Matrix Games

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ORIGINAL: Pelton


I gave my cav a HQB, now is it extra gas or more grain?

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ORIGINAL: Klydon

quote:

ORIGINAL: Pelton


I gave my cav a HQB, now is it extra gas or more grain?

Yes.

As an aside, not sure it is worth burning build ups at this point because of the truck issues the SHC will face in mid game.

It doesn't look like he pulled back at all in front of your blizzard offensive and that is likely a mistake to a point just from the amount of troops you have and how much is in close contact. Russians need a lot of good attacks across the front to apply as much pressure as possible and demoralize the Germans.

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ORIGINAL: Klydon

You need 3 cav divisions in a hex and then hit the shift-b key I think (Same as breaking down or building up German divisions). That will form cav corps. Reminder with Russian corps units, you can directly assign SU's to them. Sapper regiments are good to use or some tank battalion/regiments.

Too early for infantry and mech units to form into corps.

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ORIGINAL: Flaviusx
(Alternately, there's Bob's linebacker defense, but very few Axis players get how to do this. Preemptive withdrawal is simpler.)

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ORIGINAL: Flaviusx
Your opponent has badly mismanaged his blizzard, Pelton, and didn't begin his retreat until after you attacked.

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ORIGINAL: janh
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What do you think -- are counterattacks sensible given the high morale losses you could accumulate during blizzard?

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ORIGINAL: Flaviusx

Tullius, not sure what's gamey about using mobile forces to flank defenders. That's kind of the point of having them.

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ORIGINAL: Flaviusx

Your opponent has badly mismanaged his blizzard, Pelton, and didn't begin his retreat until after you attacked. So he has never been able to cleanly break contact with you. Smokendave, as I recall, is mostly a Soviet player and may not have a lot of experience in handling the blizzard.

He tried to stop you at his fort line and instead should have faded away from the getgo. My impression here is he has also withdrawn far too much stuff from the front and has no reserve available to counterattack. I don't see a single panzer anywhere. All of this is leading to fairly predictable and unremarkable results. You are of course beating up on a bunch of landsers who cannot get away from you and have no back up.

(Alternately, there's Bob's linebacker defense, but very few Axis players get how to do this. Preemptive withdrawal is simpler.)

None of this validates your recent hysteria over the blizzard or the claim that you have to run to Poland.

Before you break your arm patting yourself on the back, I suggest taking it up a notch and playing against a veteran Axis opponent who actually knows how to manage the blizzard.

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None of this validates your recent hysteria over the blizzard or the claim that you have to run to Poland.

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ORIGINAL: Flaviusx

I think you need to counterattack tank brigades and even cavalry divisions to limit their penetrations. That's why stripping the front entirely of all mobile units is a bad idea for the Germans. If you can squirrel away a dozen panzer divisions this is surely a good core for counteroffensives from March 42 on, but leaving nothing but landsers in the east during the blizzard makes them more or less helpless. They simply don't have the mobility to do much more than fall back and stay out of reach of the rifle divisions. If they get zoc'd by tanks brigades and cavalry they won't even be able to do that.

With a dozen panzer divisions and probably most of the motorized divisions left in the east during the winter and the balance left aside in winter quarters, you can keep the Soviet mobile units at bay to some extent and avoid getting the landsers caught in the grip of zocs. Yes, their morale will suffer some doing this, but it will recover after March.

In this particular game I don't see a single mobile division anywhere. So the moment the Soviets penetrate anywhere something is going to get trapped.

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ORIGINAL: Klydon

I think this is more of a result of current German tactics of typically stripping every extra unit out of the line (especially panzer forces) and sending them to Poland to serve as the core for a 1942 offensive. What is happening to the Germans on the front is not the fault of the game in this case. As Flaviusx mentions, you need some local reserves.

All too often, I see the mountain divisions broken down and in the line to hold a sector of the line. IMO, you don't do that. You keep them handy for use as both a reserve force (they show up, it will be a failed attack by the Russians) and also to counter attack the typically weak Russian spearheads.

A fair number of German panzer units must be left in Russia to help. I typically try to use those units that will leave the game at some point (Example, 10th panzer division withdraws). While their moral is somewhat important, I don't care as much about them long term. I want to preserve units that are going to be on the East Front long term. What I try to do with these units is to have them under cover in a city near the front. You can see about using them as reserve forces as well as they will usually result in a failed attack by the Russians. I have found the key with a lot of these units is their MP's are not very good because of the supply situation. Many players will have the Luftwaffe head to national reserve to get them out of theater because of winter. While I do send some units to reserve, the transports stay and fly refueling missions to my key panzer units to help with their movement. This allows them to leave cover, counter attack, and have enough movement to get back to cover. You also need to have some infantry available as reserves. Why? A lot of times, the Russians have their best success pounding on the same divisions as they move forward and the Germans put them back in the line because there isn't anything else. By rotating divisions out, you have a fresh division to plug the hole against tired Russian units and it at least wears them down without running your own infantry down too much. While you can't do this across the front, being able to do it with 5-10 divisions could help a lot. Pull a division back to Poland and let it rest for a couple of turns on refit and it is ready to go back to work.

Having said this, I typically try to avoid moving panzer units around in December because that is when the winter is at its worse. The troops must fend for themselves for the 4 turns of December the best they can (I usually retreat the most in December). After that, you can start to look at blunting most Russian winter offensives at least in some places. As time goes along, you should be able to slow down the Russian offensive across more of the front.

Another key is how you handle the Russian cav corps that can be in the lead a lot of times of any Russian penetration. Sometimes there are gaps between them and the rest of the Russian army. This is one of the keys. With panzers that have good movement, flip all the hexes that a cav corps can retreat to, THEN attack the cav corps. It will automatically rout when it has to retreat and this can often cause it to be out of service for a couple of turns while it recovers moral/equipment. Just pushing a cav corps back doesn't do the German a lot of good a lot of times. Also watch the Russian stacking. If you can eliminate open hexes and force the Russians to retreat on a full stack, they will instead rout. Get this to happen a couple of times and it follows that the Russian will become a bit more cautious.

All basic stuff I know, but hopefully it helps some and perhaps serve as a reminder for some others that you can't strip the front like what we have been seeing and not expect to pay a price for it.

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ORIGINAL: Pelton
Almost no one pulls back all there mech units, generally poeple are pulling back 9 infantry and 8 to 12 panzer units.