US Corps 42. Advice needed.

[Panzerpimp]

Im playing US corps 42 now (great dlc by the way) and have a few questions.

1. Playing the "Hills" scenario now. I have ~4000 prestige.
Should I focus on developing my core or It is better to save prestige for later missions?
I'm tempted to overstrength some tanks and AT's or buy more air force, is it worth it in this campaign?

2. How do you kill german Tiger tanks effectively? They often just one shot kill my units without retaliation.
How to avoid that?
It seems that the good way is to lure them into bad terrain and finish them with infantry.
Maybe there are better ways?

[ErissN6]

1. Should I focus on developing my core or It is better to save prestige for later missions?
2. How do you kill german Tiger tanks effectively?

1. For me, the best way to save prestige is to use it the more:
The best units you have, the more effective they are and lose the less strenght i.e. prestige.
2. Tactical bombers.

[Yrfin]

2. How do you kill german Tiger tanks effectively?

2. Tactical bombers.

lol.

[turn4441]

I'm only through the middle of 1943, but these are my impressions.

Prestige amounts are fairly low, but you do get some per turn in almost all scenarios up until Messina in 1943, so play things out to the end, even in you don't need to, unless your forces would suffer more than you would gain. After that you get 0 per turn, but more in between scenarios. U.S. tanks are pathetic so I wouldn't overstrength (at least not above 11) them. They are tolerable against infantry and similar units in open terrain but of little use against better tanks. U.S. Corps is about Rangers, Artillery, and Anti-tank guns, at least early on. You need to move forward but mostly get the enemy to attack you at their expense (this is much easier to do when playing with the AI at level 2). For Tigers, you need to get them to attack rangers or AT in close terrain, preferably with artillery backup. It doesn't do a lot to armor, but every little bit helps. Only attack them if they are in close terrain. Don't attack with AT if possible as you lose the +3 modifier and rarely, if ever, if it is in open terrain unless it is severely weakened. Mostly, you don't want to attack them at all (again, unless in close terrain or severely weakened) as your units are much better on defense. Strategic bombers are very useful. Tigers don't have a lot of fuel and if you can get their ammo to 0, then anything can attack them without fear of retaliation. It isn't easy, but if you can manage to surround and suppress them (a couple of bombers and several artillery maybe?), you can get even a full strength Tiger to surrender. It is also easier to get a unit with no/low fuel to surrender without surrounding it as it may be limited as to what hexes it can move to.
Also, never leave your units where they are exposed in poor terrain at the end of a turn, if at all possible.

I would overstrength artillery, AT (no more than 11, unless very special), Strat bombers, possibly Rangers (again only to 11 and depending on the unit).

[Panzerpimp]

Thanks for replies. Much appreciated

I finished US Corps 42 and 43. Posted AAR here:
http://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtop ... 45&t=71210

1. For me, the best way to save prestige is to use it the more:
The best units you have, the more effective they are and lose the less strenght i.e. prestige.

Not sure about that. There are many ways to lose overstrength - from insane amounts of overpowered AI units to bad dice rolls.
And the overstrength points are so expensive... And the soft cap...
Although I agree that some units with +Attack heroes are very effective after overstrength. +6 Attack tank or AT or AA are nice.

2. Tactical bombers.

Again not so sure. Playing as germans in GC I used them widely with great satisfaction.
But in US Corps I faced quite a lot of scenarios where your air force is limited or restricted. And Air units are very expensive.
(Small core + low prestige + air limited by scenario condition = for me buying and deploying bombers is a dubious choice in this campaign)
In some missions I just blocked the annoying Tiger and depleted It's ammo, quite effective actually.

[edahl1980]

Im playing US corps 42 now (great dlc by the way) and have a few questions.

2. How do you kill german Tiger tanks effectively? They often just one shot kill my units without retaliation.
How to avoid that?
It seems that the good way is to lure them into bad terrain and finish them with infantry.
Maybe there are better ways?

You dont.
But bombers(both strat and tactical) along with 13 star wolverines. Oh, and a longtom behind just to limit the bleeding.

Tigers, Stugs and so on.....
US Corps is painfull.
Those big expensive shermans are knocked out in one hit, fubar in 2.
So i use wolverines, cheaper and can actually pack a punch against most axis forces.

[proline]

turn4441 gave you some great advice. Just to reiterate- avoid attacking the enemy's best units, and that means Tigers (or KV-5s when playing against the Russians). The reason isn't just because you'll take losses. There's also the fact that if you don't do as much damage as you would attacking the enemy's other units. For example, if you attack a Tiger 3 times to bring its health down 6 points, changes are you could have done twice as much damage with much fewer losses attacking other units. In addition, you've now given that Tiger the chance to use its attack 3 times, 4 times when you count the AI's turn, whereas it otherwise could only have attacked once on its turn.

Make double sure that when you do attack them, you kill them or at least leave them surrounded. Letting them take replacements is so, so costly to you.

So basically, fight the other units first, leave the Tigers no good targets, and then hit them with air and when they go into tough terrain. Hint- if you leave an objective city open they will often move into it where you can waste them with infantry.