Blitzkrieg 41-42

[Erik2]

The next installment in the conversion of Panzer Corps campaigns.
This one is based on the 1941-campaign starting with Belgrade and ending with Demyansk, 14 scenarios.
I'll add the PzC 1942-campaign whenever I get around to it.

The campaign uses the original number of turns etc. Any play-balancing based on player feedback will basically use shorter/longer scenarios and more or less resource income.
Please report back in this thread.
Have fun.

Link to Scenario design forum:
http://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtop ... 74&t=65107

[prattaa]

Yes!!!!!!!!

[Andy2012]

The next installment in the conversion of Panzer Corps campaigns.
This one is based on the 1941-campaign starting with Belgrade and ending with Demyansk, 14 scenarios.
I'll add the PzC 1942-campaign whenever I get around to it.

The campaign uses the original number of turns etc. Any play-balancing based on player feedback will basically use shorter/longer scenarios and more or less resource income.
Please report back in this thread.
Have fun.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/168 ... 41-42E.zip

Erik, you are awesome. Why has Slitherine or the Artistocrats not hired you yet? (Seriously..)

Have tried a few turns. Belgrade is fun and works neatly.
Metaxas Line is too tight. I have managed to do all secondaries and primaries, but he still says "draw" because the flag in the last city hasnt been raised fully to count as conquered, I guess. (Apollina, I think..) Either fix that or give us 2-3 turns more. 14 turns is really tight, especially with all the secondaries. Resources seem to be fine so far.

[prattaa]

I am not able to import my core from the last campaign, correct?

[Andy2012]

@Erik: Is there any Golden Key or strategy you had in mind for Crete? I think the mission is botched.

I mean, I am not stupid and have a quite high tolerance for frustation. Also, I appreciate all your hard work for this. (And I dont want to be that guy who f*cks up a mission and then goes here to complain. Yeah, that dude, with the complain threads and bad google translator English.. )
But right now what happens in Crete for me is: I know where those support units are spawning and drop my paras there. (Because I have failed this mission again and again.) Then I try to push for the airfields to get more reinforcements. But the British, Aussies and Greeks outnumber me so massively, are so dug in, have arty support, tanks, full supply and reinforce constantly, get battleship arty support, and so on. I get zero supply (not even from towns I took), my support units are constantly in the red and thus ineffective and 5 strength from the start, my paras can hold for a few turns, but around turn 7 or 8 I am completely wiped out. They close in from all sides and I have zero options to withdraw, reinforce or get anywhere.
Also, I can withdraw fighters to the north and repair, but cannot redeploy them anywhere.
Oh yeah, I knocked out 3 cruisers, but didnt get the British fleet withdrawal. It says 3 out of 4 knocked out. So the Battleships (there are way too many, its like the whole Royal Navy loiters around Crete suddenly) totally annihilate me. And my Stukas are already low, if I withdraw them, I dont get them back (see above).

Only time I ever took an airfield was when a para unit accidently dropped there over two hexes - because everywhere else were well rested, heavily dug in units. Then I got my 4 mountaineers to reinforce, but could never land any of them on the airfield because it was constantly shelled, surrounded by tanks and then retaken the next turn.

I mean, at first I thought I have picked the wrong drop sites. But all my support units spawn there and it is close to the airfields, so it cant be that. Summed up, am I not seeing things or have I missed an obvious strategy? To me, there is no way to beat this. Those are all aux units, so I dont mind losses, but I am wiped out before turn 10 out of 48 and was never near taking any objective. Those Blenheims and the whole British fleet magically find my few landing craft as well. And I have zero chance to hold them off with fighters. Those 48 air supply are also kind of useless - I mean, I cant deploy fighters or bombers anywhere, so...

To cut a long story short: I applaud your efforts here. This is free content and I dont want to be rude - but I just cant see any way to beat this. I am constantly outnumbered in the air, land and sea at a ratio of at least 6:1 - and without supplies. If you had any strategy in mind, please tell me. I guess I'll just have to cheat myself through this one, same with the original Kiev mission (which really annoyed me, dont like cheating...).

[Andy2012]

@Erik: Oh yeah, I also tried dropping paras right into the airfields. That at first kinda works because every other hex around there is occupied with enemy units. This puts enemy fighters and bombers in the red. But still, the AI then moves its very considerable reserves, arty, battleships and tanks into action - and I am now wiped out after five turns, not ten. Yep. Still could not land any reinforcements on the airfields.

[Erik2]

Yep, Crete is a nightmare

I am in the process of rewriting the Crete scenario after gathering some multiplayer experience with an edited version of the campaign scenario.
Luftwaffe will have a much stronger presence, the larger amount of air units will be parceled out over a few turns with more deployment options.
The small seaborne invasion will have multiple starting zones.
The Royal Navy will start closer to their home bases and will to intervene for a number of turns.
I have other play-balance options I will try out as well.

If you keep a campaign or scenario save before Crete, you should be able to pick up after I've posted the new version.

The Metaxas scenario is hard, but I managed a major victory on the last turn. This was the first time I played the scenario and probably 2-3 months after I created it. I did a few stupid things as well (I'm not the world's greatest OOB-player )
I'll consider adding a couple of more turns, but will wait until at least a couple more feedbacks.

[GiveWarAchance]

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[Erik2]

I have several books on Crete. including Beveer's.
And yes, the Germans would have lost it where it not for the unfortunate Allied decision at Maleme.
The Royal Navy suffered some significant losses though. This is hard to replicate in t scenario since all German so-called "strategic" bombers (Ju88, He11, Do17) simply suck at naval attack. I've yet to see them inflict a single hit on any Royal Navy ship. I hope this will be fixed at some time soon. The stats against naval targets is way off IMO. Come to think of it, they are not very good at hitting land targets either.

[GiveWarAchance]

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[Andy2012]

Yep, Crete is a nightmare

I am in the process of rewriting the Crete scenario after gathering some multiplayer experience with an edited version of the campaign scenario.
Luftwaffe will have a much stronger presence, the larger amount of air units will be parceled out over a few turns with more deployment options.
The small seaborne invasion will have multiple starting zones.
The Royal Navy will start closer to their home bases and will to intervene for a number of turns.
I have other play-balance options I will try out as well.

If you keep a campaign or scenario save before Crete, you should be able to pick up after I've posted the new version.

The Metaxas scenario is hard, but I managed a major victory on the last turn. This was the first time I played the scenario and probably 2-3 months after I created it. I did a few stupid things as well (I'm not the world's greatest OOB-player )
I'll consider adding a couple of more turns, but will wait until at least a couple more feedbacks.

Those sound like good options. Even though that would be kind of historically inaccurate: How about you lower the efficiency of enemy units to 10% and set their strength at first to 3? This would simulate a surprise attack (which the Paras intended). You could then establish a foothold, deploy infantry and light arty and AT and push inland. Could be a race against time: Knock out enemy garrisons and strong point before they become fully operational. I think Panzercorps gave them zero ammo in the first turn. OoB had them start with low efficiency in the first Russia campaign mission (Smolensk?).

As far as Metaxas is concerned: I had all targets in the last turn, too. But they were not recognized. I think the trigger only counts a city after its flag is fully raised - which means I have to take everything in 12 turns, which is too hard. Either fix the trigger or give us more turns, please. Also, the AI retreats tanks behind these odd self-destructing bridges, which you then have to hunt and build pontoon bridges for. This stretches my timetable, too.

Still, great job. I cant thank you enough (and everybody else around here should, guys! Please post a thank you for Erik, he deserves it.) for all the free entertainment you gave us.

[Andy2012]

I am now reading book 'Crete' by anthony beever.
What a disaster Crete was. The sinister allies used Ultra to cheat so they had platoons, including rugged Australians, all spread around the landing zones and they riddled the hapless paratroops in the air with fire and finished off the survivors before they could struggle out of their chutes and almost all were killed even when surrendering with only a few dozen taken prisoner and almost all units & officers wiped out. Even British officers were shooting Germans like a game and bragging about who got the most.
The Greek civilians were sadistically mauling paratroops with crude weapons too. The few surviving Germans who were dying of thirst assumed the one-sided turkey shoot was an utter loss for them and feared a counterattack would finish them off.
The Germans only chance to win was when the battalion commander defending Maleme airstrip decided to retreat & leave it to the Germans even though not under attack and no superior officer objected so Germany finally had a way of safely moving troops to the island. Without that odd bit of luck, Crete would have been a decisive allied win.

Maybe in that Crete scenario in this campaign, you have to suffer immense losses with almost all your units wiped out for no gain at all and hope for a tiny pinprick of good luck to save the day.
I hope this helps to raise your morale a little.

Okay, you guys know a lot more about this than I do. I knew that landings by boat or paradrops are risky and a high-loss tactic, but those events (and details) are news to me. Well, to the wikipedia then!

[GiveWarAchance]

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[Andy2012]

@Erik: Cheated through Crete with #igotnukes, still minor victory. Is that correct?
Also, would prefer if I could deploy my paras in Minsk right from the start (let them start in the plane, not next to the airfield).
Also, briefings dont fit the OoB screen after Crete. Minor thing.
Keep up the great work.

[Erik2]

@Erik: Cheated through Crete with #igotnukes, still minor victory. Is that correct?
Also, would prefer if I could deploy my paras in Minsk right from the start (let them start in the plane, not next to the airfield).
Also, briefings dont fit the OoB screen after Crete. Minor thing.
Keep up the great work.

I think you only get a minor victory by default using the nuke cheat.

Did you purchase paras for Minsk? The only way to have them start in their Ju52s is by setting up a trigger in the editor.

yes, there are probably a few scenario and victory briefings that don't fit. I have asked for a scroll bar in those screens.

[prattaa]

Would this be the correct line to add to the [CORES] section to import the previous core?

importable germany, Blitzkrieg39-41, wehrmacht

[Erik2]

Updated campaign with a totally revised Crete scenario.
Note that the Allies start first. Most of the ground troops are using a 'local defense' script with a 5-hex radius. This to create some random defense unit placements at start.

Campaign link in first post.

Crete link: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16806697/2Crete.zip

[Erik2]

I am not able to import my core from the last campaign, correct?

You should be able to do that, but I've never tried importing a core myself.
This campaign starts with a new core and all specialisations up to the date the cmapign starts.

[prattaa]

Doesn't seem to work or even give me the option. In the stock Japanese campaign there is a line:

[CORES]
IJN = japan
importable japan, 3SinoJapWar, IJN

I thought adding "importable germany, Blitzkrieg39-41, wehrmacht" might work but it does not.

Also, where do we find the list of specialization names for the .cmp file? Infantry boot camp should be acquired from the start. I would add it but I don't know the name.

[Erik2]

Doesn't seem to work or even give me the option. In the stock Japanese campaign there is a line:

[CORES]
IJN = japan
importable japan, 3SinoJapWar, IJN

I thought adding "importable germany, Blitzkrieg39-41, wehrmacht" might work but it does not.

Also, where do we find the list of specialization names for the .cmp file? Infantry boot camp should be acquired from the start. I would add it but I don't know the name.

You already have more experience with core imports than me

In the main game folder there are a couple of specializations file that should give you the info needed.