Rob Gjessing
Posts: 525
Joined: 1/27/2003
From: Sydney Australia
Status: offline
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First of all you will have noticed that its hard to defend in Korsun Pocket - unlike in the Ardennes Offensive. The main reason for this is terrain! Will talk about this in a tick..
But some of the other things which constituate a good defence are:
- defend in a straight line - this limits the number of combat shifts the enemy can get by protecting your flanks
- rivers, use them to your advantage, defend behind them it has an effect on combat (check the CRT's)
- weather, this has an effect on combat across rivers (check the CRT's) and also on supply..
- ART, make sure you have ART that are defense capable in support of your defending units
- Try to limit the chances of your units being overrun (more on this in a tick)
But as I said the terrain is the most important factor here. The reason its harder to defend in KP is because of all of the clear terrain! Looking at the CRTs' you should be able to see that its easy to attack someone defending in the clear. I would like to say never defend in the clear... but thats impossible. And often it goe against some of the advice above.. like trying to keep a straight line of defence. Lack of units also dont help :)
In KP because most of the map is made up of clear terrain you really want to take advantage of any hills, woods, urban or anything else thats not clear. Defend at this points.. esp urban terrain. Nothing like some street to street fighting.
Defend on the overside of rivers.. but watch the weather conditions, snow can turn rivers to ice which means that they dont always have much of a benefit defending behind them.
Also blow bridges.. and use your interdiction to choke bottlenecks to slow any advance and cut supply. Remember defending isnt always about shooting a gun back at someone.
Watch the weather.. is it snow this turn, is it going to be mud next turn.. take that into account.. sometimes it may be better to retreat.. allow the enemy to advance, and then they find next turn in the mud they have advanced too far and are now out of supply.
Also, the best form of defense is attack (they say - but not always).. but if someone has advanced too far.. they let them know about it.. give any isoloated units a bit of a hit.
Often the advice when it comes to defense contradicts itself.. defend in a straight line.. but dont defend in the clear, defend in urban terrain, or use rivers effectively. Well all of that is good.. but there never is a straight line of urban terrain behind a river!! I wish.
So most of all use your judgement..
As a last point, limit the chances of overrun. Overrun is only available when the terrain is right (ie: its easier to occur in clear terrain), the defenders are weak and not dug in.
I think the rules for overruns are (forgive me if this isnt 100% - thats my disclaimer - but I think its right), that :
If the defenders units have at least 3 combat steps and includes a unit that is dug in and contributes to providing an entrenched bonus to the rest of the stack, then no overrun can occur.
Whats all of that mean? Ok.. so you must have at least 3 combat related steps within the stack (ie: doesnt have to be from one unit, it could be from a number of units), and at least one of the units must be entrenched and providing an entrech bonus to the rest of the stack.
As a side note, when a unit entrenches it provides an entrench bonus to the rest of the units in the stack. This bonus is based upon a percentage of the entrenching units strength. So if the entrenching unit has 1 step, then its bonus will be less then 1 and it may not provide any entrench bonus to the stack. So just be aware of that..
So be sure, make sure any 2 stepped unit is the one that entrenches :)
Edited to include this last comment:
So after all of that huffing and puffing.. no there is no real answer to your question... which is what makes the game so much fun.. because there are so many different strategies to employ.. good luck!
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