Disengagement penalty

[sol_invictus]

I haven't received my copy yet, but I read an article suggesting that if a player wants to move a friendly unit out of the zone of control of an enemy unit, it is a good idea to first move a Headquarters unit, Artillery unit, or high recon unit into the hex first to limit the damage that the disengaging unit takes from enemy fire. I can understand the high recon unit limiting any damage that would be inflicted, but does a Headquarters and Artillery unit still have this effect in TOAWIII? Seems sorta gamey to me. Anyone have any justification for this feature, if it is still this way?

[golden delicious]

HQs have special disengagement capabilities. The reason for this- to my understanding- is that the presence of the HQ would assist in a planned withdrawal.

I sometimes use artillery units for this, but only when there's nothing less valuable around. Sometimes it can be a good idea to sacrifice them to save a division or something.

[Dr. Foo]

ORIGINAL: golden delicious

HQs have special disengagement capabilities. The reason for this- to my understanding- is that the presence of the HQ would assist in a planned withdrawal.

That is a great explaination for why HQ's can assist but what about Arty units I would think that you would want them behind the lines in most cases not moved up to it.

[JAMiAM]

ORIGINAL: Dr. Foo

That is a great explaination for why HQ's can assist but what about Arty units I would think that you would want them behind the lines in most cases not moved up to it.

Primarily, it is a game mechanic. It abstractly represents a directed focus of C&C and transport (HQ), defensive covering fire (artillery), and allocation of reserves (both) in executing a withdrawal under fire.

The only problem that I find with this technique is that we haven't yet been able to train Elmer to use it. When we do...watch out![:D]

[golden delicious]

ORIGINAL: JAMiAM

defensive covering fire (artillery),

The problem with this is that the artillery is generally lost in the evacuation.

[sol_invictus]

Well I can agree with the HQ explanation, but I am still iffy on the Artillery. I guess if it is almost certain that you would be sacrificing the Artillery unit as a covering force, it would be a high enough price that it is something only to be used in a desperate situation. It still seems very counterintuitive to cover a retreat with Artillery. Thanks for the explaination and clarification. Really looking forward to diving into this game next week.

[GreenDestiny]

I would never use my artillery in this way…what a waste. First of all use recon, and if you don’t have any recon, then use any mobile unit. Spilt them up and move them into the area were you want to disengage and hope that they are able to disengage themselves later in the turn after you moved your other units back, or set them to the lowest tolerance rating and hope they get push back to your front lines during the PO turn. The one thing that I like to do is to move a recon unit with a high MP value from one stack to another to disengage all the units in the front lines. Artillery can be a real killer when you attack with a small force in an limited attack with minimize losses. which may help you to disengage also.

[sol_invictus]

That sounds good, I was just afraid that Artillery was an easy disengagement tool that could be used often. I am glad to hear that this gamey tactic is not something that a player would casually want to use.

[golden delicious]

ORIGINAL: GreenDestiny

I would never use my artillery in this way…what a waste. First of all use recon, and if you don’t have any recon, then use any mobile unit. Spilt them up and move them into the area were you want to disengage and hope that they are able to disengage themselves later in the turn after you moved your other units back, or set them to the lowest tolerance rating and hope they get push back to your front lines during the PO turn. The one thing that I like to do is to move a recon unit with a high MP value from one stack to another to disengage all the units in the front lines. Artillery can be a real killer when you attack with a small force in an limited attack with minimize losses. which may help you to disengage also.

Artillery gets used for this only in very rare circumstances- that is, in the scenarios Fire in the East and Drang Nach Osten, where the Russian player can't divide units, and as a consequence he's left with a choice of sacrificing an artillery regiment or losing a whole rifle division. Normally the division gets saved because- due in part to the inability to divide units- the Russian player is always struggling to find enough units to build a line.

I can't imagine this happening in other scenarios, but the above two scenarios are both very popular.

[GreenDestiny]

[font="times new roman"]I'll have too remember that, if I've ever try out the mega scenarios.[/font]