How much do YOU micromanage in a game?

[Sheytan]

Just curious how much time you all spend on each unit? I frankly have a plan in mind and generally move formations IE corp/army into areas of ops and let it be at that. I havnt fooled around with air units except to withdraw them in the face of german advances. I also moved quite a bit of factory etc early on, but that pretty much sums it up.

I was amazed to see some of my soviet units hold early on as well. Always nice to see.

One question! Are the fort units simple shells that NEED to be augmented by other formations? I mean is this thier real utility?

[karonagames]

Re: fort units:

They are not "Maginot line" type defences; they should be seen as HQs sending staff officers to survey good defensive terrain to which can be added specialised engineering troops etc. that add to the efforts of the occupying units to improve the entrenching efforts of the troops that move into them. Once the enemy move adjacent, disband them and use them to start preparing the next defensive line to the rear, if time and distance calculations allow. Their actual contribution to combat is limited; but if they have contributed to the entrenchment level of the troops occupying the hex, then that will be far more than their individual combat power.

I think that the general policy for the SU player in 1941 is to disband them as soon as the enemy moves adjacent. The cost in APs in 1941 is prohibitive - you will get more value from assigning better generals to your troops.

[PMCN]

The fort units have a couple of advantages.  The first is that you can attach a construction battalion to them to speed up fortification in that hex.  The second is that you can attach up to three support units to them which at the early stage of the war and when you are defending with artillery poor units is a huge advantage.  I look on them as field fortifications and the sort of defenses constructed around Moscow and Kursk.  They aren't the maginot line to be sure and certain.

Leningrad's hexes for example have one each with the outer ones having: an extra MG-Art Bn, a AT Rgt/AA Rgt, and a Mortar Rgt.  This gives a lot of AT/AA guns to deal with tanks, plus MG and 120 mm mortars to mess with the infantry.

The biggest issue is getting the right unit attached to the fort which I find is best done by building the support unit in STAVKA and then that turn attaching it.  Even unready the support unit can be attached direct from STAVKA (and only from STAVKA).  I hope my memory is good here as I'd hate to give bad advice but I'm fairly sure this works.

The next biggest issue is that they take time to set up, and for their morale/exp to build up.  I have disbanded some but a fair few got left as mini-roadblocks to force the Germans to attack them (SW Front ones) that hurt as they were morale/exp 50-60.  I think that building a few of them per turn even at 16 admin point each is worthwhile doing.

As for micromanagement I do it too much.  Some of my turns have taken 5 hours or more but a lot of this is because the units are all 1-x so the only way to see what is actually in there is to look inside, and then to often look inside that.  Plus learning the system take time, you have to delve into what is where and what is on this page and so on.  I expect the speed to pick up later.

[morganbj]

I find that I can get by with much less micro management than I anticipated when I bought the game, although as I move up the difficulty level in future games, I'll find myself tweaking everything more to get an edge. But, then again, even in WITPAE I don't change commanders that often, or worry about who's the captain of that garbage scow in Pago Pago. (But, I love the stinkin' pilot training system. Aaarrrggghhhhh.)

[jhdeerslayer]

My turns as GE already take hours so I minimize micro managing as much as possible. Change a few leaders, SU's, etc. is about it.

[ComradeP]

I micromanage most of the things I can micromanage, at least in the opening turns.

[Tzar007]

I have read the manual entirely and I'm finding I am micromanaging more as my understanding of the functionalities and rules is getting deeper. But I have not played a GC yet, just scenarios so there is some stuff I care less about.

[AZKGungHo]

The only micro managing I'm doing at this point is hitting F5 and a to let the air scout for me, hitting F7 and a to let it bomb airfields for me, moving up my rail repair units and hitting refit on my panzer and motorized units when I think it's needed. I don't count moving HQ's and air units up as micromanaging.

So far that's it, and I'm having fun. But I too am sure I need to dig deeper into the game as I move forward. At this point I'm close to the end of the Road to Kiev, and haven't even thought about doing the campaign yet.

[SGHunt]

ORIGINAL: AZ Gung Ho

But I too am sure I need to dig deeper into the game as I move forward.

You will, young padawan, you will...

[FredSanford3]

ORIGINAL: AZ Gung Ho

The only micro managing I'm doing at this point is hitting F5 and a to let the air scout for me, hitting F7 and a to let it bomb airfields for me, moving up my rail repair units and hitting refit on my panzer and motorized units when I think it's needed. I don't count moving HQ's and air units up as micromanaging.

So far that's it, and I'm having fun. But I too am sure I need to dig deeper into the game as I move forward. At this point I'm close to the end of the Road to Kiev, and haven't even thought about doing the campaign yet.

F5 & F7 aren't micro-managing; just the opposite. Micro managing recon is manually picking all of the recon sites, and doing recon until all of your squadron's miles are used up. This is a micro-managed recon effort:

[karonagames]

Now that's what I call Pod Racing!

ugh! Terrible film.

[FredSanford3]

ORIGINAL: BigAnorak

Now that's what I call Pod Racing!

ugh! Terrible film.

??? [&:]

I just can't stand looking at the Commander's Report and seeing all those recon units with single-digit %ages of miles travelled. Slackers need to get to work!

[karonagames]

???

My lame attempt to connect the padawan reference to the huge amount of recon flights.

FAIL.

[ComradeP]

The huge amount of recon flights is indeed rather unnecessary. You can normally treat them like they have a radius, so one for every 3 hexes in a row.

[matt3916]

Re "You can normally treat them like they have a radius, so one for every 3 hexes in a row."

Two questions -- First, wouldn't that be "one for every 7 hexes in a row"? (On a per hex listing, that would be "Air Unit A" - Radius A - Radius A - Radius A - Radius B - Radius B - Radius B - Air Unit B). Assumes no overlap of the respective unit radii.

Second, re "You can normally treat them...." with emphasis on the "normally." When would I not be able to treat them as if they had a 3 hex radius? (I've read 16.3.2).

[FredSanford3]

ORIGINAL: ComradeP

The huge amount of recon flights is indeed rather unnecessary. You can normally treat them like they have a radius, so one for every 3 hexes in a row.

I'm not really sure of that. Each flight has a probability of detecting units in said radius, but not a certainty. I've detected units on many of those 'unnecessary' flights where I've reconned all around previously. I also start deep, and work my way back towards the front, since the deep missions will often detect units along their flight path. Finally, its been mentioned in other posts that players will look at where the enemy is flying recon flights in an attempt to devine intentions. If I have a solid belt of flights 3 hexes deep all along the front, how can you even start to guess where I'm really interested in attacking based on that?

If you have the planes, you might as well use them. I suggest turning combat reports all the way down for the recon phase though. This is also why I wished there were a 'zone' approach to allocating recon assets.

[ComradeP]

I meant "row" literally, as in: hex row, so the hex above it, the hex it's flying to and the hex below it. The real radius would be 7 normal hexes, like you say.

Normally as in: when the detection level of the neighbouring units increases to the level you want, otherwise you'd need to send a recon mission over to that hex too.