HQs

[BK6583]

Playing Chinese Farm scenario as both sides. What do I do with these HQs? They have some serious combat power yet it seems so gamey to put them in the line (I discovered that they can also actually attack). If I put them directly behind the line in tactical support mode do they really provide any meaningful support? I just can't tell from the combat reports if they did any good.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: BK6583
Playing Chinese Farm scenario as both sides. What do I do with these HQs? They have some serious combat power yet it seems so gamey to put them in the line (I discovered that they can also actually attack). If I put them directly behind the line in tactical support mode do they really provide any meaningful support? I just can't tell from the combat reports if they did any good.

Look under the hood and see if there's any arty in the unit and if there is then if it has enough range you can put them behing the lines and they will support the troops. If there's no arty in the unit then it depends on whether the HQ has any support units in it. If there are support units in the unit then I myself wouldn't use the unit in combat because I don't want to expose my support units to danger. They help supply to flow to the units you see. Also, if there are any command groups in the unit I wouldn't use them in combat.

There are some HQ units in my B41 mod that don't have any arty so I edited the scenario to give them some 155mm guns and now they can support the troops.

[Lobster]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson
I don't want to expose my support units to danger.

We all learn at a very early age to not expose those things to danger. [;)]

[LeeChard]

Lose an HQ and every unit it supports plummets in usefulness. Not worth it.

[Zovs]

Yes you have to double check the HQ units, in my scenario WIE I purposely set each HQ up with Security (MP, SS Polizei or NKVD) squads, AAA units, Engineering (regular Engineers, RR Engineer, Bridge Engineer) squads, Command and Support Squads (based on mostly Army level numbers) and horse transports or truck (light, medium or heavy trucks) if the HQ in question warranted those systems.

So once the command squads take a beating then the formation will get disorganized (this was my design decision) and if the support squads get reduced then so will supply (again another design decision). The RR conversion rate that is automatically done by the game I deliberately set to 2 hexes for my scenario and then added RR engineers to the HQs but a low enough number that sometimes they can repair a RR in that week and other times not (so multiple HQ's may be needed), but I also added a few (precious you could say) dedicated RR Engineer units to both sides.

So how does this effect my scenario?

First the Polish, French and Russian units have a much lower number of Command Squads (2, 3 and 2, respectively) at the start of the war, and then as time goes on the Russian Army HQ got to 3 and then the Guards are at 4 per HQ, most all the minor countries have 1 command squad while Axis Minor Countries have 2 and IRRC Italy has 3. The CW usually has 5-7 and the US has has 4-7. The Germans mostly have 6-9.

So in this scenario HQ are not meant to be in the front lines fighting, only as an extreme last resort.

[Lobster]

Without knowing the actual TOE of an Israeli unit during this period it's hard to say what's going on with some of those HQ units. Looks to me like much of the divisional support was thrown in with them. Even the army HQ is powerful. I'd keep the division and army HQ away from the front lines since they have command units. But even at that they have a boat load of command squads.

It's really strange to see division and army hq as the most powerful units on the map.