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Here's a scene from one of my battles that stuck in my head. Originally posted at The Depot.

Three Panzerfaust 100 teams now lay twitching in the road. Their attempt to find out if the way for the relief force was blocked succeeded, but it cost them. They were gunned down by two Hellcats covering the road south. One team managed to get off a round at the American vehicle, but it strayed wide as a burst of .50 cal fire tore the team to bits.

Suddenly, the southernmost Hellcat sees a monsterous shape loom out of the smoke to the south! The steady crackle and snap of small arms comes from that direction also, as the GI's fight to delay the relief force.

CRACK! The 76mm gun goes off and the round streaks down range. It glances off of the armored behemoth with a shriek of metal and sparks.

The King Tiger commander gives the command and the massive 88mm gun recoils. The round (85% hit chance) sizzles past the American vehicle into the treeline, even as the Hellcat fires again. Another hit on the King Tiger! The German beast shrugs off the impact, and fires at the Hellcat again (92% hit chance!).

The unstoppable, high-velocity round rushes past the Hellcat, gouging a massive furrow in the dirt behind the tank destroyer as it skips like a stone into the trees behind it. A foot-wide pine slowly begins to topple as the German tank fires in the 100 meter slugfest.

The high-velocity 76mm gun again spits out the deadly APCR shell, and again it spalls off of the German machine's armored menace.

KABOOM! The 88mm rips downrange (99% hit chance). The American vehicle is slammed backwards and explodes, crewmen leaping for safety.

A minute later the King Tiger's front hull is gouged in a shower of hot metal fragments as it advances up the road past the burning Hellcat. It seems another American Hellcat wishes to try the King Tiger's strength. The German tank fires its cannon (76% hit chance) but misses the US vehicle as another 76mm round slams into the front turret armor, yet fails to penetrate.

The second German round screams in, slamming into the tank destroyer and sending its turret tumbling through the air, trailing crewmen and fragments of wiring and metal. At the same moment, another impact rocks the King Tiger from the front left. A rocket hit! A high explosive round is blasted into the trees, sending debris and bits of GI everywhere.

Another bazooka rocket slams into the German brute, burning a hole that is not deep enough into the turrets armor. A second HE round is enough for the American infantry, and they flee, as a second King Tiger emerges from the smoke to squat sullenly next to the first.



At least seven hits on that King at 100m or less, five with APCR. Hehehehe!


Goblin

Hey gobby your post here is making my mouth water,HA HA HA you tell it just like I do buddy, its soo much more than a game!! RT

Thanks bro!

I had my cheeks puckered trying to get past those Hellcats and rescue Stumph. The KT in question had a crew with 84 kills at the time, and I really did not want to lose them!


Goblin

ORIGINAL: Goblin

Thanks Alexandra!

Any chance of getting a AAR or two from a favorite battle in the campaign?[:)]


Goblin

I can't promise, but I'll try. It's hard to do my type of AAR and keep an eye on a toddler

Understood! Got two wee ones myself.[;)]

Goblin

Ok, I'm through Poland with 4 DVs. I liked all the battles, and in the one where you defend, I took 85! prisoners. (123 total, in all 4 games. Yes, I track that, as it's harder, IMO, to take prisoners than to kill units).

So, next up is France. Here's my core after Poland:

HQ
Co HQ
3 SS Rifle Platoons
4x SS Rifle Squads
1x Engineer Squad (This used to be the MG team)
1x Flamethrower Squad (These were made from the 3 team independent ATR platoon, converted over, and each platoon got one).

1 Pz Platoon
5xPz-IIIe

1 Mortar Platoon
1x FO
8x81 mm Mortar (This was a consolidation, then upgrade of each platoons platoon mortar, plus extra bought mortars, under the FOs command. It's something I've had success with in the past, and is working well again. Eventually, these will all be tracked mortars)

1 AT Platoon
2x88mm AT (I may convert these to armor of some type, debating that).

ORIGINAL: Alexandra

Ok, I'm through Poland with 4 DVs. I liked all the battles, and in the one where you defend, I took 85! prisoners. (123 total, in all 4 games. Yes, I track that, as it's harder, IMO, to take prisoners than to kill units).

That was my scenario! Too cool! 85, eh? That rocks!


Goblin

Thanks for this campaign. I took a break from computer wargames and went to live on line games for a few years and now i am back to wargames again. I still have the original steel panthers 2 laying around somewhere but couldnt play it much (comp and stability issues) a few months back i found steel panthers world at war and jumped right back into wargaming again. I was usually playing strategic type game like east front and west front by gg and a few others games. This game now that it is stable and I dont have it dieing like the older versions makes me quite happy. I broke myself in on the game playing the Stalingrad Campaign, and a few of the scenarios. So far on the Das Riech i have scored dvs or mvs on all the scenarios and right now I am advancing on the bridge in France thanks for the fun I am enjoyings myself [:)] oops finished it...a draw ..dang.

I just started the Das Reich campaign and I was unable to purchase a Company of SS infantry soldiers as my core force. When i clicked on the small box to purchase the SS units the majority of the soldiers were in red and unavailable. I am wondering if this is correct? I purchased regular infantry soldiers as a company and started the first scenario. Any suggestions?

Thanks

Things are a bit tricky when you have True Troop/Rarity ON set in your preferences.

Items show up in red when the AI has decided that those units are unavailable (Rarity ON)

I might suggest to set just Rarity OFF (leave True Troop ON) if you are unfamiliar on how those setings work.

hi Nomad, I am going to start the game again and I read the scenario briefing again and do what you say, thanks for the tip

Nomad has it correct. Turn Rarity OFF for the campaign. Its very buggy, and most players do not use it. I believe the OOB team recommended not using it for 8.3, IIRC.

Goblin

Hi again guys.

Here's my update:

France: 3 more DVs. 39 French and 6 British Pow taken, then off to Yugo land, where we picked up 2 more DVs and a mere 10 PoWs. They didn't wanna surrender.

Also done the first Soviet Battle. DV again, and this was by far the easiest one yet. Though I do that my close support motorized mortar platoon was the main reason.

My infantry is the same as the last time I OOB posted. Mortars are all tracked, as is the FO. PzIIIs are h models, and my 88s have been changed to a pair of Mk IVe's.

You are definately The POW goddess, Alexandra!

I purposefully tried to get as many as possible after reading your post, and got 6, the rest of the entire campaign![:)]

Very nice job!

Goblin

Hmmph i just finished of defending the ammo dumps from the partisans and jumped to 43 and attacking pavlov but it wont let me upgrade to 43s equipment. Saw no panzer gs or tigers to use my replacement points on .... bummer when i had 500 may restart it from the save and check again..... fun campaign the human waves was a pain... two draws... and there casualtys exceeded mine on that single battle for my entire campaigne casualtys to date...

Thats a game engine limitation, Justa. The computer still counts it as the last month you fought in until you finish the battle you just started. At the end of that, you will be able to upgrade your stuff.


Goblin

Prolly should have put a pause scenario in kinda like stalingrads campaign has to allow us to upgrade , i suffered some casaultys defending the dump but no entire unit losses so five hundred pts were useless since i had already tailored my Kampfgruppe and i did suffer casualtys running to pavlov the 76s didnt faze the tiger auxiliary s much but they chewed up a few of my IV e "s and only had 300 points to rebuild after that scen(marginal V) first time thru. But all in all i am enjoying :0) My force consists of SS Rifle Platoon with mortars changed to motorized, couple of machine guns changed to 88 ats, atr s changed to stug 33s ,Forward obs, 4 mark IVs, extra group of special ops and an engineering squad. add edit, eek the southern salient is huge totally gulping up 512 rdram computer wants to go putt putt,prolly gonna have to save every turn....

how do i install this campaign and others?

There's a folder in your SPWaW directory called "campaigns"; extract everything from the .zip file into it.

Just started playing the first Das Reich battle. Aaaagh! Mines! Barbed wire! Bogged down troops! Spit flying as I urge them onwards through the barrages. Raus, raus! Haven't had so much fun against the computer in ages.[:D]

Why is there a 100pts a turn victory hex behind my deployment line? Seems I can't lose with that there.

The forts threw me completely. I assumed the Polish would be 35-45 exp, and that a few 37mm rounds bouncing off their bonces would suppress them until I got closer. Someone's been giving these guys extra training though. They don't suppress easy and they shoot better than I expected.[&o]
That's what comes of playing human opponents on Battle. I forgot the sneakiness of the scenario designer.
As it is I've only managed to destroy my first fort by turn 14, nearly halfway through the game, though I'm at the first defence line and the rest are going down now. I've got to name my guys so I can yell at them more effectively.
Lost more tanks than I wanted though. I only have 5 Czech tanks, but replacing the lost ones will cost me.
Fantastic campaign so far. Hats off to the designers.