Resting and refitting

[nukkxx5058]

Just a short question: how often do you rest your troops (German side)? Is resting consist in playing a rest card or just staying still/no action one or more turn, or both (staying still and playing a card)?
Is readiness the main indicator to follow about fatigue ?
I would appreciate any advice.
Thanks.

[RandomAttack]

My understanding is the ONLY way to recover from "fatigue" is to play a rest card, which immobilizes the unit/army for a couple of turns. For non-Panzer Groups I have been simultaneously playing a rest & refit card AND a change posture card (to get out of Blitz mode) on an infantry army. It starts taking effect the NEXT turn. It's a delay, but then you will not *ever* have to worry about "fatigue" again for that army. I usually try to do it sometime after I start getting AP/combat fatigue penalties (>10). Subsequently (later on) letting it "rest" a turn by not moving recovers some readiness if needed.

For Panzer Groups, I only really ever rest & refit since I don't usually change them out of Blitz posture. No set time, whenever I feel I "have" to. Personally, I haven't played cards on single units.

I'm sure there are a lot more nuances since I'm not the greatest player, but that's how the system has worked for me.

edit: And SP only-- not sure how this would work against a human opponent!

[mikeCK]

I usually rest and refit Panzer units when they get down to around 70%-80% readiness. At that point, I look for a good opportunity...usually after an encirclement after the infantry has arrived. Really can't do it without infantry cover or you will get hammered. I think it's more of a "when you can" compared to "when you should". If your moving supply bases or something, maybe that's a good time. Basically, if you are looking at not being able to use the army for a turn or two and it isn't in danger, rest

[ChuckBerger]

For panzer & motorised units, playing a refit card fixes all of the mechanical breakdowns. Not readiness or anything else, just the breakdowns. (Though by being inactive, the unit will incidentally recover readiness as well). So keep an eye on the breakdown report. It is seldom the case that an entire PzG actually needs refit. Usually I find a few divisions have lots of breakdowns, while most have an acceptable level. So it makes sense to just refit the individual divisions that need it, leaving the rest of the PzG to keep pushing forward.

The exception, perhaps, is when a theatre is out of fuel and awaiting a FSB movement, and/or when you need to change posture, in which case refit for the entire PzG might make sense, if you're certain that you're not exposed to counterattack.

When I first started playing, I rested entire PzGs - but now I almost never do, I find doing individual divisions is more efficient in terms of PP and more effective in terms of keeping the panzers moving forward.

As for the infantry and fatigue, RandomAttack has it pretty much right. With each of your infantry armies, try to make a deliberate choice of (a) pushing the army hard in blitzkrieg mode until it's really tired, then finding a way to rest the whole army safely; or (b) switching to sustained offensive early, somewhere in the range of turn 3-6, thus removing any further accumulation of fatigue and any need to play refit cards.

I usually follow strategy (b) with most armies, but might go with (a) for 11th Army, the Finns, and possibly 18th Army, just depends on how things are playing out. You can't go with (a) for all your armies, too expensive in terms of PP and too hard to rest the big armies safely on the front once you've pushed them forward past the frontier battles.

As for just leaving the unit for a turn, taking no action, that can help a unit that is low in readiness to recover readiness more quickly. It's seldom necessary, most German units will be able to maintain high readiness during normal operations, but units that are in very intensive combat may need to sit for a turn or two. Note that this is not an "either/or" mechanic, there is nothing magical about not moving for infantry units. You can also simply slow them down a bit and get increased readiness recovery, though not as much as if they sit still.

There is a special rule for Panzers that sit still for a turn; they are immune from additional mechanical breakdowns on the following turn. No repairs, but no further breakdowns.

[FeurerKrieg]

Not that I've played a lot, but against the AI I find there are usually a couple armies that are tasked with clearing very large pockets of the frontier armies. As soon those pockets are clear, that is about the time that I move up FSBs, airfields, rest a couple armies and change posture of several units (including one or two PG) to Sustained Off.

Seems to be efficient to change all that stuff at once since they all cause disruptions in operations.

[nukkxx5058]

Thanks guys for your comments, very helpful !