PANZER CORPS BASICS BY PIOTR ‘ORLINOS’ KOZŁOWSKI

What’s new:

SPOTTING

FIGHTER TRAP

THE SAD STORY OF A LONELY T-34

GAMEPLAY EXAMPLE – ALBERT CANAL, TURN ONE, BEFORE MOVING

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Infantry

Wehrmacht Infanterie – the simplest of troops, with no special features or abilities.

There are cheap, mobile (with a move of 3) and can be upgraded to mighty

Grenadiers. I like to watch them destroy big scary tanks which wandered

into a forest.

Grenadiers – with only a move of 2, they are extremely slow on terrain with hills

or forests. They are very potent when fighting other infantry or tanks in close terrain.

If supported by artillery, they can even stand they ground to light and medium tanks

in the open.

Gebirgsjäger – a hard to pronounce name for

mountain infantry. These guys are generally

almost equal to plain Infanterie, with the same

price, move of 3 and minuscule difference to

other stats (they have +1 SA, -1 GD, +2 AD).

However, the biggest difference lies in their

movement type. Hills, mountains or high mountains do not slow

them down.

If equipped with trucks, they do not benefit from their special

movement on mountains, since they are limited by their means of

transport.1 Especially in the early war Gebirgsjäger are probably

the best candidates to go on foot. With trucks, they cannot move

through three hills in a row, but they can still move through two

hills or through one hill and two clear terrain hexes.

Pioniere – combat engineers. Their hard and soft attack is as good as of the

Grenadiers and they also have a move of two hexes. Their special ability is that they

ignore the entrenchment level of the attacked unit and so never suffer from rugged

defense. That makes them invaluable when attacking units in cities or fortifications.

They also get +5 to Attack when assaulting structures (forts, strongpoints), like

paratroopers. Since their ability to ignore entrenchment is not used when attacked, it

is better leave defense to plain Infantry or Grenadiers.

Fallschirmjäger – paratroopers. On the beginning of a scenario they are deployed as

transport planes they can jump out from – to any hex around the transport plane.

To deploy them on the ground on the first turn, they must be equipped with trucks.

To get into the air again, they must be moved on the airport hex (and lose their trucks

if they have any).

Just like Pionieres they have a fortkiller trait, receiving +5 to Attack, when assaulting structures

(forts, strongpoints).

After paradropping, they suffer from 50% suppression until player’s next turn.

This unit has lower Ground Defense than other infantry and has low Hard Attack, but their high

initiative and soft attack mean they can inflict serious damage to enemy infantry.

1 http://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=121&t=34451#p325498

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Brückenpioniere – bridge engineers. They allow passage when placed on a river.2

The icon of Brückenpioniere doesn’t change (unlike in Panzer General II) but the

unit itself acts as a bridge. When fighting on a river hex, they do not suffer any

penalties, but they are still weak and can be destroyed easily.

Kavallerie – cavalry. Infantry using horses as a means of transport, dismounting

before attack. Very mobile and with Spotting of 3, it’s a perfect cheap recon unit.

Low Ground Defense – but normal Close Defense – means this unit is better kept in

close terrain. Because of low initiative, it is better to soften its adversaries with

artillery before attacking.

Kradschützen – Born to be wiiiild… Ekhem, sorry. Infantry on motorbikes were

added in patch 1.10 and are a must in the deserts of Afrika Corps. Like Cavalry, they

have Spotting of 3, but better Ground Defense and Initiative of 3 makes them

superior to it. And their price is still rather low. They have cool looking sunglasses.

My opinion of this unit is that it is a little too overpowered, at least when used in vanilla campaign

or in Grand Campaigns. In the desert it’s a mobile, but delicate recon infantry.

Infantry special abilities – summary

1. Brückenpioniere can be used as bridges on rivers.

2. Pioniere and Fallschirmjäger have +5 to Attack when attacking forts and strongpoints.

3. Pioniere ignore enemy entrenchment and never suffer from rugged defense.

4. Gebirgsjäger, when without trucks, expend one move point when moving on hills or mountains.

They only partly retain this ability when using trucks (if moving through one or two hill hexes).

5. When attacking entrenched unit with any kind of infantry, the defender only gets half of

entrenchment value added to his defense (rounded down).

6. All Infantry gets +2 to Defense when fighting any anti-tank units (even self-propelled). In other

words, when attacking well entrenched AT, use cheap infantry instead of your precious King

Tigers!

2 http://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=26511

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Movement Extreme – or how I tried beating fsx’s animated gif3

3 http://www.designmodproject.de/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2031&t=27429&p=1163758#p1163758

1. Infantry with no transport can walk 3 clear hexes, or one clear

hex and one hill or forest hex.

2. Grenadiers can walk 2 clear hexes or can enter a hill or a forest

and end move there.

3. Gebirgsjäger with trucks are more limited in their move than

when on foot.

When entering mountains, they behave like any other infantry,

spending their whole turn to enter.

4. When entering hills, they are still limited.

5. Gebirgsjäger on foot are much faster on hills and in the

mountains.

6. They can move through 3 hills/mountains/high mountains in

just one turn…

…but they are still just as slow as normal infantry, when

dealing with forests.

7. When in trucks, units cannot enter thick forest or high

mountains.

8. It’s possible, when on foot, but takes all available move points

of any infantry.

9. The manual doesn’t mention it, but travelling on roads always

takes only 1 move point per hex – when on foot or in transport.

The railroads only speed up foot movement (to 1 move point

per hex) – they do not affect units with trucks.

Attention must be paid to road and railroad shapes – when

entering terrain from outside of the road, normal price of the

move must be spent. It is the same with bridges.

10. All infantry may travel using transport planes (Ju 52)…

11. … but only Fallschirmjäger can jump out of them – other

units must be directly above an airport (including one with an

enemy flag).

Ju 52 can only carry troops without transport. If the player

tries boarding a plane with a unit with transport attached, he

will have to abandon the trucks (losing prestige he spent on

them).

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1. Trucks can drive 8 hexes on roads on any terrain, but only 4 hexes on clear terrain.

2. Sd.Kfz. 251/1 can drive 6 hexes on both roads and clear terrain.

3. Sd.Kfz. 250/1 can drive 8 hexes on both roads and clear terrain, but is very expensive.

4. Sd.Kfz. 7, brought by patch 1.10 can drive 6 hexes.

5. The speed of trucks rapidly decreases in difficult terrain. They can only drive 2 hexes on

hills or forest,

6. while Sd.Kfz. 251/1 can drive 3 hexes,

7. Sd.Kfz. 250/1 can drive 4 hexes

8. And Sd.Kfz. 7 can drive 3 hexes.

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Close Defense and close terrain

In Europe almost all terrain is close, except for plains, countryside and fortifications. Cities, hills,

mountains, forests – they all mean close quarter fighting and heavily cap initiative of all troops –

except for the infantry. They also provide good basis for entrenchment, except for swamps. African

environments are not infantry friendly, with only jungle giving good cover.

Close Defense is used by a unit when surprised by

rugged defense, ambushed or fighting with infantry in

close terrain. When any unit except infantry – for

example a tank - fights with infantry – infantry attacks

Close Defense of the opponent. At the same time, the

opponent fights against infantry’s ground defense – that

is, a much higher stat.

This is why it is so dangerous to attack entrenched

troops in cities or forests, or leave a tank in such

environments. A tank with good Soft Attack will still

heavily wound infantry unit, but will take tremendous

losses itself. And repairs will be much more expensive.

When infantry fights other infantry in close terrain, both units use Close Defense of their opponents.

Urban fighting can be deadly for both sides and it is recommended to use artillery support on such

occasion. Troops with defense heroes are also a good choice.

Close terrain or open terrain?

When I only started to learn good tactics I always avoided leaving my infantry in the open. If they

ended their move in a city or forest, enemy tanks would either not touch them at all or cripple

themselves if attacking. Yet, in the early war (when there are no advanced tanks with extremely high

initiative and soft attack, which shred infantry to pieces in open terrain) and when faced with mixed

troops, it might sometimes be better to leave them in the open.

One reason might be closing gaps in defenses. Obviously, Wehrmacht, even defended by artillery, will

not perform on the same level as tanks, but it is much worse to allow the enemy to penetrate one’s

flank and strike precious artillery. Of course it’s better to think in advance and not allow such

situations to happen.

Also, if you expect to be

attacked by a unit with very

high hard damage but low

soft attack – which means

high damage to your

precious tanks – it is often

better to sacrifice

cheap infantry.

Especially if it lures the

enemy tank to end its move

in close terrain. On the

following turn, you might

get your sweet revenge…

When, for some reason,

I need to leave my troops

without or with minimal

artillery support and they

are faced with several

enemy infantry, it is

The German Infantry in the open will take little casualties while inflicting huge

damage in return.

The Infantry in the forest will be loose almost half strength after only one attack.

In both cases the first French strike will benefit best from Massive Attack bonus.

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sometimes better not to enter close terrain. German infantry generally have higher ground defense than

their French or Russian counterparts, but they all only have Close Defense of 2. A veteran German

unit, especially with few stars and overstrength will deal well in the open with Russian Regular or

basic French Infantry. Leave them in a forest, let enemy surround them (cancelling all high initiative

benefits) and they will die shortly after, unless a series of very lucky dice rolls happens.

On the other hand, when dealing with a heavily suppressed enemy infantry (which will retreat after

next ground attack) it is often best to attack it in such a way so as to make it retreat to close terrain. If

left with little strength points, it will be easy to finish for another infantry unit.

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Zone of Control

One of the features that, to my knowledge, has never really been explained in the manual, although it

is very probably well known to those who play wargames. To quote Wikipedia45

,

In board wargames, zones of control (ZOC) represent the tiles adjacent to tiles

occupied by objects. For example, in hexagonal tiled maps, the six hexagons

adjacent to the hexagon occupied by a unit would be considered to be in its

“zone of control.”

Zones of control commonly are used to represent the portion of the map over

which a military ground formation has a direct influence, due to the range of its

weapons and the distance its sub-units may deploy from its center of gravity.

The consequences for gameplay are as follows:

1. Ground units must always stop, when entering a hex adjacent to any enemy ground unit, no matter

how many movement points it has left.

2. It may move again on the next turn, but if it wants to “stick” to enemy unit, it will only able to

move one hex.

3. A unit with high Movement may be able to break away from the enemy, circle him and flank.

That’s what makes those T-34’s so dangerous (at least for me, because I often forget to cover all

flanks and end up with a Russian tank decimating my precious artillery). Recon units, with their

segmented movement, are of great value in such maneuvers.

4. The rules of Zone of Control allow the player to effectively trap enemy units, by surrounding them

with one’s own or using impassable terrain. After depleting ammo and fuel with strategic,

even a monstrous KV tank will be harmless.

A unit adjacent to 1 enemy unit only gets approximately 60% of replacements, surrounded with 2

units – get around 30-40%. Being surrounded by 3 units (including air, if it’s not raining

or snowing) means no replacement nor refuel possible.

5. Air units cannot be trapped, since they do not exert Zone of Control, over either ground or air

units. Still, they can fall prey to Unexpected Encounter.

6. If a unit goes recklessly into terrain covered with Fog of War and tries moving through a hex with

a hidden enemy unit, it is ambushed (the planes have an Unexpected Encounter) and combat

ensues – with ambushed unit getting Initiative lowered to zero and using the (usually very low)

Close Defense stat even when fighting in the open, while the attacking unit gets +4 to Defense.

When I started playing Panzer Corps, I generally understood the Zone of Control concept when

moving my units, but I did not really embrace it and was unable to use it to my advantage. I still often

tend to place unit in small, tight groups, rather than build an efficient, long front – which allows the

player to encircle enemy units, while escaping flanking maneuvers oneself.

4 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_of_control

5 The Zone of Control image taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Zone_ob_Control.jpg, free to use as of

author permission.

An ugly, tight group. A tank sits in a forest for no

apparent reason, the infantry is in the open.

Bad, bad, terrible.

One of my favorite ways of creating an “effective”

front! I used to make this mistake a lot and still

sometimes do.

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Not ideal, but a much better solution. Units

occupy proper terrain and are spread over wider

area – and all, except one, have artillery cover.

The little brave PaK 36 covers most of the north

and north west flank. Unfortunately, it doesn’t

have artillery support, but its positioning lets it

control more terrain. Enemy tanks will hesitate

to attack it and if they do, AT unit will take

much of their strength. When dealing with lots

of infantry, Grenadiers might be used instead.

The color red indicates areas which would

allow enemy to attack artillery units. Such

maneuver is possible from the west – but it will

not happen if the area has previously been

cleared – or if it is an edge of the map.

The color yellow indicates hexes through which

enemy units can penetrate my defenses, but it

would take them 2 turns – first to travel to the

hex adjacent to the yellow, second to move

further inside and attack artillery. It should be

easy to suppress and force retreat before that

happens.

Caution: a human player in such situation

would probably use the special move of his

recon units and be able to attack in one turn.

The next turn – units moved from their previous

positions.

Again, I leave west and northwest defenses

open, hoping no units are coming from there.

The front line is even wider now. Little PaK is

on his own again, partly covering northern

approach.

I am not sure, if it is the best solution, but I

often find myself using towed AT in that way.

They are slow when towed, so hard to position

in the front – but they are great at protecting my

flanks from fast tanks. The don’t do so well

against enemy infantry, but since it is slower, it

is easy to change unit positioning before

soldiers arrive.

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Spotting

Although it’s possible to play Panzer Corps without Fog of War, it’s much more fun to use this

feature. When you don’t know where the enemy is, good reconnaissance is half success. It also applies

to enemy units. What they don’t see, they won’t attack.

The basic value of Spotting for most unit is

2. Most of AA and AT units have only 1,

recon units and cavalry spot 3 hexes ahead.

This means, that a unit should be safe if

placed 3 hexes away from tanks or

infantry. (Russian conscripts only have

Spotting of 1 and thus usually attack

blindly well defended positions).

Recon units might not seem much, if you look on their combat stats, but they allow the player to see

what the enemy is up to. And when you do know – you can try to ambush him.

Fighter trap6

On the first picture the Dingo recon unit spots

an undefended Stuka. Or so he thinks. The AI will send his

fighter to destroy it, but will first have to deal with the

fighter escort, which will partly destroy, partly suppress

the enemy fighter. Only what remains will attack the

Stuka. Obviously it is only a good tactic, if your escort

fighter is much better than the AI’s, and the escorted

bomber is cheap or won’t take serious damage.

Mind you, this tactic only makes sense at the beginning of the war, when enemy fighters come

in small numbers and are weak. I had used it one time in Reims in DLC ’40 and it worked great…

until more fighters came and shoot my Stuka to pieces. She will be remembered.

When you are yourself dealing with enemy bombers

escorted by tough fighters, one of the tactics (except for

only using the AA guns) is to attack the bomber with at

least two fighters. The first one (the toughest plane, maybe

with a Defense hero – or a plane which you deem

disposable?) will take the escort’s beating. The rest will be

able to finish the bomber in peace.

On the other hand, if you have a well overstrengthened bomber you really want to escape unscathed,

it might be worthwhile to use more than one fighter as an escort.

The picture on the right shows an even better tactic – luring an enemy bomber to attack a Panzerjäger

(which has poor Air Defense). The bomber will first run blindly into fighter escort, than be shot by the

AA gun. Little of it will survive and will probably be too suppressed to deal any damage.

6 http://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=121&t=36868&p=347020#p346911

Safe Unsafe

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The sad story of a lonely T-34

What the T-34 sees:

“We are peaceful soldiers,

we won’t do you any harm!”

The truth behind the lies.

The horrendous murder of T-34. Hey, he just

wanted to make friends…

This silly story was originally supposed to be

an exaggerated example of how to lure a T-34 to attack an

innocent looking infantry unit in open terrain. The tank was

supposed to drive up right to the infantry.

In fact, I have found out, that tanks and recon units, despite

not knowing what awaits them behind the unit that lures

them – automatically try to attack it from the flank. Here,

I exploited this behavior by putting the 88 gun in AT mode,

thus wrecking the T-34. If I didn’t, the T-34 would at the

last moment change its mind and attack the artillery,

instead of infantry.

The example is obviously unrealistic. In normal game,

there would usually be some close terrain nearby. It would

then be best to lure the tank onto it, so another infantry unit

could inflict high casualties on it on the following turn.

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Gameplay example – Albert Canal, turn one, before moving7

7 I played using Deducter’s mod, so there are few differences to vanilla game here (like a Stug IIIA, in vanilla I would use a Sturmpanzer I), but they don’t matter much. The desert camo on BF

109 is just cosmetic – I wanted it to stand out graphically, when other BF planes become available.

This time, a real game scenario example, Albert Canal from

DLC ’40.

The recon unit has already moved and uncover much of the

fog of war.

I put both my Gebirgsjäger to the south, to cope with hilly

terrain. The Grenadiers are in the clear; I will probably

move them to the front, since in the early war they can deal

with tanks even in the open – and are too slow on the hills

or in forests.

The artillery I try to put in front, so it can immediately

advance and cover faster units, like tanks – which stay in

the back at the beginning. The same with the 88 gun.

I have to admit that in the north I do not really have any

brilliant idea of how to proceed. The same with Pioneers –

they are not positioned optimally. They might move to deal

with the town next to the recon unit.

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Gameplay example – Albert Canal, turn one, after moving

The units have moved. One of the north infantry moved to

forest next to the town objective and attacked infantry

there, after two artillery barrages. The enemy infantry

escaped south, to be swept by Grenadiers.

Soon after, Grenadiers took the city objective. The infantry

in the forest remains with no support, but enemy infantry to

the north is too weak to attack it and no tank will dare

attack in close terrain.

The artillery to the north might will probably avoid attack,

since infantry won’t be fast enough and a tank would have

to go through forest first, slowing it down. Still, it’s

a gamble.

Panzer IB have taken the airfield, but will have to get

support soon, when the AI tries to take it back. I hope no

plane will attack the auxillary AA gun in the truck. At this

moment, it’s out of sight.

To the south: Gebirgsjäger on the hill decided to avoid

attack now. The one in the clear is backed up by two

artillery units. 88 AA covers two other AA units in trucks,

but it doesn’t cover Pioneers on the hill. They are covered

by the BF 109 (encircled in green). Leaving them in a truck

on a hill is a huge risk, but I hope the overstrengthened

artillery will suppress any attacker.

The infantry won’t be able get to them in one turn, because

Gebirgsjäger will stop them – so artillery cover is really

unnecessary.

All my tanks are covered by fighters. The mobile artillery

unit – here, a Stug IIIA, normally – a Sturmpanzer with low

Air Defense – is covered twice.

Recon rules make my planes invisible to the enemy.

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Gameplay example – Albert Canal, turn two

The turn two just began. As predicted, an enemy bomber

tried attacking Panzer IVD and was stopped by the Bf 109.

It is escorted by a fighter which tried strafing infantry,

to no avail. I might attack the bomber with the fighters

which probably won’t take damage from inferior enemy

escort but after moving ground troops I will also be able to

use two AA guns.

To the south, Pioneers and Gebirgsjäger will be able to deal

with infantry and scale the hills. Panzer IVD will probably

deal huge damage to troops in clear terrain. I might utilize a

Stuka to finish one off. I might first move the 38(t) tanks

and the recon car to hexes adjacent to infantry, to gain mass

attack bonus.

In the following turns brave Mountaineers will probably

infiltrate west hills and Pioneers will deal with the city to

the south.

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Coming shortly (I hope):

1. Artillery – self-propelled or towed? When and how to use it? Why the size doesn’t always

matter (with ladies, your mileage may vary).

2. Rivers – crossing, bridging, pushing enemies into…

3. Suppression, retreat, surrender.

Much more…

Acknowledgements8

All Panzer Corps team. It’s not yet decided, whether they should be punished or praised for taking so

much of innocent people’s time.

Deducter, for making gameplay videos9 which taught me how to play Panzer Corps and creating

a customized e-file for Grand Campaigns10

which made me love playing with infantry – to the extent

of almost forgetting about panzers. And made my little Pak 36 the baldest of my army, since my

expensive tanks tend to flee at the slightest sight of danger.

Nomercu, for being my first multiplayer sparring partner. What a massacre.

Reinerv had less luck, since brief account problems led us to play the first Piątek scenario turn. Again.

And again. And again.

Everyone in Slitherine and Matrix forums, it is nice and educational reading you.

8 All graphics copyright by the Lordz Game Studio, used only for instructional purposes and usually low-res.

Schmeisser Tiger picture grabbed from: http://www.wartoyz.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=MS601160&Category_Code=

9 http://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=145&t=32405

10 http://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=147&t=30708