Lodz report (scenario 3)

nikivdd · Post by **nikivdd** » Fri Sep 30, 2011 9:48 pm

Third scenario of this evening and the last one for today.
I must say that i got a deja-vu with the mission objectives. Keep 3 aux units alive. That made me think of Panzer General 3D.
I like such a missions where you have to protect certain units, fend off the enemy who wants to eliminate them and send in a relief force. Just brilliant.
At the beginning i upgraded 2 units: 1 PzIA to Pz(38)tA and 1 Wehr inf to Pioniere inf. And i also received my first SE unit.
The general tactic was rather straightforward. I split my core in 2: one circumventing Lodz from the North (bg north) , one from the South (bg south) to assist the aux units under attack.
My whole airforce was sent immediately towards the aux units. I gave the aux units only one assignment (until bg south arrives): to capture and hold the airfield (21,19).
I fended off the counter-attackers (turns 1-4) and my airforce gave them a hell of a beating. When bg south arrived i just had to finish them off. Only 1 aux unit was eliminated.
There was a scary moment when i detected enemy units north of Lodz (around Kutno) but they just sat there and did nothing. Either they are a distraction or...
By turn 8 i surrounded Lodz and started to attack the enemy from the rear. At turn 10 i captured all of Lodz and the city of Lowicz (good jam they make there...).
I didn't lose core units and i ended with 972 prestige points. DV.
For me personally the best scenario sofar, well balanced and the enemy made a good effort to tilt my army out of balance but didn't succeed. My core units all have 1 or 2 stars now.

Got a remark here also. In scenario Poznan the city of Konin is an objective that needs to be taken (and so will get a german flag). In this scenario the city of Konin starts with a Polish flag....just wondering.

charonjr · Post by **charonjr** » Fri Sep 30, 2011 11:27 pm

Got another elite unit, this time a simple infantry - if I keep being lucky I will have to start disbanding them soon since I actually want some tanks there. No core slots left so I started with 864 prestige after reinforcing my units (upgraded my remaining PzIA to IB).

I send my airforce (3 TAC, 1 FTR) towards the aux units as well together with my 2 remaining tanks - at turn 3 the aux units were essentially save.

The heavy forces around Kutno came as a surprise and I decided to try to end this game before all the turns were up before they might get any ideas about attacking me in force - DV at turn 12, did not lose a core unit this time. Ended with 2032 prestige which feels a bit high (didnt refinforce any of the aux units and kept some of my core units that got low behind my lines to reinforce them only at the start of the next scenario).

Again a nice map I think, especially thoes units around Kutno should give good players something to do with their remaining turns. BTW, do those guys attack at all? If no this would be bad for the replay value since you could just try to farm some XP from them.

CharonJr

monkspider · Post by **monkspider** » Sat Oct 01, 2011 3:02 am

This scenario was a lot of fun, my favorite one yet. I really am getting a vibe that all the scenarios in this DLC is showing a higher level of creativity and craftsmanship. I like that you are moving away from time-based conditions for decisive victories. it was a lot of fun to try to keep those 10th panzer army units alive, and a harrowing challenge at times. I lost a recon unit, and nearly lost a Panzer I.

It was also awesome to see the counter-attack force starting to get built up around Kutno that you will actually face in the next scenario. I think it would be awesome if the game acknowledged insane players who actually manage to somehow destroy that foce during the Lodz scenario, maybe a secret medal or hero unit that gets awarded.

The one thing I noticed is that by this point, I think players are getting more prestige than they know what to do with. I am playing on Colonel, which is admittedly lower than what I normally play on, but there really is not much for the player to do, upgrade-wise, and it seems like the core is not getting much bigger between battles. Which is fine of course, but it seems like the rate of prestige might need to be adjusted downward slightly.

Also, it seems like there are an increased number of unwise AI counterattacks where they attack from a well-defended city or even leave the city to make an attack of questionable merit.

charonjr · Post by **charonjr** » Sat Oct 01, 2011 7:31 am

One tbing I have forgotten earlier - it would be nice if an air superiority status could be included in the later briefings as well. I assume that it will last throughout the campaign, but an indication in the later briefings would be nice.

dbhardy · Post by **dbhardy** » Sat Oct 01, 2011 9:19 am

Agree with the comment re: Polish units at the northern end of the map in Lodz (scenario 3). They don't do anything; I assumed they would react once the main objective (Lodz) was attacked, but that did not happen.

Otherwise, a great map and interesting change of objectives

kjeld111 · Post by **kjeld111** » Sat Oct 01, 2011 2:06 pm

Interesting scenario here too, and a nice completely new objective : rescuing the 10th army. The objective was not too hard, I could easily fend off the enemy units with the help of air support, never felt that the auxiliaries were in a dire danger (colonel level only however). The briefing text make it clear on how we are supposed to tackle the siege of Lodz, it's very nice that this is actually the way you should do it in game. Another thing too : I did never "use" a large part of the map, focusing only on the objective (and a whole lot of enemy units north of the map are never used by the AI either). Difficulty slightly on the easy side (especially compared to the previous map).

Same remarks as for the other scenarios : overstrength non elite (star) units (both aux and enemies), no prestige gain at the end of turn (which is actually nice, you have no incentive to "stall" deliberately). Noticed I could capture a city hex with a recon unit, is it in the 1.01 patch or the DLC ?

Sleezly · Post by **Sleezly** » Sat Oct 01, 2011 5:25 pm

I didn't do so well in this scenario after sighting the forces in the north i got a little distracted expecting a counterattack by these forces. Got an MV but gonna try again realizing these forces dont attack with the exception of 1 polish inf! Very interesting scenario though!

Longasc · Post by **Longasc** » Sat Oct 01, 2011 9:31 pm

I second nikivdd's observation that Konin has strangely enough a Polish flag at the start of this scenario.

What really puzzled me was that the strong northern force of this Cavalry General Kutrezba didn't move at all.

The other thing is, prestige is too plentiful, even at Field Marshal level.
(Unless the following scenarios are so hard that it is needed to compensate?)

Kerensky · Post by **Kerensky** » Sat Oct 01, 2011 11:59 pm

Good catch on Konin.

As for the Polish at Kutno, they all activate in the next scenario. Piatek.

However this issue seems to be a reoccurring issue, so expect it to get addressed for sure. It should be more than possible to maintain the current foreshadowing I want, but also have these units do more than absolutely nothing at all.

snakepliskin2010 · Post by **snakepliskin2010** » Sun Oct 02, 2011 5:11 pm

Playing the 39 Campaign...

Like the fact that decisive victory isn't a different time and the variety of objectives

Scenario 3: Used recon early up north to spot the force around Kutno, expcted a trigger at some point also..in ether case it does tie down forces whether to screen against them. What happens if you attack them?

Also I had taken all the towns around Glowno, and then magically it started reproducing TKS (had up to 5 by the end of the game), unles they were coming from the east, I had never seen units appear on the map like this.

Kerensky · Post by **Kerensky** » Mon Oct 03, 2011 1:12 am

<p>Welcome back from your Danzig excursion, Herr General. While you were reuniting Prussia with Germany, the Polish have made some marginal gains and retaken the city of Konin, but this is trivial compared to the blow your new task will deal to them!</p>
<p>That task, of course, is to capture the Polish city of Lodz....

Lodz briefing has been re-written to explain the status of Konin.

El_Condoro · Post by **El_Condoro** » Tue Oct 04, 2011 9:38 am

Didn't record my starting prestige for this but I think about 1800.

1. Lodz briefing has been re-written according to Kerensky but these are the errors I noticed in the one I played: "the centrally located Lodz" should just be "centrally located Lodz"; "as well enabling" should be "as well as enabling"; "from the 10th Army" could be "of the 10th Army"; "has" should be "have".
2. Got another SE unit.
3. Lodz strongpoints don't attack - should be set to Defend, Active IMO.
4. AI bought a new unit and placed it at Kutno with the horde. A waste?
5. Nasty surprise! Fortunately it occurred in the last turn when it was too late for them but a Polish unit turned up adjacent to an undefended objective - if it had been able to retake it I may have actually lost this scenario!

DV, lost 1 cavalry unit and 1 aux, start Piatek with 3245 prestige.

VPaulus · Post by **VPaulus** » Fri Oct 07, 2011 12:45 am

This time didn't lost any unit and got a DV on the last turn. Wasn't able to take down Kutno.
Like El_Condoro said, Lodz strongpoints don't attack. I too think they should set to Defend Active. Probably it would delay me one turn, which would make me not be able to have a DV.
Anyway, great scenario.

This is not fair. I still wasn't able to start playing Deus Ex: Human Revolution, The Witcher II and the infamous Dragon Age II. Next month will be Skyrim. Thanks to Panzer Corps, my gaming backlog is reaching outstanding proportions. What can I do? Glad to know that Diablo III, only next year. Now I'm wishing, that the developers from other titles, postpone their releases.

Kerensky · Post by **Kerensky** » Fri Oct 07, 2011 12:58 am

VPaulus wrote:This time didn't lost any unit and got a DV on the last turn. Wasn't able to take down Kutno.
Like El_Condoro said, Lodz strongpoints don't attack. I too think they should set to Defend Active. Probably it would delay me one turn, which would make me not be able to have a DV.
Anyway, great scenario.

This is not fair. I still wasn't able to start playing Deus Ex: Human Revolution, The Witcher II and the infamous Dragon Age II. Next month will be Skyrim. Thanks to Panzer Corps, my gaming backlog is reaching outstanding proportions. What can I do? Glad to know that Diablo III, only next year. Now I'm wishing, that the developers from other titles, postpone their releases.

Many fortifications are often meant to be bypassed not destroyed. This'll be better reflected in the update.

Deus Ex is a great game lasted me about 90 hours because I spent a lot of time achievement hunting. I've watched Witcher II played, and I guess it's alright, but not really my kind of game. Dragon Age II I understand is a really dumbed down game compared to the original. All in all, these games are great, but they're just temporary games. You play them for a few days or a week, then you get pretty tired of them and move on to the next game. The wonderful thing about Panzer Corps, at least I think, is that it doesn't ever really get old. It has a much longer shelf life than all those other games combined.

Once I finished Deus Ex, I really dont touch it anymore, it just take up hard drive space. I may put Panzer Corp off to the side for a bit, but it's a game you can always come back to. I dunno when Diablo III comes out, that game might be a serious contender. If they don't screw it up like they did with Starcraft II anyways.

VPaulus · Post by **VPaulus** » Fri Oct 07, 2011 1:13 am

I agree that the replaybility factor of a game like Panzer Corps is bigger than those games mentioned. Well, DX:HR I might end replay it once, like I've done with the original. DAII, if it wasn't a dumb down version, could also be replayed one more, maybe.
But 90 hours with DX:HR! You must have explored every inch. Interesting, I was counting spending 40 hours. Hmmm.

Kerensky · Post by **Kerensky** » Fri Oct 07, 2011 1:21 am

I take my gaming, very, very seriously. When I say I finish a game, I really do finish it and by finish it I mean play it to death. There is no playing Panzer Corps to death. Especially once we get these DLC campaigns out, and their follow ups shortly afterwards.