Matrix Games Forums

I'm currently at the end of 1943 and the game has been progressing well so far thanks to everyone advice. After playing for a bit I have a few more questions, primarily regarding support squads:

Does having two tier 1 (SHAEF, AFHQ) commands offer any advantage or is it better to merge everything under one single tier 1 command? From what I read in the manual support goes 90 hexes but the boxes are blue around all attached units to AFHQ (even if theyre in the UK) so they appear to be in range? Are support units located at Tier command 1 able to support fighting divisions no matter the distance or is this tied to 90 hexes? Is support range and command range the same thing? I read in the manual that artillery support can fire from two hexes away and that they have to be attached to HQs (ie not directly to combat units). Does this mean that for example the Corps HQ has two be within 2 hexes from the battle for artillery to be useful or is this rule for on map artillery (if such units exists)? What about artillery located in AFHQ? Is support range different from command range? If someone knows a tutorial or similar that could help me clarify these questions it would be much appreciated.

In my game couple of German units have been isolated in Salerno hex for approximately 2 months. I am attacking them every turn with overwhelming force but they do not yield. I've tried air power (interdiction) but against a city hex it is suicide with the heavy flak. Are there any good ways to force the surrender of a well defended city hex?

Finally, does nationality impact the fighting effectiveness of units when fighting together? I assume two units from different Crops suffer some sort of combat penalty when they fight together? Is this also true for different nationalities that fight within the same Corps?

Thank you very much for your help.

Salerno: It's a port...and it's a rough hex. Because it is a port, it will only be isolated if you control the two sea hexes adjacent to it..either by parking an amphib in one of them, or using enough Naval Patrol to raise the naval interdiction to 2 higher then the axis..probably 3 is sufficient.

Salerno will also be a depot..which will be full of supplies. So the defenders will not run out of ammo.

To take it, I would use 2 full corps of troops...6 divisions. Each division has at least one combat engineer. As well.each division should have one form of tank..either TD's or tank battalions or even SPG. I usually put the third as some kind of AUTO-Flak support unit, but basically you want every division to be full of support.

The two corps should belong to the same army. The corps should have at least 6 artillery units and probably no more then 12. The army won't matter.

If you think you don't have enough divisions....split a few of them up on the front and let them guard. A regiment in the rough/mountain terrain will hold against the Germans pretty easily....and will free up real divisions for the attack work. I usually have 6 divisions on each coast for attack..and spread out regiments in the middle (or use those French regiments) to hold the line.


Your naval units will help in combat....they help a lot. When you attack, make sure you have one adjacent and it's guns will be added to the attack. It doesnt have to stay there..you can move one from a port that is prepping an invasion....use it for the attack...then move it back and it will keep on prepping like nothing happened.


If it is a real tough hex to take...like three panzer divisions. Then you may have to use 4 corps. Or even put your tank divisions behind on reserve so they may get added to the attack.

Odds are it wont fall in the first attack. If it was a close battle though, you will probably win the second attack since he probably took more disruption from your artillery then you did from his and will be disproportionally weaker.

Get your SUs into the command levels that directly control units - so most into the corps. Its a bit of a pity but the allocation routines don't work down the command layers (pity in that it means you can't hold key, rare, resources at say the army level).

The exception to this is construction engineers. The higher up the commmand chain the more flexible they are. So if you just accept they do their thing and it works out ok in the end, leave them at AFHQ/SHAEF or in the Army Grps. If you really want to repair structures and rails in a very narrow sector, place them in army or corps (they won't wander so far).

German stay behind ports can be a pain. First cut off sea supply and that is best done by placing a TF so that the TF ZoC covers the port sea hex but the TF is not actually adjacent to the port hex. If you can't spare a TF for this, then use naval air interdiction. Once its isolated it will start to degrade. Then attack, lots of combat engineers and heavy artillery. You may well fail a few times but sooner or later they will run down their supply/ammunition stocks. The AI really likes to build this type of defense and each can really slow you up.

You can mix nationalities with no penalty, either at command level (so a Polish corps can command US units) or by incl combat/support units in the same attack.

Yes you are right about the sep corps malus. If you mix commands the malus runs from 10% to 35% depending on how mixed. At worst, you use 2 divisions from different corps reporting to different armies that are, in turn, in different army groups. Depends on how critical/marginal the attack is, but against the AI I don't over-fuss about the corps penalty but keep your armies apart. Of course, there will be battles where even the 10% is critical (such as a port assault etc).

On your question of AFHQ and SHAEF, which I don't think anyone addressed:

1. You can't put one under the other. Same with UK Home Forces HQ.
2. The best thing to do with these HQ's is to put them in Level 4 cities/depots:
- AFHQ in Oran
- SHAEF in Birmingham
- UK Home Forces in Sheffield
3. When you have support units with low TOE's, you can manually transfer them to one of these three HQ's, and they will repair/recover the fastest because of the Level 4 depot and the highest level HQ.

Cary

Everything in the Med I place under AFHQ. Everything else under SHAEF.

I think you're missing an opportunity if you don't use UK Home Force HQ to rebuild your seriously depleted support units.

Cary