Kampfgruppe Engel campaign

[Shoggot]

Hi,

 

is this campaign newbie friendly? I finished the first mission, did pretty well, just 15 of my men killed and lost no tanks, so I had German Major Victory. However, is the rest of the campaign newbie friendly? If not, should I start some other? I play on Veteran difficulty.

 

Thank you for responses!

[womble]

KE isn't a bad campaign for a newb. But it's not, I think, specifically designed to be newbie-tastic. Sounds like you're adopting techniques that are effective, so you should be fine pursuing it. At least you're not trying Courage and Fortitude for your first one: that's a real meatgrinder  To be complete, none of the campaigns (except the training campaign) are designed, as campaigns in other games often are, to introduce units and controls a bit at a time, ramping up size and difficulty as the player learns. Because we're generally dealing with at least quasi-realistic attack scenarios, as in real life they often start off with rather a bang, with a large "break-in" action.

Also, it's worth noting that the "difficulty levels" aren't about how hard the AI is to fight against, they're mostly about restricting the information available to the player(s). In some ways, Warrior and above are easier than Basic or Veteran, since the AI's artillery doesn't arrive as fast, and you can sometimes dodge the footprint by rapidly displacing when you see spotting rounds.

[Shoggot]

Thank you very much!

[landser]

Kampfgruppe Engel is a great campaign, probably my favorite CMBN campaign that I've played. I wouldn't call it newbie friendly per se, but that shouldn't put you off. If you play well enough that you only lost 15 men in the opening battle you should do fine playing through the entire campaign. That said, I see this campaign as more of an 'advanced' campaign, it is indeed very challenging. Keeping your armor alive is crucial to doing well later on. The opening battle -- the attack on the recon unit outside of town -- is the easiest of the lot, except perhaps The Last Kilometer, which poses it's own unique challenge and has the potential to be very difficult... or rather easy depending on the route the player chooses.

But regardless, I think it's certainly worth playing, especially as I give high marks to the authors for their unique and interesting missions which shouldn't be missed. I'm not an expert CM player, and I played through the campaign with two lost battles, minor defeats in the missions Guardian Angels and Deliverance, which was the final mission and a real bitch which I stood zero chance of winning, even with most of my armor still kicking.

The second mission is an attack on a town that was ostensibly screened by the force you defeated in the opening battle. If you can get through that one in good shape there's no reason not to keep on going. It's worth it.

I posted a few thoughts on this campaign here: Kampfgruppe Engel 

Spoliers warning of course if you click the link.