Does interdiction affect reserves activations

[cato12]

Im havin serious bother on the husky scenario with the germans and their reserve activations which are constantly ruining my day.

Does interdiction in any way affect reserves being committed to battle or is this abstracted in some way?

[loki100]

interdiction does two things - I *think* it seriously reduces the likelihood of a reaction (MP cost), it certainly makes the Germans pay a heavy price if they do react as it counts as movement. But you need levels >4 for this to really show and that is hard in the context of Husky.

its painful in terms of losses, but you could use a standard Soviet tactic in WiTE of making attacks strong enough to trigger reserve reaction so when you attack for real, they have none left. Problem with that is its inevitably costly in terms of combat losses.

[carlkay58]

Reserve activations are difficult to deal with. A unit cannot activate as a reserve if an enemy unit is adjacent. So one tactic is to make sure you are adjacent to all of the units in the front line before doing any attacks. The units behind the lines are, of course, harder to stop from activating. Interdiction raises the MP cost (which makes it harder to activate) and causes casualties, disruption, and fatigue (which lowers the CV of the unit). As loki mentioned you usually need a decent (4+) level to 'see' the difference but even a level 0 zone has some effect. Husky is difficult to project any real level of interdiction. The range to the target area is prohibitive until you have the air groups based on the island and the aircraft themselves are not that effective at building up interdiction values.

So you pretty much have to live with the decent chance of reserve activations. Rule 1 in War in the West combat states "Overkill is best!"

[Harrybanana]

ORIGINAL: loki100

interdiction does two things - I *think* it seriously reduces the likelihood of a reaction (MP cost), it certainly makes the Germans pay a heavy price if they do react as it counts as movement. But you need levels >4 for this to really show and that is hard in the context of Husky.

its painful in terms of losses, but you could use a standard Soviet tactic in WiTE of making attacks strong enough to trigger reserve reaction so when you attack for real, they have none left. Problem with that is its inevitably costly in terms of combat losses.

Actually I don't think this is true. I don't think interdiction has any affect on reserve activations at all. But I would love it if someone (ie Helpless) would tell me that I am wrong and, if so, what effect interdiction does have on reserve activations.

[carlkay58]

My experience as Allies vs Axis AI is that the reserve activations are NOT affected in any way by interdictions. I have seen too many Axis panzer formations activate four to six hexes away through interdiction values of 7+ without effect. Although there could be some casualties or disorganization that occurs outside of the Combat Report, there are no indications in the Combat Report that the distance and high interdiction values have done anything.

[Helpless]

it seriously reduces the likelihood of a reaction (MP cost)

This is true as MP cost is directly included into reaction cost function. Interdiction is part of MP cost.

[KWG]

ORIGINAL: Helpless

it seriously reduces the likelihood of a reaction (MP cost)

This is true as. MP cost is directly included into reaction cost function. Interdiction is part of MP cost.

Does interdiction have a big affect on the percentage of the unit that shows up to the battle as reinforcements?

[Q-Ball]

ORIGINAL: Harrybanana

ORIGINAL: loki100

interdiction does two things - I *think* it seriously reduces the likelihood of a reaction (MP cost), it certainly makes the Germans pay a heavy price if they do react as it counts as movement. But you need levels >4 for this to really show and that is hard in the context of Husky.

its painful in terms of losses, but you could use a standard Soviet tactic in WiTE of making attacks strong enough to trigger reserve reaction so when you attack for real, they have none left. Problem with that is its inevitably costly in terms of combat losses.

Actually I don't think this is true. I don't think interdiction has any affect on reserve activations at all. But I would love it if someone (ie Helpless) would tell me that I am wrong and, if so, what effect interdiction does have on reserve activations.

Seeing it from the other side, I don't think it's true either. In my game vs. harrybanana, who is playing very well, my experience is:

1. I get a very high percentage of activations, despite some 6-9 level interdiction
2. I don't see a ton of losses either on their way to RESERVE commitment

I do assign mobile units to corps leaders with high ratings, and I stack the HQ hierarchy, but still....I get tons of activations as Germany. It's tough to overcome

[Helpless]

Code suggest that your "thinking" is not correct. The only way to make it clear is to provide a save.

[Harrybanana]

ORIGINAL: Helpless

it seriously reduces the likelihood of a reaction (MP cost)

This is true as MP cost is directly included into reaction cost function. Interdiction is part of MP cost.

Well it depends on your definition of "seriously reduces". Rule 15.5.1.2 gives an example of a motorized unit in reserve mode located 4 movement points from a defending combat unit with both attached to the same HQ requiring 20 MPs to commit to the battle. Let us assume that the 4 MPs are made up of one 1 clear terrain hex with level 7 interdiction (+2 MPs), another clear terrain hex with level 4 interdiction (+1 MP) and a light forest hex with level 2 interdiction (+1 MP). This would increase the number of Movement points required to (8MP X 3) + 8 =32. So if the motorized unit in question has 0 to 19 or 32+ MPs interdiction does not affect it's reserve activation at all. On the other hand if it's MPs are 20 to 31 than, of course, it reduces it's chance of a reserve activation to 0. Having not played the game from the German side I will have to leave it to others to comment on how many MPs German motorized units in reserve mode generally have. But I still maintain that it is wrong that if the German unit does reserve activate to the battle it will move through those total of 13 interdiction levels with no effect on it's combat value.

[Harrybanana]

ORIGINAL: Helpless

Code suggest that your "thinking" is not correct. The only way to make it clear is to provide a save.

To be fair the majority of QBalls reserve activations are occuring within 2 or 3 MPs of the attacked hex. So even if all the hexes through which he has to move do have level 5 to 9 interdiction (which is not generally the case) this only increases the MPs to somewhere between 6 to 9. Thus if the panzer units are 1 HQ removed from the defending units the number of MPs he needs to reserve activate are somewhere between (6MP X 4) + 8 = 32 and (9MP X 4) + 8 = 44. I suspect all of QBalls motorized units are receiving priority supply and therefore most have the requisite MPS. Again, I am not complaining about the number of reserve activations, I think the system works well for that. I am suggesting that motorized formations moving through that level of interdiction would in doing so suffer some adverse effects.

[Helpless]

I could look at it, but I need a save after air execution and before ground attack.

[Harrybanana]

ORIGINAL: Helpless

I could look at it, but I need a save after air execution and before ground attack.

Well I am not sure that your looking at it will help as I believe that reserve activation as it relates to interdiction is WAD. And as I say I have no problem with the number of units that are reserve activating even through my interdiction. What I have a problem with is that, other than limiting the number of reserve activations, interdiction has no effect on the reserve units moving through the interdiction.

Having written the above it occurs to me that interdiction may have an effect on the CV of the activating motorized units. In particular if the motorized units have to expend 32 MPs to arrive at the battle rather than only 20 then this may affect their available fuel, which in turn may (depending on their fuel levels) have some impact on their CV. So I guess the question for Helpless is does the code check for the reserve activated motorized unit's fuel level for CV determination purposes, before or after the reserve activation move? If the latter I will be at least a bit satisfied that at least the interdiction is having some effect, though, IMHO, still not enough.