CV value and winter - I mean why bother....?

[OberstVonWitz]

General,

Our glorious Wehrmacht has become a shadow of former self. Even after a refit it seldom gets above 5 CV between late Nov and Jan.

The defense value (of the enemy) even at base value is often 4x this value which may include a 1 or 2 fortification.

My concern is what CV actually means in this circumstance.

In short, please prove me wrong, it makes NO SENSE to attack under these odds. (???)

SECOND, is this some "quasi" CV value (due to rain/snow), which in essence will recover ( 20- 12 etc.) when spring etc. returns without much manual intervention.

I would very much like anyone who has a "sense" of this to detail the real aspects of CV values during winter and how ( if ever) they manage to do anything with this.

PS: Needless to say the air arm has even "less to say" during this time.

Many thanks,

[AlbertN]

Don't worry, even if you reach the historical '41 line or about that in october / november, German units are so famished and starved of supplies rarely their CV goes high unless they've pretty much just marched unopposed til there.

The 'fresh' troops arriving from the Western Front - thus pure 75 Morale 75 experience 100 TOE infantry have 6 CV on map when descending from the trains (at Vyazma in my case) and that drops once they move that handful of hexes the frontline is past.

German divisions at Kharkov are like 1-3 CV each.

[DesertedFox]

Yes it's annoying when history interferes with ones enjoyment of a game.

When Titans Clashed - David M. Glantz

For virtually all German units, the situation was equally precarious. Only one-third of their motor vehicles were still operational, and divisions were at one-third to one-half strength. Any further advance to the east might succeed on the tactical level but only at a cost of greater strains on logistics. The inadequate number of railroad trains and line-haul trucks brought up fuel and ammunition to continue the offensive, but these vehicles did not have space for warm clothing and construction material, both of which were vital for winter survival regardless of how successful the offensive might be. For all these reasons, on 4 November Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt requested that Army Group South be allowed to halt immediately and rebuild for an offensive the next year. Other commanders expressed similar concerns.

Boldin’s 50th Army, defending the outskirts of Tula, launched repeated counterattacks against Guderian’s front and flank. With temperatures well below freezing and troops running out of fuel, ammunition, and functioning vehicles, the German advance slowly shuddered to a halt. Guderian repeatedly requested that the offensive be canceled, but no one in OKH had the authority to approve this without Hitler’s consent.73

Dogged Soviet defenses did as much to stop the Germans as did bad weather and poor supply lines.
In early December, however, the snow and cold arrived with a vengeance.78 German spearheads were strung out along the few roads, and the Luftwaffe operated from improvised forward airstrips. Both vehicle and aircraft engines had to be heated for hours before attempting to start them. By contrast, the Red Air Force had heated hangars at permanent airfields

[exalted]

In short, please prove me wrong, it makes NO SENSE to attack under these odds. (???)

You can seriously disrupt any soviet offensive if you take every feasible opportunity to attack during blizzard at least against the AI. It might look hopeless but each routed soviet division is one less to hold the line or counter-attack.

Exception is vehicle heavy formations which can suffer terribly for even moving during blizzard, even they may be worth attacking with under the right circumstances however.

[ElizabethWizard]

Yes it's annoying when history interferes with ones enjoyment of a game.

Albert has gone on record as suggesting that game balance should take precedence over historical accuracy...

To which I say, great! Let's give the Axis a couple of X-Wing formations and an M1 Abrams battalion.

Or maybe just give the Axis a number of solar-powered space heaters.

... I really should learn to mod this game so I can make a symmetrical map where each army is identical to the other. See how much fun the "balanced" game is.

[OberstVonWitz]

Hi,

So if I have it right the most sensible thing to do is NOTHING.

The things I could think of:

1. Assign best leaders to units on front line (reduce losses)... within reason
2. Move all armor FROM the front line
3. Set up HQ in a sensible way (re: 1)


Things perhaps should have done:

1. Dig in



Questions: (random)

A. Does air arm "participate" in any battle/supply IF it has moved airbase that turn ( start of)

B. Does "fortify hex" have any advantages worth the cost/time?

C. In the AIR phase it is very frustrating that you cannot see the unit designation ( eg: 3rd Pz). This makes assigning tasks on how good your memory is . last: Is AD affected by position in the Q? For example my preference would be Recon--> Fighter cover ---> GS ---> Bomb city etc. OR can the AI work out that the reverse is not correct?

[ElizabethWizard]

Yeah... Historically one does not campaign during winter for a large number of reasons. Typically you park your army somewhere you can supply it sufficiently and then wait for all that nasty weather to clear so you can march again in beautiful springtime (probably not why they call it the month of "March" but...)

[AlbertN]

The etimology of the month name is pertinent to the God of War (Latin), Mars.