Slitherine

Looking at the AT tree I see 18 units – that’s quite a lot. But how many are really useful (or used)? Would like to hear what other people think about these units and which (and whether) you find use for them.

I have use of only one - the Elefant. There is not much point of using anything before that (or after for that matter). Now, my feeling is that the Elefant is overstrength - it just melts every Russian unit it encounters. In reality at Kursk it suffered terrible loses at the hand of the Russian infantry – it had no close support weapons! I know it has only 2 strength as close defense but even that is much. Should the AI infantry be modified to find Elefants as their primary target? Plus since we already have all these AT units shouldn’t there be place of another - the Ferdinand? Elefants that survived Kursk were reconstructed had supplied with close support weapons for the Italy campaign (and renamed Ferdinand’s).
Anyway I feel a lot of work has been done in vain because there is just no incentive (or need) to use the AT units.
In PG2 the most awaited unit was StuG III/F8 - the first to fire over two hexes, In PG 3d there were limited number of units per type so you had to buy AT in order to fill your core army.
Some rethinking might bring back the AT on the battlefield. Maybe loading/unloading the towed AT in the same turn so they become more offensive rather than completely defensive units?
Also making them available for purchase as auxiliary units during campaign. If AI is programmed to be more aggressive then once you win a city you simply have to buy auxiliary AT unit to place in that city for protection… That would also make the overall game more dynamic and fun… ?

Cheaper, great at defense and holding strategic points.
Not much in campaign, but definitely has value when you play online against other human players.

Well the Elephant and the jagdtiger can barge through just about any tracked unit so there quite useful and I love the heavy Russian vehicles but overall i find them to be one of the weaker classes in Panzer Corps. Obviously if your playing the campaign, which is offensive in nature, towed AT is not very useful. They are really just a measure to hold ground against armour when you have none of your own. The problem to me is there not that cost effective in the defence either. I prefer to play the historical scenarios online but have noticed that for some of the allies (France & Russia etc), even the low calibre AT guns cost nearly twice as much as infantry (which is far more versatile and might get away). Unless I'm swimming in money like in some of the 8 MP scenarios, I'd rarely consider buying them and if I had the cash I'd probably get something mobile anyway. I see lots of SPAT guns being purchased but almost never the towed variety.

I personal prefer the Jagdpanther. It may be weak if not experienced but it has a movement of six. If you overstrength the Jagdpanther to 14 its really powerful and can kill almost every weaker hard unit with one strike if not entrenched.

In the campaign they're useless.

In PG you could buy the 88 towed in the LC or France scenario? in 1940.
That was useful against forts, AA and towed AT's.

The 88 AA that can be used in AT mode in PC has such a low defence that it's not as usefull in that role unless the defending unit is totally suppressed.

What is the initiative penalty AT have when attacking tanks?

Could be useful if they were at most half the price of tanks (like in reality)

They are already cheaper and in case of Jagdtiger vs Tiger II they only cost HALF but you people might have a point that the early STUG III series is a bit underwhelming in Panzer Corps.

The main difference is that Tank Destroyers are not Infantry destroyers as they were in Panzer General.
But that makes sense, they are TANK destroyers after all.

The Elefant however is much better than in Panzer General where it was very slow and in general not as good.
I wonder a bit about the close defense and relatively good anti-infantry capabilities as the Elefant didn't have a machine gun initially and all that.

Regarding AT guns... we are not that often on the defense in campaigns. The problem is they are most effective when tanks attack them. Which they often just don't.

Hm... no real idea how to make them more attractive or if they need that much fixing at all.

If you hit the tanks with Stukas to weaken them, you can take out a tank with a good TD like JagPanther. Once the planes and TD`s get some experience you can really do some damage. The Stukas are a bargain also.

Only used them in MP. Maybe they have a higher entrenchment value?

Their value in campaign is somewhat limited because the campaign is generally not defensive in its nature, but they are quite useful for multiplayer, without a doubt.

Personally i've found the AT class a bit underpowered respect Panzer General 2.

We had too many complaints from players that said AA and AT were tough to kill. They were crying because they had to fight these units inorder to control cities so these units were toned down. I wish it would go back beck to the way it was as I never had a problem with it.

Perhaps somewhere in between these two ares is the sweet spot.