HQ units

[gwgardner]

I'm starting a new Barbarossa Campaign and wanted to setup some HQ units, for the upper level commanders. So here's what I came up with. Dorky? Any better idea?

I gave them 99 action points for two reasons - easier to spot, and I figured someone like Rundstedt could commandeer a plane and be off across the continent at a moments notice if he wished.

I'm going to setup a Hitl-r OKW HQ unit too. (Always wanted to enact a successful coup d' etat.)

[baloo7777]

Interesting. Should they have a 0 instead of 1 or 2 as they represent staff more than the reserve HQ forces? If captured/overrun, would there be any penalty for troops in the HQ (Leader) range? Looks very cool though!

[Rasputitsa]

I still have the commanders embedded in the main Corps/Division units, a hangover from when there was the problem with the commander bonus. Although I have set up an Army structure (mainly eye-candy), I cannot get on with Roman numerals, so it's all normal text. Other commanders are allocated to units with special tasks, but not designated as HQ, as with 56th Pz Korps (Forster). The Agent S icon set is especially good for this type of display.

I have changed some of the commander names (e.g Hoth, von Kleist and others) to more a relevant selection, Doenitz, Goering etc. never had field command.

I group up to three air units naming as Fliegerkorps (JG or KG) and group them into Luftflotte, equalling up to 750 aircraft, at full strength. I use the unit name text to keep up with commander names and HQ, this helps in the Unit Management listings, which I use a lot. Working with house rules to limit the number of Corps and Divisions in each army and, for the Germans, a limit to the total number of Corps available for the East Front, based around the historical numbers available, which makes the Army grouping of units more significant.

Reserve Army has all units in the Greater Reich area and other units are designated for OKW/OKH, or Army Group, reserve, to deal with excess units (within limits) and to be deployed to Armies as necessary.

All intended to provide more of an organisational challenge than just driving any unit, anywhere, on the map.

Sub groups I name all as flotillas and group into fleets as SubPacs.

Anything that adds to the immersion into the game has to be good. [:)]

PS, careful what you do with you supreme commander, because that of course would be ............ you. [;)]

[Rasputitsa]

The unit names you chose are important, as the 'Unit Management' screen will sort alphabetically, or numerically. Therefore, I use only numbers to lead the unit name and use these numbers to classify type of units, TAC bombers are 100s, Fighters 200s etc., this groups them in the unit listing. 10 INF Div, lists separately from 10th INF Korps, so you can experiment with the available combinations.

You can click the top of any of the columns in the 'Unit Management' display and it will sort by the selected category. You can list units with commanders at the top, by clicking the top of the 'C' (commander) column. You can sort by APs, Supply, Strength, 'U' (units to Upgrade), 'R' (units that can accept replacements), all the listed columns. You can work through and sift your units in the Unit Management screen and, if you have 'Center View' ticked, you can see which part of the map highlighted units are, use 'Select' to go to the map. Alternatively you can 'Right Click and drag' the map from under the screen (I am using a reduced box size to see more map) to check where the highlighted unit is.

This makes the 'Unit Management' screen a very powerful tool, so choosing suitable units names can make the best use of this facility.

[gwgardner]

Good stuff. Hadn't thought that through.

As for the unit strength, yeah, I'll go into the landunits.csv and put that down to 0 or 1.

I'll still use lesser commanders attached to some specific units. By the way, anybody want to do something like this, just pick any unit, do a split, with the new unit having a no or low strength value; rename the new units to something easily recognisable; save the game; edit the resulting save game by going into the landunits.csv and find those new units, and change their level to 5, type to 3, APs to 99 and freeze to 0.

[Rasputitsa]

ORIGINAL: gwgardner
Good stuff. Hadn't thought that through.

As for the unit strength, yeah, I'll go into the landunits.csv and put that down to 0 or 1.

I'll still use lesser commanders attached to some specific units. By the way, anybody want to do something like this, just pick any unit, do a split, with the new unit having a no or low strength value; rename the new units to something easily recognisable; save the game; edit the resulting save game by going into the landunits.csv and find those new units, and change their level to 5, type to 3, APs to 99 and freeze to 0.

I guess this is to make dedicated HQ units, I haven't settled on how to do this, I did think of dedicated HQ units, but began to wonder how much they may get in the way in restricted hexes, you want to move your fighting units and the HQ units are in the way.

I am playing through with embedded HQ (army/army group commanders) to see how it goes, I am getting several HQs in the same area and sometimes space gets tight, so not yet decided which way to go. [&:]

[Peter123]

I like that the HQs have a significant role in the game. I only assign commanders to HQ units and I set the parameters in const.ini
In this example I have two levels of HQ, and two levels of commander.
Army HQ cant be closer than 4 hexes from the front.
HQs thus gives a small bonus to frontine units, and a big bonus on reserves near the HQ.
this leads to a nice gameplay involving reserves, attacks and counterattacks.

[Rasputitsa]

I don't want to sound negative, because anything that exploits the great modding capability of this game needs consideration, but .....

I quite like the assign/recall process for commanders in the game and not sure about the 99 APs idea. It's not so much von Rundstedt getting on a train and moving to France, or Montgomery hopping on a plane and flying to Cairo, it's staff, telephone lines, radio, intelligence dept., map files, etc., etc.. Moving tactically within a front, normal movement APs, OK. HQ works on, whilst new site is set-up, tents pitched, latrines dug, then moves to new site, same staff, same organisation, same liaison officers, intelligence and so on.

Moving to a new front, got to find a suitable château, set up new staff, different subordinate units, new intelligence and map situation, maybe being too picky, but a large move to a new Army HQ, or Army Group HQ, between fronts seems to represent a bigger event, in reality most staff would not move, but a new organisation might have to be built on the new front and '*!%!* don't I rate some leave'. [:)]

[Rasputitsa]

ORIGINAL: Peter123
I like that the HQs have a significant role in the game. I only assign commanders to HQ units and I set the parameters in const.ini
In this example I have two levels of HQ, and two levels of commander.
Army HQ cant be closer than 4 hexes from the front.
HQs thus gives a small bonus to frontine units, and a big bonus on reserves near the HQ.
this leads to a nice gameplay involving reserves, attacks and counterattacks.

It's getting late and my brain's fried, does this mean that you are only using Corps units as HQ and Divisions as fighting units and not sure how two levels of commander bonus works in the consts.ini file. Think about it some more tomorrow. [>:]

[Peter123]

ORIGINAL: Rasputitsa


It's getting late and my brain's fried, does this mean that you are only using Corps units as HQ and Divisions as fighting units and not sure how two levels of commander bonus works in the consts.ini file. Think about it some more tomorrow. [>:]

The HQ unit type is not relevant. Any unit is an HQ if it has a commander attached and is away from the front.
In the example, the combat units are corps and the HQs divisions.

[Rasputitsa]

ORIGINAL: Peter123

ORIGINAL: Rasputitsa
It's getting late and my brain's fried, does this mean that you are only using Corps units as HQ and Divisions as fighting units and not sure how two levels of commander bonus works in the consts.ini file. Think about it some more tomorrow. [>:]

The HQ unit type is not relevant. Any unit is an HQ if it has a commander attached and is away from the front.
In the example, the combat units are corps and the HQs divisions.

In the light of a new day I think I understand, by keeping the Army HQ at least 4 hexes from the front line it stays beyond the commander bonus range (set at 3 hexes). The front line units are under the influence of the Corps HQ, which are closer to the front. I guess you have edited the different HQ experience levels, to be as as shown.

Looks great on your own map and icon set, it's difficult to believe it's the same game. [&o]

PS. Which map/icon set is this. I have up to 'Peter6' map skin, but I don't recognise the unit set, however, it does look amazing. [:)]

PPS. Just realised it's in your 'Berlin' scenario. [8|]

[Rasputitsa]

Peter123

Just loading up the 'Berlin' scenario in 1.04 (it works) and noticed that for the Northern end of the front line you seem to have edited a new controller 'flooded', to make the ground impassible. Thinking of the discussion on making the Qattara Depression impassible terrain, this seem a good way to achieve that. Would this be done by creating a new country 'impassible' and is it as simple as editing the Quattra hexes to that country control.

Any advice how best to achieve this. [:)]

[gwgardner]

ORIGINAL: Rasputitsa


I quite like the assign/recall process for commanders in the game and not sure about the 99 APs idea. It's not so much von Rundstedt getting on a train and moving to France, or Montgomery hopping on a plane and flying to Cairo, it's staff, telephone lines, radio, intelligence dept., map files, etc., etc.. Moving tactically within a front, normal movement APs, OK. HQ works on, whilst new site is set-up, tents pitched, latrines dug, then moves to new site, same staff, same organisation, same liaison officers, intelligence and so on.

I originally made it 99 just so it would stand out. Then I figured since turns are a week, Rundstedt et al could probably move a skeleton staff cross-country if he had to in that amount of time, the rest to follow or be setup locally. Didn't want such a move to take up SMPs either. In this game, I can move a whole corps cross-country in one week.

Really won't be doing such moves much anyway.

[Rasputitsa]

ORIGINAL: gwgardner

ORIGINAL: Rasputitsa
I quite like the assign/recall process for commanders in the game and not sure about the 99 APs idea. It's not so much von Rundstedt getting on a train and moving to France, or Montgomery hopping on a plane and flying to Cairo, it's staff, telephone lines, radio, intelligence dept., map files, etc., etc.. Moving tactically within a front, normal movement APs, OK. HQ works on, whilst new site is set-up, tents pitched, latrines dug, then moves to new site, same staff, same organisation, same liaison officers, intelligence and so on.

I originally made it 99 just so it would stand out. Then I figured since turns are a week, Rundstedt et al could probably move a skeleton staff cross-country if he had to in that amount of time, the rest to follow or be setup locally. Didn't want such a move to take up SMPs either. In this game, I can move a whole corps cross-country in one week.

Really won't be doing such moves much anyway.

Don't want to discourage any additional option for this game, your work has made this game much better, perhaps because I use the Agent S unit icons, which highlight the commanders, I feel happy with assign/recall. However, any system would be better if it highlighted commanders in all unit graphic types, it's just amazing how new ideas keep coming. [:)]

[Peter123]

ORIGINAL: Rasputitsa

Peter123

Just loading up the 'Berlin' scenario in 1.04 (it works) and noticed that for the Northern end of the front line you seem to have edited a new controller 'flooded', to make the ground impassible. Thinking of the discussion on making the Qattara Depression impassible terrain, this seem a good way to achieve that. Would this be done by creating a new country 'impassible' and is it as simple as editing the Quattra hexes to that country control.

Any advice how best to achieve this. [:)]

Look here: