Slitherine

Not sure if I'll be able to complete it with the selected traits, but it's certainly worth a try.

I'm playing on the highest difficulty setting with "Europe on a shoestring" (no prestige awarded at the start of a turn) and "Race against time" (-5 turn limit) on.

David vs. Goliath, which gives AI units 5 additional strength, is off. I tried it, but it takes too much time to chew through the bigger city defenders. As I'll be using a (much) smaller core than would normally be possible (no slot reduction heroes, no Infantry/Panzer General traits and a 10% slot penalty) I won't have sufficient firepower to deal with "naturally fully overstrength" AI units.

I'm using the following traits, and for convenience sake I've made a screenshot of the in-game overview which specifies the effect of each trait.

I won't be doing any save scumming, I'll replay scenarios if I'm about to lose them. Doing this Ironman on the first go is probably not the best idea.



Deep recon is useful for determining what kind of forces are in and around an objective without having to send a plane there. The The accuracy bonus is small, but every edge helps.

Operational initiative is mostly useful for quickly establishing air superiority and for dealing a few less costly initial blows.

Master of Blitzkrieg is basically PG2's Aggressive Manoeuvre with a movement cost reduction when crossing minor rivers attached.

Inept logistics is self-explanatory, the same goes for no overstrength.

Deadly grasp is useful because I'll be bypassing/moving straight through some concentrations, encircling them. It also makes dealing with objective defenders a bit easier.

I like flexible command a lot, it might be a bit overpowered actually. You can essentially duplicate the number of units on the map whenever you want, which is very useful in combination with perimeter control and for blocking retreat routes (instead of having to encircle an enemy unit with 6 units, you only need 3 if you split those). Perimeter control allows, with some planning, bypassing enemy units to rush an objective or to create favourable conditions for an encirclement. The effect in terms of breakthrough and exploitation warfare will probably be (much) less in later scenarios as the AI is likely to have large tank concentrations just waiting for a single unit to move a hex too far.

Retrograde and slow modernization will result in a core that won't be using the flashiest toys for most of the campaign.

I intend to take the "lose the war" campaign path at Stalingrad, but it will be a while before I get there. I don't know if I'm allowed to share the official campaign tree, but the campaign tree can already be found on the forum.

For the duration of the campaign, I'll use the vanilla version of the game.

I'm playing with 20% outcome randomization, Dice Chess in Panzer Corps.

I only have a handful of screenshots for Poland North and Bug River as autosaves are automatically overwritten and I'm playing Norway at the moment.

Poland North, turn limit: 10 turns.

Prestige:

Start: 500
End: 1778

Core:

Infantry:

Pioniere (truck)
Wehrmacht Infanterie
Wehrmacht Infanterie

Tanks:

Panzer IB
Panzer IB
Panzer IIC
Panzer IIC

Recon:

Sd.Kfz. 222

Artillery:

7.5cm FK 16nA (horse team)
10.5cm LeFH18 (truck)

Fighters:

Bf 109E
Bf 109E

Tactical Bombers:

Ju 87B

I needed all 10 turns for this one, it's the tightest scenario of the opening 3 by far in terms of the turn limit.

The engineers in the north are a bit too tough a nut to crack in 10 turns. It can probably be done, I just didn't even try. From the starting area, you advance south-eastwards, it's not convenient to move units towards them.

Bug River, turn limit: 15 turns.

Prestige:

Start after upgrades/replacements: 762.
End: 2766.


Core:

Infantry:

Pioniere (truck)
Pioniere (truck)
Grenadier (truck)

Tanks:

Panzer IB
Panzer IB
Panzer IIC
Panzer IIC

Recon:

Sd.Kfz. 222
Sd.Kfz. 222 NEW

Artillery:

10.5cm LeFH18 (half-track)
10.5cm LeFH18 (truck)

Fighters:

Bf 109E
Bf 109E

Tactical Bombers:

Ju 87B

The starting situation after deployment:



There's a friendly objective in the south-west with an aux Wehrmacht Infanterie unit and a 3.7cm PaK 36 AT gun. I ended up losing it for a turn as I attacked instead of defending with the infantry, but that didn't really matter.

I could've won in 10 turns if I didn't try to get the non-victory hex town in the south, but I completed it in 12 out of 15.

Start of turn 12:

The infantry in Brest was fully encircled and about half of it surrendered after repeated attacks.

Nice one, am playing a similar (but way easier, just Generalissimus with some extra house rules - No Liberator/Trophies of War) setup at the moment. At turn 10 in Poland North our prestige gain is nearly identical 1.278 vs. 1.275, but you did it with the starting army and 500 deployed points less.

Will follow this one

Unless indicated otherwise: all screenshots show the situation at the beginning of a new turn, so after my phase and the opponent's phase of the previous turn.

Norway South, turn limit: 15 turns.

Prestige:

Start: 1818
End: 3669

39 core unit strength points lost.

Core:

Infantry:

Pioniere (truck)
Pioniere (truck)
Grenadiere (truck)

Tanks:

Panzer IB
Panzer IB
Panzer 38(t)A (reserve)
Panzer 38(t)A (reserve)

Recon:

Sd.Kfz. 222
Sd.Kfz. 222

Artillery:

10.5cm LeFH18 (truck)
10.5cm LeFH18 (half-track)

Fighters:

Bf 109E
Bf 109E

Tactical Bombers:

Ju 87B

Strategic Bombers:

He 111H2 NEW

Turn 1 start:

A much friendlier experience than most Norway scenarios in PG/PC games, but the Norwegians can still hurt you with Mountain troops if you get careless.

A single Pioniere unit will isolate/"encircle" and capture Bergen, knock out its fortress and on the final turn drive to and capture the nearest village. Support will be provided by two destroyers (one already there and one moving up from Stavanger) and KMS Königsberg.



The main force will land at Fredrikstad (the highlighted hex south-east of Oslo) and attack Oslo from the south-east before moving on the Lillehammer. This scenario also offers one of the easiest landing opportunities compared to previous PG/PC Norway scenarios as the terrain prohibits the Norwegians from interrupting your landings.

Landing between Kristiansand and Oslo is possible as well, but that requires knocking out several Norwegian infantry units before reaching the capital and Oscarsborg fortress can keep firing at you.

The Luftwaffe will support units in the this part of the map together with KMS Blücher and two patrol boats.

The He 111H2 unit will attack the Patrol Boats initially, it does 5 or so damage to them.

The two aux Fallschirmjäger will land north of Kristiansand airfield, capture it and the town, capture the village between Kristiansand and Stavanger and capture Stavanger. Ideally without requiring replacements.



Turn 2 start:

KMS Königsberg and one destroyer are banging away at the Norwegian destroyer protecting Bergen.

Note that ships and structures are single entities and their performance doesn't degrade with losses taken. A 1 strength unit will perform as well as a 10 strength unit.

The Pioniere moved into position last turn and will land in the supply hex adjacent to Bergen this turn. As long as I block the fjord entrance as well, Bergen will be "encircled"

This allows me to capture Bergen without a single core strengthpoint loss.



My forces will land in three waves, starting with the Grenadiere and Pioniere units this turn. The reason I didn't move the transports closer is because the Patrol Boat next to KMS Blücher might've attacked. KMS Blücher would've fired in support, but I had forgotten about that mechanic for a moment and prefer to keep transports out of sight as a habit anyway.

Note that it's easy to save the KMS Blücher and I'd suggest doing so if it all possible as even at 3 strength (after one hit from the fort), it will fire a full strength salvo as mentioned earlier.

The first Fallschirmjäger unit landed last turn, the second had to board transports first so could only move into position.

Strangely, AA units don't fire at transports or paratroopers when they move in/jump.



Turn 3 start:

KMS Königsberg moved in and the beaten up destroyer moved out, KMS Königsberg shelled the infantry in Bergen, to make sure they wouldn't attack the Pioniere.



The infantry wave landed last turn and will begin attacking Oscarsborg fortress, the bulk of my other units will land next turn. The artillery will land and move out of range of the fortress.

The Fallschirmjäger at Kristiansand weakened the AA unit on the airfield last turn and will kill it this turn, the other FJ unit will move up.

KMS Blücher will start bombarding Kristiansand next turn, but this turn it will fire at the Norwegian Patrol Boat that appeared between Kristiansand and the island fortress.



Turn 4 start:

No screenshot for the Bergen area this turn, the Pioniere waited for the defenders of Bergen to become mostly suppressed and will capture Bergen this turn, the Kriegsmarine still had to deal with the Norwegian destroyer and fired in support of the attack by the Pioniere afterwards.

In the south, the second wave is ashore and we're slowly moving towards Oslo whilst slowly depleting the strength of Oscarsborg fortress.



Turn 5 start:

This turn, I realized the lower part of the map will fit in one screenshot in most cases.

The Bergen garrison will surrender this turn, after which the Pioniere will switch their attention to the fortress.

KMS Königsberg is moving towards Stavanger to support the Fallschirmjäger later on.

After knocking out the Patrol Boat in Oslo's port, the AI moved an infantry unit into the port hex.

Oscarsborg fortress will be encircled and only has 1 strength point left at the end of the turn, all forces are ashore.

The Fallschirmjaeger capture Kristiansand after forcing the garrison to surrender.



Turn 6 start:

The Norwegian Patrol Boat that was at Kristiansand a few turns ago popped up near the flotilla at Stavanger and sank itself when engaging a destroyer. A decent move: 2 strength point loss for him and 1 for me for an otherwise doomed unit.

We're slowly surrounding Oslo, attracting the attention of all nearby Norwegian infantry units. That's fine as long as it happens mostly on my terms.



Turn 7 start:

The Fallschirmjäger start moving towards the village between Kristiansand and Stavanger.

KMS Blücher moves north again to fire in support of the recon unit that will clear the remaining villages between Oslo and Kristiansand after encircling the remaining infantry unit.

Oslo will be captured this turn.



Turn 8 start:

Norwegian Mountain infantry badly mauled my Grenadiere unit, but this allows me to knock the Norwegian units out on my terms, encircling and capturing most eventually, so it's a fairly worthwhile trade-off. It was more damage than I expected to take admittedly. Infantry and Grenadiere having a Close Defence of 0 hurts in these situations where the enemy has a positive Close Defence.

The Bf 109's will rebase to Oslo's airfields one by one.

The Fallschirmjäger encircle a Norwegian infantry unit.



Turn 9 start:

Slowly clearing the area around Oslo.

The Fallschirmjäger push the suppressed Norwegian infantry into the "peninsula" forcing them to surrender,.



Turn 10 start:

The area around Oslo has been cleared and my forces are moving towards Lillehammer.

The Fallschirmjäger are regrouping and will continue their advance towards Stavanger, the Stuka unit has been bombing them since turn 7.



Turn 11 start:

Softening up the Lillehammer and Stavanger defenders.

There's a Norwegian Mountain infantry unit west of Lillehammer that can give you a nasty surprise.

I'm trying to keep the Norwegian infantry unit east of Lillehammer out of the game.

The Fallschirmjäger will start attacking Stavanger this turn.



Turn 12 start:

The Norwegian Mountain infantry attacked, but losses were acceptable.

The Fallschirmjäger capture Stavanger after forcing the garrison to surrender.

One Fallschirmjäger unit has 4 strength left, the other 1. The goal was to do this without having to give them replacements, which worked. Europe on a Shoestring indeed.



Turn 12 end, victory:



I've cut out the non-core units, this screen tracks campaign kills/losses not just for the scenario:



I'm happy with the result. It could've been done in ~10 turns if I had not captured all locations. There was no real pressure from the clock.

Ended up with 4.122 prestige. More time lets me take less risks I think and the larger core absorbs the damage better.

I have not done any repairs during the scenario IIRC.

Ended up with 4.122 prestige. More time lets me take less risks I think and the larger core absorbs the damage better.

I have not done any repairs during the scenario IIRC.

Based on your AAR, your repair costs were slightly higher than mine for Norway (mine were 650 or so) as you have a more expensive core.

It will be interesting to see how the replacement costs develop. A larger core and more turns give you more time to minimize damage, but a better core also costs more to maintain.

Breakthrough at Sedan, turn limit: 15 turns.

Prestige:

Start: 2553
End: 5192

Core:

Infantry:

Pioniere (truck)
Pioniere (truck)
Grenadiere (truck)

Tanks:

Panzer IB
Panzer IB
Panzer 38(t)A
Panzer 38(t)A

Recon:

Sd.Kfz. 222
Sd.Kfz. 222

Artillery:

10.5cm LeFH18 (half-track)
10.5cm LeFH18 (half-track)
7.5cm FK 16 nA (horse team) NEW
StuG IIIB prototype NEW

Fighters:

Bf 109E
Bf 109E
Bf 109E NEW

Tactical Bombers:

Ju 87B

Strategic Bombers:

He 111H2


This feels like a Monday morning scenario design, the depiction of the fighting in the Ardennes is...rather simplistic. It's still enjoyable, but it's more decent than good.

The amusing look of the Ardennes made me want to play this scenario in a somewhat silly way as well, without abusing the layout of the map too much.

One thing worth noting is that this is the first scenario where the enemy fighters felt like they could do some damage. I seem to have avoided running into this problem in Poland based on other posts, probably because of the initiative bonus.

Turn 1 start:

Right, playing this the silly way means all tanks completely ignoring the Ardennes and moving through the clear hexes at the northern part of the map. After taking St. Vith.

One Pioniere unit will take Luxembourg and its airfield. After supply to the Belgian units in the southern part of the Ardennes is cut, it will move west.

The Grenadiere, the other Pioniere unit and the 7.5cm gun will move through the central Ardennes and take Bastogne.





Turn 2 start:

St. Vith was encircled last turn, the defenders will surrender this turn.



Turn 3 start:

Not much to report, my forces move west.

There's no deep strategy related to the Pioniere near Luxembourg not having moved last turn, I simply forgot to move it.



Turn 4 start:

Surprisingly, there's nobody home in the fortress city of Namur. No fort, no garrison. Nothing.

The Bastogne garrison surrendered after it ran out of movement points when retreating.



Turn 5 start:

The Meuse is a minor river in the scenario, so the Panzers can cross it without much difficulty due to the Master of Blitzkrieg bonus.

As you can see, the Luftwaffe lost 7 strength points whilst dealing with the 2 French fighter units.

Most aircraft rebase to Luxembourg airfield.



Turn 6 start:

Slowly moving my Panzers north of Philippeville.

A unit of Chasseurs Ardennais is isolated as it can't trace supply through all those Thick Forest hexes.



Turn 7 start:

The Chasseurs Ardennais unit has surrendered.

The Stuka unit will start bombing the Belgian T13 unit in the southern part of the Ardennes this turn.



Turn 8 start:

The attack on Philippeville begins. The goal is to pocket as many units as possible.

There is plenty of Allied armour in the area that can hurt my tanks, either due to having 70% base accuracy and often having better stats to begin with.

The Belgian heavy artillery unit was destroyed, it was too inconvenient to keep it alive.



Turn 9 start:

A pocket was created last turn, but reinforcements coming in from the south come to the aid of the Allied defenders.



Turn 10 start:

The relief force is pocketed as well. Note that some of my tank units took some punches from the French armour. The best French tank unit on the map, the S35 unit, is attacking the StuG IIIB. The StuG is sturdy, so it will only lose 4 points over the next few turns.

The three fighter units will rebase to Philippeville. The dirt airfield can't be used strategic bombers and the Stuka unit is still busy with the T13.



Turn 11 start:

Cleaning up the pocketed forces. The AMC that started west of Philippeville was destroyed, I didn't have the means to surround it without delaying the operation too much.



Turn 12 start:

Pocket cleaned up and Phillipeville captured.

In the Ardennes, the two Belgian units in the south will be "encircled" on turn 12 by cutting the road to Sedan. The Pioniere that had been in Luxembourg all this time moved to the front.



Turn 13 start:

The force moves south, before splitting into two halves: one heading towards Hirson and Laon and the other towards Sedan.

The Somua unit was fully encircled last turn and will surrender this turn. 8 Somua strength points captured.

Another R35 unit appears.



Turn 14 start:

Yet another R35 unit appeared and knocked one of my Panzer 38(t)A units back to 1 strength point. That broke the encirclement of Hirson, but it will be encircled again this turn.

At the end of the battle, I have 18 captured R35 strength points.

A French infantry unit moves in from south of the city and attempts to block my advance to Sedan.



Turn 15 start:

Sedan encircled. The Chasseurs Alpins south of Sedan didn't intervene for some reason.

Engineers move out of Laon to attack a Panzer 38(t)A unit, knocking two strength points off and thus knocking it down to a single strength point as well. This does allow me to capture all flags except for the Maginot Line village (Longuyon).



The end, the defenders of Sedan and Hirson surrender after they run out of movement points to retreat with.

829 prestige worth of strength points lost. Stiff, but worth it.

Charnel Co-...Channel Coast, turn limit: 15 turns.

Prestige:

Start: 4203
End: 7498

Core:

Infantry:

Pioniere (truck)
Pioniere (truck)
Grenadiere (truck)

Tanks:

Panzer IB
Panzer IB
Panzer 38(t)A
Panzer 38(t)A

Recon:

Sd.Kfz. 222
Sd.Kfz. 222

Artillery:

10.5cm LeFH18 (half-track)
10.5cm LeFH18 (half-track)
7.5cm FK 16 nA (horse team)
StuG IIIB prototype

Fighters:

Bf 109E
Bf 109E
Bf 109E
Bf 109E NEW

Tactical Bombers:

Fi 156 NEW
Ju 87B

Strategic Bombers:

He 111H2

The first one I had to restart after it became obvious I would run out of turns. I made the encirclements a bit too elaborate and time consuming to clean up in the first run.

I've captured most of the Allied armour they've thrown at me in the last two scenarios. Satisfying and silly at the same time.

An airfield has materialized next to Hirson since the end of the previous scenario.

The Panzer IB's head south-west initially, assisted by the Grenadiere and the 7.5cm artillery. Initial goals are the capture of Laon (which changed sides since the end of the last scenario) and Soissons at the map edge. They'll then form the southern part of the pocket around the French armour located south-west of Peronne.

The other units move north-west slowly.

The first turn is Cloudy and accuracy for air to air combat is halved, not just air-to-ground or ground-to-air accuracy. That makes attacking the French fighters a bad deal (results would be 2-2 or so).





Turn 2 start:

A Panhard 178 recon unit was encircled last turn and will surrender this turn, as will an FT-17 unit that rolled out of a museum only to surrender during its first fight.

A French infantry unit left the town it was holding and moved in to support the FT-17, but that will only lead to its encirclement after it knocked 2 strength points after one half of an Sd.Kfz 222 unit.



Turn 3 start:

The aforementioned French infantry unit is encircled, as is its counterpart east of Cambrai.

A Daimler Dingo moved in to attack the Panzer 38(t)A unit south of Cambrai.

In the south, the Panzers move into position to encircle Soissons. I was 1 movement point short to do so last turn, didn't pay enough attention to positioning when forcing the Panhard 178 unit to surrender.



Turn 4 start:

Soissons is encircled and Peronne airfield is captured.

French infantry is counter-attacking north of Peronne, which is actually a pretty good move by the AI in this case as I don't want to get too close to the 3 British tank units at Arras yet.

A French AA unit moved out of its town hex to attack an air unit south of Peronne. That was a bit move, it's hit by the Sd.Kfz 222 unit and overrun by a Panzer IB unit.



Turn 5 start:

Soissons is captured at the cost of 2 Grenadiere strength point losses

Cambrai is encircled.

The Panzer 38(t)A unit takes a hit from a Cruiser Mk I unit west of Cambrai, and it's about to get worse.



Turn 6 start:

The Panzer 38(t)A unit is at 1 strength after it was attacked by a Cruiser Mk IV unit and some French infantry after it retreated into a river hex.

Most of the Luftwaffe is rebasing to Peronne.



Turn 7 start:

Cambrai and Peronne are captured.

The Cruiser Mk I unit is destroyed. The Cruiser Mk IV unit is encircled.



Turn 8 start:

Mopping up around Cambrai.

In the south, preparations are underway for an encirclement of the French armour concentration. I don't know what their trigger is supposed to be, but they didn't move until they were encircled. The S35 unit at Amiens didn't move to support them.



Turn 9 start:

The French armour concentration is encircled. The third unit is still in place, out of sight. Visibility is reduced due to rain.

The AI air force is both very active and passive at the same time. The tactical bomber unit at Abbeville didn't do much, but the initial fighter wave and the two RAF units are active and fairly effective.



Turn 10 start:

Mopping up the French armour and moving closer to Arras.



Turn 11 start:

Arras and the Matilda II unit are encircled.

The encircled French armour has surrendered.

It's time to get the Blitzkrieg going towards the coast as time is running out again.

Part of the Luftwaffe rebases to Arras. The recon and strategic bomber were still at Hirson as they couldn't fit on the dirt airfield at Peronne or can't use dirt airfields.

The first replacements during a scenario were given to the 1 strength Panzer 38(t)A unit, so it can force the Matilda II unit to surrender.



Turn 12 start:

Another AMC 35 unit that is in a position, east of Boulogne, where it needs to be destroyed as there's no time to capture it. Just like the one at Sedan. The only French tank missing from the collection will remain so.



Turn 13 start:

Amiens is encircled.

I'm bypassing the French engineer unit in Doullens, just like I'm leaving the French HW infantry unit in Clermont at the map edge south of Amiens alone. There's not enough time to dig them out.



Turn 14 start:

Calais airfield is captured.



Turn 15 start:

Calais and Abbeville are encircled, Amiens is captured.

I focussed on Calais first because the British Engineer unit is more difficult to remove than the French 47mm AT gun unit in Boulogne.



Turn 15 end:







1237 prestige worth of strength points lost, but all the captured equipment guarantees a nice profit overall.

Very nice. I was going to post an AAR of my ongoing campaign, but seeing this I'm not convinced there's much point -- I went with Belgium instead, finishing that with just over 7000 prestige, but the general house rules are very similar (Rommel, Guderian, Generalissimus, no Liberator/Trophies of War/heroes), and while there are some differences in traits you have more penalties than I do (part of the reason I've made more prestige I imagine). I might post an abbreviated version with spoilers to keep the screenshots sane (so I don't have to crop them) for comparison purposes, but I imagine this'll be more interesting to follow for third party readers. FWIW I'm not playing on Ironman etiher -- if I fail a scenario I'll replay it, and the fiddly nature of unit selection means I'm still averaging a few misclicks per scenario, potentially with devastating consequences.

Well, feel free to reply to my posts (or charonjr's) and join the discussion in either thread (or your own, of course, if you want to show us how you completed the scenarios)!

You'll see in the stickied AAR post that someone complained that the sub-forum didn't seem to have much of a purpose because there was little activity, but shortly afterwards charonjr's AAR and this one appeared.

We're having fun trying to maximize our prestige profits without the usual in-game mechanics to do so.

In the Poland/Norway/France scenarios, some initial knowledge of the map and a slightly larger core than I'm using is quite helpful. There's already a growing difference in prestige between charonjr's restart and my campaign.

comradep wrote: ↑Thu Apr 02, 2020 6:27 pm Well, feel free to reply to my posts (or charonjr's) and join the discussion in either thread (or your own, of course, if you want to show us how you completed the scenarios)!

You'll see in the stickied AAR post that someone complained that the sub-forum didn't seem to have much of a purpose because there was little activity, but shortly afterwards charonjr's AAR and this one appeared.

We're having fun trying to maximize our prestige profits without the usual in-game mechanics to do so.

In the Poland/Norway/France scenarios, some initial knowledge of the map and a slightly larger core than I'm using is quite helpful. There's already a growing difference in prestige between charonjr's restart and my campaign.

It's funny how this approach to playing changes your way of looking at outcomes -- when the French armoured reserve raced ahead to strike at my auxilliary paratroopers who had just occupied a town behind enemy lines, I didn't cheer the heavy losses they took; rather, all I could see was the AI depriving me of prestige Will certainly follow these AARs and see whether this approach holds up when enemy forces increase in numbers and quality -- my own campaign showed me that the nature of the early scenarios (small, limited # of enemy troops) made it very easy to maximize the prestige as you had a pretty clear idea of how, where and when you could push. I expect that'll change later on.

A larger core certainly helps, especially if you picked Retrograde (I did, but I also have Panzer General, which helps offset the terrible quality of my armour with numbers).

It is a bit of a peculiar way to play the game, to weigh actions in terms of prestige gained/lost.

I don't look at the precise cost of the trade-off between the risk of creating an encirclement and the reward, but I do try to capture as many units as I can whilst keeping losses at a manageable level.

What I like most of all about the way I'm playing currently is that you get to see the value of the equipment you'd normally never use or only for a few scenarios.

If I would be playing this the "regular" way, always upgrading to the latest and greatest equipment and using heavy-hitting overstrength Hero units, I don't think I'd have as much fun as I'm having with the prestige puzzling.

There are times when the game is downright frustrating, but I just turn off the PC in that case and switch to reading a book, starting over in good spirits the next day. Sedan was underwhelming after the opening scenarios, Channel Coast was decent enough, but Dijon really helped me over the hump towards having mostly fun again.

I concur. Full disclosure: on my first campaign I used my heroes to maximum effect, resulting in an OSed Flammpanzer that could kill any soft target in close terrain nm the entrenchment level 3 times per turn and an OSed Tiger that'd do the same to literally any target in the open up to 6 times per turn. It was like playing whack-a-mole without even the pretense of tactics (I rolled through the final US mission in only 12 turns; you have 30 w/o Guderian) and I found myself regretting their use. So far this campaign has been more fun, but of course there's been some frustration too.

I'm interested in your experiences with Retrograde, because I've come to a horrible conclusion after a discussion in the bugs section. Retrograde is supposed to delay upgrades for 6 months, which is fine; it's a punishing penalty but one that can make for tacical innovation by forcing you to use older models. What it doesn't tell you is that the game still uses the same equipment list, so whenever a unit upgrade becomes available that removes the older model(s), a player with Retrograde is rendered unable to requsition it at all. I first discovered this in Belgium, as I attempted to requsition Me 110s (which had been made available to me in Norway), only to discover that they weren't in my requisition list (because it's replaced by an upgraded model in the equipment list and the old model removed, but because of Retrograde it takes 6 months for me to get access to it). Vexing as this was, the full ramifications slowly began to sink in, because this is likely to happen with other units later on, especially in '43 -- just imagine having the entire infantry roster update to '43 while removing the old versions, so you get to play for 6 months with no way to requsition any combat-oriented infantry at all... I'm sure this is a bug, but it feels crippling to have to consider what models I might be deprived of in the future.

I read the bug report about Retrograde. I'm not sure if it will have an effect on my core or unit selection, but we'll see. I might not even notice a unit is "missing" from the purchase options due to the issue.

(Sur la route de) Dijon (la belle digue di, la belle digue don)

Turn limit: 15 turns.

Prestige:

Start: 6095
End: 9341

Core:

Infantry:

Pioniere (truck)
Pioniere (truck)
Grenadiere (truck)

Tanks:

Panzer IB
Panzer IB
Panzer 38(t)A
Panzer 38(t)A
Panzer IIC NEW

Recon:

Sd.Kfz. 222
Sd.Kfz. 222

Artillery:

10.5cm LeFH18 (half-track)
10.5cm LeFH18 (half-track)
10.5cm LefH18 (half-track)
StuG IIIB prototype

Fighters:

Bf 109E
Bf 109E
Bf 109E
Bf 109E

Tactical Bombers:

Fi 156
Ju 87B

Strategic Bombers:

He 111H2

An interesting scenario. Could've captured more of the map with a slightly bigger core or less caution, but satisfied overall.

Plenty of Marjolaines will need consolation after their men end up in POW camps.

The map has changed yet again, with hexes captured in previous scenarios in different locations and some back in French control.

Turn 1 start:

As straightforward a plan as any: virtually everything will move south after the capture of Reims and Verdun. A few units will move towards Metz, staying out of range of the Maginot Line fortresses.

The tank unit west of Reims will be encircled and captured, I think I ended up overrunning the artillery.





Turn 2 start:

The French AT unit moved to the bridge hex to attack. Not a brilliant move by the AI.

A Panhard 178 unit attack the Panzer 38(t), the AMC 35 remained in place. I might finally be able to capture it!



Turn 3 start:

I believe the Panhard 178 unit was bumped into the river and surrendered, the AA unit was overrun and the French 155mm artillery unit (which started southwest of the infantry in the forest in this screenshot) was overrun as well.

I can hear people saying "you overran several artillery unit instead of encircling them!" but we had to get the attack going and the points gained might not have compared favourably to points lost from something getting blasted by the 155mm artillery unit. This time I didn't do things the fancy way.



Turn 4 start:

Not sure what happened to the French AT gun next to Soissons at the western map edge, I think I killed it as it wasn't worth the trouble.

Chalons is encircled.



Turn 5 start:

Chalons captured, Soissons captured for the second time (its defenders were pushed into the river, were attacked again and surrendered),

Romilly air field captured. The Luftwaffe will start rebasing to Romilly next turn, except for the Ju 87B (bombing the Maginot Line) and He 111H2 (which can't use dirt airfields).

Deep Recon shows units moving towards me past objectives. A bit of caution is in order.



Turn 6 start:

Forces temporarily split into a group heading towards Verdun and a group heading south-west towards Romilly.

The French are counter-attacking at Romilly, the first Char B1Bis unit I've encountered during this campaign is in sight.

The French infantry unit west of Verdun was bumped into the swamp/river and forced to surrender.



Turn 7 start:

The French infantry attacking out of Romilly was bumped into the river and forced to surrender. The encirclement of French armour is nearly complete.

A French cavalry unit makes a beeline for Chalons (well, Reims probably but it is at Chalons).

The AT and artillery units west of Verdun were captured at very low remaining strength.



Turn 8 start:

The French armour south of Romilly was encircled. The reason one of the units isn't encircled at the moment is that it moved out of its encirclement during the French phase of turn 7.

Verdun is captured, the bulk of the units in the area will move towards St. Dizier and then Chaumont.



Turn 9 start:

The cavalry at Chalons surrendered.

Commercy south-east of Verdun is captured. We'll be attacking Metz from the south eventually. The building next to the objective is a hangar, which doesn't seem to have much of a use aside from preventing me from rushing into the airfield hex.

The defenders of St. Dizier sortied to attack.

Only the Char B1Bis unit remains at Romilly.



Turn 10 start:

The Char B1Bis unit was kind enough to drive into the river, which makes capturing it easier.

St. Dizier captured, its former garrison surrendered.

Troyes is encircled.

The defenders of Nancy, south of Metz, counter-attack.

More French armour shows up south of Chaumont, a Somua unit and an armoured car unit.



Turn 11 start:

Char B1Bis unit captured.

Nancy captured, its former garrison bumped into the river and forced to surrender.

The Sd.Kfz 222 unit will start attacking the hangar this turn, moving back to Nancy to avoid the fortress guns of the Maginot Line.



Turn 12 start:

The second use of replacements during the battle this campaign was on the Pioniere south of Metz. The defenders of Nancy had knocked them down to 7 strength points. I wanted them to be a bit stronger to eventually capture Metz on the final turn.

Chaumont and French armour in the area encircled.



Turn 13 start:

The defenders of Troyes were bumped into the river and surrendered. I didn't have anyone with remaining movement points to capture the objective.

The S35 unit at Chaumont was captured.

Chatillon is encircled.

The French counter-attacks and the resulting elaborate encirclements cost time, so it's time to get the Blitzkrieg going for the last turns like in Channel Coast.



Turn 14 start:

An odd situation: I made a risky move by capturing Vesoul with artillery in trucks, figuring the Panhard 178 unit would remain in place. The Panhard 178 unit left Besancon to move to Vesoul, was "ambushed" by the trucks for no damage and moved away. No attack was made.

Metz airfield cleared, Pioniere move into a position from where they can attack Metz.

Chaumont captured, its garrison surrendered.



Turn 15 start:

Dijon is encircled, the same goes for the Panhard 178 unit.

The Sombernon garrison counter-attacked. I don't have the units to encircle and capture them, but I can capture the town they left.



Turn 15 end:

The defenders of Metz were chased off the premises with flamethrowers. The artillery ended up capturing the objective.

Chatillon (garrison bumped into the river, surrendered), Sombernon, Dijon (garrison surrendered) and Besancon captured.







A good scenario. You start with the idea that you have all the time in the world to reach Dijon, but then you have to deal with some French counter-attacks that might not be very hard to resist, but require time to deal with (in this case: encircle/capture).

Capturing Metz without getting slapped around by the Maginot Line forts was a bit of a puzzle, but it worked in the end.

With map knowledge, capturing a few more towns/garrisons would've been possible, but this was a fine run and a fun scenario.

Well done. I'm up to Dijon myself now so this has given me some ideas (I went with Belgium - Dunkirk and sank the British ships, so Paris seemed a boring choice) as to how to proceed. Your core is also similar to mine which makes it easier to use it as a planning aid (I have a slightly larger core, courtesy of Panzer General). Like you I also field the StuG prototype, in no small part because it's the only armoured vehichle with a respectable ground defence (we both picked Retrograde), but I'm considering fielding one of the captured French tanks as I have enough parts for a Somua. Did you consider that to have some beefier defensive unit? Admittedly the greater firepower means it might end up causing significant losses to the enemy too, but I was thinking of trying to hold it in reserve in case I need to shore up a position.

The current combat system seems to fine-tuned to create "some, but not many, losses" per attack for regular combat, pretty much regardless of what you're using. It might also feel that way due to the AI accuracy bonus.

I considered using the Somua, but thought I would still be likely to end up with 1-3 losses for attacks, which would've been costlier to replace. As long as the AI has 2 or even 1 unsuppressed step, it might still cause a loss due to the system generating kills even in unlikely situations.

This might change when I encounter better Allied/Soviet tanks and AT units, but for now my German and Czech pre-war tanks work fine and are cost effective.

Yes, the initial German designs are very cost effective, and I imagine that you need 3 slots for IICs and above as you're not using Panzer General if memory serves (a huge boon, because the trait allows you to field IICs and 38(t)s for only 2 slots a piece, effectively netting you 3 for 2). In terms of chip damage that's probably true. I've become somehow fixated with adding David vs. Goliath to the mix, and it's clear to me that split IBs and recons wouldn't fare very well against OSed French heavy armour, even with suppression, so I'm thinking of ways to test whether it's possible to have some survivability while sticking to the general strategy. I'm fine with the occassional loss of a detached unit -- I lost 2 in Dunkirk -- but they need to be able to handle most situations or encirclements just won't work.

I tried playing with David vs. Goliath on as well, but wanted to get a better feel for the system first as I had the idea it would take too long to chew through/suppress defenders, also as the effects of suppression decrease as a unit becomes more suppressed. I'm not sure if the opposite is true: if suppression is more effective if a unit has more than 15 (infantry) or 10 (everything else) strength.

Full randomness in combat results would probably be a real pain when facing 15/20 strength enemy units.

Barbarossa South was one big prestige grab. The first scenario where I captured every unit that could be captured. In a scenario like that, the variability in prestige gain comes from AI moves.

Does one of its tank units get smashed like an egg when ambushed by Pioniere in close terrain? Does it only attack weak units or units that can fire back for normal damage?

Here's an overview of my captured tanks thus far.

For reference purposes: the Soviets had 80 T-26, 50 BT-7 and 20 T-34/40 strength points, so I caused 3-4 losses to units before capturing them aside from the T-34/40's. There was also a bug where one of my Panzer 38(t)A's magically knocked off 4 strength points from a BT-7 as it was moving away during the Soviet turn.

Over 7000 prestige gained, before repairs.

Full AAR to follow in a few hours.

Yikes, yeah, 7k prestige sounds good.

Tried David and Golith once as well, but unless knowing the map/AI moves very well it is very easy to lose a split unit to an attack.

I am sure it can be done, but it sounds more like work than fun to me.