Winter Defense: Checkerboard, or Linebacker?

[Krieg]

I guess i have to ask before I could comment on which approach i think is better, what are you trying to achieve with your defensive line? Do you anticipate holding until the Soviets break through and then fall back to a secondary line, or are you looking at trading space for time? The reason I ask is that with the Soviet build up of forces I do not think either will work for long. With winter CVs down to 1,2 , or if you are lucky a 3 a Division per hex wont stand against the Soviets for more than one turn along most of the front. I think the best approach that i have seen is a modified linebacker where the rear rank falls back a fex hexes and then the front starts to fall back over 2-3 turns. When it falls back to the rear rank, it displaces and heads to the rear to refit, while the rear rank comes out of refit and assumes the front line posture. A plain checkboard is a recipe, i think, for Soviet encirclement of German units and the standard linebacker is fine until the Soviets find a weak spot and then your done.

The question I have for the group which ties into yours is how do you know as the Germans you were successful in the winter months? I mean I know you can reasonably say you failed if the Soviets are in Berlin towards the end of the first winter, but beyond that what are you looking at to determine, that yes my defensive plan worked?

Krieg

[karonagames]

The question I have for the group which ties into yours is how do you know as the Germans you were successful in the winter months

The measures I had when testing were: Where is my front line in June 1942 compared to history? What is my OOB compared to the 1942 campaign start?

Obviously as I improved my defensive techniques, I did better on both counts. The south remains the area where I find it harder to get to the historical front line, but In general I was doing better in the north and about level in the centre.

With regards to the OOB numbers I always came out ahead of the historical 1942 campaign start numbers, so several adjustments were made to the replacement and attrition numbers as a result of the blizzard tests I ran.

[bloomstombs2]

ORIGINAL: heliodorus04

I'm not sure, personally, BUT
The presence of the river creates a strong incentive to go Linebacker.
Even minor rivers are very helpful in diluting attack CV.

Not in the blizzard which he is concerened about

[PeeDeeAitch]

I think a checkerboard is best behind the lines, it allows for units to be stronger (at least if the towns are larger) and create strongpoints to fall back on.  A solid front line is needed, because it is too easy to infiltrate, even lower morale units of the soviets.  However, the reserves in towns give both fall-back and potential sudden attack points (if there is a full and warm division there, for instance).
 
I have the biggest problems in the center, as the poor 4th army always seems to take a beating - in the hotseat I played it was roughed up badly.

[CarnageINC]

To me BigA's is the best way to go.  I tried the pure linear defense and I think I held my ground well because of ZOC but in addition I also probably burnt a lot of divisions up in the last 2-3 weeks just trying to hold the line.  Nothing against your opponent BigA but it appears he didn't make a entire frontal assault across the board like Red did to me for the first 2 months so I don't think you lost as much ground as you could of. 

What would you of done if you hadn't taken Leningrad.  You definately would of been stretched very thin for a linebacker so your one test subject to me is good but it may not accurately reflect what most players may face for most opponents.  How would you have covered the entire front and leave units back for fire brigade duties to plug any possible holes that may appear in the later stages of the blizzard?

[karonagames]

What would you of done if you hadn't taken Leningrad.  You definately would of been stretched very thin for a linebacker so your one test subject to me is good but it may not accurately reflect what most players may face for most opponents.  How would you have covered the entire front and leave units back for fire brigade duties to plug any possible holes that may appear in the later stages of the blizzard?

I agree that getting Leningrad gave me a best case scenario to get full linebacker coverage. Without Leningrad I would have used motorised units for linebacker duties, and possibly the SS motorised that I used as the fire brigade in the game with Trey, so my expectations for the March counter offensive would be less.

Overall I think the front would be 2-3 hexes further west than I achieved against Trey, but still pretty close to the historical 1942 start line.

[Oleg Mastruko]

In Linebacker, are those second line units in Reserve mode or just having a party?

[karonagames]

In early tests they were in reserve mode, but then I discovered that sometimes the command penalty from cross-army reserve activation reduced CVs by more than the CV of the reserve unit, so I am much more selective, and only have mostly division sized units in reserve mode

[Encircled]

Linebacker

The more units that survive the winter (assuming that you save the Panzers by keeping them off the front line) the more chance you have off stretching the Soviets in '42.

If the Russian attacks everywhere though in that first blizzard, you could be stretched, but its still probably worth it.