Vyazma in GC41

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

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BiteNibbleChomp
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Re: Vyazma in GC41

Post by BiteNibbleChomp »

Zleepyhead wrote:I had fun with this and got a DV in turn 18 on General level.
You are forbidden to enjoy this scenario.

I have still never gotten over how much I hate this one, and I last played it in 2012! (The Mayans were right - that year would be bad in some way!)

- BNC
Ryan O'Shea - Developer - Strategic Command American Civil War
captainjack
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Re: Vyazma in GC41

Post by captainjack »

Vyazma is good under two conditions:
a) you set your sights on getting MV, and
b) if you switch off the weather.

For your WW1 mod (been busy so haven't played 1.4 yet) do you have a Flanders mud scenario where all units have move zero? That would make DV almost as hard as in Arras 18
BiteNibbleChomp
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Re: Vyazma in GC41

Post by BiteNibbleChomp »

captainjack wrote:Vyazma is good under two conditions:
a) you set your sights on getting MV, and
b) if you switch off the weather.

For your WW1 mod (been busy so haven't played 1.4 yet) do you have a Flanders mud scenario where all units have move zero? That would make DV almost as hard as in Arras 18
Sorry, no Passchendaele. Not yet anyway - in 2.0's large map, I will implement the offensive. Only issue is that the western front gets so crowded that people might not notice it (and it is damn hard to break through anywhere - 3/0 odds for any attack and artillery have range 2 rather than 6). Also, range 6 will stay in the standard campaign, just not the single map.

And anyway, I want to add Tsingtao before 3rd Ypres anyway

- BNC
Ryan O'Shea - Developer - Strategic Command American Civil War
captainjack
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Re: Vyazma in GC41

Post by captainjack »

BiteNibbleChomp wrote:And anyway, I want to add Tsingtao before 3rd Ypres anyway
In my experience, beer doesn't always improve play style, though it would be good preparation for Ypres!
BiteNibbleChomp
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Re: Vyazma in GC41

Post by BiteNibbleChomp »

captainjack wrote:
BiteNibbleChomp wrote:And anyway, I want to add Tsingtao before 3rd Ypres anyway
In my experience, beer doesn't always improve play style, though it would be good preparation for Ypres!
I don't get what you mean about beer :? . There was a battle at Tsingtao in 1914 that I hope to add.

- BNC
Ryan O'Shea - Developer - Strategic Command American Civil War
ThvN
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Re: Vyazma in GC41

Post by ThvN »

BiteNibbleChomp wrote:I don't get what you mean about beer :?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsingtao_Brewery is my guess.
captainjack
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Re: Vyazma in GC41

Post by captainjack »

ThvN wrote:
BiteNibbleChomp wrote:I don't get what you mean about beer :?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsingtao_Brewery is my guess.
Absolutely right ThvN.
BiteNibbleChomp
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Re: Vyazma in GC41

Post by BiteNibbleChomp »

captainjack wrote:
ThvN wrote:
BiteNibbleChomp wrote:I don't get what you mean about beer :?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsingtao_Brewery is my guess.
Absolutely right ThvN.
Forget any of that. The Mongols are coming before any more small WWI scenarios

- BNC
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Imarion
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Re: Vyazma in GC41

Post by Imarion »

I managed a DV on this one after 4 trials.

I have been very lucky with the weather. I could not use my planes for only few turns and did not suffer too much movement penalties due to mud.
I had 2 DO strategic, 4 fighters, and 2 JU.

Yet, I had to replay the last turn several times to get the last 2 cities (Moscow on the far east and the city just west of it).

What I did also was:
1) while in bad weather, especially on the 1st turns, I placed my planes above Vyazma (knowing where are the ennemies is a bit cheating, yet this scenario is hard enough. I won't spoil that here). Beware to the fighters' fuel though.
2) I kep the northern army a bit north after having taken the 1st city, and going east to the airport. In other words: I did not attack from the north right away.
And I expanded to form a kind of "horizontal line" made of iron. Doing so the ennemy only brought 3 tanks to flank me, with few infantries/cavalry, and not the KV2. I could get rid of them one by one and then start to attack.
In the meantime the south army took the airport and started going up by the road.
And a small force went east, capturing cities, then north to moscow.

Imarion
LevV
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Re: Vyazma in GC41

Post by LevV »

I just finished this on my second play-through on FM with DV.
Barely remembered the first time I played it, which is surprising due to how not easy it is.

This time on first try i've splited my force into two main groups and two flanking groups. I faced very strong resistance north of Vyazma and my southern force i didnot coordinate correctly, so i realized i will be unable to reach Moscow and even to take Vyazma itself and had to abort.
Second try I still had a separate group to take northern airport and again waisted too much time defeating the KV-1 that counter-attacks north of Vyazma, and again mismanaged the southern group.
On a third try i did not separate any special force before my positions north and south of Vyazma were secured and ready to assault. I had three fighters and 1 Stuka. I converted 90% of my arty and inf to half-trucks (i did with cheaper ones, but have to admit that the latest half-trucks give enormous boost of speed, so maybe reasonable to use those). I got lucky that both KV-1's and KV-2 around Vyazma ran into surrounded positons themselves and were eliminated same turn (not all 3 in one turn though). Out of all objectives i did-not capture the most western guarded city and Moscow non-victory hexes. I am happy i spend time to get the city in south-east corner and capture another KV there.

My conlcusion is that with half-trucks mud is not a big obstacle, more importantly being just force distribution and intel on enemy positions. I think for this scenario its impossible to score good result on blind play. Unless you master the art of reading briefings and understandings those hints to appropriate extent.

For streets of Moscow the inf would need to get their arse out of half trucks, while i think i will leave those to arty for now.
heinzrondorf
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Re: Vyazma in GC41

Post by heinzrondorf »

I played this scenario a few days ago on Rommel. It is one of my most hated scenarios but it is not too bad when you have played it a few times and know what to expect. What makes it difficult is of course the weather and also managing the turns. You have to advance at a steady pace so you do not run out of turns before Moscow but you can’t go too fast as you will then run into trouble and suffer serious casualties. As is the case in most scenarios in Panzer Corps it is usually better to be cautious and advance slowly, looking after the flanks, always backed up by loads of artillery.

I know some players advocate just going with a southern force but I have never had success with that personally so I go with the two pincers as suggested in the mission briefing.

My northern pincer is usually slightly smaller than the southern pincer so I place my strongest, most experienced units with good defensive stats there including hero units such as Oleh Dir (Pioneer), Albert Kerscher (PZ IV) and Heinz Rondorf (Flammpanzer), a SE/SS PZIII, a KV-1B (or a Char, can’t remember) a 8.8cm flak/AT and a variety of artillery (towed k17, Nebelwerfer, Wurfrahmen and Sturmpanzer) as these units are expected to take a beating and do more but with less units.

As a backup I had a +3D hero Fallschirmjäger which would be dropped north of Moscow around 5 turns prior to the last turn when I knew it was safe enough to fly there. They are tasked with taking out the units in the Moscow hexes in case the main force will not make it there in time. If you go with the Fallschirmjäger strategy just keep in mind, as someone else pointed out in the thread, to not fly there too early into the scenario as they risk getting shot down by Russian fighters. Also fly in a kind of zig-zag pattern which keeps them out of reach of enemy airfields/villages where there could be AAA.

The paratrooper strategy is considered a form of cheating though as I don’t think anyone would ever try this strategy when you play the scenario blind the first time. I don’t think anyone would expect the north of Moscow to be so poorly defended.

In my case I could have captured the last, Moscow, victory hex with my main force since they got there in time but since I had already flown in the paratroopers I wanted them to get some action and allow them the honor to capture Moscow.
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