Slitherine

Difficulty: Field Marshal
Mission 1 Belgrade
Prestige 3000
DV 15-18
End Prestige 9
New Units:
1xBF109F
1xFallschirmjager w/SdKfz 251/1
Upgrades:
2xBf109E to 2xBf109F
1xHe111 to Do217
1x7.5cm FK 16 to 1x15cm sFH 18 w/SdKfz 251/1

The concept of escorting/training the Romanian units is novel and interesting. AI seemed determined to kill the escort units with multiple attacks some massed. AI arty/at/aa units were well placed to cover the objectives seldom venturing out in the open. Recon is a must to counter strong enemy cavalry units that maneuvered and attacked "intelligently". The mission is well designed. Armor is useful but be warned that proper recon is required. If not you will be continually replacing. After blindly stumbling onto several enemy units in good positions I started studying the terrain more closely. After that I used combined arms typically an infantry/armow advance screen then positioned artillery to knock down enemy arty and aa. Followed with Stukas etc.
Medium difficulty mission that can normally Nobe won in less than the allotted 18 turns unless the weather is bad. As you can see I spent much prestige bringing units up to STR 10. No overstrength.

No units lost.
No issues encountered other than ones noted by others.

Mission 2 Metaxas Line
Prestige 959
DV 13-14
End Prestige 29

Awarded SE Gebirgsjager.

The terrain, many fortified enemy units and strong enemy armor units make this one of the hardest missions in all the DLCs I have played. AI simply doesn’t take the bait of weak units setting killing zones. And the enemy is tough to kill. This came right down to the wire. The main enemy base is difficult to attack and there is a strong fortified belt on the other side of the map. Also air superiority took many turns as the opposing air units refused to die. This is a challenging scenario that I enjoyed immensely.

Lost 2x aux Inf and 1x aux Cavalry.

No issues.

Might be too late, no idea how the StuG IIIB will perform in Russia but it has a "fort killer" trait, use it to suppress and destroy fortifications. I.e. lead with the StuG -> 2-3 strength killed. Then send in a level bomber or Stuka and follow up with Infantry and with a little luck the fortification is gone in one turn.

I did have 1x StuG which worked ok with air/arty support. When I play again I might try with 1 or 2 more and see if that works better.

Mission 3 Operation Mercury, Naval Crete
Prestige 1237
DV 14-15
End Prestige 215

Awarded SE Pz IVD

I saw Longasc's post asking for someone to try the naval mission. Wow. The Commonwealth AI attacks the naval landing units with all it's forces including land units attempting to destroy them before and after landings. I lost 5 units before they even reached the beach. The aux paras did very well holding 1 airfield until help arrived. I had 1xDo215 and built another as soon as possible. This is the only effective answer to the RN. Once my land units had debarked I took the center of the map. The western force took till turn 9 to eliminate the enemy and link up with the center force. I then moved east with my depleted troops to attack the fortifications at Heraklion, the last major objective which fell on the turn14. I lost a total of 7 core units in the first few turns and was behind regarding prestige the rest of the time. I managed to build 5 new units but every formation suffered extreme losses. The majority of time I was forced to send strength 4-5-6-7 units to do battle. The last turn out of desperation I remembered an old Panzer General tactic utilizing my 1 Flak 88 switched to Pak as a bunker buster. It worked. One other thing. Make sure you take all the cities including non-objective. I bypassed one and late in the game was surprised by numerous hard hitting cavalry intent on liberating one of the objectives.

I have read the AI has capabilities beyond what was seen in the initial release. The 39 and 40 DLC revealed an improved AI. The 41 DLC surpasses what we saw there. I think this scenario and the 2 previous in this beta test will convince anyone who had doubts.

A very difficult and exciting mission that is also enjoyable.