HQ and Support Unit Questions

[dereck]

I'm getting back into WITE after playing multiple WITW games and have a few questions.

Can someone tell me the differences between Cavalry, Mechanized and Tank Corps? Are they all necessary/useful or should one concentrate on one or two?

As for support units, in WITW I got to default units for Infantry or Armored divisions. I'm probably going to do the same for WITE.

For Rifle Corps I'm going to have Armor, Anti-Tank and Engineer support units. For Tank Corps, Anti-Tank, SP Artillery and Engineer.

What support units would people assign to Cavalry, Mechanized and Mountain Corps? As well as what would one assign to a Fortified Region?

Thanks

[loki100]

Corps types:

Cavalry corps start out treated as infantry but once the 1943 ToE is in use swap to being treated as mechanized (so you may want to plan around that when allocating them to commanders);
The Mech Corps is a far better ToE than the Tank Corps but you can't afford to have too many of them (they soak up lots of trucks), basically even to the end of the war the Tank Corps was too tank heavy

But the Tank corps has to be your standard mobile asset in the mid-game. In 1942 the cavalry corps has better combat values but its a bit of a long term dead end while the tank corps will steadily improve to the end of the game.

SUs

I personally think you have to be prepared to swap SUs as the game goes on. So its not a case of one type for all the game.

At the start when you can build Cav Corps (dec 41), I have started to use a tank battalion (this seems to be the best use of your tanks at that stage), a ski bn (remember it trebles its combat value in blizzard) and one of sapper/AA/AT (given the last patches wrecked Soviet AA capacity I'm not sure I'd bother with the AA now). For Tank/Rifle Corps in 1942 I tend to combinations of tank bns (swap some of these to Hvy tank regiments in late 1942 or you will not be able to use all the KVs that sit in your pools), sappers, AT and the MG bns.

By 1943 I start swapping out the MG/Ski bns for SU-76s (you have so many of these you may as well use them up), and once you get the T34/85 start ditching tank regiments (you will have shortages so best to ensure your core formations are properly resourced) and replace by SU-85/122 or SU-152 regiments.

In general by late 1943, I am steadily reconfiguring my Support units around assault guns as these are plentiful, cheap and pack a decent punch and ditching the early stuff I used. All costs admin pts but I think it all pays off.

[morvael]

ORIGINAL: dereck

I'm getting back into WITE after playing multiple WITW games and have a few questions.

Can someone tell me the differences between Cavalry, Mechanized and Tank Corps? Are they all necessary/useful or should one concentrate on one or two?

As for support units, in WITW I got to default units for Infantry or Armored divisions. I'm probably going to do the same for WITE.

For Rifle Corps I'm going to have Armor, Anti-Tank and Engineer support units. For Tank Corps, Anti-Tank, SP Artillery and Engineer.

What support units would people assign to Cavalry, Mechanized and Mountain Corps? As well as what would one assign to a Fortified Region?

Thanks

Cavalry Corps is an evolution of your Cavalry Divisions. You have to merge them so they retain their usefulness. This is the earliest corps formation that becomes available 12/41, so it's very important. Late war it transforms into a cavalry/tank force and is still useful because of lower cost to enter enemy ZOC. Good for breaking second line of enemy defense (first - rifle, second - cavalry, third or penetration - tank/mech). Historically if lost they were not rebuilt, but WitE players keep them all (about 20) if they can.

Tanks Corps is an evolution of your Tank Brigades (and they come from Tank Divisions). You have to merge them so they retain their usefulness. A tank corps is many times stronger than three tank brigades because of stronger infantry and artillery components (a Tank Corps actually had two tank and one mechanized brigade). They are available 4/42 if I'm not mistaken, and though they take an experience hit when merging, they are still combat ready way faster than mechanized corps, which have to start from scratch being made from freshly built mechanized brigades which are made available not that much earler than mech corps itself.

Mech Corps is the strongest mobile formation, but it takes time to make it useful as it start with very low CV (if you didn't build a core of Mech brigades as soon as possible, even that will not help a lot). So to let it gain wins and accumulate experience you usually have to pair one Mech Corps with two Tank Corps in a Tank Army. Initially the Tank Corps will provide bulk of CV, but as the Mech Corps will grow in morale and experience it will soon become nearly as strong as those two. You can't built many of them, especially if you have lots of tank corps because of truck shortage.

You will not have enough tanks for each rifle corps in 1944+. I had one for each army and even then I had to disband them all to save tanks for Cav/Tank/Mech corps. If you really want to give them some light armor wait for SU-76 production to ramp up to 120+ per week. This allows to give one Light SU Regiment per corps. But I decided I prefer to have one Light SU Brigade instead, to allow taking extra land with mobility and work as on-map reserve unit. It is also useful when you have not enough MP to take a hex with two corps, it can give a little extra boost.

For all corps I built one sapper regiment.

For early Cav Corps a Tank Battalion/Regiment was a must, later replaced with Heavy Tank Regiment.
For Mech Corps I built Heavy Tank Regiment and Heavy SU Regiment.
For Tank Corps I built Medium SU Regiment, later replaced with Heavy Tank Regiment and Heavy SU Regiment (most but not all Tk Corps had these).

Sometimes you have to look at production numbers and you will know if it is high enough to equip big number of units with or not. You will have hundreds of Rifle Corps but only a few Mech Corps. Production fluctuates and you may have a lot of Medium SUs at one time, later to run out of them. Meanwhile production of heavy tanks is very low in the middle of the war, but ramps up at the end. So you have to adjust these things over time, otherwise you risk running empty shells, not useful units.