Where to use Leaders

[Chris21wen]

I'd still trying to get to grips with leader stats.

As I understand it:-

Admin is good for replacements and supply. So I assume better used in a Front than an Army even if he has high Init and Inf ratings.
Initiative aids movement. Better used in your more mobile forces but Mech and Inf need to be considered.
Mech/Inf/Air/Naval used in combat
Political. Not sure what this does other than cost more to change.
Morale aids in morale checks

I've got a few APs avail to change leaders and the obvious one to me that should be changed first is Vasilevsky. With an admin rating of nine I would have thought he should be in a front particularly as his Inf rating only 6. But six is good for the Soviets in June 42 and his Init rating is also 6. So a conundrum. Where would you put him.

[morvael]

Basically everything is important for leaders commanding units directly (Axis Corps, Soviet Army).
On higher level (Army Group/Front, top HQ) morale is more important, because range penalty is not applied and it can give much greater bonus than other stats.

You need Admin & Initiative to get more MP in units.
Initiative is important during combat (to get more kills and to activate reserves).
Morale is important in combat (to get higher CV).
Mech/Inf/Air is important in combat too (to get higher CV).

Political - you can't do much, it affects transfer costs and whether a leader will be executed or just sacked.

[swkuh]

Oddly my priority for ratings seems reverse from above discussion.

Political is important to higher level leaders for better stability of assignment and best transfer of resources to lower level commands. Like admin values to be higher for higher commands.

Naïve idea, what's admin to do at corps level vs. army/ group/GHQ?

Corps level leaders should have highest combat factors, at least for my play tactic that uses them.

Moral is very important, but game seems to correlate moral with other factors (for German at least) so you get that from above considerations.

Picking leadership set for Germans is easier than for Soviets.

Will appreciate any discussion.

[morvael]

Leaders are dismissed when their hidden win-loss balance is negative, high political helps only if the difference is small (added to win counter), otherwise not much.

Admin is very important at operational level (corps HQ), failed admin roll means 20% of MP lost (so a fully supplied and rested motorized unit losses 10 MP because of failed admin roll, so it has big impact on what your panzers can do) - though it's possible to auto-pass that roll if you haven't moved during last turn (unlike initiative).

Morale skill is as important as infantry/mech rating during combat.

[Chris21wen]

ORIGINAL: morvael

Basically everything is important for leaders commanding units directly (Axis Corps, Soviet Army).
On higher level (Army Group/Front, top HQ) morale is more important, because range penalty is not applied and it can give much greater bonus than other stats.

You need Admin & Initiative to get more MP in units.
Initiative is important during combat (to get more kills and to activate reserves).
Morale is important in combat (to get higher CV).
Mech/Inf/Air is important in combat too (to get higher CV).

Political - you can't do much, it affects transfer costs and whether a leader will be executed or just sacked.

So Front commander should have a high morale value unlike what I've always thought, Admin. In the case of leader like Vasilevsky he should be a Front leader due to his Mrl of 8.

[loki100]

ORIGINAL: Chris H

ORIGINAL: morvael

Basically everything is important for leaders commanding units directly (Axis Corps, Soviet Army).
On higher level (Army Group/Front, top HQ) morale is more important, because range penalty is not applied and it can give much greater bonus than other stats.

You need Admin & Initiative to get more MP in units.
Initiative is important during combat (to get more kills and to activate reserves).
Morale is important in combat (to get higher CV).
Mech/Inf/Air is important in combat too (to get higher CV).

Political - you can't do much, it affects transfer costs and whether a leader will be executed or just sacked.

So Front commander should have a high morale value unlike what I've always thought, Admin. In the case of leader like Vasilevsky he should be a Front leader due to his Mrl of 8.

I don't think its that obvious actually.

The thing about the morale roll is it doesn't decay with distance (which is why a high morale officer in Stavka is a good idea).

But if you take a typical Soviet front of 4-5 armies (once the front has settled down), then in late 41 its easy to have your Front commander quite near the action (assume each army takes up 3-4 hexes) on the key sectors (but you may have a sector of the Front that is 'far away'. As you go through the corps formation cycle from mid-42 onwards then an army will come to take up 1-2 front line hexes and its possible to have a 5 army front occupying about 6 front line hexes (if all are rifle corps thats a command load of 6*3*4) ~ 72 out of a notional army command value of around 80. If you have this sort of density (& on key sectors you will), again no reason why your front commander can't be close to every unit.

At that stage the loss of potential value due to distance has little real effect.

[morvael]

If you bring them closer to crucial points, yes - it's better to have good leaders at higher levels. Basically every single 1% of higher chance to pass given roll is better and pays off in the long run. There are not enough good leaders though, to fill all levels with best ones. So one has to balance limited number of leaders vs a lot of possible appointments - put best leaders into best shock formations AND into higher levels, but if you run out of overall skilled leaders, put those with higher morale into higher levels. Also, try to get rid of poor (2-3) leaders at all levels, switch to average (4-5) where possible.

[morvael]

Admin rolls apply to:
armament point expenditure when converting supply to ammo
soviet ammo loss
beachhead supply efficiency
supply truck need
movement points
combat value (first winter penalty)
level 4+ fort construction speed
hq sending support to aid fort construction
aircraft repair efficiency
element repair efficiency
fatigue and damage suffered during movement
fuel/ammo expenditure of flyers (if expenditure too high - no flying)

[morvael]

Initiative rolls apply to:
movement points
reserves joining battle
revert to scout attack if bad odds
fire efficiency when given slot has less than 10 elements (important for big guns)
flak fire from support units attached to HQs

[morvael]

Morale rolls apply to:
chance to gain/lose morale points after won/lost battle
chance to lose morale if over national morale
chance to lose morale due to fatigue
combat value (element roll)
rally routed units
fatigue recovery

[morvael]

...to be continued...

[Gabriel B.]

Vasilevski is only a major general, wait until he makes the rank of general polkovnik.

[swkuh]

Obviously, I'm the amateur in this crowd. Happy to only misplay Axis. Appreciate expert commentary.

[Chris21wen]

ORIGINAL: morvael

...to be continued...

First time I've seen it written like this. Can't wait for the next episode.

[morvael]

My time with the computer ended at that time [:)]

[morvael]

There rest are fairly simple, so all three:

Air rolls apply to:
sending more aircraft into the air when performing a mission
making intercepts
ordering some escorts to do fighter sweeps

Infantry rolls apply to:
combat value (non-motorized unit attacker roll, non-motorized first winter penalty, non-motorized unit element roll)
fire efficiency when given slot in a non-motorized unit has less than 10 elements (important for big guns)

Mech rolls apply to:
combat value (motorized unit attacker roll, motorized first winter penalty, motorized unit element roll)
fire efficiency when given slot in a motorized unit has less than 10 elements (important for big guns)

edit: motorized units in this context are those with Armor, Motorized, Mechanized and SP Gun TOE type. The rest are counted as non-motorized.

[Mehring]

So cavalry is infantry type?

[morvael]

Yes, the usual tactics was to fight on foot, dismounted, like infantry, not charge on horseback. Horses were for "swift" movement.

[821Bobo]

If I recall, Cavalry had been previously counted as motorized, was it changed?

[morvael]

I understand the late war Soviet Cavalry Corps with 150 tanks is more a mechanized force, than a cavalry unit, and perhaps mech skill would be more related here. But I can't make such distinctions in the code. At least you now know that Cavalry Corps (and German/Rumanian cavalry units) may be efficiently led by good infantry commanders.