Panzer Corps difficulty levels overview

PC : Turn based WW2 goodness in the mold of Panzer General. This promises to be a true classic!

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What difficulty level(s) do you prefer in Panzer Corps?

Sergeant
6
3%
Lieutenant
11
6%
Colonel
59
31%
General
37
19%
Field Marshal
48
25%
Guderian
1
1%
Manstein
8
4%
Rommel
21
11%
 
Total votes: 191

Longasc
Lieutenant Colonel - Panther D
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Panzer Corps difficulty levels overview

Post by Longasc »

That's what the difficulty levels actually do:

Image

You might find General interesting, it's just like Field Marshal except that your units gain XP faster. In fact FM is the only difficulty level besides Ultimate that halves your XP gain.
I am not exactly sure what makes the AI better at General than at Colonel level for instance, IMO at level "2" it will become way more relentless to destroy weakened units.


While this quite important info might be nothing new for Panzer Corps forum veterans, I had a hard time finding it and decided to repost it.
Rudankort
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Re: Panzer Corps difficulty levels overview

Post by Rudankort »

I was going to make a poll soon, in order to figure out what difficulty levels our players prefer. Maybe turn this post into a poll? :)
shawkhan
Staff Sergeant - StuG IIIF
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Re: Panzer Corps difficulty levels overview

Post by shawkhan »

Now I know why playing the DLC campaigns on Field Marshal seems harder than almost any other level. It takes forever to build up experience.
Longasc
Lieutenant Colonel - Panther D
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Re: Panzer Corps difficulty levels overview

Post by Longasc »

If you or one of the mods can add the poll, I would like that. I can only edit the posting but not add the poll myself.

I was playing Field Marshal but I a tempted to go with General in future. Replacing lost units in the ever longer DLCs gets expensive as 0 star units have a hard enough time to survive and learn in the later year DLCs. General might make it easier for some of them to make it past green status without elite reinforcements.
fliegenderstaub
Sergeant - Panzer IIC
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Re: Panzer Corps difficulty levels overview

Post by fliegenderstaub »

I have played quite a whilw on Colonel (Oberst), now I am playing on Field Marshal, which is a real challenge. I finished 39 on FM, playing 40 right now. I have played 39 and 40 on Guderian with 41 on it's way. Rommel is not my thing due to it's low prestige. And Manstein... no comment!

AI on advanced level (General and up) is much more aggressive, but still uses artillery in the wrong order and tends to leave well defended positions just to inflict a few losses on your troops. This makes it challenging trying to lure the AI out of certain positions. But in general the game is much more difficult on higher levels. Reims (DLC 40) f.e. was horrible for me on Guderian. I barely managed a MV.

And yes, make a poll out of this thread with multiple choices possible. Would be interesting.
...and like the once-mighty Mahi-Mahi, you will end
up on a poo-poo platter in the Tikki Hut of life! -Al Bundy -
Rudankort
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Re: Panzer Corps difficulty levels overview

Post by Rudankort »

OK, the poll is added. Up to 3 options can be selected. Let me know if anything is wrong with it.
boredatwork
Staff Sergeant - Kavallerie
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Re: Panzer Corps difficulty levels overview

Post by boredatwork »

Can we get an "other" option?

Since getting the ability to mod difficulty levels I've been playing a cross between FM and Manstein - 75% player exp, and +1-3 AI strength (depending on which campaign and the composition of my core.)
Rudankort
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Re: Panzer Corps difficulty levels overview

Post by Rudankort »

boredatwork wrote:Since getting the ability to mod difficulty levels I've been playing a cross between FM and Manstein - 75% player exp, and +1-3 AI strength (depending on which campaign and the composition of my core.)
So basically, you want a "custom difficulty" option in the UI? This would be useful to have, and I'll try to add this in one of the future updates. No promises though. Difficulty file was added as a quick and dirty solution to this problem, but a new dialog with all those sliders to configure difficulty would require much more work.
Tarrak
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Re: Panzer Corps difficulty levels overview

Post by Tarrak »

I usually play on General if i play a campaign for the first time or want more a laid back experience. If i want some challenge i go for Field Marshal. The higher difficulty levels, while beatable to some extent at least, turn out for me to be just way to much stress so i rather don't try them.
bebro
Slitherine
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Re: Panzer Corps difficulty levels overview

Post by bebro »

fliegenderstaub wrote: AI on advanced level (General and up) is much more aggressive, but still uses artillery in the wrong order (...)
In my experience this is the exception, in general the AI uses arty first now. There still sometimes seem to be certain AI arty units which probably have not read the memo and still fire very late in their turn (no idea why), but most do at the beginning... /my 2 cents


Re difficulty, I went with colonel for long, but now it's rather general.
Horst
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Re: Panzer Corps difficulty levels overview

Post by Horst »

I prefer Colonel with changed AI Level from 1 to 2 at moment, playing the maps with given prestige pool like the designer had in mind.
deducter
Lieutenant Colonel - Fw 190A
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Re: Panzer Corps difficulty levels overview

Post by deducter »

bebro wrote:
fliegenderstaub wrote: AI on advanced level (General and up) is much more aggressive, but still uses artillery in the wrong order (...)
In my experience this is the exception, in general the AI uses arty first now. There still sometimes seem to be certain AI arty units which probably have not read the memo and still fire very late in their turn (no idea why), but most do at the beginning... /my 2 cents
To my knowledge, the current AI algorithm works as follows: it will first check all artillery within firing range of the player's units. The artillery will selectively target units that it can do the most damage to; for instance, an AI ISU-152 will fire at a Grenadier instead of a Tiger II. In fact, the AI's artillery often won't fire if it can't do enough damage, although I am not certain exactly what that threshold is.

Later on, the AI will move its artillery that are out of range, and if any of the new artillery comes within range of the player's units and can do damage, it will fire.

The AI currently is very predictable because it moves all of its units in a single class before moving onto the next class, and this is done in a fixed order, recon -> bombers -> fighters -> tanks -> infantry etc.

Simply adding some randomization could be a nice way of making the AI more interesting and more humanlike, since we players can move units in whatever order we choose.
boredatwork
Staff Sergeant - Kavallerie
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Re: Panzer Corps difficulty levels overview

Post by boredatwork »

Rudankort wrote:So basically, you want a "custom difficulty" option in the UI? This would be useful to have, and I'll try to add this in one of the future updates. No promises though. Difficulty file was added as a quick and dirty solution to this problem, but a new dialog with all those sliders to configure difficulty would require much more work.
It would be convenient but not necessarily high on the wishlist. >_>
Vaughn
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Re: Panzer Corps difficulty levels overview

Post by Vaughn »

Field Marshal is my sweet spot. I can play higher - but that causes me more stress than fun.
captainjack
Brigadier-General - 15 cm Nblwf 41
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Re: Panzer Corps difficulty levels overview

Post by captainjack »

I'm pleased to see the summary of the different difficulty levels - very useful for understanding what you're in for when changing levels.

I usually play Colonel but occasionally play general when I want to work a bit harder. I can manage Afrika Korps and 39 to 41 East on General, but I find West 42/43 quite challenging on Colonel and got completely trashed on 44 West at Colonel (I didn't quite go back to Panzerschule, but it was not a good feeling). It seems that the game requirements have at least as much influence than the difficulty setting.

In the main PanzerCorps campaign I usually play on Colonel, but have had a few goes at General, with mixed success. A year ago I tried Lieutenant when I wanted some undemanding entertainment while travelling but I found that the difference between Lieutenant and Colonel was way too big, so that lieutenant wasn't interesting enough. A smaller gap (1 or possibly 2 strength point off the AI) would have allowed a few more mistakes and enough prestige to replace the odd unit loss by dumb mistake or poor attention when jet lagged) while still requiring at least some thought, but with -3 AI strength it was way too easy. I'd suspect that presents a very big gap for people who start on Lieutenant and move up to Colonel.

So I would like to be able to customise difficulty - either through a new selection control or through somebody helpful pointing out which file to adjust.
boredatwork
Staff Sergeant - Kavallerie
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Re: Panzer Corps difficulty levels overview

Post by boredatwork »

captainjack wrote: So I would like to be able to customise difficulty - either through a new selection control or through somebody helpful pointing out which file to adjust.
..\Panzer Corps\Data\diff.pzdat

Save a back up of the file before making edits.
Rudankort
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Re: Panzer Corps difficulty levels overview

Post by Rudankort »

captainjack wrote:A year ago I tried Lieutenant when I wanted some undemanding entertainment while travelling but I found that the difference between Lieutenant and Colonel was way too big, so that lieutenant wasn't interesting enough. A smaller gap (1 or possibly 2 strength point off the AI) would have allowed a few more mistakes and enough prestige to replace the odd unit loss by dumb mistake or poor attention when jet lagged) while still requiring at least some thought, but with -3 AI strength it was way too easy. I'd suspect that presents a very big gap for people who start on Lieutenant and move up to Colonel.
This is strange, because on Lieutenant the AI does not get reduced unit strength. 10-strength units have 10 strength. Lieutenant was designed as a level where you face the full-strength AI, but it does not build/replace as many units, because of slightly reduced prestige and basic AI level, and the player should not struggle with prestige because he has 150%. Still you must deal with every enemy unit preplaced on the map.
Victor_K
Corporal - Strongpoint
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Re: Panzer Corps difficulty levels overview

Post by Victor_K »

Playing the DLC's on General, just finished Dunkirk in 1940. Loving the better AI.
zappel
Master Sergeant - U-boat
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Re: Panzer Corps difficulty levels overview

Post by zappel »

I played the whole GC (39-45East) first on COL-level and had lot of fun. Knowing the best tactics for the most scenarios I replayed on GEN-level and had a lot of fun, too. Now I'm playing on FM-level again and still have a lot of fun.
I noticed no changes in difficulty between the last game and this one because only the increase of experience is halved. But each DLC is long enough to gain the full available experience so I think is is not really a difference between Gen and FM.
captainjack
Brigadier-General - 15 cm Nblwf 41
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Re: Panzer Corps difficulty levels overview

Post by captainjack »

Thanks Boredatwork. I find the Level 2 AI in combination with 50% extra AI prestige a bit too much of a step up.

And Rudankort, it's not surprising you are puzzled - I've just remembered that I was playing PG Forever not PanzerCorps. I'd forgotten to take my activation codes with me and so couldn't run Panzer Corps on the available machine. It's still true that I find Lieutenant to Colonel a bit too big a change when I'm actually playing Panzer Corps, so I like the idea of making a smaller adjustment for when I'm after a slightly more forgiving experience.
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