[updated 2 September 2023]
Theater of War Mission Pack: The Southern Fronts
Mission: Panzer Crossing
The 2 v 2 “Panzer Crossing,” on General (Hard) difficulty, with a CPU-ally, is going to be an exercise in futility now for most players—unless they want to use console commands to get some buffs.
The Germans here, usually six to ten minutes into the mission, start to swarm the map with what looks like way more than 200 pop cap of armor, scout cars, 251s, infantry, and mortars or mortar halftracks. And it’s not just a one-off allotment—they keep getting reinforced. I guess depending on the commander CPU-Germany uses, you can win sometimes (I have) with a defense that is focused just east of the right VP (ZiS-3s, HMGs, mortars, an Su-76), covering the lower exit from the German base, plus a bunker-building engineer (you will need a commander that offers this capability) at the middle VP, and an HMG to protect your Pak-43 below that middle VP.
But really you playing as one-half of the Russian co-op team are not given the tools for the job here. It’s just too easy for the Germans to attack your defense line all at once with tanks, scout cars, multiple mortar teams, grens and panzergrens, etc., and kill most or all of your ZiS-3 and HMG crews, which is basically game over for you. Also, your CPU-ally, if significantly challenged by the Germans, tends to collapse, leaving your left flank wide open.
Playing from the left base does not make things better. The CPU-ally seems hard-coded to play from the left base, so even if you shift it to the right base, it will continue to focus mainly on the left side of the map. Also, whether you play from the right base or the left, the CPU-ally will produce insufficient units and generally will not hold the left VP against opposition (i.e., it will only hold the left VP when you, over on your side, are getting beaten up by the full, concentrated German force).
In sharp contrast to General level, Conscript and Captain levels are too easy—and equally so, as if no one bothered to code any difference between them. The Germans come out early with a bunch of infantry, but once you’ve killed or routed them all, they become easily manageable, and you can cap points all the way to the German base. As long as you’re focused on holding VPs, you can expect to win in about 15 minutes with almost any strategy, even just bringing in conscripts.
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