Matrix Games Forums

Reaching the middle of October in my first GC41 campaign against the Axis AI - and the heavy mud has finally started to arrive. I can finally begin to breath a sigh of relief.

Now that my troops are getting stronger and more buffed as the equipment gets updated and refitted, what advice would you give me on which, and how many units, you would place in Reserve status? What would your usual doctrine be regarding placing units on Reserve? What are your best practices?

I noticed that the AI places a lot of backline units in reserve in case I'd use deliberate attacks, but hasty attacks do not trigger their reserve. So unless the CV difference warrants a try (like 3-to-1 advantage), I use limited counterattacks with Hasty Attacks.

Do not put Tank Units in Reserve if they have (many) Tanks damaged in them. If you lose the Defensive Battle, almost all of those "pre-battle-damaged" Tanks will simply be lost while not offering anything to the defense. It does not matter how far the Unit "moved" to join a battle as RESERVE, they will YOLO move there with all their damaged stuff and simply lose it all when battle is lost.

Playing the Axis AI in the campaign is about a game of manoeuvre. The AI is going to advance and leave it's flanks exposed and vulnerable to being pocketed, so you want to encourage it to do that and keep your spare units with good MPs ready to take advantage of it's mistakes.
I would not use RESERVE at all. Putting units on RESERVE risks them getting trashed in battles that mostly you are only going to lose anyway. Just let the AI win the battles that it wants to.

Playing HvH the game has a different dynamic and this argument doesn't apply to the same extent.

tyronec wrote: Sat Jan 25, 2025 5:31 am I would not use RESERVE at all. Putting units on RESERVE risks them getting trashed in battles that mostly you are only going to lose anyway.

WitW Manual cites the same Rules for RESERVE activation Odds, so never any reserve by anyone if attacker has more than 10:1 initial Odds (since "attacker wins anyways").
Defending RESERVE will never activate when attacker has worse odds than 1:4 (since "defender wins anyways").

Now the question is if these rules are actually appropriate to be used for both games since the asymetrical balance of the Eastern Front works completely different from the Western Front. Additionally there is the hidden Ammo Modifiers which make Soviet CV look "normal" while actual Combat Performance is trash due to low Ammo (which is not taken into account when creating CV).