Random Various Questions

[Q-Ball]

Had some various questions, thought I would ask them in bulk...

PIONEER UNITS: Do they have any special abilities, beyond the inherent combat ability? Do they improve your chances of knocking down fort levels? How about bridging?

SOVIET REPLACEMENTS: Playing early Axis, sometimes you have a choice between encircling a large number of Rifle divisions, or a much smaller number of Tank/Motorized divisions with much higher combat values. If you are trying to hurt the Soviets, it's kind of a choice between causing AFV/Vehicle losses, or more Manpower losses. What hurts the Soviets more, generally? Is the production bottleneck typically Manpower, or AFVs/guns?

RR REPAIR: The AI will send construction units from HQs to rail repair. Only problem is that they seem to want to backfill every siding and spur near the border, before repairing anything closer to the front. Is there any way to influence where the non-FBD rail repair will go?

[ComradeP]

PIONEER UNITS: Do they have any special abilities, beyond the inherent combat ability? Do they improve your chances of knocking down fort levels? How about bridging?

There is no bridging in the game per se, just a fixed cost for moving across rivers at various weather conditions.

Sapper squads improve the chance to reduce fort levels, and they also help in fort construction when adjacent to enemy units, which most squad types won't do.

SOVIET REPLACEMENTS: Playing early Axis, sometimes you have a choice between encircling a large number of Rifle divisions, or a much smaller number of Tank/Motorized divisions with much higher combat values. If you are trying to hurt the Soviets, it's kind of a choice between causing AFV/Vehicle losses, or more Manpower losses. What hurts the Soviets more, generally? Is the production bottleneck typically Manpower, or AFVs/guns?

I'd suggest going for the most damage to Soviet manpower. The Tank divisions will downgrade by themselves at some point and the motorized divisions will turn into Rifle divisions. The main problem with trying to go for AFV's in 1941 is that the vast majority of the tanks the Soviets use are outdated and no longer in production. If you knock out 500 T-34's in 1943 in a turn, they'll feel it. Knock out 500 obsolete tanks isn't really a problem. The same goes for the Axis: the Panzer I's, Panzer II's and Czech tanks are essentially just extra, they're not the AFV types that matter in the end.

RR REPAIR: The AI will send construction units from HQs to rail repair. Only problem is that they seem to want to backfill every siding and spur near the border, before repairing anything closer to the front. Is there any way to influence where the non-FBD rail repair will go?

Use a corps HQ or keep an RHG command in the rear, as the construction battalions assigned to those won't move beyond the command radius of the HQ, so they'll always repair within a 5 (corps) or 15 (army) hex radius.

[SireChaos]

Are you sure? The Soviets have more manpower than they know what to do with in ´41.

Whereas, in the first months of the war, they produce an incredible 7 T-50 per week (for a total of 63 tanks before the factory converts) in the light tank department, and will need loads and loads of light tanks for all those tank brigades. An early tank brigade is mostly light tanks (64 out of 93 tanks), so if you manage to dry up the various T-26 pools, they´ll be understrength until the T-60 enters production in October and slowly fills up those units.

Plus, if you go for those tank divisions with the highest strength rating, chances are you´ll get those which have received decent numbers of T-34, which will also hurt the Soviets if you destroy them or even just rout them once or twice.

[ComradeP]

The Soviets have plenty of manpower, but they also need divisions to fill up. From that perspective, going for the Rifle divisions makes more sense on the long term. As I've stated elsewhere: in 1941 you create the conditions for the summer campaign of 1942, you're not going to win or lose. The Soviets will, in most cases, have a pretty large army by the time of the blizzard no matter how many units you bag.

I'd actually be happy if the Soviets keep using their obsolete tanks longer. A medium tank is a medium tank as far as the game's concerned, so a brigade full of obsolete tanks isn't going to get T-34's.

[IronDuke_slith]

ORIGINAL: ComradeP


There is no bridging in the game per se, just a fixed cost for moving across rivers at various weather conditions.

Sapper squads improve the chance to reduce fort levels, and they also help in fort construction when adjacent to enemy units, which most squad types won't do.

Are there any other special abilities? I thought Sappers aided river crossings, and Mountain troops get bonuses in the mountains, but anything else?

Do Sappers get any kind of bonus in urban hexes? I thought the Germans would use them as assault infantry in street fighting where their range of extra equipment was useful?

Also, when my artillery appear in the combat report as support combatants, they appear with a (O) next to them, whereas other support units have a value. Is this merely showing artillery have no direct fire CV or am I using them wrong?

Regards,
John.

[randallw]

Combat value calculations are heavy into infantry and armor; artillery doesn't give a big CV on the screen but it still helps in the fight.

[ComradeP]

Do Sappers get any kind of bonus in urban hexes? I thought the Germans would use them as assault infantry in street fighting where their range of extra equipment was useful?

Engagement ranges decrease in urban terrain, so pionier weapons like flamethrowers and satchel charges become more effective.

[Q-Ball]

Comrade: Thanks for your response and help!

Two more questions:

CAPTURED SUPPLIES/FUEL: When a unit captures supplies, where does the captured stuff go? To the Corps HQ? It doesn't seem to go right to the unit.

REINFORCEMENT SUPPORT UNITS: Where do they go? Can't see 'em.

[ComradeP]

CAPTURED SUPPLIES/FUEL: When a unit captures supplies, where does the captured stuff go? To the Corps HQ? It doesn't seem to go right to the unit.

To the HQ.

REINFORCEMENT SUPPORT UNITS: Where do they go? Can't see 'em.

Theoretically to OKH, which might distribute them to other units during the logistics phase unless it's locked, so it can be difficult to track where the unit is without writing down the name and looking for it in the CR screen.

[jjdenver]

This thread has triggered a couple of followup questions for me.

Do Soviet RR construction brigades help in assaults the way that sappers do or are sappers special in that regard? i.e. if Sovs are assaulting a German-held city would sappers attached to the assaulting army HQ help but RR construction bdes attached to the assaulting army HQ not help?

re: Soviet obsolete tanks. Is there a way to force units to upgrade their T-26's to T-34's or some other tank? The Sovs start with thousands of these awful tanks. Does Sov player have to just wait for them to be destroyed for the upgrades to happen?

[SireChaos]

ORIGINAL: jjdenver

This thread has triggered a couple of followup questions for me.

Do Soviet RR construction brigades help in assaults the way that sappers do or are sappers special in that regard? i.e. if Sovs are assaulting a German-held city would sappers attached to the assaulting army HQ help but RR construction bdes attached to the assaulting army HQ not help?

I don´t think it depends on the units as such. Sapper squad help with assaults, labor squads help with fort construction. I suppose sapper squads *might* help with fort construction as well, but not the other way around.

re: Soviet obsolete tanks. Is there a way to force units to upgrade their T-26's to T-34's or some other tank? The Sovs start with thousands of these awful tanks. Does Sov player have to just wait for them to be destroyed for the upgrades to happen?

First and foremost you´ll have to wait for the new tanks to be produced. The Soviets don´t get light tanks to replace the T-26 in any significant numbers until 10/41 (the T-60), and the T-26 probably won´t disappear until sometime in ´42, when the T-70 enters production as well and the light tank component in the tank units gets smaller.

T-26 don´t upgrade to T-34 in any case. Sometimes, when no T-34 are available, BT of various types might fill in, but not T-26.

[ComradeP]

Sapper squads help with fort construction, but construction/labour units are labour only. When you attack a hex with a combat unit in it as well as a labour unit in it, they'll be displayed in the combat screen with a minimal CV but there's more or less no other situation where they'll participate in combat.