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Independent CU's: To attach or not attach, that is the question...

 
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Independent CU's: To attach or not attach, that is the ... - 4/27/2018 8:41:02 AM   
Bobbybat

 

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Status: offline 		As the WA in the Breakout and Pursuit scenario (I presume this is the case in a lot of scenarios/campaigns) there are a lot of regiments and brigades and brigade groups floating around at the corps and army level...What is the different ways people use these combat units?

Do you typically combine them up into divisions?

Do you use them as part of attacking stacks? If so under what conditions? For example, is it a good idea to attack with a couple of infantry divisions from one hex and the same target also attack from another hex with say another infantry division and an armored brigade or cavalry group say?

Do you use them as a block in the line, albeit that they don't by themselves exert a ZOC like a division does?
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RE: Independent CU's: To attach or not attach, that is ... - 4/27/2018 10:31:05 AM   
LiquidSky


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It sort of depends.

Sometimes you really need the density to push forward. You need to cram every little bit of combat power you can in the attacking hexes. Sometimes even put divisions behind on RESERVE so they can join the fun.

Other times you may need to spread out and guard a fairly long unimportant stretch of territory. Breaking into France comes to mind.


The allies are blessed with a plethora of support units. They can pretty much do what they want. Engineers are good for attacking cities...but they also increase your ability to fortify. Which helps against counter attack. All those tank brigades can be broken up and stuffed into infantry divisions for more oomph. On a narrow front, they won't fit the stacking limit...but when the front grows longer.....well...

One trick I like to use them for is emergency reserves. You can turn them into a multi-role unit if all three elements are together in the same HQ. It ends up with 1hp, which you can use to move forward a hex.

Basically, I plan ahead for how I may use them.



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RE: Independent CU's: To attach or not attach, that is ... - 4/27/2018 10:51:44 AM   
loki100


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From: Utlima Thule
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quote:

ORIGINAL: Bobbybat

As the WA in the Breakout and Pursuit scenario (I presume this is the case in a lot of scenarios/campaigns) there are a lot of regiments and brigades and brigade groups floating around at the corps and army level...

...

Do you use them as a block in the line, albeit that they don't by themselves exert a ZOC like a division does?


Small addition to LS' answers.

Get them out of the Army command (unless they are construction engineering assets), unless a combat unit reports directly to the army (and it shouldn't) then they will not be assigned to combat, so at least your choices should be on map/attached to combat unit/left at the corps HQ. As LS says, all are valid .. depending

Last point is a bit of a myth so worth correcting. All on map units exert a ZoC in the sense of potentially imposing movement costs on the enemy. What is different for units < division is how they convert enemy hexes.

A brigade etc will only convert a hex it occupies (and then isolated hexes may flip to your control in the supply etc phases). A division will convert neighbouring hexes as long as these are not occupied or in an enemy ZoC.

So brigades are good for flank protection, they will slow any German attempt to get in behind your spearheads as effectively as a string of divisions would be.

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RE: Independent CU's: To attach or not attach, that is ... - 4/28/2018 1:33:23 PM   
Bobbybat

 

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quote:

Get them out of the Army command (unless they are construction engineering assets), unless a combat unit reports directly to the army (and it shouldn't)


Not sure what you mean by the Loki...

A) "Unless a combat unit reports directly to the army" ??

B) "(and it shouldn't)" ??

How do I move those additional units down to a Corps or Division?

For that matter, how do I move a division between Corps, or as in the case of reinforcements arriving in the Breakout scenario, from SHAEF (like say the Polish Arm Div) down to a Corps?

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RE: Independent CU's: To attach or not attach, that is ... - 4/28/2018 2:38:58 PM   
Bobbybat

 

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Joined: 4/16/2003
Status: offline 		Quick follow up...Is it the same procedure (whatever it is) to take reinforcement units - such as artillery and tank destroyer battalions that have arrived on turn 3 and attached themselves directly into SHAEF, sitting unused (I presume?) in London?

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RE: Independent CU's: To attach or not attach, that is ... - 4/28/2018 3:32:54 PM   
cfulbright

 

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Joined: 5/7/2003
Status: offline 		Bobbybat - not sure what your question is. I can tell you that you can directly transfer support units attached to SHAEF to an Army HQ on the continent. You transfer support units among HQ by

1. Click on the current HQ
2. Click on the HQ unit's name in the box in the top right of the screen
3. Make sure you're on the "Assigned" tab
4. Click on the support unit you want to transfer
5. Click on the blue name of the current HQ to the right of "HHQ"
6. Choose the HQ you want to transfer it to

Like I said, you can't transfer a support unit from SHAEF in London to a corps HQ in France, but you can transfer it to the 3rd US Army HQ in France.

To move a support unit to a corps HQ, you can use the same process as above, or do the following, which is how you get a support unit to a division or lower:

1. Click on the division (or brigade or regiment)
2. Click on the division's name in the box in the top right of the screen
3. Make sure you're on the "Assigned" tab
4. Click on "ASSIGN SUPPORT UNITS"
5. Select the one (for broken down division units or true regiments), up to two (for true brigades), or up to three (for divisions) support units you want to assign to it that appear in the list

To change the higher HQ (HHQ) of an on-map unit, you do the following:

1. Click on the on-map unit (or brigade or regiment)
2. Click on the on-map unit's name in the box in the top right of the screen
3 Click on the blue name of the current HQ to the right of "HHQ"
4. Choose the HQ you want to transfer it to

Hopefully I answered your questions on the prior two posts, and let me know if you have any other questions.

Cary

(in reply to Bobbybat)
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RE: Independent CU's: To attach or not attach, that is ... - 4/28/2018 4:56:01 PM   
loki100


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From: Utlima Thule
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quote:

ORIGINAL: Bobbybat

quote:

Get them out of the Army command (unless they are construction engineering assets), unless a combat unit reports directly to the army (and it shouldn't)


Not sure what you mean by the Loki...

A) "Unless a combat unit reports directly to the army" ??

B) "(and it shouldn't)" ??

How do I move those additional units down to a Corps or Division?

For that matter, how do I move a division between Corps, or as in the case of reinforcements arriving in the Breakout scenario, from SHAEF (like say the Polish Arm Div) down to a Corps?


Ideally you don't want combat units (ie on map units) reporting to anything other than a Corps.

The reason is this really hits your leadership scores.

If the unit reports to a corps then the chance to pass any test is the leaders value/10, so if you have a 6 infantry leader and its some sort of combat related check your chance to pass is 60%. If that leader fails, there is a chance for the army leader to step in, if that fails army group, if that fails Supreme command.

Now if you report to the army your base chance is leader value/12. So as above a leader with a 6 now only has a 50% chance to pass and you are missing one tier of your safety net.

There is also a 'range' element to these calculations but this from the draft WiTE2 manual will give you an idea (in WITW both armies use the 'German' table)



And a worked example:



Depending on how you feel about probability theory that may well be too much (I personally love it but there we are). So the key message is to keep your combat units under Corps commands if you.

Another problem is if you overload your commands. The base chance to pass goes up +1 for each extra CP, So a corps with a command capacity of 10 that controls 12 (say you have broken your divisions down into regiments) will be much less effective.




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RE: Independent CU's: To attach or not attach, that is ... - 4/29/2018 2:27:17 PM   
Bobbybat

 

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Joined: 4/16/2003
Status: offline 		Thanks loki and cfulbright. That helps hugely in terms of the mechanics.

Given that Corps is clearly where combat units should be attached wherever possible, the next question then is how to determine which a combat unit should be attached. Now I expect a number of situational factors will drive that but again in terms of game mechanics, I think a key determinant will be the Command Capacity/Command Points stuff?

The Manual (7.7.2) says a Corps can handle 11 CPs without impacting on leader checks. The Breakout scenario is confusing though in that from the get go some of the US Corps in particular are HUGE. VIII Corps has 3 armored and 4 infantry divisions for Pete's sake...That's 14 CPs, versus what should be 11 max, if I understand correctly? If so, am I supposed to shunt some of them around to the less full ones?

And for example I have this nice shiny new 7th Armored Division having arrived as a reinforcement and I've transported it from England and now it's heading towards the front in France. But where in the OOB do I put it - into one of the corps with low command points?

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RE: Independent CU's: To attach or not attach, that is ... - 4/29/2018 3:27:59 PM   
cfulbright

 

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Status: offline 		Bobbybat,

Seven divisions in one corps is too many, particularly if you have other corps with much fewer divisions. I would balance the assignments, taking into account 1) tighter grouping geographically is better; and 2) have more/better divisions with the commander with the higher rating.

Also, though the US didn't do this in World War 2, in my games I create armored corps and infantry corps, with commanders for the former that have a 6 or higher (e.g., John Wood, Maurice Rose) rating in Mechanized warfare. You definitely should be using Matthew Ridgway and James Gavin to command infantry corps.

Cary

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RE: Independent CU's: To attach or not attach, that is ... - 5/1/2018 4:34:58 AM   
Bobbybat

 

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Joined: 4/16/2003
Status: offline 		Great - thanks, that gels with where I was starting to head; the starting OOB is just unbalanced and some good tweaking can make a big difference. And when reinforcements arrive get them into Corps where they can make an impact - I would guess that is what Patton's 3rd Army is waiting for (as it probably was in history)?

Still unsure what to do about things like the Cavalry Groups that are floating around like the 3rd US Cavalry Group, the Separate US Inf Regiments and Combat Engineer Battalions that are attached to SHAEF, or similar units down through the OOB - -i.e. whether or not to get those onto French soil and into Divisions or Corps or what...

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RE: Independent CU's: To attach or not attach, that is ... - 5/1/2018 6:17:38 AM   
loki100


Posts: 10920
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From: Utlima Thule
Status: offline 		I find the cavalry groups are invaluable for moving south of the Loire and linking up with any invasion of the South of France. They are relatively supply light and fast moving. Once that is over, I tend to direct attach to US armoured divisions.

The infantry I tend to attach directly.

What I do is to build a specialised US Corps optimised for taking out strongpoints. So it gets all the very heavy artillery, plus a lot of normal artillery (the advantage the US has in terms of artillery allocation works here), add in lots of combat engineers. I'll attach the independent infantry to the infantry divisions (extra cv/hex). That operates with naval gunfire support and its remarkably effective at clearing out the Channel/Brittany ports.

Late game it can be used to force the Germans back from a major river.

Key is the heavy artillery works at range and disrupts a lot (so those elements drop out of the combat process) and will probably take out one fort level (which means the cv you see before the attack drops a lot even before your infantry close).

Edit: You will find badly loaded corps/army HQs in almost all the later game scenarios. This plagued WiTE where moving commands costs you (sometimes a lot) of admin pts. Its almost as if SHAEF etc hadn't read the manual


< Message edited by loki100 -- 5/1/2018 6:19:31 AM >

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RE: Independent CU's: To attach or not attach, that is ... - 5/1/2018 9:23:27 AM   
Bobbybat

 

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Status: offline 		Great input Loki - that helps a lot.

What if any virtue is there in having artillery at the Army or Army Group level? You've talked about loading up Inf-based Corps with it, so should I devolve artillery currently at the SHAEF, Army Group or Army level down to my inf Corps mainly, and have a sprinkling in each Arm Corps?

I would presume different Art units have different ranges - where do you see that if so? There are, I've really only just realised through this conversation, that there are dozens of Art battalions from 105's to 240's sitting attached to SHAEF in hence presumably in London...Do I urgently start leveling those out to the Divisions, Corps and/or Armies?

Same with the Engineering units - Construction Engineers and Combat Engineer battalions?

For that matter, what about the gazillions of AA units sitting against SHAEF somewhere presumably they aren't ever going to get a shot at passing bombers? Are they relevant in the French scenarios like Breakout and Pursuit?

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RE: Independent CU's: To attach or not attach, that is ... - 5/1/2018 10:39:23 AM   
LiquidSky


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Historically a lot of those gazillion AA units were disbanded for manpower to feed the infantry divisions.

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RE: Independent CU's: To attach or not attach, that is ... - 5/1/2018 12:24:39 PM   
loki100


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From: Utlima Thule
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quote:

ORIGINAL: Bobbybat

Great input Loki - that helps a lot.

What if any virtue is there in having artillery at the Army or Army Group level? You've talked about loading up Inf-based Corps with it, so should I devolve artillery currently at the SHAEF, Army Group or Army level down to my inf Corps mainly, and have a sprinkling in each Arm Corps?

I would presume different Art units have different ranges - where do you see that if so? There are, I've really only just realised through this conversation, that there are dozens of Art battalions from 105's to 240's sitting attached to SHAEF in hence presumably in London...Do I urgently start leveling those out to the Divisions, Corps and/or Armies?

Same with the Engineering units - Construction Engineers and Combat Engineer battalions?

For that matter, what about the gazillions of AA units sitting against SHAEF somewhere presumably they aren't ever going to get a shot at passing bombers? Are they relevant in the French scenarios like Breakout and Pursuit?


Construction engineers can happily sit at SHAEF/Army Group, they will be auto-assigned as needed.

Everything else needs to go to the Corps level, in combat, units will only use Support Units in the immediate HQ.

For the AA, some are useful at the corps level but as with LS, most I'd disband, esp the non-US ones as the manpower is more use in other formations.

If SHAEF is in the UK - best left here as it adds a lot to supply usage in France - its a two step process to get SUs to the Corps. In one turn SHAEF-Army (this gets them across the Channel), next turn Army-Corps. If SHAEF is in France, then if you open up the Corps HQ you can directly assign Support Units.

Range, I think you can find some of this in the Commanders Report (the tab for elements etc), some you may need to open the game editor (but you can download to spreadsheets which is handy). Its also useful to run a few attacks at a very high resolution (say 5 or more). You'll get a feel for range (and effectiveness) this way, if you get bored just hit 'esc' and the combat will speed up and end.

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RE: Independent CU's: To attach or not attach, that is ... - 5/1/2018 4:13:42 PM   
cfulbright

 

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Bobbybat
Still unsure what to do about things like the Cavalry Groups that are floating around like the 3rd US Cavalry Group, the Separate US Inf Regiments and Combat Engineer Battalions that are attached to SHAEF, or similar units down through the OOB - -i.e. whether or not to get those onto French soil and into Divisions or Corps or what...

US Cavalry units - as Loki says, they're good for the drive south on the Rhone, where there's little or no opposition (given how weak they are).

Separate US Inf Regiments - I assign them and the separate Para Inf Reg to US Armored Divisions to give them more punch.

Combat Engineer Battalions - If you're attacking any fortified position, you should assign these to at least half the divisions attacking.

Cary

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RE: Independent CU's: To attach or not attach, that is ... - 5/1/2018 4:33:51 PM   
cfulbright

 

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Bobbybat

Great input Loki - that helps a lot.

What if any virtue is there in having artillery at the Army or Army Group level? You've talked about loading up Inf-based Corps with it, so should I devolve artillery currently at the SHAEF, Army Group or Army level down to my inf Corps mainly, and have a sprinkling in each Arm Corps?

I would presume different Art units have different ranges - where do you see that if so? There are, I've really only just realised through this conversation, that there are dozens of Art battalions from 105's to 240's sitting attached to SHAEF in hence presumably in London...Do I urgently start leveling those out to the Divisions, Corps and/or Armies?

Same with the Engineering units - Construction Engineers and Combat Engineer battalions?

For that matter, what about the gazillions of AA units sitting against SHAEF somewhere presumably they aren't ever going to get a shot at passing bombers? Are they relevant in the French scenarios like Breakout and Pursuit?

I don't think there's any reason to have artillery battalions at army or higher level. Move them into your corps. Loki has some good advice on a Siege Corps with the heavy artillery.

Unfortunately you have to use the editor program to see the ranges and effects of different guns. I don't know why the game developers didn't include the ability to show range and effectiveness figures for different ground weapons.

NOTE that in at least some scenarios the game will swap out some artillery type for another, not necessarily to your advantage. I've seen 155mm guns replaced by 155mm howitzers, and 155mm howitzers replaced with 105mm howitzers. And this problem is compounded by the fact that the game will still list the art unit as being a 155mm unit even though it now has 105mm instead. See screenshot.

Construction engineers and combat engineers are VERY different. You assign the former directly to cities to repair Ports and Railways and/or help Airbase construction and expansion. The game will assign free ones to on-map repair of rail hexes, but you'll find that once your Allied turn starts, the repairs already are completed, and you can "Return to HQ" the unit or go to a nearby city screen and assign that unit to the city to do necessary repairs.

Combat engineers have CV and special abilities to reduce fortifications.

By the time of Breakout and Pursuit and against the AI, the allied AA units serve no purpose. I assign them to corps, more out of a subconscious urge for historical realism, but if you have the spare Admin Points, you should disband them so they go into the manpower pool. Depending on the scenario and your style of play, you may find the British, Free French, Polish, Czechs, Belgians, Dutch, Greeks, and/or Canadians running low on Manpower. Look at the Pools screen (press P), and make sure you switch to "Active Pools" in the very bottom right corner.

Cary




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Post #: 16
RE: Independent CU's: To attach or not attach, that is ... - 5/1/2018 8:55:04 PM   
Gunnulf


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Status: offline 		One reason to have artillery at Army level is, particularly on defense where you are not sure where the attack might fall is to share heavy calibre assets, as per history. You would likely want to give each corps a share of field & medium calibre for a higher chance of being committed to the battles at a local level and ensure everybody gets something, but some scarce heavy assets can be held one higher at army level. Less chance of being committed but potentially to more battles across a wider front. On the attack obviously you might commit heavy units directly to the corps that is going to lead the attack armed with the knowledge, however they are then not available to support subsequent corps attacks too. SUs can be shifted once per turn obviously but in the turn they shift they get a -1 roll to the chance they commit. If you have a good corps commander this might be negligible but still a consideration for holding and sharing some artillery assets at Army level with a good commander and avoiding shifting too many units back at forth constantly. Also of consideration for holding units at Army level is that particularly for the Allies who can commit 12 (US) & 10 (Br) to a battle under normal conditions while the Allies have a lot of artillery SU they don't have enough to have 12 with every corps, sharing SUs at army level becomes more sensible with this in mind to get as much support across the front as possible. There is almost certainly less benefit of SUs at Army Group level but perhaps some situational considerations where is might make sense of course. I tend to stick to a Corps and Army structure though.

< Message edited by Gunnulf -- 5/1/2018 11:21:55 PM >

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RE: Independent CU's: To attach or not attach, that is ... - 5/3/2018 8:54:36 AM   
Bobbybat

 

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Status: offline 		Ok, more great input that is feeding my knowledge of game mechanics and how they impact on decision making. (I also like fulbright's comment "more out of a subconscious urge for historical realism" - that is absolutely how I play most games too; it just kinda feels wrong to mess about too far from history, although I also completely get people wanting to use the assets they have in the way that best achieves their particular objective too.)

It raises, inevitably, further questions though...

1) Artillery range seems critical to me - how close does my HHQ where the art is sitting need to be to the battle hex? Is it 2 as I think I've read somewhere, because it a Support Unit, and that's how far SU's can project to? Or is it 2 if the art is sitting in the Corps, but 5 it is it in the Army similar to the Leadership radius?
- 1a) and is to 2 (or whatever) hexes to the hex where the battle is, or to the hex where the unit is attacking from?
- 1b) OR, is that where the range of the art unit (that I can apparently only get from opening up the Editor - sheesh) comes into play; as long as the attacking unit is within Leadership range then successful Leadership rolls will see the art units with enough artillery range able to participate?
2) Can attached support units only be transferred to lower HQ's on the same land mass? E.g., SHAEF is sitting in London so can I transfer those lovely looking Combat Engineers directly attached to it out to V Corps hacking its way though the bocage in Normandy?
3) I know one can have the AI automate distributing SU's down to the lower HQ's and Div's and I turn that on somewhere...Wherever that setting is, does it require both the HQ I want to distribute and the Div's or higher HQ's I want to be able to receive to have it set on?

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RE: Independent CU's: To attach or not attach, that is ... - 5/3/2018 1:16:13 PM   
Gunnulf


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Status: offline 		1) The range of 2 relates on on-map artillery units that can be directly assigned to an attack. In WITW thats just German units, no Allied ones I'm aware of. 2 from the target hex so effectively firing from the rear of the front line hex. An HQ needs to be in 5 hex range to get artillery SUs attached considered to join the attack.
2) SUs can be transferred from a higher HQ to an Army HQ or above across the globe, not directly to a Corps overseas. Corps can only attach units from a higher HQ in their chain of command on the same landmass. Have a play around with looking at HQs in various locations and it will quickly be very clear whats possible. But in short assign SUs to divisions and corps before you embark, the next chance will be when the Army or Army Corps follow up and land.
3) No idea, never use it, too much of a control freak.

Honestly sounds like the level you are delving into the detail sometimes there is no substitute for pouring a glass of your finest and re-reading the manual cover to cover. It is very well written and makes much more sense once you have played though a few times and can relate the concepts to situations. I still fire up the pdf regularly to re-clarify things, of course the forum is great, but sometimes the original source is best and is a goldmine of answers to the technicals. Then the forum is a oracle as to how to apply these to your strategy in the most efficient manner :)

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RE: Independent CU's: To attach or not attach, that is ... - 5/3/2018 3:47:26 PM   
loki100


Posts: 10920
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From: Utlima Thule
Status: offline 		To be fair, the different rules for the various range effects are scattered around and its not always intuitive as to what applies when.

Here's my take (may have forgotten something and/or mixed something up )

a) SUs can be directly transfered from a superior HQ to an inferior HQ over a greater distance than if you open up the lower level HQ and look to see what you can attach.

This is the case even over a land link and I *think* its because you use the 'range' of the HQ you have open;

b) The max is 90 hexes, ie the nominal range at which a HQ like SHAEF will send out support squads or have any influence on leadership scores;

c) SUs will only be allocated to combat if the controlling HQ is within 5 hexes - these must be land hexes and there must be a feasible overland route (ie they won't jump into a pocket). An important quirk, if the HQ has not moved it has a higher chance to pass a commitment check for a normal attack, it will only send out SUs to a hasty attack if its not moved that turn. Deploy your HQs at the end of turn with a view to this if you can;

d) Support squads are relatively unimportant for the Western Allies (most divisions are well equipped) but still count, they are taken from HQs in the command chain. To help out a corps must be within 5 hexes, an army 15, an army group 45, supreme command 90 (you'll note that these ranges also affect the re-assignment of support units);

e) leadership values use the same max limits but are mostly also subject to range effects, so while an army leader can help out a leadership roll up to 15, they will be more effective if they are closer (put your higher HQs closer to the most important sector under their command);

f) and finally, on-map artillery counters can fire up to 2 hexes, just include them as you would any other on-map combat unit in the attack ... but in case things are too simple - remember that naval TFs auto contribute to any attack that happens in a hex they are adjacent to (ie you don't chose to use them or not)

There probably is more ...


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Post #: 20
RE: Independent CU's: To attach or not attach, that is ... - 5/3/2018 3:55:18 PM   
Gunnulf


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Status: offline 		There are bits and pieces around the manual for sure and plenty of reasons to clarify things on the forum for sure. Main point I think was at first the manual is info overload for sure and good to just jump into the game, but after a while playing, and to the level Bobbybat is digging into the detail its really worth a cover to cover read. There are so many gems there that put things into perspective, some things you wouldn't even know to ask about maybe.

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RE: Independent CU's: To attach or not attach, that is ... - 5/3/2018 3:58:11 PM   
cfulbright

 

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Gunnulf
Corps can only attach units from a higher HQ in their chain of command on the same landmass.


One correction to what Gunnulf wrote. If two corps HQ from different armies are within ten hexes of each other on the same landmass and with a clear path of friendly hexes, they can exchange attached support units by clicking on the support unit within the current corps HQ and then clicking on the "HHQ" link on the left side of the window.

Cary

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Post #: 22
RE: Independent CU's: To attach or not attach, that is ... - 5/6/2018 3:19:35 PM   
Bobbybat

 

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Joined: 4/16/2003
Status: offline 		All the advice is combining with the re-read of the manual to help that be a lot more understandable now, ans I am sure you expected it to be for me Gunnulf :)

Did any of you utilise the Airborne div's sitting in England in the Breakout scenario? I am trying to have a play with Air Transport Mode (see my latest new thread question) more to get experience with the screen mechanics but I'm debating whether to use them 'properly' given that they weren't employed historically until Market Garden (AFAIK).

Just wondering if you have deployed them and if so in what capacity? Just as really good leg infantry?

(in reply to cfulbright)
Post #: 23
RE: Independent CU's: To attach or not attach, that is ... - 5/10/2018 2:30:05 PM   
Bobbybat

 

Posts: 57
Joined: 4/16/2003
Status: offline 		Ok, getting the hang of this now...But more questions :)

1. What is the best use of SP Art battalions?
2. Do you assign out the Art battalions in order of bore size - i.e. give out all the 240mm units down to Corps first, then move to the 8in units, then the 155's, etc.?
3. Is it best from a supply (and I would guess movement rate? perspective to put 105 battalions down at the div level, rather than the big guns?

Thanks,
B


(in reply to Bobbybat)
Post #: 24
RE: Independent CU's: To attach or not attach, that is ... - 5/10/2018 2:55:34 PM   
LiquidSky


Posts: 2811
Joined: 6/24/2008
Status: offline

SP art are the only art you can directly attach to a unit, so I take advantage of that by attaching them to my Tank divisions.



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(in reply to Bobbybat)
Post #: 25
RE: Independent CU's: To attach or not attach, that is ... - 5/10/2018 4:29:24 PM   
cfulbright

 

Posts: 2778
Joined: 5/7/2003
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: Bobbybat

Ok, getting the hang of this now...But more questions :)

1. What is the best use of SP Art battalions?
2. Do you assign out the Art battalions in order of bore size - i.e. give out all the 240mm units down to Corps first, then move to the 8in units, then the 155's, etc.?
3. Is it best from a supply (and I would guess movement rate? perspective to put 105 battalions down at the div level, rather than the big guns?

Thanks,
B



1. With any division assaulting a fortification, along with an engineer battalion.
2. I tend to allocate the artillery units evening among my corps, but may reinforce one corps from the others if it's attacking a large CV stack.
3. You can't assign 105 battalions to divisions, only the SP Art.

Cary

(in reply to Bobbybat)
Post #: 26
RE: Independent CU's: To attach or not attach, that is ... - 5/10/2018 6:33:59 PM   
loki100


Posts: 10920
Joined: 10/20/2012
From: Utlima Thule
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: Bobbybat

...

Did any of you utilise the Airborne div's sitting in England in the Breakout scenario? I am trying to have a play with Air Transport Mode (see my latest new thread question) more to get experience with the screen mechanics but I'm debating whether to use them 'properly' given that they weren't employed historically until Market Garden (AFAIK).

Just wondering if you have deployed them and if so in what capacity? Just as really good leg infantry?


Re this - don't umderestimate their value in an air transport mode. Your tanks capture an airfield and you either want to reinforce (in case of counterattack) or push on but need to secure the supply line. Air transport paras to the base.

Equally you break through a contested front, can only advance one unit but the hex is an air base -- air transport can suddenly convert a vulnerable salient into something very hard to retake.

I tend to constantly reset their targets but rarely use them for airdrops. But the air transport function is invaluable.

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(in reply to Bobbybat)
Post #: 27
RE: Independent CU's: To attach or not attach, that is ... - 5/11/2018 1:10:44 AM   
LiquidSky


Posts: 2811
Joined: 6/24/2008
Status: offline

I use airtransport for the opposite. Hold a city with an airfield that gets cut off...then fly the FJ paratroopers out when the supplies run low.

_____________________________

“My logisticians are a humorless lot … they know if my campaign fails, they are the first ones I will slay.” – Alexander the Great

(in reply to loki100)
Post #: 28
RE: Independent CU's: To attach or not attach, that is ... - 4/21/2019 7:12:07 PM   
Mac Linehan

 

Posts: 1484
Joined: 12/19/2004
From: Denver Colorado
Status: offline 		Gents -

Was browsing the forums to glean information and found this thread - and saved it. Lots of good information, I very much appreciate the insights therein.

Mac

< Message edited by Mac Linehan -- 4/21/2019 7:14:22 PM >

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(in reply to LiquidSky)
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