24th PzD is about to leave the theatre and I have used it to the maximum before it goes, with one last attack against British 5th Inf. Div.. I might not normally have made such an attack on such even odds, but 5th Inf. had to be pinned, whilst HG and 29th Mot. dealt with the Canadian 1st. Arm. Bde., which was providing the supply link to 5th Inf., but next turn the 3rd US Inf. and two more Allied brigades arrived along the coast road from the South.
Which highlights a feature that would be useful, if made available in the game, which is to attack, but have the choice not to occupy the combat hex, if the attack is successful.
If an attack succeeds than the attacking force automatically moves to occupy the combat hex, but there are occasions when you don't want some, or all, of your attacking units to move. The attack by HG and 29th Mot. is a case in point.
The attack by two German motorised divisions against one allied armoured brigade succeeded as expected, but now both attacking units have moved into the combat hex and I would like to have left one of those divisions in their original position, to guard against what happened next. More Allied units appearing on the coast road.
There are situations in defence where you might want to launch a spoiling attack, but not move out of your original hex, which may be good terrain, fortified, well supported by other defending units.
Under the current system a successful attack takes units out of good positions, which you might want to hold on to.
However, when an attack fails, the attacking units withdraw back to their original hexes, with the game even permitting an over-stack, if other units are now in those hexes.
It would be good to have the choice to select an 'attack with no advance' for any, or all, of the attacking units in a combat. That way attacks could be launched out of defensive situations, without disrupting the defensive pattern that you have set up. The mechanism could be just the same as for a failed attack, even though the odds result is for a victory, selected units would fall back into their original positions.
In the above image, I would have selected 29th Mot. Div. to 'attack with no advance' and it would have remained in the coastal hex starting point, whilst HG Mot. Div. would have had the basic 'attack' selection and moved to occupy the target hex after the successful combat.