Battlefield Europe: v1.8 (lvl: General)
Posted: Mon Mar 20, 2017 8:39 am
Heres my AAR on the BE mod version 1.8. As a preface, I've been playing Panzer Corps since day 1, played all GCs on Manstein and Rommel, so I considered myself (attn: past tense!) a pretty seasoned player. But definately, this mod has been the most challenging and at the same time the single most fun piece of content I have played in this game. McGuba, I cannot thank you enough for the great work you have invested into this mod. THANK YOU!
=== Spoilers beginning here ===
So, it took my 3 tries to get to a total victory. I was able to start with 7090 prestige after the 3 prequel scenarios. My choice in all three games was to upgrade every AA to SPAA, with the 7/1 being the choice due to its high RoF.
Game 1, I tried going at Russia while diverting some units to the Africa Corps right away. Put too much to Africa, and moving the units during the first summer cost me too much in Russia, where I stalled at Kiev and Smolensk. That game was ultimately decided by the fact, that I decided not to defend Tunisia, which I though I would not be able to send units to in time. After finding out what happens next, I quit that game.
Game 2, I went all out against Britain. Again, AK reinforced, but also a landing in Palestine right away. Plus the invasion of britain. So, russia really meant just holding the line, which was no problem until late 42. I landed in turn 13 in Palestine, turn 12 in Britain. Everything actually went fine, with britain surrendering by turn 50, at the same time I had the oil fields. Back in russia in some strength at turn 60, I thought I'd have more than enough time to tame the bear. What a mistake! I basically ran into a wall of steel, and mid 44 I decided to turn off the fog of war. I could not believe what I saw, which was the end of game 2. With russia having been able to fully reinforce 3 years, there were just so many units that I did not see any chance of winning this.
=== Game 3
So Game 3, I tried the historic approach - russia first. For the first time, I made another major investment with my prestige, which was the conversion of 12 Infantry units to Pioneers and Grenadiers. I made the mistake here to have 7 Pioneers, which were too many, and also to have only half of these infantry in a 251, the others using the Opel Blitz. Trying to save prestige here really cost me in terms of speed in russia especially in 1941. The pioneers did not perform as expected, mainly their low INI being the problem. So, doing it again I would go 4 Pio, 8 Grens and all 251.
Also, in Game 3 I really used every single unit on the map. Moved my WM Infantry from norway to Russia, exchanged them against Romanian infantry. I even moved them Finnish infantries over to russia, to assault Leningrad from one side later on. Knowing how to handle the pocket battles in the beginning, I approached moscow quickly, and was then able to actually see how reinforcements popped up in the city while I stalled during Rasputiza. But in the winter, I took the city, which eventually fell end of February (while I had the first hex in early December, but the winter counterattack took me hard...).
Next summer, I somehow went from Moscow to the Southeast, working my way eastward the Don, which I think was good because it spared me of some of his winter counterattack 42/43. At the same time, I moved slowly towards Leningrad. Leningrad was attacked under the cover of winter 42/43, which gives the advantage that he does not fire back and damage your arty. Just have two recons, drive up to his outermost units, remove their entrenchment (I had 7 arty outside Leningrad), surround their units with the recons, and all you have to do is flick at the fully suppressed units to make them surrender. Recons disappear again - he's got nothing to shoot at. This went pretty quick and with little losses.
So, in the south the counterattack 42/43 was tougher than expected, and a retreat from stalingrad to Rostov was inevitable. Next spring, with the StuG IIIG available - every available unit was upgraded to them, another large investment, I slowly pushed him back. Prestige began flowing again, with the oil fields of Caucasus taken by turn 49. From that point on, it took another ten turns until I had russia surrender, especially getting to Archangelsk took time even though I had planned ahead.
Elsewhere, Tunisia was defended this time, with every air unit from Europe, and with the Tiger provided late 42. Plus some AA, Infantry, arty and 2 StuG. That went well, especially because I still had the complete regia Marina available. Bombers disposed of his incoming fleet, which arrives in waves so no bigger problems arose. The only problem being the fact that over Europe itself, I was bare, no fighters and little AA, so I had to swallow the bombers taking away 150 prestige every turn.
Landing in britain came 1/1/43, turn 63. I lost a few turns ahead due to bad planning, was not sure whether russia had been beaten. A single Panther unit landed in the south, with more Panthers and Pz4H to follow and all Semovente and Stug42 as arty. Landing spot was the Radar next to the southern airfield, which could easily be destroyed by my 5 capital ships. in two turns. The air field itself was empty when I pulled up my transport ship, but was immediately taken by a Sherman. From that point on, I only brought one unit per turn to britain, with only one harbor being available just south of the landing beach. But with the heavy tanks available at that time, the invasion was easy. I have to explain: Britain itself closed the channel completely in late 43 with mines - behind one of them I placed a sub, which made it impossible for him to cross the channel aswell - so the bigger part of home fleet was sitting in the north sea, waiting for me to gain air superiority and then getting bombed out. And the winter once again proved to be an advantageous time for the landing, as his air superiority did not help him. Only problem was the short winter of 43/44, which meant I had most of my airforce still in transfer from russia when skies cleared up. First victory hex was taken well before June 6, so no invasion in france. From this point on, the invasion went straight on, and I had total victory by turn 90.
As mentioned, I had all 5 capital ships in the atlantic. I withdrew both baltic capital ships early, since I had not planned on an early Leningrad attack - they are of little help anyways. Instead, I wanted to try with them on the convoy routes, as they are not affected by the oil crisis. This did not work out, either. In all three games, I did not find a good strategy for the convoy routes. But transferring these ships from the baltic through the channel first winter provided me with help later on against his home fleet, and needed artillery in the first days of the invasion in britain.
Middle east went smoothly aswell. After Russias surrender, a small group of heavy tanks + support went south, and they really found no competition from the units there. This was much in contrast to game two, where I went to the middle east much earlier, and really had my Pz IIIs struggle against his tanks.
After all, once again a big hand to McGuba, I have not yet seen a better piece of content for PzCorps. If I'd see one flaw in this mod at all, it would be the fact that I do not think that any other strategy than "russia first" will work. My game 2, both the invasion in britain and middle east went very well, but I simply ran out of time against russia. Moving around all units in the first summer just costs too much time. Also, the decision on whether to take on Russia or Britain first drills down to: Fight heavy armor or better fighters late in the war? And against the fighters, you always have the AA on your side, but nothing comparable to weaken the russian heavy tanks. Also, in the winter, you do not have to compete the fighters, but working russian tanks with INI=1 provides some bad experiences. So, given the choice I would now always go russia first.
Took Malta with Rudel after first winter. Gave up on the Brandenburgers, never found a suitable use for them. Had to invest some into Tirpitz defense later on, at one point had to move her away because of heavy air attacks.
=== Spoilers beginning here ===
So, it took my 3 tries to get to a total victory. I was able to start with 7090 prestige after the 3 prequel scenarios. My choice in all three games was to upgrade every AA to SPAA, with the 7/1 being the choice due to its high RoF.
Game 1, I tried going at Russia while diverting some units to the Africa Corps right away. Put too much to Africa, and moving the units during the first summer cost me too much in Russia, where I stalled at Kiev and Smolensk. That game was ultimately decided by the fact, that I decided not to defend Tunisia, which I though I would not be able to send units to in time. After finding out what happens next, I quit that game.
Game 2, I went all out against Britain. Again, AK reinforced, but also a landing in Palestine right away. Plus the invasion of britain. So, russia really meant just holding the line, which was no problem until late 42. I landed in turn 13 in Palestine, turn 12 in Britain. Everything actually went fine, with britain surrendering by turn 50, at the same time I had the oil fields. Back in russia in some strength at turn 60, I thought I'd have more than enough time to tame the bear. What a mistake! I basically ran into a wall of steel, and mid 44 I decided to turn off the fog of war. I could not believe what I saw, which was the end of game 2. With russia having been able to fully reinforce 3 years, there were just so many units that I did not see any chance of winning this.
=== Game 3
So Game 3, I tried the historic approach - russia first. For the first time, I made another major investment with my prestige, which was the conversion of 12 Infantry units to Pioneers and Grenadiers. I made the mistake here to have 7 Pioneers, which were too many, and also to have only half of these infantry in a 251, the others using the Opel Blitz. Trying to save prestige here really cost me in terms of speed in russia especially in 1941. The pioneers did not perform as expected, mainly their low INI being the problem. So, doing it again I would go 4 Pio, 8 Grens and all 251.
Also, in Game 3 I really used every single unit on the map. Moved my WM Infantry from norway to Russia, exchanged them against Romanian infantry. I even moved them Finnish infantries over to russia, to assault Leningrad from one side later on. Knowing how to handle the pocket battles in the beginning, I approached moscow quickly, and was then able to actually see how reinforcements popped up in the city while I stalled during Rasputiza. But in the winter, I took the city, which eventually fell end of February (while I had the first hex in early December, but the winter counterattack took me hard...).
Next summer, I somehow went from Moscow to the Southeast, working my way eastward the Don, which I think was good because it spared me of some of his winter counterattack 42/43. At the same time, I moved slowly towards Leningrad. Leningrad was attacked under the cover of winter 42/43, which gives the advantage that he does not fire back and damage your arty. Just have two recons, drive up to his outermost units, remove their entrenchment (I had 7 arty outside Leningrad), surround their units with the recons, and all you have to do is flick at the fully suppressed units to make them surrender. Recons disappear again - he's got nothing to shoot at. This went pretty quick and with little losses.
So, in the south the counterattack 42/43 was tougher than expected, and a retreat from stalingrad to Rostov was inevitable. Next spring, with the StuG IIIG available - every available unit was upgraded to them, another large investment, I slowly pushed him back. Prestige began flowing again, with the oil fields of Caucasus taken by turn 49. From that point on, it took another ten turns until I had russia surrender, especially getting to Archangelsk took time even though I had planned ahead.
Elsewhere, Tunisia was defended this time, with every air unit from Europe, and with the Tiger provided late 42. Plus some AA, Infantry, arty and 2 StuG. That went well, especially because I still had the complete regia Marina available. Bombers disposed of his incoming fleet, which arrives in waves so no bigger problems arose. The only problem being the fact that over Europe itself, I was bare, no fighters and little AA, so I had to swallow the bombers taking away 150 prestige every turn.
Landing in britain came 1/1/43, turn 63. I lost a few turns ahead due to bad planning, was not sure whether russia had been beaten. A single Panther unit landed in the south, with more Panthers and Pz4H to follow and all Semovente and Stug42 as arty. Landing spot was the Radar next to the southern airfield, which could easily be destroyed by my 5 capital ships. in two turns. The air field itself was empty when I pulled up my transport ship, but was immediately taken by a Sherman. From that point on, I only brought one unit per turn to britain, with only one harbor being available just south of the landing beach. But with the heavy tanks available at that time, the invasion was easy. I have to explain: Britain itself closed the channel completely in late 43 with mines - behind one of them I placed a sub, which made it impossible for him to cross the channel aswell - so the bigger part of home fleet was sitting in the north sea, waiting for me to gain air superiority and then getting bombed out. And the winter once again proved to be an advantageous time for the landing, as his air superiority did not help him. Only problem was the short winter of 43/44, which meant I had most of my airforce still in transfer from russia when skies cleared up. First victory hex was taken well before June 6, so no invasion in france. From this point on, the invasion went straight on, and I had total victory by turn 90.
As mentioned, I had all 5 capital ships in the atlantic. I withdrew both baltic capital ships early, since I had not planned on an early Leningrad attack - they are of little help anyways. Instead, I wanted to try with them on the convoy routes, as they are not affected by the oil crisis. This did not work out, either. In all three games, I did not find a good strategy for the convoy routes. But transferring these ships from the baltic through the channel first winter provided me with help later on against his home fleet, and needed artillery in the first days of the invasion in britain.
Middle east went smoothly aswell. After Russias surrender, a small group of heavy tanks + support went south, and they really found no competition from the units there. This was much in contrast to game two, where I went to the middle east much earlier, and really had my Pz IIIs struggle against his tanks.
After all, once again a big hand to McGuba, I have not yet seen a better piece of content for PzCorps. If I'd see one flaw in this mod at all, it would be the fact that I do not think that any other strategy than "russia first" will work. My game 2, both the invasion in britain and middle east went very well, but I simply ran out of time against russia. Moving around all units in the first summer just costs too much time. Also, the decision on whether to take on Russia or Britain first drills down to: Fight heavy armor or better fighters late in the war? And against the fighters, you always have the AA on your side, but nothing comparable to weaken the russian heavy tanks. Also, in the winter, you do not have to compete the fighters, but working russian tanks with INI=1 provides some bad experiences. So, given the choice I would now always go russia first.
Took Malta with Rudel after first winter. Gave up on the Brandenburgers, never found a suitable use for them. Had to invest some into Tirpitz defense later on, at one point had to move her away because of heavy air attacks.
Now it should not be the case.