Matrix Games Forums

A couple of questions and comments. I'm in the middle of my first game and am having a great time getting my butt kicked.

1. I don't understand stacking limitations. I know the limitations, but I seem to be able to violate them, and I often end up overstacked due to combat results. What is the real deal on stacking. Can you overstack on purpose? How does overstacking hurt you?

2. Purchasing new units. What is the cost in arms and manpower? Shouldn't there be a chart somewhere?

About purchasing new units, it seems very important to keep your current units at a decent strength because it is much harder to build a new unit, especially infantry, than it is to add strength to a unit. It might even be a good idea to pull a severely depleted unit out of the line if you can't reinforce it immediately to keep it from being eliminated. Someone who has played more can tell me if those comments make sense.

Naval operations. It has been stated several times in several places that you cannot do naval operations without assigning yourself naval points in advance. I have forgotten that several times.

3. How does refit of artillery work? And how does this relate to reloading and firing in combat? Does that use a refit point? This part confuses me.

Again, great game. Any complaint I have is about a rules book that isn't detailed enough for dummies like me. Thanks for those who have done quick start guides and answered questions.

A final comment. Your initial planning at the start of the game seems vitally important. I just kind of threw my units out there so I could get my first game started, but you really need a plan. I am going to think this through before my second game and look at some of the pre-loaded setups I've read about that apparently come with the game. As someone else said, this is almost like an old Avalon Hill game in which the initial setup was very important.

You can't overstack on purpose. Being overstacked increses the damage that enemy Artillery will cause during a Barrage.

For costs of units, look in the last button during the Strategic Phase, it is all listed.

I rarely buy new units, because it is difficult to keep already deployed units in fighting shape.

Haven't had to refit Artillery yet, so I don't know.

Yes, initial deployment is critical. It is very difficult to recover from a flawed mobilization.

Thanks for the responses.  As for the cost of units, if you don't have the means to purchase the units, then the costs and the unit button don't show up at all in the build forces screen during the strategic phase.  So while pondering that screen last night it dawned on my that I didn't know how much in arms it cost to produce a new unit of German infantry if I wanted to.  I guess all the costs are there during the initial turn or two when you have lots of extra resources.  But I also agree that it is much more important to keep your deployed units up to strength and you likely won't have the ability to build many new units after the war starts, at least as the CP.   

Well...

It is obviously that one CAN over stack and that you will suffer a lot of damage if you get barraged.

However, over stacking has a huge advantage when it comes to offensives... especially if you want to attack two hexes from a single HQ activation.

To over stack you need to use strategic movement to place the unit.

And no... I don't think it is "gamey" when you look at the style and scale, as over stacking would represent a buildup of troops that were going to attack in waves.

Ray (alias Lava)

Well I just learned something. I never have tried to Strategic Move into an overstack situation. That little bit of intelligence will be good to know in the future. Thanks Lava.

Yeah, I was wondering about that- I was strategically moving Germans to overstacked hexes while not being able to move in through regular movement.  Glad to have that confirmed.

Can anyone explain the artillery refit?  I don't understand this either.

ORIGINAL: JW

About purchasing new units, it seems very important to keep your current units at a decent strength because it is much harder to build a new unit, especially infantry, than it is to add strength to a unit.

When you buy new units you first recycle any units that have been completely destroyed except they come back one level of quality lower. So if you completely lost that 2nd Corps it comes back as a B quality unit.

If you have not lost any units then new units will be C quality.

Its obviously beneficial to keep existing units especially A class units up to strength.

The cost to buy new units is always 1 manpower ans 1 arms for every strength point.

So German units cost 24/24 while Austrain cost 18/18

Also thanks for the strategic overstacking tip - didn't know that.

Has anybody disbanded units? When you disband, do the remaining Arms/Manpower of the disbanded unit go back into your pools? I assume they do since there would be no reason to disband otherwise. Also, how would this affect the new unit you create from the remnants of the disbanded units if the disbanded units were of differing quality?

I have by accident - you get the manpower and half the arms striaght away. If you recreate it again it comes back one level quality lower. Don't know what happens if your out of supply.