How does the Prestige Slider work?
The Prestige Slider affects the number of Prestige Points awarded for capturing Victory Hexes as well as enemy "flags", so called "Map Prestige", during the course of a scenario. It also affects Prestige given during game turns, so called "Turn Prestige". Lowering the Prestige Slider will give you less Prestige meaning that if you set the Slider to 0, you won't get any Prestige during a scenario, but you will be awarded Prestige after a scenario, so called "After Scenario Prestige" (provided that there is some to be had
and that your army value doesn't exceed the Prestige Cap for the next scenario).
Generally speaking reducing or increasing the Prestige Slider will impact your ability to buy units or upgrade units or refit units during a campaign.
If you want to set the Prestige Slider lower than 50, you need to type the new setting in the box (since it doesn't automatically go any lower than 50).
Please note that the manual gives the wrong information on this issue. Lowering the prestige slider makes the game
more difficult, since you will have
less prestige to do upgrades, buy new units etc.
How does the Prestige Cap work?
Basically, the Prestige Cap is a factor to limit the amount of Prestige you take through a campaign.
Effectively it only limits the amount of After Scenario Prestige.
If your
-
Map Prestige plus
- army value (
Army Cost) plus
-
Current Prestige ("liquid" Prestige you have available at the time for purchase, upgrades, etc) plus
-
Turn Prestige
exceeds the
Prestige Cap, then you will be awarded less
After Scenario Prestige, until it reaches 0.
The relevant data looks like this:
Current scenario: Approach to Stalingrad, VH prestige is 170 , All map prestige is: 350
Army cost: 10202 , Current prestige is 196
AI stance is Defensive
if BV: +1000, Viipuri 1942 , cap 6000, 12 turns prestige: 240
if V : +1500, Viipuri 1942 , cap 6000, 18 turns prestige: 360
if TV: +1500, Winter Storm , cap 6500, 24 turns prestige: 480
if Ls: +1500, Winter Storm , cap 3500, 24 turns prestige: 480
(taken from an Open General report, in Panzer General 2 it looks differently)
Examples:
(1) taken from the above:
350 +
10202 +
196 +
240 = 10988
No matter how, 10988 is far above the cap of
6000 so you will get none of
1000 After Scenario Prestige.
(2)
Current scenario: Lillehammer, VH prestige is 120 , All map prestige is: 170
Army cost: 2616 , Current prestige is 0
AI stance is Defensive
if BV: +1500, Sedan , cap 4000, 10 turns prestige: 60
if V : +2000, Sedan , cap 4000, 13 turns prestige: 82
if TV: +1500, Thermopylae , cap 4500, 15 turns prestige: 97
Ls: Loss , turn prestige: 97
170 +
2616 +
0 +
60 = 2846
According to the cap of
4000 your army is expensive, but not too expensive, so you will get some After Scenario Prestige:
4000 - 2846 = 1154 of the possible
1500.
How is Army Cost calculated?
Army Cost is a simple cumulation of all units which are
not
- starting units
- prototype units
- Overstrengthed
Starting and prototype units are usually free. Free means "not counting towards Army Cost".
There are special rules and setups which can make both types count towards Army Cost, but these are rare.
Overstrength can be done at Headquarters Screen. It spends Prestige to give a specific unit an additional Strength Point. This increases the cost of a unit accordingly (usually only the "non-free" units).
Strength Points can get destroyed and are never refited for free - a unit can only be refited up to its maximum (usually 10).
Speaking about Strength Points, some campaigns raise or lower the default (of 10). For example the campaign
Second Sino Japanese War sets unit Strength to 8 - this lowers Army Cost accordingly. It also means that units are only refited for free to this new "default" of 8 (instead of the usual 10).
The above assumes that campaign units are refited/repaired for free after each scenario (actually: at the beginning of the next scenario). The majority of campaigns grant free refit.
However, in some campaigns you might also come across a setup where units are not refited for free. In these campaigns, the Army Cost is calculated based on
- units which count against Army Cost
- the current Strength Points of each unit
Example, a unit which costs 120 Prestige (12 Prestige per Strength Point) but is currently at 5 Strength lowers the Army Cost.