Normal campaign or DLC?

[Muddy]

I am half way through the normal Panzer corps campaign, and really enjoying myself. Now I have the urge to buy the DLC and start again from the start, mainly because it goes into the war in greater detail.
Do you think I am mad, or would you do the same? I have read that the DLC is a lot harder, but I can always drop the difficulty level.

[hs1611]

I have bought all the DLC's so far. Have played through all of them except '43 East.
So I would say go ahead and buy them. You wont regret it. They're well worth the price.

[Tarrak]

The DLC's are great value for money. They are a bit different then the main game in design if the scenarios tho. For the better or for worse it's for everyone to decide but seems the majority, including me, is pleased with the changes.

The original game felt like PG more about fighting the cloak then really fighting the enemy. You was rushing from a defended point, usually a city, to next with close to nothing happening in between. The objectives was always same too. Take X Victory Hexes for DV, do the same but Y turns faster for MV. Now in the DLC there are different objectives. You need to protect some units, escort transports or trains, capture enemy general among some others. The scenarios actually feel more about fighting the enemy not the cloak with all the triggered counter attacks and similar.

All in all the DLCs are imho very well worth buying. If it's worth abandoning the original campaign to play the DLC instead .. well i would say that depends on the amount of time you got to play the game. If you play a lot by all means finish the original campaign first and then start playing the DLC and you still easily manage to catch up to the current one and will have to wait for content. If you play rarely then imho skip the original campaign and go for the DLCs to get most fun out of your limited play time.

[Muddy]

Went ahead and bought them and just finished my first mission of GC39. Bloody hell the turn count is tight, I thought I had done well but only managed to take the last objective on the 14th move, with the allies one hex away from taking a airstrip back.

Not sure I am happy about the small amount of turns allowed, you have very little time to try new strategy's, it's more a case of running hell for leather for the objectives. I wish there was some way I could change these.

[VPaulus]

There will be some scenarios that you'll want that the end of turns will be shorter.

Don't judge the Grand Campaign DLC only by playing the first scenario. It has different variety type of objectives than vanilla campaign.
I bet you'll end up liking it.

[Muddy]

GC39: second mission. Again, very tight. I basically had to throw all of my units in as cannon fodder to make it before the time ran out.
Also something happened in this mission that I am not quite sure of. Enemy units appeared in a already captured objective, now, I'm not sure if they somehow got around my army or they spawned there.

[Longasc]

Muddy, wait till you get to Stalingrad and then it only gets worse/harder.

The DLCs will give you great value for the money. Each scenario will engage you a lot longer. Sometimes you wish things would be easier. They will turn you into a better player as well, as you can't get away as easily as in the default campaign. It's Panzer Corps +/Gold/Premium, really. I can't recommend the DLCs enough.

[VPaulus]

Also something happened in this mission that I am not quite sure of. Enemy units appeared in a already captured objective, now, I'm not sure if they somehow got around my army or they spawned there.

No they didn't spawned. You might have missed a enemy unit that was able to moved across the fog.

You might tweak a little your strategy. Not much IMO. I remember those scenarios were always very tight for me.
If you want, you can watch deducter's DLC 39 ARR:
viewtopic.php?f=145&t=32405

[shawkhan]

Once you have mastered the basic tactics of combat, force allocation is the name of the game. You cannot send all of your forces after just one objective, you need to build task forces to send in different directions. On the small maps in DLC'39, 2 major groups are usually sufficient.
When I first played I would have great fun just blasting away with my unstoppable juggernaut but would often run into time problems and have to re-start.
Now I finish most scenarios with 4-5 turns left. The worry about sufficient time is simply sloppy play. Become more efficient in your use of forces and there will almost always be plenty of time.
In Deducter's last video on the advance to Leningrad, he had rain for I think three turns in a row, grounding his air force and turning the whole battlefield into mud and still had time to make a decisive victory.
If you invest the time required to become proficient the game gets even better.

[Muddy]

Thanks for your reply's.
The 3 scenarios I have played so far were relatively small 10/14 turns. And I have found the best strategy to be no strategy. Disregard loses and throw your forces at the objective. This is the only way I can complete it in the small amount of movement turns available. I hope it gets better, I am already regretting not buying just the one GC before I tried it, but as everyone seem to recommend it I thought it would be a safe bet.

I loved working out my moves in the normal campaign, but so far, there doesn't seem to be any point in the grand campaigns.

[Tarrak]

Thanks for your reply's.
The 3 scenarios I have played so far were relatively small 10/14 turns. And I have found the best strategy to be no strategy. Disregard loses and throw your forces at the objective. This is the only way I can complete it in the small amount of movement turns available. I hope it gets better, I am already regretting not buying just the one GC before I tried it, but as everyone seem to recommend it I thought it would be a safe bet.

I loved working out my moves in the normal campaign, but so far, there doesn't seem to be any point in the grand campaigns.

This seems very strange to me. I was always under a lot more time pressure in the original campaign then in most of the DLC scenarios. As VPaulus already suggested if you are having problems with the scenarios just take the time to watch Deducter's AAR. You can learn a lot of tricks from him, i certainly did.

[Muddy]

This seems very strange to me. I was always under a lot more time pressure in the original campaign then in most of the DLC scenarios. As VPaulus already suggested if you are having problems with the scenarios just take the time to watch Deducter's AAR. You can learn a lot of tricks from him, i certainly did.

I thought it was strange how you guys were happy with the GC39 and not like me, complaining. So, in a act of desperation I uninstalled, getting rid of everything, logs, saves the lot.
Reinstalled and started a new fresh GC39 and got a decisive victory on my first scenario (with moves to spare). Something must have been wrong somewhere, as before the enemy were superhuman as if I was playing Field marshal, which I most definitely wasn't, and making the allotted moves insufficient. I had no mods installed only fan made campaigns.

Thanks guys for all the help.

[deducter]

Heh, thanks for the kind comments about the video AARs. My goal is to play with a sub-optimal core so as to demonstrate how good tactics can compensate for that. This will be especially true in 1942 and 1943, although by then I am not confident in making all DVs anymore.

[dan_hnnng]

Heh, thanks for the kind comments about the video AARs. My goal is to play with a sub-optimal core so as to demonstrate how good tactics can compensate for that. This will be especially true in 1942 and 1943, although by then I am not confident in making all DVs anymore.

We all love the AARs

[Muddy]

3 scenarios and 3 decisive wins with a few turns to spare. I also had one of those moments you talk about were I thought I had them beat and then they counter attacked on 3 fronts, it was amazing, the move was quite intelligent and nearly stopped my advance.

[Kerensky]

3 scenarios and 3 decisive wins with a few turns to spare. I also had one of those moments you talk about were I thought I had them beat and then they counter attacked on 3 fronts, it was amazing, the move was quite intelligent and nearly stopped my advance.

I'm glad you stuck with the campaign, that Piatek scenario you mentioned was one of the crowning achievements of the campaign. This new style of game play was built on new features that were not available in the Vanilla game. Keep going, the scenarios are only going to get better and better. And harder and harder!

[Arcticthunder]

Since I played the original PG all the way through to the US, I kind of lost interest in Panzer Corps GC'39 around France and started on the DLC instead. I don't regret it a bit. The DLC have been a lot of fun aside from the faceroll of '41. 39, 40 and 42 were really good and 43 is really intense!

[Muddy]

It is now working as intended, intense but fair, and most of my strategies now work, that darn AI can be a sneaky *********.
I feel a bit stupid, ranting, when it was most likely my fault things went screwy, by swapping files around. I am now leaving well alone.

PC, is the best game I have played in years and I am happy to read that more campaigns are in the pipeline, I have no doubts that I will be buying them.

A couple of daft questions.
1 - Is there a way you can read the mission briefing again when in game?
2 - Is there any way to see what towns contain units that you can capture?

[Atomhund]

2: Open the map in the editor, you can see it there. Or, if you feel a bit more old-fashioned, just read this thread:
viewtopic.php?f=121&t=29212

[robman]

1 - Is there a way you can read the mission briefing again when in game?

This would be a nice feature. After all, high-ranking officers like us don't usually have to eat our orders after reading them.