Locarnus Addon 2025-08, for Battlefield Europe, Afrika Korps and Grand Campaign East

[eskuche]

I joined discord, but not sure what I joined

Sent you a message request on discord to chat!

[goose_2]

Finished Kharkov 43 and it proved extremely fruitful in terms of heroes. In terms of prestige gain not so much.

This will get real rough real quick in the Kursk battles when I need to buy replacements just to keep my frontline troops in ship shape.

43 is going to be a real boon I think as my goal is to get over 60% of my units with 2nd heroes, and at least 3 units inline to be ready to get a 3rd hero. I do not think I will see 3rd heroes until 44, but will be nice getting units in position to get that possibility.

See you Friday buddy

[Locarnus]

I'm strongly considering changing the movement costs of non-train units on rails.
Currently rails are usually in between roads and countryside/clear movement costs for non-trains with the Addon.
While without Addon, rails provide much better movement for leg (infantry, especially in mud and snow), but much worse for most other movement types.

I'm now thinking that I simply make rail movement cost for non-trains equal to countryside/clear movement costs, for leg, tracked, wheeled and so on.

[...]
This will get real rough real quick in the Kursk battles when I need to buy replacements just to keep my frontline troops in ship shape.
[...]
See you Friday buddy

Yep, 43e3 and 43e4 will also have so many more upgrade options and making your two very experienced arties into big cats will also be costly. The income from selling captured units will be important for sustaining prestige levels.

Oh, I thought Sunday would be the next broadcast.
I wont be able to attend Friday livechat, but could watch and comment later before Sunday? Or thursday live broadcast instead?

[goose_2]

.
[...]
See you Friday buddy

Yep, 43e3 and 43e4 will also have so many more upgrade options and making your two very experienced arties into big cats will also be costly. The income from selling captured units will be important for sustaining prestige levels.

Oh, I thought Sunday would be the next broadcast.
I wont be able to attend Friday livechat, but could watch and comment later before Sunday? Or thursday live broadcast instead?
[/quote]


I meant Sunday'
sorry

[goose_2]

Quick? Probably could wait for Sunday, but it is on my mind.

Sell me on using Pz3 Flamm?

I am not seeing the benefit over the M I am already using, it makes me worry more than see an upside.

I see the need for harder hitting tank on tank units then I see the need for soft boy shredders.

In fact my frontline of tank on tank units is extremely light since they can tear open my KV-1B.

[Locarnus]

Quick? Probably could wait for Sunday, but it is on my mind.

Sell me on using Pz3 Flamm?

I am not seeing the benefit over the M I am already using, it makes me worry more than see an upside.

I see the need for harder hitting tank on tank units then I see the need for soft boy shredders.

In fact my frontline of tank on tank units is extremely light since they can tear open my KV-1B.

Yep, the Pz 3 Flamm is great against entrenched enemy inf, but I guess you need anti tank capabilities more at the moment. Until you have additional big cats and an elephant to hold the line.

Imho it is high time to deploy two Panzer IV tanks at the same time, before the Panther should take over that role.
It was the main german tank at that time.

Will you also only deploy 1 Panther at the same time due to the Panther naming scheme?
Would be weird to have more Tiger P chassis on the battlefield (Tiger P & Ferdinand) than the ubiquitous Panzer IV and Panthers.
Just because of a "+" or a "dg" instead of having a different name or suffix like some very low production, near unicorn models.

Hm, KV-1C with def hero should still be able to hold a corner, though it really needs 3 stars to dissuade attacks from enemy 2 star units.

[goose_2]

Quick? Probably could wait for Sunday, but it is on my mind.

Sell me on using Pz3 Flamm?

I am not seeing the benefit over the M I am already using, it makes me worry more than see an upside.

I see the need for harder hitting tank on tank units then I see the need for soft boy shredders.

In fact my frontline of tank on tank units is extremely light since they can tear open my KV-1B.

Yep, the Pz 3 Flamm is great against entrenched enemy inf, but I guess you need anti tank capabilities more at the moment. Until you have additional big cats and an elephant to hold the line.

Imho it is high time to deploy two Panzer IV tanks at the same time, before the Panther should take over that role.
It was the main german tank at that time.

Will you also only deploy 1 Panther at the same time due to the Panther naming scheme?
Would be weird to have more Tiger P chassis on the battlefield (Tiger P & Ferdinand) than the ubiquitous Panzer IV and Panthers.
Just because of a "+" or a "dg" instead of having a different name or suffix like some very low production, near unicorn models.

Hm, KV-1C with def hero should still be able to hold a corner, though it really needs 3 stars to dissuade attacks from enemy 2 star units.

I do plan on deploying 2 Panzer 4's, just not until the first of the 4 Kursk battles, by then I will have a Panzer 4h and Panzer 4G late.

KV-1C got shafted by RNG, imho and they were lambasted by 3 enemy tank units, I think 2 of which were with 3 stars. That Napoleon difficulty is biting me now.

You will see some units that get the shaft in Kharkov.

The enemy units have some serious bite, but I think Belgorod will actually be a bit easier as the highest exp level is 2.5 stars. I have not playtested yet, but looking at map's and my playthroughs on Ultimate and Sorens on FM/Rom/Man illustrate to me that should be easier to handle. I hope, as found in scenario replacements in Kharkov to be extremely painful to endure. That will get increasingly difficult as this goes on, nye near impossible as the expense increases for my costly units.

[thejf]

Just finished up GC 42 and I can agree about the punch the enemy units now have. I took the "escape" route, Escape was easy but Tatinskaya was a nightmare. Had to break my own rules and reboot after 5 days because my central taskforce was getting completely destroyed by their large group of 3 star tanks. They were attacking everything, even my new Tiger wasn't safe. Their air force was similarly aggressive, directly engaging several of my fighters.
Second run with better deployment went much better but a DV was never in sight. Just when I was moving a small task force up to the final victory hex in the southeast their final wave hit, forcing that task force into a quick retreat.
Got my revenge by surrendering all KV's in that wave and destroying the rest, which helped to pay the terrible repair bill after all was over.

Regarding the choice of units I plan to follow a realistic approach -> multiple versions of the same unit can be deployed if that unit was common (like the Panzer IV, StuG III and later the Panther, but not the Tigers). But always different models, so currently I have a Panzer IV F2 and G+, not a G and G+.

[Locarnus]

[...]
Regarding the choice of units I plan to follow a realistic approach -> multiple versions of the same unit can be deployed if that unit was common (like the Panzer IV, StuG III and later the Panther, but not the Tigers). But always different models, so currently I have a Panzer IV F2 and G+, not a G and G+.

Yep, Tatsinskaya 1942 is extreme.
I think it is the first GC scenario where the enemy has 300 base experience.
While even most 1943 scenarios only have 200 base experience.

Especially fighters benefit a lot from that 3rd star.
But with rule of 1, the hordes of 3 star tanks are too much as well.


The German naming schemes in WW 2 were very inconsistent and often a real mess.
The Panzer IV G and G+ are different versions for the rule of 1. It was just a time when it was trendy in the german army to not advance the naming scheme, despite making considerable changes. Contrary to the earlier habit of giving even marginally different vehicles a new name. The pendulum just went in the other direction around this time.
Same for the Bf 109 G-6.

I also added different camo variants for the Panther A & G within the purchasing screen, specifically to allow more Panthers with the rule of 1.

Otherwise the high production types would be underrepresented compared to very rare, near unicorn models.
The scenario designers for GC 43 East had to expect a core tank force of many Tigers and later Panthers, making the rule of 1 especially tough, though not as overwhelming as Tatsinskaya due to the mostly 100-200 enemy base experience.


GC 43e3 and 43e4 offer a lot more upgrade options, including many more cross class units. Looking forward to reading about your experiences there!

[eskuche]

Update post 1942 for me (FM Rommel one of rule no other rules). 32.4k prestige. I spent a LOT of time this year getting experience on artillery and converted a few to actual units. There are so many artillery types that I'm not able to field every single unit at this point. Note the duplicates kept in reserve of the cheapest 11 rof artillery. I'm using almost exclusively bonus units as my infantry corps. I don't know the max army size in the final campaign, but I suspect I may have overshot the level bombers and don't need this many, although it MIGHT be great in some defense maps to get mass surrenders after enemy air/AA is taken care of. I spent a lot of time trying to surrender KV-1's and T34s with just my land artillery. I eventually caved and converted my Sdkfz 13 to the Bunkerflak.


Out of 59 units, fewer than 20 (highlighted in green) are not at or near max experience 375 for 1941. My hope is to get to 400 in 1942 ASAP for the artillery and use these units converted to front line as my core moving forward until 1944, where I may do another round of conversion of then-5-star artillery. I didn't realize you could purchase Kv-1(r), so may fish for a hero on the current one (220 kills) then dump it to artillery if it's good. The infantry front has been struggling a little bit especially in the big city maps, as I have been carrying ~15 artillery to fights, and I still don't have tanks that won't be attacked by random enemy KV-1s. Lone italian unit may be converted the mobile AA/AT '88 equivalent until wirbels come around. The Bf-110s are still holding up okay but I think I will need 2 more Fw/Bfs this year as Russian equipment gets better. I am pretty comfortable with Stalingrad, as I will have 7-9 4 star infantry going in and a LOT of artillery back up. Dir has +3 movement and +4 initiative, considering switching to maybe him to something else, but the emergency delete any close terrain hex skill is pretty good. Heroes have been okay with the exception of NO range heroes, although I do have 6 double heroes already. This is partially offset by the range on the high caliber artillery, which I've been finding more and more necessary especially in inclement weather to suppress some heavy tank points. The only thing is I'm not sure I want to get a 10 strength gustav (3 shots), although I think it will be like 3500 prestige.

[Locarnus]

[...]

That dedicated rotation is a lot of effort and prestige spent to keep the experience high!

GC East effectively ends at Berlin Redux with 50 normal core slots (plus 8 random bonus SE units when getting one in the first scenario of 1945, plus 1 bonus SE Maus tank at some point & plus 2 bonus SE hero fighters in Bf 109 versions). The previous Berlin scenario has 45 normal core slots.

GC West ends at Sealion 45 with 45 normal core slots or at End on the Elbe with 38? normal core slots.
There are also differences for the bonus SE slots, but I don't fully recall those.


Yep, some of the captured equipment will also show up in the purchase screen. Mostly the ones where upgrade families exist (Char B, T-34, KV-1 & some SU). Though usually only once an upgrade option becomes available, so that you can go back to a previous model if the new one is not great.

I like the italian 88 equivalent on the truck, despite the rate of fire limitations. Its AA range combined with the mobility makes it pretty useful.
Those enemy KV-1 tanks can be quite aggressive, Germany is feeling the lack of decent guns on its tanks at that time. Good thing they reacted with the introduction of HEAT ammo and then with the long 7.5cm guns on StuG III and Panzer IV. I also like the Panzer III, it has decent versatility in 1942.

Sevastopol and Stalingrad will be much more manageable with your very experienced infantry and heroes like Oleh Dir.
I like your inclusion of that railway arty, though I would recommend against a Gustav. Just too little rof and ammo for the GrandCampaign as a core unit. And Sevastopol provides you with heavily overstrengthed Gustav to compensate at least somewhat.

I think due to your rotation for experience you are in a great position for 1942!

[thejf]

You're definitely in a great position for '42, despite all the rotations you have more prestige then I had at that point!
The city missions should not be an issue. I found Storming Stalingrad slightly difficult due to the need for constant flank guarding, but Docks was surprisingly easy as my infantry and arty's just dominated the battlefield. Your elite army should have an even easier task there.

You'll notice that the KV's will try to attack everything including your top tanks, but the T-34's will leave most of your tanks alone provided that they have good XP and some heroes. Because of this I found the Russian tank force in '42 to be a lot less of a threat then I expected beforehand.

Something interesting I have noticed several times now is that the AI willingly makes unfavorable attacks, which end up softening up my units for further attacks. Have more people noticed this?

[eskuche]

Something interesting I have noticed several times now is that the AI willingly makes unfavorable attacks, which end up softening up my units for further attacks. Have more people noticed this?

Back in my heavy reload days I would notice the AI sometimes randomly takes attacks that are unfavorable on paper, and about half the time it ends up disastrous for them, the other time for me. Upon reload they would often not make the attack, leading me to initially think they would pre-roll the attack dice and only commit if the prestige loss/gain was there. There must be some sort of RNG threshold that is not apparent to me even after 2000 hours in the game...

[eskuche]

Those enemy KV-1 tanks can be quite aggressive, Germany is feeling the lack of decent guns on its tanks at that time. Good thing they reacted with the introduction of HEAT ammo and then with the long 7.5cm guns on StuG III and Panzer IV. I also like the Panzer III, it has decent versatility in 1942.

The KVs have definitely been the bane of my existence, as have the wide-tracked (I think) T-34s, since I still didn't memorize the snow movement tables for them. I think in the future going mass artillery strategy I need a few more infantry to hold chokes and really overstrength the high caliber stuff. Also will make more of an effort to use switchable artillery to farm some kills when possible. Note (thejf re: prestige) that I have almost no overstrength going on. 11 points on infantry and 13 points in a few select artillery is it. In 1941 I only class-rotated I think the special heroes (2 air, 2 ground) into artillery/level bombers and maybe 1 artillery out to a PzIIIJ, so only about 2000 prestige there. Making an effort to surrender the heavy tanks netted me probably 500-1000 extra every map.

[thejf]

Something interesting I have noticed several times now is that the AI willingly makes unfavorable attacks, which end up softening up my units for further attacks. Have more people noticed this?

Back in my heavy reload days I would notice the AI sometimes randomly takes attacks that are unfavorable on paper, and about half the time it ends up disastrous for them, the other time for me. Upon reload they would often not make the attack, leading me to initially think they would pre-roll the attack dice and only commit if the prestige loss/gain was there. There must be some sort of RNG threshold that is not apparent to me even after 2000 hours in the game...

Interesting theory, but indeed tough to prove. I'm playing dice chess, so the unfavorable on paper almost always turns into unfavorable in reality for the AI. Especially in cases where they use T34's to attack arty-covered 75 mm towed AT's (this actually happened several times).

Point taken regarding the prestige levels, I've indeed been far more liberal with assigning overstrenght. Although I must say that only in '42 my overstrenght units started taking hits.

GC 43e3 and 43e4 offer a lot more upgrade options, including many more cross class units. Looking forward to reading about your experiences there!

I'll post up my core once I get to 43e3. I'm currently planning some minor rotations at the start of '43 based on the recent inflow of heroes. Got about a dozen new heroes in the Stalingrad missions but nearly all of them were bad (not a single INI, +2 or +3 ) Only thing I'm satisfied with is the amount of movement heroes (currently 6), more then enough to equip my towed AT/AA's and Tiger P.
Currently have 8 double heroes with several more expected in the next few missions.

[eskuche]

Interesting theory, but indeed tough to prove. I'm playing dice chess, so the unfavorable on paper almost always turns into unfavorable in reality for the AI. Especially in cases where they use T34's to attack arty-covered 75 mm towed AT's (this actually happened several times).

This is kind of for Locarnus re: balance, but the early war anti-tank options are fairly anemic. I do notice the balance changes of +1 attack but wonder if it is enough, since AT is losing the +2 attack/star stat. Even in ambushes, the best non-88 barely scratches T-34s. Not sure there is an easy way around this since they are in both tank and anti-tank classes now technically besides a slightly higher rebalancing (or if this is even needed since it replicates the german experience and is "balanced" around the relative unit costs )

[Locarnus]

Interesting theory, but indeed tough to prove. I'm playing dice chess, so the unfavorable on paper almost always turns into unfavorable in reality for the AI. Especially in cases where they use T34's to attack arty-covered 75 mm towed AT's (this actually happened several times).

This is kind of for Locarnus re: balance, but the early war anti-tank options are fairly anemic. I do notice the balance changes of +1 attack but wonder if it is enough, since AT is losing the +2 attack/star stat. Even in ambushes, the best non-88 barely scratches T-34s. Not sure there is an easy way around this since they are in both tank and anti-tank classes now technically besides a slightly higher rebalancing (or if this is even needed since it replicates the german experience and is "balanced" around the relative unit costs )

@thejf
Hm, I'm curious about the T-34s attacking arty covered 75mm towed AT guns.
It could be that it is that problem with the AI attacking directly after moving. Since a player has to deselect the moved unit to actually see what the unit spots in the new position. So in some cases the AI does not do this and thus does not see the protecting arty?

Or it could be something with the ini calculation? Terrain/weather induced ini cap of the AT gun including its +3 ini bonus when attacked by an enemy tank/recon.
Aside from the underwhelming, captured French 75mm AT gun, the captured Soviet ones and the later German 75 should usually dissuade the contemporary T-34s when supported by arty.

@eskuche
Sounds about right for the situation in 1941.
T-34s were hard to destroy for the Axis units, but also not very good at destroying Axis stuff.
Then in the first half 1942 the Germans woke up to that reality and responded with HEAT, converted captured guns and then longer barrels of their own.
The Marders were the opposite of the T-34s, they were good at destroying enemy armor (especially when concealed), but also easily destroyed by enemy units. Before the StuG and long barrel Panzer IV then rectified those weaknesses.

[eskuche]

@thejf
Hm, I'm curious about the T-34s attacking arty covered 75mm towed AT guns.
It could be that it is that problem with the AI attacking directly after moving. Since a player has to deselect the moved unit to actually see what the unit spots in the new position. So in some cases the AI does not do this and thus does not see the protecting arty?

Or it could be something with the ini calculation? Terrain/weather induced ini cap of the AT gun including its +3 ini bonus when attacked by an enemy tank/recon.

AI might preview the ini roll. Also depends on the artillery. With deductor stats, your standard 10.5-15 cm artillery is only going to have about 8-10 hard attack with heroes, with estimated 1-3 suppressed depending on the weather...not very favorable. So far I have to literally unload 5-7 artillery to suppress a T-34 in 1941-1942 sometimes.

[thejf]

@thejf
Hm, I'm curious about the T-34s attacking arty covered 75mm towed AT guns.
It could be that it is that problem with the AI attacking directly after moving. Since a player has to deselect the moved unit to actually see what the unit spots in the new position. So in some cases the AI does not do this and thus does not see the protecting arty?

Or it could be something with the ini calculation? Terrain/weather induced ini cap of the AT gun including its +3 ini bonus when attacked by an enemy tank/recon.

AI might preview the ini roll. Also depends on the artillery. With deductor stats, your standard 10.5-15 cm artillery is only going to have about 8-10 hard attack with heroes, with estimated 1-3 suppressed depending on the weather...not very favorable. So far I have to literally unload 5-7 artillery to suppress a T-34 in 1941-1942 sometimes.

I don't remember all the details of these occasions, but at least one of them was a completely unfavorable scenario: the T34 started it's turn next to my AT. Clear weather, open terrain, both at full strenght. It attacked, lost with something like 4-1 (I fired first) and then just drove off to the rear of the Soviet frontline to get a refit. Made no sense at all, but I didn't mind
If I encounter more examples I will document them in more detail.

This lack of punch of artillery is indeed frustrating. Getting some surrenders in basically loses you a full turn of artillery support for other purposes, which I why I still fully overstrenght my strat bombers and some of my artillery. Only my Nebelwerfer at 13 str can consistently get 3+ suppression hits in on KV's. At this rate soon I'll have to start choosing between getting surrenders or going for DV's. Speaking of which: is there some info somewhere on the prestige reward for DV/MV/Loss for each mission?

[eskuche]

This lack of punch of artillery is indeed frustrating. Getting some surrenders in basically loses you a full turn of artillery support for other purposes, which I why I still fully overstrenght my strat bombers and some of my artillery. Only my Nebelwerfer at 13 str can consistently get 3+ suppression hits in on KV's. At this rate soon I'll have to start choosing between getting surrenders or going for DV's. Speaking of which: is there some info somewhere on the prestige reward for DV/MV/Loss for each mission?

This is in the game files on your computer in each individual DLC named campaign.pzdat (not exactly sure on the extension). Notably in 1942 a lot of the losses are worth the same as a decisive victory. Given that SE units no longer are a money tree and depending on your pride and bonus hidden units, it might actually be worth just farming the first half of some maps and taking the L, although I haven't done this per se yet.