Slitherine

FM - pre-build non-optimised (but still fairly powerfull) core - chess mode

Due to the previous scenario having been easier than expected I will not upgrade the SE Pz IIIN to a Panther, but "switch" him with the non-SE Tiger who will be turned into a Pz IIIN. I gained a +1 movement hero for one of my StuG IIIG and wanted to upgraed him to an Elefant at first, but will keep this one as well. Bought another SdKfz 7/2 and a Hummel which is able to keep up with most of my Panzer and should help with some protective fire, leaving me with 1.3k prestige.

I have not played this map before, and I expect that this will make quite a difference.

The intial armored attack was basically contained by combined Pnazer and Luftwaffe attacks and I even stared to go on the offensive across the bridge at Karnaukhivka by turn 2, I even let the Soviets destroy the strongpoint at Stari Kodaky to allow additional forces to cross the river.

Retook Stari Kodaky at turn 4 and Kurylivka at turn 5, Dnipropetrovsk at turn 6 and the defenders of Zaporozhye were destroyed - so in theory DV at 6/18.

Undefended Ivanivka and Varvarivka were taken at turn 8 and while the counterattack in the north at the end of turn 7 nearly did cost me a Pz IVH which was a bit exposed, it was able to get away with 3 STR left and the attack was stopped cold.

Verbove was taken at turn 9, was were Maivka and Chumaky, in addition the undefended Novomoskvsk was reached.

Another counterattack from the west brought one of my StuG IIIGs down to 2STR, but was dealt with easily as well. But in the next wave of attackers were a decent number of heavy Soviet tanks which gave me some trouble (mostly due to bad weather at this time), but in the end I finished them off without taking too much damage.

DV at 18/18 - 3.5k prestige which should be another fairly large net gain here - playing for the full turn-count plays a large role as well, but I think even with winning earlier I would have come out ahead on prestige by quite a large margin for this one. This is OK following a potentially hard scenario, but I felt a bit underwhelmed here. As mentioned by deducter in his thread the Soviets should get some Brückenpioniere to prevent them for getting stopped and slaughtered while trying to cross the bridges and the strongpoint are too strong since they will stop the Soviets long enough for my troops to arrive and take care of them quite easily.

My main adversary was the weather and those annoying SPAAs and AAA, the final tank assault was ok, but overall the scenario is too easy IMO.

Statistics:

Full elite reinforcements would cost about 2.8k prestige - the final armor counterattack and all those SPAA/AAA did more damage than I felt during the game. But some points were spend on getting to higher overstrength levels as well - got my first 4 star unit here, a Ju 87D.

39 units with heroes for a gain of 2 heroes - still 1 unit with 2 heroes. Higest kill unit without a hero is at 260 kills now, my 8.8 finally got lucky or 300 kills net an automatic hero (+3 attack is nice, even though I would have prefered +movement). Highest kill unit is still the Panther with 635 kills.

Just finished playing this scenario. I won a DV on Turn 5. I know this is supposed to be an easy scenario to allow players to recover after Prohkarovka, but perhaps a victory hex should be placed east of the river?

The idea to add more VH to this map was brought up, but I rather like the current set up.
An aggressive player can effectively preempt the AI's attack with their own offensive. It's a valid strategy (Rommel luved it) and this scenario rewards such aggressive behavior, even though it has all the appearances of a defensive scenario.

Bottom line, this is the 'recovery' scenario after Prokhorovka, so if there is an easy way to beat the map, that's really no problem. Suffice to say, this won't always be possible to achieve, especially on critical defensive battles, such as Kiev43 as well as some important battles of DLC 1944 and DLC 1945.

Start Prestige: 4018 - 3323 after repairs and stuff!
Field Marshal, default core

Placeholder for future comments, I am going to play this tonight.

Hu - DV 7/18.

This is an odd scenario. (no losses, prestige gain etc.)

OK - we got it, this is the "breather" scenario for recuperating losses from Prokhorovka. But I think Zhivago or charonjr already pointed out that it is over after some 5 or now 7 turns. Nice that we get to see a KV-85 but this is TOO EASY.

I hereby declare Dnipropetrovsk to be the stinker scenario of 1943 and to be in need of a lot of love.

Suggestions: Make it MV to hold 5 objectives. DV when you crush the whole Soviet offensive. A Victory hex behind the enemy lines might work out. Or just changing it that you have to HOLD the objectives for the full duration.

Deployment takes longer than playing the scenario. I see that there is a danger that the Soviet breaks through if the player is seriously weakened. But that's for the "Minor" variation, the "Decisive" option should be taking objectives behind the river.

As mentioned above, holding the victory hexes for 18 turns should be the objective. The ending after turn 7 caught me by surprise!

Maybe some Paras, Partisans or another surprise can show up. The "AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOUR" I was showing was rather defensive: I could have waited but the city was so easily taken that securing a beachhead there seemed to be better than waiting behind the river.

Dunno, whatever, this scenario doesn't feel right to me.

This map has per turn injections, so stalling to the end nets a player a lot of extra prestige.
If someone wants to go on the offensive and preemptively end the map, more power to them. How often do you have the opportunity to do that? I'm trying to think of a scenario that works like this in all the stock and DLC scenarios we've seen so far... and I got nothing.

Honestly, I look forward to hearing from players who think they are super smart and crafty 'lol i managed to end this scenario after 5 turns, I'm super pro!' once DLC 1943 goes live. That'll be working as intended.

I actually wanted to milk the map, I just didn't think it would end after I captured the final victory hex.
I thought I was supposed to hold at least 4 or 5 for 18 turns. Not that this would end the scenario.

The victory condition isn't mentioned, it's not THAT clear that this ends the scenario and a "don't win - milk the scenario, play the system!" approach for this scenario... hum!
Rather drop a horde of My Little Ponies in the rear of the German defenders than that. I am fine with Paratroopers or Partisans as well.

I hope other betatesters share their thoughts about this scenario here, too. Let's assume many win early on and then you come along and say "told you so, no Prestige for you!"
-> people will for sure comment on this scenario, but not because they find it THAT funny.