Pockets Or Momentum
I think it is worth distinguishing three types of momentum being discussed here
i) Pockets now or pockets later: You can ignore a pocket now if you will create a pocket later. Or in other words you have a pre-pocket now. I consider for example the pocket of Besarabian forces coming up in turn 4 in this category. Yes a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush - you need some sort of discount factor so you only overlook a current pocket for something bigger in future to compensate for the risk of it going wrong. But in this sense I still think you can call this a kill and not just making them useless.
ii) Pockets now or manpower: It is worth giving up a pocket now if it means grabbing a manpower centre that would create far more units later. The prime example here is Leningrad - the urban hexes and their neighbours have close to 80 manpower points. That is something like half a division every turn in 1941. If you grab it in 1941 the Finns will mean you will not lose it in the Blizzard or for a long time after. This is in addition to other benefits like shortening the German lines, using the Finns for the front-line down to Novgorod in the Blizzard, better supply in the North etc. An early capture of Leningrad could also mean Army Group North rushes south to help capture Moscow too.
Here the comparison is between capturing a couple of brigades and a rifle division by keeping six motorised divisions south of the Dvina, or instead see them past Pskow on turn 2. The units to capture ratio of the former is 3 motorised divisions per captured Soviet division - a bad ratio anyway.
IF being past Pskow on turn 2 means you will capture Leningrad in 1941, and not means not (a big question mark on this I know)
AND having Leningrad during the blizzard means the Soviet side will lose 10 divisions worth or more of replacements
THEN the calculus should still be the latter "kills" more units than the former.
iii) Pockets now or position only
ORIGINAL: EwaldvonKleist
instead of destroying it, placing the formations in a place where they are not dead but useless
This of course is the weakest sense of momentum, and would need skill of a player to decide if it is worth giving up unit kills for position. But in Brief Encounter I would say i and ii above are the real arguments for it and not iii
ORIGINAL: EwaldvonKleist
some user of the HQ BU chain expression had some public relations issues in the past
Anyone in particular - or do you take the First Amendment? [:)]