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Hello, here is what I've sent to Steve...
 
[font="times new roman"]3.4 Important Decisions[/font]
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[font="times new roman"]3.4.7 Naval Combat[/font]
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[font="times new roman"]There are two instances when multiple naval combats may occur in an impulse. The first is a successful interception when the moving side chooses to fight through, and the second is the naval combat phase, when first the moving side, and then secondly the non-moving side, can try to initiate a naval combat. In this explanation “you” refers to the moving side.[/font]
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[font="times new roman"]3.4.7.1 Choosing to Fight Through[/font]
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[font="times new roman"]You must make this decision knowing the enemy has found you but not knowing your own search roll. You will also know if the enemy search roll will allow him to add land-based-air (hereinafter “LBA”) to the combat. Since surprise points are critical to naval combat results, anytime the enemy finds you with a low number (3 or lower as a general guideline), you are well advised to stop moving rather than fight your way through.[/font]
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[font="times new roman"]Be aware of your objective in entering the sea zone in the first place. It may have been to transport a sorely needed land unit to a besieged garrison. It may have been to sortie against poorly protected enemy convoys in an adjacent sea zone. Or it may have been in the hopes the enemy would indeed intercept so you could bring him to battle and perhaps clear his forces from the sea zone in advance of you moving some soft targets into or though it (you sly fox).[/font]
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[font="times new roman"]In any event, not only your objective in entering is important, but the order in which you perform your naval moves in view of interception possibilities is even more important. Granted you have limited choices if performing a Combined action but in a Naval action these are important considerations. Even prior to moving a single naval unit, you need to be thinking about possible outcomes so that you can fly any LBA on naval air missions to sea zones where their presence will be an advantage. Nonetheless, with sufficient range they may be able to react into a lower box that will suit your needs, and this will save you air missions.[/font]
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[font="times new roman"]Just because you have been intercepted, this may not mean your objective will be thwarted. Let’s say you are trying to transport a critically needed land unit somewhere. Your choice to stop moving makes the enemy have to search for you and find you again, before he can engage you in combat. Next impulse you may be able to leave that sea zone and achieve your objective, albeit with the land unit arriving disorganized since that will be a return-to-base move in mid-turn. If you have escorting naval units and the enemy has minimal or no air-to-sea, then even if he finds you again, you can abort after one round of naval combat after your escorts absorb any sink or damage results. Another possibility is that although you’d have preferred to make it all the way to the besieged location, it is a coastal hex in the sea zone you are already in, and you have the land move needed to just disembark your land unit later in this impulse, providing the enemy does not find you again.[/font]
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[font="times new roman"]Whether stopping or fighting through, you must pick a box for your units to be in. Higher boxes reduce potential surprise differentials against you but may cost too much movement for your unit to reach where you’d wanted it to end up. Here it is important to understand the difference between movement and range factors of naval units. Any excess amount of movement above[/b] the range can be used to reach a higher box in a sea zone without impacting the maximum distance between ports that a naval unit may travel in a turn. If fighting through succeeds, you can continue your naval move into an adjacent sea zone at the cost of one range and one movement point. So for example, going to a higher box to fight through, may impact your transport less than your convoy raiders in terms of achieving your objective.[/font]
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[font="times new roman"]Another consideration is if you have other naval units already present in the sea zone. If fighting through, you know your moving units will be included in the first round of combat. But it is possible others will be as well if the search number includes their boxes. And if the combat continues to a second round then your moving units could have joined up with existing units in their box, if advantageous to do so.[/font]
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[font="times new roman"]Finally remember that if you choose to fight through because you feel you can absorb one combat round of damage and then abort, you will have to abort with all your surface ships in the sea zone plus any of your committed subs. This alone can often be a significant inhibitor of the decision to fight through.[/font]
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[font="times new roman"]3.4.7.2 Initiating Naval Combat[/font]
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[font="times new roman"]Once all the naval moves have been completed, you can try to initiate naval combats. Just because you entered a sea zone with enemy units in it, does not necessarily mean you should try to initiate combat. For example the enemy has (so far) unsuccessful convoy raiders in the 2-box and you move a force of fast cruisers to the 4-box. If you search and fail, you have given the enemy an opportunity to attack the convoys with a successful search, whereas if you make it his search decision, your cruisers may be judged by him to be too intimidating a deterrent for him to initiate a search. Again you must always consider what your objective is and what the risks are.[/font]
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[font="times new roman"]Usually you will try to initiate combat when you feel you are in an advantageous position, like occupying a higher sea zone box and/or possessing a more powerful fleet. First, however, check what the enemy LBA is capable of doing if you do search. Almost always, it is important to choose carefully the order in which to search the sea zones. Consider trying to make the enemy commit an LBA to a zone you’d be happier having it in versus the alternative. Consider searching first in a zone where the enemy has no friendly ports and thus may have to route aborting units through other zones where you have naval units laying in wait to intercept.[/font]
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[font="times new roman"]Initiating naval combat is not automatic, even with considerable advantages you may not find the enemy or worse, he may find and surprise you. The higher the sea box you occupy, the more protected you are from such annoying outcomes. Try to avoid having multiple naval units in multiple sea boxes of the same sea zone, because if the enemy finds and you don’t, he can pick a low box to get additional surprise points and then abort after one round of combat, leaving you with a big unused stick and a bloody nose![/font]
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[font="times new roman"]3.4.7.3 Committing Units[/font]
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[font="times new roman"]All naval units except subs are automatically committed if at war with somebody else involved in the potential naval combat. If at a disadvantage, think about not committing your subs and they will be immune to any combat results and immune to aborting even if you choose to abort with all other committed naval units. On the other hand, subs in the 3 or 4 box may be committed because of their value in reducing enemy surprise or increasing your own surprise if you find the enemy.[/font]
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[font="times new roman"]3.4.7.4 Including Boxes[/font]
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[font="times new roman"]When you find and the enemy doesn’t, you get to choose which boxes containing the enemy’s committed units to have included in the combat. You can avoid higher numbered boxes and get more surprise points, but don’t forget to check whether the number of enemy units that would be included would place your combat result on a higher row of the combat results table, which in some cases may result in a better outcome.[/font]
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[font="times new roman"]3.4.7.5 Surprise Points[/font]
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[font="times new roman"]Once a combat has been initiated and all the included units have been identified, hopefully it is you and not the enemy that has some decisions to make about applying surprise points. You can withhold surprise points and use them later in a different phase of the same combat round, but often 4 get used right away to pick the type of naval combat. You can use 4 surprise points to avoid naval combat altogether but this is unlikely to happen if you initiated it. You can even use 4 surprise points to pick a type of naval combat that is not normally possible. For example, you could pick subs against convoys even when no subs or convoys are present. You might do this to ensure that more search rounds will occur if neither side aborts entirely.[/font]
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[font="times new roman"]Using 3 surprise points to pick the target for a combat result can be incredibly powerful in an air-to-sea combat, because it means you can pick 3 enemy targets in a row (or pick the first two of your own versus the enemy combat result). In a surface combat, it means you can pick an enemy target when normally it is the enemy who chooses them all. (So for example, even when lacking any of your own air-to-sea, to possibly sink that juicy enemy CV with a surface combat, all you need is 7 surprise points, 15 surface factors and the enemy having 3 ships involved.)[/font]
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[font="times new roman"]Using 2 surprise points to shift the combat table column is worth considering since in combats with a small number of units, you may be able to shift the enemy so his surface factor or AA is ineffective. For enemy AA though, unless you can shift it to ineffective, it is usually better to wait and shift your air-to-sea column upwards after the AA fire instead. Each 2 surprise points used in air-to-air combat can shift your combat value up by 1 or the enemy combat value down by 1.[/font]
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[font="times new roman"]3.4.7.6 Choosing How to Apply Combat Results[/font]
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[font="times new roman"]For your own naval units, the key point here is that aborts are not a bad thing. You can use them to hopefully get damaged units out of the sea zone before the next combat round. For the enemy units, a damage result is a good thing to use against an enemy BB that you are worried about providing Ground Support to enemy forces. Usually the damage will become an abort because BB defense values are so good. If you entered the sea zone to try and remove enemy supply lines, then concentrate your picks on the units allowing him supply. Remember: “Eyes on the Prize” at all times.[/font]
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[font="times new roman"]3.4.7.7 Voluntarily Aborting[/font]
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[font="times new roman"]This is where incorrigible gamblers suffer most in WiF and MWiF. If you’ve just been badly surprised, the odds of it happening again in the next combat round have not[/b] decreased. If the combat began on relatively equal terms you are probably now at a significant disadvantage, especially if you have damaged CVs, TRSs or BBs still in the sea zone. A naval unit takes two turns to repair but up to twelve turns to rebuild from scratch. Flee now and live to fight another day unless remaining in the sea zone is ultra-critical and then you must trust to providence the next round of searching will either not produce combat or will give you sufficient surprise to avoid further combat.[/font]
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[font="times new roman"]Another time to think about voluntarily aborting after a combat round is if you have only disorganized subs left. As you cannot search anymore you may be able to return them to port and reorganize them for another sortie. Of course you are gambling that the next search you would have conducted might still have been successful.[/font]
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[font="times new roman"]3.4.7.8 Where to Abort?[/font]
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[font="times new roman"]If possible, always abort damaged ships to a port you control in the same sea zone. Other ships should go to a port that has a high probability of being in supply for both final reorganization and for re-oiling. If a particularly valuable ship can abort to a port in range of a face-up HQ, then you may be able to reorganize it for use again this same turn. Always avoid sea zones where your aborting naval units can be intercepted, if at all possible, because you must fight through from the zero box in such a case. Mind you this can be a good trick for re-initiating naval combat in a sea zone where you might like to have another chance to sink some enemy convoys. Your opponent’s greed may get the better of him, and likewise, remember to avoid the poisoned pill yourself![/font]
 

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

Patrice,

You are right about not adding the additional magic numbers to this section.

They need to be explained, but they are more appropriately described in the naval combat section Paul is writing. I see the naval combat section as focusing on tactics, while the section you wrote has mostly operational advice. there will undoubtedly be overlap, but I would prefer to avoid redundancy unless it's needed for clarity and/or continuity.

Of course I could add this but to me it is a deployment consideration, since by the time you are at naval combat, you've already composed your fleets. Nothing will change except by the inclusion of other units by the search roll.

I might include in the naval combat write-up, when allocating damage, that it is considered good play to pick CVs when the enemy has few of them (especially the CW in 39-41) or when you have rough CV parity (Jaoan vs. US until 42-43) and to prioritize sealift above all else, whenever you get the chocie.

Here is my merger of the writeups by Mike and Christopher on HQs and Armor.
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3.4.5 Using HQs and Armor

The two most important land units in MWiF are headquarters units (HQs) and Armor units (Armor or ARM). Using them properly is a key to playing well, or at least to avoid playing poorly. With proper use of HQs and armor, supported by other land, air, and navy units, you can control the pace of the game.

3.4.5.1 HQs

HQs can be used for supply, for reorganization, in combat, and even to debark units from naval transports that are at sea. With planning, HQs can commonly perform two of these roles, but rarely all four. Using the special capabilities of HQs in MWIF means making trade-offs between these competing and conflicting demands.

HQs Supply Role

Supplying front line units
As a cursory examination of the supply rules shows (see RAC section 2.4), HQs are vital as secondary supply sources for other units. Unless you are fighting in, or very near, your home country, you need to have an HQ within a few hexes of land and air units in order for those units to operate at full effectiveness. Thus you want your HQs to keep up with advancing (or retreating) front-line combat units.

On the attack, once your armies have pushed beyond your home country's borders and the capital cities of your aligned and conquered minors, they require HQs to remain in supply. This is particularly true once bad weather strikes and the length of the basic supply path drops from 4 hexes to 3 hexes (in snow), and even down to 2 hexes (in rain, storm and blizzard). To press forward for the whole turn, even in bad weather, your units cannot afford to outrun your HQs.

When defending, there often are stretches of the front that are too far from your cities, especially in bad weather. HQs are vital to keep units in supply in those sectors, or your units face obliteration once your opponent disorganizes them. Units out of supply and disorganized defend with a strength of 3 at best and usually just 1.

For both attacking and defending major powers, HQs are also vital to maintain supply in overseas theaters, especially if supply lines stretch inland. In particular, if you are engaged in, or launching, a major overseas offensive (such as the Japanese in China or the Allies invading France late in the game), HQs are essential for pressing an offensive deeper inland.

As a general rule, in each theater of operations you should have at least one HQ reserved exclusively for providing supply to your forces; it performs no other HQ function until very late in the turn (i.e. once the chance the turn will end is 30% or better). That’s because the other uses of HQs can cause them to be disorganized, which halts your advance or forces you to defend a disorganized HQ under unfavorable conditions. HQs with low reorganization values are ideal candidates for providing supply, since they are generally inept at any of the other HQ functions.

Emergency supply (an optional rule, see RAC section 2.4.3)
It may happen that part of your army becomes trapped out of supply with an accompanying HQ. If your HQ is organized, you have the option of using emergency HQ supply to restore supply to as many units as the HQ's reorganization value.

If you are on the phasing side, you can use emergency HQ supply to get: (1) air units to ground-strike key enemy forces (such as the land units coming to destroy your out-of-supply troops) or (2) land units back in supply to launch an attack. This is particularly useful if your spearhead has been encircled (à la Stalingrad) and you want to break out of the pocket.

If you are on the non-phasing side, you might need to provide emergency HQ supply to fighters to defend against enemy air missions, or to put disorganized units back in supply, increasing their combat strength and hence their survivability in the face of enemy attacks.

In general, if you can hold your position without using emergency HQ supply, it is better to do so for as long as possible. Consider emergency supply as a last resort tactic.

Supply units (an optional rule, see RAC section 22.4.10)
An often-overlooked use of HQs as a supply source is to pair them up with supply units. Supply units, when stacked with an HQ, can be expended (i.e., poof! they’re gone) to make that HQ a primary supply source for the remainder of the turn (not just for the impulse, for the whole turn).

An HQ so used can keep an offensive going or help hold a key defensive sector through an entire turn even if supply is unreliable due to contested sea areas, immense logistical distances, or a lack of a rail network. For example, during a long turn you can send a force through a wide expanse of desert (such as the desert region in Syria, Jordan and Iraq) without any trouble, if it is accompanied by an HQ empowered by the expenditure of a supply unit.

Perhaps the best uses of supply units are during Axis campaigns in the United Kingdom or the Allied invasion of France. In both cases, the invading armies must contend with the possibility that a well-planned maritime defence (led by the Royal Navy in the first case and formidable Axis naval air power in the second) will cut their overseas supply lines. If supply units are in use, HQs already in theatre can consume a supply unit and allow the campaign to press forward without being ground to a complete halt due to such interruptions.

To get the most out of your supply unit, use it at the beginning of a turn.

HQs Reorganization Role

When to use HQs to reorganize
At various points during an impulse, your land, air and naval units may become disorganized and immobile for the rest of the turn. The reorganization capacity of an HQ can let disorganized units move and fight again. However, if you use an HQ to reorganize units, that HQ becomes disorganized, and can no longer move to keep up with your advancing (or retreating) front-line units in order to provide them with supply.

Generally, an appropriate time to reorganize units is when the type of action you have taken (e.g., land) corresponds with the type of unit to be reorganized, to maximize the efficiency of your HQ.

Be wary though, when on the strategic defensive, you cannot reorganize HQs during the turn unless you expend an offensive chit (only possible during the Action Choice phase and when you are on the phasing side). If the turn goes on too long and the attackers are successful at pushing forward, you could find your HQ is in the front lines and under heavy assault.

Land unit reorganization
Most often, you use HQs to reorganize land units after a failed land attack, so that your offensives can continue. They can also be used to reorganize key reinforcements that have arrived by rail or units that have been disorganized by enemy action (ground struck or forced to retreat).

Air unit reorganization
You usually reorganize air units after a series of ground strikes or strategic air raids, in order to be able to continue to launch those sorts of air missions later in the turn. For the CW and US, having one HQ each dedicated to keeping their mighty late-game air forces organized is often a good idea (especially in conjunction with offensive chit-boosted air actions). You also occasionally need to reorganize fighters to maintain or contest control of the skies.

Naval unit reorganization
Naval units are reorganized much less often during a turn than land or air units, due to the mechanics by which naval units operate at sea. However, if you have spare reorganization capacity, your HQs can reorganize: (1) combat ships, submarines, and carriers that have been aborted from sea, so they can return to the fight, (2) sea-lift units that have shuttled in reinforcements from overseas, so they can be used to carry units again (including to invade with), or (3) convoys, when you have just suffered a major blow to your convoy lines or are undertaking a massive re-adjustment.

Alternative means of reorganization
As you can see from the reorganization rules, air and naval transports can also be used to reorganize units. Any of those units that are not otherwise committed should be used to reorganize units, thereby saving HQs for other tasks. Keep in mind that air transports require spare air missions to reorganize units.

HQs Combat Role

HQ support
If you are using the optional HQ support rule , HQs can provide a direct modification to combat odds, offensively and/or defensively. When playing with the 2d10 combat results chart, HQs used on the attack also help offset the penalties resulting from attacking cities.

It is tempting to throw in HQ support to help boost attacks whenever possible, especially since HQs often have comparable combat factors to regular units. You should avoid this temptation!

Because using an HQ in this manner causes it to become disorganized after the combat is over (whatever the result of the combat), it should only be used on key attacks. If an attack fails anyway despite your use of HQ support, then the HQ and all the other surviving attackers are disorganized, whereas if you had held the HQ out of the attack, it could now reorganize the remaining units so they could resume offensive operations.

HQ combat modifier
As noted above, an HQ helps nullify the penalties applied when attacking cities. This makes HQs useful when assaulting cities that are either encircled and (relatively) easy to capture, or when assaulting a key enemy city (e.g., Leningrad, Paris) where the HQ would be used for HQ support anyway. Attacks on cities with a high probability of resulting in disorganized attackers, and that do not merit HQ support, should probably not include HQ participation, so as to avoid disorganizing the HQ.

HQs and offensive chits
An offensive chit used during a land, air, or naval impulse provides impulse-specific benefits for an individual HQ. Alternatively, during any impulse, regardless of action type, an offensive chit can be used to reorganize all your disorganized HQs. At the start of each turn, when you have one or more offensive chits at your disposal, you should examine how they might be used during the turn and, if applicable, on which HQs they should be used.

When using offensive chits, your best HQ in a theater should be reserved for land actions, and your second best HQ for air actions. For the CW and US, late in the game, the reverse is often true, as they have a limited front and relatively modest armies on land but massive air forces at their disposal. Japan and the US might expend offensive chits on individual HQs during naval actions, since the nature of campaigning in the Pacific does not lend itself to the use of offensive chits during land or air actions.

When your front is advancing rapidly and you do not need the extra 'oomph' provided by offensive chits used on land actions, you can instead engage in a massive reorganization of your forces, using up your HQs, and then reorganize all your HQs on your next impulse with the use of an offensive chit. This is a fearsome capability and allows your offensive to proceed without interruption. If your opponent’s forces have all become disorganized, like yours were prior to this massive reorganization effort, they are immobile targets ripe for the plucking by your newly invigorated troops. This is best done during long summer turns.

HQ Summary

You will have to decide for yourself what the proper balance is between combat support, reorganization, and supply, but some general guidelines for the placement and use of HQs can be given:

• If your opponent has superiority in ground forces, avoid placing an HQ into the front line where it is vulnerable, unless the position is one which you must hold (for example, Gibraltar is often considered the most important hex in the game). By placing an HQ in or adjacent to a critical hex, you can lower your opponent’s chance of taking it; although doing so puts the HQ at risk.

• If your opponent has strong tactical air units, try to place your HQ in a hex beyond his air units’ range and/or in a terrain type that halves tactical air factors. If no such position is available (for example, France lacks “strategic depth” because Paris is so close to the border), assign a fighter or anti-aircraft unit to defend the HQ from air attacks, if possible.

• If you are playing with oil-dependent units, the reorganization of your HQ will burn oil that could have gone to other units, or to your hungry factories. Sometimes, this is a necessary price, but examine the weather report and where you are in the turn. Use of the HQ for reorganization may provide little benefit in poor weather or late in a turn. Weather is unpredictable, but the weather report can give you an idea of probability of poor weather. Poor weather usually shortens the turn while simultaneously reducing the ability of units to move and attack. If the turn is about to end, the reorganization will have been wasted.

If you manage to find the proper balance, your HQs can allow your units a second crack at a key point, or sustain a drive deep into enemy territory. When you do make that drive, you will find that the spearhead will usually be armored units.

3.4.5.2 Armor

Armor units (ARM), in combination with the other blitz units, mechanized (MECH) and (to a lesser extent) motorized (MOT) units, are key to a rapid advance through enemy territory or to a solid defence against enemy advances. They are most often used in the European theater of operations, but can also be useful in the Asia-Pacific theater.

Blitz combat
Under the right circumstances, as long as you have superiority in blitz units (ARM or MECH) in a combat, you can declare a combat to be resolved using the Blitz combat results table (CRT). Typically this results in you taking more territory and keeping your forces organized longer over the course of a turn.

If your opponent has no defending blitz units, any amount of ARM or MECH will allow you to use the blitz CRT. If your opponent has MECH, you must either have some ARM or more MECH. If your opponent is defending with ARM and/or anti-tank guns, you must have more ARM. For example, if your opponent uses two ARM corps and an anti-tank gun to defend a hex, in order to overcome his ARM and call a blitz combat, you must have four ARM corps (or three ARM corps and one division) in on the attack.

Both ARM and MECH are useful to gain blitz bonuses in combat. The bonuses apply when attacking or defending in Fine weather in Clear or Desert hexes, although when attacking you only get the bonus when the blitz CRT is being used. Generally, your blitz units are twice as effective when defending as when attacking.

When playing with the 2d10 combat chart, you should have a MOT unit in pretty much every blitz combat you launch. The Mot unit takes the first loss (if any), because the first loss suffered by the attacker in a blitz combat must always be an ARM, MECH, HQ-A or MOT. If playing with divisions, a MOT division is the cheapest loss to take.

Though some terrain types permit the defender to choose the combat table, the choice is often made by the side with the most armor engaged in the battle (as described in detail above). Whoever chooses the CRT can use that decision to control the pace of the advance. Armor has high movement and combat factors, which in combination, allow an armored force to rapidly push back enemy front lines and possibly breakthrough them. On the defense, having greater armor means you can choose the assault table, thereby preventing breakthroughs and rapid advances by the attacker. Thus, the one with the most armor at the point of decision can determine whether a front is blitzkrieg or sitzkrieg.

Positioning armor
Note where your opponent is massing his armor, and you will have an indication of where his main offensive thrust is going to be, or where he plans to build his strongest defensive line.

Does this mean that you should always strive to have the most armor on all fronts? No. You want control “at the point of decision”. For secondary fronts, or a portion of a front line, or a place where you can afford to fall back, it’s ok to concede the armor advantage to your opponent, in order to gain it elsewhere. Historically, in the summer of 1941, a small fraction of German and British armor was near the English Channel. The two sides considered occupied France secondary, the Germans because they had conquered it and the British because they calculated they were not strong enough to invade. Both sides sent their armor elsewhere to gain an advantage on other fronts.

The high combat factors of armor can tempt you to use them in attacks on enemy cities and mountains. You should only do so if taking the city or mountain hexes is crucial, especially if playing with oil-dependent units. A smart defender will see his chance to disorganize your best armored units and use the assault table, since this prevents breakthrough results. Sometimes, the position is so important (e.g., an Allied attack on Berlin or a USSR counter-attack on Moscow), that using armor is justified. In such cases, you should use it.

A sneaky trick that defenders in land combat can pull is to call a blitz combat even when the attack is in non-blitz terrain, especially if the attacker is using an ARM or HQ-A in the combat. If by doing so the defender can inflict losses, even if the defender is forced to retreat or is shattered, the attacker loses a precious ARM unit instead of a cheap militia or infantry he was expecting to lose. This can happen a lot if the attacker launches low-odds attacks and the defender can afford to give up the hex(es).

Island Defence
Because blitz units are so effective on the defense, they are not used much in the Asia-Pacific regions. Major powers who have to defend Clear terrain island hexes, (Japan especially, the US sometimes, and other powers rarely), often stack an ARM and/or MECH corps in a key island hex (such as Truk). If you are playing Japan and your Commonwealth and American opponents have their marine ARM divisions available (these can invade off transports, and call the blitz CRT when invading), consider putting an anti-tank gun in the hex too, to bolster your defense against invasions.

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets
HQs Reorganization Role

I'd add something important here.
It is my observation during the games I was in, that a good player is a player who uses ALL his reorganisation power during the turn.

If the turn ends, and that you still have face up HQ, then you have missed something and your army was not used up to its maximum potential. You could undoubtfully have done better that turn. Maybe you did not need that your army was at its full potential, but if you had needed that and you keep on playing that way, you're not going to win wars.

Edit : Well, my first sentence is not exactly what I meant. I meant that a good player is a player who uses ALL his HQ power one way or the other (reorg, hq support...) during the turn.

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets
When using offensive chits, your best HQ in a theater should be reserved for land actions, and your second best HQ for air actions. For the CW and US, late in the game, the reverse is often true, as they have a limited front and relatively modest armies on land but massive air forces at their disposal. Japan and the US might expend offensive chits on individual HQs during naval actions, since the nature of campaigning in the Pacific does not lend itself to the use of offensive chits during land or air actions.

About that, I'd say that I often have seen offensive chits used to improve an assault on key island invasions. Don't forget that the HQ need to invade to apply his benefits to the other invading units.

Using HQ abilities to their fullest is certainly a specific and necessary goal. However I believe the timing of your HQ usage is just as important.

Early on in an Oil game I would not use up the HQs with the axis. You can accomplish your goals and store oil for later when you need it more.

ORIGINAL: paulderynck

Early on in an Oil game I would not use up the HQs with the axis. You can accomplish your goals and store oil for later when you need it more.

Yes.

Mike made this point in his write up, in a more general form: if oil is precious, consider not disorganizing your HQs.

I don't want to go into gruesome details in this section on HQs. How to use them is complicated and there are many factors influencing the decision. I think the above write up hits most of the important points. If the reader can absorb all that information, we will have done our duty towards helping him learn how to play the game.

I am closing in on finishing section 7. Here are teh first 9 of the 22 subphases for naval combat.
====
7.10 Naval Combat Subphases

Naval combat can be initiated from 3 places in the sequence of play: the Naval Combat by Phasing Side phase, the Naval Combat by Non-Phasing Side phase, and a Naval Interception digression. Naval interception digressions can occur during numerous phases. Once a naval interception combat has been resolved, with any naval combat aborts also completed, the sequence of play returns to the phase where the naval interception occurred.

The two naval combat phases start with the selection of a sea area (see section 7.10.1) while naval combat interception digressions skip that subphase and begins with the subphase Naval Air Support by the Initiating Side (see section 7.10.2). Note that the initiating side is the phasing side, except during naval interception combats; then it is the side which moved naval units into the sea area - the side which was intercepted.

7.10.1 Select Sea Area (RAC 11.5.2)

Depending on whether it is the Naval Combat by Phasing Side or Non-Phasing Side, one major power on the phasing/non-phasing side is designated the decision maker for each sea area. The Naval Combat Overview form (see section 8.7.2.28) is shown to all players, although a sea area can be selected for combat only by the designated major power for that sea area (i.e., the major power on the phasing/non-phasing side with the most units in the sea area). That decision maker is also the only one who can decline combat in that sea area.

If any of the decision makers selects a sea area for naval combat, that person designates which naval unit is initiating the combat. Note that the decision maker does not have to choose one of his own units, just one of the units on his side that is eligible to initiate the naval combat. The initiating unit may have been identified previously (e.g., in a naval interception during the naval movement phase, the intercepting unit can be used as the initiating unit in the ensuing Naval Combat by Non-Phasing Side phase). After the initiating unit has been determined, MWIF advances the sequence of play to the subphase Naval Air Support by the Initiating Side.

Once all sea areas where combat may occur have either been selected or declined, the naval combat phase ends and MWIF advances the sequence of play to the next phase (either the Naval Combat by Non-Phasing Side phase or the Strategic Bombing phase).

7.10.2 Naval Air Support by Initiating Side (RAC 11.5.3)

In this subphase the major powers on the initiating side can fly land based air units into the sea area in support of the current naval combat. As ‘interceptors’ these units have only half their normal range. Once all major powers on the initiating side have clicked on the End of Phase button in the main form, this subphase is over and MWIF advances the sequence of play to the subphase Naval Air Support by the Non-Initiating Side.

7.10.3 Naval Air Support by Non-Initiating Side (RAC 11.5.3)

This subphase is the same as the preceding one but for the major powers on the non-initiating side.

7.10.4 Commit Submarines (RAC 11.5.4)

In this subphase both sides decide whether or not to commit their submarines to the combat. The side that initiated the combat decides first. If the naval combat is an interception combat, then the side that successfully intercepted (the non-initiating side) has already decided whether or not to include its subs.

The decision making major power on each side is the major power with the most units in the sea area. The Commit Subs form is used for this decision (see section 8.7.2.11). Once both sides have closed the Commit Subs form, this subphase is over and MWIF advances the sequence of play to the next subphase.

7.10.5 Search Die Rolls (RAC 11.5.5)

The first thing done in this subphase is to make sure that both sides have units committed to the naval combat. It is possible that one side had only submarines and decided to not commit their subs. In that case, the combat is over.

Assuming that a naval combat is still possible, MWIF generates random numbers to simulate rolling dice for the search rolls for both sides. During port attacks the non-phasing side has fixed numbers for their die rolls: 5 for a major port and 3 for a minor port. MWIF figures out which sides had successful search rolls and informs everyone as to what happened.

There are 3 possible outcomes of the search rolls:
• Neither side succeeds - the combat is over.
• Both sides succeed - MWIF records this fact and advances the sequence of play to the next subphase.
• One side succeeds and the other fails - MWIF records who ‘won’ and advances the sequence of play to the next subphase.

7.10.6 Select Included Sea Boxes (RAC 11.5.5)

If both search rolls were successful, then which sea box sections are included is ordained by the rules and recorded by MWIF. If only one side was successful, MWIF lets the winning side choose which sea box sections for the losing side are included in the combat (see section 8.7.2.48). Either way, once the included sea box sections are known, MWIF advances the sequence of play to the next subphase.

7.10.7 US Decides Whether to Include Units (RAC 13.3.2, US Entry Options)

Under certain conditions, the US has the option of including some of its combat units in the naval combat, even though the US is not at war with the Axis. These are US Entry options 11, 20, 29, and 38. It might also have some of its convoys included if US Entry option 32 has been chosen. This subphase is skipped if none of the those US Entry options have been selected or is US Entry option 50, unrestricted naval warfare, has been chosen. The addition of US Entry option 50 means that the US units will have already ben committed in the previous subphase.

Once the US player has decided what, if any, units to include (see section 8.7.2.56), MWIF advances the sequence of play to the next subphase.

7.10.8 Naval Combat Surprise (RAC 11.5.6)

Depending on the search numbers and sea box sections, MWIF calculates which side has surprise points available. There might be none, and if there is only 1, then there is no way to spend it. Either way, MWIF skips this subphase and advances to the Select Combat Type subphase.

If one side has surprise points, the decision maker for that side for this combat now gets the opportunity to spend them (see section 8.7.2.52). One of those choices might be to avoid combat altogether. If that choice is selected, then the combat is over.

Assuming that the combat is not over, MWIF advances the sequence of play to the next subphase as soon as the decision maker closes the Surprise Points form.

7.10.9 Select Combat Type (RAC 11.5.7 & 11.5.6)

Determining the naval combat type is a series of decisions:
1. The side that has surprise may have chosen the naval combat type (if they chose naval air and the weather prevents a naval air combat, then the combat is over).
2. If the weather permits naval air combat, and the initiating side has a unit capable of naval air combat (see RAC section 11.5.7), the initiating side can choose naval air combat.
3. Same as #2 but for the non-initiating side.
4. If the initiating side has a unit capable of submarine combat and the non-initiating side has convoys present, the initiating side can choose submarine combat.
5. Same as #4 but with the roles reversed.
6. If none of the above has been chosen, it is a surface combat.

Once the combat type has been decided MWIF advances the sequence of play based on the combat type:
• Naval air combat - Air-to-air Combat subphase (see section 7.10.10),
• Submarine combat - Anti-air Combat by Non-Initiating Side subphase (see section 7.10.11), or
• Surface combat - Surface Attack by Initiating Side (see section 7.10.15).

I would consider cutting out the reference to port attacks in 7.10.5, since it seems rather superfluous. I assume that port attacks have their own description of search/surprise rolls?

ORIGINAL: composer99

I would consider cutting out the reference to port attacks in 7.10.5, since it seems rather superfluous. I assume that port attacks have their own description of search/surprise rolls?

It is sort of the other way around. Port attacks reference naval air combat.

This will come up again in the naval combat results section concerning bottomed ships and 'aborting' naval units during port attacks.

I am still looking for authors for the sections 3.4.6 Air Combat and 3.4.8 Land Combat.

Other material has already been written about committing air units (3.4.3 by Patrice) and using HQS and Armor (3.4.5 by Mike and Christopher).
---
Questions to answer for new players about air combat are:
1 - what are good odds?
2 - how do I arrange my units?
3 - how do I decide whether a carrier should fly as a bomber or a fighter?
4 - how do I choose which unit to destroy/abort/clear through?
5 - when should I voluntarily abort?
6 - how do the above answers change if I have an big advantage in air units (or am at a big disadvantage)?

Referencing 3.4.3 can be made rather than repeating the same information multiple time.
--
Questions to answer for new players about land combat are:
1 - what are good odds?
2 - which units should I include/exclude from a combat?
3 - when should I use special units (e.g., engineers, snow units)?
4 - when should I use ground support and shore bombardment?
4 - how do I prepare a defensive line (what is a good/fair/poor defensive hex)?
5 - in what order do I perform land attacks?
6 - what is a good invasion?
7 - how do I defend a coastline?
8 - how do the above answers change: for large land offensives (e.g., Germany vs USSR), when the battlefield is constrained (e.g., Germany vs France), when the unit count per hex is low (e.g., in China, in North Africa)?

Referencing 3.4.5 can be made rather than repeating the same information multiple time.
===
If you can answer some (or all) of these questions, please post that writeup here. It is easier for me to cobble together answers from multiple people than it is to write everything from scratch.

Since I am not playing my regular weekly WiF game tonight (our host is a proud father of #3) I can probably answer some of those questions; of course it will also be good for other people to do so as well.

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets
7.10.5 Search Die Rolls (RAC 11.5.5)

The first thing done in this subphase is to make sure that both sides have units committed to the naval combat. It is possible that one side had only submarines and decided to not commit their subs. In that case, the combat is over.

Assuming that a naval combat is still possible, MWIF generates random numbers to simulate rolling dice for the search rolls for both sides. During port attacks the non-phasing side has fixed numbers for their die rolls: 5 for a major port and 3 for a minor port. MWIF figures out which sides had successful search rolls and informs everyone as to what happened.

There are 3 possible outcomes of the search rolls:
• Neither side succeeds - the combat is over.
• Both sides succeed - MWIF records this fact and advances the sequence of play to the next subphase.
• One side succeeds and the other fails - MWIF records who ‘won’ and advances the sequence of play to the next subphase.

If you talk about Port Attacks here, you should specify that Port Attacks Search Rolss don't have find / not find results. The Seartch Rolls are only used to calculate the surprise points.

ORIGINAL: Froonp

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets
7.10.5 Search Die Rolls (RAC 11.5.5)

The first thing done in this subphase is to make sure that both sides have units committed to the naval combat. It is possible that one side had only submarines and decided to not commit their subs. In that case, the combat is over.

Assuming that a naval combat is still possible, MWIF generates random numbers to simulate rolling dice for the search rolls for both sides. During port attacks the non-phasing side has fixed numbers for their die rolls: 5 for a major port and 3 for a minor port. MWIF figures out which sides had successful search rolls and informs everyone as to what happened.

There are 3 possible outcomes of the search rolls:
• Neither side succeeds - the combat is over.
• Both sides succeed - MWIF records this fact and advances the sequence of play to the next subphase.
• One side succeeds and the other fails - MWIF records who ‘won’ and advances the sequence of play to the next subphase.

If you talk about Port Attacks here, you should specify that Port Attacks Search Rolss don't have find / not find results. The Seartch Rolls are only used to calculate the surprise points.

Good point.

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

I am still looking for authors for the sections 3.4.6 Air Combat and 3.4.8 Land Combat.

Other material has already been written about committing air units (3.4.3 by Patrice) and using HQS and Armor (3.4.5 by Mike and Christopher).
---
Questions to answer for new players about air combat are:
1 - what are good odds?
2 - how do I arrange my units?
3 - how do I decide whether a carrier should fly as a bomber or a fighter?
4 - how do I choose which unit to destroy/abort/clear through?
5 - when should I voluntarily abort?
6 - how do the above answers change if I have an big advantage in air units (or am at a big disadvantage)?

Referencing 3.4.3 can be made rather than repeating the same information multiple time.
--
Questions to answer for new players about land combat are:
1 - what are good odds?
2 - which units should I include/exclude from a combat?
3 - when should I use special units (e.g., engineers, snow units)?
4 - when should I use ground support and shore bombardment?
4 - how do I prepare a defensive line (what is a good/fair/poor defensive hex)?
5 - in what order do I perform land attacks?
6 - what is a good invasion?
7 - how do I defend a coastline?
8 - how do the above answers change: for large land offensives (e.g., Germany vs USSR), when the battlefield is constrained (e.g., Germany vs France), when the unit count per hex is low (e.g., in China, in North Africa)?

Referencing 3.4.5 can be made rather than repeating the same information multiple time.
===
If you can answer some (or all) of these questions, please post that writeup here. It is easier for me to cobble together answers from multiple people than it is to write everything from scratch.

Steve, I am an avid fan of WiF. Due to remote military assigjnments over the years and a major illness my gameplay has mostly been solo (except for 2 games in the original version) though. I would love to help out with the writingl however, I have found that I am usually in the oops I didn't realize that category. Especially as I follow any of the rules discussions. Therefore I believe too many mistakes would creep in creating too much wasted discussion time this close to release. Is there something else I could do to assist?

ORIGINAL: abj9562

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

I am still looking for authors for the sections 3.4.6 Air Combat and 3.4.8 Land Combat.

Other material has already been written about committing air units (3.4.3 by Patrice) and using HQS and Armor (3.4.5 by Mike and Christopher).
---
Questions to answer for new players about air combat are:
1 - what are good odds?
2 - how do I arrange my units?
3 - how do I decide whether a carrier should fly as a bomber or a fighter?
4 - how do I choose which unit to destroy/abort/clear through?
5 - when should I voluntarily abort?
6 - how do the above answers change if I have an big advantage in air units (or am at a big disadvantage)?

Referencing 3.4.3 can be made rather than repeating the same information multiple time.
--
Questions to answer for new players about land combat are:
1 - what are good odds?
2 - which units should I include/exclude from a combat?
3 - when should I use special units (e.g., engineers, snow units)?
4 - when should I use ground support and shore bombardment?
4 - how do I prepare a defensive line (what is a good/fair/poor defensive hex)?
5 - in what order do I perform land attacks?
6 - what is a good invasion?
7 - how do I defend a coastline?
8 - how do the above answers change: for large land offensives (e.g., Germany vs USSR), when the battlefield is constrained (e.g., Germany vs France), when the unit count per hex is low (e.g., in China, in North Africa)?

Referencing 3.4.5 can be made rather than repeating the same information multiple time.
===
If you can answer some (or all) of these questions, please post that writeup here. It is easier for me to cobble together answers from multiple people than it is to write everything from scratch.

Steve, I am an avid fan of WiF. Due to remote military assigjnments over the years and a major illness my gameplay has mostly been solo (except for 2 games in the original version) though. I would love to help out with the writingl however, I have found that I am usually in the oops I didn't realize that category. Especially as I follow any of the rules discussions. Therefore I believe too many mistakes would creep in creating too much wasted discussion time this close to release. Is there something else I could do to assist?

Thanks for offering to help.[:)]

I have a fairly mindless task that requires some care in its execution. It is somewhat on the tedious side too. To whit:

I have finished the RAC document and it contains information that I want to transfer into the Player's Manual. For instance, I took the RAC section 14.3 on air-to-air comabt and copied it, (with some slight editing to appease my sense of how English should and should not be written) into the Player's Manual section 8.7.2.4 Air-to-air Combat. I then augmented that text with a discussion of the process by which players use the Air Combat form to fight air-to-air combats in MWIF.

Once I had 8.7.2.4 completed to my satisfaction, I copied the whole section into the Help Content.txt file. I needed to insert formatting commands for the help file since MWIF needs them to make help messages appear correctly when requested by the player during a game. The formating commands are pretty easy: .P for paragraph, .T for tab, .B for a bullet point, nothing real fancy (like bold, italics, or changing fonts) is possible.

So, the task that you (or others) might be able to help me with, is to find the relevant information on a topic in RAC and copy it into Section 8 of the Player's Manual. Section 8 describes each of the 96 forms in MWIF. I will still need to write up the additional text on the process of using each form. But after I do that, I could use help in taking the finished subsection of the Player's Manual and formatting it for inclusion in the Help Content.txt file.

As I said, it is fairly boring work. Nonetheless, it needs to be done, and if no one volunteers to help, it will be done by me.
---
Why don't you reply to me by PM or email (SHokanson@HawaiianTel.net) instead of using a post herein?

I can do this. I'll PM you with contact information.

ORIGINAL: Orm

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets


• Broken Down Pool - This pool contains corps/army and division sized land units. When a player breaks a corps/army sized unit into divisions, the corps/army sized unit is placed in the broken down pool. They are not available for production. If the player decides to reform divisions into a corps/army, he is restricted to choosing from among the corps units in the broken down pool. Divisions that are destroyed during combat go into the broken down pool. The player can choose to reform divisions in the broken down pool into corps/army sized units. Should he decide to do so, the corps/army unit goes into the force pool and the divisions are removed from the game.

I would have thought that the original divisions (part of WiFFE counters) would go back to the force pool rather than be removed from the game. This also forbids 2 of the original divisions that has been built into reforming to a corps. As an example I have on some ocations built one para division and one mot division and then reformed them into a para corps.

-orm

I am troubled by this pool. If this pool reforms divisions same way as the WiF rules say (cut in below) it will mean that corps will become "trapped" in Broken Down Pool for the rest of the game.

Example 1: One 8-4 broken down into two 2 strength divisions can never reform back into the 8-4 (you need to get a stronger div in the pool to get it out and then you cant get the stronger corps out of the pool).
Example 2: One 4-3 broken down into two 1 strenght divisions and one 7-4 broken down into two 2 strength divs. If a 1 strenght div and a 2 strength div are in the pool and used to reform a corps the 4-3 must be picked. Then the 7-4 will be "trapped" in the pool.


22.4.1 DivisionsReforming
Divisions can reform into a corps or army. If 2 face-up divisions are
stacked together outside of enemy ZOCs at the end of the production
step, and 1 of them is a MOT division, you can reform a corps or army of
the same type as the other division. If there are no corps or armies of that
type available, you can reform them as an INF corps or army instead.
Choose the corps or army randomly from the force pools. Keep
picking until you find one that has combat factors less than twice
those of the 2 divisions.
Example: The Germans have a 2 factor MOT division and a 4 factor
SS ARM division stacked together at the start of the production step.
You can replace them with any SS ARM or INF Corps that has 11 or
less combat factors.