Slitherine

Guys,
what's your most favorite/hated scenario in PzC, AC, AK or DLC?

Barbarossa, Stalingrad (a feeling of hardcore blitzkrieg is there!) /Normandy + DLC 43 Kursk battles (rather boring maps and objectives) + Street battles of Moscow and Stalingrad

My hated list is quite long: US West Coast, Gazala, Basra, Persia (or one of the maps near it), Crusader, Vyazma, GC44 one with Romanians, Osterode, Seelow.

If I was to include mods, probably the two USSR scenarios in the Jap campaign.

Favourite is the WWI USA, otherwise probably France (simply because it is quite easy!).

- BNC

Heyo, it's been a while but I'm going to get back into it as soon as Soviet Corps becomes available!

My PG favourites are the big unit, big map scenarios ones where you use a lot of units for multiple-axis attacks. Budapest45 is pretty much near the tops for me, while one of the Kursk scenarios (can't remember which scenario) where you have four starting points is absolutely brilliant. I also loved the PG Sicily 43 where you have to extricate as many Italian units as possible from a crushing Allied advance.

My hated scenarios are the 360-defence defence scenarios where you have to nit-pick and consider the angles of every ground and air unit every turn. A single chink in the armour, like forgetting to check an artillery unit's ammo count, will either have you lose units and\or have the enemy pour through. ie, Stalingrad Ruins and Berlin. The sheer boring-ness of checking every detail leads to the drudgery of going through that makes me hate them, haha.

I've been working my way through the DLC and got to 1944 in the East. My opinion is the opposite of the OPs: for me, the most memorable scenarios were those around Stalingrad and Kursk. The fact that for each battle, there is more than one scenario, is a large part of what makes them memorable - but they also seem to capture the flavour of those epic battles. I know some people don't like the city fighting scenarios, but I found them enjoyable and creatively executed given the engine limitations - particularly the ones with "small scale" maps that have street lanes in which tanks can still operate without fear of close defence assaults.

My least favorite scenarios are those where for some reason you have to keep playing beyond your offensive objectives and face respawning Russians. Kiev43 stands out here - initially it was terrific, defending the city while clearing the south and going onto the attack. But re-spawning trios of IS-1 tanks were an immersion killer (and a PanzerIV killer!), which was particularly irritating given that I had already effectively crushed the Russians. Much better for the scenario to have ended when I had reached my goals (objective hexes). But so far, however, there have been very few of these kind of fights. I really like the varied scenario objectives of the DLC and the fact that you usually don't have to clear out the map but can end the scenario promptly once the objectives have been achieved. The DLC campaign path is wonderfully long, so it is good that each scenario isn't always an all-nighter.

Going back to the original Panzer General, my favourites were Norway and Kiev. The Norway scenario in PzC was great too, although a little less epic in scope. I was disappointed that the DLC Kiev path did not give you control of auxiliaries around Kiev, as trying to fend off Soviet armor with weak auxiliaries until the cavalry arrived was what made Kiev fun in the original PG. You do get something similar in DLC Narva, but much smaller scale.

It feels slightly silly to say this, but my favorite map has to be Belgrade, it's very rare to see the country I am from represented in a game, and much much less to have a scenario in which Yugoslavia is the main objective in, I also like the Polish and France invasions due to how blatantly superior it feels to take part in the invasions (I mean, Polish cavalry against German steel? Puuh-lease)

Now on the topic of hated scenarios, pretty much any map that involves a large number of mines, getting through those is a massive hassle and turns the entire thing into a slogfest

My all-time favourite scenario in all PG/PC-games is Gazala in Afrika Korps. A huge map, challenging and still so many ways to win it. The Orkney scenario in the new Sealion campaign - maybe the coolest air/land/sea battle. Most hated: Villers-Bocage in GC West 1944; somehow they got totally wrong how that famous battle went. Oboyan is also a very annoying one.

Mannerheim in MPC35 to 39! It stops snowing only to allow five million tac bombers to flatten your troops. Then clouds over as soon as your aircraft try to strike back. When it snows, you can't pull back or resupply and when it doesn't snow, the steamroller can see you and flatten you. My head is sore from banging it on the desk repeatedly! As for the tac bombers, five million might be a slight exaggeration, but I destroyed nine and there were still at least six left, which is pretty close to one tac per core unit slot.

IttoOgami wrote:My all-time favourite scenario in all PG/PC-games is Gazala in Afrika Korps.

How can you say that? Gazala is evil.

- BNC

econ21 wrote:
Going back to the original Panzer General, my favourites were Norway and Kiev. The Norway scenario in PzC was great too, although a little less epic in scope. I was disappointed that the DLC Kiev path did not give you control of auxiliaries around Kiev, as trying to fend off Soviet armor with weak auxiliaries until the cavalry arrived was what made Kiev fun in the original PG. You do get something similar in DLC Narva, but much smaller scale.

Despite it was always very easy to win, my favorite PG scenario is Balkans. You have so many goals and battle groups and some of the latter were fully auxiliary, small and weak. I also liked Norway a lot. I remember playing it the first time and it was a huge jump in dificulty compared to the earlier and next scenarios. Took me some time until my fleet didn't get crushed. Also great were the three Moscow scenarios. One I disliked back in the time was Ardennes. Too many cities which meant the AI back then spawned huge amounts of crap units you had to grind through.
For me, Allied general had better scenarios overall. But, some of the soviet campaing were really, really frustrating. After playing it many times, I still often fail to win the first one, Finland

IttoOgami wrote:

econ21 wrote:
Going back to the original Panzer General, my favourites were Norway and Kiev. The Norway scenario in PzC was great too, although a little less epic in scope. I was disappointed that the DLC Kiev path did not give you control of auxiliaries around Kiev, as trying to fend off Soviet armor with weak auxiliaries until the cavalry arrived was what made Kiev fun in the original PG. You do get something similar in DLC Narva, but much smaller scale.

Despite it was always very easy to win, my favorite PG scenario is Balkans. You have so many goals and battle groups and some of the latter were fully auxiliary, small and weak. I also liked Norway a lot. I remember playing it the first time and it was a huge jump in dificulty compared to the earlier and next scenarios. Took me some time until my fleet didn't get crushed. Also great were the three Moscow scenarios. One I disliked back in the time was Ardennes. Too many cities which meant the AI back then spawned huge amounts of crap units you had to grind through.
For me, Allied general had better scenarios overall. But, some of the soviet campaing were really, really frustrating. After playing it many times, I still often fail to win the first one, Finland

Agree with the above 2 assessments of the old Panzer General game.
I really enjoyed the difficulty and subtlety of the Finland Scenario for Soviet side of Allied General. Always so many ways to play that scenario, huge replayability.
I only played Allied General on Playstation for a number of years before I found Panzer General Forever.
I used to play it at the hardest settings and could still beat the game, so i have enjoyed watching the tweaks to the settings on Panzer Corps and have yet to complete the Vanilla campaign as I have fallen madly in love with the Grand Campaign as can be seen on my AAR reports.

Ahhh.... memories

I just finished Simferopol in the 1942 Campaign this morning.
I thoroughly enjoyed it.
The 2 surprising flanking maneuvers and the need to not neglect the flanks of your advance were well thought out and challenging as well as very fun to counter.

That is what I love about the Grand Campaign scenarios they were set up with so much apparent love and thoughtfullness to make sure they would be unique and interesting.

The fun frustration of Vyazma was a challenge and who can forget the first time you played Piatek, the unexpected challenging Polish scenario.

Very fun and enjoyable game.

I am so excited to try the assault on Sevastopol next.
To have had this game for more than a year and I have not even come close to playing all of the content goes to show you how much this game has to offer the interested player.

For the regular scenarios in each campaign, the ones that are the most difficult are:

Regular Panzercorps
Normandy (Germans) - very difficult unless you defend inland and choose a sector to concentrate your army. Most of your army is unmechanized so you need to fight in the middle and leave the right side unprotected (pick them up later when the Americans are defeated, and hope the AI doesn't choose the Sherman Firefly as it's purchase choice for its prestige! If the AI spawns lots of American long-barreled Shermans you have it a bit easier.)
Sealion42 (Germans) - the key is getting the army on land. Fighting the Allied airforce and navy is a challenge and you will lose many units to ships, planes, and adjacent ground units attacking the ships. Once you get ashore buy infantry and artillery and hope you have enough turns to take the objectives (especially if the AI spams the westernmost city with the Flak and artillery and you don't have more than 2 paras in the area)
Lake Balaton (Germans) - a VERY difficult scenario that depends a lot on luck and dice rolls. You have to keep units alive in the first few turns, even if you have to sacrifice Flak and infantry to the dreaded Su-100's. The Su-100's cannot hurt infantry so kill the IS-2's and then go on the defensive with the Su-100's. Set up your Panthers and ATG's so they can only be hit once by the Su-100's and then retreat. Your return fire will cripple the Su-100 and hopefully you can take them out 2-3 per turn until they are gone. You will lose your weak ATG's and even your Panthers but buy at least one or two Tiger 2's to block attacks on weaker units, and a FW-190d9 to support the weak German air force at the beginning. The southern force should help with the southeastern city only when the Su-100's are finished attacking. Buying a few inf and artillery in the south will help as the Soviets have only ATG and inf in that area. The northern army should press immediately for the northern objective and try and get Russians into the mountains for infantry kills. Buy a Hummel or two to help soften up the city as you will have only a few turns to storm it.
Bagration (Germans) - the hardest scenario to do. You need to give up most of the map to the Russians and concentrate your entire army in one spot. Then defeat the Russians on that front and go into their rear and retake cities. Then engage the Russians that come back piecemeal to try and take the cities back. They will be split between attacking multiple cities in the west and will not be able to concentrate the entire Russian horde on you at once. You will lose every city at least once but hopefully your roving army group can retake enough back to win the scenario.

Afrikacorps
Fort Capuzzo (Italians) - this is another luck scenario. You have ZERO prestige and none given per turn, so the only way you can get reinforcements is to retake cities. You cannot buy anything new so keep units alive. Keep infantry and artillery in trenches and hope for rugged defenses. Then try and destroy any units that are smashed by rugged defenses. Use artillery to force surrenders. The tanks and armored cars cannot defeat you in trenches but the infantry and artillery are dangerous. Try and get the British in one corner and retake the objectives with units you sneak into the rear. I beat one prong in the NW and then swarmed the SE corner. The AI will buy tanks.
Caucasus (Germans) - You can win the mountains and take the required amount of towns for victory quite easy, but good luck getting to the far NW city with the base scenario's composition. Taking all the cities and finishing off the KV-5 in the top of the map is a big challenge. I won the scenario but did not take the far NW hex (not required for victory). I guess I would have to be bold and airdrop units right next to the Russian tanks up there.
Alam Halaf (Germans) - a well made scenario that pushes the German player to the limit. You have limited prestige, one core slot purchase, and barely enough prestige to survive even with green replacements. The AI moves the radar back with each turn so you can hit it with an aircraft but you get one or two shots at it before it comes under the Flak and fighter umbrella. I got glimpses of it running away but there are many tanks that block the path even if you get past the minefields in the first couple turns. The British airforce comes in masses and it really slows your advance as you have to replace losses to units every turn and your advance is slowed. The British fighters are superior to the Italian units and the two Me-109's cannot kill more than one fighter a turn. By the end if you don't get the radar, your airforce is not able to fight anymore because of lack of prestige and experience against SpitIX's. Get to the three rear cities fast and attack no matter the losses. The middle mountain objectives are protected by powerful units. I was able to win on turn 18 with only a Churchill left and 3 Spitfires, 1 Whitley, 1 Stirling, and a beat up Hurricane/B-25.

Allied Corps
Advance to the Elbe (Germans) - you are a Panzercorps experten if you can beat this scenario as the Germans at anything at colonel or beyond. It must be impossible at Field Marshall and above. There is no prestige, no new unit slots, and you cannot reinforce your tanks! The tanks are so weak that the 15 strength Allied units can one-shot them. The 15 strength Ta-152 seems good but it is butchered by the P-51 and finished off by another fighter without as much as removing 1-2 strength from the Allied plane. After playing this with multiple strategies, retreat and stand failed because the eastern part of the map is undefensible. Attack early failed because they would concentrate their force and crush you. The one time I won was to concentrate my army in the northern hills near the NE city and attack the tanks and ATG in the hills. I sacrificed my tanks to kill the artillery and infantry as they came ahead of the tanks, and weakened the tanks with close defense in the hills. The strategy of weakening units but not killing did not work as units would accidentally kill themselves and aircraft would reinforce and do tons of damage. The bombers (B-26) must be destroyed while you still have planes and use your flak well while they are around. The Allies will spam M-26 Pershings so make sure to finish off units. The Pershings are bad enough but support them with inf and artillery and you are dead. If you have to force tanks to attack your cities, and they have no inf left, you can win this.

Not many scenarios are difficult from the Allied side. Even Poland and the early Russian scenarios are easy to win. Germany (E, W, and E/W) are also easy to beat.

IttoOgami wrote:I really enjoyed the difficulty and subtlety of the Finland Scenario for Soviet side of Allied General

I never played original Panzer General, but the original Soviet scenario in PGForever appeared to be impossible rather than subtle. Maybe I was missing something.

This week's best one-off scenario is BiteNibbleChomp's gratuitous SPAAG T90 killing one. Every single one of those T90s has it coming!

captainjack wrote:This week's best one-off scenario is BiteNibbleChomp's gratuitous SPAAG T90 killing one. Every single one of those T90s has it coming!

Good to hear you enjoyed it. Those horrible SPAAGs have got to go!

- BNC

The Soviet Side of Allied General was infamous in its difficulty, but it was still very beatable, once you learned how to beat the computer. I can beat it it on Panzer General Forever on its hardest settings. 500% prestige boost and 5 stars experience
It is difficult and takes some finesse, but every computer ai can be beat once you learn the strategy.

I have enjoyed the way you can streamline the levels on Panzer Corps and have been with it over a year and have not even come close to finishing all of the content. I am still enjoying playing other players on the multiplayer and really excited about setting up the MP Championship matches come February 14th.

This game will be one I probably am still playing in my eighties and I am in my 40's now.

Just keeps getting better and better.