Hard time on Ardennes Assault campaign

[nuNce]

Hello everybody,
I'm currently playing the AA campaign for CoH2 and seriously struggling to go ahead. I'm no great RTS player, but I've managed to complete CoH1 campaigns and CoH 2 Soviet Campaign without major hiccups. Actually the Soviet Campaign was quite easy on standard difficulty. So, since I've enjoy the time spent playing it I've bought Ardennes Assault. The issue I'm facing is that the campaign is really hard! I agree that some degree of added difficulty is quite welcome, but I've often found myself struggling with the skirmish-style maps where after 10 minutes the germans are swarming with Luchs and P4s while I still have M8s running around as my best vehicle. I've struggled a lot in the Bastogne Outskirts mission for example, where the enemy comes out with Tiger Aces in the first phases of the mission.

I've tried AI skirmishes outside the campaign and I fare quite well. Again, no great player and making a lot of mistakes, but I've found the American campaign to be frankly way too punishing on Standard difficulty. Has anything changed in the core game that may affect the campaign missions so badly? I don't feel like it is a L2P issue, but I'm open to discussion.

Thank you.

[Felinewolfie]

Still a L2P issue :(
Try to crew the AT guns laying about

[Felinewolfie]

Grats on owning and playind NSD44!!

[Jack Sparrow's Vindication]

I ran through it without issue when it came out. Tried to play it again and am struggling as well. I play against Expert AI, so I thought I'd plow through AA on Hard with no issue. I was wrong.

I may have ran through too carelessly and need to start over.

[Felinewolfie]

Originally posted by ☠ Jack Sparrow's Vindication:

I ran through it without issue when it came out. Tried to play it again and am struggling as well. I play against Expert AI, so I thought I'd plow through AA on Hard with no issue. I was wrong.

I may have ran through too carelessly and need to start over.

USF has been nerfed hard. It's multi stats flow into solo campaign mode, thus...
Campaign balance is affected.

[CompleteNutter]

Definitely Relic never thinks thru impact of nerfs on armies such as USF in terms of the campaign.However I have refinished the US campaign recently on expert so it is possibly,but its vital not to lose too many guys in the process(especially when vetted up) As a general rule i find that if you do the opposite of what they tell you in the walk thru prior to each mission, you do pretty well.also try doing either multiple saves of the game as you progress or restarting a mission when you screw up(literally practice each one til you get it perfect).Its a shame they don't allow coop versions of the missions or I'd offer to join and help you.The good news is what you learn on the campaigns does translate into better play thereafter(as youve learnt the counter to pretty much any play, including Tiger tanks etc)

[Mirage_Panzer]

I just hate the fact that Ranger company need actual cash, Judging from the stats and how people who had exp using it... fock, this is a p2w ♥♥♥♥ if u want to have some easier time with that campaign because Stock Companies wont do much

[Felinewolfie]

Originally posted by BaguetteTreeTank:

I just hate the fact that Ranger company need actual cash, Judging from the stats and how people who had exp using it... fock, this is a p2w ♥♥♥♥ if u want to have some easier time with that campaign because Stock Companies wont do much

P2W solo campaign?
Campaign is easy to win on hard with any other companies, dude.

[Lord of Dread]

I get what you mean. I can get maybe 3 or 4 battles into the campaign before all of my units are killed. And that's on normal difficulty. It sucks to have bought a campaign that you can't even play. If I drop the difficulty any lower I may as well not play at all, and I've been playing company for years and years.

[Son Joan]

The same problem here I have tried to play that campaign recently and I feel like I need to restart the campaign again because I don't have enough units to finish the most difficult missions in an optimal way.
I have sinned as a novice and I will have to start a new one being more careful not to lose troops or lower the difficulty level ...

[HoundEyeX]

On standard difficulty it certainly feels unbalanced and unfair. I’m not a slouch RTS player and finished the main campaign on hard, but… sometimes the AA campaign is straight up bugged.

Tonight I was playing a Tank Grab mission and repeatedly, over multiple mission attempts, the German side would capture a Stuart tank with was literally indestructible. I put a hundred AT and bazooka rounds into it while it happily mowed down my troopers.

At that point what else is bugged? I don’t think I should even continue. So fking frustrating.

[doomhammer48]

Originally posted by HoundEyeX:

On standard difficulty it certainly feels unbalanced and unfair. I’m not a slouch RTS player and finished the main campaign on hard, but… sometimes the AA campaign is straight up bugged.

Tonight I was playing a Tank Grab mission and repeatedly, over multiple mission attempts, the German side would capture a Stuart tank with was literally indestructible. I put a hundred AT and bazooka rounds into it while it happily mowed down my troopers.

At that point what else is bugged? I don’t think I should even continue. So fking frustrating.

I met this mission before. The M3 Stuart is bugged and indestructible.
"Focus on that M3 Stuart first. Get the rest of the vehicles later"

If you hunt and fuel that Stuart from the beginning of the game the German will have a headacke destroying it. I ended up throwing that Stuart into enemy base and let German play with it. You can just hammering German base and reduce their point down to zero.

And yes. It is BUGGED.

The OKW infantry in AA campaign will melt your infantry squad in second.
DO NOT ENGAGE all by yourself.

[Lord of Dread]

All of this could probably have been fixed if they allowed you to replay a mission instead of completely ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ your campaign over if you fail even once. AA's balance is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ awful

[Frost]

Originally posted by Lord of Dread:

All of this could probably have been fixed if they allowed you to replay a mission instead of completely ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ your campaign over if you fail even once. AA's balance is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ awful

Yeah, that sucks - although I really love the approach of Iron man mode in a campaign. But the campaign is too long, with too many surprises and also luck involved.
I can give two advices:
1. If you play a mission and you make a big mistake or lose too many men, kill the process of the game with ctrl+alt+del and start over. Do not wait until you actually lost the mission and get the summary.
2. you can find the savegames easily in your documents folder and save them away and replace them again, if needed.

I understand that this may sound like silly tactics, but I played the campaign on hardest difficulty so many times and it was nerve wrecking, because I could never finish it.

[Lord of Dread]

Originally posted by Frost:

Originally posted by Lord of Dread:

All of this could probably have been fixed if they allowed you to replay a mission instead of completely ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ your campaign over if you fail even once. AA's balance is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ awful

Yeah, that sucks - although I really love the approach of Iron man mode in a campaign. But the campaign is too long, with too many surprises and also luck involved.
I can give two advices:
1. If you play a mission and you make a big mistake or lose too many men, kill the process of the game with ctrl+alt+del and start over. Do not wait until you actually lost the mission and get the summary.
2. you can find the savegames easily in your documents folder and save them away and replace them again, if needed.

I understand that this may sound like silly tactics, but I played the campaign on hardest difficulty so many times and it was nerve wrecking, because I could never finish it.

I actually did this a few times, but I just got sick of it. I really want to play it but there's just too many obstacles considering how unbalanced some of the missions feel. Maybe I'll give it another try sometimes, but there's an early mission with an armour convoy down a road that just kicks my arse almost every time, and then not long after the campaign death spiral is in full effect. Such a shame.