42/43 West- where has my core gone!

[Stmcla]

I'm half way through 43 East and starting to suffer from Tiger fatigue ( if that is possible). I thought I would give 42/43 West a go for a change. I then got a nasty surprise when I could only have a core of 9 and saw my prestige drop from 37k to 2k. I read some of the previous postings on 42/43 but I couldn't find some rather basic information I needed.

1. Will I ever see the rest of my core or I'm I stuck with the initial 9 units I choose and then have to start buying new units?

2. What are the best units to take? Maybe the ones with the best heroes?

3. I guess I'll never seeing my 37k prestige again.

Another moaning, looking at the forums the scenarios look varied and a real change from the East and the reductions are needed to balance the scenarios.

[ThorHa]

Ye, you are stuck with your 9 units. Plus SE units of course ( forget the of course, I missed these ones in my first attempt as they are not mentioned).

No, you will never see the rest of your core or the prestige again. Designers went with historical "realism" .

Best units to take with you are
- Rudel OR the ini plus 6 Me 110 you should have received 41
- Good defensive infantry as it boosts close defense as well
- Mr. Blitz, the + move 3 infantry

In general I had best succqess with the takeover of 2 fighters, 1 Tac Bomber, 2 infantry, 2 artillery, 2 armour. Taken over SE was dictated by composition - 2 armour, 2 infantry.

And don't forget to spend your prestige properly in the takeover screen - upgrade everything that can be upgraded.

Regards,
Thorsten

[Stmcla]

Thanks Thorsten. I need to choose carefully my best 9 units then. Good tip about upgrading before selecting, although I'm not sure I'm going to make much of a dent in 37k.

[Forefall]

You can use the cheat code "core 30" to allow you to deploy and preserve all your units if you want. Not recommended, but certainly possible.

[captainjack]

The West campaign is not generous with prestige, but you do get a reasonable number of reinforcement units that can be disbanded between scenarios for a boost. There is often little or no prestige difference between DV and MV, so plan accordingly and look for surrender opportunities - every little helps. Apparently some people have forced ships to surrender, which would be a good prestige boost, though I've never managed it myself.

ThorHa's advice on taking over units with good heroes is sound. +2 or more on defence means fewer reinforcements and the two multi hero tanks are useful. Also check your transports - the fast half tracks roughly double unit costs, so reinforcements also cost much more - over a few scenarios this can make for a lot of prestige.

There's been some discussion on Dieppe, which can end up causing a lot of expensive damage if you mishandle it. Be warned that if you let the AI take all your victory hexes, on turn 3, instead of allowing you to recapture them to get the prestige you get a loss, so you should keep hold of 1 at all times. Though it doesn't affect the campaign path, you miss out on some of the reinforcement units which is a big deal if you want the prestige.

[Stmcla]

Thanks for the advice on Dieppe. I've just started it and I'm taking a pounding. I think I'll check out the postings on Dieppe.

[endur]

Apparently some people have forced ships to surrender, which would be a good prestige boost, though I've never managed it myself.

I have seen ships surrender (in the Taranto scenario where you can attack the Italian ships while they are stuck in the harbor), but I do not recall getting much if any prestige when the ships scuttle.

ThorHa's advice on taking over units with good heroes is sound. +2 or more on defence means fewer reinforcements and the two multi hero tanks are useful. Also check your transports - the fast half tracks roughly double unit costs, so reinforcements also cost much more - over a few scenarios this can make for a lot of prestige.

Focusing on heroes and SE units for your 9+SE core is very important. Remember to use your 37k prestige or whatever to upgrade to the latest equipment and over-strength as much as you can on the initial transfer.

You will be receiving more hero-based units, more captured units, and will be purchasing more units to eventually build out a large core.

Below is the information on the core I transferred (the 8 special heroes I had from 1939-1941 GC, 4 SE panzers, and my best artillery unit).

viewtopic.php?f=145&t=47997

[kverdon]

You may also want to use the cheat code to retain some if not all of that 37000 prestige. With the new "Prestige Soft Cap" rule, I was unable to complete the 1945 campaign (Loss). due to the lack of prestige in 1945. I even retried it on Colonel. In the 1945 scenarios you will sometimes get 0 (zero) awarded prestige from a battle and even a decisive victory may only net 1 - 1.5k prestige. This is barely enough to repair, much less upgrade your units. It creates a downward spiral that leaves you, even with very careful play, to not having the units and strength to finish the latter scenarios.

I found the campaign challenging enough under the 1.14 rules and was able to complete it on FM with those rules. It is very frustrating under the 1.2x rules and the prestige softcap. The problem is that the DLC campaigns, especially the latter (44 and 45) campaigns were designed with the idea that the player would enter those campaigns with a large, upgraded, over-strength core and created scenarios to challenge that. They were never rebalanced for 1.2x rules and the prestige soft cap so they become very frustrating (though possibly realistic) in the latter years as you don't have that cushion of prestige from 1939-42 to draw upon.

I believe the devs could fix this in 2 ways, especially for players on the IPAD.

1. Change the 1942 DLC to allow the player to retain more prestige in the transfer.
2. Change the IPAD rules to allow the player to utilize the 1.14 rules or to edit the rules, as on the PC, to allow for a higher prestige gain.

thanks,

Kevin

[Stmcla]

Thanks for your suggestions.

I tried over strengthing but the cost seemed to come out of my initial allocation of 2k. I'm on an ipad so I don't have all the custom options.

I'm really enjoying these scenarios at the moment, I'm currently at Mt Etna. It is a different challenge as I can't just turn all my units into Tiger's, Hummel's etc in one go which you can do in the East. You also have to work out how to get in game prestige as you are on the defensive. I worked out that it was best to let the enemy capture your towns and then recapture them to get the prestige. You also get given core units at the start of most games. If you keep these alive you can't cash them in at the end if you don't want them. In the Syracuse scenario you had to rescue Italian units, the more you save the more you can cash in. However I might start to tire of scrimping and scrapping at some point. Then it will be time to go back to the east.

[MartyWard]

Thanks for your suggestions.

I tried over strengthing but the cost seemed to come out of my initial allocation of 2k. I'm on an ipad so I don't have all the custom options.

I'm really enjoying these scenarios at the moment, I'm currently at Mt Etna. It is a different challenge as I can't just turn all my units into Tiger's, Hummel's etc in one go which you can do in the East. You also have to work out how to get in game prestige as you are on the defensive. I worked out that it was best to let the enemy capture your towns and then recapture them to get the prestige. You also get given core units at the start of most games. If you keep these alive you can't cash them in at the end if you don't want them. In the Syracuse scenario you had to rescue Italian units, the more you save the more you can cash in. However I might start to tire of scrimping and scrapping at some point. Then it will be time to go back to the east.

Don't cash is all the Italians right away. There is another scenario where you need to evacuate 18 units and they come in real handy as they can be deployed but don't count as core units deploying.

[wargovichr]

And, there's something tricky about deployment phase concerning the Italians....what was it?.....make sure you deploy ALL your German core first THEN the auxiliary Italians which once placed then cannot be un-deployed! I wonder if they ever fixed that....

[MartyWard]

And, there's something tricky about deployment phase concerning the Italians....what was it?.....make sure you deploy ALL your German core first THEN the auxiliary Italians which once placed then cannot be un-deployed! I wonder if they ever fixed that....

You can deploy the Italians at any point but once they are deployed they have to stay on the map.

[Stmcla]

I see, the Italians act as a separate core! I need to rethink what I'm doing and keep their best units.

[MartyWard]

I see, the Italians act as a separate core! I need to rethink what I'm doing and keep their best units.

That is a good way of putting it. There is a scenarios where you can use the Italians to bolster your forces but they need to be withdrawn before the battle ends. I found their arty and AA to be very useful in that scenario so don't be to quick to disband them all.
V1 and V2 also work the same as the Italians, once deployed they can't be un-deployed, in 45. They are worth a lot of prestige so if you manage to get them, use them wisely.