Slitherine

I've just finished GC39 on General with DVs in all scenarios, however I lost quite a few units during the campaign. I read and the forums that you have to accumulate as much prestige as you can by 42, but I don't know how to assess my progress so far. I figured I'd check the GC40 default force composition and prestige (provided if you start there without importing your previous core), and if mine are better, I have a good starting situation. Is this a good way to measure my current situation, ie. could you complete the GC if you start from e.g. 1940 with the standard core provided?

Hedge90 wrote:I've just finished GC39 on General with DVs in all scenarios, however I lost quite a few units during the campaign. I read and the forums that you have to accumulate as much prestige as you can by 42, but I don't know how to assess my progress so far. I figured I'd check the GC40 default force composition and prestige (provided if you start there without importing your previous core), and if mine are better, I have a good starting situation. Is this a good way to measure my current situation, ie. could you complete the GC if you start from e.g. 1940 with the standard core provided?

I have never tried, but you want to finish 42 with a minimum of 30,000 in prestige to help you with the needed upgrades and elite replacements. My suggestion is to keep playing as you can only play blind once. And you can always start again back in 39 once you have learned better strategies to minimize damage and maximize prestige and experience.

Here is my Army that I finished 39 with on my latest playthrough on Manstein:
Manstein Army importing into 1940
46 units total (I am trying to build broad and deep force)
6991 in prestige (I am extremely pleased with this as I am needing to buy lots of regular replacements during battle and doing my best to maintain some level of experience)

10 Infantry: (I would like to have around 20-25 by the end of 1941)
2 regular Inf both with 2 stars experience.
2 Fallschimjager both with 1 stars (I am not sure what i am going to do with these, because I do not see myself using them in the air but may use them as part of my army to help bust up entrenched units.)
6 Gerbisjager 3 with 2 Stars experience and 3 with 1 star I have some great starts to infantry heroes as I have Oleh Dir, 1 with +3 Def and 1 with +2 Att. (1 is an SE unit but I want tanks so I will not be keeping when I finally get tanks to replace, it does not have any heroes but has to be getting extremely close.)
(I see myself continuing to buy additional Gerbisjager's without transport to build up vast army of great Infantry units. I will upgrade to other units as I gain enough prestige and see the need for more diverse units.)

4 Tanks
1 Pz 38(t)a that is Albert Kerscher that I will be upgrading to a Pz4.
1 Pz3F with 1 stars of experience
2 Pz2C's 1 with 2 stars of experience and 1 with 1 star of experience. (I plan on turning these into Flamm's and may be taking them occasionally in the hopes to build up their experience and kill count)
I will upgrade Albert Kerscher and buy another Pz4 to start building up but otherwise I will be utilizing the free tanks earned through the playthrough.

1 Recon
2 stars experience. I see myself getting 2 more to help surround units and force surrender, at least through 1941.

2 Pz 3.7cm Paks
1 star of experience. Man these are hard to build up on this level, but I will continue to try and build these up along with probably 2 Panzerjagers. I would like 6 to 8 by the time 1941 is finished, but I always have difficulty building these up.

12 artys
All have 2 stars of experience 3 Sturmpanzers, 1 Polish Arty, 8 10..5cm artys. (Going for around 30 to 40 by the end of 1941)

2 AA's
1 with 2 stars 1 with 1 star. (Prbably going to go for at least 1 more, but may consider buying some of those mobile AA's, not sure.


8 Tac Bombers
1 Recon Rudel with 1 star just saving to get Uber.
Most with 2 star and I am hoping to have around 15 by the end of 1941

2 Strat Bombers
2 Henkels with 2 stars of Experience. Going to have 3


Again I am extremely pleased with this starting point and I am hopeful that I will be able to get around 80-100 core units that I have to dip into the latter years, but we shall see.

There's no way that I know of - such as a score card or other means - to gauge your performance. As an aside, I hope that this will be changed in PC2 whenever it comes out. When you say that you lost "quite a few units", however, it gives me pause. I think you can complete most of the '39 GC with few lost units. And every lost unit is essentially lost prestige as you have to replace it. Further, a unit's experience & kills are lost when it is destroyed. These are also important in the big picture as they help in accumulating heroes. Although I don't have a full picture of how you played each scenario, I would in general suggest you advance somewhat more slowly. If say, you're capturing all of your objectives with some turns to spare, you could have advanced more cautiously. A more methodical advance would leave fewer units in vulnerable positions & more importantly result in fewer ambushes.

Welcome to the game & good luck.

Thanks for the replies. I'd say I've lost about 1 unit on average per scenario, but I have "reform units" on - I want to play without reloading any saves, and I know that I'd just ragequit if I lost a well-developed unit with good heroes.
It is possible that I should maybe play a bit more slowly and methodically. I came from the vanilla campaign where I got used to having to rush and take some risks in order to achieve DVs, so I may have to unlearn this. Anyway I am going to go on until I lose, as going through the campaign blind without reloading any saves is a one-time experience.

Although I'm still playing the GC, I've been aware for a long time that it is a completely different beast to the base game. If you are losing a unit almost every scenario in GC39 then I would say that you are probably playing a little too recklessly. You need to form habits that are going to see you through the entire campaign if you intend getting through it. Soften entrenched targets up before assaulting and don't let units get isolated. Look at your position at the start of each turn before committing any moves. If a unit takes a lot of damage, retreat it out of harm's way to repair it, or if you can manage without it, leave it until the next scenario so it can be repaired free. I'm no way an expert at Panzer Corps, but by learning from experience and tips from this forum I went through GC39 on Field Marshall level and got a DV every scenario with no losses. I'm not bragging, just pointing out that with a bit of thought it's achievable. Although I should say, remember to have fun

Wow, not incurring losses on any scenario is impressive. Modlin and Spoils of War tend to be painful for my core.

@Hedge90: for what its worth, I concluded my most recent GC39 playthrough with 9090 pp and 35 core units. Achieved DV in every scenario. Difficulty is General but I do not keep scripted heroes like Oleh Dir. This is not a blind playthrough, so I guess the pp would be lower for a completely blind playthrough.

Once on your second playthrough, not rushing is probably the single best thing you can do to reduce losses. It would probably work on a blind playthrough as well.

Of course, sometimes you have to rush.

rubyjuno wrote:Although I'm still playing the GC, I've been aware for a long time that it is a completely different beast to the base game. If you are losing a unit almost every scenario in GC39 then I would say that you are probably playing a little too recklessly. You need to form habits that are going to see you through the entire campaign if you intend getting through it. Soften entrenched targets up before assaulting and don't let units get isolated. Look at your position at the start of each turn before committing any moves. If a unit takes a lot of damage, retreat it out of harm's way to repair it, or if you can manage without it, leave it until the next scenario so it can be repaired free. I'm no way an expert at Panzer Corps, but by learning from experience and tips from this forum I went through GC39 on Field Marshall level and got a DV every scenario with no losses. I'm not bragging, just pointing out that with a bit of thought it's achievable. Although I should say, remember to have fun

I think this a great post. Congrats

It sums up many of the things I experienced in my Panzer General resp Corps Vita.

The Vanilla Campaign basically spoils your Playing Style for the GC especially the East Campaign

You have to relearn the Game in many ways most notably the way of preserving and building up a huge amount of Prestige. And even here you may experience Nuances.

I also second the Point of Goose there is only one Blind Playthrough and you might miss out on some of the thrill when you have to do anything for the 2nd or 3rd Time.
But you can embrace that learning curve involved also as great Replay Value as there are many tactics and strategies that elude you on your first try especially coming from the Vanilla Campaign.

But you also have to face the Fact that Goose is an odd player in many regards, and the most obvious one is he had plenty of Multiplayer Experience before really getting into Single Player Game. While he may go Blind into new Maps and their Layouts he still has plenty of Knowledge about the Qualities or Weaknesses of Units he encounters along the Path. I do not state that to diminish any of his amazing accomplishments, but it is certainly a difference if you play a GC with less or even no knowledge about units.

My Point here is, its normal you bloody your nose from time to time especially when something completely NEW appears in front of you. It's just so that goose has paid his nosebleeding dues early on in MP

So don't fret if things do not work out in your favor and you even have to start Campaigns from Scratch.
You will do anyway no matter how good you are and if you really have amazing success on Colonel you will feel the need to try General or Field Marshall or even the Difficulties you unlock later on.

Just find your own way to enjoy the Game and enjoy it your way.

I greatly admire the Videos of deducter or braccada to name a few of the best Players here and I learned a lot from them, but I have to admit also, even if I would be as good as these 2 Guys (I'm certainly not, not even close) I don't know if I would enjoy the Game as much as I do with my often impatient style, if I would try to totally adopt their almost perfect, every aspect calculated and considered Style. Sometimes less perfection is more Fun

So just go out develop your own style, adopt things you are comfortable with, think hard about using things you are not so comfortable with. There is always a learning Curve always a new Idea to solve things and get better.
Don't spoil the Fun trying to be perfect all the Time (especially not the first Time) it's just a Game

So party on Dude

Well building prestige early on helps later campaign, on my first few playthru I couldnt pass 44 because I blow my prestige. You will have to remember the soft cap rules especially when you progress and units get more expensive. Below list the tips I used for early campaign for experience build up and prestige build up.

Maximizing experience
1. Early campaign cap the experience at a low level so you can purchase many core to build up as many experience unit as possible. Non experience troops do not last long in later campaign.
2. Mixing weaker units and using them for experience gaining is vital especially units like recon, paratroopers, AA guns.
3. I never use elite replacement for Arty, Strategic bomber and Tanks. They can gain exp fast.
4. Never be afraid to withdrew damage unit behind and sit out the rest of the battle.
5. Smaller arty is better in suppression early on and their high RoF can easily suppress inf and force a surrender.

Prestige build up
1. Important thing is surrender units. Gaining maximum surrender units will help gain a lot of prestige and all early campaign it's easy if you plan properly. Recon helps a lot in hit and run or block and run tactic for surrendering.
2. Never use replacement in battle, they drain prestige fast.
3. Don't over use over strength unit as the replacement is costly.
4. Don't use over strength unit recklessly as they are expensive. I usually use over strength on my Arty, AA and strategic bombers only.
5. Tanks or infantry is not worth over strength as they will take damage.
6. Units that usually drain a lot of prestige is fighters, hence I prefer AA to soften the target.

In terms of prestige building, I would also suggest planning equipment upgrades to make full use of in-family upgrades. Upgrading within a family (e.g., from PzIIIF to PzIIIG) is cheaper than upgrading across families (e.g., from PzIIIF to PzIVD) because in the former, you pay the price difference, while in the latter, you pay full price. In addition, you keep the unit's overstrength with an in-family upgrade, but you lose it if you upgrade across families.

I also hero farm. Since that 1st hero is relatively easy to get, I buy multiple units in 39 and 40 in terms of artillery close to 20, infantry close to a dozen, fighters and Tac bombers around 10 each, at least 3 AA guns, and 4 or 5 AT's, 4 Strat Bombers. This way when I get that 1st hero, if it is a lousy one like +1 movement on fighter, bomber I sell and try again. Or spotting hero on artillery, sell and try again. That way I can build an army to my liking. +3 Att heroes always go to the front of the pack.

I just finished 42 Campaign with the best 4 Fighter Bombers ever accumulated by me. +3 Att +6 Initiative Helmut Lent; +11 Att/+9 DEf/+1 Move Uber Rudel; +5 Att; +5 Def. Super pleased and this took some planning and some nice placement from the RNG.