monkspider DLC 1941 beta 1

monkspider · Post by **monkspider** » Sat Nov 05, 2011 3:42 pm

Belgrade

A perfect start to the 1941 campaign, this was an excellent little scenario. After some hard battles in France, and with the main event against the Soviet Union just on the horizon, a little interlude in the Balkans is a lovely thing. I got a decisive victory with two turns left, ending with slightly over 3500 prestige and losing one Panzerjager to a cavalry counterattack early on and one of the Romanian officers to a similar counterattack later.

I bought an extra fighter but left a couple core slots open to see how this new core performs and where I think I could use some extra attention for the next battle.

It was a novel battle, this si the first time where we have had to protect some units from the very beginning and escort them to a specific point. The Yugoslav forcces weren't especially tough, though their cavalry charges caused a fair bit of grief. Belgrade was also somewhat challenging to capture. All in all, a perfect, slightly on the easy side, start to the new campaign.

monkspider · Post by **monkspider** » Sat Nov 05, 2011 3:51 pm

Metaxis Line

DV on turn 12
Around 2000 prestige remaining at the end of the battle
Losses: One grenadier and one recon unit

This battle definitely makes for a tough one, not really one of my favorite scenarios. It wasn't as fun as Belgrade to be sure. It was a surprisingly tough slog through rough terrain and entrenched positions. It would be great if a certian something could be done to make this one more fun/interesting but I can' think of any specific suggestions.

monkspider · Post by **monkspider** » Sat Nov 05, 2011 4:01 pm

Crete Airborne
DV on turn 10/15
Ending prestige about 2300
Losses: my beloved STUG and a recon car

Now THIS was a return to form after a somewhat disappointing previous scenario. In fact, this has to be one of the all time fascinating scenarios. Even though my losses were comparable to the last scenario, I found it to be much more fun. The complex interplay of the various elements of this battle just made for a really interesting challenge. Like another poster said, you feel you are really on the precipice of disaster at the beginning and then you slowly start to turn the tide. The way you have units in the heat of pitched battle from the very beginning and then have the naval aspect, it all is just very cool one. I lost two units to the Royal Navy including a STUG that I was growing quite attached to. I did buy a new one during the battle though.

I must say, I am really impressed with the artillery balancing now. Each of the artillery has a very clear niche with distinct advantages and disadvantages now. There is no clear artillery that is superior to the others. The durability of the STUG and it's effectiveness at supressing armored units makes it an awesome addition to the squad.

monkspider · Post by **monkspider** » Sat Nov 05, 2011 6:47 pm

Minsk '41

DV on turn 15/20
Losses: 1 recon car and 1 panzerjager
Ending prestige around 1900

Operation Barbarossa is on! Time to bring to Bolshevik Empire down.This is the moment we have all been waiting for since starting the Grand Campaign and Minsk was a wonderful start to the Ostfront war. A common complaint about the Barbarossa scenario in the main campaign is that it doesn't accurately depict the opening days of the war, with the Soviets caught by surprise and the Red Airforce largely destroyed on the ground. This scenario on the other hand does an excellent job capturing the spirit of those first days of Barbarossa.

I like how units on the first turn are without ammo, and how we cover such huge distances so quickly. I wasn't able to get all of the airfields captured so the attack of the Red Airforce was quite surprising and yet another novel twist. Brest was incredibly tough to capture, as was Minsk itself, but in the end I came out of it with a DV and a beautiful new T-34, quite a sexy little unit, sporting fashionable "feld grau" paint job.

Great scenario and a perfect start to Barbarossa!

monkspider · Post by **monkspider** » Sat Nov 05, 2011 11:06 pm

Smolensk:
Decisive victory on 19/21
Losses: 1 Wehrmacht Infantry and 1 recon car
Ending prestige 2100

Epic is the only word that can describe this battle, it was just unbelievable. This map is huge! You have so much ground to cover. I decided to split my forces into three task forces, one went north, one went south, the largest one stayed in the middle and was to be the primary force attacking Smolensk.

The northern task force had a fairly easy time of it, and the south wasn't pressed too hard, but the center force had to face some fierce counterattacks, and when my recon unit saw that buildup of forces with all of the Katyushas and tanks, I exclaimed an audible "holy shit!". The counterattack ending up claiming one of my Wehrmacht Infantry units.

Oh, and I have a beautiful feld grau KV-1 now after capturing Krasny! The 20 strength conscript there was tough to dig out, but it proved to be very worthwhile!

My strategy for attacking Smolensk was pretty good I thought, my northern and center wings were able to converge to hit Smolensk from the front and then my southern wing used a bridging engineer to cross the Dnepr and hit Smolensk from the rear, completing a massive encirclement of the city. I found it to be an appropriately epic end to a ridiculously epic battle. This one was definitely in the upper echelon of all Panzer Corps scenarios.

monkspider · Post by **monkspider** » Sun Nov 06, 2011 4:18 am

Zhitomir
DV on turn 14/18
Losses: 1 Bridging Engineer
Ending prestige 2200

I love that we can choose how we proceed in the campaign and that each of these choices represent major, multi-part operations. I decided to go with Kiev and the first mission in my effort to close the Kiev pocket was a solid, challenging scenario with lots of enemy armor to contend with.

Longasc · Post by **Longasc** » Sun Nov 06, 2011 9:56 am

So you got your briefing by the ominous "Helferin der Wehrmacht".

(I think this briefing needs to be rephrased as it sounds a bit odd, besides the fact that I find it strange to get a briefing for a major operation by the GFM's pretty little helper)

I will then take the Leningrad path. I somehow know Kiev from Panzer General and Panzer Corps already, the Leningrad map reminds me a bit of Allied General, only that I am not the defender but the attacker this time.

Yeah Smolensk was also my fave scenario of 1941 so far.

monkspider · Post by **monkspider** » Sun Nov 06, 2011 4:23 pm

Ha, yeah it was a bit odd that our old friend Halbermann was called back to Berlin at such a crucial time, but I have a feeling that the reason why will be revealed soon enough. I almost took Leningrad, my love of alternative history made me favor that path but I figured I would save it for next time as to have something to look forward to. Good luck up in the north, Herr General!

monkspider · Post by **monkspider** » Sun Nov 06, 2011 4:27 pm

I also completed Act II of the Kiev drama:

Zhurivka
DV on turn 10/18
Ending prestige 2500
Losses 1 recon car

This scenario was enjoyable but the first one I thought that was truly a bit on the easy side, but only slightly.. It was definitely easier than Zhitomir at least. I split my forces into two groups, allowing for small detachments to break off and take the non-objective cities. It was interesting to deal with the break-out attempt from Kiev, the huge mass of KVs was challenging to deal with and easily the toughest part of the scenario. I was expecting a break-out from the briefing and had a decent defensive line formed, including my own KV-1 that I had previously captured.

monkspider · Post by **monkspider** » Sun Nov 06, 2011 8:08 pm

Zolotonosha

DV 12/17
Ending prestige: 3100
Losses: One recon car (as always)

We have reached the exciting finale of the Kiev encirclement. Will the Wehrmacht troops close the pocket in time? In this case, they did! I had three attack groups, one attacking Kiev, one that attacked to the south/southwest and one that was going to attack south/southeast. The huge counterattack in the north kept my southeast force pinned to the top of the map for the majority of the battle. My southern force made good progress and even though it was a tough slog, I managed to finally capture Kiev itself, earning an extra T-34 in the process! Awesome! A good scenario and an enjoyable conclusion to the Kiev front.

deadtorius · Post by **deadtorius** » Sun Nov 06, 2011 9:48 pm

I just completed Kiev myself, it is an epic battle alright. The continuous build up on the map edges from all three games is really a challenge. tanks tanks and more tanks, not to mention the Red Airforce is out in full strength now too. I also seem to have a real problem keeping recon and cav units alive in these campaigns so far. If I buy one at the beginning of the scenario I most likely don't have it at the end. Oh well...
Looks like its into the rainy muddy north to try and take on Moscow now...

Longasc · Post by **Longasc** » Sun Nov 06, 2011 10:05 pm

Monkspider right now has the recon unit avatar, I hope he survives the next scenario!

I also have trouble with recon units, they usually get rushed by fast Russian light/medium tanks.

Kerensky · Post by **Kerensky** » Sun Nov 06, 2011 10:33 pm

And yet someone around here insists that the new improved ground defenses of recon units is too much!
*glares at Razz*

monkspider · Post by **monkspider** » Sun Nov 06, 2011 10:45 pm

Longasc wrote:Monkspider right now has the recon unit avatar, I hope he survives the next scenario!

LOL

The next scenario was indeed extremely brutal and my losses were heavy.

Vzama

DV turn 18/20
Losses: 2 field artillery, one strategic bomber, one Wehrmacht infantry
Ending prestige 700

My god, what a brutal battle. This one probably even surpasses Smolensk in epicness. It is an absolutely huge map, you are expected to cross incredibly vast distances while opposed by a well-equipped and well-prepared enemy and at the same time dealing with some nasty weather. The weather wasn't as bad as Moscow '41 in the main game, at least it wasn't for me, but I still had to deal with about 6 turns of mud. I really didn't think I would be able to pull this one off.

I divided my forces into two main wings, and then three units in the small deployment zone in the center. The troops in the center could never cross the Dnepr the entire game. I suppose their presence might have tied down that enemy force there and prevented it from withdrawing to Vzama. My northern wing was my strongest, consisting of four overstrength SS Panzer units and a lot of other high quality troops. The Plan was for them to attack Vzama from the north and then make a dash for Moscow but it got sidetracked by a large counterattack and then by the well-defended troops at Vzama itself. It was a very badly beat up force by the end of the battle.

The southern force is ultimately what won the day for me, it took it's expected objectives, captured Kaluga which granted me another KV-1 and then attacked Moscow's outskirts form the south and then wheeled west in time to take Mohavzk (I realize I am butchering the spelling on that one) and secure the decisive victory.

I really had a ton of prestige at the start of this battle but by the end, I had very little and my losses were higher than any other battle in this campaign. This one really was super epic and I felt that it captured the spirit of the historical Operation Typhoon very well: a bloody meatgrinder of a battle where the Germans had to slowly slog through ridiculous weather and Soviet opposition.

Kerensky · Post by **Kerensky** » Mon Nov 07, 2011 3:28 am

Yes, you're starting to find the battles harder and harder fought. All working as intended.

Each DLC is a tier. DLC 1939 was Tier 1, DLC 1940 is Tier 2, and so on.
Each tier starts relatively easy(Poznan, Eben-Emael, Belgrade), and then progressively get harder as the campaign continues(Spoils of War, Wassigny, Vyazma).

Then the next tier begins and it starts easy, and gets harder again.

I hope you decided to go for Streets of Moscow, I'm curious to hear feedback for that scenario. It is the bonus 'fictional' one though, but that doesn't mean it's easy mode. It's more akin to Spoils of War than it is Dunkirk in terms of difficulty.

Which I think is fitting. It's the first battle where the player fights the Soviet Far East reinforcements (fresh and combat experienced troops) after all.

monkspider · Post by **monkspider** » Tue Nov 08, 2011 2:31 pm

Kerensky wrote:Yes, you're starting to find the battles harder and harder fought. All working as intended.

Each DLC is a tier. DLC 1939 was Tier 1, DLC 1940 is Tier 2, and so on.
Each tier starts relatively easy(Poznan, Eben-Emael, Belgrade), and then progressively get harder as the campaign continues(Spoils of War, Wassigny, Vyazma).

Then the next tier begins and it starts easy, and gets harder again.

I hope you decided to go for Streets of Moscow, I'm curious to hear feedback for that scenario. It is the bonus 'fictional' one though, but that doesn't mean it's easy mode. It's more akin to Spoils of War than it is Dunkirk in terms of difficulty.

Which I think is fitting. It's the first battle where the player fights the Soviet Far East reinforcements (fresh and combat experienced troops) after all.

Oh, did you really think I would ever consider skipping a Streets of Moscow scenario? Perish the though, my dear sir.

Streets of Moscow
DV on 20/24
Losses: A bridging engineer, a recon car (lol), and a STUG (tragedy of tragedies!)
Ending Prestige: About 700

This was another brutal but super epic battle. Moscow is just ridiculously huge! And the snow had my luftwaffe grounded most of the time and made visibility poor. It was slow going, rooting out the Soviet troops dug in throughout the city and the Red Guards defending the Kremlin and the other units (like the KVs) in the area tied up a good portion of my troops for the vast majority of the scenario. At one point I got another KV-1 from one of the cities, I am not sure which one, but I think it is the city outside of Moscow on the easternmost part of the map. You really have to be careful about using your panzers in an urban environment, I avoided losing a T-34 by the narrowest of margins. Just like the last battle, I really chewed through my prestige in this one, even using elite replacements sparingly, and was down to under 200 at certain parts of the battle.

This is another one of the scenarios that is narratively interesting. I think Panzer Corps is at it's best when it's scenarios spin a certain narrative over the course of it's battles. It is somewhat difficult to articulate what gives a mission this quality, I think it might have to do with a certain coherency of theme and using the limited confines of scenario creation to communicate certain ideas, and to feel like your actions have weight but I do think that a lot of the scenarios, especially in the DLC, have this quality.

monkspider · Post by **monkspider** » Wed Nov 09, 2011 9:18 pm

I was going over my reports and I realized that I forgot to clarify that I have been playing on General level!

Longasc · Post by **Longasc** » Wed Nov 09, 2011 9:35 pm

I am playing Moscow right now and took a break, I fear I might get snow blind.

Some things I wonder about: These "trains" of Engineers. What's up with them?

I didn't like that I placed my units on a green map and then it turned - not entirely unexpected - immediately winter once I started the scenario.
But it's still irritating. I didn't know the rivers are frozen, that makes quite a difference.

Where is the Kremlin, I only see rail depots?

monkspider · Post by **monkspider** » Wed Nov 09, 2011 9:39 pm

Yeah, I was not really sure about those trains, I guess they are representing trains of troops from Siberia? The Kremlin is in the Central region, there is nothing really special to indicate it on the map, but if you mouse over it, it is listed as "The Kremlin" and it has an especially tough infantry unit guarding it. The sudden weather change after deployment is indeed a bit jarring, I remember it from one of the Norway scenarios too. Maybe that is something that can be patched, have the map during the deployment screen reflect what the weather will be on the first turn?

Longasc · Post by **Longasc** » Wed Nov 09, 2011 10:08 pm

Yes I would like the map to look like it will be on turn 1.

I just found the Kremlin. Already lost a IIIJ and a SE IIIJ, turn around 10. I am having trouble to kill a T-34/41 (41, not 40) without proper Stuka or artillery support, unfortunately all my artillery is in the city/center and not at the northwestern edge of Moscow.