Slitherine

Hi,

I'm playing Axis operations - spain.

Do you recommend getting rid of the PAK 36's and getting something else instead? I am tempted. I find myself rarely using them effectively.

What about the scout plane?

And the two scout cars... maybe I just need one?

I usually get rid of both PAK. The 2 cm Flak 30 is doing a way better job, i like using two of them and use them as AT units if needed.

The Recon Plane is really helpful. More damage if you park it above an enemy, recon of course and you can protect your precious and vulnerable artillery pieces from enemy "fylbys" by simply flying above it.


Recon cars collect exp really fast and you can convert them later into tanks. I would keep em.

Ok, I'm gonna restart the campaign and follow that advice. I should have known, but it never dawned on me that the scout plane gave recon bonus.

Let's put it this way:
First, NEVER trust German AT units. Your AA guns can do much better than them as long as you are comparing equipments available in the same era. Nazi Germany never put efforts on developing bigger AT guns until they have been struck by the T-34 and KV series, which is already 1941/42.
Second, in SCW, YOU are the one with worse equipment. Not your enemies. Always try to capture enemy artillery, AA and armoured units at all costs you can take, and upgrade your own units in the same category to them. The only thing worth being put onto the battlefield your armoury can provide is your monoplane aircrafts.

I wouldn't give up on the Pak 37s completely. I don't use them in every mission, but they can be useful. You'll need the 2 cm FlaKs to provide AA support after all. Eventually those Pak 37s can be upgraded to more useful self-propelled AT guns.

The recon cars are good. Even better than the PzIs available at the beginning. I have had 4 to 6 recon cars during the SCW. As mentioned by Bee1976, they will get experience very quickly if you use them correctly. It should be pretty straightforward to get all those recons to 2.5 stars by the end of SCW. I usually convert one to a tank unit (T-26 or BT-5) in SCW, and another one to a tank in AO'39 after making it to 3 stars & capture enough Somuas or Char1Bs).

The PAK's are quite useful if you have the Aggressive Deployment trait. They're about the only thing that can attack and meaningfully damage enemy armor in clear terrain. Without Aggressive Deployment, not so much so.
For the SCW I find Aggressive Deployment as useful as the "Power of 4" traits (Trophies of War, Flexible Command, Deadly Grasp, and Perimeter Control). It allows you to attack with your PAK AT guns and apply artillery suppression on a same turn (move & fire) basis. Once mobile artillery & AT guns come around it becomes less relevant. For SCW it's quite potent though.

Well, i dislike using AT guns at all. As mentioned, during SCW i prefer using AA guns, 2 small 30cm which i convert to AT mode only if needed. And normally im using a "big one" sorry im unsure about the name, for pure AA.
At guns are cheap, but you dont have many core slots. And you dont have many units on the battlefield. So the "frontline" is always quite small. Two captured 15cm artillery pieces do a way better job. They provide artillery and At support, and in most missions this is enough to protect your frontline in SCW. If i really need more AT, i switch one of the small Flaks.

For me this is a better use of my precious coreslots. There are many ways to provide AT suppport. The AT-Support Hero is fun on a russian recon Car.
Or a Trubia with Camouflage, Artilley Support and AT-Support is a beast aswell.

So there is simply no reason for me to block my coreslots with pure AT Units even if i dont have the heros. But of course that the way i play the game and my playstyle.

Generally it depends. I keep both 3.7cm AT because they actually can DO something in SCW unlike later war. Plus, they only cost 1 slot for 12 strength. I usually get them to 1 star by the end of the campaign and that's without even fielding them in every scenario. Now, if you had a Camouflage hero, well, then I love to put them on AT. If you also have a Double Support hero...now you're in business. You've potentially got a killer especially if you are able to also add a Tank Killer hero. But how often do you get all the heroes you need/want to make such a deadly combo? Not often, especially so early in the game.

The 2cm AA Falk is very weak as an AT gun. But the 3.7 is weak as an FlaK gun, unless you are playing with Anti-Air Veteran. So, it really depends on several factors. I also try to form historical units for my own amusement, so each "division" must have one Panzerjäger unit in it.

Well I could just keep them in storage, couldn't I? The backside is they wouldn't build experience. It is true that they only require very few core slots, these units. Heavy artillery, which is my favorite (probably not alone) takes up so many...
I want to retry the whole operation in any case, and focus on capturing enemy units. I want that 15cm artillery.

Ther're not particularly useful in the 2nd half of SCW.

As long as we're on the subject of SCW & 152mm 15cm artillery: I'm presently playing a no artillery SCW campaign. I've played 4 or 5 campaigns and have never managed to effectively harvest the reinforcements in the eastern half of the 2nd scenario. This time I spammed out x5 recon cars, x5 panzers, x3 30 Flak AA, x5 fighters, x1 tac bomber & x1 PAK AT.

As of turn 7 Merida, I have 62 captured units in stock. Only in a no-artillery campaign do I manage to get such a dragon's horde of 152mm.

Edit: In normal games (when I run artillery) the dynamic seems to be that fielding slot heavy artillery actually prevents me from being able to effectively capture the 152's I want in scenario #2. LOL