Panzer General 3 strategy discussions

[Urban Ranger]

Is there anybody else playing this game? If so, what strategies do you use?

[Main_Brain]

Panzer General 3 or 3D?
If 3:
Western Assault or Barbarossa?

[Urban Ranger]

PG3: Scotched Earth. Well that is the US/Asia-Pacific name of it anyway. I guess the EU name for it would be Barbarossa. We also don't have anything called Western Assault, it seems that PG3D has already covered that theater.

[Main_Brain]

Ah okay :=)
As Germans I use my superiour Airforce to pummel the Russian (Arty) into the Ground. Coupled with the Great Artillery the Germans have (Selfpropelled preferred) you can with ease push a Armoured SPearhead to your Objectives.
Unfortunatly the Russian Tanks are (with few Exceptions) of the Same Quality, which you have to counter with Better Unit Leaders and the Forementioned Bombardments.

The Only Infantry you will ever need is a Pioneer or two, but no More, they just dont fare well against anything but entrenched enemy Infantry in Cities.

Air Superiority is Key for the German Player.

Which leads to the Russian Side:
Forego Airpower at all. You Planes mostly suxx0r Land Power is the Key. Tanks and Kata's all the Way. throw in a couple AntiAir and you are all Set. :=) (No Infantrie really needed, your Katas can suppress even the deepest entrenched Enemy.
In Campaign try to Level you important Leaders, beware of the Unit Restrictions though, what need is a 7-Star Leader for a unit with 2 Moves and 3 Fire Options?

[Urban Ranger]

Well I have only played campaigns and only the Soviets side. (I have played all the sides in PG3D, but the German campaign was rather silly).

My experience is you need air power. Even when your units are inferior to the Nazis, you can make it up by having more. AA is mostly useless except to defend important cities, since they have been greatly reduced in power from PG3D.

What I usually do is to have a core of two artillery units and a bomber unit. I use infantry units to hold cities I need to take mostly, and to provide close combat support. I always have one recon unit - they are handy to have, moreso when the leader has reached at least rank 6. Then I put in a couple of tanks as my hammer head, with one BT-7M sweeping up undefended objectives such as airfields and towns on the outside. Sometimes they net me nice bonuses such as new leaders.

If I think my base (only if it is a gold city though) will be under heavy enemy attack I will also put in an extra artillery behind the infantry to defend the city. The rest of the slots I assign to fighters. Leader type is not important here, though I will always assign all the rank 3 fighter leaders first.

I found rank 2 leaders are useless. I wouldn't use any except when I don't have a choice.

[Urban Ranger]

It seems that, if you push hard in the first scenariio to win four promotions, and keep winning major victories subsequently, you always get four promotions for each. That makes a massive difference.