Bases as Reinforcements

[Arjuna]

Hi all,

One issue that has come to light is that when designing scenarios you need to locate the arrival of reinforceemnt Bases carefully.

In the following screen dump taken from the Battle fo the Maltese Cross scenario, the German 7th Flgr Div Base arrives like all the German units as a reinforcement near the airfield. Note that in this case the Base starts with a significant amount of supplies. These will remain with the Base provided it is not forced to retreat or rout, in which case it will lose all that it cannot carry. Note that its carrying capacity is only 20 tonnes. That would mean a loss of 197 tonnes of precious supplies. This can make a world of difference.

It is therefore important that you choose a safe arrival location. Avoid having the base land close to known or likely enemy positions. Consider delaying the arrival of the Base till after other the area should have been secured. This will minimise tha chance of loosing those initial supplies.

[Arjuna]

BTW this advise also stands good for players. Avoid committing your Bases such that they will be forced to retreat or rout. Keep them safe. This is particularly important for airbonre bases as they very limited carrying capacity. For them it is probably best to initially order them to defend in-situ. And if there are enemy nearby, protect them with other units and clear and secure the surrounding area as a priority.

[GoodGuy]

ORIGINAL: Arjuna

It is therefore important that you choose a safe arrival location. Avoid having the base land close to known or likely enemy positions.

...talkin' bout safe locations ....

The start location (pls see green insert on the screenshot) of the base in the Rethymnon historical scenario is pretty much on the enemy's toes. It's pretty hard to pull out that base, and it's very tough if you're playing with max orders delay. Is this particular spot some historical arrival spot....means, is that intended? It would be neat to adjust it a bit, in case it's not.
I had to restart the scenario several times, 'til i got to a state where i could move the base to the town on the left.

I was able to get a draw, but the troops had to fight 5 days without ANY supplies, because I lost the base in the very first hour. Also, most of my frontline units surrendered just because they had not even one bullet left to defend themselfs (on day 3 + 4 i think). !
You can see on this screenshot that i'm just defending (or let me call it "incubating") the airstrip with a few units, 2 HQs, a mortar, and an IG. The MG coy across the river, to the left, is the only unit with a few bullets left.

Once your tiny base unit is lost, the supply system goes on vacation [;)]. I've played this scenario like 2 times only with the stock version, so i dunno whether this is a known issue or some logical outcome which doesn't get into my german brain.

Just wondering....even with scattered units and with the fact that many local fights were close to fail (some even failed), the historical supply thingy worked halfway, after several days in most sectors for sure. So this situation in this scenario is somewhat unrealistic, no?

One more thing, while we're at this screenie...... You might notice the sh*tload of dead Allied units on the beach, next to the airstrip. I blocked their escape routes on the left and right sides, ok ok...., but they still surrendered quickly. This can be seen on many maps.
On one hand, it's interesting to overcome a situation, where u have to hunt enemy key units with an entire Bn for ages, that way, but it adds some unrealistic flavour.

I'm pretty sure that none of them (Allies or Germans) did the IRAQI thing, surrendering to press teams....lol [;)]. You might get the basic idea .

[GoodGuy]

*bump*

[Arjuna]

There's not a lot of options for the Germans as to where the Base can arrive with the Historical reinforcement schedule ( which is the one you are using ), so perhaps the best bet is to delay its arrival till maybe the end of the first day. That will give the rest of their forces time to secure the area.
 
While making this change I noticed that there was only one SEP for the Germans regardless of where they actually land and this was on the Eastern map edge. I have changed this adding four separate SEPs located at each of the main DZs and one on the Airfield itself. Each Reinf schedule uses one of these. This should fascilitate the resupply.
 
Well spotted and thanks for drawing that to my attention.