Slitherine

quote:

ORIGINAL: Telemecus
Although the exact formulas are complicated for most of the time you can approximate adding command points to be just like subtracting points from a command leadership rating. So adding a division (2 command points) over the command limit is like turning a rating six commander into a ratings four commander. The formula for calculating whether a ratings check is passed is complicated with many modifiers. But at its simplest it is saying each point of ratings will give you a 10% chance of passing a ratings check at first level (Soviet army?) and 5% at the second level (Soviet front).

Say you have a Soviet front with 30 divisions each with 10 ratings a turn checked at front level with a commander with ratings of 6 - then you have 300 ratings a turn checked with a probability of 30% of passing (6*5%) - or on average passing 90. If you add just one division over the limit then you 310 ratings checks a turn checked with a probability of 20% of passing ( (6-2)*5% ) - or an average passing 62. That is not just losing some of the ten checks on that one division you have just added - but many more losses on ALL of the divisions that are in the Front. That is just from adding one more division. If you add in a whole armies worth of divisions and you are effectively making the ratings of the Front command pointless. They then would have to rely on the ratings checks of STAVKA - but checks from STAVKA would be worth even less because it is even further up the command scale.

So the choice is a second level ratings check with STAVKA, or a second level ratings check with an overloaded front (effectively zero) followed by a third level ratings check with STAVKA (which is worth less than if it was second level)

STAVKA 2nd level check > STAVKA 3rd level check + zero from front check

(note morale ratings do not get a command penalty in the same way as they do not get a range penalty also)

In practical terms many Soviet players I have seen use the Fronts up to their command limits and then have a set of "Independent" armies directly attached to STAVKA. Often they are grouped together in the centre to be the armies closest to where STAVKA is. It is not uniform across the board but I would say still farily tidy.