Matrix Games Forums

OK, so for Germany, APs are clearly a scarce resource to be used sparingly. What are the things you find yourself using them for, and what are the most efficient uses?

My observations so far:

FLAK: Moving flak seems way too costly. Does disbanding make sense instead? Only 1 AP, and you retain the men and guns in the pool.
LEADER CHANGE: Looks like you have to do this very sparingly; thankfully, most German leaders are pretty good
EAST FRONT TRANSFERS: This is probably a whole separate topic on the best use of East Front, i.e. what are economical "Gets", and what it makes sense to send that way. Either way, you need APs for this.
FORTS: Maybe the largest use? You need a bunch for fortified lines in Italy and elsewhere. They aren't cheap.
STATIC/MOTORIZATION: I feel like Germans should probably not set any more units to static, but you can live with the ones that already are. Feel the same way?
UNIT DISBANDS: Beyond flak, what are good candidates? OST Bns give you men back in the pool, but do cost 1 AP to disband. I also think one of the Army HQs (Belgium or HOlland ones) can go, which would put 20,000 typists at the front. Agreed?

Flak to Hamburg and Essen - I find they are worth it. Hamburg and Essen are player favorites for bombing in 43. You can squeeze a couple more kills for 10ish APs
Leader Change - Hermann Balck, Guderian are the ones that stand out. Costly, but worth it. Haven't tested the impact in the air air, but you have a couple of air 5 leaders that could be swaped for air 6 and air 7.
East Front - Haven't tried it yet, but saw some suggestions to bring the Mount. Divisions from the East, and Send regular divisions instead. Might be worth exploring.
Forts - I personally only use forts at 15% TOE (that's the minimum to prevent fort decay). You are already too hard pressed for manpower to be able to afford 1500 men per fort. But yes, one defensive line in Italy, + key ports near rome atleast.
Static\motor - don't use AP in any.
Unit Disbands: Infantry battalions like you said. 500 men each, and you get dozens of them from regular reinforcements. I find Amry HQs too far valuable to disband. Have been paying attention, and bad chain of commands often gives you turns where the divisions get 0 supplies (due to admin failures), leading to CV drop, leading to garisson requirements failure, leading to stress on the player and bad SU deployment in panic to meet the VP garisson quota. Meaning, not worth the hassle. Keep chain of command, so that leader checks succeed, and everything goes smooth.

Moving flak costs only 1 AP if you move them between cities, and the railroad-flak can be moved for free. You could also move some army and corps HQ's from the eastern front and disband them in the west to free up manpower. At a some point it might also be worth it to disband German construction battalions.

Guderian is in the game? That's a surprise, being that he sat on the shelf from Dec 26 1941 till he was appointed Inspector General of Armored Troops in 1943. (Not a field command spot.)

Ehh, I'll buy the game anyway

ORIGINAL: Q-Ball

OK, so for Germany, APs are clearly a scarce resource to be used sparingly. What are the things you find yourself using them for, and what are the most efficient uses?

My observations so far:

FLAK: Moving flak seems way too costly. Does disbanding make sense instead? Only 1 AP, and you retain the men and guns in the pool.
LEADER CHANGE: Looks like you have to do this very sparingly; thankfully, most German leaders are pretty good
EAST FRONT TRANSFERS: This is probably a whole separate topic on the best use of East Front, i.e. what are economical "Gets", and what it makes sense to send that way. Either way, you need APs for this.
FORTS: Maybe the largest use? You need a bunch for fortified lines in Italy and elsewhere. They aren't cheap.
STATIC/MOTORIZATION: I feel like Germans should probably not set any more units to static, but you can live with the ones that already are. Feel the same way?
UNIT DISBANDS: Beyond flak, what are good candidates? OST Bns give you men back in the pool, but do cost 1 AP to disband. I also think one of the Army HQs (Belgium or HOlland ones) can go, which would put 20,000 typists at the front. Agreed?

1.Flak is HUGE not like old days of WitE, hmm they are big in WitE not and very important in WitW.

I put I per division, mixed are the best and go in best units.

2.I mobilize divisions as fast as I can.
3. Forts only in Italy. I put infantry in front line and 2 rows of forts behind that. vs a skilled player forts drop quickly now.
4. Disbanding OST Bns is a waste of AP's in my opinion, their are other units the yield far more rifle squads over time.
5. Don't use EFB.
6. TOE settings are also important.

ORIGINAL: Kronolog

Moving flak costs only 1 AP if you move them between cities, and the railroad-flak can be moved for free. You could also move some army and corps HQ's from the eastern front and disband them in the west to free up manpower. At a some point it might also be worth it to disband German construction battalions.

Ok, question on moving flak units city to city; it is mentioned in the manual, but I can't figure out how to do it exactly.

How do you do that?

Select the city tab you want to send it to, and when your selecting the flak, pick the city you want to take it from from the list of flak units and the cities or hq's it's assigned to.

You can safely disband the German garrison HQ's as game progresses. Tens of thousands in free replacements there.