ORIGINAL: JocMeister
ORIGINAL: Baelfiin
Totally different games, I wouldn't use WITE as a base because so much is different in the air and logistics.
I can still learn a lot I believe. All of you seem to have played WITE expensively while I havn´t played anything but AI just after release. So much of the ground stuff is Greek to me. [:)]
Would agree that the totality of the WiTE combat engine doesn't translate well, mainly as in key respects WiTW is so much better, but the mechanics of the land combat is much the same. Some tricks from WiTE don't really apply as they rely on mass and diversionary attacks (something the Soviets can sustain but not the Western Allies), but the comments below may help a little.
a) Command matters, the ideal is your best leadership in a chain so that if one level misses a check it can be picked up. Usually the corps has the most immediate impact but leaders at Army/Army Group level can affect a much greater number of formations - so this is a trade off. Also some leaders may be better with no armour, or lots of armour so don't be afraid to shift them around
b) with the Anglo-Allies you have lots of capacity to commit Support Units, so make sure your key divisions have the full number of slots and make sure that artillery etc is at corps level as well
c) terrain matters, not just with the obvious multipliers/divisors but also that armour works very badly in cities and high level defensive terrain - this means that tank SUs (above) may not always be the equipment of choice, more engineers or more artillery may do you more good
d) tiredness kills, watch your fatigue levels, this start to impact really badly on combat capacity
e) tiredness kills, make sure your opponent has high fatigue, attacks to force commitment of reserves, shifting the focus of your offensive etc all help here
f) disruption causes fatigue ... bit obscure but if you disrupt, even if you don't attack, there is a possibility that in curing the disruption, a unit builds up fatigue -- so a sustained air war can really pay off indirectly
g) disruption means you don't fight .. a disrupted element cannot fight, so the more long range weaponry (ie artillery) you have, the more disruption you cause before combat comes down to the serious business of taking ground ... in effect the same notional cv without artillery is less dangerous than with artillery
h) Elements matter, the make up of your units is important. Not just the obvious armour-infantry distinction but also that each element fires, so the more elements/cv the more activity. This is a common issue in WiTE where Soviet units can be relatively weak (in cv terms), but have loads of elements, and thus generate a lot of (weak) firepower ... each hit can cause disruption ... see above
i) Supply and ammo matter, make sure that you are not attacking with low ammo, it really degrades your effectiveness, low supply has an impact on unit morale
j) reserves matter, the final odds are not just the units in the designated hexes but the commitment of reserves. Make sure your attacks are organised so you can pull in reserves, watch out for enemy reserves. With the allies, getting high interdiction around a critical battlefield is important here. Reserve commitment is linked to good leadership and also is more likely if you have broken down into regimental sized units. But, esp with the Germans, if you commit reserves in an area of high interdiction, they will be disrupted etc by the the time they fight and may well be useless afterwards
k) indirect attacks work, this is harder in WiTW (less units) but if you really want hex #a and you fear strong reserves, hit hex #b with a force strong enough to worry the enemy and pull in his reserves there (think of the interaction between Goodwood and Cobra). You need to make your secondary attack feasible or the combat routine will not trigger reserves (and of course make sure your own reserves don't go off and join in - flip reserve status on (if attacking) when you want it. Interdiction is your friend in this respect in WiTW.
l) intelligence matters, esp in WiTW on initial contact a unit may not be telling the truth with its cv, if you can wait a turn to see what is there before you commit, if you can't wait, then assume its far more powerful than is being indicated
m) never attack beyond the corps command range, so for landings make sure your corps are offshore. Equally its better to avoid those niggly 10% malus for mixing corps etc, again with the allies in particular there is no reason not to juggle corps to avoid problems in this regard
In effect, the displayed cv is very useful but its a guide not the answer. There are things you can do to make actual performance better or worse at the point of combat and a lot you can do to set things up in your favour.
The best learning tool is the advice in WiTE, save your game, set up an attack (this is assuming you are playing the AI as this means repeating the combat), set the resolution relatively low (say 4 or 5) and watch what fires when, the interaction of air/artillery on the combat. Do it again with different SU assignments. Do it again (be aware there is a large random element at play). Come to a feeling when a notional 1-1 attack may well succeed say 80% of the time (I've learnt how to manage this in WiTE), equally when does a notional 2-1 fail?
There is no harm to doing a turn or so left hand vs right hand so that you can adjust the force mix on both sides - any of the France 1944 scenarios are good for this.
