase the air force. Didn't matter much in the first scenario, but it does now. I know you can improve existing units between scenarios, but can you get rid of any? I don't see how to do it. I would trade in the 2-37mm AT units for a couple more fighters. Seems like the number of air units s/b switched - 2 for Poland and many more for Germany.

Disband your units during the deployment phase to get a refund for their cost, and use the prestige to purchase new units of your choice.

'd' hotkey to disband.

As for more Polish aircraft, well that's the result of a non-decisive victory in the previous scenario. They weren't eliminated before when they were vulnerable, so they must be dealt with now when they are less so.

Even so, Danzig North is still easier than Danzig South.

Just finished Beta3 both campaigns on General Difficulty. No major issues encountered.
The play balance is impressive. Some scenarios are easier than others but I think this improves the flow. I could easily detect AI differences as the difficulty level increased. The AI performed aggressively during its offensive missions. During AI defensive missions most of the time it is fairly easy to trick enemy units out of prepared positions. Although the mission descriptions were fairly clear some could use refining for clarity. General difficulty prestige I was always behind the ball on and this was as expected. Prestige management is critical. I usually used regular replacements occasionally elite to keep experience up.
“Special scenario objectives” These are an innovative addition to PzCW. I don’t want the standard missions to go away but I thought mixing the 2 worked very well.
“Hero and medal acquisition” and I will include experience gain. Heroes and medals are cool but I will repeat what you have already heard: players need a way to easily reference them. Frankly the way they are I don’t bother to track, too much of a pain. I hated the experience cap. I would rather see the rate of exp gain reduced. Once 13 strength is reached the gain rate seems to work well(in the regular game).
“Capturing enemy equipment” I usually replace these with German eqpt as soon as possible. Most of the captures are not well suited for fast advance. Artillery is probably the ost effective as is. Overall the importance is more about the additional roster spot.
The devs have made it clear that PzCW is a work in process and not like the SSI treatment of the PG line with initial release and maybe a patch. I still believe the addition of new game material at a fair and modest price is a great concept. I think and hope the gaming community will support this idea. If we don’t then shame on us gamers. When the game was released I stated that my belief was the strength of PzKw is the modding factor and I still think this true. Within days additions were published. Many are great some exemplary but to have the designer/developers in for the long haul means a guarantee of fresh gaming for a long time to come.
The one issue I have regarding the Beta is referencing hero traits in game. I had hoped this might be fixed by now and the beta tests is maybe not the place. But please fix this source of irritation.
Good job to everyone.