Grand Campaign 1943-45 Field Marshall

[goose_2]

You want hard hitting huge kill count killers deploy Nebelwerfer's especially now that you are in 44 more defensive scenarios...love those soft target shredders, just BOSS

[loganfive]

I have just the one 21cm Nebelwerfer with +1 Range. It averages about 50 kills per scenario and is entering Prokhorovka with 767.

The problem is that I only have 3 artillery with +1 Range right now. Two of them are StuG IIIBs, which are awesome cap management units but are no longer available for upgrade or purchase in 1944. I can swap out one of the StuGIIIBs with the Nebelwerfer at Kiev43, but the other one is likely to max out at about 700 kills and one hero in 1945 if I don't upgrade it.

It's part of the fun with this game. Do I use the +1 Range hero on a superweapon like the Nebelwerfer, or do I use it to turn an otherwise useless SP artillery unit into an inexpensive and functional unit that helps me stay under the cap?

[goose_2]

I hear you on that one. I have 1 +1 Range StuG3B in my Manstein playthrough and he is getting close to 2nd hero, and I love using him every scenario, along with +3 Def StuG3B as they are great at suppressing units and providing defensive fire against enemy attack, but are extremely difficult to build heroes on...Nebelwerfers are the best at building up to 2nd even 3rd heroes on artillery, as I have a +1 Move +5 Att shredder that is the envy of all.

[loganfive]

Turn 9 at Prokhorovka.

It was a little hairy for the first 5 turns. One of my artillery units was down to 1 strength point.

However, my three task forces have linked up and everything is going more or less according to plan. Once you shrink the battlefield then you no longer have huge gaps in your line where the Soviets can send their AFVs after your artillery. Air Defence becomes much easier too.

I am down about 8000 prestige points but I expect to get most of it back.

[loganfive]

I hit garbage time on Turn 17 and I am under the cap.

[loganfive]

The end at Prokhorovka.

I stuck around to collect the five 200-point turn bonuses, capture the two remaining airfields, and score some easy kills for my artillery.

[loganfive]

The 4000-point victory bonus means that I enter Dnipropetrovsk with 65961 prestige points, a net loss of about 1800 (about 800 of that was a result of me upgrading one of my StuGIIIB units to a 30cm Nebelwerfer and doing a max overstrength, all part of a long term strategy to get all of my 10 veteran artillery units to two or more heroes and not something that was really all that helpful in terms of winning a DV at Prokhorovka).

Overall, this went way better than I had hoped.

[loganfive]

The end at Dnipropetrovsk.

This one is fairly easy from a DV standpoint. I could have won it on Turn 7 (or earlier if I had really tried). From a prestige point standpoint it doesn't make a lot of sense to stick around for the extra non-victory flags and the turn bonuses, because the extra prestige you earn is not likely to pay for the damage inflicted on your core. Especially if you're playing on e.g. Rommel.

However, on Field Marshall, it is a real struggle getting your core units up to 5 stars. So I stuck around purely for the experience points and kills.

[loganfive]

Entering Kremenchug with 67162 prestige points, which is about a 1500 point gain.

I now have two infantry and two non-SE tank units with 3 heroes. The plan for the final two 1943 scenarios is to throw them into the fire and get them as close to 5 stars as possible, as they will not be seeing much action in 1944.

[loganfive]

Turn 15 at Kremenchug.

I cleared the map of ground units by Turn 16 and weathered a massive Soviet air assault at the end.

Strictly speaking, I took way more damage than I needed to, in terms of grabbing a DV and adding as much prestige as possible.

However, I was purposely looking to maximize experience points and kills, especially for my infantry and tank units.

I added four new heroes, including a second hero for one of my artillery units.

[loganfive]

Entering Kiev43 with 68812 prestige points.

From what I recall this is another slugfest battle with a huge number of Soviet units to defeat. Which is precisely what I want at this point in the campaign, as this is the last of the 1943 battles and I am desperately trying to get my veteran ground units close to five stars before the massive reduction in core size (from 40 to 33) in 1944.

[loganfive]

Halfway through Kiev 43.

I have cleared everything South of the river, although it was not easy. I had deployed my Panzer IIIs and Panzer IVs there, and that was precisely where the AI spammed me with five IS-1s.

In the North I have have fought off three major armoured assaults, and am dealing with the remnants of two more.

There is just the one victory hex left. However, the remaining minor flags and turn bonuses amount to about 2000 prestige points, so I am in no rush.

For the remainder of the battle, the primary goal is to get all my infantry North of the river so that they can collect some more experience points.

[goose_2]

Halfway through Kiev 43.

I have cleared everything South of the river, although it was not easy. I had deployed my Panzer IIIs and Panzer IVs there, and that was precisely where the AI spammed me with five IS-1s.

In the North I have have fought off three major armoured assaults, and am dealing with the remnants of two more.

There is just the one victory hex left. However, the remaining minor flags and turn bonuses amount to about 2000 prestige points, so I am in no rush.

For the remainder of the battle, the primary goal is to get all my infantry North of the river so that they can collect some more experience points.

IS-1's will tear your Pz3's up hard

[loganfive]

IS-1's will tear your Pz3's up hard

Well, two of my Panzer IIIs are heroed up pretty good with Attack and Defence bonuses, so I am reluctant to upgrade them until it becomes absolutely necessary. The third one will probably become a Panther early in the 1944 campaign.

Also, with the way the game engine works, it's easier for the less-powerful units to gain experience. Of course, with tank units the difficulty is in keeping them alive.

[loganfive]

The end at Kiev 43, and the end of the 1943 campaign.

I took more damage than I wanted to, but I was really looking to gain experience for my infantry and, as the saying goes, no pain no gain.

I have one SE Tiger and two artillery units with five stars, with about 30 more units of all types knocking on the door.

[loganfive]

Going into the 1944 campaign with 68352 prestige points, a loss of about 500 for the Kiev 43 scenario, but that's a bit misleading as I had spent over 2000 prestige points on non-essential equipment upgrades in the deployment phase.

It's also a meagre gain of 4546 points for the entire 1943 campaign.

Apart from Vilna I did not find the 1944 campaign terribly difficult the first time around at Colonel, and I even gained over 15000 prestige points. This time, playing at Filed Marshall, pretty well all my units will be down one star of experience, so it figures to be a bit more challenging.

[loganfive]

By comparison, this is what the 1944 East campaign looks like with a default core at Field Marshall.

It would be up there in terms of degree of difficulty.

Rommel would probably be a lot easier, because you can compensate for a lack of prestige by selling off a lot of the tank and air units and buying more cost-effective infantry and artillery.

[loganfive]

That was ugly.

At least I didn't lose any core units. But I had to hit the "elite reinforcements" button quite a few times in order to avoid that eventuality.

The good news is that I ran the table and collected a ton of valuable kills and experience points. And I got a couple of nice heroes: a +2 Attack for one of my FW-190s and a +1 Movement for my Helmut Wirnsberger infantry unit (I am thinking in terms of upgrading him to a 43 Grenadier).

[loganfive]

A net loss of 3300 prestige points at the Pocket, and I have a bunch of upgrades and downgrades to do for the Breakout.

I will be dipping below 60000 prestige-wise during the deployment phase. However, once that is done I should not have a lot left in the way of expensive upgrades for the remainder of the 1944 campaign, and I will be in very good shape to stay at or near the cap.

The plan for the Breakout will be to deploy 11 infantry, 10 artillery and 10 tank units (including 7 SE), and to limit the number of air units to 3 fighter and one tactical bomber.

[loganfive]

The end at the Korsun Breakout.

I could have run the table again if I had left a couple of ground units in the Southeast corner, but it doesn't really matter all that much in the grand scheme of things.

The AI was really aggressive here, going after a couple of my core units with a vengeance. They both survived (barely).

This is another scenario where I could have won the DV fairly easily by around Turn 10, either by using paratroopers or by opening up a corridor in the middle of the map and using the rail link. But I chose the brute force method, just for the kills and the experience points.