Slitherine

Defensive missions are cool but out of experience, designing such a mission is difficult because the AI attacks like a blind man straight to the VH and doesn't use artillery to back up the attacking units. I would never send a unit in a truck blindly forwards. Like that polish truck on turn 16, which was ofcourse an easy picking. If at least some units would try to cross the river south of Ozorkow (7,16) things might have been more complicated.
During the deployment phase i reinforced the troops, upgraded the other PzIA to a Pz(38 )t and with the extra core slot, i bought a Bf110c. In my opinion, both good decisions. I also received my 2nd SE unit. Eventually i will disband the infantry SE units, because i prefer SE armour units. I placed the most experienced infantry on the city deployment hexes along the river, but i didn't put any units on the bridges. After the first turn i spread the units (deployed in the south) along the river bank, fully taking advantage of the terrain, and put an armour unit and/or AT unit next to every bridge VH. The first attack wave was repulsed after two turns, they took the bridges but those units were quickly destroyed. On turn 6 the first polish fighter appeared that was destroyed by my 12 strength Bf109e, even so the one that appeared on turn 15. On turns 7, 12 and 16 more attack waves came but i used the same tactic as on turn 1 (air attack, artillery attack, ground unit attack). After turn 5 i send my recon unit for a drive behind the river and managed to take cities there, to add to the prestige pool and to have a look what might be coming next. It was a risk but it paid off. On turn 17 the 15th Ju87B got its first hero of war. During that turn i also saw a polish Renault R35 tank...that unit was not present in the v1.01 vanilla version.
Overall a nice scenario but perhaps by experience, the enemy never brought my units into trouble. I didn't lose a single unit and ended the scenario with a DV. End prestige=1249 points.
After 4 missions, this is my core: 1 Wehr Inf (**), 1 Gebirgsjäger (**), 2 Pioniere (1 * and 1 **), 1 SE infantry (*), 1 SE Gebirgsjäger (-), 3 Pz(38)tA (1 * and 2 **), 1 3.7cm AT (-),
1 10,5cm Art (**), 1 Sturmpz I (**), 2 Bf109e (both **), 2 Ju87B (both **) and 1 Bf110c (*).
I'm very satisfied with the variety of missions sofar.

Hehe, looks like we are pretty much playing at the same time/pace

Piatek - Colonel level, coming form a DV

Since I have 2432 prestige by now I did upgrade my remaining PzI and PzII to Pz38s. I got another elite Gebirgsjäger (3rd one, was the percentage raised or am I just lucky?), but will disband this one.

I bought a 3rd Pz38 and a 3rd Stuka as mobile firefighters, but still had 1086 prestige left after elite reinforcements (too much prestige from previous scenarios IMO).

Lost my Pioniere holding a bridge to the initial onslaught (replaced them with another 10,5cm), but after this I focused on defending behind the river and things got easier, especially due to my heavy artillery (ran into ammo issues which is good actually) and 3 Stukas.

The Polish airforce showing up was a nasty (but nice) surprise, since I assumed that I still had air superiority, had to deal with it with my Bf110C since I left the Bf109 at home again.

Lost one of my Pz38s to the 2nd wave - got too cocky here - but still had more than enough prestige to buy another one (808p left after the purchase).

In the NE I started an offensive of my own and around Slezyn I met some Polish forces (3rd wave?), but despite parking my units right next to them they did not attack. IMO they should be triggered by proximity and not just when their wave is up. Here I was able to attack them one at a time, which is bad. At turn 10 they seem to have activated, which was a nasty/nice surprise again, but they have already lost 2 units at this point.

At turn 11 I left my defensive positions and started to attack - and lost an Infantrie while rusing towards Kutno, replacing it with another Pz38 .

By turn 16 I controlled all objective, but about 7 Polish units (including 2 aircraft) were left.

At turn 18 I encountered something strange, a new Polish General spawned in Kutno, despite it being under German controll. Maybe there should be a check if it is even possible for the AI to spawn its (most likely programmed) reinforcements.

Due to me having to rebuy a bunch of units and using elite reinforcements fairly liberaly I am down to 600 prestige by the end of this scenario (DV) which feels ok.

Overall: I think moving to close to the reserve units for the next waves should immediatly trigger them into action. I actually liked all of the units for the next wave activating together, this made me pay dearly with some of my units when I got too aggressive. And finally I have to say that I love being able to play a defensive scenario once in a while. The AI should have more artillery support and use it to try to cross the river IMO, attacking like they did they were just easy pickings.

CharonJr

This was a fun scenario, perhaps my favorite thus far. I also think it was the most challenging one of the campaign that I have played yet. I like how you can see the units for this offensive start to form in the staging area in the previous mission. I managed to get a decisive victory, but it was pretty down to the wire. There were some objectives that were in AI hands during the last couple turns that I had to get back. A good representation of the battle of the Bzura.

Those scenarii get better and better , campaign has been a blast thus far. This one made me sweat quite a bit, as I got a bit cocky after the first wave, leaving my position ... to quickly come back a few turns after, hehe. The waves were really well done, coming from slightly different directions, so I had to reshuffle my troop positioning a lot.
The scenario was decently challenging, but the enemies ran into two main problems : 1) you could deliberately step back from the bridges, luring them to (temporarily) take the objective hex, but slaughtering them with the river penalty the next turn 2) lack of combined arms attack : strong cavalry general units and light tanks are nice, but they could really have used a few artilleries or bombers. Like in the Danzig corridor scenario, while I definitely feel that those river hexes victory points have a solid historical justification, it is just too easy to "manipulate" the AI into a ... watery grave. Maybe the solution could be to simply change those hex properties, making them count as open terrain hex, not river hex as far as combat resolution is concerned, so that actually defending them is more feasible ?

1. Starting PP 3245. With that much I elite replaced all units and overstrengthed them to the max.
2. Briefing: "pocket" not "pocket up"; "in the Kutno region"; "as you are able"
3. Bought 2x 38t tanks
4. One 12 str Stuka got a perfect 10 against a cavalry unit on a bridge - not surprising, but nice!
5. Reinforcements spring from the ground if you are close enough to Kutno.
6. Result: DV with all objectives, including the Polish held cities captured, all Polish units destroyed.
7. Loss: 1 wehrmacht INF on the second last turn!

This was a nice scenario because I was never sure if the last wave had come. I saw off the first two easily and started an offensive in the west to take the airfield and objectives there. Sure enough another wave came in the east and I had to shuttle units, especially my all-conquering Stukas, to the east. Then on to Kutno to finish the job. Good fun!

You are correct on 'as you are able' and I fixed it.
However, I don't see what is wrong with the pocket part? There is no 'up'

How the briefing appears currently:

<p><b>September 13th, 1939</b></p>
<p>Listen quickly, Herr General, there is precious little time for talk. Aerial reconnaissance units have detected an enormous pocket of Polish troops massing around the Kutno Region. These forces, under the command of General Kutrzeba, are advancing quickly in your direction!</p>
<p>Surveillance reports have confirmed that the enemy will be attacking in waves, and you must hold as many objectives are you are able. Should they break through your defensive line and regain control of the Bzura River, our forces advancing on Warsaw are in serious danger of being outflanked and cut off!</p>

It's in my PiatekA.pzbrf. Must have been fixed already.

Mostly likely I did fix it then.

How it will look in the update:

<p><b>September 13th, 1939</b></p>
<p>Listen quickly, Herr General, there is precious little time for talk. Aerial reconnaissance units have detected an enormous pocket of Polish troops massing around the Kutno Region. These forces, under the command of General Kutrzeba, are advancing quickly in your direction!</p>
<p>Surveillance reports have confirmed that the enemy will be attacking in waves, and you must hold as many objectives as you are able. Should they break through your defensive line and regain control of the Bzura River, our forces advancing on Warsaw are in serious danger of being outflanked and cut off!</p>

Call me pedantic but I still think it should be "in the Kutno region" rather than "around". 'Around' implies encircling it, 'in' means they are in it (der). Not a biggie, though. The curse of being an English teacher.

Fair to say, but we must consider context.

Kutno is one hex. Let's say Kutno Region is the area immediately around Kutno. Let's be generous and say 'immediately around' extends 5 hexes in all directions, or even 10 hexes.

That looks something like this:


Clearly not all units are in the Kutno Region.


If we say 'in the Kutno Region' it gives the impression the enemy are bunched up all together inside a single region.
If we say 'around the Kutno Region' it gives the impression the enemy is spread out. Judging by the nature of the map, where waves of attackers attack along the entire line of the Bzura River at different intervals, I think better too give the impression the enemy is spread out, warning the player to defend a vast front not just a tiny part of it.

El_Condoro wrote:1. Starting PP 3245. With that much I elite replaced all units and overstrengthed them to the max.

Just to be clear, you are playing on Colonel setting, right?

I think your prestige is too high because you are a very good player playing on the default setting, but also because the prestige numbers are set a little too generously.

Here are the old numbers you are playing with (scenario name, reward for decisive victory in bold)
Poland PoznanA.pzbrf Poznan.pzscn Danzig Corridor South 200
Danzig Corridor South Danzig Corridor SouthA.pzbrf Danzig Corridor South.pzscn Lodz 300
Danzig Corridor North Danzig Corridor NorthA.pzbrf Danzig Corridor North.pzscn Lodz 300
Lodz LodzA.pzbrf Lodz.pzscn Piatek 400
Piatek PiatekA.pzbrf Piatek.pzscn Kampinoska Forest 200
Wyszogrod WyszogrodA.pzbrf Wyszogrod.pzscn Modlin 300
Kampinoska Forest Kampinoska ForestA.pzbrf Kampinoska Forest.pzscn Modlin 300
Modlin ModlinA.pzbrf Modlin.pzscn 400

Here are the new numbers no one has yet(scenario name, reward for decisive victory in bold)

Poland PoznanA.pzbrf Poznan.pzscn Danzig Corridor South 100
Danzig Corridor South Danzig Corridor SouthA.pzbrf Danzig Corridor South.pzscn Lodz 150
Danzig Corridor North Danzig Corridor NorthA.pzbrf Danzig Corridor North.pzscn Lodz 150
Lodz LodzA.pzbrf Lodz.pzscn Piatek 200 LodzB_decisive.pzbrf Piatek 100
Piatek PiatekA.pzbrf Piatek.pzscn Kampinoska Forest 100
Wyszogrod WyszogrodA.pzbrf Wyszogrod.pzscn Modlin 200
Kampinoska Forest Kampinoska ForestA.pzbrf Kampinoska Forest.pzscn Modlin 200

As you can see, there really isn't any room for reducing these numbers anymore. Colonel mode, being the default setting, was specifically designed to be easy. Veteran and elites players are walking all over it no problem, as they should. The modes for these players to truly be tested is FieldMarshal, Rommel, Manstein, and Guderian. At least that was my intention.

Yep, Colonel level. It's probably too easy for me but I wanted to see how the default setting would pan out. The new settings seem better.

OK, with the Kutno region thing. As I said, it's very pedantic and will not affect guys' ability to enjoy the scenarios, which you are doing a great job with BTW.