11th Army witdraws

[thedoctorking]

At the beginning of winter 1942-43, the 11th Army (the southernmost German army, typically) HQ withdraws. This leaves three German corps assigned by default to Army Group South. What is the best thing to do with these corps?

Keep them assigned to AGS, perhaps moving the AGS HQ closer to the front so it can support them? AGS is grossly overloaded and probably would fail leadership checks anyway, even if it was within 5 hexes of the corps HQ's.

Assign them to neighboring German armies. There are two, 6th Army to the north and 1st Panzer Army refitting behind the lines. Both armies would be overloaded, 6th worse than 1st. If I divided them between the two armies, I would fear that would reduce their ability to support each other in the face of a Russian offensive that I think is coming. If I assign them to 1st Panzer Army, this would reduce the armored force's ability to react to attacks elsewhere along the line (since the army HQ would end up a long way away from the infantry corps).

Assign them to a Romanian Army, perhaps assigning that Romanian Army to AGS. Expensive in AP, but I have plenty. The Romanian leaders are unimpressive, to say the least. What effect would this have on SU assignment? I'm doing the thing where all lower HQ's are set to 0 SU allocation and I assign SU each turn where I think I need them (either just before an attack or at the end of the turn). Would this screw up my system somehow?

[Telemecus]

Few points
i) If you get the AGS split, the corps go straight to OKH and can be reassigned anywhere for free.
ii) AGS is grossly overloaded so take its ratings to always be zero. Except morale, which not only have no range penalty but as KenchiSulla recently tested and told me, also has no command penalty. A good place for a leader with good morale ratings and bad everything else (Jodl?)
iii) There is no point overloading something else and slightly unloading AGS. You would be gaining close to zero for AGS units and making a substantial reduction on the effectiveness of the other commands. So definitely do not make things worse by overloading others.
iv) I am a great fan of Rumanian commanders actually. A German general with ratings 6 which is overloaded by one division would have the same ratings approximately as a Rumanian general with ratings 4. Remember German generals are only good if not overloaded.
v) If you mix HQs of different nationalities the SUs cannot flow up and down HQ chains (with some exceptions)
vi) I think there is a tendency to prefer deep chains of command over wide i.e. everyone to have all four levels of command. In fact your problem is width - not all units can fit into the armies you have without command penalties (usually). So you will need corps that are not assigned to an army or even army group.
vii) Remember the Italian army leaves in 1943, and you get the 8th German army arriving. So there will be future slots for them to go into as well.
viii) 4th and 3rd panzer groups start the game with only two corps - in my view every army should have a minimum of three corps. 2nd army should also have got new corps well before 1942 I hope. I would make an exception to the mixing nationalities rule to put a German corps in a Finnish army while still operating south of the no move line.
ix) Note that there are other corps HQs that withdraw soon too - some may be in 11th army now. In particular no point reassigning something with points that leaves next turn.

[thedoctorking]

Thanks.

What do you mean by AGS split? I am nowhere near the Caucasus in my game.

So they are not substantially penalized in combat ability by not being assigned to an army? In that case, I'll leave them in AGS.

The 1st Panzer Corps has three corps, though one of them is understrength. I was thinking of chucking the odds and sods (Romanian armored division with no tanks) out of that corps and replacing it with German infantry.

[Telemecus]

ORIGINAL: thedoctorking
What do you mean by AGS split? I am nowhere near the Caucasus in my game.

Yes you need to get those three towns next to Rostov

ORIGINAL: thedoctorking
So they are not substantially penalized in combat ability by not being assigned to an army? In that case, I'll leave them in AGS.

No penalty for a corps assigned to army group or high command, but there is for a combat unit directly assigned.

ORIGINAL: thedoctorking
The 1st Panzer Corps has three corps, though one of them is understrength. I was thinking of chucking the odds and sods (Romanian armored division with no tanks) out of that corps and replacing it with German infantry.

I am the opposite - put the Slovak mobile, Hungarian and Rumanian armoured and Italian motorised all in 1st Panzer group. Remember they have +1 ratings checks as motorised units in Panzer HQs. And any unit getting close to 50MPs is useful. But yes the Panzer commanders are also the best infantry commanders so do feel free to use them for that too. However I find if you do properly manage the german corps you have there are enough for all german units without command penalties anywhere.

[Aufklaerungs]

What do you mean by AGS split?

Summer 42, I think AGS is hard-coded to split into AG-A and AG-B whether you choose to do the historic Fall Blau or not. Would be nice if split required Axis controlled Rostov, a fixed number of AGS Corps HQ units to have crossed designated hex row toward Stalingrad while another fixed number of HQ units cross hex row in direction of Novorossiysk & Krasnodar.

[Telemecus]

ORIGINAL: Aufklaerungs

What do you mean by AGS split?

Would be nice if split required Axis controlled Rostov, a fixed number of AGS Corps HQ units to have crossed designated hex row toward Stalingrad while another fixed number of HQ units cross hex row in direction of Novorossiysk & Krasnodar.

You can get the split as early as 1941 if you capture Manych, Batysk and Azov - the three towns near Rostov.

[thedoctorking]

I'm into winter 1942 and still no split. I never controlled those towns.

[Telemecus]

ORIGINAL: thedoctorking

I'm into winter 1942 and still no split. I never controlled those towns.

Manual says "automatically in the first turn of March 1943" - but may have been updated since. I have always got the split by capturing the three towns so never experienced the automatic split.

[SparkleyTits]

I never knew about the automatic split so would love to know the dates on that!