Reserves are a PITA now

[Altaris]

Reserves have become very nasty in the newest patches. Was playing a PBEM of Op Blue, and after patching up, nearly every battle I fought had tank corps jumping into the battle (several times from 6-8 hexes away). I had one turn where I made decent progress of 3-4 hexes, but the tank corps were so overwhelming in reserves they just tore my units to shreds even where I was able to advance. The following turn, I wasn't even able to push back a 2=2 stack with 3 separate deliberate attacks from a 3-infantry stack due to tank corps jumping into the fray!

1942 is going to become an impossible task for the Axis if this remains unresolved. The reserve system now is very competent at pulling in just enough to push the odds back to 1:1, so the reserves get used extremely efficiently. Anyone else seeing this yet? It may not have reared it's head in 1941 GC games, but I'm sure it will start up once anyone gets to 1942.

[von Beanie]

The Germans have been surprisingly effective in using reserves to slow down the Soviet winter offensive during the blizzards in my human vs. human game. They have forced me to make many fewer, but overwhelming attacks in the region where he has been using reserves. I believe this change will help the weaker side slow down the offensives by the stronger side better than before, so I'm not as pessimistic as you that it is a bad change. On the other hand, if your opponent knows generally where you intend to launch your major offensive in 1942, and sets his reserves appropriately, then they can be used to stop it cold. So I suspect players will have to use much more deception across the whole front than has been the standard practice so far.
 
 

[76mm]

So do reserves benefit from fortifications/terrain in the defending hex? If not I don't think they will help the Sovs much in 1941 at least.

[Speedysteve]

Yes. They do now

[Tarhunnas]

I have felt that as the defender, reserves have previously been more of a risk than an asset, as it could mean that units went away to somewhere and left a gap in the rear defenses, and often they didn't do much difference to thee combat they intervened in anyway. However reading this I realize I should maybe start to experiment some more with reserves.

[PyleDriver]

Yep, they dig in and respond. The best of both worlds...They work on attacks also, but I dont like it, they dont bring in the full punch.

[Altaris]

I fully agree that reserves were a liability previously, as they hardly ever worked, got no fort bonus, and more often than not got trashed/routed in the process. No longer the case, at least not in 1942. The algorithms seem to be very effective now at bringing in enough (and only just enough) reserves to bring the defenders odds back down to 1:1 - 1.5:1 and keep a hold. Mostly it's the tank corps I've seen doing it (presumably due to high MP), but I also had 3 deliberate attacks get stopped dead cold by a guards division that was 1 hex back from the one I was attacking and kept jumping up front to help defend.
 
I don't know the solution to this. Reserves should be important, IMO, but it's a bit ridiculous when even the most fragile points in a line can be insta-boosted multiple times in a round. As an Axis player, I know this is going to kill any small tiny chance I might have had of advancing by this stage in a GC.
 
Shouldn't reserves have some kind of delay before they get committed as well? I'm not sure the inner workings of the game system, but if it's done in some sort of rounds, maybe have them join in a variable number of rounds from teh start of combat? There should be some way of overwhelming a 2=2 stack with a large deliberate attack before the reserves can even be brought up (esp. when said reserves are coming from 80 miles away!!)

[PyleDriver]

Pavel what is the ratio of commited troops when reserves hit the battle? I know it has something to do with distance, leaders ect...

[pompack]

While the use of Reserves is a very powerful tool, I have found that it has become almost useless as a German defense measure during 1942 under the 1.04 patches.

The new Refit rule basically means that you do not receive enought replacements to even meet attrition unless you pull the unit in question out of the line. By the winter of 42-43 the Germans barely have enough troops to form a line; every unit pulled out of the line is a potential hole. Now when a unit is in Reserve, it is still not receiving sufficient replacements to build back up; when it is in Refit it will gain replacements but is not in Reserve. It has been my experience that the Germans are fortunate to have more than five divisions in Reserve at any give time. This also leads to the problem that the areas where the Russians are pushing are most in need of Reserve mode to slow down the attacks are the areas that are most in need of Refit to get a CV greater than two.

I think that the game needs to have Reserve boosted (not nerfed) to allow a unit in Reserve to accept replacements like it is in Refit if it does not participate in combat during a turn.