Slitherine

I'm sure this has been done to death already, but I found this mission particularly interesting.

It is unique in that, being the final mission, you don't need to care for the future, but just "leave it all out on the field." You can sacrifice units, suicide attacks, buy rather useless but single purpose units, and mess up your prize experienced units with cheap replacements in a pinch.

Even without these considerations it is possible that if you play the previous missions almost perfectly this scenario can be straight forward and maybe even kind of easy if you know what to expect, even on the three highest difficulties. (at least Rommel is not too hard provided you have played cleanly and spent your money wisely.) But where is the fun in that?

We would expect the final mission to be the biggest boss and biggest challenge. I say it is easy if you know what to expect, but there are a few surprises out there, as well as the fact that some objectives appear deceptively within reach.

If it is too easy or not interesting you can play the campaign with absolutely no reloads or restarts, ensuring that is is very likely you will arrive here with a more depleted force or budget.

If you have played enough you being to learn what to expect, and some things you just can't forget even if you wanted to, so embracing that we can play with foreknowledge, which we may consider not cheating, just using experience.

If you haven't played yet, which I doubt here, or don't want to use detailed information about the scenario: spoilers and details about the mission follow!


These tips and tricks mostly relate to Rommel difficulty (1/2 Prestige) on top of highest difficulty. The other settings, Guderian (-5 turns allowed for victory) or Manstein (enemy +5 unit strength), may require some different considerations, though in some small way prestige, time, and strength are exchangeable, and you can never have too much of any of them.
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Tips and Tricks, "hacks" or exploits for USA West Coast:

1. Obviously, the USA counter attack comes from the North over Yellowstone river, you will learn this soon enough. And I doubt anyone won this mission on the first try, unless it was on one of the easiest difficulties.

What's more, since I've played this more times than i'd like to admit:
a. the counter attack consists of 4 Rangers in APC's, 4 tanks, and one recon unit. I've counted because if you don't kill them all, they will sneak around the back and cause extreme head-aches, almost certainly dooming the mission.
b.One strategy is to station units on the river , and shoot the enemy units as they are vulnerable crossing the river. I've recently changed to favor another approach because if you hit them on the river, they sometimes are forced to retreat back over the river on that same turn, where they can safely reinforce again.
c. A strong point right behind the bridge there has 5 vision so you can't ambush them and also expose yourself to air power.
d. the Rangers come first, then the recon, then the tanks. If you hang back around Laramie, or further south, the Rangers will approach in APC's before the recon spots you. Here they are incredibly vulnerable, if you stationed enough units, even recons, you can kill all 4 before they debark.
e. Next if you destroy the recon and retreat further south again, you can get an ambush on the tanks to help you take them down with less casualties.

I do not counter-counter attack over the Yellowstone river, there is no point in my opinion. It will take much to long for your units to get anywhere relevant. (Though if you wanted to try just for a gag that might be interesting.) The amount of prestige to be gained up there is negligible and not at all worth wasting your unit's time.

You want to destroy the counter attack completely, as quickly as possible, with as few casualties as possible, and with as few of your most useful units as possible. If you lose count of how many units were destroyed, you will need to station defenders in your victory centers and hope you have enough prestige to buy a last ditch defense force if need be. The ranger APC's are perfectly happy to go wandering over the mountains and show up somewhere unexpectedly.

I try to wrap it up as fast as possible so I can then send those units there as quickly as possible to other areas where they will probably be badly needed. Rail transport is critical. I also don't want a highly experienced unit to take casualties in the fighting there, because it's too expensive to give elite reinforcements and it's a shame to waste those experience stars. (inexperienced units are useless head to head with a 3-star U.S. tank or other unit.) What's more, if you station your best units there, you suffer in time for achieving your other objectives.

In this play through I kept near Laramie:
The 3 auxiliary units. (Make sure to convert the PanzerIIIN into IIIL), something I've never done before until recently. The IIIL is way better at attacking hard units, only costs 22 prestige to upgrade, and if you are fighting rangers after they debarked you are already messed up, cause they are tough as hell. Two of my own medium tanks (PzIVJ) and 3 freshly bought noobie recon units. (234 8Rad) The one with high defense but only 2 soft and 5 hard attack.

Wow that was long, to be continued with more tips...

Tip #2, Warning:
The paratrooper on the airfield near salt lake city sometimes inexplicably has a rugged defense even though it's entrenchment is 1, which did 8 damage to my panther though the predicted outcome was 4-1 or something. Lesson learned, always hit that guy with artillery before attacking, and I feel like it has happened more than once.

Tip #3: You can move a unit by rail to St. George immediately as soon as you clear the first wolverine. No ground units can reach it and a plane will probably deal little or no damage to it. This greatly helps when time is of the essence.

Tip #4: If you are short on money or don't have pioneer units, sometimes you can entice the U.S. forces, either infantry or AT guns to come out of their 8 entrenchment positions with a cheap recon or otherwise easy looking target, this is well worth the price considering the amount of time and artillery otherwise necessary to dig them out.

4b, sometimes you can lure tanks onto hilly terrain as goes for all scenarios. There is a Pershing I can sometimes get to come into the mountains in California, but it seems it doesn't always fall for it. You may need a real juicy target, or semi-bait, like a panther, not just an injured recon or anti-aircraft unit. The further North and West you move in the mountains the more likely it is to attack you I think.

Tip #5 If you destroy the U.S. artillery in Los Angeles (with or without first taking out the Secret Service) the nearby overstrengthed Pershing will almost always move in there, and at the small price of taking a hit to some infantry unit either in the trenches or the city nearby, that massive tank is now an easy target for a mere infantry unit, and you can probably also get it to surrender with some artillery, to get you badly needed prestige. If you are short on tanks or AT able to fight that thing head to head, or merely saving your air force and artillery the trouble.

#6: In the same vein you can sometimes get the infantry in Sacramento or San Fran to leave their position, which since they are probably 8 or 9 level entrenched and the last objectives you will likely take this is worth it's weight in gold and can easily be the difference between victory and defeat. The AI loves to attack recon and artillery. If you destroy any other infantry capable of taking the position to attack your unit, the AI can be fooled into giving it all away.

6b. How can you get the HW inf in San Francisco to leave??? To my amazement and luck when I first saw this happen, if you destroy the strong point on the other side of the SF bridge, and have some target there, sometimes the HW will actually leave it's critical defensive position to walk out onto the exposed bridge.

The alternative, maybe you've been there too, arriving at the last turn and despairing to see two inf units with 8 entrenchment to dislodge and only ~6 artillery units than can get close enough to hit them or have ammo...

#7 Seattle...

Is this city cursed or something? It's a quirk, I don't know if it's a bug or intentional, but Seattle does not function like a regular city. Infantry do NOT get bonus combat against tanks while in the city or attacking tanks in the city. Moreover the base level of entrenchment there is Zero, not 3 as usual.

Secondly I think that units in Seattle actually get a combat Penalty which may or may not be accounted for in the combat prediction. I don't know why but I've measured up a tank with the American armor north of it and said, well it might take 4 or 5 damage max, but with artillery behind it surely it shouldn't retreat and I'll be able to hold on for the victory. Only to see that unit absolutely obliterated, sometimes 10 damage one-shot by the enemy tank, or instantly retreating or surrendering ignobly.

The flip-side of this is that it is easy to get the U.S. infantry out or surrender, and if you entice their tanks to move in and become sitting ducks... I've even seen them move in, attack me, and do 7 damage to themselves without barely scratching my unit, no ambush or artillery trap or anything...

The lesson: Do not move into Seattle with a unit you want to keep until you have destroyed all the tanks and AT surrounding it. A theory that just occurred to me is that Seattle functions the same way as a bridge, it just isn't designated like that on the map...

To get to my after action report...

I had played somewhat clumsily before now, losing several core units throughout the campaign, but never restarted a mission once. I took far too many losses and felt like I was always on a shoe-string budget (not surprising on Rommel difficulty) using elite replacements to get max experience, never having the money to over-strengthen though.

When it came to this mission I lost for the first time, so I ended up trying several approaches, but it was really difficult and I kept losing.

All I had were two fighters: Me262
1 tactical bomber, 2 strategic (1 of them Amerika Bomber)
Only one Tiger II, but my pride and joy, an SE one with 3 heroes for +5 defense and +3 attack.
2 panthers, 3 PzIV's, 1 Elefant, 1 Jagdpanther (3 stars)
2 infantry with vehicles, the rest on foot.
all well experienced and I think with at least 1 hero each.
very experienced towed artillery but not upgraded past the 3rd stage, 2 stug artillery
2 brand new recon base level, and 5 volksturm (don't ask me why)
1 brand new awarded SE PzIIIN

~2,000 starting prestige and such was the stupidity of my losses during the Midwest scenario that this did not even suffice to give elite replacements for everything. Normal replacements devastating the carefully and painfully earned experience levels, which matter a lot in my experience.

The other issues at hand were:

My fighter force was too small to destroy the USAAF in any reasonable amount of time, let alone also escort bombers.

My units themselves would get hammered by enemy air, especially vulnerable are units in trucks.

It got even worse when approaching the coast, as enemy ships would kill every single artillery piece meal and with my air force I couldn't reliably destroy the american ships, even then not quick enough. Any unit in a truck moving near the coast would be blasted. Even any unit like infantry or a vulnerable unit would be chipped away at. California coast is where the most infantry and artillery are needed.

Of 3 units capable of going toe-to-toe with heavy tanks, at least one probably needed to go North to Seattle to deal with what seemed like crazy strong tanks. One, I thought had to stay near Yellowstone for a few turns.
At the very minimum 2 really needed to go south. You could swing it with one maybe, but it just slows things down way to much having restricted movement knowing their Pershings and Jackson's were right there.

For some reason my Elefant would take massive casualties from any attack by a Jackson (the Jackson too, to be fair) and I have no idea why since it's Initiative and Defense are way higher, with heroes, and on the the defensive against another AT unit. ( I thought AT units fought best on the defensive.) Even regular reinforcements for an Elefant sometimes cannot be come up with...

Last and most important I simply did not have enough artillery and infantry to get through those entrenched positions in Socal fast enough. Especially if I sent any to other areas too.

So next for the final installment, what I ended up buying, and the plan

In one of the runs where I got decisive victory, I started with this load out:

I disbanded my entire air-force, it was sad to do but I really needed the prestige and it's use was too limited to justify it's existence. 4 or 5 star units full of heroes

I converted every artillery to Sig armored propelled artillery, or StuH armored 0-range artillery. This was very expensive, but non-armored artillery just couldn't survive and I needed artillery with experience points as I couldn't afford a wiff shot at a critical moment.

I disbanded my recons, the volksturm, and the new SE PzIII, need every cent I can get.

I bought brand new green:

1 armored rocket artillery,
1 rail artillery
2 Wirbelwind AA
3 armored recon

I disbanded my infantry vehicles so replacements would be cheaper, and converted my one HW grenadier to regular 43 inf. Vehicles just cannot be used in range of naval artillery or air, and I needed every single one to slog through the South. I dropped my two paratroopers immediately on turn 2 and they fought on foot the rest of the mission, trying to fly behind enemy lines would just be too dangerous and mostly a waste of time when every inf is necessary to be constantly attacking.

I converted the auxiliary rocket artillery to the armored variety immediately. It has less attack but the armor is critical and the upgrade is free.+ it has a little more ammo, what a deal!

My plan: destroy the counter attack as fast as possible, send those reserves North West and then down around the west coast. I sent one bonus medium tank south west I think, where it was very valuable.

Use my fastest units to go north as quick as possible, panthers, jagdpanther, and recons. Send my rail artillery temporarily North to help kill the wolverine AT in Idaho without taking losses and without any other artillery, then quickly roll them back south.

With no infantry and no artillery, I had to go around the back of Seattle by crossing the snake river and going through the forest. There I'd have time to duel down the 2 defending tanks. Meanwhile volksturm bought nearby, and the mountain troop when it finally make it up there, engage the artillery and AT entrenched south of Seattle. (the inf there are distracted by recons or a medium tank that finally made it up there)

Send most infantry, all on foot, 1/2-2/3 of artillery, and my lumbering TigerII and Elefant from the south to go West, through the river and fortress, then up through California. 2 of my core AA units cover them as they advance.

Towards salt lake city I allocate some artillery and infantry along with the fast tanks. They are then mostly diverted south as walking north takes too long. Use railways when ever possible.

As the scenario goes on and I'm able to keep any prestige, I will buy a few volksturm as cannon fodder if I can afford it, or maybe 1 extra Wespe artillery if desperately needed.

My hopes: the artillery, though it be armored still offers tempting targets, which can lure out defenders and/or cause them do my work for me by killing themselves attacking them.
Especially the Secret Service Rangers, at 5 stars and 15 strength, the AI thinks it can take on anything, especially an artillery unit, even if armored, 4 entrenchment in a fortification, with more artillery behind it.

Recons act as further bait, and help to surround units some times. Also they come down to Sacremento from the North and divert the defenders there.

The enemy air was very annoying, but the mobile AA scared them off from the important units most of the time and slowly whittled them down. The armored artillery were resilient to fighter attacks, but replacements were always necessary as they slowly got worn down. I absorbed a lot of naval bombardment with much better losses than it could have been. fortunately they targeted Volksturm some rounds.

Some lures, intentional or not, worked for bring entrenched paratroopers and defending infantry in some cities out. I got some lucky hits with my Tiger and Elefant, obliterating Pershings, I guess that's my reward for believing in them! The jagdpanther got a +1 movement hero in the first couple turns.I won't say no to a little luck.

I won on turn 17, which is with 1 more to go for the decisive victory. With no air units at all, way less prestige and state of the art equipment than I thought necessary.

Hello guys
I bought Panzercorps gold edition , i played all campaigns but i havn't found USA Campaigns, playing with germans. After Sealion the game ended.
I don t understand why the game not continues with America campaigns. I try to buy this campaign but it seems it doesn t exist.
Can you help me?

KurtBunker wrote: ↑Tue Oct 29, 2019 8:00 pm Hello guys
I bought Panzercorps gold edition , i played all campaigns but i havn't found USA Campaigns, playing with germans. After Sealion the game ended.
I don t understand why the game not continues with America campaigns. I try to buy this campaign but it seems it doesn t exist.
Can you help me?

USAWest is the last scenario of the original German campaign, sometimes called Wehrmacht.

The Sealion DLC is not connected to USAwest, although there are Sea Lion scenarios in the Wehrmacht Campaign.

dalfrede wrote: ↑Wed Oct 30, 2019 12:33 am

KurtBunker wrote: ↑Tue Oct 29, 2019 8:00 pm Hello guys
I bought Panzercorps gold edition , i played all campaigns but i havn't found USA Campaigns, playing with germans. After Sealion the game ended.
I don t understand why the game not continues with America campaigns. I try to buy this campaign but it seems it doesn t exist.
Can you help me?

USAWest is the last scenario of the original German campaign, sometimes called Wehrmacht.

The Sealion DLC is not connected to USAwest, although there are Sea Lion scenarios in the Wehrmacht Campaign.

Plus, there are DLCs for US Corps, i.e. playing the US from Morocco to Torgau...

Thanx Dalfred

Where can i find this campaign? It s ok to install in golden edition, the game run ok after that?

KurtBunker wrote: ↑Wed Oct 30, 2019 1:30 pm Where can i find this campaign? It s ok to install in golden edition, the game run ok after that?

It is part of Gold.

Tnx again!
But is just in scenario, not in campaign? I would like to play from the beggining till US .

It is also in the Wehrmacht campaign:

I just tried this mission and on turn 3 the US suddenly fielded 8 (eight!) vet fighter units and trounced the small air force I had been building up the entire game. Guess next time I'll hold my air force back and counter attack them once they make their move...

ttango2 wrote: ↑Fri Sep 10, 2021 4:07 am I just tried this mission and on turn 3 the US suddenly fielded 8 (eight!) vet fighter units and trounced the small air force I had been building up the entire game. Guess next time I'll hold my air force back and counter attack them once they make their move...

That's a nasty experience. More AA and fewer aircraft can work as a strategy (it's certainly very helpful in Soviet Corps which can even be won with no aircraft) but isn't much help at this late stage.