Panzer Brigades

[BK6583]

IIRC, these were a creation of Hitler and regarded as ineffective. Should I disband them?

[cfulbright]

If the CV is high, and the morale is high, they should fight well. Have you tried using them? Perhaps attached one to an infantry division.

Cary

[GeneralDad]

If these are the brigades that fought at Arracourt then IRL they were poorly trained and performed very poorly in that battle. If you are not desperate to stop the Allies then disbanding them to equip better units is an interesting idea. If they were aircraft then you could send them off for retraining but I do not know if there are game mechanics for training ground units. OTH, I once sent an under-trained aircraft unit into training and after three weeks their training score had hardly budged.

GeneralDad

[loki100]

ORIGINAL: GeneralDad

.... OTH, I once sent an under-trained aircraft unit into training and after three weeks their training score had hardly budged.

GeneralDad

yep, I don't think that function has ever really worked. Its meant to be slow (realistic) but I find that operational losses while training simply eliminates your in-training pilots.

Best option is to stick them into combat, pref somewhere quiet or where they are surrounded by better units - I'm thinking of the Norwegian etc units the allies have.

Re the brigades.

a) There is a gameplay issue which is the end game comes down to a struggle between 2 weakened armies. The brigades are useful as they exert a ZoC (ie cost MP) and sometimes have to be fought (ie cost MP and CV). Once the Allies are over the Rhine its all about slowing/blocking their moves.

b) In theory, they can be attached to say a Pzr division and you get a powerful unit, but my feeling is come late 44 to the end you don't really gain from a few powerful units. But if you do decide its time to unleash your version of the Ardennes offensive this can be useful. In effect you can stack the equivalent of 3 divisions + 3 brigades in the same hex.

c) I think they might be worth scrapping but it depends. I find (a) pretty compelling, but if you have the EF box on, then they can be a quick way to release some tanks etc into the equipment pool and most of that will go east. Now even so, it might be more efficient to send the unit east intact.

So my feeling is keep them, on map. Probably more use as you are not really looking for an offensive force but another thing to fill out your defensive lines.

[Kronolog]

I keep them in reserve and merge them with weak panzer divisions. Even though the brigades don't have many tanks or infantry, they do have lots of trucks, and getting trucks from the national pool into panzer divisions in late '44 is difficult.