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The gamble is close to paying off. Only at the last key point do I encounter resistance.

Obviously, the enemy was even more badly battered than I was.

My Heavy Panzer Platoon has a nasty meeting engagement with Soviet Infantry supported by ATRs in the woods at night, with no German infantry in support.

I order them to pull back and send my Pioneers up to meet them.

The final key point falls, but I still only manage a Draw, due to my casualty levels. None of my prime movers was lost however.

Back on the main OPs map, I see that there are still some big blue dots way up to the north, which I am still assuming must be my main objectives.

I will give it a go, but I may not have time to get up there and who knows what manner of enemy reinforcements are rushing towards me at this very moment? The Fog of War in this game is absolute.

The Replacements unit has vanished from the map, but you can see that my depleted infantry platoons are back at full strength.

I start to push north along two axes. My rather ambitious left pincer is immediately pounced on by the AI. This could get messy.

I note that my two Mark III tanks are Under Repair after their close encounter in the woods. I believe that the proximity to the repair unit is a key factor. Let's see if they are available for combat next turn.

I order my infantry to hide at the bottom left corner of the map, set my defensive fire zones and immediately request a cease fire...

The AI accepted my cease fire with 24 minutes remaining on the clock. This is lucky for me as recon now shows that I was facing at least on tank platoon.

Time to push my mech forces as fast as they will go up the other axis of advance, while pulling my infantry back into better defensive positions.

question, what did you do to prioritize my Pioneers for replacements and supply.

Unfortunately, my time has run out and I have suffered a defeat. The Ops map now shows all remaining enemy forces. Well, next time I can try a different plan...

From: Divisional HQ, SS 2nd Panzer Division
To: Commander KG Redmarkus
Subject: The attack on Pavlovka
Date Time Group: 0800/07/03/43

You are to immediately report to Divisional HQ for transportation to Gestapo HQ, Kiev.

If you are still in possession of your service pistol, you may wish to consider matters of honor!

Ende

Click on the name of the relevant Squad within the platoon and you will see an orange ! symbol appear. You can toggle this on and off. When it's on the Squad has been prioritized.

Note that the unit still needs to be adjacent to a supply or replacement unit or other non-priority platoons can still eat up all of your logistics support.

Im playing the same battle,I cant seem to get some units out of "reserve" mode,unable to move them at all[&:]

ORIGINAL: bairdlander

Im playing the same battle,I cant seem to get some units out of "reserve" mode,unable to move them at all[&:]

I guess you are referring to the units in the shaded area at the edge of the map?

The player can't decide when to 'activate' these reserve units. In fact, they represent units that are approaching the battlefield and I guess they are shown early so that you know where they will arrive.

These units activate automatically and when they do they turn bright red to indicate that they are now available.

It's not the best design feature ever made and I would prefer to have more time and more units to play with, but that's how it works at the moment.

I went through first 2 turns,taken Pavlovka and East Pavlovka,got major and minor victories yet when I start next turn they are in Russian hands[&:]I find it a lot easier as well to use "hidden" movement "pepper-potting" for my infantry.First battle 87 casualties,next battle 6 casualties.I am able to move the "reserve" units now.

Hi RedMarkus,

You appear to have a fair amount of play experience.

Are you able to provide a viewpoint on replayability of the campaigns?

I was specifically wondering if AI makes the same opening moves on repeated playthroughs or is there some variability with it's actions?

Cheers,
Lancer

ORIGINAL: bairdlander

I went through first 2 turns,taken Pavlovka and East Pavlovka,got major and minor victories yet when I start next turn they are in Russian hands[&:]I find it a lot easier as well to use "hidden" movement "pepper-potting" for my infantry.First battle 87 casualties,next battle 6 casualties.I am able to move the "reserve" units now.

I am only guessing, but I think that the final control of victory hexes depends on the relative states of the nearby units for both sides. 87 casualties is a lot, so it might be that even though you took the hexes, the game engine ruled that you didn't control the area in enough strength.

I have seen the opposite happen where I failed to take a victory location in the battle, but on the next turn it was showing as being under my control. Obviously, I damaged the enemy very badly, even though I didn't capture the ground.

ORIGINAL: lancer

Hi RedMarkus,

You appear to have a fair amount of play experience.

Are you able to provide a viewpoint on replayability of the campaigns?

I was specifically wondering if AI makes the same opening moves on repeated playthroughs or is there some variability with it's actions?

Cheers,
Lancer

Hi.

I have seen significant differences each time I play a campaign over from the beginning. For example, in the Axis Fall Blau campaign, the first time I played it I pocketed the Soviets on turn 1 and they immediately attacked into the pocket with KVs and T34s. The next time I played it I made exactly the same move and the Soviet AI attacked out of the pocket, this time with infantry alone. Then, on turn 2, having failed to break out, the AI again attacked into the pocket with the tanks.

So, quite impressive and very re-playable, IMO. The mere fact that the AI tried to break in/out impressed me. There are developers of strategic level games with counters that can't make that happen!

I would also add that the longer campaigns in which you have more units and more opportunities to try different approaches are likely to be the most re-playable.

G'day,

Thanks.

Good to know.

Cheers,
Lancer