No heroes Generalissimus campaign AAR

[SineMora]

Possibly, but I think Rommel should actually be hard. At the moment it might as well not exist because there's practically no difference between regular Generalissimus and adding Rommel; the extra prestige is negligible. As the turn limits feel rather generous in general that only leaves von Manstein as the intimidating challenge factor, and that's just a brute buff to the AI's power.

[comradep]

I've decided to restart, as the game was too easy with the chosen trait combination and the synergies they provided.

Still playing Generalissimus, Race against Time, Europe on a Shoestring, but with only negative traits this time around.

As I'll need to kill enemy units now, I won't be playing with Inept Logistics as I'll need every unit I can get my hands on.

This time, I'll pick the "other" path in the early scenarios.

I'm still trying minimize my losses in Norway North. Norway South is a walk in the park compared to Norway North.

Combat predictions were not particularly reliable at 20% randomness, so I'm playing without randomness in results. Predictions being rounded made planning too tricky with variability.

[comradep]

Traits: Slow modernization, no overstrength, retrograde.

Poland South, turn limit: 10 turns.

Prestige:

Start: 500 initial, 85 after upgrades.
End: 1071.

Core:

Infantry:

Pioniere (truck)
Wehr infanterie (truck)
Wehr infanterie reserve

Tanks:

Panzer 38(t)A
Panzer IIC
Panzer IB

Recon:

Sd.Kfz. 221

Artillery:

7.5cm FK 16nA (horse team)
10.5cm LeFH 18 (half-track)

Fighters:

Bf 109E
Bf 109E

Tactical bombers:

Ju 87B
Ju 87B

Strategic bombers:

He 111H2

An interesting scenario, with a timed objective of sorts: the Polish forces start understrength and if you don't capture Kielce on turn 4 or earlier, the Polish forces can use replacements.

I decided to purchase an additional tactical bomber, changed the Sturmpanzer to a 10.5cm howitzer, gave one Wehr infanterie unit trucks, and upgraded the Do 17Z to a He 111H2 as the Do 17Z lacks the range to reach the eastern objectives.

The Tarnowice (the village south of my deployment area, on the map edge), Radom and Tomaszow Mazowiecki garrisons were captured.

Deployment end:



Turn 10 end:

[comradep]

Warsaw, turn limit: 15 turns.

Prestige:

Start: 88
End: 1094

Core:

Infantry:

Pioniere (truck)
Wehr infanterie (truck)
Wehr infanterie reserve

Tanks:

Panzer 38(t)A
Panzer IIC
Panzer IB
Panzer IB NEW

Recon:

Sd.Kfz. 222

Artillery:

10.5cm LeFH 18 (half-track) upgraded
10.5cm LeFH 18 (half-track)

Fighters:

Bf 109E
Bf 109E
Bf 109E NEW

Tactical bombers:

Ju 87B
Ju 87B

Strategic bombers:

He 111H2

This was a pretty rough scenario due to the "chip damage" the AI can do even with suppressed units. Evicting the Polish forces from Warsaw was quite difficult.

The Kutno garrison, two infantry units in Warsaw and the AA unit on Warsaw's airfield surrendered.

Deployment:



Turn 15 end:

[charonjr]

Nice, which negative traits did you pick?

[comradep]

The same as before, without inept logistics: Slow modernization, no overstrength, retrograde.

One obvious and also not so obvious advantage from overstrengthening a unit is that you can make stronger attacks from a single hex. That's very useful when you face locking ZOCs and can only get one unit in range of an objective hex. Warsaw has a chequerboard defence of sorts that's difficult to crack. OS units would've been useful, but I'll have to find other ways to deal with being able to attack from only 1 or 2 hexes.

[SineMora]

Details, man, details I was about to ask how you have a 38(t)A, but I guess it's part of the initial core in Poland South. No overstrength also means you don't get to strengthen 1 and 2 core slot units by 2 and 1 points respectively for only the prestige cost either, which is very useful to boost the utility of the cheaper units and something I'm missing now in my campaign. Now that the bug with Retrograde has been fixed it shouldn't be much of a problem, although you'll have to make do with few options for infantry for the '39 campaign.

Slow Modernization is one I wouldn't want to take, not so much because it limits upgrades per se, but rather because the game considers any kind of change to a unit other than transports to be an upgrade, even if you're actually downgrading the unit. This makes it nigh impossible to keep the same units in your core while switching their roles, e.g., Pioniere to Fallschirmjäger as it risks preventing you from upgrading units next scenario. At least that's how I understand the mechanic to work; it'd be good if you could confirm that. This could prove a challenging run.

[comradep]

I've been wrestling with Norway North (boy, is that scenario a pain compared to Norway South) for so long that the autosaves for Poland were gone, hence the sparsity of details.

The cores are slightly different between Poland North and Poland South. You get a strategic bomber and the Panzer 38(t)A in Poland South, as opposed to more tanks in Poland North.

Without Inept Logistics, I also had the option to change a few units. You normally start at 36/32 slots with Inept Logistics, so changes can't be made without moving something else to the reserve or disbanding it.

[comradep]

Well, it looks like I'll have to change my campaign path plan of taking the "other" route through the early scenarios compared to the first attempt as I can't get through Norway North.

It's the first scenario where I feel the turn limit is too tight with Race against Time.

You have 15 turns to do the following:

-Capture 3 Trondheim hexes.
-Capture Namsos.
-Capture Andalsnes
-Capture Lillehammer

You can only deploy 4 units at the start of the scenario.

The eastern Trondheim supply hex is empty, but anything you deploy directly east of it is in range of Hegra Fortress and 2 British infantry units. Anything you deploy in the hills south-east of it is in range of a Norwegian Mountain Infantry unit in the town of Roros 4 hexes south-east of Trondheim. There's another Norwegian Mountain Infantry unit in the town of Alvdal south of Roros.

There's a British infantry unit in Namsos, a 40mm AA unit next to it and no less than 3(!) Chasseurs Alpins units on the way there, which receive bonuses in hills and mountain hexes.

When attempting to capture Andalsnes, you have to deal with a Norwegian Infantry unit, a Norwegian Mountain Infantry unit, two British Infantry units, a British HW Infantry unit, and a British Engineer unit.

Lillehammer is held by a Norwegian Infantry unit with a 75mm artillery unit next it, just like in Norway South. There's no Norwegian Mountain Infantry unit west of it.

The Royal Navy has two Cruisers, three Destroyers and a Carrier with two Hurricanes air unit and a Swordfish air unit.

Dealing with the Royal Navy is the least difficult task, but all that infantry can slow your advance down to a crawl.

Capturing Andalsnes and Namsos: maybe on the last turn and after a frightening bloodbath, but Lillehammer is too out of position.

The bottom hex row in the upper part of the map in the screenshot is the top row of the lower part.



In short, I'll be playing Norway South after all.