Slitherine

There are so many great scenarios, and I have played all of them at least once by now, save for a tiny handful (the defenses of Germany, and Balaton/Konrad), I think it would be an interesting to discuss what our favorites were.

1. Stalingrad- I really adore this scenario, and at the moment, it is my absolute favorite. I love the sheer scope of it. I love how the battles around Stalingrad can really turn into a meat grinder, due to the strategically placed "Red Army Camp" behind the Volga. I appreciate the interesting scenario objectives, that one can bypass the Caucasus and still attain a marginal victory. My only beef is that even a decisive victory results in the historical Stalingrad disaster that destroyed 6th Army in the game's narrative.

2. Moscow '41 - Truthfully, I have something of a love-hate relationship with this scenario, but I do really appreciate it's design. I love the way it simulates how "General Winter" turned the approach to Moscow into a grinding slog. It really feels like a good abstraction of the way the battle has been described in the books I have read. The weather conditions make a decisive victory highly dependent on luck, I appreciate that in this case, since it so accurately reflects the real-life conditions.

3. USA Midwest - For an entirely fictitious battle, I find this one to be, more than any other scenario perhaps, just plain, simple fun. The massive armored battles are truly epic. The scenario I think is also in the sweet-spot of difficulty in that it is challenging but not outright brutal.

4. Low Countries- This scenario, more than most, is ripe with different strategic possibilities. You can adopt the Manstein plan and focus most of your strength in the south and attack through the Ardennes or you can adopt the Halder plan and and focus your strengh on overwhelming the north, or perhaps something else altogether. I like that a lot of different strategies are viable for this one.

5. Bagration- This choice may raise some eyebrows since it is one of the most hated scenarios for most, but I really found the struggle to try to hold the line on the Dnepr to be one of the most exhilarating experiences thus far in Panzer Corps. I understand the criticisms that it tends to kill an excessive amount of your core troops, but I actually appreciate that for this stage in the war, a Götterdämmerung scenario of sorts. But what I love most of all is how incredibly satisfying it is when you, against all odds, actually manage to grind the Soviet steamroller to a halt.

Fall Gelb - This one is loads of fun, and seems very close to history. You have flying columns doing a classic blitzkrieg in the south (Sedan), and a more traditional slug fest in the north at the Belgian forts.

Fall Marita - The invasion of Yugoslavia and Greece is a fun land-sea-air side show battle. It takes effective use of all arms, especially ships, planes, and paratroops, to win decisively in this one. Also, if you play your cards right with the Italians they can actually prevail against the upstart Greeks driving in to Albania. BTW, I was a maybe a tad disappointed that Fall Mercure (Crete) didn't follow this mission, but this is a minor complaint.

Barbarossa - Lighting war at its best, and you get one of the best payoffs for a decisive win in the entire game. You really do have to employ a nearly flawless blitzkrieg strategy to win a decisive victory here; bypassing Soviet strong points wherever possible and making a beeline for the objective cities. It is well worth it though, because a decisive win in Barbarossa enables you to do the much easier Operation Typhoon starting in August rather than in October. On the flip side, opting for Kiev instead of an early Typhoon may be a viable option because it's an easy and fun scenario and allows you an extra opportunity to build up experience and prestige. Of course the down side to this is that if you are then better prepared for Typhoon, so are the Russians (to say nothing of Generals 'Mud' and 'Snow'.) Also, although the moderately heavy Soviet air presence in Barbarossa is maybe a bit inaccurate, without it the scenario would probably be too easy. Finally, Dnepropetrovsk is a bitch!

Fall Blau - The most fun I've ever had with the drive on Stalingrad and the Caucasus. It is historically accurate too. The Russians put up a good fight at Voronezh and Rostov, and Stalingrad can be something of a meat grinder if you aren't careful. Also, the Caucasus campaign is as much a race against time as it is fighting sporadic Russian resistance. Finally, gotta love that huge siege gun von Manstein used against Sevastopol. After that city falls I move it up by rail to help out at Stalingrad.

Kursk - Most of the Kursk games I've seen are big and tedious. With the Panzercorps system though, it is a blast! I didn't experience an apocalyptic Prokhorovka tank battle when I played it, but the player must plan his attacks wisely to crack the tough Russian defenses, just as the Germans had to do historically.

The Gustav Line (Italy 1944) - This was one of my most satisfying decisive wins. Although the Allies initially hit you pretty hard, once you get your defenses organized and crush the Anzio beachhead the player will have great fun driving the Allies out of central Italy. Alas, coming off this great win, I was taught a serious lesson in humility with France '44.

Although I've not played them all yet, at the moment the only two scenarios I loathe are Sealion '42 and France '44. In Sealion '42 the Brits are much better prepared for you than they were in 1940, making the channel crossing extremely hazardous. With France '44 the enormous Allied air armada will wreck havoc with you unless you have a large buffed fighter force to counter it. Finally, I would also mention that I've not yet had the pleasure of playing the infamous 'Destruction of Army Group Center' (Bagration) scenario.

BTW, if anyone wants a good read on the Eastern Front, I don't think you can do better than Paul Carel's two epic works: Hitler Moves East and Scorched Earth. As military history reads go few writers can touch Carel. In fact I think Carel did a better job with the Eastern Front than Shelby Foote did with the American Civil War, and I think Foote is great.

A good topic. My favorite scenario:

1. Poland. From this the game begins. Nothing much to say;)

2. Low Countries - the game really gives a sense of blitzkrieg.

3. Operation Barbarossa - the same reason as the previous one.

4. Kiev. A small but interesting scenario in which the shock group must divide the enemy. Ie There is an interesting tactical goal, and not just "grab all the key objectives."

5. Kursk. During the tense situation from beginning to end. But I must point out the game for the Red Army did not impress. Because the Wehrmacht almost immediately buy six tigers in the central direction and went to the center while I stopped the advance on the flanks. If he bought 3 tiger on each flank, I think the game would have been interesting ...

From unloved scripts - all scenarion in the U.S. (not "inspired" - it's trash). Defensive scenarios in the basic campaign, I was not playing (except for Overlord), may be some of them I would not like too

Eltare wrote:A good topic. My favorite scenario:

1. Poland. From this the game begins. Nothing much to say;)

5. Kursk. During the tense situation from beginning to end. But I must point out the game for the Red Army did not impress. Because the Wehrmacht almost immediately buy six tigers in the central direction and went to the center while I stopped the advance on the flanks. If he bought 3 tiger on each flank, I think the game would have been interesting ...

all scenarion in the U.S. (not "inspired" - it's trash)

Good post Eltare. Yes, I actually like Poland as well. It is very conveniently a nice small scale scenario to get you going after the tutorial. Concerning Kursk, you had six tigers???? Wow! I believe all I had in that one was one tiger, one panther, and about 4 Mark IV's. Although I won with that force, it was of course not a decisive win. Concerning the US scenarios, the designers did seem to be stretching credibility a bit. Still in all, I can't seem to get better than a marginal victory in Sealion '40, so I've not yet played those battles myself.

I think he's talking about scenarios, not campaign. The Kursk scenario gives the German player 4000 starting prestige with a healthy per turn income, so six tigers more than affordable, while the campaign paths that lead to Kursk reward half that amount of prestige.

Kerensky rights. Speaking of "6 tigers" I mean the scenario (not the campaign), when I played for the Red Army. And besides prestige 4000, probably influenced by the fact that I was playing this scenario at the "fieldmarshal" difficulty .

Thanks for the clarification guys. Having said that, I must confess that I've not yet played an individual scenario. IMHO it seems that the battles would be much more interesting when played as part of a campaign rather than as stand-alones, though again I do agree that many of the scenarios are very good.

MarsRobert wrote:Thanks for the clarification guys. Having said that, I must confess that I've not yet played an individual scenario. IMHO it seems that the battles would be much more interesting when played as part of a campaign rather than as stand-alones, though again I do agree that many of the scenarios are very good.

Most scenarios are much easier in the Campaign since your Core army is more suited to your playstyle and you're not encumbered with inferior equipment (such as using 10.5cm artillery in 1943 for example).

Fimconte wrote:Most scenarios are much easier in the Campaign since your Core army is more suited to your playstyle and you're not encumbered with inferior equipment (such as using 10.5cm artillery in 1943 for example).

Nothing wrong with 10.5s - they do just as good a job as any artillery once range 3 is reached. After all, the main job of an arty is reducing the pesky entrenchment level, and suppressing strength points to prepare for the kill. (Hint: Actually killing off the target is not something you should prioritize in your arty!)

But yes, you're absolutely right. Whichever German auxiliary commander that purchased weak-ass units like Marders that quite bluntly are a prestige drain and a waste of a perfectly good hex, clearly haven't played this game!