Just Starting

[cfulbright]

It sounds like you're talking about "support units", which can be assigned to on-map units such as combat units like divisions, brigades, and regiments, and also to HQ units like corps, armies, etc. There also are a hybrid unit called a "multi-role" unit that is a brigade or regiment which can be on-map or broken up and assigned to one or more other on-map units.

There's a lot of detail and nuance on support units. I'll try to touch the highlights and then please feel free to ask me specific questions.

For attacks I assign two armor battalions and an engineer battalion to most divisions, or if attacking into heavily fortified or mountains, I attach one armor, one SP artillery, and one engineer. The same is pretty true for defense.

You can't assign regular field artillery to combat units, so assign them to corps HQ's supporting an attack or defense. I generally when playing the Allies I spread them somewhat evening among my corps HQ's by nationality.

If you assign all three battalions of a multi-role unit one turn to a division, then in a subsequent turn you can "convert" the multi-role unit to a single on-map unit and it can advance one hex, no matter the terrain (as long as the terrain is passable!). I use this to advance an extra hex into a vacation hex if I have a good breakthrough going, as it lets me make a deeper penetration that can unhinge a line.

The game has a very limited concept of "combined arms". Artillery units are useful to help attack or defend, and engineers help attack fortified units or help build fortifications, but there's no benefit to assigning infantry to armor or vice versa.

Never assign AA units to combat units, even the German 88mm AA units. They have very little combat value. Rather, assign them to corps and army HQ's to defend against air attack.

When my support units aren't directly attached to a combat unit, I attach them to an army group HQ that I've set up in a large depot - ideally a port - such as Naples, Marseille, Antwerp, etc, where the weakened ones can recover. Because I've assigned them to an army group, they're available to be assigned to any division or regiment within that AG, whereas if I assign them to a corps HQ, they can't be assigned to a unit in a neighboring corps. I also set up my high command HQ's (AFHQ, SHAEF, UK Home Forces) in the highest level "national" depots such as Oran, Sheffield, and Birmingham, and then transfer very low TOE support units back to one of them for a few turns of major refit, then transfer back to the army HQ when they're back up to snuff.

Cary

[CrackingShow]

Thank you for your response.

I just finished the 'Rommel Attacks 43' scenario from the Torch expansion and won a major victory, and that's about all the experience I have, I tried the Husky scenario multiple times but found it difficult - just so you have an idea of my understanding of the game.

Is it better to fight battles with units from one corps at a time? Or is it ok to have say 2 divisions from Corps A, and 1 form Corps B.

What does TOE stand for? Is it something to do with efficiency? How much morale/fatigue etc the units have?

How many bombers do you want to use per hex? When I played the Rommel Attacks 43 scenario, I picked two hexes that I was going to push into, and then bombed those hexes with a couple of hundred of planes each, and then had about 100 planes on Ground support, sometimes I did good damage, sometimes lower damage... What sort of damage should I expect from planes?

[cfulbright]

Is it better to fight battles with units from one corps at a time? Or is it ok to have say 2 divisions from Corps A, and 1 form Corps B.

Ideally all units are in the same corps, as there is a small penalty (usually 6%) on the attack strength of the units of the lesser corps. But more units attacking is better. You can transfer units to the dominant corps for the attack. Historical purists may object. Consider it temporary assignment!

What does TOE stand for? Is it something to do with efficiency? How much morale/fatigue etc the units have?

"TOE" stands for Table of Organization and Equipment. Essentially what percent of full strength is the unit. You can see unit morale and fatigue in the Commander's Report, but not on the unit details screen.[/quote]

How many bombers do you want to use per hex? When I played the Rommel Attacks 43 scenario, I picked two hexes that I was going to push into, and then bombed those hexes with a couple of hundred of planes each, and then had about 100 planes on Ground support, sometimes I did good damage, sometimes lower damage... What sort of damage should I expect from planes?

Use as many as you can. FB's are much more effective in Ground Attack than are LB's. There's a debate about whether it's better to target Interdict or Unit in your Ground Attack missions. I prefer Units. Check the loadouts. I try to use 1000lb bombs if available. Some people believe twice as many 500lb bombs are more effective.

Cary

[CrackingShow]

Thanks.

Is there a way to export the data from the editor into excel? I'd like to find out the effective altitudes of the different planes.

[cfulbright]

Yes, there's a CSV tab on the top right of the screen. You can choose which tables to export from there.

Cary

[CrackingShow]

Is there a speedy way to reassign air groups to a different AirHQ? I want to have all the 4 engine bombers in Strat command and two engine bombers in Tac command, but I don't want to have to do 10000 clicks.

[cfulbright]

There's no way to filter and achieve what you want in two clicks. The closest/most efficient way to do this would be:

1. Press F10 (move air units), filter in the Commander's Report screen to the aircraft model you want for SAF, then move all of those air groups to the handful of bases you want them to be at; do the same for TAF
2. If necessary, change the air base HQ for the SAF air group bases to SAF; do the same for TAF
3. For each air base, click on the detail screen and use the link at the bottom to change all air groups at that base to the HQ of the base itself (see screenshot)

It's not two clicks, but it's still less than the way most people do it.

I owe thanks to Loki to teaching me that last trick.

Cary

[CrackingShow]

Thanks a lot!

How do you use Night Fighters? It's something to do with Night Intruder but I dont know how to set it up.

[cfulbright]

I use most of my NF's as Night Intruders. The way you set them up is to create an Air Superiority AD, set it to Night (that makes it a Night Intruder AD), assign 1-2 NF groups to it. Set a Req AC of 12. Set it to Friendly Phase Only. Seven days a week. Pick a hex from where you think a lot of German NF's are flying from, set an area of 5-6. Set up several of these to cover a big area.

After the first turn, look at where air combat took place, and if you see your NF's shooting down German NF's over certain airbases, you know where to concentrate.

If you really want to have fun with this, play the 1943-45 Grand Campaign with Extra Air HQ's campaign. You can put a lot of your NF's in the No. 100 RAF Group and also the individual RAF Griups under Bomber Command, to get more coverage.

And if you really want to go crazy, assign Ground Attack AD's with one LB group each to do a night attack on the target airbases. Have them fly seven days a week. That will stir up the German NF's, which makes it easier to shoot them down. This might be a little gamey, though.

Cary

[CrackingShow]

I set up some night intruder and ground attack missions on the Husky campaign, but nothing happened.

I'd post a screenshot but I don't know how to do that.

[cfulbright]

There's only one German NF air group in Husky, and because you're not sending Bomber Command on night missions over Germany, there's not going to be any German NF activity for you to contest.

There really isn't much use for the Allied NF's in the Husky scenario that I can think of.

Cary

[CrackingShow]

Oh so night fighters only fight other night fighters, ok that makes sense.

I had assumed that the Axis would throw up something to fight your night fighters.

Thanks.

[cfulbright]

You can use NF's as escorts on other missions, or even use them in Air Superiority AD's, but their slow top speed, climb, and low maneuverability make them less than ideal for those roles. But if you need to throw more aluminum bodies at the problem, they're better than nothing.

Disbanding them doesn't help, because the NF pilots are in a separate pool from LB and FB pilots.

Cary

[CrackingShow]

How does naval interdiction work? Do you need it all across your supply lines, for example from north Tunisia all the way to Gibraltar?

[cfulbright]

Most important is Naval Interdiction over the landing zones, plus clear paths to those landing zones from Tunis. The outbound and return paths of the AD's should create the latter.

If you have leftover PA's and TB's, I would run them along the coast of North Africa so that when you send reinforcement units, they don't get interdicted.

Cary