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Hey, all. I Got a couple of questions:

1) Can I use SS infantry divisions instead of SS PzG divisions towards west front 'SS = year - 1940 or combat value gets halved' calculation?
2) If so, which divisions are considered SS? Besides the obviously marked ones, there's also the Blue & Sturm infantry divisions.
3) Will air units placed on CAP help out ground-attacking air units during combat? Conversely will air units placed on Escort help defend against airfield attack?

Thanks

1) Only Elite SS divisions count, i.e. Pz and PzG.
2) The Blue Division was made up of Spanish volunteers. The Sturm are infantry divisions with added StuG batallions. None of these are SS.
3) Escort and CAP seem to do each other's work, although there is some controversy about their efficiency.

Hello Huggy Bear, in expansion to K62's answer
It must have SS in the unit name. eg Polezi SS Motorised Div.
SS Motorised, Cavalry, and Mountain divisions also count, although they have far less AFV's than the Pz and PzG divisions, and so are much weaker, in terms of adding to the actual combat value, to West and Italian Fronts.

Originally posted by Possum
Hello Huggy Bear, in expansion to K62's answer
It must have SS in the unit name. eg Polezi SS Motorised Div.

SS Motorised, Cavalry, and Mountain divisions also count, although they have far less AFV's than the Pz and PzG divisions, and so are much weaker, in terms of adding to the actual combat value, to West and Italian Fronts.

For the purposes of the SS rule, the units have to be mechanized units with tank battalions, i.e. Pz and Pzg units only. The infantry and cavalry SS units don't count. However, according to Arnaud, the game is just counting tank battalions, so it may be you could get away with using regular Pz units, but the strength of the unit also matters too and you have only a limited number of slots for the Western Front, so you really end up having to use your strongest SS Pz and Pzg units to beef up the Front's strength as well as meet the minimum tank battalions requirement.

Regarding SS units in France...while playing the 'old' second front, I found that if I didn't take anything from France, the Allies didn't invade until June 44'. Is this still the case? I dislike the thought of having to stick LSSAH, Das Reich, Totenkopf, or Wiking in France cooling their heels when the real war is out east. In the past, I've also pulled out Hohenstaufen and Frundsberg from France with no detrimental effects. Has this changed as well?

Hey Preuss,

The event checks have changed substantially to help remove some but not all the gaminess that people used to use. Rather than having a guaranteed event on a set date as before, such as early June 44 for Normandy, the game will now greatly reduce the German strength as of certain dates until an event occurs, and then the delay until the next event is variable based on the strength of the Germans when the event occured. So the German player can still strip the front when the strength reduction is happening, but if so the check for the next event will be quite fast, while a high strength will delay the possibility of the next check by quite a bit. Leave the units in the HQs alone and the events should follow a fairly normal timeline, within the odds of events happening anyway. But no more stripping the West and South fronts early on or events will occur.

Thanks, Sir Rick....as always you seem to have the answer. I guess I'll have to devote some attention to the opposing enemy strengths on those Fronts. Makes me wish for this game on a Europe-wide level. T'would be a joy to hurl the Allied forces back into the English channel! Conversely...it might really suck to see that one cannot stop the invasion with so few aircraft units available.

Thanks for the input folks!

I wonder if the quality of tanks also matters for France & Afrika. I mean, keep 1 factory cranking out cheap Pz-II's & stock both fronts with them for the whole game... LOL, hordes of Pz-II's, PzJg-1b's, and StuG-IIIb's meeting the allies in '44!

How much airpower is needed on both fronts? Can't find any reference to it...

Sadly, I don't think airpower seems to matter. What I'd like to see was some attrition force tht came in and dealt your front dirty should you divest it of aircraft....kinda like you took away the planes, so Bomber Harris decied to do daylight raids

Perhaps you could add a calculation for airpower to the Western Front: # Air Units = (Year - 1940) x 2 or Axis Strength is Halved. This would mimic a buildup of aircraft prior to the '44 Landings. If I remember right, Rommel had about 3000 aircraft at his disposal at the time of the invasion.

Originally posted by Preuss
Sadly, I don't think airpower seems to matter. What I'd like to see was some attrition force tht came in and dealt your front dirty should you divest it of aircraft....kinda like you took away the planes, so Bomber Harris decied to do daylight raids

There is some addition to the HQ CV from airplanes present. Strip out all of the ground units in the HQ and the upper echelon ones and put air units in and there will be some strength left, which is the air units. So they do contribute, but not as directly as this suggestion.

Ahhhh, again Master Rick has the answer. I always have wondered why OKW would have some strength after I'd sent all of it's ground units elsewhere. Perhaps I'll add more air to west front some day. Now, all I need is the power to raise new (air) units and I'll be as happy as a clam. Till then, guess I muddle through.