3rd Guards Mech Corps Campaign feedback

Ts4EVER · #1 April 11th, 2020, 12:14 PM

I think this campaign is not actually from the latest patch but the one before, but I only now have the free time to actually play a lot myself.
I ran into the following problem:
The first scenario was relatively easy with the AI not making much headway: total victory.
However, in the second one I got utterly wiped out by a strong position of dug in Marders and tanks with long 75mm guns. In fact, I am pretty sure they had more tanks than me, even though I was the attacker in an assault scenario. So I checked out the scenario in its standalone version and there you have tons of more assets including heavy artillery (in the campaign you only have two mortar sections).
I would suggest either assigning some aux troops or mentioning in the campaign briefing that the player should enhance his core force quite heavily. I read the briefing and it says "fixed core campaign". Because of that I assumed that the campaign was tailored to the force you get in the beginning, but in my opinion that second scenario is basically impossible to win with it.

Ts4EVER · #2 April 11th, 2020, 12:19 PM

To give you an example, in my Caucasus campaign briefing I wrote:
"Expanding your core force will not be necessary, however, upgrading some tanks with better armed models is recommended."
I think something like that should be included in most campaigns.

DRG · #3 April 11th, 2020, 01:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ts4EVER

I think this campaign is not actually from the latest patch but the one before, but I only now have the free time to actually play a lot myself.
I ran into the following problem:
The first scenario was relatively easy with the AI not making much headway: total victory.
However, in the second one I got utterly wiped out by a strong position of dug in Marders and tanks with long 75mm guns. In fact, I am pretty sure they had more tanks than me, even though I was the attacker in an assault scenario. So I checked out the scenario in its standalone version and there you have tons of more assets including heavy artillery (in the campaign you only have two mortar sections).
I would suggest either assigning some aux troops or mentioning in the campaign briefing that the player should enhance his core force quite heavily. I read the briefing and it says "fixed core campaign". Because of that I assumed that the campaign was tailored to the force you get in the beginning, but in my opinion that second scenario is basically impossible to win with it.

This is what the Germans have in the second scenario

The majority of the armour is reenforcements and the arty is a four gun battery of 105s and they have hardly any infantry. It looks tough but not impossible and everything Don releases is playtested and critiqued before it goes into the game. There may be the occasional thing missed but an impossible to win scenario node is doubtful.

Ts4EVER · #4 April 11th, 2020, 02:29 PM

Well that is 23 armored vehicles vs 14 of yours (in the core force), with your only artillery support being two mortar squads. Your core force is worth around 1500 points, give or take. The German force comes out at around 2500 points and they are defending and dug in. Now maybe it is not "impossible", maybe there is a way it can be done, but as someone who has some experience playing this game and making scenarios for it, I would say it is at the very least quite unfair.
And the fact that the standalone version of the very same campaign mission gives the Russian player a significantly bigger force leads me to believe that there was some kind of oversight here. Maybe the standalone one was made first, tested and then added to the campaign, but he forgot to set some of the forces to aux?

zovs66 · #5 April 11th, 2020, 02:44 PM

Sometimes I design them hard to make it more of a challenge, the play tests ensures that they are not impossible to win.

Sounds like a good replay ability aspect and therefore I attained one of my design goals.

Ts4EVER · #6 April 11th, 2020, 02:58 PM

Alright then. If anyone manages to win it, please give me some pointers.

DRG · #7 April 11th, 2020, 03:55 PM

Well it's turn 14 and I'm at the furthest V hex west. My scout teams killed the German Commander and the PzIV are sitting in the map hex they arrived in confused as to what to do next. I did some dumb things with my tanks that I regret but so far I am not unhappy they are confused

DRG · #8 April 11th, 2020, 04:59 PM

I ended up with a marginal Defeat but I was doing two other things as well so I can accept that but my rump wasn't handed to me steaming on a platter either . None of the German reinforcements made it to the front and the German commader was one of the first to go and I am in decent positions behind the lines so I can live with this

Ts4EVER · #9 April 11th, 2020, 07:09 PM

So basically you ignored the main position (that you are supposed to take) and drove behind them to kill the commander? And lost 11 tanks in the process, compared to two German ones? Alright...
And with that result you can advance in the campaign either.

DRG · #10 April 12th, 2020, 08:43 AM

That V hex was worth over 3x the ones on the main position and I thought getting behind would allow me to bypass the main defence but I got too cocky too early with the tanks but the advance scouts did their job.

However, yes, the marginal defeat did end the campaign and if I'd handled my tanks a bit better than I did I could have forced a draw and I would have advanced.

HOWEVER...... that did point out something unrelated to this campaign that I may investigate. I had restarted the autosave of that campaign and at games end, I got the message you see pasted into the results but then the game started to go through the procedure of updating unit experience then shut down which is what the Freyberg campaign did as well on the last node so I need to go back and see how that was put together as it may be possible to save it