Workshop for the new guys - Barbarossa 41

[larryfulkerson]

Okay, I've moved about 20 units and I'm starting to see Soviet units at the crossroads, river crossings, and
ocassionally just a strong point by itself in a good terrain kind of place. I just HAVE to go attack it. Don't
want to leave remnants.

EDIT: I'm moving units along the northern route rather than go through all that congestion because the number
of hexes distance will be found along the path that has the least cost MP-wise. The traffic through the southern
route would double the cost at least so the northern route gives the best hexes per MP.

[tverse]

Larry appreciate your time and effort.....very useful.

Could explain the comment on map in post 30 about “....BTS on the road...” and why that was a concern?


Edit: um.....just read that section in the manual. Never mind I figured it out. Still enjoying the workshop.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: tverse
Larry appreciate your time and effort.....very useful.

Could explain the comment on map in post 30 about “....BTS on the road...” and why that was a concern?

Edit: um.....just read that section in the manual. Never mind I figured it out. Still enjoying the workshop.

Glad you figured it out. With the new BTS system the combat is more realistic and you have to plan ahead a bit
more than you used to. Your attack is going to leave a mark ( BTS ) and each unit that passes through that hex
will pay a small price for their transit. So the idea is to attack in such a way, if possible, to leave as few
BTS's as possible. So now instead of chasing a unit that RBC's you learn to surround it, to block it first. I
like that idea. The battles are more realistic and FUN. There's a reason for the change.

[larryfulkerson]

Off topic and just FYI, Thomas Harvey is putting objectives in his smaller scenarios
for the Pacific War. He and I were working on Battle for Leyte Gulf and he's
been successful in getting the ships to engage and pursue objectives. So soon all
his smaller scenarios will have PO's.

[larryfulkerson]

Okie dokie....I've moved another thirty units or so and the face of the battlefield is changing. I'm moving the
unemployed units to the east. The goal is to get as far east as fast as possible. I'm in a footrace to get to
my goals before he gets there. He's going to be receiving reinforcements and his killed units are going to start
to respawn in T4 and T5 so he's going to be getting a lot of people here shortly and I've got to be as far east as
possible before he can build his front lines very strong. And the Soviets are experts at digging in.

[larryfulkerson]

And a little further to the south the Axis units are trying to find a Soviet unit and cuddle with it. The idea is to
get the engagement penalty to work for us by getting adjacent to a Soviet unit and when it's his turn to move he has
difficulty getting disengaged and pays a penalty for moving out of engagement. He gets shot at for one thing. So IF he
does get disengaged he probably paid some MP's to escape and can't go far. I'm trying to stop the Soviets from getting
away.

[larryfulkerson]

And a little further to the south the Axis units are rushing forward trying to infiltrate and they are pushing and
shoving and some Soviet units are RBC'ing and progress is being made. Maybe if I go into depth for the details of
a formation.

[larryfulkerson]

And I hit the letter 'f' and the formation report pops up for the current formation. It's got the supporting units in
the list first followed by the three workhorses the Panzer groups that take most of the load. It's a self-contained
formation having all the things supplied to a Corps, ( arty, recon, etc. ).

[larryfulkerson]

The first thing in the formation is the HQ unit and I want it in and amoungst it's subordinates and I don't know where
they are going to end up yet so I'll leave the movement of the HQ unit until later. Next is the assault gun and I'm
thinking of moving it to where it'll be adjacent to a small Soviet paratroop unit. This will engage him and prevent
him from easily getting away. He'll have to pay a disengagement cost and may not have the MPL's left to pay enough and
he might be stuck there next time it's the Soviet turn to move. I may be able to prevent him from getting away before
I can surround and destroy him.

[larryfulkerson]

Next to be moved is the AT gun and I'm wondering whether he needs to be moved or not depending on what's in the Soviet
stack. So I move the mouse cursor over the Soviet stack and press 'c' and the group composition comes up telling me
exactly what's in the hex according to all the intell we've expended in that hex. It reveals three divisions of AFV's
and they aren't going down easily. I'm going to need some tanks of my own to tackle this group. Now I know. First
of all, I'm going to leave the AT gun where it is and stick a pin in the idea that I need some tanks here to deal with
the Soviet tanks. I'll keep that in mind for later.

[larryfulkerson]

And the next unit in the formation to move is the motorized engineers and as I think about where to move him I see a
Panzer unit that's without a supply LOC and he's got that black and blue square in his upper right corner meaning he's
out of supply so I'm thinking I'll just do that guy a favor and restore an LOC for him by moving into an empty hex
adjacent to the enemy. But that's okay because these are engineers and can defend themselves pretty well.

[Fred98]

How is your supply coming along?

.

[larryfulkerson]

And the next thing to be moved from that formation is some arty. I want to move it to the hex where the out of supply
unit is and that would involve me crossing an open adjacent area and I'd have to pay a disengagement penalty to leave
that hex and might lose some people and or equipment and I don't want to pay that price so I'm going to "borrow" a
spare unit from those nearby and move IT into the empty hex first and THEN move the arty. It's going to cost a little
more to traverse in front of an enemy unit but the arty unit has ample MP's remaining and can make it all the way there.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: Fred98
How is your supply coming along?

By Truck.

[larryfulkerson]

I'm just kidding. Here's how the supply is doing. I'm approaching single digits in the swamps which is normal for that
terrain and other than that supply is flowing nicely and there's no problems as far as the eye can see. However, if I
put on my scientist hat and analyse this situation I forsee that there might be a tiny problem in the swamp unless and
until I can get the rail repaired that passes through the swamp to the other side in the east.

[larryfulkerson]

And the next thing to be moved is that white-on-black tank division adjacent to the Soviet stack that has all the armor
in it. He's GOT to stay there to hold the Soviet stack fixed in that spot because he's the only unit nearby that has
the moxie to defend itself adequately and the surrounding units are depending on him to hold his ground so for the
safety of nearby units and his own self respect the armor unit will stand by and be ready for an attack at some future
date. Maybe later this turn after some more tanks are brought in. The armor unit by itself is outnumbered by the
Soviet stack so he's going to hold off attacking for a bit.

[Sniper31]

Still liking this Larry, keep it coming.

Most useful tip I gained from the last few screenies and explanations was using keystroke C to see what the enemy stack compositions are. This was something I was struggling with earlier today.[;)]

[larryfulkerson]

And the last thing in the formation to move is the Infantry component. The INF division, move the infantry division,
move it to where? I'm looking around for something useful for the infantry division to do close to it's relatives
in the formation, and I see an armor unit that I'd like to have up on the large armored Soviet stack so I'll move the
infantry into the hex with the armor unit and then move the armor unit up to the stack.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: Sniper31
Still liking this Larry, keep it coming.

Most useful tip I gained from the last few screenies and explanations was using keystroke C to see what the enemy stack compositions are. This was something I was struggling with earlier today.[;)]

Glad you're finding it useful. I'll see if I can't explore the combat chart with you guys. Things like that.

[larryfulkerson]

So the spare Armor unit arrives at the stack and has 9 MP's remaining of his 14 and that means an attack might be within
reach, so temporarily I assign him to attack alone and I see where it's going to cost me three rounds of the turn and
that's one round more than I wanted to spend on the first combat attacks so I'll cancel the attack and have him wait
until later in the turn to attack, in assoviation with other units, not alone.