Important Alert for Beginners: Axis Reserves

[Champagne]

In my first practice game vs. the AI, I was playing a No Early End 1941 Grand Campaign. The Theater Box was set for the Computer to handle. I didn't care to bother with it. But, in ignoring the Theater Boxes, I also ignored the fact that even when the Computer handles the Theater Boxes, the human player, that is, me, needed to learn how to Transfer to the Map all of the Support Units and Panzer Battalions that accumulate in the Axis Reserves Theater Box.

Towards the end of the Winter of 1941/1942, about five Panzer Battalions show up attached to the OKH HQ. The rest of them are tucked away and out of sight in the Axis Reserves Theater Box. A Beginner could very easily be unaware of the availability of these SUs. I did.

So, take care to learn how to search the Axis Reserves Theater Box for new SUs, and learn how to Transfer them from the Axis Reserves Theater Box to the Map. I use the Commander's Report to do this. I don't know of any other method, so, maybe there's a better way.

Now, in my first non-practice GC vs the AI, I'm impressed with the large collection of SUs that appear on the Axis Reserves in early 1942. I've Transferred them to the Map, and my 1942 Offensive is much stronger with their participation.

This is a "heads up" for Beginners. All of the Grognards know this already.

Cheers.

[HermanGraf]

Thanks Champ! I've been very involved in the TB in my first GC campaign vs AI. I send my SUs and Aircraft back to reserve when they get badly mauled. You can also see SU come in through the withdrawal and reinforcement schedule, that is usually how I know. Seems like it's its own little mini game itself.

I was about to complain about AC taking so long to actually refit (in TB) even with a pool waiting for their groups to be filled. But i just realized i probably lack pilots? I FEEL like i am not losing that many planes and pilots, but apparently i am since all my groups have pools of aircraft but not enough pilots to fill them . Hopefully i survive 1941 winter and build those pilots stocks for 1942.

Also I'd add to check the production of equipment when putting units in the TB. If those are old models not in production and you don't notice, they will sit there for weeks until you upgrade them to the production models.

[Jango32]

I send Aircraft back to reserve

And all your pilots in those air groups were thus deleted from the game. Never send air groups to the reserve unless the pilots are awful and you don't want them.

[Joel Billings]

I was about to complain about AC taking so long to actually refit (in TB) even with a pool waiting for their groups to be filled. But i just realized i probably lack pilots? I FEEL like i am not losing that many planes and pilots, but apparently i am since all my groups have pools of aircraft but not enough pilots to fill them . Hopefully i survive 1941 winter and build those pilots stocks for 1942.

It recently came up that unless you have at least 100 of the required aircraft in the pool, units are only guaranteed to fill up to 80% of their max while in the reserve (and usually won't go much above that). You have to bring them to the map to get fully filled up (assuming you have the aircraft to do that). Unless you are setting a replacement pilot limitation on the air unit, having a shortage of pilots isn't going to stop you from taking replacements. You can also try to do some manual upgrades to take advantage of excess aircraft you might have of some aircraft (but then some may be obsolete and not worth the trouble).

[Joel Billings]

I send Aircraft back to reserve

And all your pilots in those air groups were thus deleted from the game. Never send air groups to the reserve unless the pilots are awful and you don't want them.

While the pilots are removed, the unit takes the average experience of the pilots that were removed. When it returns to the map, new pilots are created around this average (with some spread from the average, but not as much as in units that have been in combat). I understand that some have concluded that the flight leader experience is critical for the performance of air units, so they keep units on the map so as to retain the top experienced pilots.

[HermanGraf]

Oh... oops.. Welp first playthrough so thats a growing pain. It just hit december too and i threw a bunch of air groups in reserve to preserve my frontline trucks and supply lol.. Guess i should of just flown them back to german borders instead.

Thank you for that bit of info!

[Vermin]

Hi Joel,
Can we add this to the living manual?
Also I can't seem to allocate/change "obsolete" aircraft to air groups. Whilst not a huge issue usually for Germany, it can cause problems for Axis minors who can quickly run out of new/current planes.
Regards
Vermin

[Vermin]

I FEEL like i am not losing that many planes and pilots, but apparently i am since all my groups have pools of aircraft but not enough pilots to fill them :

I don't think you can run out of pilots - only trained pilots. You can set all your fighters to PRIiority pilots, then the bombers to TRAined and the transports to NORmal. That way your least combat effective air units get the dregs but your fighters and then bombers will only get untrained pilots if there are no more trained pilots available.

[HermanGraf]

I FEEL like i am not losing that many planes and pilots, but apparently i am since all my groups have pools of aircraft but not enough pilots to fill them :

I don't think you can run out of pilots - only trained pilots. You can set all your fighters to PRIiority pilots, then the bombers to TRAined and the transports to NORmal. That way your least combat effective air units get the dregs but your fighters and then bombers will only get untrained pilots if there are no more trained pilots available.

these responses have been very helpful. Just lost my first GC in 1941 , but was probably going to restart anyway the more I learned about the reserve box, pilots, and my supply routes. Lost a panzer div, mot div, and inf div in my drive to Moscow not realizing i should have stopped pushing in November to dig in, also completely failed my supply situation South toward Stalino and an entire army and panzer group is out of supply lol. oops!

[Champagne]

Transferring new units from the Axis Reserves TB to the Map must be done every single turn, it seems.

I do it from the Commander's Report. I Filter all of the Off Map units and use the Transfer feature to put them on the Map.

I wonder if it is the correct thing to do? I don't control the TB, so, the computer will Transfer what the North Africa, Italy and Western Europe Theater Boxes need, right?

Am I supposed to leave most of those Transferrable units in the Axis Reserves TB?

I don't know for sure. I don't think so.

[M60A3TTS]

The AI does indeed control all the transfers between theater boxes. The difference between this and the AI control of depots and/or air units is that in the case of TBs, the AI is simply following the script built by the scenario designer. That script sets arrivals, withdrawals, reinforcements, disbands, and TB requirements. There is no independent decision making going on by the AI.

You can do whatever you want with units in the reserve theater box. Most players use it to distribute these units to the various TBs or rebuild combat units. One important thing to note is there are times, mostly for a Soviet player, when the AI sets max TO&E to 0%. If you want that unit to receive manpower and equipment, you will need to change that to some other value.

[Champagne]

Good of you to share your time and thoughts with us. Thanks. I'm glad to now be sure that taking time every turn to comb out the Axis Reserves in order to identify and send everything Transferable to the Map is the right thing to do. This is not covered in the Manual, nor is the best procedure for accomplishing this covered in the Manual.

Seems like playing the Soviet side is so much more work than playing the Axis side.