AK: Reconnaissance in Force

[VPaulus]

Please post here your comments about this scenario.

[Blathergut]

2nd attempt general level

Managed to drive along the north road with predominately infantry. This worked much better. Main force swung east and easily captured the remaining victory targets. Still noticing glitchy little mouse click issues. Is this just me?

Enjoyable scenario even second time through, though the AI did some odd things in spots, like flying Brit fighters 2 hexes away instead of fighting.

The flak halftrack or whatever it is, seems to have the best movement in the scenario! The 88 loaded onto halftracks is a different colouring than the rest.

[RobertCL]

1st attempt

I failed at Leutnant level, one more turn and it was marginal victory.
I lost my time using the main road causing a traffic jam.

I love the music and the look of units.
BTW I was surprized to see units could be fully repaired in the desert, I thought there was a limitation like in PG2 or PeG.

The game image intro is awesome!
I also like the possibility to play standalone scenarios including hypothetical scenarios like Le Caire, India or Caucasus.

2nd attempt

I capture all objectives at turn nr 16.
But I have the message Axis surrendered and I lose the scenario --> what is going on here ?

OK: You cannot win the scenario as long as the pop up message about Tobruk is not given.

I avoided Tobruk and captured my objective and it means scenario loss (capture of two VHs at the extremem right of the map by Italians)
When I put a unit close to Tobruk I had the pop up message and let Germans conquering the last two VHs on the right of the map then I had decisive victory.

--> Strange that victory is linked to the apparition of pop up messages, no ?

[Mountaineer]

I think the pop up message changing of the objectives is brilliant, but until it catches on, the scenario will be frustrating. First attempt I brought my units side by side with the Tobruk units, and lost two core units on the AI turn. The next attempt I just brought a recon unit forward, which triggered the pop up to change the objectives. The very few units defending to the East helped me wrap it up turn 14. I think it is balanced, just will take some getting used to. I finished well and am moving on to the next. Prestige is enough to reinforce with all experienced units and upgrade at leats 2 units (1 IT Infantry now has trucks and was improved and 1 German Arty).

[nikivdd]

Installation worked as a charm as usual. Very nice intro screen!

Colonel difficulty.

This mission reminds me of the original PG El Agheila mission. I split my forces in 3. One along the coast, one to Mechilli and one to Sollum/Bardia. I bought a Ju87B, couldn't afford a Bf109 unfortunately.
For a first mission there are couple of though battles with the allied tanks. All cities except for Mechilli were easy to take with the enemy infantry below strength. The biggest buggers were the two allied aircraft who set their vision to my single It fighter...and it survived barely. I couldn't use my 88 for tank hunting, i needed it for those planes, in combination with the selfprop AA unit...a pitty. I got a first popup between turns and a second popup after i placed an aux unit adjacent to the Tobruk ring of defence. I had no intention to enter Tobruk anyway with those high strength defenders. I got a DV in 14/16 turns with 1126PP left.
The captured italian tank used by the british is just brilliant and authentic, i wonder if there will be more of those. And while i'm at it, any capturable units out there?...

[deducter]

1. Recon in Force (Rommel setting)

Sadly the Italian infantry in the player’s core will almost certainly get disbanded immediately. It’d be nice if there were some reason for the player to keep them outside of some sense “historical accuracy.” If only there were some modding option that sets a minimum of certain units for the player’s core.

German units in the player’s core should start with between 100-300 exp, with an average of 175-200. The qualitative difference between the Germans and the Italians were enormous. It can be particularly irritating to be used to GC40 or even the stock campaign to have 2-3 star units after France, but somehow end up with an "elite" DAK in 1941 with 0 stars. I'd also give the Germans a Bf 109E, and have it be experienced too (2 stars).

I’d change one of the Italian infantry into aux and add a core PzI (these were sent with the first wave of German tanks).

Rate of exp gain for artillery seems to be massively lowered to be in line with all the other units. Is this true?

My feeling seems to be that Rommel is now -50% prestige + -50% exp. Is this correct?

Interesting objective change in the middle of the scenario. Now if only there were someway to reread messages. I strongly feel there should be an option to reread the briefings/any in game messages.

I think the trigger to tell the player that Tobruk is too heavily fortified to be taken should be earlier in the mission, along with a change to the objectives so as to avoid confusion. Remove the VH from Tobruk once the message pops. Can the trigger be programmed as soon as the player sees the defenses there? This can be done by simply having a huge around Tobruk in a 2-hex radius, since that’s the spotting on most of the player’s units. I suspect many players might try to attack Tobruk in frustration. I took one look at those 9-entrenchment 14-strength infantry and knew that it shouldn’t be attacked, but others might not. Let the player know earlier.

Any ETA on when briefings will be accessible in the scenario itself? This feature has been requested for a very long time.

Otherwise a nice introductory scenario, a rather challenging one at that.

DV.

[Tarrak]

Played the scenario on General level. All in all quite enjoyable scenario.I managed a DV on first try on the last turn but due to a silly mistake i managed to lose one of my tanks and the little Italian fighter got obliterated by a Hurricane with an unlucky dice roll (8 strength MC 200 vs 10 strength Hurricane -> outcome 8 : 1). I think i will replay the scenario to see if i can do better now knowing what to expect.

It looks to me like purchasing an additional fighter is must if one wants to gain air superiority. The MC 200 and the Bf110 even with the support of the 8.8 can not destroy the British fighters without a lot of luck in one turn so they always run off and come back fully repaired soon after. I am personally not a big fan of AT guns so i personally do not like having two of them in my core but i can always disband them after this scenario and replace them with something more useful if needed so it's fine. Else the core composition seems quite OK to me.

I agree with Deducter tho that the Italian infantry probably get replaced asap with a German one as it's really quite bad stats wise. On the other hand the Bersaglieri looks quite good stat wise tho so upgrading the standard Italian infantry to them could be an option. Compared to German grenadiers one trade 1 initiative and 1 hard attack vs 1 movement speed and a bit lower price. Sadly the Bersaglieri and the standard infantry are not in the same upgrade family. Maybe putting them into the same family could motivate people to keep the Italian around. Another option could be to convert one or even both of the standard infantry units to Bersaglieri.

Is there any reason the 8.8 Flak starts in AT mode? Considering in the original game and the DLCs all the dual purpose 8.8s was starting in FLAK mode it is a bit strange.

I spotted a bug in the scenario as well.The flag in the UI for Indian units is broken or not there at all. I think a screenshot can explain that a lot better then thousand words so here we go:

Indian Flag missing.jpg (182.12 KiB) Viewed 3821 times

[monkspider]

Reconassiance in Force
Starting prestige 400
Ending prestige 770
Loss (!) turn 16 of 16
General level (as always)

First of all, a HUGE thank you for allowing me to continue to be part of the Panzer Corps beta-test team. This news totally made my weekend. I am totally pumped. The installation went smooth, the main menu is gorgeous, the new units are beautiful, I LOVE that I can have Italian units in my core now, that was always one of my major requests. The new music is great too, thank you, thank you, thank you.

This first scenario has some major problems though. My briefing officer (I am not going to assume it is Habermann because Habermann is way awesomer than this guy) told me I could make a limited offensive toward Benghazi if conditions proved favorable. The British resistance seemed light enough so I made a cautious advance toward Benghazi with my Panzer division, using my Italian troops to watch my flank. On the 3rd turn or so, my commanding officer went completely insane, saying that he can read my mind and that I wanted to try to conquer all of Cyraenica.

I tried capturing as many objectives as possible, sending my German Panzer division north and my Italian division east through the desert. Clearly Tobruk is impregnable, but I didn't have enough time to capture the other cities east of Tobruk.

After the battle, my crazy-ass commanding officer took me to task for disobeying orders. In the end, I am perplexed. I don't really know what I was supposed to do. Am I supposed to advance on Benghazi or not? ? Am I supposed to wait for a pop-up to say that it is okay or something? I don't know, I will try it again later. I never got the pop up some players did about bypassing Tobruk though. I think it is clear that this mission needs a bit of work for greater clarity.

[monkspider]

Reconaissance in Force (Attempt 2)

Okay, I think I am ready to strangle this Habermann stand-in. I killed the two British units and captured the undefended city just north of the starting line but I made no further attempt to advance and I STILL get the pop-up message saying that I am attempting to conquer all of Cyraenica. At this point I say, what the heck and try a different strategy, sending the Italians north and the Germans east of Tobruk.

This worked better and I managed to capture all of the cities except Mechill, and with one more turn, I would have been able to do that. Of course, if I hadn't left my troops at the starting line for the first three turns, I probably still would have been able to get the decisive victory. As was, I had to settle for a marginal victory. This is definitely a tough scenario for an opener, I feel it should be toned down. I would recommend adding three or four turns to the clock and above all else, more clarity on the mission objectives. At the end of battle, I received an infuriating message about my "disobeying orders" and belittling my "marginal" victory, grrrrrrrrrr.

[snakepliskin2010]

I enjoyed the historical flavor from the change in mission conditions.
I noticed the motorcycle can have transport options, seems odd.

[El_Condoro]

12/16 DV on Colonel level and all the defaults. Went hell-for-leather and payed for it by losing my Pz III. Waited a couple of turns to commit the LW and bought a Bf109f to help. It did - a lot! Disbanded one Italian infantry to help pay for the 109 but kept the rest.

The pop-up message seems a little ambiguous but it worked well. I'm not sure what triggers it but, as pointed out above, if it is a turn then it's probably going to misfire - better to have a zone trigger it.

[OmegaMan1]

Recon in Force. (Colonel difficulty)
DV in 16 turns.
0 medals, 0 heroes.
New units: Ju-87R (T1), Bf 109E (T6).
Units lost: Recon.
End prestige: 118.

First impression: very good scenario. This harks back to the days of Allied General, which I always enjoyed very much. I REALLY like how the mission's objectives changed as the scenario progressed. However, the dialogue box is a bit of a surprise; at first I thought it was another message about forgeting to move a unit. Perhaps the pop-up box for mission changes could be more styled like the opening briefing window, and have it appear at the start of a player's turn so the player is less likely to overlook the message. Otherwise, I think this is a great addition to the PzC engine.

Also, the "unit glow" needs to be implemented on non-desert hexes; I had the option checked and yet it seemed that it wasn't there.

All in all, a great start to a new campaign.

[OmegaMan1]

Two quick things I forgot to mention:

1. When placing the mouse over a desert hex, there is no name displayed for the terrain in the right-side panel. This seems to only be the case in the first scenario.

2. I like the new background music.

[LostAgain]

The Basics: I play at FM level, (and WOULD import a core if I could). I love the graphics you've come up with but admit to being a bit underwhelmed by this level. Perhaps because of the way you left us in the eastern series my expectations were raised but I was disappointed and found the play rather easy and a tad boring. Because I love this game I was hesitant to be so blunt but still have high hopes for the upcoming levels.

I also discovered that for some reason I could not upgrade certain units to their self propelled levels, specifically the Panzerjager Abt.39 unit would not upgrade to Panzerjager, and the Fla Bataillon 606 would not upgrade to 8.8 cm FlaK 36! In all of the previous series this upgrade was possible so I'm assuming it's a glitch?

Also, gramatically, the briefer states "I've heard ON your disagreement" instead of "I've heard OF your disagreement"

[Xitax]

General level: Took it easy and made DV on the last turn. I took the slow infantry to take the north hexes and the rest to the east towards Tobruk.

Not sure what triggers the pop-up message, but it's not clear from the message that the objectives are changing. I didn't pick up on that until a few turns later.

I like having some core Italian units, but like others I'm sure I will replace them with superior German ones as soon as I can afford them.

Graphics: Obviously not complete at this point. I really like the new airfield graphic - it's far superior to the current one - you should just replace the other one. Desert sea tiles look 'alright' but not outstanding. Flat desert tiles seem very dull and could use some sprucing up - I think the problem is they're not rocky or messy enough. Desert camo units look quite good.

I see that the beta is a standalone .exe - well and good - simplifies the beta install. I hope the AK release integrates into the regular PanzerCorps installation? Definitely do not want more PC installs for 'expandalones'.

[Longasc]

I hereby introduce my new journal format, which I will write with the Evernote App on my smartphone.

1. Reconnaissance in Force
Field Marshal, all options checked
Start: 400 Prestige
Bought: 1x StuGIIIB, 1x Bf109F
Upgraded: -
Losses: Ariete Tank
End: 232 Prestige
Result: Decisive Victory 16/16
Comments: Very good "historical" feeling and unit composition. I especially "liked" that I had to struggle with resources from the very beginning. Difficulty seems okay, but I am worried about future scenarios as this was the first one and already not trivial.

Forgot to mention that:
The "Escarpment" tile near 25,9 (Gambut Airfield) looks odd, should be replaced with a prettier tile. The music is really good.

[do335b6]

Just played and captured all but the Tobruk flags and was told my forces surrendered? Is this a bug or does Tobruk need to fall?

[Erik2]

Fun scenario with a historical feel.
Good to finally see better named units.
The in-game messages should be more clear in style with military orders, now they are more like chit-chat and could be confusing.
Place the in-game messages in the lower right corner under the strat map by default.

Edit: There appears to be a bug with the victory conditions. I captured all 6 objectives by turn 15, still the Axis surrendered on the last turn (16) and the campaign ended.
I saved the last turn if anyone is interested.

[deadtorius]

you need to get a unit beside a tobruk hex and a pop up opens telling you its too heavily defended and to cut it off. I had the same problem myself. Use an aux unit so that if it dies it will still trigger the victory but not count as a core unit loss.

[uran21]

Thanks for the feedback.

What is going to be changed. Zone that triggers message about Tobruk will be widened (see picture attached) so you will not need to move units adjacent to Tobruk and risk losing it.
I think conditions for Decisive victory are in order for now. Player should be challenged for achieving Decisive one. What is obvious is that border between Marginal victory and Loss
should be changed and it will be in favour of achieving Marginal victory much easier. Some of the combinations in victory conditions were not very well covered so this will be fixed as well. Regarding trigger that adds objectives for the first time, I was considering about more complex ones but stayed undecided about it so it was tied with time trigger. I am still undecided but will reconsider this.