Campaign Exploits
Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2018 2:51 pm
I'm the kind of player that likes to find and use exploits in games. All's fair in love an war so they say. Here's what I found so far while playing vanilla Blitzkrieg and Panzerkrieg on the highest difficulty setting.
The Landmine Defense.
The AI will never willingly move onto a mined hex even if it's a victory hex. Especially in the difficult PK defense scenarios, all you have to do to protect a victory hex is deploy 1 engineer on the hex and spend 20 RP to mine it before the enemy arrives. The AI may completely surround the hex with 6 units, but none will move on to it. It's like they're all eyeing each other to see who wants be a posthumous Hero of the Soviet Union first. I've also never seen an AI engineer use it's de-mining ability. Combined with the Engineer spam (see below), it's the absolute most cost effective defense in terms of RP and CP and frees up your other units to wreak havoc elsewhere.
The Engineer Spam.
In the early scenarios of PK, RPs are extremely tight unlike BK where even your squaddies are lighting their cigarettes with 100 Reichmark bills. Enter the German Engineer '39. This is the cheapest unit in the German faction at 15 RPs. You can bring this unit into PK by importing the core army from BK. However, it is only available up until the end of the second scenario in BK so at the end of the Polish campaign, recruit as many 15 RP engineers as possible. It should be something like 25 to 30. Leave them in the reserves or use them in subsequent scenarios, but don't upgrade them. Recommission them after starting PK. You will have an enormous army of Engineers to bulk up your forces and protect your supply lines for extremely cheap. They free up the harder hitting German Infantry and Heavy Infantry units that normally guard the rear area cities and allow them to join the assault. Even better, the Engineers can be used for the Landmine Defense exploit (see above).
The Tank Spam.
Not really an exploit, but for the penny pincher. If you want cheap tanks at the start of PK, simply import PzIV Cs from BK. At 80 RP, they are the cheapest 'decent' German tank, compared to the 135 RP PzIV V1 at the start of PK. The latest date that Pz IV Cs are available is around turn 10 or so of the second scenario in BK. Buy up as many as you can afford and don't upgrade them for the entire campaign. In PK, the PzIV Cs are the most cost effective version when upgrading to later, better PzIV versions.
The Landmine Defense.
The AI will never willingly move onto a mined hex even if it's a victory hex. Especially in the difficult PK defense scenarios, all you have to do to protect a victory hex is deploy 1 engineer on the hex and spend 20 RP to mine it before the enemy arrives. The AI may completely surround the hex with 6 units, but none will move on to it. It's like they're all eyeing each other to see who wants be a posthumous Hero of the Soviet Union first. I've also never seen an AI engineer use it's de-mining ability. Combined with the Engineer spam (see below), it's the absolute most cost effective defense in terms of RP and CP and frees up your other units to wreak havoc elsewhere.
The Engineer Spam.
In the early scenarios of PK, RPs are extremely tight unlike BK where even your squaddies are lighting their cigarettes with 100 Reichmark bills. Enter the German Engineer '39. This is the cheapest unit in the German faction at 15 RPs. You can bring this unit into PK by importing the core army from BK. However, it is only available up until the end of the second scenario in BK so at the end of the Polish campaign, recruit as many 15 RP engineers as possible. It should be something like 25 to 30. Leave them in the reserves or use them in subsequent scenarios, but don't upgrade them. Recommission them after starting PK. You will have an enormous army of Engineers to bulk up your forces and protect your supply lines for extremely cheap. They free up the harder hitting German Infantry and Heavy Infantry units that normally guard the rear area cities and allow them to join the assault. Even better, the Engineers can be used for the Landmine Defense exploit (see above).
The Tank Spam.
Not really an exploit, but for the penny pincher. If you want cheap tanks at the start of PK, simply import PzIV Cs from BK. At 80 RP, they are the cheapest 'decent' German tank, compared to the 135 RP PzIV V1 at the start of PK. The latest date that Pz IV Cs are available is around turn 10 or so of the second scenario in BK. Buy up as many as you can afford and don't upgrade them for the entire campaign. In PK, the PzIV Cs are the most cost effective version when upgrading to later, better PzIV versions.