Garrisons?

Strategic Command World War I: The Great War provides you with the opportunity to re-write history in a war that changed not only the destiny of Europe but of the whole world.
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Odenathus
Posts: 68
Joined: Sun Aug 15, 2010 9:04 pm

Garrisons?

Post by Odenathus »

This is pretty good overall, nice terrain, decent variety of counters, plays smoothly, but both I and two friends have found that it's too easy for a single unit to slip through the lines and b*gger about with supply in a most unWWIlike fashion. I know the official answer is to adjust our strategy so that it doesn't happen, but I think this game would benefit hugely from small garrisons in all the cities and towns (not mines, etc). Maybe with the ability to move one hex out of the way if the location needs defending by a full corps, or if that's too tricky the garrisons could be disbanded when the front lines get close.

I just don't believe that a few thousand cavalry, hundreds of miles from their supplies, could operate like that in WWI Europe. It's not the Indian Plains Wars.

Another older WWI game, Commander The Great War, does have this feature and it prevents exactly this.

European cities of a size to be represented at this strategic level would have their own militias, old veterans, angry citizens, solders on leave or convalescing, training, en route to somewhere else, etc. The handful of Detachments available to all sides don't fulfil this role.

Or, at the very least, the ZoCs in this game should be made far more 'sticky'.

I'm not so bothered about the Middle East, or maybe even the Caucasus, but seeing a depleted French cavalry corps galloping into Aachen just doesn't feel right to us.

Welcome any feedback.
IronRanger
Posts: 162
Joined: Mon Jan 01, 2018 8:39 pm

RE: Garrisons?

Post by IronRanger »

I see now that you don't feel the DT units are enough to be considered garrisons.

I think the unit your looking for is the Detachment, 75MPPs and 2 Month deploy time makes it a cheap, fast to produce unit that can plug holes ect.... Most nations get a few of these at the start. You can buy the rest, and if you lose control of the main defense line you will get a few free ones at key locations (most national capitals, and a few other spots). Once you have the entire force pool deployed, you can purchase anti air units as a rear guard as well.. but these are best for use on home territory, to prevent seaborne landing... not front line troops.

And your right, outside of the first few months of the war, if a Cav unit is slipping through the line its a issue of 'adjust your OOB'.

Energisteron
Posts: 617
Joined: Sat Jun 17, 2017 5:50 am

RE: Garrisons?

Post by Energisteron »

Odenathus: At first I shared your concerns about units slipping through an incomplete frontline but came to terms with it as follows:-

1. The game is based on an isometric map. Basically all locations are squares with 4 sides and 4 corners all of which are traversible. So consider that it really is an octagonal grid, not just squares, and not hexagons either, but octagons! This means that if a unit appears to be connected by a mere thread of a corner of a square to its compatriots then that isn't the case at all. That contact point, that corner, is really a corridor as wide as each square, and as such units can squeeze through. Usually only cavalry have sufficient movement points to achieve such a move but it is entirely valid in that context. So although it looks like a pin hole on the map, it certainly is not!

2. Most units making such a move would be committing suicide because the gap is going to close and they're going to be eliminated by reserves. However, it can be useful as a way of seizing a choke point or hindering an enemy supply line.

3. Although Cavalry units in the West were almost nullified by rearguard machine guns if they made it across the frontline, when armoured cars (modern Cavalry effectively) came on the scene they were able to advance at will and capture rearward crossroads etc., so again there is a historical precedent for such a move.

4. At least we're not given parachutists or whole Air-landing brigades landed by Zeppelin!

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