Grand Campaign 1943-45 Field Marshall

[loganfive]

This is a continuation of the 1939-40 thread, which extended into 1942.

I entered 1943 with 63806 points.

After adding reinforcements, upgrades and overstrengthing I am down to 61108.

The plan for the first three battles is to stay under the cap as much as possible and to postpone upgrading the SE tank units to big heavies until necessary. It usually becomes "necessary" at the start of the Kursk battles when the Panther becomes available.

I am also trying to get some 2nd heroes for some of my artillery units sometime in 1943, as several are approaching 600 kills. To that end, I have upgraded one of my 15cm artillery units with a +3 Attack hero to a K18 and another with +1 Range to a 21cm Nebelwerfer. I downgraded two of my other 15cm units to 105s in order to avoid the cap hit.

Right now I am happy with my infantry and artillery units. Tank units are OK but nothing special. The big concern is the fighters, where I have three solid veteran units plus the two defence-handicapped hero units that are basically flak fodder if I don't keep them on my own side of the front.

[loganfive]

Kharkov 43 did not go as well as I had hoped from a prestige standpoint.

My core got dinged up pretty badly as the AI took its own sweet time unfreezing the ground, then threw four turns of snow or rain in for good measure.

The good news is that I got four new heroes, including a +3 Attack on one of my Stukas and a +3 Defence on one of my SE tank units that already had a +2, giving it +5 total.

[PeteMitchell]

This is a continuation of the 1939-40 thread, which extended into 1942.

This is good news!

By the way, I think you could still adjust the title of your first post on the other thread to 1942?

[loganfive]

Belgorod went a lot better.

I got the DV and the captured T-34 without much difficulty and I took all but one minor flag.

[loganfive]

Heading into Orel with 64430 points.

This is something of a watershed battle in the GC East campaign in that it awards the player two valuable infantry hero units and it is that last battle before the Panther becomes available.

It is also something of a meat grinder battle in that there is a lot in the way of Soviet armour and enemy partisans that the player will need to overcome. The terrain is mostly forest and hills, which means that it should favour the player who built his core around infantry and artillery.

[loganfive]

Orel went very smoothly.

I was in garbage time by turn 13 and was able to sit back and collect the turn bonus points.

I had upgraded just the one SE Panzer IVG with +2 Movement to a Tiger, but the rest of my armour was pretty ordinary.

Big prestige point windfall as I was well below the cap by around Turn 5.

[loganfive]

Prestige at 70363 heading into Ponyri.

I struggled with this one on my first attempt at the Grand Campaign at Colonel. My core got really battered despite heavy overstrengthing, and I barely squeaked out a DV. Lots of SPAAG units to deal with, in addition to the large Soviet armoured force to the East.

This time the plan is to deploy 13 infantry and 13 artillery out of the 40 deployment slots. I may upgrade a couple of Gebirgs or paras to Pionieres to bring the total to 8. If I can cross the river and clear the first line of fortifications early it should go a lot more smoothly than last time.

The Panther A is now available and I will be upgrading my 5 remaining SE tank units to Panthers.

I am also starting to see the implications of playing GC East 1943-45 at Field Marshall. Not only does it take twice as long to gain experience, the aux units and (more importantly) the hero units you are awarded have only half the experience in the first place. The two infantry hero units you get at Orel, Josef Allerberger and Bruno Sutkus, have only 150 experience points instead of 300. They are not likely to get their fourth stars until 1945.

[goose_2]

Prestige at 70363 heading into Ponyri.

I struggled with this one on my first attempt at the Grand Campaign at Colonel. My core got really battered despite heavy overstrengthing, and I barely squeaked out a DV. Lots of SPAAG units to deal with, in addition to the large Soviet armoured force to the East.

This time the plan is to deploy 13 infantry and 13 artillery out of the 40 deployment slots. I may upgrade a couple of Gebirgs or paras to Pionieres to bring the total to 8. If I can cross the river and clear the first line of fortifications early it should go a lot more smoothly than last time.

The Panther A is now available and I will be upgrading my 5 remaining SE tank units to Panthers.

I am also starting to see the implications of playing GC East 1943-45 at Field Marshall. Not only does it take twice as long to gain experience, the aux units and (more importantly) the hero units you are awarded have only half the experience in the first place. The two infantry hero units you get at Orel, Josef Allerberger and Bruno Sutkus, have only 150 experience points instead of 300. They are not likely to get their fourth stars until 1945.

Crap that means that they will have 75 in my playthrough...argh...1 star is doable, but this 25% 2 stars is an achievement...I am in Streets of Moscow and I do not have any ground units except artillery and an 88 that has 3 stars...so late hero units have no hope of getting experienced enough to be really good, but I will try and use them anyway.

[loganfive]

Just looking at the hero units I got in 1941-1942, and where they are experience-wise after 3 scenarios in 1943:

1. Heinz Rondorf - Tank (currently Panzer IVG) - 395
2. Helmut Wirnsberger- Infantry (Gebirgsjaeger) - 367
3. Friedrich Pein - Infantry (Pioniere) - 348

I didn't bother listing the two defence-crippled fighter hero units as they have seen very little action.

Heinz Rondorf should get his fourth star at Ponyri. He finally got his 2nd hero at Belgorod but it was Attack +2, which is quite useful. With the Panzer IVH upgrade this will be a powerful tank unit with a smallish cap hit. However, for the most part his hero bonuses have largely been offset by a lack of experience stars until now.

[loganfive]

Down to 62809 prestige points after upgrades and overstrengths.

I elected to do a max overstrength on all my infantry, based on my experience with my first crack at Ponyri.

[loganfive]

The end at Ponyri.

No trouble getting the DV, but as I had predicted, my core got banged around quite a bit.

On a positive note, I was under the cap again after about 7 turns, and I was able to score about 1000 prestige points forcing surrenders.

More importantly, I had two tank units, one tank destroyer and an AA unit collect their fourth star. The tank destroyer unit also got a +2 Attack second hero.

The last of my Original 9 (from 1939-40) infantry units finally got its second hero: +3 Defence.

[loganfive]

Starting Olkhovatka with 67887 prestige points after disbanding the captured KV-1(C).

[loganfive]

Easy DV at Olkhovatka, but my core took another beating.

I basically broke even prestige-wise, but got some much-needed experience and kills for my core. Which is OK, because right now the challenge is adding enough experience stars to get me through Prokhorovka and the 1944 battles.

[loganfive]

Starting Kursk Armory North with 67114 points.

The goal in this scenario is to capture the two KV-85s for Prokhorovka and not burn too much in the way of prestige points.

I have one infantry and two artillery units that are close to getting an extra star, so I have to make sure they get the necessary experience points. Otherwise, it's more of the same, strategy-wise: win the DV, stay under the cap, get some experience and kills for the green units.

[loganfive]

The end at Kursk Armory North.

I ran the table and dipped under the cap by around Turn 10.

Slight gain in prestige, and I managed to get a fourth star for two of my infantry hero units.

[loganfive]

Heading into Prokhorovka with 67668 prestige points.

I think the strategy will be fairly simple. Divide my army into three task forces. One infantry-heavy task force in the Northwest and two armour-heavy task forces in the South. Gradually shrink the map and push toward the Northeast.

With 45 + 6 slots available, I plan to deploy:

• 6 SE Tank
• 8 Non-SE Tank including the two captured KV-85s that I can ditch later
• 2 StuG IIIG Tank Destroyer
• 12 Infantry
• 13 Artillery
• 3 AA
• 5 Fighter
• 2 Tactical Bomber

[goose_2]

Heading into Prokhorovka with 67668 prestige points.

I think the strategy will be fairly simple. Divide my army into three task forces. One infantry-heavy task force in the Northwest and two armour-heavy task forces in the South. Gradually shrink the map and push toward the Northeast.

With 45 + 6 slots available, I plan to deploy:

• 6 SE Tank
• 8 Non-SE Tank including the two captured KV-85s that I can ditch later
• 2 StuG IIIG Tank Destroyer
• 12 Infantry
• 13 Artillery
• 3 AA
• 5 Fighter
• 2 Tactical Bomber

Prokhorovka is a ball buster, I look forward to your report

[loganfive]

Prokhorovka is a ball buster, I look forward to your report

Thanks.

I am in the middle of an important project at work, so it may be a week or two before I can play the scenario.

I won a DV in 21 turns on Colonel last time, when much of my core had 1 or 2 more experience stars compared to what I have now.

This time I will have much more depth among my infantry and artillery and a much better idea of what to expect. I am hoping to clear the map and to sneak under the cap.

I am finding that on Field Marshall it takes on average about 25 scenarios to get an infantry, AT or tank unit from 4 stars to 5 stars. Experience is definitely at much more of a premium than prestige. It's going to get more difficult in 1944 and 1945, when there are fewer deployment slots and I will have decisions to make as to which units will get thrown into the battle. Once a non-SE unit gets to 5 stars and 3 heroes it will likely not see much action until Berlin.

[goose_2]

It will be hard to steer clear of relying on those SE units. The more you can stay under that soft cap the better, or at least close to it. Do not be afraid to hold back units to deploy as needed because this really helps with your soft cap. (I do this on Masntein mostly with my bombers which are very expensive with Overstrength on them.)

My current playthrough will be on Manstein difficulty when/if I get to Prokhorovka and hopefully have most units with 3 stars by this point, I am sure I will need every bit of it.

[loganfive]

The thing is, I have 67668 prestige points, which is about 40000 more than I need.

I have an Albert Kerscher Panzer IIIM unit that is at Att +4 Def +2 Spott +2, and is closing in on that 5th star and third hero. I have another PanzerIIIM that is at Att +2 Def +3. It's going to be be difficult to keep those 2 units in reserve from a cap management standpoint because they punch above their weight so well.

For the other tank and infantry units the cap management considerations are not really an issue, mostly because the units likely to be deployed in their place will be less expensive. My two AT units are both cheap and close to neither 5 stars nor 3 heroes, and will probably be deployed in almost every scenario.

The artillery units seem to accumulate experience much faster, but don't seem to be getting 2nd heroes yet. I have 10 artillery units with 400+ kills and no second heroes among them. The two Wuhrfrahmens in my core are the only artillery units I have that involve a huge cap hit when deployed.