Just a couple questions.

[bloomstombs2]

Hi guys.. Ive done the operational boot camp, and also built in tutorial.

I have a question on couple of things that were left unmentioned.

Ok first. Does OKH have to move up to supply the army level HQ's? Do the army level HQ's have to move up to support corpse level HQ's? It just seems like that blue outline is longer range for higher levels of HQ's.


OK question 2. What are the detrimental effects of moving your airbases? Im a little confused , as in TOAW there were always airfields. Now it just lets you move them wherever you want. Middle of a forest?


Next question. Ok this is just a general strategy question. When I am attacking, should I press my units moves to the max? When I do this they seem to take some losses. Is there a safer, or better way to attack on the front? Like not using all the moves on my divisions and corpse to keep them healthy. Or are they going to lose that anyway next turn when they move to the same spot. (anyone know what Im talking about?) Basicaly, I just want to know if you use most of your MP on your units that are your attackers.

When I do this their strength just starts dropping off.

[heliodorus04]

ORIGINAL: bloomstombs

Hi guys.. Ive done the operational boot camp, and also built in tutorial.

I have a question on couple of things that were left unmentioned.

Ok first. Does OKH have to move up to supply the army level HQ's? Do the army level HQ's have to move up to support corpse level HQ's? It just seems like that blue outline is longer range for higher levels of HQ's.


OK question 2. What are the detrimental effects of moving your airbases? Im a little confused , as in TOAW there were always airfields. Now it just lets you move them wherever you want. Middle of a forest?

Good questions. I'll deal with 1 and 2 first.
1) OKH probably doesn't have to move for most of the game, in theory. The book has information on command range, and for this Tier 1 HQ, it's 90 hexes.
Read manual 7.6.4, and other areas in there, and your question will be better answered.

Other HQs will have to move more, in order to keep up with their corps/armies. Moving HQs affects your Motor Pool, and the Motor Pool is a tremendously important component in supplying your units.

So the trade offs are about trying to maintain your command range to all subordinates, while trying to move efficiently to not overburden the motor pool.

2) For your second question, read 16.1.1.1.
You want to move airbases LAST, and basically here's why:
Each turn, an air unit (which is not a counter on the map; it's one of the cadres of air units assigned WITHIN an air unit on the map) can fly a maximum amount of miles. Your air units fly missions FROM the location of their assigned air counter (i.e. airbase). So if it's close to the front, each mission they fly is using less of their maximum amount of miles. When you MOVE an airbase counter on the map, all of its component air units use miles to abstractly represent the time they could not fly while they moved to the new counter spot.

The relationship is proportional - so if you move an airbase counter 50% of its movement capacity, the aircraft within it will have automatically used 50 percent of their maximum miles.

So you can see the tradeoff.
Note too that moving airbases puts pressure on the motor pool...

ORIGINAL: bloomstombs
Next question. Ok this is just a general strategy question. When I am attacking, should I press my units moves to the max? When I do this they seem to take some losses. Is there a safer, or better way to attack on the front? Like not using all the moves on my divisions and corpse to keep them healthy. Or are they going to lose that anyway next turn when they move to the same spot. (anyone know what Im talking about?) Basicaly, I just want to know if you use most of your MP on your units that are your attackers.

When I do this their strength just starts dropping off.

3) Your last question has no sure answer, and that's where strategy comes in to play.
Yes, each hex you move will reduce your unit's movement and to some extent a little combat power. Attacking will use a lot more of both.

You want your movement to be purposeful in this game. Be efficient first and foremost. (All movement puts pressure on the motor pool capacity).

You will do very well for yourself reading among the After Action Review section to see how these tradeoffs between movement and combat play out. That's the crux of the game, learning to balance how far to move and when, where, and how hard to fight!

As a newbie, I recommend playing Road to Leningrad using Dlazov66's tutorial. I recommend playing the Axis, and give yourself an Admin, Transport, and Admin of 110 (leave all others at 100). That gives you a forgiving way to learn the intricacies of these tradeoffs.

[bloomstombs2]

thanks you for taking your time. It was very helpful.

[bloomstombs2]

You know it seems like you really have to halt your march to let the rail repair crews catch up. Or they just run out of supply. Still getting the hang of fastest rail repair.

Im trying to use the "return to HQ" button more, to try to get them to repair what I want (the automated ones).

[bloomstombs2]

I see alot of my HQ's with labor/construction squads, but for some reason they arent releasing them.

Can you guys think of a reason why? Is there a way to force these construction battalions out to work?

For example. 55th construction brig, 100% supply, 96/100 toe, is just sitting there inside 4th panzer group hq and not doing his job.



EDIT hang on a secon now I see 55th const bn attached to army group north.

I could have sworn a minute ago it was 4th panzer.. Maybe I saw it
wrong.


OK now I know I am not crazy.

18th army HQ has 3 construction battalions attached to it. NONE of them are working. Do you guys have any idea why?


EDIT: Lots of edits.

It seems whats happening is the AI is moving around my construction battallions.. She is moving them all into army group north hq. Interesting. I thought I locked it. Now 18th army hq has no more construction battallions in there and they are all in AGN.

[2ndACR]

Your higher HQ's will shift the repair crews all on their own. Just focus on the 5 repair units that you control. The AI will back fill the rest for you. I also move Army HQ's to major rail junctions and that seems to help kick start the repair crews down those line 1-2 turns later.

[bloomstombs2]

Yeah you mentioned that before in another thread, I have been doing that.

Im getting alot better with logistics. Im on the leningrad scen now so I only have 1 fbd. He is repairing all the important rail lines he can. I kinda just not even want to think about the automated battalions. They do their own thing . Like you said I put the army HQ's where I want them to repair, but it still seems they have a mind of their own.

[heliodorus04]

ORIGINAL: bloomstombs

I see alot of my HQ's with labor/construction squads, but for some reason they arent releasing them.

Can you guys think of a reason why? Is there a way to force these construction battalions out to work?

For example. 55th construction brig, 100% supply, 96/100 toe, is just sitting there inside 4th panzer group hq and not doing his job.



EDIT hang on a secon now I see 55th const bn attached to army group north.

I could have sworn a minute ago it was 4th panzer.. Maybe I saw it
wrong.


OK now I know I am not crazy.

18th army HQ has 3 construction battalions attached to it. NONE of them are working. Do you guys have any idea why?


EDIT: Lots of edits.

It seems whats happening is the AI is moving around my construction battallions.. She is moving them all into army group north hq. Interesting. I thought I locked it. Now 18th army hq has no more construction battallions in there and they are all in AGN.

I think you're mistaking Support Units (abbreviated SUs most often) with Rail Repair units.

See this screenshot, which shows two ways of looking at your HQ's "attached" units.






The YELLOW stuff are attached Support Units (SUs).
These can be assigned (at a cost of AP) to divisions under its direct command. They are NOT (and will never be) counters on the map.

The BLUE stuff are the attached divisions under its command (and for higher level HQs, it would be Corps/Army Groups and whatnot for that level of HQ). These are the direct counters on the map reporting to this HQ.

Sounds like you're mistaking construction battalion SUs for rail repair units on map.

NOTE that you switch the HQ display from the SUs (Yellow) to the the attached units (Blue) by clicking the Attached Support/Attached Units line in the display - you won't ever see both at once like I've done in this screenie.

Note that you control how many SUs an HQ has by the Add/Subtract/Lock buttons, and you'll want to read 7.6.2 on that. Also note that the AI is still handling it for me for the most part (and incidentally, I think that corps HQ displayed has WAY too many SUs for a corps of its size... I'll have to send those back up to higher HQ and re-distribute them to corps).

[2ndACR]

Not all those can be assigned to divisions. Artillery and construction cannot be assigned.

[heliodorus04]

ORIGINAL: 2ndACR

Not all those can be assigned to divisions. Artillery and construction cannot be assigned.

Yes, you're right. I forgot. And that's a German restriction the Soviets don't find.

To the OP (original poster): Understand how support units work in combat. The AI handles automatic assignment of these SUs in the HQ. For a hasty attack, it's harder for the AI to auto-assign SUs. For a deliberate attack, it's easier.

Read 15.2 for that - very useful way to increase combat performance.

Keep asking your questions! They're good ones

[2ndACR]

Watch out for too many anti aircraft units in a HQ, I find they are assigned way too much when I really need artillery support.

[heliodorus04]

ORIGINAL: 2ndACR

Watch out for too many anti aircraft units in a HQ, I find they are assigned way too much when I really need artillery support.

How do you manage that particular type of SU, then?
Do AA elements count as "artillery" assets, occupying spots that Arty might take?
What should one do with AA units? I don't find them good for much. Put them in LW HQs? Cities?

[2ndACR]

Well, I have not quite figured it out yet myself. I have 1 AA unit per Corp HQ and OKH has a million. I might try to assign some to my air bases. I just hate seeing 2 AA units assigned to an attack instead of the 2-3 artillery units.

[bloomstombs2]

Just finished Leningrad with axis, got axis minor victory.

Man those leningrad city defenses were tough.

I could not break through fort 5s. 6 decent units attacking.

Great battle tho

[2ndACR]

6 is not enough, you have to either cut them off from supply or use 9 or more div. Fort 5's are the most brutal there is. Good going, your almost ready for the big one and then the ultimate.........versus a human.

[Mynok]

There is definitely a lot of AA around.

[Garth Vader]

ORIGINAL: bloomstombs

3) Your last question has no sure answer, and that's where strategy comes in to play.
Yes, each hex you move will reduce your unit's movement and to some extent a little combat power. Attacking will use a lot more of both.

You want your movement to be purposeful in this game. Be efficient first and foremost. (All movement puts pressure on the motor pool capacity).

You will do very well for yourself reading among the After Action Review section to see how these tradeoffs between movement and combat play out. That's the crux of the game, learning to balance how far to move and when, where, and how hard to fight!

As a newbie, I recommend playing Road to Leningrad using Dlazov66's tutorial. I recommend playing the Axis, and give yourself an Admin, Transport, and Admin of 110 (leave all others at 100). That gives you a forgiving way to learn the intricacies of these tradeoffs.

Thank you, I wanted to ask a similar question. I did the RTL scenario using the tutorial, then the RTK on easy. Both were pretty easy. Then I tried Road to Smolensk on normal. I had a good first 3 turns, but my panzer MP's dropped, so I tried resting them. The AI stacked the land bridge 4 lines deep and I couldn't break through in force anywhere.

I will try those settings!

[2ndACR]

Movement dropped because of low fuel. Air re-supply them and you can get the movement back up. Click the air supply button and then mouse over your armor units, you will see current fuel/supply/ammo state. Then shift right click the unit you want and click all the air units you want to go. Bottom right of the air unit screen you will see the amount of fuel changing in tons.

[Garth Vader]

Hmm, I was forgetting to do that very often. I'll try doing that every turn.

[Mynok]

I rend to refuel my HQs rather than directly to units.