If you are allergic to SPOILERS, stop reading now.
This will be no typical AAR but rather a summary of my thoughts about the final three scenarios of he campaign.
I will discuss my take on the balance of the three scenarios US East Coast, US Mid West and US West Coast and how much I liked them in general. They are a notable departure from the rather dull „Washington“ scenario of Panzer General.
I got to the US East Coast invasion after knocking out Russia late in 1943, after the Kursk scenario. You get access to the latest weapons, Me262 and other modern fighter bombers. You should consider upgrading your Stukas to Do335 Pfeil, as the US Air Force has 3 star veterans and high quality fighters plus it is so numerous that your fighters alone won’t be sufficient. I even recommend making certain key units like tanks and Me262 overstrength. You will spend most of your prestige on upgrades and rapid conquest will allow you to replace losses.
Nevertheless, it is a brutal invasion. I lost core units in this scenario and in general lost a lot of core units during the final three scenario. In fact I didn’t lose core units in Russia at all, not even at Kursk! But I lost some 10 or more in the three America scenarios. I played at Colonel and they were difficult.
But don’t worry, in the first scenario it’s only the initial onslaught that is hard. After that it is a walk in the park. But I lost core units at sea to bombers, coastal batteries and a strong US Navy. Don’t ever dare to leave your level bombers or tac bombers unescorted. Not even the formidable Do335. The modern era weapons are more lethal, they make for -10 wipeouts and similar horrible results. It’s a double edged sword. A pity, as I liked the less dramatic results oft he earlier scenarios.
Move your Navy north and support it with level bombers, fend off the initial fighter onslaught and accept losses in the early beachhead phase. Then you are already done with the East Coast.
The next scenario, Mid West, is a panzer battle that makes Kursk look tiny in comparison. While Kursk was a great map I actually didn’t get the „Panzerschlacht“ feeling that this map provided. Unfortunately it also told me that I should have upgraded my tanks to Tiger II instead of Panther G. Why? The M26 Pershing is supreme to the Panther G which is also somewhat vulnerable to lesser tanks. The major problem is without support it is unlikely that you can destroy it easily as its armor is better than your main guns penetration! I think I could not use the faster movement to my advantage as much as I could in Panzer General. I also used Jagdpanthers, a very good design though it lacked a little punch against Soft Targets like most tank destroyers do in Panzer Corps compared to Panzer General.
While the Maus is a wonder-tank with huge close defense, it is a 3 movement tank and useless for offense. You simply won’t ever make it in time. Nevertheless the aux unit provided to me proved very helpful in dealing with strong enemy tanks. I lost core tanks in this scenario, a pity. I really should have upgraded my Panzer IV to Tiger II instead of Panther G.
Something that strikes me as wrong is that level bombers are always so much more useful than tac bombers. OK, I didn’t have the Ju87G anymore and the Do335 is a rather mediocre ground attack craft. While it seems to be very much the intention of Panzer Corps to limit airpower somewhat I am afraid that level bombers and artillery outperform tac bombers too much. US Infantry also has extreme air defense and can fire back that results in more or equal losses to attacking strike craft. Some level bombers like the He177 also have strong ground attack values while being much sturdier than the tac bombers who became more auxiliary anti-air fighters in the America scenarios.
The key is to win this scenario while minimizing your losses – you will need numerous and experienced tanks for the final push in the final scenario.
The US West Coast is a very difficult scenario. You won’t get much prestige and syou hopefully saved up some before. Otherwise you won’t get more than a marginal victory if you win at all. A surprise tank counter attack in your flanks from the north – which isn’t a surprise anymore if you have to try again
– can easily be countered through two Jagdtigers. Just place them behind the river. The main difficulty of this scenario is that you take a lot of damage and get not much prestige initially or through conquest. Remember, your fancy modern units also cost horrendous prestige for standard reinforcements already. In this scenario I lost many units and barely made it in time. Funnily saving my units would not have saved them either, your prestige comes from conquering a lot of minor objectives on the march and it will barely be sufficient to replace losses. I think my tank losses in the US Mid West scenario were crippling, my core units number reached its peak in Moscow 43 and went downhill in the USA. The other major problem was the weather. It changed every 2 turns and turns without airpower are advantageous for the defender. Without my level bombers I had to rely on 4 artillery units to advance, and you really need both to advance quickly and without losses.The end is a bit like Panzer General – debriefing and it’s over. Combined with the heavy losses I suffered during the America scenarios it felt a bit sour. But how to make a proper ending video, debriefing or whatever?
All in all I like the three new fictional scenarios a lot. While I very much prefer historical scenarios they do a great job in showing how difficult if not outright stupid it would have been to invade America. These scenarios are more difficult than the whole campaign before, so take care!
P.S. some minor oddities I noticed:
* the 21cm Mrs 18 had a range of 4, not 3 as shown in the unit data.
* B17 Flaying Fortress – flaying, really? A Freudian typo says hello!
