Which favorite GC scenarios would you like to see in Axis Operations?
Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2020 7:08 am
One thing I really liked about the GC was the variety of scenarios - it stopped it getting stale. But there were some which stood out. I know not everyone will agree, but there are some of my favorites that I would like to see again in Axis Operations:
1. City fights: the Stalingrad scenarios were perhaps the high point of the series for me, fittingly given their significance in the war. The drive to Stalingrad was a blast - sweeping into the city, then getting bogged down in tough block by block fights. I really like the zoomed in "lane" design of streets - rows of hexes of clear terrain for tanks, with blocks of urban terrain for infantry. This came to the fore in the second Stalingrad scenario, which also had the fun air action over the river. The "lane" design made Panzer Corps feel almost like Squad Leader, rather than Panzer General, but in my opinion, worked really well. The more common representation of cities - say, Stalingrad in the PzC2 main campaign - as mainly a solid mass of urban terrain - is more realistic but isn't quite as fun, with the tanks just hanging back, not playing much of a role. (It's debatable, but I'd argue that tanks can be very effective in city fights - if well supported).
2. Air-sea-land fights: scenarios like Norway or Crete, where you have navies and paratroops are a blast. Sort of the opposite to city fights, I think these work best "zoomed out" - so you can choose to land your forces in completely different places (e.g. north or south Norway) and there is space for fun navy vs navy fights (where spotting is key). Part of the point about air and sea landings is that it gives the attackers a lot of flexibility about where to strike, so it is good if this is retained for the player. There probably can't be many of these - for the Axis, historically, I guess it was JUST Norway and Crete. Crete might be worth rethinking - perhaps making it so that only paratroops and air-transportable light support can be deployed on the island, with heavier stuff coming by sea.With upgrading units being so easy in PzC2 (you get the prestige refunded?), it might be reasonable to expect the player to convert their infantry core temporarily into paras, as having auxiliaries do all get all the glory might be a little unsatisfying.
3. Grand encirclements and large scale battles: I loved the Kiev scenario in PzC2 (in the original PG, Kiev and Norway were probably my favorites). I thought the Kiev encirclement suffered in the GC from being broken up into three scenarios; while each scenario had decent gameplay, I lost the "big picture" . While there were several Kursk scenarios in the GC, I am glad Prokhorovka was captured in all its glory as a single scenario - not quite an encirclement, but great fun working with a three pronged attack. I know the GC tended to break up actions and be smaller scale than the original campaign, but personally, I think is good to keep the scale "fuzzy" and represent some big battles in their entirety, while using smaller scale for others. Another good example of a large scale battle is the Kharkov scenario where the Russians are storming the central city, with your armies coming from the flanks to encircle them. A fun element in these kinds of scenarios is balancing the strength of different parts of your line during setup - having enough in the centre to hold, while having enough power on the flanks to counter-attack.
4. Defensive fights: personally, I love turtling, so really liked the Winter East Front scenarios where you have to defend airfields or a rail line in a pocket.
5. Working with auxiliaries: I really like battles where you fight alongside auxiliaries, in part because these typically don't have top tier equipment and so you must make do with 75mm guns, obsolete tanks, infantry heavy forces etc. Scenarios where you have to "rescue" your allies are fun - like the Dutch scenario with the paras trapped at the airfields and Orel, which is both a defensive fight (guarding the northern city) and a rescue mission (shuttling reinforcements to help the Italians in the south).
What GC scenarios are other players most like to see represented in Axis Operations?
1. City fights: the Stalingrad scenarios were perhaps the high point of the series for me, fittingly given their significance in the war. The drive to Stalingrad was a blast - sweeping into the city, then getting bogged down in tough block by block fights. I really like the zoomed in "lane" design of streets - rows of hexes of clear terrain for tanks, with blocks of urban terrain for infantry. This came to the fore in the second Stalingrad scenario, which also had the fun air action over the river. The "lane" design made Panzer Corps feel almost like Squad Leader, rather than Panzer General, but in my opinion, worked really well. The more common representation of cities - say, Stalingrad in the PzC2 main campaign - as mainly a solid mass of urban terrain - is more realistic but isn't quite as fun, with the tanks just hanging back, not playing much of a role. (It's debatable, but I'd argue that tanks can be very effective in city fights - if well supported).
2. Air-sea-land fights: scenarios like Norway or Crete, where you have navies and paratroops are a blast. Sort of the opposite to city fights, I think these work best "zoomed out" - so you can choose to land your forces in completely different places (e.g. north or south Norway) and there is space for fun navy vs navy fights (where spotting is key). Part of the point about air and sea landings is that it gives the attackers a lot of flexibility about where to strike, so it is good if this is retained for the player. There probably can't be many of these - for the Axis, historically, I guess it was JUST Norway and Crete. Crete might be worth rethinking - perhaps making it so that only paratroops and air-transportable light support can be deployed on the island, with heavier stuff coming by sea.With upgrading units being so easy in PzC2 (you get the prestige refunded?), it might be reasonable to expect the player to convert their infantry core temporarily into paras, as having auxiliaries do all get all the glory might be a little unsatisfying.
3. Grand encirclements and large scale battles: I loved the Kiev scenario in PzC2 (in the original PG, Kiev and Norway were probably my favorites). I thought the Kiev encirclement suffered in the GC from being broken up into three scenarios; while each scenario had decent gameplay, I lost the "big picture" . While there were several Kursk scenarios in the GC, I am glad Prokhorovka was captured in all its glory as a single scenario - not quite an encirclement, but great fun working with a three pronged attack. I know the GC tended to break up actions and be smaller scale than the original campaign, but personally, I think is good to keep the scale "fuzzy" and represent some big battles in their entirety, while using smaller scale for others. Another good example of a large scale battle is the Kharkov scenario where the Russians are storming the central city, with your armies coming from the flanks to encircle them. A fun element in these kinds of scenarios is balancing the strength of different parts of your line during setup - having enough in the centre to hold, while having enough power on the flanks to counter-attack.
4. Defensive fights: personally, I love turtling, so really liked the Winter East Front scenarios where you have to defend airfields or a rail line in a pocket.
5. Working with auxiliaries: I really like battles where you fight alongside auxiliaries, in part because these typically don't have top tier equipment and so you must make do with 75mm guns, obsolete tanks, infantry heavy forces etc. Scenarios where you have to "rescue" your allies are fun - like the Dutch scenario with the paras trapped at the airfields and Orel, which is both a defensive fight (guarding the northern city) and a rescue mission (shuttling reinforcements to help the Italians in the south).
What GC scenarios are other players most like to see represented in Axis Operations?
