Need Help: Typhoon Scenario Situation

[heliodorus04]

Playing the Typhoon Scenario for the first time (only my 3rd game of WITE) against a human opponent.

Here is the picture, basically at the start of Turn 3 (I did one attack somewhere where my infantry line is). I’m playing the Axis.


Background to this picture:
Turn 1, only one panzer group can move (down south) so I moved them. Turn 2, everything can moved, and so I pierced the soviet line in the north and in the center, and exploited every armored unit I could through the gaps. By the end of that move, I had cut off ALL of the Soviet units west of my units. You can sort of see how it looked in this picture. I knew there were places where the Soviet could plug the distance between the encircled units and free units near Moscow. However, I thought the encircled units would have a MUCH harder time moving eastward since they were out of supply.

Well, in talking to the Soviet player (who has been very amenable to discussion; we’re both learning), he said his isolated units (at start of T2) had pretty full movements because they didn’t move in T1 (since they are basically inactive T1). I was VERY surprised to see how far east they could go. The Soviet player saw exactly where he had to plug the line to escape isolation, and as of the start of MY turn 3, NONE of his units are isolated, well a bunch of mine panzers are.

Fine, I expected some isolation of my units. What I didn’t expect was the way he managed to pull so much of his isolated units back. I don’t think I did a poor job, per se: I only had so many units and so much movement. It took me hours and hours just to figure out how to create that line that cut him off from north to south (and I’m pretty proud of it, though maybe I won’t be in a couple turns).

I have several requests for help here:

1) What can I expect in terms of combat power of the Soviet units who WERE isolated at the start of the Soviet T2? Both those that moved and those that did not move?

2) What can I expect from my isolated German armor units in terms of combat performance if they are NOT relieved from isolation status? Will their morale/TOE help them hold out, or if they get attacked, are they doomed?

3) What SHOULD I do in terms of executing the scenario victory objectives? Kill units, consolidate my own supply situation (T4 starts mud) or try to keep out-maneuvering Soviet units trying to re-connect to their supply network?

Any other advice on moving FORWARD (not things I should have done differently before this developed) are much appreciated.

[Mynok]

This advice is worth exactly what you paid for it. [:'(]

Well, you learned the lesson I did while playing against myself in Road to Kiev (see the AGS Turn 1 Thread): as soon as the pocket is broken, the pocketed units gain back a lot of movement and supply. Really. Critical, critical piece of knowledge.

The good news is that it works both ways and as soon as you break the Russian pockets, your panzers will regain much of their movement and CV.

You shouldn't have any trouble relieving your guys.

[heliodorus04]

When you say I can recover, does that recovery happen in the same turn as the link-up
(so for example, if I reconnect with one of those panzer units, will I see its values go up during Turn 3?)
or does it happen the next turn?

[AZKGungHo]

Yes, you'll see the values go up - or at least I have. You might also try air dropping supplies to them, that'll keep them with enough supply to survive till you rescue them.

[Mynok]

You'll see them go up immediately.

[ComradeP]

If units can retreat when they're isolated and have a fair amount of supplies, they'll retreat instead of surrender. If they can't retreat, they'll surrender. This becomes a problem with mobile units who get boxed in, as no matter how good they are, they'll surrender after the first attack if they're isolated and the attack succeeds.

Combat power of isolated units is minimal, but it's more or less completely restored when units are in supply again (when they can trace a path through friendly and pending friendly hexes to their supply grid). It does depend on the supply state of the unit, so if a unit is isolated after spending most of its turn on the attack, it won't have a lot of supplies unless you air dropped some or they're in a pocket with their HQ with plenty of supply/fuel dumps.

As to the scenario: the consensus amongst the testers who've played this is that it's the most challenging short scenario for the Axis. I haven't played it myself, so I can't really offer scenario specific advice.

The weather will change to mud either next turn or on turn 5, so you have to keep that in mind when positioning your mobile units (who can fairly easily be isolated by the mud alone when they can only trace a path through enemy ZOC). After that, some snow turns and then the blizzard. I'd suggest trying to consolidate the gains you've made and to kill the pocketed Soviet units during the mud. You can expand your gains a bit during the snow turns, but don't push too far and dig in with your infantry so you at least have some preparation for the blizzard.