Slitherine

Just finished the dlc 44 on General, no cheats. Just for the records and taking many complaints about the difficulty in this specific dlc:

All DVs, no own losses except auxiliaries. Most maps with no enemy unit left.
Minus roughly 10000 prestige after the DLC, however mainly due to unit upgrades ( main ones: 6 SE tanks to KingTiger, 2 Bf109g to Me 262)
Always had a minimum of 7 to 8 infantry in each scenario. They are - experienced, oberstrengthened and heroes of course - absolutely able to survive a JS 2 attack in open terrain in still fighting shape! The many mourns about the death of infantry in dlc 44 is a myth, if you are not too careless.

Most interesting scenario - Vilna due to the vastness of the open terrain.
Most strength losses - Budapest, the last 1944 scenario, due to difficult and cramped terrain especially in the north
Most annoying enemy unit - the infamous and fantasy unit T90 AA. Never ever expose own aircraft the first minimum 2 turns before you have identified these guys, which means the lead tanks or AT of your battlegroups are without air cover the first turns. But if you field experienced AA in numbers, quite easy especially after the gains in the bonus scenario chasing the US B17, you still can protect your artillery
Most outdated own unit - a couple of StuG III b strength 14, both with a +2 attack hero. I never found a good replacement ...
Most inefficient unit - artillery. Effect against JS1, JS 2 and the heavy Russian AT units is converging on 0. Still necessary against the seemingly endless waves of Russian infantry.

Biggest difficulty to overcome - limited ammo. With the Russian hordes in the opening turns I often enough had to plan everything I did not only on access routes but on predicted ammo (now and after enemy move) as well.

No worrying soft cap effect yet. But this is only true with a pre planned core since 1939, fielding the most expensive units as SE only (KingTigers), which do not count against the cap.

Now into 1945 with a prestige reserve of roughly 40000.

Regards,
Thorsten

Edited for biggest difficulty.

That's pretty good going. It sounds like I need to take a bit more care over my infantry - even with +3 defence heroes, 43 infantry seem to be particularly vulnerable to other experienced 43 infantry in close terrain.

I agree with your comments on artillery - I usually stick with 10.5cm for the higher ammo and RoF, but once T34/85, KV85 and IS1 and IS2 start appearing it is usually worth upgrading at least some to 17cm so that they can suppress heavy armour. Personally I upgrade the attack hero units. The 10.5 stay for use against infantry, unless I have range-hero 21cm nebelwerfers - at 3 range these are great for dealing with entrenched infantry, as well as for infantry defence.

The Stug3B is a tough one - the StuH has much improved SA and good armour and switches to (a pretty rubbish) SPAT. But it has lousy HA and hardly any ammo, which is bad for any defensive work. The Brummbar is usually worth the upgrade as almost everything is better than the Stug, though I think RoF is lower at 90% from 110%.

As I built my infantry force since 1939 and used at least 6 infantry in every scenario 1940ff all of my infantry is now 4,5 to 5 stars and each has at least 2 heroes. That said I only use 3 types 1942 ff - Grenadiere, Gebirgsjager and Pioniere. And I still try to keep them under cover of artillery at all times of course, exept the grenadiere 43, who never, ever got attacked by enemy infantry.

But I admit I use a specific play style aimed to keep enemy infantry in the open. Always. Which is astonishingly easy as the AI moves tanks first. Always.

Regards,
Thorsten