Difficult scenarios & campaigns?
 

Hey,

I'd like some input on what have been the most difficult scenarios or campaigns you have played?

It seems that almost every scenario I have played recently has been a absolutely crushing decisive victory. I'm not saying I'm outstanding in this game but it can get boring vs. AI if there is not in any point a real prospect of losing. Although, probably most of the scenarios are not in fact hard, because it is likely that most people don't like losing...

It seems that at times the scenario designer has imposed more difficulty by reducing the number of turns for example in assault missions, but i consider this a little artificial, and rather like missions where i'm seriously outnumbered :)

As there are folks here who have been playing many of the scenarios, which ones have been the most difficult for you? I myself liked very much scenario #72 "Sacrifice of The Few" that was really hard to pull a DV out of.

Badger

Re: Difficult scenarios & campaigns?
 

So which ones have you played Badger? From my experience, defensive battles and meeting engagements are the easiest, while assaults are hardest. Advances are somewhere in-between.

I've found the 29th Infantry campaign to be quite difficult; couldn't even finish it since I got wiped out in the seventh(?) battle. Gotta try it again sometime. The Kursk campaign seems easier, if only 'cuz the first two scenarios are rather simple, even a bit tedious. But things start hotting up in the third. What makes it interesting (for some--others don't like it) is the designer's use of "encroached setup," in which some opposing units are intermingled on both sides of the starting line.

As for scenarios, #18 Grudge Match, #46 Totenkopf Attacks, #73 Return to Guam, and #90 Attack on Czerkasy are quite difficult IMHO. You'll notice they're all assaults, so you can expect a challenge.

BTW I've already posted my reactions to most of these with separate threads in this forum. You may peruse them at your leisure.

Re: Difficult scenarios & campaigns?
 

Edit: Just played #33, Halfaya Pass as the Germans (advance) again. First time I got a draw, this time a marginal (something like 1960 to 289). You gotta be quick, else the Brits reinforce with Matildas and Valentines too soon to get the last VH('s). Even though I got all the objectives it still wasn't enough, despite losing only one tank. If you can get a decisive without reloading you're a better player than me. Cheers.

Re: Difficult scenarios & campaigns?
 

Difficulty varies a lot & I would agree on the whole the difficulty level is a tad to easy but there are some tough ones. Remembering which ones though is beyond me but the advice above is generally correct attacking is normaly harder than defending.
The ANZAC campaign is very hard but no good if you like playing with tanks & scenerio 32 is reasonably hard & great fun but cant remember any more.

Re: Difficult scenarios & campaigns?
 

scenario 223 is next to impossible, because you have to assault a well entrenched German position with a British rifle company in 18 turns which very little time to manage anything. If anyone managed to have a better outcome than a decisive defeat, please let me know.

Re: Difficult scenarios & campaigns?
 

Yeah, took a look. Taking 20 objectives with just 19 units is hard enough; having to cross a bridge (unless you wanna go for the fords through swamps) and attack along a mined road (or through snowdrifts)--with just two tanks plus a 3-inch mortar for "support," and without engineers--borders on the surreal. Perhaps the designer was a sadist:rolleyes:. Haven't tried it, but it might be good for character-building :p.

Re: Difficult scenarios & campaigns?
 

scen.32 Danube rivermen.

Although not the most difficult.
You have many diverse units to use,, skill and planning is essential, it's one my favorites:)

Re: Difficult scenarios & campaigns?
 

Yes, Imp likes it as well. Sounds good, gotta try it.

Btw scenario #70-SSsPZ 502 Attacks Kustrin deserves mention, if only because of adverse weather and terrain conditions facing the Germans.

Re: Difficult scenarios & campaigns?
 

Aeraaa, left hook give you a draw in #223. 500+ points behind, but a "draw game" anyway.

One platoon to bypass from left with tanks. Tank pick flag most far and passenger 200pts flags next to it. Runners can take two 150pts flags and the one from the trench. Mortar smoke to secure river crossing. Moved mortar closer, z-fired and used target as basis of smoke fire mission. Flame tank turned right after river and cleaned trench. I am not sure was it only because smoke but used main force to fire to trench. Manouver platoon did not got pinned even got some shots against. Flag on bridge was easy with one squad. Slow move and some smoke.

Maybe this puzzle is impossible to win. Still ways to do better, but this is going to be more scripting a move library than playing a wargame.

Re: Difficult scenarios & campaigns?
 

I submitted that campaign for the next patch btw.

Re: Difficult scenarios & campaigns?
 

Great. Is this the same "new and probably final version of the campaign, with adjusted difficulty levels and some other fixes" that you offered on 10-07-12, or something more recent?. Sure would love to have another go once "my" Golden Talon campaign is over.

P.S. Seems like you can't entrench in a delay scenario. So if entrenchment is automatic in a defense, what's the button for? Not quibbling, just wondering. Cheers. :)

Re: Difficult scenarios & campaigns?
 

I recently played two quite difficult scenarios:

#28 Airlanding operation NiWi Nord (Germany vs. Belgium)
#164 Torino Christmas Battle (Italy vs. Soviet Union)

#28 Was quite difficult mainly because at the beginning you have to decide how to disperse your few troops among the VH's. I wont spoil the fun for those who haven't played it, but I really liked the scenario.

#164 I think this scenario is extremely difficult regardless of if you know the composition of the enemy and which direction he is coming from. Your troops are seriously lacking AT capability and have low morale. I was unable to form a mobile defense as the troops move 1-2 hexes per turn in the snow. The enemy has an overwhelming superiority in artillery, tanks and infantry. Time is your only ally here. The Soviets completely routed my troops, and at the end was only able to "achieve" a marginal defeat by standing between the enemy and the victory hexes so he would run out of time capturing them. In addition, an infantry platoon and a section of 60mm inf. guns are placed at the lower left portion of the map in the beginning. Im not sure if that is a bug or designed this way, but they have no prospect whatsoever to reach the line during 16 turns, so cannot contribute in any way.

Badger

Re: Difficult scenarios & campaigns?
 

I never reload in my games, I like the fact that I get to pay from my own mistakes :). It is also more interesting to play a scenario for the first time when you don't know what to expect. For example, scenario #28 i mentioned above is probably a decisive victory IF you would know exactly how the scenario unfolds.

I quickly looked at scenario #33, i might try it later. Haven't really played North African scenarios in a while. thanks for the tip

Re: Difficult scenarios & campaigns?
 

Greetings Badger. Getting back to your OP, you mentioned that Scenario 72, "Sacrifice of the Few," was hard to get a DV out of, implying that you actually DID get a DV.

If so, how did you manage that? You were playing as the Nationalists, right? I've played that several times, always with draws, the only difference being whether my score was higher or lower than the AI (Japan).

The only way I can think of getting a DV would be to play "hide-and-seek" with the Sons of Nippon, getting lucky with ambushes and sneaking around behind them to grab VH's with light armor and motorcycles. Otherwise you simply get overwhelmed. Any suggestions? Cheers.

Re: Difficult scenarios & campaigns?
 

I've gotten past winning an DV every time,so i now use this perpective,when playing scenarios.

1)most are set up to be difficult as the designer would hate to hear "it was too easy"

2)they can be unbalanced epecially if the designer wants it that way.also historically you may be put in a underdog situation.

3)you don't have get a DV every time to get a tactical win,think of how well you played and if you gave more than you got,ie who got the bloodier nose,then it makes sense who actually commanded the field.

In other words,don't obsess with getting an DV,too much stress it's all on how well you played and how much fun it was!

After all nobody is judgeing you except maybe yourself.

Re: Difficult scenarios & campaigns?
 

Well said. SPWW2 is a wonderful tool, but sometimes we ask too much of it--and ourselves. Much as we'd like, we can't go back and change history by beating up on our favorite bogeyman. Besides, as Andy mentioned years ago, "This is a wargame. It is not a 'sim.'" So we shouldn't believe that we're proving anything earth-shaking by achieving DV's on the combat results screen.

Do your best, sure, but don't worry about the result. It should be enough to have the pleasure of playing this wonderful game. Cheers. :)

Re: Difficult scenarios & campaigns?
 

When a scenario is difficult is when this game gets better. Because if a plan did not work you can try another, and if this did not work you will have to think of another. I happened to some scenarios.

Re: Difficult scenarios & campaigns?
 

Playing the scenario 28 for the first time got a marginal victory.
Take all the victory points but had heavy casualties.
Good incursion and defense scenario.

Re: Difficult scenarios & campaigns?
 

Congratulations. My result was a decisive loss; couldn't do much against the tanks so they got close and ripped me apart. A sobering experience indeed...

Re: Difficult scenarios & campaigns?
 

Use the engineers to destroy tanks. Not to get into the open. Use hiding, suppression fire and bring engineers to assault tanks.

Re: Difficult scenarios & campaigns?
 

Yeah. I took too long getting to the the main objectives. Btw did you keep those two isolated VH's to the southeast? My AO was left between them as "insurance," but got wiped out. How sad.

Re: Difficult scenarios & campaigns?
 

53 Villers-Bocage, Normandy 6/44 is NOT a walk in the park for the German player. If you want to re-create history you need to be very, very, VERY lucky ( and skilled....)

If you go into that one thinking you are commanding invincible Tigers you will find out how very wrong you are in short order.

Don

Re: Difficult scenarios & campaigns?
 

@ Badger: Got a marginal loss out of #164 as well. The AI seized every VH but one; only time and terrain prevented a decisive. Nothing I could do to stop them.

On the topic of Italians, have you tried #31, "Never Seen Before"? You can get a marginal win if you play hide-and-seek with the Matildas, running around behind to pick up overrun but abandoned VH's. Sorta fun in a counter-intuitive way.

@ Roman: Replayed #28, picking up a marginal win this time (my shriveled manhood has been redeemed somewhat :smirk:). Rushed my guys into town pronto while leaving two squads at the isolated VH's and got lucky against an SPA on a bridge/VH hex.

Btw if you got ALL the VH's how come you didn't get a decisive? The German units aren't that valuable (unless you lost your AO and most everybody else). I lost two bridge VH's just outside of the main town. If I held 'em it would have been a crusher.

@ DRG: Roger that. After two or three tries I've yet to achieve a positive result. Tigers ain't exactly invulnerable...

Re: Difficult scenarios & campaigns?
 

@ Jivemi: On the #72 Sacrifice of the Few I managed to knock out part of the tank force by getting some (lucky) hits with the inf. guns before they reached the ridgeline where all the tanks and mized vehicles are in the beginning.

I assembled every vehicle with any kind of AT capability at the ridgeline (the two Gerat 81's are your most valuable asset in this scenario IMO), while sending the vehicles armed with only MGs to the southeast to fend off infantry and two vehicles to destroy the enemy artillery positions. Infantry was being used mainly to close assault the tanks. Most of my force was annihilated, but i managed to keep the enemy out of the VH's.

In scenario "28 I really didnt know what to expect, in the initial landing one of my gliders crash-landed so lost one team from the outset. I was wondering why there were so many turns and so few enemies. Had to make a hard choice not to leave any "rearguards" at the first village because I had so few forces, I figured if they recapture it I can easily go back via the road. Captured the second village and repulsed the first attack there with relative ease.

HOWEVER, the enemy recaptured the south-eastern village, so I sent one rifle platoon there, and of course the AI counterattacked to the northwestern village, while I basically had only two battered ones to counter them.

Well, turned out that all hell broke loose pretty soon. My troops were fighting house-to-house taking heavy casualties. i did have an ambush in place to salvage the whole thing, but as one of the tanks drove to the last VH the game sadly ended before that (I think it was turn 25 or smth). The results was therefore marginal loss... :mad:

I think the scenario is winnable the second time, but it won't be so interesting if you know whats going to happen! :)

Re: Difficult scenarios & campaigns?
 

@ Badger: Did as you suggested with scenario #72 and got a marginal win. Not exactly astonishing since on the fourth go I knew pretty much what the enemy were gonna do.

Btw if you want some assault challenges you might try #065-Iwo Jima: Take Suribachi and #189-DAK: Fall of Tobruk. The first one has plenty of turns (34) but your armor is repeatedly getting stuck in volcanic ash or captured trenches, while your Marines can hardly move more than one hex per turn in the cratered moonscape. Plus they're constantly getting suppressed by artillery (sometimes your own :hurt:) so it feels like you're in a swamp. Result was a draw.

The second one (Tobruk) is fairly wide-open, except for some soft sand, and the terrain is mostly flat. Plus there's tons of air and artillery support. But you've only got 12 turns to secure 16-17 widespread objectives. It takes awhile for infantry to discover mines and watch out for AT guns (even so I lost 8 tanks :sick:). Just when I broke into the British position the battle ended in a draw. Next time I'll have some infantry ride tanks, trying for an "end-around."