Flak Units - what to do

[jzardos]

Noticed that it's not cheap to return German flak units to national reserve while attached to a city. Why does it cost so much???? [&:] These units relatively small compared to divisions and if on a rail line.

So my questions are

- is it worth trying to save flak units in cities in Sicily / Italy and later France? At the extreme cost of 15 AP for a Hvy flak unit with 16 88s' [:(]

- Is there a better way to move them that I haven't found in manual yet?

- assume these AA units attached to cites get eliminated when city is captured by enemy?

Why in the world was it decided to make this return to national reserves on these units cost 15 AP??

[Joel Billings]

They cost so much because in many cases they were without transport and very hard to move, and politically it was important to defend the various cities so we didn't want it easy to pull flak out of cities. IIRC rail units are easy to move. Units are not automatically captured, but there's a very good chance they will be. Somewhere in the manual I think it describes how the more mobile of the flak units have a bigger chance of getting away.

[jzardos]

ORIGINAL: Joel Billings

They cost so much because in many cases they were without transport and very hard to move, and politically it was important to defend the various cities so we didn't want it easy to pull flak out of cities. IIRC rail units are easy to move. Units are not automatically captured, but there's a very good chance they will be. Somewhere in the manual I think it describes how the more mobile of the flak units have a bigger chance of getting away.

Ok, this makes very good sense to me now.

thanks

[Jim D Burns]

I think it’s critical as Germany to get as many heavy flak units out as you can for use on or near Ploesti. So go around France and get your house in order regarding garrison levels then place every single unit you can in static mode. This will give you enough extra APs to buy out 4 perhaps 5 of the heavy flak units.

I view it as a bank loan, short term cash up front with a long term expense to make the units mobile again sometime in the future. But you lose all mobility for quite a while so weigh heavily the possibility a human opponent might land somewhere early.

You can also send the stuff you want to the ferry hex or the airbase nearby by clicking on the city name and clicking on the assign link. It only costs a single AP to rail stuff around on Sicily this way, so it buys some time for units you can’t yet afford. Though the APs are lost for good so perhaps it’s not worth it. I haven’t played the game enough yet to decide if the AP expenditure is worth it or not.

Vs. a human you probably will lose the flak anyway if you can’t get it out right away, vs. the AI its turn 8 in my game and I still hold a line about 4 hexes west of the ferry, though the ferry damage is up to 88% even with that location and the nearby air base stuffed with flak.

Jim