Matrix Games Forums

Hi

Is there a standard procedure for the German player to counter the blizzards? The very first PBEM I played saw at least 3 of my full strength panzer korps shatter, even though they were entrenched to 4 or 5. By the time winter ended, I was pretty much back at the Polish border, with most of my infantry and panzer divisions reduced to battalion/regiment strength.

Ever since then, I've been a trifle perturbed every time the winter picks up. Advice please.

Mark

Your problems can come out of two ways.
First is that Axis readiness is divided by four any time in blizzard combat. Second one is because of your units suffer additional penalty if their HQs have less than 50 OPs. Cummulative effect is a disaster. I also have suspection that if your HQ has 0 OPs, then chances of shatter are very high.
You can't avoid first problem, but if you limit your movements and special supplies you will avoid second one.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Mist:

Your problems can come out of two ways.
First is that Axis readiness is divided by four any time in blizzard combat. Second one is because of your units suffer additional penalty if their HQs have less than 50 OPs. Cummulative effect is a disaster. I also have suspection that if your HQ has 0 OPs, then chances of shatter are very high.
You can't avoid first problem, but if you limit your movements and special supplies you will avoid second one.



But without special supply, the readiness of units is so low that they'll probably shatter if attacked, right? Thanks Mist.

For my experience, special supply must be used only in attack (or in defence if you don't think to be attacked next turn).
For reasons I don't understand, I've often seen units well entrenched and powerful shatter under attack if I used special supply on them, when repeating the turn with the same actions without special supply the result was almost always a retreat or even held.
This is true for the blizzard and for the russian in summer '41: I've had a russian Army with a single rifle Div be attacked 150+:1 and retreat, and behind an Army with a powerful Tank Div and 4 rifles shatter when attacked by the same german unit (obviously, only the 2° unit had received special supply).

Originally posted by Fabio:
For my experience, special supply must be used only in attack (or in defence if you don't think to be attacked next turn).
For reasons I don't understand, I've often seen units well entrenched and powerful shatter under attack if I used special supply on them, when repeating the turn with the same actions without special supply the result was almost always a retreat or even held.
This is true for the blizzard and for the russian in summer '41: I've had a russian Army with a single rifle Div be attacked 150+:1 and retreat, and behind an Army with a powerful Tank Div and 4 rifles shatter when attacked by the same german unit (obviously, only the 2° unit had received special supply).

I have tried to explain this behaviour in some of the other threads, but you are right on. Basically, in these time periods there are special strength reductions to the combat value of the side affected. In what I would call a bug, the game uses the normal strength for the fire combat portions, but then reduces the strength in checking for shatter. However, full losses are removed from the reduced strength, I believe, leaving the unit with basically no strength for the check and thus an easy shatter. Also, there is a lower cap on readiness that keeps it at or above 25%, so lower readiness units don't drop very much and thus have strength left for the check. That is why using special supply makes the units in these cases more likely to shatter, rather than the expected less likely.