Here we go Cracking again! Hyped for another series! :D I just beat it yesterday late at night. Logistics hanging on a long-distance thread, sending mobile troops into a middle of nowhere and feinting maneuvers with Rearguard are definitely the theme here. And lots and lots of specialist troops that you gonna lose and will have to replace and rearrange whenever you have a turn left. Also, air support is super useful in the desert, who would've thought? I've been scraping the barrel the whole time in terms of prestige points. RNG gods can definitely screw you in multiple scenarios here and in some of them using cards is pretty much a necessity again. There's not much left of my fingernails after chewing at them every time I had to hit a city with the RAF or Royal Navy hoping it won't turn to ruins. Crusader was definitely a tougher nut to crack. I was fortunate enough to have my troops in relatively good shape after Disaster in Greece, which on the other hand I had to restart many times over, and the German tanks lured by a Rearguard maneuvered right under the barrels of my artillery guns. When I reached Sidi Rezegh I pushed out of Tobruk with Set Piece attacks. But yeah, I can imagine that if your units are battered from previous missions, it might be nigh impossible to beat. Where I struggled the most was Epirus Offensive, possibly because I was just rusty, and a little unassuming scenario named El Agheila. I am really interested in what are you going to say about that one!
Crusader is absolutely a mission that punishes you for earlier losses! I lost all my NZ guys in Greece, and now replaying the campaign 😅 And Epirus is actually tough-ish, I've replayed it since the video, and not taking Korce on Turn 1 (which is a 50% roll) kind of puts the wrong kinds of gears in motion, and it's really hard to get everywhere on time.
Glad to hear I´m not the only one stuck at Crusader. It feels to me like the intention is to use only the bare minimum of prestige in the three missions of conference 4 and then spend all of it on Crusader to give yourself any chance of success. Thats probably also why these missions have a suspicious amount of side objectives that award prestige. Another well crafted DLC for this beautiful game. I like how its such a rollercoaster, at first you´re just walking all over the Italians, then you´re running away from the scary german panzer divisions and even the surprisingly decent italian tanks. And now in Crusader you still have sub par units and have to somehow achieve all of these objectives without the manpower reserves you had in Moscow 41. Looking forward to your way of cracking it and your thoughts on the later missions!
Yay, united in misery! 😅 I'm still banging my head at it, but I think this is an excellent place for using the Naval Bombardment card you get in Compass I.
@@Hexaboo l gave it another go and almost got it right this time. I managed to scrounge together some 500 prestige for conference 5. This was enough to get the new HQ up to level 3 in operations for feint attacks, patch up my New Zealanders from Greece and kit out the tanks with recon and AT specialist steps. My Indian troops where already extremely well equipped from the missions before with Gurkhas and Matildas, seriously these guys are your best troops in most of the early missions just because of the Gurkhas! I agree about holding on to the naval bombardment card but I found that the air attack card you get all the way back in Roads to Keren is even more effective here. Since all of the terrain is desert, air attacks suffer no hit penalty and with two air attacks (I bought another card for Crusader) and Rearguard + Feint Attack I managed to kill the german Panzers in the first two turns, at least on Classic. I didn't get a gold medal though because the guys encircling Tobruk will counterattack if you take Sidi Rezegh. Which is a hex with no cover... Haven't figured that one out yet.
Sidi Rezegh is indeed a bastard, and hard to keep! Crusaders does feel like a reckoning for everything you did prior to it! I am actually replaying the campaign up to Crusader, being as stingy with everything as possible right now (lost all my NZ troops in Disaster in Greece). Almost there, so there's a good chance tomorrow's stream will be about it!
Crusader: cracked with no cards! 😁 I'll talk about it in the next video, but essentially, the idea is not to lose to many of your troops before it, and to properly upgrade your XIII (previously WDF) HQ. Don't be stingy, having 9 CP and a low-cost Rearguard ability make wonders.
@@Hexaboo Amazing! I managed to beat it 100% but I used ALL of my cards (2x air attacks, naval bombardment and a truck card). My XIII HQ was decent except that I still had feint attack costing 3 points which made it very hard to effectively attack the german tanks. And now I´m stuck in El Alamein and really wished I still had that naval bombardment, which you actually don´t really need in Crusader if you can kill the tanks fast enough. El Alamein pulls a dirty trick on you. It brings back units from a previous mission and if you didn´t power them up there, they will be pretty much useless in El Alamein. But beefing them up in that previous mission is completely unnecessary! Well played, 2x2 Games, well played!
Oh yeah, it's kind of accidental, I just wanted a clip of a really difficult mission from Stalingrad, and then realised Abganerovo was in the middle. So maybe not so accidental after all 👽👽👽
@@Hexaboo More offerings pleases the ancient blood god that dwells beneath!! Now that I have you, small correction regarding Kubkub: It is in fact hills (HQs can't go into mountains). The issue is that you need a "not weak" unit with enough MPs and an active AP to enter a hex with an HQ. Which makes it a pain all the same. The move with the motorized brigade is sound advice none-the-less.
Chtulherovo, I know what you are! 😅 In Roads to Keren, it doesn't even have to be the motorised division. In my re-run, I pushed my Gurkha+Engineer infantry there with motor pool, and that effectively prevented the AI dick move.
Here we go Cracking again! Hyped for another series! :D
I just beat it yesterday late at night. Logistics hanging on a long-distance thread, sending mobile troops into a middle of nowhere and feinting maneuvers with Rearguard are definitely the theme here. And lots and lots of specialist troops that you gonna lose and will have to replace and rearrange whenever you have a turn left. Also, air support is super useful in the desert, who would've thought? I've been scraping the barrel the whole time in terms of prestige points. RNG gods can definitely screw you in multiple scenarios here and in some of them using cards is pretty much a necessity again. There's not much left of my fingernails after chewing at them every time I had to hit a city with the RAF or Royal Navy hoping it won't turn to ruins.
Crusader was definitely a tougher nut to crack. I was fortunate enough to have my troops in relatively good shape after Disaster in Greece, which on the other hand I had to restart many times over, and the German tanks lured by a Rearguard maneuvered right under the barrels of my artillery guns. When I reached Sidi Rezegh I pushed out of Tobruk with Set Piece attacks. But yeah, I can imagine that if your units are battered from previous missions, it might be nigh impossible to beat.
Where I struggled the most was Epirus Offensive, possibly because I was just rusty, and a little unassuming scenario named El Agheila. I am really interested in what are you going to say about that one!
Crusader is absolutely a mission that punishes you for earlier losses! I lost all my NZ guys in Greece, and now replaying the campaign 😅 And Epirus is actually tough-ish, I've replayed it since the video, and not taking Korce on Turn 1 (which is a 50% roll) kind of puts the wrong kinds of gears in motion, and it's really hard to get everywhere on time.
Glad to hear I´m not the only one stuck at Crusader. It feels to me like the intention is to use only the bare minimum of prestige in the three missions of conference 4 and then spend all of it on Crusader to give yourself any chance of success. Thats probably also why these missions have a suspicious amount of side objectives that award prestige.
Another well crafted DLC for this beautiful game. I like how its such a rollercoaster, at first you´re just walking all over the Italians, then you´re running away from the scary german panzer divisions and even the surprisingly decent italian tanks. And now in Crusader you still have sub par units and have to somehow achieve all of these objectives without the manpower reserves you had in Moscow 41. Looking forward to your way of cracking it and your thoughts on the later missions!
Yay, united in misery! 😅 I'm still banging my head at it, but I think this is an excellent place for using the Naval Bombardment card you get in Compass I.
@@Hexaboo l gave it another go and almost got it right this time. I managed to scrounge together some 500 prestige for conference 5. This was enough to get the new HQ up to level 3 in operations for feint attacks, patch up my New Zealanders from Greece and kit out the tanks with recon and AT specialist steps. My Indian troops where already extremely well equipped from the missions before with Gurkhas and Matildas, seriously these guys are your best troops in most of the early missions just because of the Gurkhas!
I agree about holding on to the naval bombardment card but I found that the air attack card you get all the way back in Roads to Keren is even more effective here. Since all of the terrain is desert, air attacks suffer no hit penalty and with two air attacks (I bought another card for Crusader) and Rearguard + Feint Attack I managed to kill the german Panzers in the first two turns, at least on Classic.
I didn't get a gold medal though because the guys encircling Tobruk will counterattack if you take Sidi Rezegh. Which is a hex with no cover... Haven't figured that one out yet.
Sidi Rezegh is indeed a bastard, and hard to keep! Crusaders does feel like a reckoning for everything you did prior to it! I am actually replaying the campaign up to Crusader, being as stingy with everything as possible right now (lost all my NZ troops in Disaster in Greece). Almost there, so there's a good chance tomorrow's stream will be about it!
Crusader: cracked with no cards! 😁 I'll talk about it in the next video, but essentially, the idea is not to lose to many of your troops before it, and to properly upgrade your XIII (previously WDF) HQ. Don't be stingy, having 9 CP and a low-cost Rearguard ability make wonders.
@@Hexaboo Amazing! I managed to beat it 100% but I used ALL of my cards (2x air attacks, naval bombardment and a truck card). My XIII HQ was decent except that I still had feint attack costing 3 points which made it very hard to effectively attack the german tanks. And now I´m stuck in El Alamein and really wished I still had that naval bombardment, which you actually don´t really need in Crusader if you can kill the tanks fast enough.
El Alamein pulls a dirty trick on you. It brings back units from a previous mission and if you didn´t power them up there, they will be pretty much useless in El Alamein. But beefing them up in that previous mission is completely unnecessary! Well played, 2x2 Games, well played!
2:15 Abganerovo cameo! xD
Oh yeah, it's kind of accidental, I just wanted a clip of a really difficult mission from Stalingrad, and then realised Abganerovo was in the middle. So maybe not so accidental after all 👽👽👽
@@Hexaboo More offerings pleases the ancient blood god that dwells beneath!!
Now that I have you, small correction regarding Kubkub: It is in fact hills (HQs can't go into mountains). The issue is that you need a "not weak" unit with enough MPs and an active AP to enter a hex with an HQ. Which makes it a pain all the same. The move with the motorized brigade is sound advice none-the-less.
Chtulherovo, I know what you are! 😅 In Roads to Keren, it doesn't even have to be the motorised division. In my re-run, I pushed my Gurkha+Engineer infantry there with motor pool, and that effectively prevented the AI dick move.
thanks for sharing. Agree that to raid the HQ in Keren scenario you need to buy specialist steps.
Glad you're doing cracking videos again. When is part 2 coming out?
Planning it for this Sunday! And it'll be everything up to and including Crusader :) Plus a Crusader complete playthrough video!
The "Book" symbol at Bengazi looks like a white surrender flag to me.
Love the videos btw.
I think this was a joke :')