Tips for players

[Khanti]

Germans.
About recon units.
Most German HQ of armored units have excellent recon vehicles (6 pts) which are useless there as (mostly) you don't try to scout with HQ.
So exchenge them with recon (aufklarung) units for their Sdkfx 251 (standard halftracks).
You see result in recon points on screen.

[Khanti]

Germans.
About Fj units.

Fj divisions have 3 regiments with anti-tank/artillery battalion. It's not sensible to put artillery on frontline but it is mandatory to use anti-tank guns on frontline. So you can re-form these regiments into 3 AT battalions and 1 artillery battalion with 10.5 cm guns and 12 cm mortars. Or even (if tou have PP) separate mortars from artillery too.

The picture shows the result.

[Khanti]

German Commander of 62. VolksGrenadier Division has "exercise" ability (train units +5 points each time).
You can create kampfgruppe on rear area, fill it with fresh recruits, attach to 62. VGD and train a little.
There is no restriction on how far attached to Division HQ unit can be placed to train.

(WaR scenario, but probably possible in all scenarios with 62. VGD)

[Zeedub85]

Great ideas. You can do a lot of thinking "outside the box" in this game. There's usually a way around a particular restriction.

I tried to use the emergency units to fill up frontline units, but had trouble keeping to the 50-pt minimum. Solution: combine two or more such units, then go around and drop off the good infantry, engineer and staff troops. There will be plenty of sicherung and nachtruppen left to maintain the 50-pt requirement.

[Capt Cliff]

Be careful guy's you are not gaming the system! I can see the US Army being this flexible but not the Germans! Word to the wise.

[Jagger2002]

Be careful guy's you are not gaming the system! I can see the US Army being this flexible but not the Germans! Word to the wise.

Maybe, maybe not. My impression of the Germans is they were incredibly flexible in creating kampgruppes. Reading about the German response at Arnhem, they would grab any troops off the roads and integrate them into their formations. Tremendous flexibility for building up a quick unit but not so good for the parent formations that lost their troops and equipment.

[Capt Cliff]

Be careful guy's you are not gaming the system! I can see the US Army being this flexible but not the Germans! Word to the wise.

Maybe, maybe not. My impression of the Germans is they were incredibly flexible in creating kampgruppes. Reading about the German response at Arnhem, they would grab any troops off the roads and integrate them into their formations. Tremendous flexibility for building up a quick unit but not so good for the parent formations that lost their troops and equipment.

Yes BUT ... the game already allows you to create Kamfegruppen. By the way at Arnhem they were SS and the SS did what ever it wanted. In this game you start with 2 SS divisions which adds two more later on. Assets at HQ level should be automatically deployed to frontline units as required, but this game does not do that. IMHO

[Khanti]

Germans.
About Panzer Grenadier units.
Panzer Grenadier Regiments have Grilles and 12cm mortars with 5 fire range. Assaulting enemy position with them is a waste of good artillery. You may transfer them to artillery kampfgruppe. First create KG from feldersatz battalion with 100 nachtruppen (useless as infantry, but they will not fight as infantry here) to reach that 50 power points. Then add Grilles and 12cm mortars. Then add some transport for 12cm. And now you have good support artillery unit and still strong grenadier regiments.

[Zeedub85]

Be careful guy's you are not gaming the system! I can see the US Army being this flexible but not the Germans! Word to the wise.

If I played a human opponent, I would be conservative and reality-minded (although I'd say you're wrong about the Germans' flexibility). I would play by mutually agreed ground rules about tactics that are possible in the game but would not be historical, like using that road that runs all around the map edge to turn a flank. I call it the Cheater's Road. However, I only play the computer, which uses that road to smash the poor 89th Infanterie Division and threaten my northern flank every single time I start the Wacht scenario, and does other silly but annoying things that mess up my plans (how can it be so stupid yet so effective? Probably I just suck). So I'll get even with it any way I can.

[Capt Cliff]

Be careful guy's you are not gaming the system! I can see the US Army being this flexible but not the Germans! Word to the wise.

If I played a human opponent, I would be conservative and reality-minded (although I'd say you're wrong about the Germans' flexibility). I would play by mutually agreed ground rules about tactics that are possible in the game but would not be historical, like using that road that runs all around the map edge to turn a flank. I call it the Cheater's Road. However, I only play the computer, which uses that road to smash the poor 89th Infanterie Division and threaten my northern flank every single time I start the Wacht scenario, and does other silly but annoying things that mess up my plans (how can it be so stupid yet so effective? Probably I just suck). So I'll get even with it any way I can.

Come to think of it you might be right about the Germans, BUT SS and Army or SS and Luftwaffe or Luftwaffe and Army I cooperation say not so much.

[Khanti]

If I played a human opponent, I would be conservative and reality-minded (although I'd say you're wrong about the Germans' flexibility). I would play by mutually agreed ground rules about tactics that are possible in the game but would not be historical, like using that road that runs all around the map edge to turn a flank. I call it the Cheater's Road. However, I only play the computer, which uses that road to smash the poor 89th Infanterie Division and threaten my northern flank every single time I start the Wacht scenario, and does other silly but annoying things that mess up my plans (how can it be so stupid yet so effective? Probably I just suck). So I'll get even with it any way I can.

Yes, this poor 89th Infanterie Division needs special treatment.
You need to stream to it many replacements. The fastest way is like this:
How to stream replacements to specific unit / division.
Set all main HQ (armies, corps, etc) to 75%, and attach your chosen unit (battalion from that division) directly to supreme HQ in scenario. Set supreme HQ at 100% and that unit to priority. It works for me.
1. It will work even without direct attachement to supreme HQ.
2. It will work even when supreme HQ will have different priority (but not lower than 75%).
3. Must have condition is to set all others to lower priority and the fastest method is to make it at high command level.
If you want to strengh all battalions of that particular division at once - set also divisional HQ (89th) to priority.
And start disbanding unmovable sicherung units. You will have many infantry replacements of low quality, but really fast.

[Zeedub85]

That's an interesting idea. I do try setting it to Priority, but my usual method is to send a Pzgr regiment from 12th SS. Just to hold things together until 3rd Pzgr arrives. Also the two Stug units from the neighboring Korps and any emergency units I can make. I've tried sending the entire 12thSS up there, but it tends to clog the roads so I usually send the rest of the division south to fall in behind 1st SS (I've tried following their historical plan, which they're in place to do, but getting across that one bridge on the way to the twin villages is surprisingly hard). In one game I also sent Fuhrer Begleit to 89th and started attacking the 78th ID, destroying several battalions. Then the 30th ID suddenly showed up. Which would have been great for Peiper if I hadn't already messed up his advance by getting bogged down around Elsenborn. I quit the game then because it had gone too pear-shaped to fix, but I wonder what would have happened. I could have had a huge battle develop on the northern flank, all because Hitler refused to allow OKW to disband the 89th.

I tried the Plan Martin map once, thinking that the next division to the north might help keep the 78th from attacking 89th. HA! The 85th Infanterie is just as bad and in a worse position! The whole 15th Armee looks like it should collapse with one good push.

[nikdav]

Thanks for the feedback !
I still try to fine tune the OOB, but the men strength of some VG divisions was really very low.
This is the ration strength on 16 december 44 :
(the real combat strength was no more than 60%)

rationstrVG.jpg (79.27 KiB) Viewed 1355 times