jimcarravall
Posts: 642
Joined: 1/4/2006 Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Lieste I never had a shortage of LOC troops to... you know, secure my LOC. I might leave a line-reserve unit nearby the most important/vulnerable/exposed to protect the softer elements, but HQ, Artillery and Supply units do a fine job of just sitting on a crossroads and denying it to the enemy if those are only in platoon or company (-) strength. I frequently find that I have combat elements that are in no fit condition to advance, far less fight, and they can join in securing the rear area until they are rested and resupplied enough to be useful again. The idea that you *have* to expend good quality troops to secure anything within the rear area (beyond what the reserve can do while they are waiting to be committed)... is not one that I hold. Even where the good troops are needed to deal with a serious threat, IMO they are better used to prevent the enemy actually closing on the region, with the actual local security performed by LOC troops. I said it wasn't a big issue, just something that bothers me. The issue isn't "securing" the Line of Communications, particularly if there's a steady flow of troops coming from rear areas to the FLOT, it's being required to leave any unit far in the rear when they can be better sited for support closer to the front. It's leaving potentially valuable troops, even if worn out and resting too far back in the rear areas simply because an uncontested rear area "needs" a unit to sit on an objective to gather points for victory conditions. Doesn't facilitate the maneuver warfare I favor, because if I need to call on them from reserve in an emergency at the front, I don't like them so far in the rear for "administrative purposes" that they become depleted by the time they make it to the front. Those units I don't mind leaving far in the rear are Army, Corps, and in some cases, Division level headquarters and base units that aren't as critical to supply distribution routing and command and control when there are sufficient regiment and brigade level headquarters and bases available to facilitate those communications closer to the action. But, in uncontested areas, I'll even move them forward to shorten the lines between supply distribution points and the units that need them. The whole point is, if the area is uncontested, securing the Line of Communications doesn't require the quantity of soldiers that are eligible to be assigned to the task. If it turns out I did a bad job in clearing the area, I can live with a straggling enemy unit I didn't account for retaking the objective unopposed. Guess I'll have to divert some of those units I moved too far to the front to retake the objective again. But, if I think the enemy's not interested in it any more, it makes no sense to divert line units to a garrison task simply because an uncontested objective "needs" to be occupied once cleared of opposition to add up victory points over the period of time a designer said it should be occupied before being left behind.
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Take care, jim
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