Slitherine

As always, thanks for allowing me to participate in the beta test... I didn't think '41 would be ready so soon, a pleasant surprise.

Of course I always download these things right before I have to go to work (I'm on night shift), so I had only enough time to download and install the beta (no problems with either, as usual). I poked around the first scenario, Belgrade, and of course I liked what I saw so far. I hope to finish it when I get home and get this thread rolling.

BTW, I have to admit: I miss the PzC music score! I assume it will be added back in on a future update?

Looking forward to another fun DLC campaign.

Note: I'm playing this campaign on COLONEL difficulty.

Belgrade. MV in 18 turns (see below).
Start prestige: 3000. End prestige: 2189.
New units purchased: Two Fallschirmjagers (turn 10).
Units lost: 1 artillery (Romanian, aux)
Medals: 0. Heroes: 0.

A nice start to the 1941 campaign. Always good to see battles based on the Balkan operations, as these rarely get covered in most wargames. Pretty straightforward drive on Belgrade; I sent a small force down the western side of the Danube River, while the bulk of my forces went straight towards the capital. I then took a bridgehead over the Danube east of Belgrade (at Smederevo) and sent my Panzers and newly-purchased paratroops in that direction, looking to encircle the city and strike it from behind. I kept a small force directly north of the city, mostly artillery and infantry, to bombard the Belgrade defenders. Of course, I received a nice surprise when the Yugoslavs launched a last-ditch cavalry attack out of Obrenovac -- which nearly ran headlong into my small western strike force. After pummelling the horsemen with my air force, I reduced Belgrade's defenders, sent in the Romanians and took Obrenovac.

At this point it was turn 16, and I expected to receive a decisive victory. Instead, the game continued, and went two more turns to the end of the scenario, giving me a default MV. I'm going to assume everyone else has experienced this (again, I'm not reading AARs until after I complete each scenario), but if not, I'm sure I did everything right... is there a specific trigger hex in Belgrade that the Romanains have to occupy?

Other than this minor disappointment, an all-around challenging scenario. It seemed the Yugoslav army was a bit on the passive side (although their cavalry units aggressively went after my Romanian officers, leading to an excellent cav vs. cav battle that the Romanians pulled off rather well), although the last charge at Obrenovac did compensate for the lack of offensive-mindedness. On the plus side, the AI did a credible job on defense, not leaving anything open and throwing counterpunches only on units that were substantially damaged.

On to the Metaxas Line!

you need one officer only in Belgrade...two doesn't trigger decisive

Thanks for the heads up, Blathergut!

Metaxas Line. DV in 14 turns.
Start prestige: 717. End prestige: 329.
New units purchased: One SdKfz 232 8Rad recon (deployment phase).
Units lost: One paratroop (core, replaced), one recon (core, replaced), one cavalry (Bulgarian/aux).
Medals: 0. Heroes: 0.

A decent challenge, as some tough British units help stiffen the Greek defenders. I was able to secure Salonika and the other objectives by turn 11, but I decided to wait on occupying the final objective hex and attempted to take all of the other towns and fortifications on the board (looking for those captured units, you know). I almost made it, but alas I was unable to take two towns -- Kevala (23,12) and Keramoti (26,14) -- when the final turn was done. Nevertheless, the AI again put up a good fight and made the most of its entrenchments and strongpoints. Only one time did the AI abandon a city (Nikiforos, 22.9) to attack a weakened unit; otherwise it defended rather well. I also got caught by a nasty AI counterattack near Sochos (11,15) that cost me my two core unit losses of the scenario -- nice work on combining cav and armor units, a deadly combo!

I selected the airborne version of Crete, so it's time to put on my parachute.

I decided that since I should be testing as much of the 1941 campaign as possible, I'll play both choices for Crete. I'll do the airborne scenario as part of my continuing campaign, then play the naval choice afterward just to see how it plays.

Crete Airborne. DV in 10 turns.
Start prestige: 14. End prestige: 637.
New units purchased: none.
Units lost: One infantry (core), one recon (core), one paratroop (aux), three destroyers.
Medals: 0. Heroes: 0.

Well... I was more than a little disappointed in this scenario. It certainly is set up as a challenge: the Germans are in a tough spot on Crete, and only quick reinforcements will prevent the small drop zones from being annihilated. Over at Heraklion, things got nasty quick: the AI attacked my forces before they could really establish themselves, and I was forced to retreat the whole group to the west, where they resupplied and restrengthened, then struck back in concert with my additional forces that were coming from the central drop zone.

Unfortunately, the scenario was a lot easier than it should have been, because the AI's defense in this scenario was atrocious. On no less than nine separate occasions, the AI moved forces out of city or airfield hexes to attack nearby units. Out of those nine attacks, two were launched against German units that were significantly weakened, so the argument could be made that the AI was attempting to pick off my units (although in both instances it failed to eliminate the attacked unit). In the other seven times, the AI attacked full- or nearly full-strength units, took serious losses, and thus enabled me to occupy the abandoned objective and (in six out of the seven times) eliminate the moved unit. This behavior reminded me of the early beta days of PzC, when the AI lacked a good defensive sense and threw itself with abandon at enemy units. I think this scenario would be a much stiffer challenge if the AI's defensive stance is reinforced; it just seems a letdown after seeing how well the AI has done in previous scenarios. Hopefully this is just an exception!

As an aside, I have a suggestion for the scenario. Since it is mentioned in the briefing that you are essentially being "loaned" the destroyers to protect your invasion force, I thought it might be interesting to add something to the DV conditions -- namely, that in order to win a DV, one or more of the accompanying DDs must survive the mission. This would encourage players to be cautious with their "borrowed" ships -- after all, Admiral Donitz probably wouldn't be too thrilled if you got all of his precious ships sunk on one mission!

As I mentioned previously, I'll try the naval Crete option next, then return to my continuing campaign afterward.

Crete Naval. MV in 15 turns.
Units lost: One infantry (core), one paratroop (aux), two destroyers.

Having played this scenario immediately after the airborne version, I decided to place the bulk of my invasion force on the western side of the map, to avoid the British navy. While I did avoid the British, I realized (too late) that I'd crammed way to many transports in the Suda Bay area, and as a result it wasn't until turn 6 that I had all my forces unloaded. This led to a huge back-up that found the majority of my force bottlenecked around Georgioupoli (11,14). After blasting my way through, I made a mad dash across the island over to Heraklion. Alas, I had wasted too much time on the eastern end, and the game ended with my forces still trying to take out the last British defenders in Heraklion itself.

My thoughts on this scenario... well, the AI did a much better job on defense here; only three times did it send units out of city hexes to launch fruitless attacks against my units. Otherwise it seemed to do a far better job of balancing its defensive requirements, particularly in regards to AA and artillery use. On the other hand, the Royal Navy seemed a lot less aggressive in this scenario... the main British ships stayed near Heraklion literally until the last few turns, when at last it moved out to bombard my forces. Even the British DDs seemed to be less aggressive here. It would seem the RN would be a bit more on the offensive here, since the idea behind the scenario is that you're moving the bulk of your forces via transport. (And maybe it was just me, but that d**n Mosquito was practically indestructable in this scenario -- it held out at 1 strength point until the last turn!)

Looking back on both Crete scenarios, here's my main thought: the naval scenario seems to be the more demanding of the two, since less of your force starts on the island. However, the airborne version should be a bit more difficult, since you're dropping forces onto the island from the start. I think the two scenarios should be switched in regards to the situation on the island itself. In the airborne version, have fewer core units on the island, and the auxiliary paras in need of taking the airfields at the start of the game. This would better reflect the fact that the invasion is in its early stages. In the naval version, the player gets the paras in possession of the airfields, but needs to get more troops ashore to support the initial gains. This way the airborne game would be for the more daring player, while the naval version would be seen as a not-as-difficult choice.

Please realize I do like this scenario. In fact it's a great strategic puzzle to ponder. While it is definitely a work in progress, it shows great potential and should be a lot of fun. Oh, and might I add, the naval scenario had me thinking ahead to when PzC visits the Pacific... imagine storming the beaches at Iwo, Okinawa, etc. As an old Pacific General fan I'm looking forward to that day!

Tomorrow I'll resume my regular campaign at Minsk.

Minsk. DV in 10 turns.
Start prestige: 220. End prestige: 191.
New units purchased: One infantry (during deployment), one recon (turn 4, lost turn 5, built another turn 6), one cavalry (turn 5).
Units lost: Two recons (both core).
Medals: 6. Heroes: 1.

Welcome to Russia! An excellent map to kick off the Barbarossa campaign: a vast, empty land, filled with woods, only a handful of towns and even fewer roads. This is a fantastic introduction to the "land without end" and is a definite change of pace from all of the previous campaign missions. (And all I kept thinking while fighting through the scenario was how much worse this is going to be when the rain and snow start falling. ) One very nice touch was the use of the Do-217s to prevent the Russian AI from building aircraft. At first I didn't quite "get" how they were supposed to be utilized, but it quickly dawned on me just what these stripped-down bombers were supposed to accomplish. I really liked how they performed a suppression role, even without ammo. Of course, once I had taken the first three or four Russian airfields, I started loading them up with bombs and actually suppressing the airfields phsyically. In fact, during the course of the whole scenario, the Russians only fielded two planes (a tac bomber and strat bomber), which appeared on turn 10. Again, very nice use of units for a role outside their usual responsibilities.

The Russian AI was very good. Only once did it leave a town to attack a unit without proper support; otherwise, it definitely handled its defensive role very well. And those Russian tanks are a shock when they first show up, particularly the KVs... they made me long for the old days in France LOL! Brest-Litovsk was a tough nut to crack, but it proved to be worth it as it gave me my first captured unit! (BTW, my captured T-34 was silent and had no combat animations for the duration of the scenario; however, I love the paint job. ). Overall, the scenario's difficulty felt just right for the start of the Barbarossa campaign; I was able to take all of my objectives, but it did come at the cost of a lot of unit experience. Of course I'm not going to complain -- I know things are only going to get tougher from here on out.

I really enjoyed this scenario... again, a super introduction to fighting in Russia. Now on to Smolensk.

Smolensk. DV in 19 turns.
Start prestige: 316. End prestige: 1284.
New units purchased: Recon (turn 4), AA 8.8 gun (turn 10).
Units lost: One parartroop (core), one antitank (core).
Medals: 5. Heroes: 2.

A straightforward battle scenario. I divided my force into three groups: a small group, sent directly north to clear out the area in the northwest corner of the map, then proceed onto Vitebsk; the largest group, which moved in a more or less straight line through Orsha on to Smolensk; and the final group, which took the Dnieper crossing city of Mogilev, then headed north to link up at Smolensk. Overall this plan worked fine, and I was able to capture all cities and airfields on the map by turn 19. One thing I really liked about this mission was how there were so many Russian units scattered about the map. This just reinforced the need to have a capable recon force to flush out all these hidden forces. (In fact, when I lost one of my two core airborne units early in the battle, I decided to replace it with a third recon unit; I found it absolutely necessary for each of my force groups to have a good set of "eyes" to see what was ahead.)

Once again the AI did a fine job on defense. It launched a pair of nasty counterattacks at Orsha and Mogilev; it was at Orsha I lost my prized antitank vehicle to a well-coordinated attack of cavalry and armor. One minor problem: while it was nice to see the arrival of katyushas on the battlefield, the AI seemed a bit careless with them -- it threw all three, unsupported, at several of my panzer units; as a result I was able to dispatch them rather quickly. Other than this, the AI performed well.

Oh, and two notes about the captured T-34 unit. I noticed that it had both sound and animation when I started this scenario. However, I stopped playing around turn 8, saved the game and came back to it a few hours later. Lo and behold, after reloading the T-34 no longer has sound or animations again. Also, when bringing up the unit details window for the T-34, it lacks a picture in the main window.

I selected the Kiev path for the next part of my campaign, and will play that through to conclusion. However, I saved my game at this point, and once I'm done with Kiev-based campaign, will come back to this point and pick up the Leningrad branch (much like at Crete).

dshaw62197 wrote:[At first I didn't quite "get" how they were supposed to be utilized, but it quickly dawned on me just what these stripped-down bombers were supposed to accomplish. I really liked how they performed a suppression role, even without ammo. Of course, once I had taken the first three or four Russian airfields, I started loading them up with bombs and actually suppressing the airfields phsyically. In fact, during the course of the whole scenario, the Russians only fielded two planes (a tac bomber and strat bomber), which appeared on turn 10. Again, very nice use of units for a role outside their usual responsibilities.

You know... this was pretty insightful. Honestly, it never occurred to me that a player could use strategic bombers to 'neutralize' enemy airfields to prevent aircraft triggers from spawning them in. But this is how the trigger works, it says: If Allied Flag on Airfield = 1, then spawn aircraft on turn X. I just assumed everyone would race ahead and capture all the airfields, but neutralizing them with bombers accomplishes the same goal, it prevents Soviet aircraft from "spawning".

Some nice accidental awesome right there.

I may have to keep this in mind in the future, allowing players to neutralize airfields to prevent spawning of enemy air assets.

Honestly, it never occurred to me that a player could use strategic bombers to 'neutralize' enemy airfields to prevent aircraft triggers from spawning them in.

Wow... and here I thought I was being dense because I didn't pick up on what appeared to be the Do217s' true role.

I may have to keep this in mind in the future, allowing players to neutralize airfields to prevent spawning of enemy air assets.

That type of mission would work well in a Battle of Britain scenario.

Zhitomir. DV in 11 turns.
Start prestige: 778. End prestige: 1001.
New units purchased: Recon (turn 5), Panzer (turn 7).
Units lost: Two recon units (both core), one Panzer (core).
Medals: 3. Heroes: 3.

I'm suffering from insomnia, so I decided to go ahead and play through the next scenario. (Probably thinking too much PzC strategy ideas to get to sleep LOL!)

Another straightfoward scenario, and another tough fight. Here I basically sent everyone south, keeping all of my forces west of the Teteriv River until I was near Zhitomir. Once there, I sent the bulk of my forces to the southwest to engage Zhitomir directly, while I sent a handful of units accross the Teteriv at Krasnobirka (13,14) to take on the two objective cities on the river's south side. Again, recon was invaluable, in order to discover all the nice surprises the Russians had in store. I find that the recons are a great value -- they locate the Russians in advance, and when their arrival causes the Russian AI to send forces out to attack, it usually picks on the recon unit. Thus, if the recon takes heavy losses or is lost, I can then bring up my heavier assets and take care of the Russian attackers. Then I just rebuild or restrengthen the recon unit, and repeat. It's an inexpensive way of keeping my better forces from getting clobbered.

Alas I did suffer the loss of one of my Panzer units... the Russians launched an attack near Ryzhany (5,12) that cost me the Panzer and a recon unit. Again, the AI is doing very well with its counterattacks; near the end of the scenario it sent a handful of units accross the Teteriv to attack the northernmost objective city. Thankfully I kept a small force there just for that situation, and kept the Russians at bay. In older versions of PzC it was rarely necessary to protect objectives after taking them; with this DLC, however, I'm finding it's just as necessary to keep garrisons in VP hexes as it is when playing a MP game.

Finally, like the proverbial cat I just had to see what was waiting at Kiev, so I sent a few planes and a recon unit over to the Kiev area to check things out on my final turn. And just like said cat, curiousity got another recon killed. Glad I didn't get too bold and attempt to take Kiev directly, what a nightmare that would have been!

Tomorrow, on to Zhurivka.

Kerensky wrote:Honestly, it never occurred to me that a player could use strategic bombers to 'neutralize' enemy airfields to prevent aircraft triggers from spawning them in. But this is how the trigger works, it says: If Allied Flag on Airfield = 1, then spawn aircraft on turn X. I just assumed everyone would race ahead and capture all the airfields, but neutralizing them with bombers accomplishes the same goal, it prevents Soviet aircraft from "spawning".

That's also how I did it in the Minsk scenario.

I also prevented the AI from buying reinforcements in Vyazma this way, I bombed the two unoccupied rear city hexes of Moscow with my two Do 217.


(That's also something to remember for a future 44 Ardennes scenario, "Operation Bodenplatte" was exactly about this, bombing enemy airfields.)

Zhurivka. DV in 13 turns.
Start prestige: 321. End prestige: 1443.
New units purchased: Recon (deployment), recon (turn 8 ), wurfrahmen (turn 8 ).
Units lost: One recon (core), one artillery/nebelwerfer (core).
Medals: 3. Heroes: 1.

Interesting how this scenario is almost a mirrior image of Zhitomir. For this battle I grouped my army into two roughly equal forces: one which moved south to Zhurivka, the other which worked the eastern side of the map to deal with the Russian relief attempts. I was able to subdue the first counterattack in the northeast successfully, with a minimum of casualties. However, I was hit hard by the attack launched out of the southeastern corner (it was near Sokyryntsi I suffered both core losses in the scenario). Thankfully, I was mindful of what our friendly fraulein warned about, so I kept the eastern force strong and was able to defeat the Russian counterattack. I took advantage of the loss of my nebelwerfer and replaced it with a new wurfrahmen unit, which worked rather well in hitting the Russians around Sokyryntsi.

I refrained from taking my final objective, Zhurivka, if only to take a peek at what was going on over at Kiev. This time I sent a lone fighter to recon the area. Alas, there still appeared to be far too many Russian units for my liking, so I decided against any attacks on the Kiev pocket, took Zhurivka and ended the scenario. Perhaps I'll finally work up the nerve to tackle Kiev in the next mission.

Note that this scenario, and all others to follow, is being played under the 1941 beta 2 build.

Zolotonosha. DV in 12 turns.
Start prestige: 1164. End prestige: 809.
New units purchased: Recon (turn 2), recon (turn 8 ).
Units lost: Two recons (both core), one infantry (Romanian, aux).
Medals: 2. Heroes: 1.

With this scenario, the trio of Kiev battles (perhaps better known as the "Z" campaign) comes to an end. Finally, I was able (brave enough?) to tackle the Kiev pocket while driving on my assigned objectives. I divided my forces into three groups, each roughly the same in size: one to reduce Kiev, one to move south and take out the central objectives, and one to stay to the east to deal with Russian counterattacks. All three drives went through without serious losses. I was able to capture the last Kiev city hex on turn 11, and was rewarded with another captured T-34 for my efforts. In the east the Russian armored attacks were pretty rough, and more than once I had a unit down to its last strength point; fortunately, I was able to contain and defeat the Russians without any losses. On the central front, I moved slowly south, once again using my recon units to flush out possible Russian ambushes (hence the two recon losses for the mission). It was a bit of tough slog at first; but once Shramkivka and Velkya were taken (both on turn 7), the Russian defense fell apart rather quickly and (except for a rash Romanian infantry unit) my forces advanced to meet my allies waiting along the Dneiper.

Overall I enjoyed the Kiev mission branch. It really does convey the feeling of fighting through a sea of Russians to get your objectives captured, but prudent use of recon forces goes a long way to help with the many enemy forces that are scattered about the maps. Once I'm finished the campaign, I'll go back and try the Leningrad route. And so I bid farewell to the lovely fraulein, and made my way north as all roads led to Moscow...

One issue did pop up: all of the captured units are still with sound, animations or pictures in the info box.

Tomorrow we are hosting a slumber party, and as such our home will be overrun with 8-year-olds. I hope to find time, between cutting cake and chasing children, for some peace and quiet on the Russian steppes...

And the recon cars continue to be slaughtered... are you SURE you guys don't want some kind of recon car survivability buffs? lol

Don't get me wrong, I'm very happy to see recon cars get excellent use (something severely lacking in the default campaign), but it disturbs me to see everyone killing them off almost casually.

As I just mentioned over in the thread dedicated to recon units, I like them the way they are: an inexpensive, but highly effective tool, particularly with all the sneaky Russians hiding about the maps. I'm okay with how their working so far... although I admit I might be getting a bit too unsympathetic to the fate of my recon units. Perhaps if I receive a recon hero (or better still, an ELITE recon unit) I might be a bit more careful.

Vyazma. DV in 20 turns.
Start prestige: 0. End prestige: 896.
New units purchased: None.
Units lost: None.
Medals: 6. Heroes: 2.

Talk about a fight to the bitter end! For the majority of this scenario I very much doubted I'd capture all of my objectives... that Moscow hex seems awfully far away at the start LOL. Using the Dneiper as a natural boundary, I separated my forces into two groups: one which headed north of Vyazma, and the other toward the south of the city. I continued eastward on both axes until I reached Sychyovka (18,4) in the north and Yukhnov (25,24) in the south before turning inward to encircle Vyazma. Of course the Russians had other ideas, launching counterattacks at both locations, which took time to fight off. I finally completed my encirclement of Vyazma on turn 12, and cleared all three Vyazma hexes by turn 15. At that point, I decided to launch my forces as they were in a bid to take the last two objectives. Thankfully the Russians weren't as numerous to the east, and I took Mozhaysk on turn 18 and the Moscow suburb on the final turn.

Overall this scenario wasn't too difficult; while there are plenty of Russian forces in the center, a good encirclement pretty much dooms their defensive position. This scenario was striking in that it forces the player to move against Vyazma in much the same way the actual battle was fought; nice work taking the "history" and turning it into an enjoyable, playable scenario. (And Kerensky, you'll be relieved to know I was much more thoughtful of my recon units in this mission, and all three survived the battle, although not in the best of shape LOL!)

Once again, all of the captured units were silent and without visuals.

Since I was unsure how the campaign would progress, I saved the end of the mission and will play both options. I'll take on Moscow first, then tackle Demyansk afterward.

dshaw62197 wrote:
Overall this scenario wasn't too difficult; while there are plenty of Russian forces in the center, a good encirclement pretty much dooms their defensive position. This scenario was striking in that it forces the player to move against Vyazma in much the same way the actual battle was fought; nice work taking the "history" and turning it into an enjoyable, playable scenario. (And Kerensky, you'll be relieved to know I was much more thoughtful of my recon units in this mission, and all three survived the battle, although not in the best of shape LOL!)

When hasn't this been the theme of the DLCs? Take real historical events (Giraud wassigny, bzura Piatek, Blucher Oslo, and so on) and transform them into game objectives.

Happy to hear recon cars were not harmed in the making of this latest AAR. lol