Combined Arms Stacking

[Bison36]

Could someone explain the effects of combined arms in stacks? There seems to me to be no benifit to having combined arms in a stack. I get the artillery and air support from a distance during the battle planning phase, but having say an Armored BN and a Infantry BN in the same stack or even adjacent hexes seems to have no effect. I'm new to the game so I'm sure that there are a number of underlying mechanics terrain, weather etc... at work.

[ogar]

Someone will come along with data and experimental samples to give a definitive answer, but I'll try another newcomer's response...

I think combined arms does help in attacking but it depends -

Assuming you're playing WWII - mid 60's, and assuming you're playing in 2.5 - 5 km sizes, and that your attackers are reasonably ready and supplied, then
if the defending units are not in armor-deadly terrain (up escarpments, urban ruins, fortified...) nor are themselves heavy armor/anti-tank, then armor plus pbi is the way to go AFTER saturating the hex with artillery and air.

That said, flanking attacks with armor help although the complexity of an attack can reduce effectiveness. And then there's matter that scale matters -- an armor/inf battalion group at 20 km just does not have the weight it does at 2.5 km. And then there's scenario variability -- I've found scenarios can vary effects that 'worked just fine in another scenario', it depends what the designer was trying to accomplish.

This is starting to sound too gloomy.
Rest and ready your units; blast the other guys with arty/air; blast again; flank with combined units -- it's what I'd try. As always YMMV.
And if you really want to get into figuring this out...

read Curtis' writeups;
read GS' play-by-play on Rimini at the other forum;
run TOAWLOG and analyze the results -- you are taking notes on what your planned attacks are, so you can compare and review, arent you ?

and if that's too much work, just mess around with what seems right to you, and have fun with the game.

[macgregor]

Combined arms should act as a force multiplier within certain parameters. In a simpler land combat model such as WiF, Ground attack strength can be as much as doubled by air, and then further tripled by sea, making the ground component only responsible for a third of the combat strength(if given maximum support). That works for WW2. Today's battlefield should put more power in the air, but how much?