Slitherine

Have we done this thread recently?

Having been slogging through the brutal grand campaign now with about one scenario a week, I wanted to register how pleased I am with the game balance and scenario variety. Now fighting Orel in 1943.

I am playing v1.2 on Field Marshal and then on General level (got a bit scared I admit when I read about the slaughter to come in 1944). I haven't reloaded a scenario or a turn or anything.

I really enjoy the slightly unusual scenarios and the defensive ones too, I would otherwise die of boredom if it was old fashioned blitzkrieg for a whole 70 scenarios. My favourite is Vitebsk, very atmospheric and dramatic. I think the DLCs are really capturing the 'against the odds' experience and the daring of the Wehrmacht's battle for survival.

My plan to deal with soft cap is to make the most of the 'free' points contained within the SE units and economise on everyone else. Early days yet in that regard however.

I also particularly liked the way Stalingrad was handled, where the vastness of the city dwarfs your formations and instils a sense of dread like the gigantic grave that it was.

Lost Oleh Dir at Belgorod because I was complacent. He will be missed. If I had settled for an MV like I normally do it wouldn't have happened. Ambitious Generals are dangerous men...

According to the title I will list my "top scenarios":

- 2nd USA scenario
- Leningrad '41
- Battleaxe

and from WWI (my mod):

- Paris '14
- UK '18
- Mons 18 (not me playing it - watching everyone else suffer at it, after designing it to be a core-murderer)

- BNC

Only being part way through 1942 I'm sure this will change but for now my three favourite scenarios so far have to be :-

Amiens 40 - probably taught me more about terrain, artillery support and the benefit of taking a few steps back for favourable ground than any scenario so far.
Streets of Moscow 41 - No great time pressure and terrain and artillery support makes the difference.
Piatek 39 - I think (the defense on the river one) a great intro to choke points and moving reserves where needed.

I guess I like scenario's which reward well thought out moves rather than the ones where you can almost steamroll the opposition.

Cheers
Bone

I've always enjoyed the "save the allied auxillaries" types of scenarios such as Kharkov or Tatsinkaya in GC 42E.

But my favourites among these type is Budapest 45 in GC 45E, a titanic scenario involving four independent armies: an auxiliary army surrounded in Budapest, another that can barely hold it's defence along a river line, and your own forces split into two battering through the encirclement forces trying to save the city and stranded army.

A close second is Syracuse in GC 42/43w, where you rescue as many Italian units as you can from the initial Husky landings. The bonus with Syracuse is that you can deploy those Italians as a one-time auxillary reinforcements in later maps, something more tangible than V-weapons and minefields. So what if the Italians showed up at Normandy and Berlin?

I like Dash to the Wire in AK - it combines time pressure, and several competing possible objectives (once you know about the hangers, supply dumps etc).

Some of the 43 East defensive scenarios are good because if you don't plan and use your units well you can have a very bad day. Having space to rotate out units to resupply, placing AA and artillery and tanks, and timing counterattacks well are very important. Good use of units with movement heroes is pretty much essential. Orel is also good with the use of trains, clearing partisans and trying to create a strong defence as you are under attack.

Also some of the 42/43 West early scenarios are fun with all the rushing around, trying to anticipate attacks and trying to defend one-shot-to-kill targets.

I'm not sure about WW1 UK18 yet - I think I have mucked up my strategic plan too much, and have paused for a while to decide whether to press on for a further 30 turns or restart.

There's some inspiration there for me to press on and try the whole of the East/West DLC!

I agree with what is said about terrain etc, Panzer Corps really takes the use of terrain to a higher level.

I forgot to mention that Allied Corps was a really good experience in doing things differently too.

I like defensive scenarios. I also prefer scenarios where we don't have tons of units (too many units complicates it too much for me).

endur wrote:I also prefer scenarios where we don't have tons of units (too many units complicates it too much for me).

The big Panzer Corps scenarios are OK for me as I can usually do what's needed with two or three army groups and sometimes a fourth one. When I tried playing Legacy of Versailles, the scenarios were too big for me to feel in control of what I was doing - it's an impressive mod, just bigger than I like. It looks like three or four army groups is about as much as I can keep track of. On the other side, I also enjoy some of the smaller engagements in AC, and AK, and 42 West, even the first AC one with two armoured cars and a light tank.

Its not the size (of your army ofc ) its how you use it, that said as I love force surrenders, the bigger battles tend to be my favourite's. swing round the flank and bank all that lovely prestige.

endur wrote:I like defensive scenarios. I also prefer scenarios where we don't have tons of units (too many units complicates it too much for me).

Mons 18 has a huge amount of units (mostly enemy), and is the world's hardest defensive scenario - do you hate it? (I hope you do - I made it for that purpose)

captainjack wrote: When I tried playing Legacy of Versailles, the scenarios were too big for me to feel in control of what I was doing - it's an impressive mod, just bigger than I like. It looks like three or four army groups is about as much as I can keep track of. On the other side, I also enjoy some of the smaller engagements in AC, and AK, and 42 West, even the first AC one with two armoured cars and a light tank.

for me, LoV is too big to ever play - War of the World has a larger map however, but somehow it doesn't annoy people in its size. (I guess the reason is that each side only has 30-50 units across that huge 16k hex map)

- BNC