The first and most important step is to get the 6=34 stack to retreat. I want to move in a few stronger units to attack, namely this tank corps and also the other guards rifle corps that I have just to the north in my 17=81 stack. So I retreat two infantry units to make room, and move them up:
I attach a couple extra support units and will be attacking with 52 CV or so against 36, but with 5 corps against 2 fairly weak divisions, I think I should win. Most of what is giving the defenders the high CV is the terrain and the fort, but their combined offensive CV of 5 indicates that those units are probably pretty low on strength, so it will probably be similarish to attacking a single fully equipped division:
I
could attack with more, and it is tempting, but I want to preserve some of the strong units for other attacks and to hold the potential encirclement.
I won the attack, but as soon as I attacked I realized I forgot to move up the artillery division I meant to also include. And unfortunately, the two German units retreated the wrong way. [:(]
One of the most important determinants of whether you can get an encirclement can often be which direction units retreat, and I got unlucky for my plans here. [:(]
Also, I only barely won the attack, another reminder that when attacking you should throw in the kitchen sink. But I was greedy here, and almost paid the price for attacking with too little.
Now I am not sure I will be able to get the encirclement because of the retreat paths. I will try attacking the other unit also, hopefully that at least doesn't retreat there as well.
Anyway, setting up for the 2nd attack. Unfortunately, earlier I moved this unit out of the 6=25 hex to here, and now I can't move it back. I did that because I wanted to see how many MP it would take to move other units into that 6=25 hex in order to try to break out my mech corps. I want to attack with 2 units, which means unfortunately I will have to move the mech corps. I think/hope it should have enough MP to move in to get the encirclement anyway, in part because I think it may take less MP to go around the other side through the north anyway.
So I will attack with 2 rifle corps and an artillery division, with more than double the CV (with deliberate attack). This attack should succeed more easily, the only question should be which direction the Germans retreat:
This time, fortunately they retreat straight to the west. Also, the combat delay is 2, rather than 3 (yet another reason to try to attack with overwhelming force and generally skimp as little as possible on throwing in the kitchen sink into attacks):
Now the only thing left to do is to (hopefully) move the 6=34 stack and seal the pocket as best as I can. I know that in reality this stack does NOT have 34 defensive CV, it is just that the defensive CV doesn't update when they retreat. There is no fort in the hex they retreated to, and also they will be tired from the previous battle. Let's look at that previous battle:
Out of a total of 453 rifle squads, 38 were destroyed, 88 damaged, and 168 disrupted. That is a total of 294 out of 453, or ~65%. Taking that as a rough proxy of the damage done by the previous battle to the divisions overall, they will probably be fighting at 1/3 of their previous strength in my next attack. So I doubt their true defensive CV is even 10. Probably more like 5-6. Now we just need to see which units I can/should move in to attack and try to seal the pocket.
I want to keep my mech units as fresh as possible, so I can have them be rested and at least a bit higher on CPP to face off the German relief attempt. So it looks like the best thing to do is to attack from the north, which I can do by forming some more rifle corps from the infantry divisions that are to the north.
And here, I notice what seems like a bug (or weirdness in the MP cost calculation that I don't understand)...
I pulled these two divisions off from the north. They have enough MP that they would have 6 left when moving to that hex, enough for a deliberate attack (and actually the 124th division would have 7):
And in addition, this other unit would have 6 when it gets to that hex:
But then if I move that down to the same hex as the other units, then select the whole stack, it says that if I move them I will only have 5 MP left. I want to form a rifle corps from these 3 divisions and move them, but obviously only if I have 6 MP or more so that I can attack (that was the whole point):
And the weird thing is if I select each of the divisions individually, it still says that each of them individually will have 6 or 7 MP after moving there, none of them would have 5 individually. And this is also BEFORE trying to form a corps. Huh?:
290th division selected, should have 6 MP:
341st division, should have 6 MP:
124th division, should have 7 MP:
So I will try merging them to a rifle corps and then see what the MP is of the combined rifle corps. The rifle corps I form should have enough MP that it will have 6 if I move to that hex and should be able to do a deliberate attack. We will see, if it doesn't then I will reload, cuz there is definitely something funky here.
Well, the rifle corps has 5 MP even though each of the divisions individually has at least 6. That is some buggy seeming shit, so time to reload and I guess put some other divisions together to form a rifle corps.
So reload, and will try using the 351st division instead to form the corps. Supposedly this should have 6 MP:
This time it actually does have 6 MP:
And actually now, after all this I think I remember that it only takes 3 MP to attack from one direction with infantry, it is just attacks from 2 hexes that take 6, so I guess actually the other one should have been ok lol. So I should also be able to move in this corps to attack again:
I bring up two artillery divisions here to join the attack also:
I then attach 3 guards tank brigades to the newly formed corps that I just made:
And then I am ready to attack. Or at least I thought I was. When I select those two hexes and hover over for an attack, it doesn't include selection of the rifle corps with 5 MP:
Whereas if I just select the hex with the rifle corps by itself, it will select it and also keep it selected for a deliberate attack:
It seems there is yet another complex quirk in the MP costs. Apparently including the artillery corps counts as attacking from another direction, even though no extra troops would be involved in the attack (just artillery shells), so that according to the game engine apparently is supposed to make it take 6 MP to attack or something rather than 3.
So I guess I have no real choice but to attack with the rifle corps alone without the artillery divisions. If it fails because of not including the artillery divisions, I am gonna be pissed. [:'(] It should succeed easily though, because like I said earlier, the retreated stack doesn't actually have 34 defensive CV, and I expect I am probably attacking like 5-6 CV at most, with 27 CV, that
ought to be an easy win even without the extra artillery:
The attack does indeed succeed, although then I notice that actually only one of the corps joined the attack, wtf.
So then I consult the manual again, I remember reading about this a few weeks ago. It says the movement cost for a deliberate attack with a non-motorized unit should be "6 (3)" :
And now I realize... OH, that 3 is a reference to the FOOTNOTE number, not the MP cost. LOL. I think I got confused by that a few weeks ago also when I was looking at that, and then misremembered about it. And the footnote says "Non-motorized type 2 units pay only 5 MPs for a deliberate attack (i.e. those that have vehicles for supplies and all non-infantry, non-infantry weapon elements."
Well, since I had 5 MP on that unit, if it were a type 2 unit, then apparently it should have attacked, so I guess it must not be. Looking at that unit, it apparently had 287 vehicles, compared to 193 that were needed. That sounds to me like having more vehicles than it needed, so I don't understand why it didn't count as a type 2 unit? And also there is nowhere in the interface that says if a unit is "type 2" as far as I am aware.
You really never cease to run into new complexities and quirks with this game, it is that complicated. I guess that is what I like about it though in part, the complexity makes it hard to figure out and truly master.
So, let's get this pocket sealed. I have a variety of strong mech/tank units around, including these ones, but also quite a few others that can get into those 2 empty hexes where I need to seal. And fortunately that 9=18 mech unit that I moved back earlier can get into the middle pocket sealing hex with just 2 MP to spare.
It also occurs to me that I *could* attack the 3?15 hex with the retreated German units in and probably win that quite easily. But if I do, I might end up retreating into enemy territory next turn, so better not. Also because I am pretty sure I wouldn't have enough MP to go on and successfully attack the 2=8 hex and free my mech corps.
This is what I came up with for the best/strongest units to seal the pocket. Both hexes have 44 defensive CV, I tried to equalize them intentionally by adjusting the support units so it is not an easy call which one to attack for Germany next turn.
I may adjust the tank brigades a bit more, but I am done with this for now and will come back to it later and adjust things in this part of the front. I think I will probably try attacking the 5=5 German infantry division so that Germany can't attack the northern of the two pocket sealing hexes from 3 directions. I am very happy to have at least gotten a German unit isolated, that is about as good or better as rescuing my mech unit. Only bad thing is losing the trucks, but fortunately we have lend lease to send us more trucks. [8D]