The Good Heroes, The Bad heroes and The Ugly heroes ?

[auda]

I upgraded my bikers to pioneers and grenadiers. They rock early, but fade by '43.

Yeah, it's quite a challenge to utilize infantry units by '43, especially on flat terrain where they always get attacked with artillery and T-34s with a danger of surrender. Backed by at least two own artillery units behind is essential.

[AnalogGamer]

Tiger IIs with +1 and +2 Move are nice. Fire Brigade with a pair of +2 Attack 13-strength Wurfies. Don't know why I thought they would be Elephants... that is A/T.

[auda]

Does the defense hero boost the Close Defense stat of a unit as well?

[captainjack]

Defence hero boosts close defence. I had +8 on a US Ranger unit once - kind of handy in hills, cities, forests and not too bad in the open either.

[ArtyFarty]

Range heros on Arty is sublime.
Very simple to understand.
With range 3 for towed arty, whenever subduing enemy arty, they can shoot back at you.
With hero bonus you can shoot at them without them being able to touch you.
Or, your arty has been left behind for some reason. You are five hexes away from the target, move one, +1 range and you can supress.

Most scenarios where you attack defensive forces, not subduing the arty gives you a rotten start with your tank against tank or whatever, unless your tank outclasses the other, but that is not too common. I usually play as US or Brit forces, so my tanks are really weak first half of the war, arty is the saving grace.

It is my most coveted hero I think. I hade one with one move hero, and two range. That was awesome.

Also, +1 move in tanks is very helpful. A heavy slow tank becomes usable. Tanks with 3 range, are hard to use, they slow you down, miss the action because they are not there. 4 range tanks also benefits from it, massively in my opinion.

[Elkarlo]

Defence hero boosts close defence. I had +8 on a US Ranger unit once - kind of handy in hills, cities, forests and not too bad in the open either.

Wow, must have been basically invincible unless he was really softened up by artillery

[captainjack]

+8D makes a unit pretty hard to kill unless you play badly. The biggest danger is that you get over-optimistic and get caught and surrounded. Suddenly you run out of ammo and you are in deep trouble. Still, these kind of experiences helped make me a better player.

Until that rather depressing mistake, this was an excellent blocking unit but even better for attacking powerful units in close terrain.

These days I I would be a bit smarter - checking ammo, not overextending so badly and using artillery support better.

[IttoOgami]

I have given this some considerable thought as I am trying to go through another try at the Grand Campaign Eastern side on Manstein level.

So if I get a Bad or Ugly hero as my first hero for any unit I will sell and try again.
My idea of an ugly or bad hero that I will probably resell and try again.
First let's start with the good.
Defensive heroes are always good in my opinion on any unit but I find them most helpful on infantry, tanks, fighters, and anti tanks. So any + whatever Defensive hero is always a + in my book.
With that said + Att heroes are always a bonus with the outstanding +3 hero being the top of the pack. I will say that getting your first 2 heroes to be +1 att is a little disappointing as you feel like you could have received that total bonus with a single hero but again every bit counts.

So that is what I will start with.
Now Unit Class by unit class.
Infantry:
The Good: Movement, Attack, Defense, Initiative in that order.
The Bad: Spotting
No Ugly: I think I will allow any 1st hero to remain in my Manstein playthrough.
....

Great post, but I have different opinion on the movie. The bad should be swapped with the ugly, as Tuco was a little better than Angel Eyes

[captainjack]

Initiative on any tac bomber without active attack (which includes all Italian, American and Russian tac bombers) is completely pointless unless you want to deter biplane fighters. Even spotting on artillery has more value.