Guide to Assault HQs and Command Efficiency

[jasonbroomer]

This post describes how to get your HQs and units to qualify fully for Assault bonuses and CCP increases. I have played for some time without appreciating the full implications of the rules, however this post will spell out what is required and how to easily monitor the efficiency of your command structure. This guide is written for Axis command structure, but I imagine the principles remain sound for the Soviets

1. The rules state for Assault HQs must meet the following criteria:

a)  The unit itself or its HQ has just been attached to the relevant Axis Army or Soviet Front this turn;
b)  If either the Assault HQ or any other HQ in the command chain is overloaded in terms of Command Points (21.11.6);
c)  If any HQ in the command chain is outside the command range for the Assault HQ (21.11.4)

Hopefully a) & b) are fairly straightforward to understand once you have mastered the basic mechanics of the game.

c) is slightly more problematic. I played a long time thinking that command ranges are additive eg thus a unit must be in 5 range of its Corps HQ, which in turn must be within 15 hexes of its Army HQ - this is INCORRECT.

A unit must be within all of the following: 5 hexs of its corps HQ, 15 of its army HQ and 45 of its Army Group (It does not appear to be necessary to be within 90 hexes of OKH).

The unit information box only details the distance to the next highest HQ, thus does not show whether it meets the command chain requirement.

To check the command chain requirement, use the 'command efficiency' button

Command Efficiency.png (4.28 MiB) Viewed 2339 times

Hitting this button provides most of the 1st Panzer Army (red) a pleasing florescent green border shading, which demonstrates that the units have command efficiency.

However, the units to the right right of the screen only have a dark green shading such as the highlighted 78th ID. This unit is only 1 hex away from its Corps HQ, which is in turn 11 away from 1st Panzer Army HQ. However, it is 46 hexes away from Army Group South. Thus AGS needs to move East to bring this unit into range.

2.

From the rules

23.2.1. Gaining Combat Preparation Points
CPP are gained at the end of the friendly movement phase. All units will gain one CPP for each 24 unused SMP. If units end the turn neither adjacent to the enemy nor in a hex that was not friendly controlled at the start of the turn then they will gain triple the number of CPPs. Note that no unit can ever have more than 100 CPP.


Note also that there is an errata in the living manual:

Errata - note that being adjacent to an enemy controlled hex (even if empty of enemy units) will remove the bonus for rate of gain of CPP.

Thus a unit that fully qualifies for assault status, has a full 200 SMP (i.e. hasn't moved) and meets the requirements above, will gain double the normal CPP gain i.e. +48 CPP

(Note that in this example, AGS is 113 hexes away from OKH and full CPP is awarded to the 78th ID once AGS is moved east)

[Wild]

Thanks for this. I also thought that the command ranges were additive. This is very helpful.

[Beethoven1]

+1, didn't know

[Veterin]

Thanks for sharing. Did not know that about HQ range. It’s a little misleading!

[AlbertN]

Same - I thought it was

Unit within 5 hexes from Corps HQ, Corps HQ within 15 hexes of Army HQ, and so forth.

IF that is not the case - and it is as you just wrote - that complicates things a lot. Even because the distance checks that are automatized are in the way described above.
No one wants to hex-count everytime unit to Army HQ...

Nonetheless - thanks for this because it is really impactful and I feel it will make Axis life even more hard, as their panzers and mobile assets can spread all over the place.

[Stamb]

never knew about c)

amazing
kudos for sharing!

[jasonbroomer]

never knew about c)

amazing
kudos for sharing!

I believe it might be available in the CR but the combat efficiency button is easier IMHO.

Working out the combat efficiency routine took me some time to work out as there are two factors that I was misunderstanding about the system, the non additive command ranges and assault CPP not been awarded if you are next to an enemy controlled hex.

Puzzles like these are vexing but very rewarding when you suss them

[AlbertN]

Tbh it may be best report it as potential bug the fact that:

A) All units must be in the HQ range and not the HQ chain. (It seems counter intuitive to me) Unit should be at 5 from Corps HQ, and Corps HQ at 15 from Army HQ, and in turn that HQ at 45 from AG-HQ. To keep a Panzer-Armee packed in a range of 15 hexes is very limiting - especially when on the move and in need of power projections.
B) Army Group must be in command limit. -- Germans simply do not have enough Command Capacity to accomodate for such in '42 unless they shift heavily into Army Group Antonescu or so. It seems to me an unnatural forcing. [It can easily be solved by either augmenting AG command limit or removing AG requirement in general for Assault Armies]

[jasonbroomer]

Tbh it may be best report it as potential bug the fact that:

A) All units must be in the HQ range and not the HQ chain. (It seems counter intuitive to me) Unit should be at 5 from Corps HQ, and Corps HQ at 15 from Army HQ, and in turn that HQ at 45 from AG-HQ. To keep a Panzer-Armee packed in a range of 15 hexes is very limiting - especially when on the move and in need of power projections.
B) Army Group must be in command limit. -- Germans simply do not have enough Command Capacity to accomodate for such in '42 unless they shift heavily into Army Group Antonescu or so. It seems to me an unnatural forcing. [It can easily be solved by either augmenting AG command limit or removing AG requirement in general for Assault Armies]

a) my guess is that this is WAD and no accident, as this is how the command efficiency button has been programmed
b) Try transferring AGA to OKH. Thank me later

[AlbertN]

Tbh it may be best report it as potential bug the fact that:

A) All units must be in the HQ range and not the HQ chain. (It seems counter intuitive to me) Unit should be at 5 from Corps HQ, and Corps HQ at 15 from Army HQ, and in turn that HQ at 45 from AG-HQ. To keep a Panzer-Armee packed in a range of 15 hexes is very limiting - especially when on the move and in need of power projections.
B) Army Group must be in command limit. -- Germans simply do not have enough Command Capacity to accomodate for such in '42 unless they shift heavily into Army Group Antonescu or so. It seems to me an unnatural forcing. [It can easily be solved by either augmenting AG command limit or removing AG requirement in general for Assault Armies]

a) my guess is that this is WAD and no accident, as this is how the command efficiency button has been programmed
b) Try transferring AGA to OKH. Thank me later

For B I can thank you now but I already got there because OKH has unlimited command capacity and ... the leader is just better than the Supreme Axis Minor HQ of turn!
But after reading your opening thread I had to shuffle around German armies into AGA to accomodate for space.

For A ... well yes I suspect it's a WAD thing of the type that I do not like.

[Hardradi]

c) is slightly more problematic. I played a long time thinking that command ranges are additive eg thus a unit must be in 5 range of its Corps HQ, which in turn must be within 15 hexes of its Army HQ - this is INCORRECT.

A unit must be within all of the following: 5 hexs of its corps HQ, 15 of its army HQ and 45 of its Army Group (It does not appear to be necessary to be within 90 hexes of OKH).

For optimal efficiency on all Leadership rolls, Corps, Army, Army Group and High Command ALL need to be within 5 hexes of the unit. You can see this in the second table in 15.5.4 of the manual. The assumed range modifier is calculated by deducting 5 from the range across ALL commands before then applying the divisor from the first table in that section.

Here you can see the example in the second table of 15.5.4 worked through. The one on the right is the same except all ranges are adjusted to 5, meaning there is no range penalty on any of the HQs. The resulting change in probability of passing one of the four checks is ~1% higher:


Obviously getting Army, Army Group and High Command all within 5 hexes of units across the entire map is impossible. The ~1% gain is at the extreme end of the spectrum and needs to be put in the context that it is often said by "people in the know" that there are potentially 100's of rolls made for combat and perhaps even freight supply.

Note the probability to pass the check when looking at all four rolls together is this (assuming I have this correct, I haven't done anything like this for a long time. Someone please correct me if I am wrong):

Note, I don't think the manual attempted to work it out to this degree of exactness.

[Hardradi]

But then... it was clarified that it operated this way:


And you can see the effect on the original calculation on the left. Compared to a fully in range command structure on the right. Now the probability of passing is higher in the original calculation because the range penalties have been reduced (from ~65.9% to ~66.3%). Of course the probability of passing when in range does not change.

[HardLuckYetAgain]

This information on “C” by Jasonboomer was shown in very old posts in the WITE1 forums. Glad to see the rediscovery once again.

In WITE1 OKH was parked close too for “C”

[HardLuckYetAgain]

c) is slightly more problematic. I played a long time thinking that command ranges are additive eg thus a unit must be in 5 range of its Corps HQ, which in turn must be within 15 hexes of its Army HQ - this is INCORRECT.

A unit must be within all of the following: 5 hexs of its corps HQ, 15 of its army HQ and 45 of its Army Group (It does not appear to be necessary to be within 90 hexes of OKH).

For optimal efficiency on all Leadership rolls, Corps, Army, Army Group and High Command ALL need to be within 5 hexes of the unit. You can see this in the second table in 15.5.4 of the manual. The assumed range modifier is calculated by deducting 5 from the range across ALL commands before then applying the divisor from the first table in that section.

Here you can see the example in the second table of 15.5.4 worked through. The one on the right is the same except all ranges are adjusted to 5, meaning there is no range penalty on any of the HQs. The resulting change in probability of passing one of the four checks is ~1% higher:


Obviously getting Army, Army Group and High Command all within 5 hexes of units across the entire map is impossible. The ~1% gain is at the extreme end of the spectrum and needs to be put in the context that it is often said by "people in the know" that there are potentially 100's of rolls made for combat and perhaps even freight supply.

Note the probability to pass the check when looking at all four rolls together is this (assuming I have this correct, I haven't done anything like this for a long time. Someone please correct me if I am wrong):

Note, I don't think the manual attempted to work it out to this degree of exactness.

Oh! I like this write up

[Seminole]

I made this table for a quick reference on maintaining/maxing CPP for units on the march.

The left side is for Assault HQs, the right side for non-Assault.

The left column is showing current CPP with the righthand column showing how much SMP you need to save if ending in a friendly, non-converted hex, that isn't adjacent to the enemy in order to get your CPP back to 100.

[OberstVonWitz]

ttttt

[OberstVonWitz]

I made this table for a quick reference on maintaining/maxing CPP for units on the march.

The left side is for Assault HQs, the right side for non-Assault.

The left column is showing current CPP with the righthand column showing how much SMP you need to save if ending in a friendly, non-converted hex, that isn't adjacent to the enemy in order to get your CPP back to 100.

While it may be a table for CCP it is not IMHO a table for SU's..... It's a balancing act but during an assault (over 15 hexes) I'd choose assigning units to ARMY and have flexible SU's (compared to Corps) and suffer some CCP reduction until a second line could take over (thus draw back the Panzers for some rest).

I am going to be testing this - stay tuned...