Workshop for the new guys - Barbarossa 41

[Fred98]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

This is the list of attacks that are scheduled to take place just as soon as I pull the trigger. I think I might need
to look at that attack that has an AR of just 85. That's not good.

This is a great example of what I mean. Why is 85 poor? How would you feel about 86?

[larryfulkerson]

When I'm starting a new turn I like to check out the aircraft units first thing before I move anybody. Here's a list of
the aircraft units, their locations, their condition, etc. I get a rough idea how healthy they are from their colored
health dot and I put on rest status without looking at them when they are red, orange, yellow, and pale green. I like to
see my units with a healthy deep emerald green. These planes are all green so that's the signal to me that I need to ask
more of them. To go from one-dot to two-dots, etc. So I need to visit all these units and adjust their loss tolerance
setting.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: Fred98

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson
This is the list of attacks that are scheduled to take place just as soon as I pull the trigger. I think I might need
to look at that attack that has an AR of just 85. That's not good.

This is a great example of what I mean. Why is 85 poor? How would you feel about 86?

Hey There Fred98 dude, keep those good questions coming. I like to answer questions. Um....an AR of 85 means you don't
even have a parity of assault values. An AR of 100 means you're just about breaking even your enemy and you. So I like
to aim for an AR of over 200 when possible. Two times as much juice as the enemy is a good thing. The higher the odds
the better. So yeah, an AR of 86 is still way too low.

[larryfulkerson]

And when the aircraft are taken care of I like to go to the beginning of the OOB and move the units one at a time to the
spot they most need to go to at the time I make the decision to move them. I don't tend to do a lot of planning and
rather play by the seat of my pants. Maybe I need a new scenario because I'm so used to this one I know what to do now.

EDIT: And the first unit to move is the HQ unit of the 1st Inf Corps with three divisions and supporting units. They
are currently fighting in the north and this is the face of war in the north right now. I need to briefly check out the
formation to see what shape it's in, is it combat ready, that kind of thing.

[larryfulkerson]

I like to check out the formations once in a while just to make sure there's no problems I need to know about. A unit
that needs to rest or a division that's low on supplies, a unit that has a red health dot, something like that. I like
to take care of those things before the formation goes into action in combat. I like to move the divisions first get
them to where they need to go with the supporting elements into the places they need to go next, arty withing range and
then park the HQ unit where it can lend it's benefits best.

[larryfulkerson]

I have German units that need to move north across the river and there's a broken bridge there so obviously I need to
repair the bridge so I look for the nearest engineer to do that. The 1st Inf Corps just happens to have an engineer
which I find on the formation report and click on the engineer button to select it and then right click on the mini-map
to center the map on the unit, that helps me find it. So it's just a matter of running the engineer unit up to the
broken bridge but I need to consider enemy capabilities so I need to plan for some covering units some infantry and arty
to follow the engineers and guard them.

[larryfulkerson]

The engineer unit has only 3 movement points left so I need to shoo away that Soviet unit so I don't have to move from
one adjacent hex directly into another so my next step is to move the Soviet unit.

[larryfulkerson]

So I go to the formation report by hitting the 'f' key and find a suitable infantry division from the formation and
decide which one I want to use and in this case they are all pretty much in the same condition so I'll just pick one
at random and I click on it's name label to select the unit then right-click on the mini-map to center the map on the
unit and then must move it into a position to move the Soviet unit.

[larryfulkerson]

So the Infantry unit moved one hex north and attacked the Soviet unit and it RBC'd into an adjacent hex away from the
road and the bridge. So then I checked out the engineer unit and found that it STILL can't move onto the bridge. D'oh.
I'll have to think of something else. I've got to get that bridge repaired one way or another.

[larryfulkerson]

I was thinking that if I couldn't repair the bridge I could at least put some ferry engineers in the hex to carry the
units across the river with a small movement point cost. So I needed to check out the HQ unit because sometimes they
have ferry engineers in the unit. So I went to the formation report and clicked on the HQ unit and then right-clicked
on the mini-map to center the map on the unit and then asked for a unit report by hitting the 'u' key and I see where
there's no ferry engineers in the HQ unit. D'oh. So this formation has no fording capability. I need a different
formation to use their assets maybe. So I'll look at the next formation in the OOB.

[larryfulkerson]

So I call up the OOB by hitting the 'o' key and I locate the engineer unit from the next formation and select it.

[larryfulkerson]

The engineer from the second consequtive formation can't make it into the damaged bridge hex either but I found out by
mousing around that I COULD span a river for the units to make it across at that spot instead of the bridge. Unless
it's going to take longer to reach their destination by taking the detour. I's an experience call.

[larryfulkerson]

There were only the two formations close by so having spaned the river at some point I went back to the first
formation and move it's units. I killed that tiny Soviet unit while I was at it.

[larryfulkerson]

And moving units in OOB order I see I've come to a second formation so I need to assign missions to it now.

[larryfulkerson]

And hitting 'f' to get into the formation report I see that the formation has two units that are yellow so I think I
need to go look at those guys to see if they need some bedrest or not.

[larryfulkerson]

I like for my units to have 50% readiness and both those units have less than that so I'm going to have to rest them until
they are better. So I'll park the HQ next to them in some kind of relatively better supply area and let them rest.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a formation that has very few units in it.
In fact it's just thls HQ unit and a construction
unit. So one of the things I like to do is fly
some airborne unit from one end of the front lines
to the other so that the unit passes through most
of the Axis fighter sectors so that if it ever
gets intercepted by enemy fighters, my fighers will
sortie and attack the enemy fighers, saving my
airborne unit and shooting down some enemy fighers.
As long as the airborne unit is typically a throw-away
unit it's a win-win. But I don't want to risk some
command groups or support squads so I needed to take a
look at the HQ unit to check it out and I found no
command groups or support squads so that means this unit
will do nicely for bait. I need to move it to the nearest
airport and wait until next turn to fly it.

The important point is that you must fly where your fighters
are so that they can intercept the intercepters. Also, try
to fly it when it's green to yellow and never below so that
it will tend to survive the flight. You can fly a lot of
these guys all over the front to get a lot of Soviet fighters
shot down.

EDIT: And the reason I choose to fly this guy is because it's
got an airborne operations capability and leg infantry don't.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the supply situation in the Kiev area right now. At the tip of the spear the supply level is too low and far in
the rear it's fine and there's a drop off of the supply levels in between. It's been working out so far but I may have
to slow down the operational tempo to allow the rails to catch up to the fighting.

[tverse]

Larry thanks for these AAR/workshops. Both B41 and D-21 are helpful.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: tverse
Larry thanks for these AAR/workshops. Both B41 and D-21 are helpful.

You're quite welcome. If you really appreciate it I could use your help ( and the
rest of you too ) with ideas. I'm running out of original ideas to write about
so a brief statement from you ( all of you ) about what your questions are and
what else could I write about....in other words what are you mainly interested
in that I haven't covered already. I've been writing about the situations that
come up in my gameplay and are note worthy but I'm mostly an orthodox player and
don't always do risky, extreme things that you guys might like to see.