Afrika Korps (BE+A) FM, Rommel copycat!

[eskuche]

Hi there,
Putting my other AAR on hold while I figure out modding and how to incorporate changes to update deducter's spirit of the game. Meanwhile, I will follow JanD's excellent AAR with Afrika Korps + Battlefield Europe 2.3 + Locarnus Addon as of this date, mainly because he is still updating his mod Main changes are unit togglability and class switching. For the AK campaign, no more SE, but free gifts somewhere. Not sure where they are, so I will try to capture all available flags until the pattern is more clear. The campaign should be much harder, not the least of which is due to increased artillery range for the Allies. I've played it through on the winning path twice, perhaps 6 (?) and 3 (?) years ago, but never the losing path, which is the currently available modded one. Similar to the other AAR, I will restrict to one unit per type. I am playing fairly blind, especially in the later scenarios. I'll start video recording some way through this AAR.

Map 1: Reconnaissance in Force
End prestige: 783. No prestige spent, only 2 surrenders.
Damage: 21 points across 5 infantry (tried to spread onto the cheap italian infantry). 4 points lost on Bf110, 10 across tanks, 9 across two recon, and PzJg lost 7. Ow!

Map 2: Ras el Mdauuar. Start prestige: 1033, gifted Italian Cannone 100/17, 2 range, and Obice 75/18 r11, 2 range.
Green replacements across the board. They cost 10% but I think come in at 30-40% experience, rather than 0, so somewhat palatable. 900 prestige after replacements, sell L6/40, M13/40, Italian infantry, including Bersagliari with a truck ($$$), PaK 36, Pz II
Buy: 8.8 cm BunkerFlaK, have a 36, nebelwerfer 41 r12 with horse, wurfrahmen 40 r8, 10.5 cm sK 18 r8 4 range no transport, 15 cm sFH r8 (+ structure attack), sahariana.
Upgrade all in class: PzJg I to Bison I (r6 tank with 17 (!!) hard attack/r7 artillery), PzIIIG to IIIH, Schutzen to Pionere,
Overstrength: Cannone 105/28 to 11, 10.5 cm leFH 18 to 11.
Start start prestige: 6.
Main idea here is to utilize switchables to maximize experience on artillery mode, then transition to tank/AT.

Map strategy: loss still advances, no change in prestige, no SE units available. I will try to farm experience and capture the central hub, losing out on only 50 (or maybe it's 75?) prestige.

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[eskuche]

End: slow and steady wins the race. I missed out on actually two objectives, but the four middle non-victory hexes netted me 200 (really 100) extra to make up for it. A few points lost due to impatience, but really I had one free turn to spare. Counterattacks were baited with aux units, so my core took very little.

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Start prestige: 916. Heroes: A2 on Stuka first map forgot to say, A3 (!!!!) on 8.8 cm 36.
Upgrade PzIIIH to IIIJ (not sure why the latter costs less but is better. I seem to recall it having less fuel in vanilla.
Sell obice 75/18 with a truck and Italian recon.
Free unit: Kradschuzen. Buy a Ju88 for 574 ouch. In this mod, they can switch between tactical and strategic mode. This allows flexibility in attacking [-1] air attack units and also allows them to obtain more experience. Next decision is hard: I want to add an Sdkfz 7/1 with ROF 14 and anti-tank mode with 4 soft and hard attack. This should be able to skewer some British trucks for this map, but I imagine there will be a lot of armor so add a third 8.8 cm gun on the '16 version. If I recall, British go pretty aggressive with their forward transports, and I'll need ZOC. I also wanted to buy recon planes, but here they have 3 spotting (4 spotting is very expensive), and no recon move, so not worth the 1/19 slots currently, especially without SE units. Add a transport to 15 cm sFH and 10.5 cm sK.

Deployment considerations: no range 2 artillery, since it will be hard to manage in an open ground. ZOC will be held by BunkerFlaK and my two 88's once air opposition is nullified. Horse-drawn on the right, most 88s on the left. I seem to recall some sort of surprise attack. I will stay back and let opponent claim victory hexes to retake them for prestige.

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[Locarnus]

Amazing to see another AK playthrough, this time starting with the much improved 2022-04b version.

And with such a different unit core focus! Disbanding and replacing lots of units is something I rarely do myself, so seeing this approach will be a great experience!

Main changes are unit togglability and class switching.

There are also quite a few changes that can easily be overlooked. Eg the new "light infantry" movement type (eg used by Bersaglieri, Jäger). In case normal infantry is too slow in the desert, for your taste.

For the AK campaign, no more SE, but free gifts somewhere. Not sure where they are, so I will try to capture all available flags until the pattern is more clear.

Yep, had to take out the SE units mechanic for compatibility, though the player has more normal unit slots to compensate the missing "SE unit slots".

So far units gifted by the addon are already "on the field" at the start of the map (usually with a text message mentioning them), except for Brevity where a German fighter joins the core in turn 3.
So there should be no big surprises there, compared to unmodded Africa Corps. Otherwise the capture and reward units are mostly untouched, though they start with lower strength and at Kasserine the captured Valentine will be a core addition instead of an aux unit.
One major exception is the case of reward units awarded during the "Dash to the Wire" scenario. There are now only 2 awarded (instead of 3 in vanilla) and potential hangar locations are marked. The 3rd missing reward unit is a fighter and is already awarded in turn 3 of Brevity.

The campaign should be much harder, not the least of which is due to increased artillery range for the Allies. I've played it through on the winning path twice, perhaps 6 (?) and 3 (?) years ago, but never the losing path, which is the currently available modded one. Similar to the other AAR, I will restrict to one unit per type. I am playing fairly blind, especially in the later scenarios. I'll start video recording some way through this AAR.

The next update will have to dial back that British 5.5 inch arty range to 3, to be in line with the other arties. Though there are many other changes and the Field Marshal effect tends to kick in only after a few scenarios. Something I also underestimated in conjunction with Rommel prestige scarcity.

Eagerly looking forward to more!

[eskuche]

Finished scenario easily (screencap didn't work so no screenshots), but surrender on multiple units, including two full 10-strength Matildas gets me up to 1250 end of scenario and 1511 beginning of next scenario after green replacements. Hard decision, but I spend 55 to maintain 20 experience (otherwise 126 to 106) on Stormo MC.200.

A quick look at free units (some minorly changed)

1. Recon in Force
2. Ras el Mdauuar
3. Brevity: Kradschützen(S)
4. Battleaxe: Matilda(C)
5. Dash to the Wire: StuG III (R), Panzer IV (R), Bf 109 (R), Crusader(C)
6. Second Offensive: Semovente(R), Lancia da 90/53(R), Breda Ba.65(R)
7. Gazala Line: Marder III(S), Grant(C)
8. Malta: Spitfire(C)
9. Alam Halfa

So far I have just one PzIII, with optional swap-ins from BunkFlaK, Bison I, StuG, though the upgrades will be out of class. It can also be done more expensively from recons -> PzII -> tank or infantry -> kradschutzen -> recon -> tank. I would only do this if there were excellent heroes that would be better on a tank, e.g., possibly a 3 defense hero on artillery. Similarly, a spotting hero on a plane would warrant cross-class upgrade to a spotting plane, mostly in longer campaigns.

Current OOB (not going to roleplay this too hard since it is a shorter campaign). Brackets are heroes. * are experience stars. I note interesting changes from vanilla otherwise.

PzGren + Opel (93 XP)
Pionere + Opel
Kradschuzen ; swap infantry/recon

Pz IIIJ [Ini] *
StuG IIIB *; swap tank/artillery

Sahariana *; swap recon/infantry
Sdkfz 222 *; 10 movement

BunkerFlaK *; swap tank/AT (interesting ramifications for fighting vs. tanks or infantry)
8.8 FlaK 18 r8 air/r10 ground
8.8 FlaK 36 r8 air/r10 ground * [A3]
Sdkfz 10/4 r12; swap air/AT

MC.200 *
Bf 109F-2
Bf 110D *
Ju 87R *
Ju 88A

Nebelwerfer 41 r12 + horse **
Cannone 105/28 ** 11 strength
Cannone 100/17 *
10.5 sK r8 *; 4 range
10.5 leFH *
15 sFH r8; bunker buster
Bison I r7/tank r6

We soon have 4 more tanks per the capture/freebie, including I believe a 7 strength Tiger at Kasserine, so I don't see a need buy buy a Pz IV hot off the press. Similarly, air should be plenty covered by the last mission (I believe ~30 slot max), although for the winning path one might reconsider. I also see other players having gone for two stukas, but I will avoid that to see how it goes. I love surrendering expensive tanks, with the default 50% surrender cost. If I recall, there are fairly few urban fights (but I haven't played the losing path). I'm comfortable with keeping only two infantry to see how it goes. Luckily, the advanced cheap path infantry both move 2 in desert compared to normal infantry.

[eskuche]

Upgrades: Bf 110D to E, Pz IIIH to J, Nebelwerfer to 12 strength, then upgrade to wurfrahmen (note that it had only a 10 prestige horse transport before, so little money lost there). Wurfrahmen is 1 range, r8 but excellent 22/13 soft/hard attack, so I will need to use this investment well. Cannone 105/28 to 12 strength, 10.5 sK (4 range) and 15 cm sFH (bunker buster) both to 11 strength as well. Overstrength at 15% per first point and looks like 25-30% for the second point is way too much to use liberally on units that will actually lose those points in battle, at least in FM/Rommel. I have 23 units, with about 8-10 more freebies, so I don't anticipate needing additional core slots, at least for the losing campaign. 88s are not overstrengthened due to anticipation of random chip damage. Start prestige 1004, which is quite comfortable.

Battle plan/deployment: all overstrengthed artillery nowhere near possible enemy air. Plan to take potshots at enemy air before retreating to the middle city, anticipating the flank, then work my way down. Need to capture a distant enemy city by turn 16 for a free Matilda.

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[Locarnus]

Upgrades: Bf 110D to E, Pz IIIH to J, Nebelwerfer to 12 strength, then upgrade to wurfrahmen (note that it had only a 10 prestige horse transport before, so little money lost there). Wurfrahmen is 1 range, r8 but excellent 22/13 soft/hard attack, so I will need to use this investment well.

I'm excited for the battle reports of that Wurfrahmen, with the enormous alpha damage, but limited ammo, range, rof and survivability. Nice upgrade strategy from the Nebelwerfer!

Overstrength at 15% per first point and looks like 25-30% for the second point is way too much to use liberally on units that will actually lose those points in battle, at least in FM/Rommel.

Agreed, I'll reduce the overstrength costs with the next patch.
Also no gifted Tiger at Kasserine yet (version 2022-04b), but that one is planned for version 2022-05.

Updated losing path extra units list (as of version 2022-04b):
1. Recon in Force
2. Ras el Mdauuar: Cannone 100/17(S), Obice 75/18(S)
3. Brevity: Kradschützen(S), Bf 109 (turn 3)
4. Battleaxe: Matilda(C)
5. Dash to the Wire: StuG III (R), Panzer IV (R), Crusader(C)
6. Second Offensive: Semovente(R), Lancia da 90/53(R), Breda Ba.65(R)
7. Gazala Line: Marder III(S), Grant(C)
8. Malta: Spitfire(C)
9. Alam Halfa
10. El Alamein: M4 Sherman(C)
11. Kasserine Pass: Valentine(C), M10 Wolverine(C), SE Tiger I(S, planned for version 2022-05)
12. Mareth Line: Churchill IV(C)
13. Tunisian Bridgehead

S: Available from start of the scenario
R: Reward units
C: Capture units