GC42-45 EAST, replays and analysis, Field marshall

[hugh2711]

COMPARISONS:
GC39: Total prestige gained = 10918 .......Destroyed: 196,69,5,27,37,36,13,16,3,1. ...Total = 404
GC40: Total prestige gained = 24114 .......Destroyed: 288,112,13,73,50,43,40,26,20,11. Total = 676
GC41: Total prestige gained = 28975........Destroyed: 279,153,18,42,55,48,3,41,11,12. Total = 662
GC42E: Total prestige gained = 49900........Destroyed: 439,291,31,52,114,76,1,91,16,10. Total = 1121
GC43E: Total prestige gained = 17940........Destroyed: 362,379,51,124,166,93,25,118,49,20. Total = 1387
GC44E: Total prestige lost = 12315..........Destroyed: 482,362,31,147,123,97,10,119,50,36. Total =1457

There seems to be some debate on the forum about recon rudel after you are given the upgraded super rudel (in minsk 41) as to wether he is usefull as he is so weakend, so:
Amount of times per campaign recon rudel deployed?:
41: 7 times as a BF110
42: 9 times
43: 6 times as an Me410a
44: 5 times as an Me410a

State of the core address:
Surprisingly I would make exactly the same comments about each category as the end of GC43east i.e.;
"Infantry: Plenty/excess of heroed and experienced infantry. Can convert if I want more specialisation. There are more heroes to be earned.
Tanks: A good mix of SE and ordinary. Lots of heroes, some units at max 3 heroes but plenty still to come.
Artilliary: Ok but I would have preferred more range heroes although there are still plenty to come it is very hard to accumulate enough kills in artilliary to get second and third heroes.
Air: Ok but could be better, I would have preferred one more heroed ordinary fighter. I would also have preferred more double heroed fighters by now. The two given pre-heroed but defence weakend fighters have not yet aquired another hero so they are still vulnerable and hence the enemy will target them. My main 88 and mobile AA have nice range heroes as I usually prefer and are pretty awesome. Looking forward to another hero each."

[hugh2711]

GC45east

I think the sheer numbers of enemy units limits the amount of tricks that can be done in 45east. Off the top of my head only berlin and redux have specific tricks that I remember.Since this is the last campaign I can spend all the prestige I want, in which case I think I will convert the tiger I got to king tiger. I will overstrengthen more as well since I am assuming this campaign will be a loss prestige-wise anyway.
I have surplus tanks that I dont think I will use; panerflamm, kv85, jadtiger and a few other surplus units. If the panzerflamm had better stats I would consider using it behind the lines paired with a wurfrahmen to get rid of partisans. At the moment the one I have with no heroes is too weak even to do that. I should have kept the pre-heroed converted panzer 2 that I got in gc41 that I have converted to a panther.

1) Goldap [DV] Prestige = 113546 [ +200 prestige per turn + capturable tank+ heroed SE 109 fighter, KV85]
Core activity; convert tiger to king. Overstrengthen tanks and air units.
Strategy: A smallish map. This should be a straightforward scenario. Lots of bad terrain. A few rivers. In the north I will have a tank force which will eliminate the enemy group, then go to the river near the northern VH and hold enemy units at the river. Towards the end preferably when the enemy units are gone I will retake the VH and get the capturable tank. In the south another smaller tank force will advance north, deal with the local units and cut off the enemy advance over the eastern river. In the centre any units that make it to goldap will be taken out by a mixture of infantry, arty and tanks in the bad terrain (obviously my tanks will only go in the clear hexes). There are alot of enemy air units so a full complement of fighters will be deployed along with some AA.
Deployed: Softcap = 24%. 3x grenadier, 2x para, M+3, gerbirjager, panther, 3x KT, 8xSE KT, recon, 2x 17cm, 2x wurf, sig38, 3x su122, 2xmobAA. air; 8x F, 3x TB, 1x SB.
Destroyed: 39,31,4,10,8,5,0,10,5,5. Total = 117
Comments: That was much easier than I expected, I had alot of units doing nothing for lots of turns. I kept waiting for the overwhelming hordes but they never came. In fact I actually had to deliberately prolong it by keeping a weak enemy unit alive to get the turn prestige and the few extra secondary hexes at the end. There was a sneaky bridge engineer on the river at the end which could have messed things up as it is easy to not notice. That scenario doesnt need all the king tigers I used. It could definately be done using the same strategy with alot less and weaker units if you really need the prestige. I didnt need to convert the tiger to king. The extra pre-heroed SE fighter is nice as it doesnt count towards the stats and slots however even with the extra heroes it is an older weaker unit.

[hugh2711]

There is now a choice between an 'offensive/attacking' path and a 'defensive' path. I will do both and compare.

[hugh2711]

replay(04.07.2018) Pelleninkin, Turn 18.rar

(67.55 KiB) Downloaded 78 times

2 A) Pellelninkin [DV] Prestige = 13289 [+100 prestige per turn]
Core activity: Some reoverstrengthening. Repair SE fighter.
Strategy: This is an easy scenario. A small map, mixed terrain. The weather is also mixed. For the method I prefer you just require enough serious tanks to punch a hole through some enemy tanks up to the first river crossing. Then use M+3 plus some arty to take the crossing town, send a few tanks after to take out a few lurking tanks then join up with the numerous aux units defending the main town. It is easy to extract the required 8 aux units and cross back over the river. Alternatively you can use a bridge engineer to make the river crossing behind the town. However I intend to use this scenario as an opportunity to increase my stats so I will hold the town and destroy the the large counter attack. The initial attack requires some re-arranging of the aux units to withstand an initial attack at the main town but you can get your support there very quickly. After extracting the weaker units the remainder can be quite useful in defense. The initial air attack is very large and requires all my fighters plus some AA. The large counter attack comes both from the east and also the north on the west bank of the river. It can be destroyed relatively easily by taking advantage of the bad (computer) placement of its units.
Deployed: Staggered deployment. Softcap = 30% at deployment. 3x grenadier, M+3, panther, 3x KT, 8x SE KT, recon, 2x 17cm, 2x sig38, 3x su122, 2x wurf, 12.8cm, mobAA. air; 8x me262, SE 190k, 3x TB, 1x SB
Destroyed: 40,39,3,22,18,12,0,9,8,4. Total = 155
Comments: As expected. I had to prolong it to get the 100 prestige per turn. This could also be done with a much weaker force without holding the main town and taking secondary VH's by withdrawing back behind the rivers and picking them off as they try to cross.

[hugh2711]

replay(15.07.2018) Parck, Turn 22.rar

(68.71 KiB) Downloaded 75 times

3 A) Parck [DV] Prestige = 112583 [+100 prestige per turn + capturable KV85 tank]
Core activity: Minor reoverstrengthening.
Strategy:A small map with mixed bad terrain. It is however quite an easy scenario. A group on the right will take out the initial clump and then keep going and swing around when it gets to the south and go west and then get the capturable tank. There are so many units on such a small map with bad terrain it is just a case of going forward in a wall.
Deployed: Initially deployed 4 less than allotted so softcap was about the 40% mark.
Destroyed: 53,46,6,22,16,4,0,8,5,0. Total = 160
Comments: As expected easy. Could have finished alot earlier but prolonged it for the prestige. Like alot of the later GC scenarios; you iether have the tough tanks or you dont. If you do it is easy as they lead and you clear up with other things and take cities behind them. If you dont have the tough SE tanks which you should have been nurturing since gc39 then you are stuffed and it is difficult and you may run out of time. A couple of points. I deployed a 4 range K5 railgun, in future I would not as I didnt notice the lines have breaks in them so they are useless after a while. Next time I would not bother. The air war was quite easy apart from one large wave about halfway through, If I had known about it beforehand I might have been more careful, I would also have deployed recon rudel. My losses were from pushing a couple of infantry out forward level with the tanks (the opposite of the right strategy I just said above) as I got bored and wanted to just finish it quickly and of course they got clobbered. Silly but I get bored in GC45, very small maps with too many units. This was however a profitable scenario despite my profiglicate carelessness. I will disband the kv85 for prestige, in fact I have a couple of other kv85's there as well I should disband as I am not even using all of my tigers. I do know however that all my good tanks will be needed at berlin and redux. You are given a few aux units they are moderately useful.

[hugh2711]

4 A) Laptau [DV] prestige = 12697 [+100 prestige per turn + enemy goes first]
Core Activity: Repair 2 infantry. Minor reoverstrengthening.
Strategy: Small/Medium map, mixed bad terrain, lots of hills. Plan is to just advance in a rough line with the tanks then follow up behind with other units to mop up and use infantry to take the cities. There is alot of AA including a couple of spaag's. You are given a few aux units of which the jadtiger and the recons are useful.
Deployed: Initially deployed 2 less than allotted. Softcap = 34%
Destroyed: 21,27,2,27,13,8,0,7,4,1. Total = 110
Comments: Straightforward as expected. Most of my losses were from enemy air or AA activity. There were a couple of waves that caught me. It certainly could be done with less tigers; I prolonged it to destroy all the enemy units however the density of units is that if you did it with less tigers you may not catch all the enemy aux units and end up with an MV and alot of recon units wont survive the large number of tanks and AT.

[hugh2711]

So these three 'attacking' scenarios ended up with a prestige gain of 1114 + one overstrengthed KV85 (KV85 = 605)

[hugh2711]

3 D) Insterberg [DV] Prestige = 13289 [+ 100 prestige per turn + enemy goes first]
Core activity: Reoverstrengthening
Strategy: A few tough grenadiers protecting the VH's with some king tigers around them backed up with arty. Also alot of fighters and AA. Will give ground and retake if needed.
Deployed: staggered deployment, initiall softcap = 38%
Destroyed: 30,30,0,9,13,3,0,10,5,2. Total = 102
Comments: An easy scenario, I had to prolong it for prestige. Didnt need to give ground. There is plenty of time to get the secondary hexes. I had some losses from the very large air attack at the beginning. I also had some losses on one tank from some spawning IS2's at the end. This scenario could be done easily with weaker/cheaper units by not bothering with the secondary city hexes and by taking it slower. I hardly used the infantry at all. It is easier to use the tanks to get the transports in transit.