Operation Shiny Chevy

[golden delicious]

"I need to move this bomber unit to Minsk to rest"

I could be wrong- but I don't think the on map supply value affects air units, on the status of the hex. There are three possibilities for air units:
1) The hex is not supplied. The air unit gets no supply, has an unsupplied status and suffers the same effects as a ground unit starting the turn in that hex
2) The hex is overextended. The air unit gets full force supply (as adjusted for formation supply setting) but otherwise suffers the same overextended effects as a ground unit starting the turn in the hex
3) The hex is supplied and not overextended. The air unit gets full force supply as above

So provided the airfield is getting enough supply to get over the overextended threshold, and is not in range of enemy artillery etc. there's no advantage to moving the unit to the rear.

Certainly in my recent game of Directive 21 my air units right up at the frontline are very active but keep getting back to a healthy green while the infantry around the is fairly idle but stays on red or amber.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: golden delicious
"I need to move this bomber unit to Minsk to rest"

I could be wrong- but I don't think the on map supply value affects air units, on the status of the hex. There are three possibilities for air units:
1) The hex is not supplied. The air unit gets no supply, has an unsupplied status and suffers the same effects as a ground unit starting the turn in that hex
2) The hex is overextended. The air unit gets full force supply (as adjusted for formation supply setting) but otherwise suffers the same overextended effects as a ground unit starting the turn in the hex
3) The hex is supplied and not overextended. The air unit gets full force supply as above

So provided the airfield is getting enough supply to get over the overextended threshold, and is not in range of enemy artillery etc. there's no advantage to moving the unit to the rear.

Certainly in my recent game of Directive 21 my air units right up at the frontline are very active but keep getting back to a healthy green while the infantry around the is fairly idle but stays on red or amber.

I agree with everything you said. The reason I move my tired aircraft to Minsk is that I have OKH parked there within range of multiple airfields to encourage resupply, refit, morale, readiness, etc. Plus, parking them at Minsk get's them off the airfield they came from opening a slot for a well-fed aircraft to park at.

Since TOAW enforces the rule about only three aircraft units per airfield it's important for me to try to get the tired ones off the forward airfields so that only combat ready aircraft are parked there. It's just more or less a habit I've gotten into. The parking spot I picked at the beginning of the game was Warsaw and I moved the resting operation to Minsk about T7 or so, only because it has multiple airfields close together and is closer to the front lines than Warsaw. I couldn't think of a good reason not to move it closer to the front lines.

When I was in Vietnam I noticed that it was the habit of the tire-kickers ( aircraft maint. technicians ) to repair the damage they could and for those aircraft that needed some special attention they couldn't provide they would repair the aircraft enough to allow it to fly to a maint. depot where the specialized repair could take place. That was usually in Korat,Thailand or somewhere. I move my planes to Minsk to mimick real life operations. It makes the game more realistic for me.

And I'm playing by the red-green-yellow rules so yellow ones cannot attack until they turn green, usually a turn or two at most. I have gotten into the habit of using only leaf green ( dark green ) units for INT missions since the effort to accomplish that mission sometimes leaves the aircraft unit yellow the next time I have an oppertunity to use the aircraft ( right after the Soviet turn ends ).

Sometimes I'll move the red ones to Berlin to give the aircrews an oppertunity for a weekend pass to visit family, or see their girlfriends, or get blind drunk, or take in a play or musical concert, etc.

When my aircraft ( AC-130E/H ) got damaged for whatever reason the pilot usually took that occasion to land at Tanh Son Nhut in Saigon just because we could and our mission became a TDY and the officers would hang out at the O-club and we enlisted dudes could go downtown and see the sights, go shopping, etc. All this while the aircraft was getting repaired. Sometimes for two or three days.

It was a rule before takeoff that you had to empty your pockets of anything that might be of value to the enemy ( like any identification materials, squadron patches, ID cards, dog tags, money, etc ) but we usually kept a small amount of money ( to pay for meals, bribes, etc. ).

On the TSN turnaround mission we would fly CAP over Saigon from about 19:00 until about 04:30 and then land at TSN and get the aircraft refueled, rearmed, etc. And while that was going on the aircrew would go to the chow hall and get some breakfast ( which cost 25 cents ) and then an hour later we'd go back to the plane, where would do CAP over Saigon until the sun was coming up whereupon we would recover back at Ubon. It was a 12 hour mission for us and was part of the reason we flew only every other day, crew rest rules. That's the only mission I did during the monsoon season ( from August to early October ) when I got there in mid-August 1972.

After that break-in period I was moved to either Commando Basket missions over Cambodia or Steel Tiger missions to nothern Laos, near southern North Vietnam, or just south of China. I got another Air Medal every time I flew 10 more hours. It's been so long ago I now have no idea how many hours I flew over there. Or how many missions I was on.

[golden delicious]

Fascinating stuff. I guess in that sense your rear-area base at Minsk is more of a role-playing thing that anything else, gives the game a bit more of a personal feel.

Reminds me of speaking to a guy (John) I knew who was an electrician with RAF in the CBI theatre during the war- I can only imagine who difficult it was to keep aircraft running in those conditions. The only bit I can remember is him relating a conversation with a USAAF counterpart who couldn't understand how the Mosquito could fly bombing missions with no defensive armament- John advised that because the plane was so fast it would just buffet enemy fighters out of the way with its wings. Apparently they were satisfied with that...

[larryfulkerson]

Two Marine OV-10 pilots were talking on the steel planking apron at Danang, RSV in the wee hours of the night:

"It's really hard to kill Vietnamese children."
"Oh yeah? Why's that?"
"They are so small and they run so fast."

[larryfulkerson]

I was watching the Soviets do their half of T15 just now and I had an idea to make the Soviets a better opponent. I changed the "Handicap/Cheat" value to "Computer +1" so as to give it a bit more moxie. I have no idea why I hadn't thought of this before now. I'll let you know if it changes the game in any way.

[larryfulkerson]

I have sorted the list on "Mission" and as you can see there are only two aircraft units that are resting and they are both Finn units. I interpret that to mean that the air war in Finland has heated up quite a bit. I've got about 200+ Me-110's left and about 3/4 of them are covering a lot of the Finland landmass and judging from the condition of the Finn aircraft I'd best move ALL of them to better positions to cover more of the Finn units.

[larryfulkerson]

I'm still checking out my forces early in T16 before I have moved anybody yet.

It seems that I'm going to lose another security division in T21. I'd best start now to move them to positions where they won't just dissappear from the front lines for example. In fact I think I'll rail them to Berlin for reassignment. I think the supression of partisans is in store for them. Probably in the Baltic states.

In T22 I'm due to receive four supply units and from what I can tell on the front lines, it's going to be in the nick of time for them. I will put them to immediate use. Probably down south. I'm just now breaking into the Crimea and the supply in the peninsula isn't the greatest I've seen yet. Also, they will come in handy as I push further toward Stalingrad.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what's happening down near Odessa right now. I'm just about to break into the Crimea and I'm still bombarding Odessa every turn. It appears that I need some more Romanian arty on the east side of the city as well as the NW side.

I'm using my Corps HQ's to help out with the rail repair because I need the rail to extend all the way to at least Kherson in the next few turns.

I may have to shift another Romanian division to Odessa to accellerate the takedown because I'd like to use the RR arty on Sevastopol to help take that port down by 04Dec41. Capturing the port by that date will release the Bulgarians from garrison mode and allow me to use them to help take down southern Russia and the oil fields.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what's going on around the Bryansk area looking south to Z-town. I'm still fighting over crossings and trying to repair broken bridges and it appears that I'm going to need at least twice as many units that are pushing south and east. My units in this area are stretched too thin for my comfort. I have no idea where I'm going to get the troops to move them into this area. Almost everybody is already fully employed. I'm going to have to rely on the minor Axis allies to take up a lot of the slack, I can see that plainly.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what's going on in front of Moscow right now. There are gaps in my lines in this area and I'm not comfortable with that but there's not a lot I can do about it except maybe break down my units into three's. I'm considering that, expecially for special situations.

[larryfulkerson]

This is a view of the northern front lines. I'm trying to clear out the peninsula with just a skeleton force and it's going really slowly as a result. Somehow my approach to Leningrad seems to have devolved into many different avenues. I'd like to just hold what I have on some of them and use the one left to just advance to the city. I have one Panzer unit in the front lines and it makes sense to use it to do the fast advance and just hold with everything else. I'll let you know how that works out.

[golden delicious]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

I was watching the Soviets do their half of T15 just now and I had an idea to make the Soviets a better opponent. I changed the "Handicap/Cheat" value to "Computer +1" so as to give it a bit more moxie. I have no idea why I hadn't thought of this before now. I'll let you know if it changes the game in any way.

I think +1 is something like a 10% strength boost (like 110 shock)

I'm playing my current match on +2 and the Soviets can be pretty fierce when they attack- but it doesn't make the PO more aggressive so he still doesn't mind it when I string a loose bag around his most powerful units putting them out of supply and letting them die slowly.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: golden delicious

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson
I was watching the Soviets do their half of T15 just now and I had an idea to make the Soviets a better opponent. I changed the "Handicap/Cheat" value to "Computer +1" so as to give it a bit more moxie. I have no idea why I hadn't thought of this before now. I'll let you know if it changes the game in any way.

I think +1 is something like a 10% strength boost (like 110 shock)

I'm playing my current match on +2 and the Soviets can be pretty fierce when they attack- but it doesn't make the PO more aggressive so he still doesn't mind it when I string a loose bag around his most powerful units putting them out of supply and letting them die slowly.

Cool. Thank you very much for the report. I was hoping it was something like that. Very timely info. Thanks.

[golden delicious]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

In T22 I'm due to receive four supply units and from what I can tell on the front lines, it's going to be in the nick of time for them.

I think you know this scenario better than I do, and I'm not sure if it's a timed event or triggered on something else, but in my match the turn these arrived is the same turn when Axis supply gets cut by -5, so these guys will only mitigate a worsening problem- not improve the situation. Also on that turn I got a horrible and unexpected 50% Movement bias. I was not happy about that.

I'm just now breaking into the Crimea and the supply in the peninsula isn't the greatest I've seen yet.

Tell me about it. My 11th Army would have been starving if the Sevastopol fortress guns weren't killing them off so fast.

[golden delicious]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

Here's what's going on in front of Moscow right now. There are gaps in my lines in this area and I'm not comfortable with that but there's not a lot I can do about it except maybe break down my units into three's. I'm considering that, expecially for special situations.

I was about to say this- in my D21 game I have about three quarters of German infantry divisions divided down to regiments at any one time. Naturally this makes them more vulnerable (I have to admit that I've had perhaps twenty regiments actually evaporate in as many turns) and reduces their combat power a little, but it means you can get a flank bonus with just one division and enclose a one hex pocket with two.

Conversely, the mobile troops I try to keep consolidated as they are often exposed to serious harm, and for exploitation I need to maximise the chance of RBCs, which means big units.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: golden delicious

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson
In T22 I'm due to receive four supply units and from what I can tell on the front lines, it's going to be in the nick of time for them.

I think you know this scenario better than I do, and I'm not sure if it's a timed event or triggered on something else, but in my match the turn these arrived is the same turn when Axis supply gets cut by -5, so these guys will only mitigate a worsening problem- not improve the situation. Also on that turn I got a horrible and unexpected 50% Movement bias. I was not happy about that.

I'm just now breaking into the Crimea and the supply in the peninsula isn't the greatest I've seen yet.

Tell me about it. My 11th Army would have been starving if the Sevastopol fortress guns weren't killing them off so fast.

ORIGINAL: golden delicious

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson
Here's what's going on in front of Moscow right now. There are gaps in my lines in this area and I'm not comfortable with that but there's not a lot I can do about it except maybe break down my units into three's. I'm considering that, expecially for special situations.

I was about to say this- in my D21 game I have about three quarters of German infantry divisions divided down to regiments at any one time. Naturally this makes them more vulnerable (I have to admit that I've had perhaps twenty regiments actually evaporate in as many turns) and reduces their combat power a little, but it means you can get a flank bonus with just one division and enclose a one hex pocket with two [divisions].

Conversely, the mobile troops I try to keep consolidated as they are often exposed to serious harm, and for exploitation I need to maximise the chance of RBCs, which means big units.

I hear you. I feel your pain. Now that I've read your current new post I feel encouraged to break down my divisions into three's and quit worrying about gaps. Thanks for your timely reporting. Are you doing an AAR about your game? I'd like to keep up with how you're doing.

[golden delicious]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

Are you doing an AAR about your game? I'd like to keep up with how you're doing.

Well with that encouragement I might start one. I hardly have time to play as it is so might take a while to get going, I didn't write any notes so far as I don't normally do an AAR against the AI.

As a summary, I was going about historical up to around turn 12 when I got lucky and slipped half of Panzergruppe 1 over the Dnepr at Chernihov, allowing me to secure Kiev on the cheap, and from there things kept going my way, by turn 18 Leningrad was cut off and AGC was just outside Moscow, but after that the fighting has been getting sticky, now (turn 26) I finally took Leningrad and am working around the flanks of Moscow, captured Tula but I don't think I have time to get the supply sources in the rear of the city before the mud slows everything down again. My army looks the opposite of yours, losses aren't too high but almost every unit is in extremely poor supply state as I have been pushing them hard for 12 weeks without a break and the railhead is just past the Pskov-Smolensk-Kiev line.

I should add I was too lazy to go find the latest version so I'm playing the one on the disk (4.2 I think?) so not a direct comparison.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what's going on near Kherson right now. It's the 4th combat round of T16 ( 13Aug41 ) and the supply level is 11 at the tip of the spear but the railhead is near and I'm confident that the supply level will rise slowly so I'm going to continue the push. I hope to be in the Crimea this turn or next turn at the latest. I may need to use sea movement to get some troops closer to Sevastopol sooner.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a late-T16 view of the Leningrad area right now. You can see that there's a huge gap in my lines and so far Elmer has ignored it. He's probably planning on moving some troops into the gap and cause all kinds of trouble for me. I'm trying to push hard along the north coast to sneak up on the city before Elmer turns it into a fortress. Meanwhile I'm pushing north from the Pskov direction just because I can. Also, I'm still hoping I can do a left hook move to isolate all the Leningrad defenders just prior to my killing all of them. My incentive to grab Leningrad as early as I can is that it will release the Finns to cross the stop line and make a difference in northern Russia. I can use the Finns to push toward the port of Archangel to perhaps stop some of the Allied Lend Lease support.

[larryfulkerson]

This is the 5th combat round of T16 and is the area NE of Kiev as it is right now. I've gotten across the river at four places and I'm beginning to push south and east. I want to trap all the Soviet equipment I can against the east side of the river before they can escape to the east.