random campaigns are fun

[henri51]

I didn't even know that there were random campaigns, so I started the easiest one I could find (3rd Panzer First month). I just wanted to see what the play looked like, so I didn't bother to place the units and kept the original locations. This is not a bad choice for an advance on a wide front, but the German best units (a Pz IV platoon) is on the left wing and has to advance through open terrain followed by thick forested terrain, with its right flank unprotected because it is blocked for potential supporting units bu thick woods, so for all practical purposes this platoon is on its own. The Germans have mortars and 100 mm artillery and there are 4 objectives, three of them on the left flank. The other German units include a PzGr squad with halftracks, a PzII platoon, an armored car platoon on the extreme right flank followed by two Pz III tanks, and another PzIII platoon in the center, all of the latter being able to apply some mutually supporting fire (which was done much during the game).

To make a long story short, fighting began in the center and on the right where the terrain was more open, and artillery was called in when the situation demanded it. A more prudint approach would perhaps used some smoke, but I did not.

The PzIVs on the left advanced through the open terrain without meeting any opposition and went through a line of thick woods. When they went to enter the next line of woods, my anus began to yell "bravo!" when I suddenly saw a half-dozen screaming Soviet infantry came running out of the woods in front and on the right of the PzIV platoon and almost surrounded my advancing tanks! The commander, a hardened veteran, immediately shifted the platoon into reverse while firing HE and machinegun fire at the charging Russians, pinning them enough so that no immediate damage was done to the tanks. The Russians were too close for artillery fire, and in some cases even for HE fire from the tanks!

The tanks backed up for one turn then stopped and each tank fired HE when the Russians were far enough and with machineguns when they were too close. One Soviet squad was actually right behind one of the lead tanks, but was machinegunned by a tank behind. When the smoke cleared, none of the tanks had fortuitously been damaged. Fortunately for the tanks, the Russians were charging through some open terrain.

There was an objective nearby and this tank platoon captured it when they were near enough, and I thought they had a clear way to the next two objectives, near a bridge in the top left corner of the map. However when they advanced it turned out that the woods on the left of the first objective was hiding another half-dozen Soviet infantry who were now on the flank of the advancing tanks. The tanks immediately began firing on every Russian in sight while the tank commander hurriedly called in mortar fire, which fortunately was available right away. Caught in fire from 4 tanks and mortar fire, the Russians were sent to ground and killed again without harming the tanks.

There was a lot of other fighting, but none as desperate as the above. When the scenario ended, the Germans had a legendary victory, and had lost a halftrack and a squad. Another halftrack and a few wounded soldiers were recovered. The PzIV platoon had killed 22 enemy squads and had won two Iron crosses! A bunch of lesser badges had been won in a very fun battle.

I had intended to play only the first few moves to see how it looked, but the battle became so interesting that I played it all the way through. WHEW! What a ride[:'(]

[HintJ]

Yes they are fun!

[rickier65]

ORIGINAL: henri51

I didn't even know that there were random campaigns, so I started the easiest one I could find (3rd Panzer First month). I just wanted to see what the play looked like, so I didn't bother to place the units and kept the original locations. .........

I had intended to play only the first few moves to see how it looked, but the battle became so interesting that I played it all the way through. WHEW! What a ride[:'(]

Great - Glad you enjoyed the first battle!

thanks
rick

[spellir74]

Yeah, that sounds like a good one.

[Commanderski]

I've played 3 out of 4 battles of that campaign so far and it's really good. You have to do some thinking and planning as victories are not guaranteed and unit losses are not easily replaced. You may want to think about moving some units around from their starting point in the other battles, I won't go into detail in order to not spoil anything but the the default setup is not always healthy for the troops..[:)]

I also like the detail of the graphics not only in this campaign but overall. I love the clouds and sky, the way they did the moving water for rivers and seeing tree stumps and piles of logs are neat too.

[henri51]

ORIGINAL: Commanderski

I've played 3 out of 4 battles of that campaign so far and it's really good. You have to do some thinking and planning as victories are not guaranteed and unit losses are not easily replaced. You may want to think about moving some units around from their starting point in the other battles, I won't go into detail in order to not spoil anything but the the default setup is not always healthy for the troops..[:)]

I also like the detail of the graphics not only in this campaign but overall. I love the clouds and sky, the way they did the moving water for rivers and seeing tree stumps and piles of logs are neat too.

Yes, and I did move some units far from the starting points in some cases, but I won't give details so as not to spoil the fun, but there are a few cases that are fairly obvious if one bothers to read the briefing.[;)]

In the above case, it is fairly clear that my starting strategy of leaving everyone where they were could have seriously backfired because of the lack of mutual support for my PZIVs and driving them through heavily forested terrain without infantry support. One of the obvious strategies would be a long looping approach on the right flank with or without a bit of support through the center, but that too would have its gut-wrenching moments.[:'(]

Henri

[Zakhal]

Longer approach with right flanking came to my mind too when reading the text.

Does the random campaings have unit upgrade/purchase like in steel panthers?

[henri51]

This campaign has only one month so although there'd are replacements, no upgrades. I don't know about other campaigns.

[Erik Rutins]

In the longer random campaigns you do receive reinforcements and equipment upgrades, though these are historical upgrades rather than by player choice.

I'm glad you are all enjoying the campaigns. The 3rd Panzer campaign is one of the best and combines a mix of random and historical battles, so that it's a bit different every time, but stays on the historical track.

Regards,

- Erik

[apd1004]

I'm playing the same campaign and am also on the very first battle. I was having great success eliminating Russian infantry as well, until I ran into a KV-2 sitting on some high ground on the far right (south) edge of the map. If he was any closer to the map edge he would have fallen off. Most of my force was on the left (north) side of the map clearing the objectives along the river when one of my SdKfz 222's spotted the KV. As I maneuvered the PzIV's on it, they took fire from a previously undiscovered 45mm ATG also along the south edge but a little further east in the woodline, and from a half dozen or so T-26's along the east edge of the map that were also unseen previously. Two of the PzIV's were quickly knocked out and the other two routed. So much for the only tanks with a remote chance of doing any damage to the KV. The T-26's also knocked out 2 of the PzII's, and the KV-2 got one of the PzIIIE's. In about 3 turns the battle quickly went from good to bad, but I liked the way it turned from an armor vs infantry slaughter fest into a tank battle where the Germans were definitely out gunned.

Not sure if you missed the KV-2 and the T-26's or if the first battle of the campaign is one of the random battles and I just got (un)lucky and got the KV-2 & T-26's when you didn't.

Cheers

[Commanderski]

In my first battle there was one or two T26's, and a couple of BT's, I definetly didn't see any KV's...lucky for me. That's one thing I really like about this, as Erik said it's never the same game twice.

[henri51]

I don't remember seeing any KV1 in that scenario, and I remember seeing only one enemy tank. This is the scenario with a bridge with two nearby objectives on the top left of the map and a church on the top right of the map? I don't remember for sure but maybe I was playing on easy, and it sounds to me like you were playing on very hard or something...

Henri

[apd1004]

It was actually a KV-2, and where he was at he was very difficult to see. Same map, same battle, and I was playing on normal level. I have not looked at the campaign in the editor to see what level of randomness is built in to the Russian forces for the first battle.

Here is a screenshot of where the KV-2 was when I discovered him. As you can see, he is right on the south edge of the map. Not sure if he entered there after scenario start or if he was there the entire time. Most of my force was located around the center of the map and north from there. He was spotted around turn 12 or so.

[henri51]

OK I checked it out again. (I was playing at work on another computer so I can't check the actual game). This is a random scenario so thee is some variety to be expected. And One can choose the difficulty level among three possibilities, and I was probably on "easy" since I originally only wanted to get a flavor of the campaign.

Note that when you generate the campaign, it is then added to the list of normal campaigns, so if you were unlucky and yours was a bit too much, you could try generating it again, or playing it at an easier level.With the forces that the Germans have, facing a bunch of enemy tanks including a KV1 (not to mention a KV2) in addition to the hordes of Soviet infantry could make for a rough ride...[X(]

Henri

PS: Wow, from your picture he seems to have popped out right on your right flank! If that is the case it would have been troublesome for me since my PzIVs were on the opposite side of the map.

[apd1004]

I had split my PzIV's into 2 teams. The platoon leader and his wingman were on the opposite side of the map and the other pair was along the main east-west running road in the center of the map. As soon as I spotted the KV-2, one of the PzIV's was able to fire on him with HEAT and actually got a track hit, but he could still rotate in place. I rushed the other PzIV's down there, but then I started to take losses from the hidden gun and the T-26's and my attack fizzled. You can see a dead 45mm ATG just in front of the treeline above the KV-2, and a T-26 up by the objective flag at the church. That T-26 had a couple good shots and whacked one of my PzIII's.

Even though I got my butt whooped, I still had fun with it. I was going to re-start it but I may just play it out and see if I can still take the objectives up along the river.

[Commanderski]

I was playing on Normal level and I know I didn't see a KV. It's possible that it may have been there and was knocked out by my artillery or they may randomly appear.

No matter if you win or lose, these are fun.

[junk2drive]

Forrest said "life is like a random campaign, you never know what you're gonna get"

[henri51]

ORIGINAL: apd1004

I had split my PzIV's into 2 teams. The platoon leader and his wingman were on the opposite side of the map and the other pair was along the main east-west running road in the center of the map. As soon as I spotted the KV-2, one of the PzIV's was able to fire on him with HEAT and actually got a track hit, but he could still rotate in place. I rushed the other PzIV's down there, but then I started to take losses from the hidden gun and the T-26's and my attack fizzled. You can see a dead 45mm ATG just in front of the treeline above the KV-2, and a T-26 up by the objective flag at the church. That T-26 had a couple good shots and whacked one of my PzIII's.

Even though I got my butt whooped, I still had fun with it. I was going to re-start it but I may just play it out and see if I can still take the objectives up along the river.

I tried the scenario again (at easy). This time I decided to try the large loop along the right wing. This time two ATGs on the right flank knocked out my 3 armored cars and one PzIV before I could get a bead on them. The first flag on the right had a half dozen Russian infantry and I made the mistake of sending the remaining 3 PzIVs in the heavy woods after them. My own artillery knocked out one of my PzIVs, another was killed by a charge of 3 Russian infantry, and the last abandoned his tank and ran away ("If ve are goink to use der artillery on our own panzers, I am goink to join das infantry!". At least one other vehicle was probably knocked out by my own artillery - I have to learn to keep my units further away from that artillery [:o].

Henri

[Commanderski]

In that battle I also lost one of my tanks to my own artillery. It was down by the church and my tank was beside the church and the arty was hitting the woods across the road when all of a sudden my tank went up in flames. I had to replay it over a couple of times to see what happened. One stray round came down right on top, the rest of the artillery was well away from my tanks.

[kfmiller41]

In my first game I lost 4 of 5 tanks to a Rocket Barrage on turn 3. Damn hard way to learn to move fast as there are no spotting round for rockets[:D]