Grand Campaign Unit Revisions - Update for GC42-43West

[deducter]

December 5, 2012
Updated to v1.91, including GC42-43West!

This mod adjusts the unit stats for the released Panzer Corps Grand Campaigns 1939-1945. My intention is to make the units more balanced, historically accurate, and interesting, so that all units may have a role in the player’s core.

Note that the manual is temporarily not included for v1.91, an updated version is forthcoming.

This mod increases the difficulty of the DLCs moderately from 1939-1942 and substantially from 1943 on.

What I would like most is feedback and discussion on the adjustment of unit stats, from whatever angle (gameplay, history, usefulness) you feel is appropriate.

Download Link: http://www.gamefront.com/files/22709148 ... +v1.91.zip
Mirror: http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3159181

This mod requires v1.10 or higher of Panzer Corps to function.

To install this mod:
1)Unzip the file.
2)Copy the “DLC” folder into the Panzer Corps base directory. Make sure to override all files when prompted.

To uninstall the mod:
Copy the contents of the “restore” folder into the into the Panzer Corps base directory. Make sure to override all files when prompted.

If you prefer to play without out-of-family upgrade experience penalties and increased costs of elite reinforcements after 1941, first install the mod then copy the contents of the "Softcore" folder into the Panzer Corps base directory.

It is recommended that the player uses the "reform units" cheat to lessen the frustration of permanently losing a prized core unit.

Give this mod a try if you...
*enjoy playing with a more historical core
*want to have a core with a large variety of viable units
*do not like the fact that green infantry have roughly the same performance as experienced infantry
*want to be shocked at encountering the T-34/KV-1 for the first time Russia
*feel infantry are too vulnerable in 1943
*dislike that Tigers/Panthers/Elefants save prestige
*do not enjoy steamrolling the Soviet formations with a dozen Panthers/Tigers during Kursk
*want medium German AFVs to be cheaper in 1943 and again in 1944
*do not think the Germans should have easy DVs after 1942
*think the Red Air Force was too easy to shoot down even after 1942
*want to fight under strong Western Allies air support in 1943 and beyond
*consider yourself Manstein/Rommel/Guderian reborn and want to test your mettle against the unstoppable Red Army in 1944-1945

This mod has appealing aspects for both powergamers (who want extra strategic choices and a greater challenge) and roleplayers (who enjoy playing with a more historical core composition). Rommel difficulty (-50% prestige) will probably give the player the best balance between challenge and historical flavor, especially in 1943 and after. However, don't hesitate to play on General or Field Marshall difficulty; this mod should be suitably challenging even then.

All constructive feedback and comments welcomed!

[JWoods]

Hi,

Are you going to continue this? I liked what you did but I had to input your stats manually.. File does not exist any more.

Regards,

JW

[deducter]

I am in fact working on a new version this weekend, and I'll have it up soon. Quite a few more changes done.

[deducter]

I played my mod under v1.1 up to Reims. I won all DVs, but the French path and Reims in DLC 40 absolutely destroyed my core, so much more than when I played the base game under Manstein, that I am going to restart. The definition of Pyrrhic victory. However, the mod was very enjoyable, and I may play again without trying for DV all the time, as I want the bonus difficulties to be where you can't always get DV.

The mod does better reflect history I think. For instance, I was very pleased to see the Char B1s running out of fuel and stalling out during the French attempts to counterattack, as was exactly the case historically. Maybe its fuel should be reduced even further, to 9!

[JWoods]

In case you are not aware of it the 1.06 beta exe reads the equipment file in-between scenarios. No need to always start a new campagn. Great feature.

JW

[Ranta]

I realy like these changes

Do you plan on adding / incorporating the changes of the at mod?
viewtopic.php?t=30721

and making the 7.5 art parachutable?

[deducter]

No, I don't intend to make the 7.5 cm arty parachutable. Frankly in the DLCs paratroopers are not useful for airdrops. The AI does too many counterattacks, and any attempt to drop paratroopers generally just gets them killed. However, they have 4 INI and 6 SA, which makes them very, very good close combat units.

Edit: What I would like to do is figure out a way to make the PzII upgradeable to Marder II and the P(t)38 upgradable to Marder III. Anyone know how this can be accomplished without changing those two panzers to the AT class?

[deducter]

I just updated the equipment files for 1942, along with some other rebalancing.

Warning, content for DLC 1942 not tested, might be quite unbalanced. DLC 42 is significantly harder than DLC 41, so I may have gone overboard with some of the changes.

Recommend playing with expattack = expdefend = 17. That seems optimum. 10 is too low, but 25 is too high.

The good:
In the base game, T-34s were too easy to kill. In this mod, T-34s are no joke, even if you have veteran panzer crews. In fact, it's assumed that you have at least 2-3 star units along with artillery and stukas before you can even engage the T-34/40 with any hope of success. Throwing green panzer recruits against the T-34 will result in slaughter. And the T-34/41 is even more formidable. If you do play this mod, you might be quite shocked, just like the German army.

The bad:
Not fully tested.

My description in the first post is way too long. I need to think of a better way to present the information, outside of getting people to download the mod.

[JWoods]

Hi,

Where is this found?

Regards,

John

[Rood]

The link is (at the top) of the first post.

[JWoods]

This statement " Recommend playing with expattack = expdefend = 17"

JW

[deducter]

expattack and expdefend are in the gamerules.pzdat file under your DLC campaigns. You have to change it for each DLC separately; be sure to make a backup, although this number is so easy to remember that you can change it back.

The default setting is 10. That means for each level of experience, your unit will gain either 10% attack or +1 attack, whichever is lower. If you raise it to 17, a lot of things happen. The magic number is 6, at which even 1 star will give you +1 to a stat. It also means that infantry get +1 CD at level 3, while the gebirgsjager/allied mountaineers get +1 CD at level 2 and another +1 CD at level 4. Your early war units will perform much better, perhaps a little too good, but by DLC 1941 the effects are much or less like the base game. I've balanced unit stats around it.

I also plan on increase the CD of all 43 increase to 3 and the mountaineer equivalent to 4, which means that those troops, with experience, will be much harder to destroy.

I am working on making my description actually readable, but I'll keep like a readme file on all the detailed changes.

[JWoods]

Finished DLC 1939/40
Your changes played very well. I thought they were well implemented overall.
I consider myself an average player with lots of hours of PG 20 years ago
Core
7 Inf
4 Tanks
1 AA 7/1 low SA
1 AT
2 88's without these I cannot really fight tanks well
3 Fighters
2 Stukas
1 BF110D
1 Level

FM Level
Elite Units mod integrated
Ending Prestige 1940 4000. I did elite reinforce occasionally mid scenario to keep a favorite unit
Ended up about 50/50 marginal/decisive with even a couple losses. I think prestige on loss needs to be reduced. Some scenarios you can do nothing and gain prestige if desired, Maybe decisive increased and marginal lowered?
Bear in mind I have a couple of my own changes namely Bridging Units are basically standard infantry with the price almost pioneer level
Certain AA units have a low SA value to make me want to use them
All in all I lost about 8 units mostly to bad planning on my part
Hardest scenarios for me
Marginal's
Reims
Piatek not enough units
Modlin why bother grinding your units for a couple hundred extra points lazy I suppose
Stonne cautious
Dijon not enough time
Maginot Line not enough time

These are probably examples of increasing decisive lowering marginal values as if you get overextended in Stonne you can be hurt so I played cautiously. If there had been a lot prestige at stake maybe I would have taken more risks

Comments:
I saw Stukas inflict maybe a bit too much damage to fighters while not enough HA?
Was the PZIIIF really that bad?
The IVD chews up infantry very well
I though experienced was capped at 2 stars for 1940 but Artillery/88's/Tac Bombers can get 3+?
Everything is in trucks other transport too expensive!

Thanks for the mod

JW

[deducter]

Finished DLC 1939/40
Your changes played very well. I thought they were well implemented overall.
I consider myself an average player with lots of hours of PG 20 years ago

Thank you for your feedback, I appreciate it! I too have a blast when I play using this equipment file.

FM Level
Elite Units mod integrated

Not sure what this mod is, I may have to check it out. If it has its own equipment file', you may have to copy/paste various sections yourself to make sure it works right.

Ending Prestige 1940 4000. I did elite reinforce occasionally mid scenario to keep a favorite unit

I am curious whether you are playing with expattack = expdefend = 17. It makes a big difference in DLCs 1939-1941, generally by making things easier. However, From DLC 1942 on, that setting can often hurt you as much as it helps.

Ended up about 50/50 marginal/decisive with even a couple losses. I think prestige on loss needs to be reduced. Some scenarios you can do nothing and gain prestige if desired, Maybe decisive increased and marginal lowered?

Not in the scope of my mod. I personally play with -75% prestige, but don't take that to mean you are a bad player. I'm probably just too crazy. If you have 4k prestige at the end of 1940, that's sounds quite good.

Bear in mind I have a couple of my own changes namely Bridging Units are basically standard infantry with the price almost pioneer level
Certain AA units have a low SA value to make me want to use them

One thing I may do in the future is to try my hand at modding some more switchable AA units. The quad 20 mm Flak was a good artillery piece against infantry, and I may in the (distant) future make them a good SA option. I will need modified images of them though, and I cannot make graphics.

All in all I lost about 8 units mostly to bad planning on my part
Hardest scenarios for me
Marginal's
Reims
Piatek not enough units
Modlin why bother grinding your units for a couple hundred extra points lazy I suppose
Stonne cautious
Dijon not enough time
Maginot Line not enough time

These are probably examples of increasing decisive lowering marginal values as if you get overextended in Stonne you can be hurt so I played cautiously. If there had been a lot prestige at stake maybe I would have taken more risks

Perfect difficulty for you then, getting a mix of MV and DV.

I saw Stukas inflict maybe a bit too much damage to fighters while not enough HA?

You leave your stukas unescorted and the AI doesn't manage to kill them? Was this in 1940? I buffed the AI fighters, and even when unbuffed I can lose them to AI attacks. I can assure you in late 1941 and especially from 1942 on the stukas will not stand a chance against fighters, and you will lose them unless you are very careful. Enjoy your air superiority while it lasts.

Was the PZIIIF really that bad?

The PzIIIF is designed to fight other tanks. It also has the second highest GD of all German AFVs in 1940 (the highest goes to the StuG IIIA, but it is expensive, slow, and an artillery piece, not really good for absorbing attacks). I use it almost exclusively to kill other tanks. Don't fight infantry with it.

I though experienced was capped at 2 stars for 1940 but Artillery/88's/Tac Bombers can get 3+?

Experience is capped at 325 for DLC 1940. If you selectively elite reinforce two or three of your tanks of infantry, you should be able to get to 3 stars.

Everything is in trucks other transport too expensive!

Perfect, this is exactly how I want it to be. Keep in mind that transport upgrades are in the same family now, but if you upgrade say an artillery to be towed by a half-track, reinforcing it will cost quite a bit extra compared to the base game. The same is true for infantry, which becomes really really expensive if you want to equip the best transports. The SE Infantry transports are 50% of the standard cost though, and one is always provided to you for free. If you want to get those 6 or 8 move half-tracks, equip them to your SE infantry, it is still affordable.

[JWoods]

Yes I was on 17/17 for the game rules. Was unaware it made it easier for the early DLC.
For upgrading within the same category is all you have to is put trans in the series column? Or anything for that matter..
AA switchable you really do not need any graphics you can use the same graphic you just will not see it switch. Copy and paste the unit you want to switch it too and assign the number then change the icon graphic to the AA unit. Takes about 5 minutes just do not get a cute different animation.
Stukas are not getting killed with one fighter single non biplane knocks off about 4-6 points but sometimes the Stuka gets about 3 kills.
The Elite units mods keeps the SE units but add SS units with a bit higher stats. Not much pretty balanced. It has it's own equipment file of course which is why I have to copy over your changes which took a few hours.

JW

[deducter]

For upgrading within the same category is all you have to is put trans in the series column? Or anything for that matter..

Yes, just be sure to enter a different family name for different types of units.

AA switchable you really do not need any graphics you can use the same graphic you just will not see it switch. Copy and paste the unit you want to switch it too and assign the number then change the icon graphic to the AA unit. Takes about 5 minutes just do not get a cute different animation.

I would like to have a different animation though. Still, the purpose of this mod is not (currently) to introduce many new units.

Stukas are not getting killed with one fighter single non biplane knocks off about 4-6 points but sometimes the Stuka gets about 3 kills.

Yes, but in the later DLCs the Allies will field a lot more than 1 or 2 fighters. A LOT more. And those fighters have better stats. It also wasn't unknown for stuka pilots to shoot down the occasional fighter. They did have a rear gunner for this purpose.

I plan on releasing another slight update soon, with various small fixes and changes. I just learned that each DLC can have its own equipment file. I think for DLCs 1939-1941, even 1942, they can all share the same file, but for future DLCs I plan to release an equipment file for each one. This will allow for things like upping the Tiger/'s fuel/ammo slightly as time goes on, or the giving the Elefant SA of 2 in 1943 but SA of 5 in 1944+ since they got a machine gun installed. I can also up the CD of SMG infantry in 1943 as part of my general plan to increase CD on infantry slightly in 1943. Prestige costs for various units can also be adjusted in between years, so you'll see StuG IIIs and PzIVs, even Panthers, get cheaper as the war goes on.

[JWoods]

Hi,

Using all your latest additions Feb.14th.. I am almost at the end of 41 I believe Vzamya next and am finding it easier than the 1940 DLC? Is it supposed to be this way? Prestige hovers around 5000 so it is not a problem. Am aware Tiger upgrade will cost a lot.. Units are a mix with a few reserves almost everyone 2 stars or more. Even using 3 Anti-Tanks, 1 AA, 2 88's with 2-3 reserves. Kiev path as Leningrad was too easy. FM level.
JW

[deducter]

Hi,

Using all your latest additions Feb.14th.. I am almost at the end of 41 I believe Vzamya next and am finding it easier than the 1940 DLC? Is it supposed to be this way? Prestige hovers around 5000 so it is not a problem. Am aware Tiger upgrade will cost a lot.. Units are a mix with a few reserves almost everyone 2 stars or more. Even using 3 Anti-Tanks, 1 AA, 2 88's with 2-3 reserves. Kiev path as Leningrad was too easy. FM level.
JW

Yeah, the many 41 scenarios are really easy, even with some buffs to the AI. I play with -75% prestige and it wasn't very hard. But the last three scenarios, especially Moscow, will prove a harder. Those Soviet T-34/41, even with one star, and Guards can be brutal if you are not prepared.

I will have another version with better balance in 1942 out soon.

[deducter]

Updated to v1.43. Am working on v1.5 for DLC43. The list of changes will be extensive, I am very excited for what is coming up.

[deducter]

Bump for update for DLC43East