Finished Campaign on FM, great game (SPOILERS)
Posted: Tue Sep 13, 2011 10:42 pm
I enjoyed this game immensely, it seems to be well balanced and truly easy to learn, hard to master. Some thoughts on select scenarios from the campaign on Field Marshall difficulty (SPOILERS):
Sealion 40
An interesting scenario indeed, I had 5 core Bf-109s and 3 strategic bombers core, in addition to the auxiliary units it was a sufficient air force. I loss 1-2 transports to the British fleet, but my bombers made quick work of the Royal Navy. Interesting to note the one aux Ju-88 I left in the open was quickly shot down by the royal air force. There were some intense air battles, but I seemed to get lucky with my air force which often inflicted 6-8 damage while taking little in return. London was so heavy fortified that it took most of my turns to take. A bridge engineer along the Thames was critical for reaching the upper northeast British city and for flanking London itself. I had to bypass several secondary objectives and even so just barely achieved decisive victory. Very well done scenario.
Moscow 41
Not a very hard scenario, probably because I got very lucky with the weather. There was almost no snow or continuous rain, and I think there were 1 or 2 turns of muddy terrain total. The red army was truly well entrenched, and the surprise counterattack by T-34s from the southeast was interesting. Still, I felt that the opposition wasn’t that bad, and really the weather should be made almost continuous rain then snow. I was looking forward to the Russian winter halting my panzers at the gates of Moscow, but alas I had to purposely get marginal victory in this scenario by delaying the capture of Moscow by 2 turns. I suppose if the weather was made much worse decisive victory could well be impossible, since in bad terrain units move so much slower.
Kursk
Frankly I was expecting far more Russian tanks to oppose me, and even more tiers of defense as was historically true. It seems once you penetrate the outer fortifications, this scenario is not too difficult. Even so, I only barely made decisive victory due to a clever counterattack by Russian forces at one of my western victory hexes, because I left a secondary city uncaptured. Even without knowing about the counterattack I still made DV. Tigers and Panthers were so superior to anything the Russians had, and I had enough prestige to upgrade all my tanks to those units. It was in this scenario that I learned the value of mobile artillery like Hummel, Wespe. Those units are very useful against soft targets. I also learned about how retreats and surrenders work exactly. A unit that is completely suppressed/destroyed will retreat in the opposite direction of the attacker if possible. If it is completely surrounded, it cannot retreat and will surrender. As long as a unit has more than 1 entrenchment, it cannot retreat or surrender. These mechanics are actually very important and not in the manual, which I felt should have mentioned how they work exactly.
Moscow 43
This scenario seemed quite easy frankly, at least with mostly Tigers and Panthers. Historically the Russians kept a huge reserve force to the east of Kursk, which they used to counterattack after Operation Citadel fell. Sure there were some nasty tank destroyers in the front tier, but they were easily brushed aside by Tigers/Panthers or led into close terrain and destroyed by infantry. Again, I was expecting there to be like 2-3 times the Russian armor I ended up facing, so DV is easily doable.
And then we get into the USA scenarios, which I have nothing by praise for, and the difficulty seemed just about right.
USA East Coast
I put all my transports in the northern deployment sector, and it took me quite a few turns to get them on shore. I also had 6 Me-262s, nearly all with 1-2 heroes and 2-3 stars, which I felt was invincible. Imagine my shock with the American air force came out and actually destroyed two in the first few turns. The American air response was very impressive. I was initially surprised by how few defenders there were in New York, Washington etc, but soon enough there were two armored counterattacks against me, one in the north and one in the south. It was interesting, but my armor was vastly superior and I easily crushed these columns. Fort Knox was a nice strongpoint, it took me some time to seize that objective. I noticed several victory hexes in the south were unguarded, and if I had sent recon units in those directions sooner I might have been able to make DV. I was short by 2 turns I think. Also, perhaps if I landed units in the southern deployment area I might’ve also been able to get DV. I lost quite a few units in this scenario, which was a nice twist.
USA Midwest
I probably should have noticed that because there was plenty of time for DV something fishy might be going on. Initially I was cruising along, using mobile artillery + panzers to get past the first line of defenses. I ran into some armored opposition in the south and the middle, but was fairly easy to brush aside. But then I approached Omaha, and out came Patton’s Armor HQ, and imagine my shock when it flat out destroyed one of my 10 str Panthers. Surrounding it was quite a few American armor units too. I was pleasantly surprised by the American opposition. There were I think 2 more groups of armor in the north, and a Canadian counter attack, which I barely stopped by pulling my recon units and a Panther back just in time. It is interesting to note that while mobile artillery is not very useful against tanks, the towed artillery are much more effective. Stukas, despite their cheap price, are also surprisingly useful against armor. Ultimately I often used the rivers to my advantage against American armor, hiding my artillery on the opposite bank of a river and suppressing American tanks while attacking from a different direction with my panzers. Bridge engineers were very valuable. Very well designed scenario.
USA West Coast
At this point, I thought surely the American Air Force was finished after all the victories I won. I was down to 3 veteran Me-262s and 3 fresh ones, but I felt confident. But there were so many American fighters. If it weren’t for two lucky “ambushes” by my planes when the Americans tried moving them past Salt Lake City AB, I would’ve probably lost most of my air force. Initial opposition was fairly light, and it was not until I reached Los Angeles that I realized where the bulk of the American forces were concentrated. First the outer ring defenses with Paratroopers and AT guns, then the city itself with the “Secret Service” 5 star 15 str super unit, many 13 str elite defenders, and and quite a few M26s and Wolverines left. Heh, so much for the American Armor Corps being destroyed in the Midwest. It took many, many turns of brutal fighting to capture LA. In the north, I was actually expecting quite a few defenders around Seattle and I had sent a lot of units in that direction. Fortunately I scouted ahead with weakened fighters and realized the opposition wasn’t that bad, so I split off part of my units to help flank San Francisco from the north, which was the correct decision, not sure whether I would’ve made DV without that. There was a counterattack by American forces down the Rockies, which I delayed with my auxiliary units until I could split off a panther and several infantry to rush back to defeat it. Extremely fun scenario, I think I made DV with one turn to spare and absolutely no prestige left.
The American scenarios were truly great fun, although personally I was hoping for more epic battles on the Eastern Front.
And then the “named” difficulties appeared, kudos to the designers for including more challenges, a very nice touch, because I didn’t think FM was too bad. I beat most of the scenarios on DV on the first try without spoiler information.
I started playing on Rommel difficulty now, and wow, the game seems to truly start here. I had to apply all the lessons I learned and advance cautiously with artillery support and perfect positioning of units and getting maximum massive attack bonuses. It wasn’t too hard to get Poland DV and Norway DV. There was so little prestige I had to think about whether I wanted to spend 15 of them to reinforce infantry units. And now I am on Low Countries with 950 prestige, one Panzer IIC and 1 Bf-109, 1 Bf-110, and 2 strategic bombers, 2 artillery, and lots of infantry… There is no way I can even upgrade my units and buy enough panzers/Bf-109s or even fill up my core, much less elite reinforce or overstrength or even buy trucks for all my infantry… I will have to disband and cleverly manage my units. The only thing going for me are two SE Wehrmacht infantry equipped with half-tracks that I was given. I desperately do need these units down in the Ardennes. This will truly be an interesting challenge, and I do feel a bit like Rommel, having to do the impossible with some few units at my disposable.
Sealion 40
An interesting scenario indeed, I had 5 core Bf-109s and 3 strategic bombers core, in addition to the auxiliary units it was a sufficient air force. I loss 1-2 transports to the British fleet, but my bombers made quick work of the Royal Navy. Interesting to note the one aux Ju-88 I left in the open was quickly shot down by the royal air force. There were some intense air battles, but I seemed to get lucky with my air force which often inflicted 6-8 damage while taking little in return. London was so heavy fortified that it took most of my turns to take. A bridge engineer along the Thames was critical for reaching the upper northeast British city and for flanking London itself. I had to bypass several secondary objectives and even so just barely achieved decisive victory. Very well done scenario.
Moscow 41
Not a very hard scenario, probably because I got very lucky with the weather. There was almost no snow or continuous rain, and I think there were 1 or 2 turns of muddy terrain total. The red army was truly well entrenched, and the surprise counterattack by T-34s from the southeast was interesting. Still, I felt that the opposition wasn’t that bad, and really the weather should be made almost continuous rain then snow. I was looking forward to the Russian winter halting my panzers at the gates of Moscow, but alas I had to purposely get marginal victory in this scenario by delaying the capture of Moscow by 2 turns. I suppose if the weather was made much worse decisive victory could well be impossible, since in bad terrain units move so much slower.
Kursk
Frankly I was expecting far more Russian tanks to oppose me, and even more tiers of defense as was historically true. It seems once you penetrate the outer fortifications, this scenario is not too difficult. Even so, I only barely made decisive victory due to a clever counterattack by Russian forces at one of my western victory hexes, because I left a secondary city uncaptured. Even without knowing about the counterattack I still made DV. Tigers and Panthers were so superior to anything the Russians had, and I had enough prestige to upgrade all my tanks to those units. It was in this scenario that I learned the value of mobile artillery like Hummel, Wespe. Those units are very useful against soft targets. I also learned about how retreats and surrenders work exactly. A unit that is completely suppressed/destroyed will retreat in the opposite direction of the attacker if possible. If it is completely surrounded, it cannot retreat and will surrender. As long as a unit has more than 1 entrenchment, it cannot retreat or surrender. These mechanics are actually very important and not in the manual, which I felt should have mentioned how they work exactly.
Moscow 43
This scenario seemed quite easy frankly, at least with mostly Tigers and Panthers. Historically the Russians kept a huge reserve force to the east of Kursk, which they used to counterattack after Operation Citadel fell. Sure there were some nasty tank destroyers in the front tier, but they were easily brushed aside by Tigers/Panthers or led into close terrain and destroyed by infantry. Again, I was expecting there to be like 2-3 times the Russian armor I ended up facing, so DV is easily doable.
And then we get into the USA scenarios, which I have nothing by praise for, and the difficulty seemed just about right.
USA East Coast
I put all my transports in the northern deployment sector, and it took me quite a few turns to get them on shore. I also had 6 Me-262s, nearly all with 1-2 heroes and 2-3 stars, which I felt was invincible. Imagine my shock with the American air force came out and actually destroyed two in the first few turns. The American air response was very impressive. I was initially surprised by how few defenders there were in New York, Washington etc, but soon enough there were two armored counterattacks against me, one in the north and one in the south. It was interesting, but my armor was vastly superior and I easily crushed these columns. Fort Knox was a nice strongpoint, it took me some time to seize that objective. I noticed several victory hexes in the south were unguarded, and if I had sent recon units in those directions sooner I might have been able to make DV. I was short by 2 turns I think. Also, perhaps if I landed units in the southern deployment area I might’ve also been able to get DV. I lost quite a few units in this scenario, which was a nice twist.
USA Midwest
I probably should have noticed that because there was plenty of time for DV something fishy might be going on. Initially I was cruising along, using mobile artillery + panzers to get past the first line of defenses. I ran into some armored opposition in the south and the middle, but was fairly easy to brush aside. But then I approached Omaha, and out came Patton’s Armor HQ, and imagine my shock when it flat out destroyed one of my 10 str Panthers. Surrounding it was quite a few American armor units too. I was pleasantly surprised by the American opposition. There were I think 2 more groups of armor in the north, and a Canadian counter attack, which I barely stopped by pulling my recon units and a Panther back just in time. It is interesting to note that while mobile artillery is not very useful against tanks, the towed artillery are much more effective. Stukas, despite their cheap price, are also surprisingly useful against armor. Ultimately I often used the rivers to my advantage against American armor, hiding my artillery on the opposite bank of a river and suppressing American tanks while attacking from a different direction with my panzers. Bridge engineers were very valuable. Very well designed scenario.
USA West Coast
At this point, I thought surely the American Air Force was finished after all the victories I won. I was down to 3 veteran Me-262s and 3 fresh ones, but I felt confident. But there were so many American fighters. If it weren’t for two lucky “ambushes” by my planes when the Americans tried moving them past Salt Lake City AB, I would’ve probably lost most of my air force. Initial opposition was fairly light, and it was not until I reached Los Angeles that I realized where the bulk of the American forces were concentrated. First the outer ring defenses with Paratroopers and AT guns, then the city itself with the “Secret Service” 5 star 15 str super unit, many 13 str elite defenders, and and quite a few M26s and Wolverines left. Heh, so much for the American Armor Corps being destroyed in the Midwest. It took many, many turns of brutal fighting to capture LA. In the north, I was actually expecting quite a few defenders around Seattle and I had sent a lot of units in that direction. Fortunately I scouted ahead with weakened fighters and realized the opposition wasn’t that bad, so I split off part of my units to help flank San Francisco from the north, which was the correct decision, not sure whether I would’ve made DV without that. There was a counterattack by American forces down the Rockies, which I delayed with my auxiliary units until I could split off a panther and several infantry to rush back to defeat it. Extremely fun scenario, I think I made DV with one turn to spare and absolutely no prestige left.
The American scenarios were truly great fun, although personally I was hoping for more epic battles on the Eastern Front.
And then the “named” difficulties appeared, kudos to the designers for including more challenges, a very nice touch, because I didn’t think FM was too bad. I beat most of the scenarios on DV on the first try without spoiler information.
I started playing on Rommel difficulty now, and wow, the game seems to truly start here. I had to apply all the lessons I learned and advance cautiously with artillery support and perfect positioning of units and getting maximum massive attack bonuses. It wasn’t too hard to get Poland DV and Norway DV. There was so little prestige I had to think about whether I wanted to spend 15 of them to reinforce infantry units. And now I am on Low Countries with 950 prestige, one Panzer IIC and 1 Bf-109, 1 Bf-110, and 2 strategic bombers, 2 artillery, and lots of infantry… There is no way I can even upgrade my units and buy enough panzers/Bf-109s or even fill up my core, much less elite reinforce or overstrength or even buy trucks for all my infantry… I will have to disband and cleverly manage my units. The only thing going for me are two SE Wehrmacht infantry equipped with half-tracks that I was given. I desperately do need these units down in the Ardennes. This will truly be an interesting challenge, and I do feel a bit like Rommel, having to do the impossible with some few units at my disposable.
Then someone mentioned satellites 