Panzer Corps 2 - Best and most fun generals

[nexusno2000]

Learn all you need to know about how to build your Panzer Corps 2 general for maximum fun and power!

We will also discuss how you can set up the game to be both more fun and challenging beyond the actual difficulty settings.

[Tassadar]

Some good points overall and yes, the randomness question will be a controversial one. I'm in the Edmon camp here that increased randomness makes the game easier, not more difficult, since if you highroll, you just follow up using the extra momentum gained and if you get a unfavorable result, you just don't advance. As long as you play meticulously planning your moves you will gain a lot more from those good combat results than be punished for bad ones. If you reduce randomness, then everything boils down to decision planning and every move counts as-is. There are fewer chances to get unexpected advantages that especially are visible for artillery suppression or overruns. That's why I toned down the value to 20% from the default 50%, and even 10% would not be a stretch.

I also do not think that the negative traits you listed as F-tier are unviable on the highest difficulty. It all depends on the specific campaign, other positive/negative traits and heroes. I'm currently doing a Frontlines: Cyrenaica run with Poor Ground Control on Generalissimus and while occasionally tricky, it does not pose any critical challenges, simply adjusts the way I have to place my units. Similarly I finished Fall of Poland with Green Army and while I saw how it affected the composition of my force, it never really became a blocker. There are of course combinations that would not work well - let's say Slow Reaction in Spanish Civil War before you can build up the necessary experience, heroes and better equipment, which would drain prestige reserves. These are however more specific to individual DLC than an overall rule.

Lastly, I will strongly advocate to anyone looking for more of a challenge to thing about going beyond the game. Limit the units possible to deploy by production figures, historical units composition, or simply some special restriction. Do a self-imposed "Denied Infantry" trait, only use captured units, experiment with sub-optimal hero assignments etc. This of course is a case of personal preference, but I it is indeed undeniable that replay potential in this game is simply unprecedented in the series thanks to all the settings (and even more sliders could be added to push this further).

[nexusno2000]

Many good points!

I actually just read the post mentioning Poor Ground Control, and yes, I can see that working quite well.

As I said initially, the focus was on longer campaigns, but Green Army is definitely OK in any shorter campaign. I just did Battle of the Bulge, and here it would be excellent, seeing as you buy new units WITH some XP

Randomness... no, I don't agree. Low randomness is boring. That's my main gripe. Too much puzzle play WITHOUT having to judge probabilities, yet with the risk of being surprised. High randomness is still puzzle, but fun.

[Tassadar]

I felt we will stick to our own opinions on randomness, but that's fine, it's one of those elements that boils down to personal preference a lot (and I might be scarred for life after XCOM-style titles and their implementation of RNG...).

On thing to note for Green Army for longer campaigns is that I see one more thing here that could make it viable more. If the game is generous with First Aid and Field Repairs heroes, then Green Army would get a lot more tempting. I'd say with at least 3-4 of these it would be a negligible disadvantage, and then just get reduced further with every other one to a slight annoyance level. Still, the same can be said about many more traits depending on heroes. Get enough AT and artillery support ones and suddenly you can take Slow Reaction just fine. Also, Battle Academy did rather well compensating XP loss from Green Army - not fully covering it, but being quite helpful. Really after Fall of Poland I thought that I'd switch traits in further War Stories DLC, but now I'm wondering about this and maybe if they end up at least partially linked, I'd be willing to stick with this negative trait for the long run out of curiosity.

[nexusno2000]

If I played with Green Army, Battle Academy would get a higher tier for sure!

I also think it can have a place with Ironman w/Old Guard.

...why would you drag XCOM into this... oh the RNG horror