Suggestion on withdrawls

[Cavalry Corp]

I had an idea after seeing my lines open up with units vanishing from the front at a CRITICAL moment.

A suggestion would be units in contact with the enemy in either turn do not withdraw but you loose some VP instead??? Soonest you can you let them go - units could be highlighted in some colour warning you?

cav

[Bronze]

Or instead of losing VP, how about an increasing amount of APs?

[JAMiAM]

Or, you could, once per turn, take advantage of one of the game's features to check your lines for units that are imminently getting ready to withdraw. Those red boxes stand out pretty well, and a quick 10 second scan of your front lines once per turn will avoid having gaps suddenly open up.

Free recon for you, Brad...[;)]

[javats]

This brings up an interesting point, withdraws and new arrives were based on historical events which are not necessarily happening in any one WITE game. It seems most withdraws were based events outside a WITE game. The game has a good method for warning and noting which unit is to be withdrawn. but this problem should be solved as more of War in Europe is added (I hoped added). Also to gain control over withdraws might mean lost of new arrivals which were base WITE events that do not happen in any one game.

[Cavalry Corp]

My point was units could be kept on for a few more turns - at a price.

Remember the Russian are also aware of fixed date withdrawls and they can time things around that.

Cav

[Blubel]

I would like to see a randomizing option for withdrawls/reinforcements like in WitP-AE. Then the unit would withdraw, but not always at the same time.

[Cavalry Corp]

Or say a unit withdrawn earlier and gain some VP even?

[Baron von Beer]

Why it wasn't capability based, leaving it to the player to select the units to fill the requirement, is beyond me. "We need X Panzer divisions to send to Normandy" rather than we need these specific 3, never mind that they are currently holding critical sections of the front while 3 others are refitting in quiet sectors and would be much more suitable to send."

Yes, we have the dates in advance. So, we have to plan operations based on historical foresight that didn't exist, so that the "Right" divisions, according to history, are pulled out. [&:]

If it were based on nationality, there would still be no original WIR sending the Romanians to defend Normandy, and using the current rule of having them refill to required TO&E % before leaving, leaves nothing to exploit, while having a much more logical implementation.

[LiquidSky]

Because the people in control dont ask nicely if they could please borrow a couple panzer divisions, anything will do. They say..OMG they invaded Italy! Send the XXth and YYth SS panzers NOW!

In reality, sometimes you wont get any warning at all. And I am quite sure the people in commanding in Russia were as upset as you would be for losing the units.

What the game should do is randomly take away divisions and return them after random periods of time. What is silly about the whole withdrawl dynamic is that you know before you even invade Russia when your divisions are withdrawn. Maybe give a one turn warning.

[Baron von Beer]

And how do you suppose they arrive at the decision to send XXth and YYth SS panzers? They just happened to be the first two they could think of? Filled one of those big wire rotating raffle drums with every armored division in service and drew two, or looked at the situation on the front and found the most suitable when considering how quickly it could arrive where it was needed, if it was currently engaged how quickly it could disengage, how its withdrawal would effect the front it was leaving, what it's current strength was, etc. You know, the very things that HQ staffs exist for. [;)]

[LiquidSky]

Doesnt matter how they came up with it....the fact is, and I am glad you agree...they came up with it. Not the commanders in the field.

[Baron von Beer]

No, not the commander in the field, the general staff. Ostensibly who we as the player represent in the game. How they come up with it does matter, they didn't just do it willy nilly, ala the rafle. As implemented in the game, this is precisely the end result. The withdrawals hold an inflexibly rigid tie to history, with no link to the reality within a given instance of the game.

[Aurelian]

ORIGINAL: Baron von Beer

No, not the commander in the field, the general staff. Ostensibly who we as the player represent in the game. How they come up with it does matter, they didn't just do it willy nilly, ala the rafle. As implemented in the game, this is precisely the end result. The withdrawals hold an inflexibly rigid tie to history, with no link to the reality within a given instance of the game.

Actually, as the Axis player, you not the head honcho/s. OKW isn't in the game. *They*, either on their own hook, or on Hitler's orders, decided who got picked. It wasn't OKH that pulled those SS Panzers out after Kursk and sent them west. It was Hitler. Anymore than it was OKH who sent the 6th Panzer Army from the west to Hungary.

Of course the withdrawls are tied to history. What happens on the other fronts is the not the purview of OKH. The arrivals are tied to it as well. And for the Soviets as well.

[2ndACR]

And here we have the same crap. The Russians are not tied to anything. Want a few infantry corps, just build them. Want some more sappers, tank regiments, artillery, divisions, brigades......just build them.

The German player is tied to history, the Russians get fantasy world.

[Baron von Beer]

I admit, there is a decided lack of consistency (The Soviet player most definitely isn't playing the "Theater commander", but I'm able to accept that. This one though, just wasn't done in a very plausible manner.

And Aurelian, I don't take issue with forces being withdrawn, only the manner in which it is handled.

[Aurelian]

ORIGINAL: 2ndACR

And here we have the same crap. The Russians are not tied to anything. Want a few infantry corps, just build them. Want some more sappers, tank regiments, artillery, divisions, brigades......just build them.

The German player is tied to history, the Russians get fantasy world.

Then provide a list of units that OKH built. And the sources. Or are you saying that 2by3 just pulled everything out of their gludius maximus.

Yeah, the same crap. "I can't build what I want even though this was known before the game came out."

Give it a rest if you please. It isn't going to change in WiTE. Maybe if the whole War in Europe becomes a reality.

[gradenko2k]

ORIGINAL: LiquidSky
Because the people in control dont ask nicely if they could please borrow a couple panzer divisions, anything will do. They say..OMG they invaded Italy! Send the XXth and YYth SS panzers NOW!

In reality, sometimes you wont get any warning at all. And I am quite sure the people in commanding in Russia were as upset as you would be for losing the units.

What the game should do is randomly take away divisions and return them after random periods of time. What is silly about the whole withdrawl dynamic is that you know before you even invade Russia when your divisions are withdrawn. Maybe give a one turn warning.

They might not ask nicely, but they would certainly ask intelligently.

Withdrawing the same units at the same given time regardless of the overall strategic situation doesn't make much sense, because those folks back at OKH probably wouldn't pull out a division if they knew that it was holding an essential portion of the line, but that's the current model of the game.

You're then telling us that it wouldn't make much sense either for OKH to put forward a formal request for a division that the player just has to fill, because OKH would instead **demand** that certain divisions be handed over to them ... but the end result would be the same! If I was asked to give up a division, any division, then obviously I'd give the one I could spare the most. I would think that OKH would arrive at the same conclusion, again because they wouldn't want to pull out the guys who are holding key points of the line.

[LiquidSky]

It seems to me after doing some random reading on the different units that were withdrawn, that the actual units were in reserve before being sent west. A couple cases where the unit was destroyed and was being rebuilt in Germany, but then used in the west instead as well. I even read a case where Manstein asked for the 9th and 10th SS panzer div's to be sent east so he could use them in a counterattack. After they were 'used' up and were resting, they were sent to Normandy on June 12th.

It also seems that they tend to leave their heavy equipment behind to act as replacements, while they pick up new equipment in the destination.

[Schmart]

ORIGINAL: LiquidSky
It also seems that they tend to leave their heavy equipment behind to act as replacements, while they pick up new equipment in the destination.

Yes, this was typical, because hauling all the heavy equipment across the continent takes up a lot of rail capacity.

Also typical, was that withdrawn divisions were usually burnt out, hence the reason for the withdrawl to the west. They didn't sit in the east, get re-built, then go west. Again, that would have been a waste of rolling stock.

[janh]

ORIGINAL: Schmart
Also typical, was that withdrawn divisions were usually burnt out, hence the reason for the withdrawl to the west.

Let's pick out the early SS Division since those seem to go through the largest transformation in the war. After hard struggle of the SS leadership against the will of OKW and OKH, they were allowed to expand into division sized elements, motorized. They were not allowed to use the ranks of the regular army, though, and had to use their own since the Wehrmacht wasn't willing to be put on par with "not-Wehrmacht trained", non-military personel and "officers", but they underwent major transformations at quite short intervals.

Of these, LAH, GD, Wiking, and Totenkopf, each one goes through different pathways during their evolution, in history and in this game. While Wiking never leaves and still goes through all of the ToE changes, DR and LAH leave after changing to a 42-Mot.Inf. (that is in effect already a Panzergrenadier Div. composition) by late June and late July, respectively, the TK remains even until late October before withdrawing for the restructuring to a Panzergrenadier Division.

So perhaps if Wiking was restructured in the East, the others probably could have been too -- if they were not badly diminished? The need to rebuild or refit them seems like a major factor in the decision to withdraw them at all, and for the exact timing and sequence. Certainly also material availability influenced the schedule. So there are reasons for the historical course, which led to the moves as these did. However, the game will play out differently, and the reasoning for rebuilding, withdrawals or ToE changes may change -- just like the reasoning for the Soviets changes depending on the game play.

Similarly, as #pointed out by gradenko_2000 or Liquidsky, there were surely some reasons why specific other divisions (for which rebuilding was a lesser factor) were chosen to withdraw to other fronts.

There seems to be plenty of causality that changes in each game and would be a good argument to also add some flexibility to rules for the future titles. For example, one could have made a rule that those divisions to ought to pull out of line for the ToE change to occur and/or ultimately withdraw if going below a certain strength level, which would also imply a certain wiggle room to take the units out of the frontline: for e.g. one per month between late June and late October, or if it stays, suffer some railroad capacity cuts for the additional equipement hauling. Maybe eveb an option to keep them longer for some AP costs? Similarly, for those withdrawing to reinforce other fronts, there should be an option to pick either the most suitable, available ones (fulfilling certain minimum strength criteria), or at least allow to exchange the requested units against player selected ones again at an AP cost.