German Tactics

[General Staff]

Moved from Axis Team Roll Call Thread

This shows you the benefits of terrain to your troops. It's in the old manual but here on 2 sheets you can print. I think it's still valid for TOAWIII. And no, effects are NOT cumulative.

Hope it helps.

[General Staff]

In TOAW3 units with zero MPs (the static artillery batteries with fixed guns and anti shipping capability - only guns with this capability can fire at sea targets) can fire without burning the turn, so i think the allied players will be more carefull with their navy. Though i agree with OB West aka GenStaff with the above statement, i wouldn't try it.

In history Rommel wanted to defeat possible landings 'directly on the beaches', knowing that this would be costly but more successfull. This was not possible with the actual historical deployment of german forces and the 'foggy' command structure at high levels (with impractical assignment of armoured reserves) of the german western forces. Rommel knew this. It is also not possible in the scenario.
Totally agree here. There is a Rommel variant that allows you to see how his approach of armoured reserves close to the coast and an immediate counterattack would have worked. It does have a chance IMO, albeit a small one.

On arty and coastal batteries. I don't think there's a single arty unit with anti-shipping ability that can fire on ships at sea, though if you find one please let us all know.

Coastal batteries. With 0MPs it will respond if attacked in the Allied turn. Otherwise a nasty surprise is if you find you've got some undug in (i.e. in mobile status) usually due to enemy bombardment which has dug them out and you've done everything you want for the turn. You can't direct fire them at turn start or you lose ALL your turn after only one round of combat. But if you're done moving/attacking anyway and since these units can never redig in with 0MPs, if you've got some nice ship target in range why not try taking a 'last chance' or 'last round' shot? What have you got to lose? The unit's in the open now and a sitting duck anyway for arty, planes or ground forces. Use it 'cos you're gonna lose it.

Also with arty don't forget again to always check composition as range on counter indicates range of longest range piece(s). If you've got 1x210mm gun and 24x75mm guns showing a range of 4 hexes when the 76s have 1 hex range, you're wasting supply for 96% of the unit firing at a target at 4 hexes. Not to mention the 76s can't reach the target anyway.

[Telumar]

On arty and coastal batteries. I don't think there's a single arty unit with anti-shipping ability that can fire on ships at sea, though if you find one please let us all know.

Okay, i should have mentioned that the guns must be in a unit with an appropriate unit type icon.

Coastal batteries. With 0MPs [...] You can't direct fire them at turn start or you lose ALL your turn after only one round of combat.

I thought this has been changed in toaw3, or do i misunderstand something?

[Veers]

thought this has been changed in toaw3, or do i misunderstand something?
It was changed so that an arty piece with 0 MPs that supports a battle no longer zaps your combat rounds, however, using that gun directly will still zap your combat rounds.

ie: I bring my arty forward and use 50% of its movement. I put it in Tactical Reserve and it supports my atatacks and does not waste 50% of my turn, but if i use it to directly support a single attack it will zap 50% of my turn.

EDIT: There's a good lesson for you new types in what i just said, btw. Unless I'm wrong!! :laugh:

[General Staff]

Okay, i should have mentioned that the guns must be in a unit with an appropriate unit type icon.

I thought this has been changed in toaw3, or do i misunderstand something?

No, no. I think there's a misunderstanding here. I just checked to see if any regular arty unit had any anti-shipping ability. Some of the individual guns do, but the unit as a whole isn't rated 'coast artillery' (as are coastal batteries) so can't fire at ships. l dimly recall when some regular arty guns could fire at ships though that may be a long time ago.

Also I don't have TOAWIII yet, so am working with a bit of a handicap. Sorry for any confusion.

[General Staff]

It was changed so that an arty piece with 0 MPs that supports a battle no longer zaps your combat rounds, however, using that gun directly will still zap your combat rounds.

ie: I bring my arty forward and use 50% of its movement. I put it in Tactical Reserve and it supports my atatacks and does not waste 50% of my turn, but if i use it to directly support a single attack it will zap 50% of my turn.

EDIT: There's a good lesson for you new types in what i just said, btw. Unless I'm wrong!! :laugh:
That's always been the case. Move an arty unit 50% of it's turn and direct fire in support of a unit that's only burned 10% of it's turn and you're left with 50% of your turn.

Maybe think of what I'm suggesting this way. You've moved and counterattacked if that's what you need to do and you're left with 90% of your turn remaining. So your turn is going to end after a single combat round whatever you do. You decide to dig in.

But you have a couple of coastal batteries that always have no MPs and they've been dug out of fortified status by bombardment and are now in mobile status. Since they never have any MPs they can never dig in again. So they're out in the open. And with Allied ground units poised to overrun them- maybe already adjacent- next turn. Since you've effectively finished up and dug everyone in, you've nothing to lose by direct firing those units at ships at sea.

If they're further away from Allied ground you could put them on TR to support next turn but they're still right out in the open and very vulnerable.

Does this make more sense?

Hope it helps.

[Heinz57]

I haven't been in a position to use it as Axis, but Jean-Luc used "something" against a number of naval units that were within range - and he got several destroyers, a battleship and cruiser. It won't hurt the Allies to lose a few ships...ha...

A good question though for scenario design purposes - would it be better to NOT use the coastal artillery (and similar icons) and instead use an artillery typed icon with 1 MP?

Different icons are associated with special abilities - Special Forces don't suffer disengagement and can perform airborne operations; Partisans seem especially effective against HQ's, Arty and non-armored engineers; Engineers seem to have a sort of inate "rugged defense"; etc.

Frankly, I find the inability for a coastal defense unit to not fortify - irritating. I think if a unit is in "fortified terrain" it is always considered as being fortified - but being in mobile status - doesn't provide artillery support to other units in the area. Now...in a way, this is logical as most of the coastal defense artillery tends to be in concrete bunkers with guns pointing out to see...which would make it a little difficult to redirect fire two hexes behind them..

Or maybe...just use ICBM icons...ha!

[Veers]

That's always been the case. Move an arty unit 50% of it's turn and direct fire in support of a unit that's only burned 10% of it's turn and you're left with 50% of your turn.

Maybe think of what I'm suggesting this way. You've moved and counterattacked if that's what you need to do and you're left with 90% of your turn remaining. So your turn is going to end after a single combat round whatever you do. You decide to dig in.

But you have a couple of coastal batteries that always have no MPs and they've been dug out of fortified status by bombardment and are now in mobile status. Since they never have any MPs they can never dig in again. So they're out in the open. And with Allied ground units poised to overrun them- maybe already adjacent- next turn. Since you've effectively finished up and dug everyone in, you've nothing to lose by direct firing those units at ships at sea.

If they're further away from Allied ground you could put them on TR to support next turn but they're still right out in the open and very vulnerable.

Does this make more sense?

Hope it helps.
Got ya, General Staff.

[General Staff]

A good question though for scenario design purposes - would it be better to NOT use the coastal artillery (and similar icons) and instead use an artillery typed icon with 1 MP?Maybe a 'Scenario Design Suggestions for 2WIN' thread too? Don't want too many, but tactics will probably be most full by workshop end.

[ralphtrickey]

Moved from Axis Team Roll Call Thread

This shows you the benefits of terrain to your troops. It's in the old manual but here on 2 sheets you can print. I think it's still valid for TOAWIII. And no, effects are NOT cumulative.

Hope it helps.
It's as valid for III as it was for COW.

Unfortunately, the manual didn't match what was in the code. The TOAW III Manual should be correct. It should be fairly clear. THe big chaange is that the effective of the various terrain types has been enhanced to make them more distinct.

Ralph

[General Staff]

Is there a PDF or MS Word file for TOAWIII, and of what size? Haven't received my copy yet, but this might give me a chance to read up on it and be a little more up to date earlier than otherwise.

Size is important (maybe ZIP file) because I've only got 64K single channel ISDN. If it's small enough maybe someone could send but if we're talking multi-megabytes I doubt my ISP would process anyway, ISDN aside.

Thanks for any replies.

[Veers]

Is there a PDF or MS Word file for TOAWIII, and of what size? Haven't received my copy yet, but this might give me a chance to read up on it and be a little more up to date earlier than otherwise.

Size is important (maybe ZIP file) because I've only got 64K single channel ISDN. If it's small enough maybe someone could send but if we're talking multi-megabytes I doubt my ISP would process anyway, ISDN aside.

Thanks for any replies.
Talking 7mb zipped. :(

[General Staff]

Talking 7mb zipped. :(
Thanks for that. But my mailbox would reject. And my ISDN line choke on it even if the mailbox could take it. Oh well, back to playing the Carpenters' 'Please Mr. Postman' on my CD.

[General Staff]

Just adding tips as I remember them. Probably the first (aside from make sure the Air Staff is immediately dismissed) is to be careful of movement paths. You can spend many more MPs than you have to if you blindly use this.

As an example, start up a hotseat game and end the Allied turn. Then select the HQ unit (with Movement Path Floating) in 62,32. Put the cursor over 46,35 which will indicate 29 MPs to get there via a somewhat roundabout route. Then put the cursor over 45,35 and it shows only 26 MPs to get there though it's a hex further away. Even then look at the start of the move- you're heading north and coming back down to the road at 58,32 using 8 MPs when if you put the cursor over 58,32 it shows only 4 MPs used.

So just be careful of these. If I see any untoward detours I often either calculate and move manually or more often move in little hops at a time. Little hops at a time also helps spread interdiction effects around. Moving that HQ to Carentan at the start of your turn is going to attract every Allied interdiction aircraft. Hops at a time- and I've only anecdotal evidence- seems to alleviate this. More on interdiction once I've got the game and tested a few things.

[General Staff]

Another tip is on disengagement. Read up very carefully on this as you're going to be doing a lot of it. Also as reconnaissance values pertain to disengagement and what the optimum conditions are to do it successfully.

Arty in a hex allows a unit to disengage and then the arty to pull back to a friendly unit. The tip here is you can split an arty unit into 3 pieces and move them up to the line adjacent to enemy units- each piece helping one unit or stack of units, as opposed to the whole arty unit just helping one unit or stack. Pull your units out, then pull the arty out last onto a friendly unit. If you do it carefully you can recombine your arty unit.

With this last point, another tip- don't forget you can have 3 pieces of a unit moving around but ending up in the same hex, 2 of them with 0MPs left (which would ordinarilly mean they couldn't dig in) and one with 3MPs left. Recombine and the combined unit now has 1MP (the average- (0+0+3)/3=1) which allows the recombined unit to dig in. Very useful here when you can break down units to blow several bridges and recombine if necessary with enough MPs to dig in.

If you don't believe this or even if you do, I'd urge you to try these to get a feel for what can be done.

[General Staff]

Be aware the Allies have 2 units with ferry-bridging capability to cross Super Rivers (without bridges). Note they cannot enter marsh hexes with Super Rivers in them. 1 is with the Commonwealth in Allied Army I Corps (Eng/2 Army Unit), the other with the US in First Army (Eng/1 Army Unit). Both arrive Turn 3.

If you can keep an eye on where these are along with Allied Supply counters, it can often give you a good heads up as to where they might be looking to go next.

Regarding terrain and rivers. Super rivers are great because, aside from above and guarding any bridges, including broken ones in case they get repaired, you can leave large stretches of your line unguarded. For instance the Douve River near Carentan. The only effect of rivers on combat I'm aware of is that attacker's strengths are multiplied by 0.7. So factor that in, but I usually look at the Terrain Effects Chart combined with Disengagement chances. I'm looking for somewhere I get maximum defensive advantage out of (particularly against tanks) and yet have a better chance of being able to withdraw.

That will generally lead you to anything urban or bocage, and hopefully you'll be well dug in in 'F' status. If they attack you in an urban setting, well, it then becomes urban ruin which is even better for the defender. Both of these give you the best chance of disengaging. Marsh is also useful against armor, though there's little benefit when you need to disengage. Somewhere like Carentan though is so important, plus you have the river line, that defending there at 34,30 to 35,30 to 36,29 is worth it.

Also some units are powerful enough to break down into 3 pieces. Each of the FJ Regiments for example. What I usually do is put 2 units out front and one behind in a triangle- for instance 2/6 FJ with 2 pieces in 34,30 and 35,30 with one piece remaining behind in 35,31. The advantage is the piece behind gets to start digging a second line and hopefully isn't attacked, which means the whole unit is drained of supply- when recombined the unit as a whole will benefit from the better supply of this piece. Or you can rotate this unit into the front line and rotate a badly hit piece out for a rest. I wrote an article on Balkans 12 which illustrates a number of these defensive ideas- c.f. http://www.strategyzoneonline.com/toaw/uploads/articles/balkans12/balkans12.html . Just remove the scenario-specific stuff and the concepts apply equally to 2WIN.

Other units aren't powerful enough to split and they'll just get overrun. I'd say as a rule of thumb you need a 2 or 3 value and dug in to survive this, unless you're splitting an AT unit down to parcel out a little AT ability to sit stacked with a few infantry units that otherwise wouldn't have any.

Look at and make a note of your supply sources, particularly those connected to rail lines as rail moves supply with no degradation or loss up to the front. The Allies will probably try to take out bridges along these 'feeder' rail routes, like 18,5, 26,49, 48,48, 61,51, 78,45, 88,45. The road supply sources aren't as important to the Allies as supply degrades along roads. I keep supply on (with the #s)- not that it's a major factor when I place units unless they're resting behind the lines, though if one hex is almost as good as another and supply is better in one, well, there it goes. Over the long haul, supply is critical.

HQs. Try to keep these safe and rarely alone in the combat zone, but adjacent to as many units as possible in their formations for combat and supply advantages. Another reason I like the Rest & Rotation system, since you can always stack an HQ with one of the units in the second line for protection.

Someone mentioned moving AA units out first as interdiction decoys. Sounds good, but I don't have III yet so can't comment. I used to use pure armor, which rarely got hurt other than supply and readiness. I used to break the unit into 3 too, and move 1/3rd around at a time for more bang for the buck. Not sure how this would work for AA though certainly worth a test as you get 3 times the mileage.

Peaks. Once the beachheads enlarge and join, you'll find it increasingly difficult to see what's out there. If you find increasing #s of hexes showing as 'unknown' put units on Mont Castre at 25,32 and Hill 113 (74,44) for your viewing pleasure.

Always dig in if you can. You lose hugely if you're in the open.

Hope this helps.

[Hank2]

Is an arty unit preferred for disengaging a combat unit or is an HQ unit just as good to use?

this is great ... good info here.

Regarding strategy, since I'm a noob here I've only played 2WIN against the AI ... me as Axis (go figure). I'm on turn 11 with an overwhelming victory which probably isn't saying much but ... its the only sparring partner I have right now.

But, I was able to hold Carentain all game long by blowing the bridges north and east of Carentain and at Isigny. I don't know if it has anything to do with preventing the cutting of the Cotentin Peninsula but I've kept the Allies from it so far (but its been a struggle).

... Is this a good strategy or could it come back to haunt me against a better player?

thanks
hank

[Heinz57]

The majority of bridges that get blown can be repaired by the Allies, usually taking only one or two engineers one or two turns to repair. There seems, and I can't say for certain, that the type of river and terrain and maybe other factors influence the base engineering chance for fixing a bridge. In FiTE, there are several bridges in the Pripyet marshes in which I've used 3 engineers with 75% or better capability failing for three consecutive turns.

Very good notes General Staff!

In some regards (depending on scenario) but I think definitely in 2WiN, it is better to use HQ's for disengagement. Most of them do not have any (or very much) inherent artillery support...so that will save your artillery a good 10% in supply and readiness - stronger support. But, you can't divide HQ's and you definitely want to ensure they have enough MP's to make it back to friendly lines.

[General Staff]

Is an arty unit preferred for disengaging a combat unit or is an HQ unit just as good to use?

But, I was able to hold Carentain all game long by blowing the bridges north and east of Carentain and at Isigny. I don't know if it has anything to do with preventing the cutting of the Cotentin Peninsula but I've kept the Allies from it so far (but its been a struggle). Is this a good strategy or could it come back to haunt me against a better player?

Arty or HQ for disengagement. They're both just as good. Situation-dependent really. You may need the arty for direct fire support somewhere, and depends on round you need it in and how much time it's going to take to disengage. Also when you want or need everyone to end up at end of turn. Who is better supplied. If it's just one unit I'd go for the HQ. But sometimes you've got a whole line you need to disengage, so using that HQ AND being able to break an arty unit into 3 can make all the difference.

Carentan. Blowing these bridges is the best strategy, the ones outside Carentan ASAP (sometimes you have to counterattack) and the one at Isigny when you're out of time. I think you'll find it hard to hold Carentan all game long against a human Allied player, but it's crucial to hang on as long as possible as it denies the Allies the +2% supply bonus. And bear in mind the real estate linked to his other supply bonuses. 2% may not seem so much, but over EVERY Allied unit it- along with the others- make a significant difference over 12 turns.

Cutting the Cotentin Peninsula isn't as important for Allies now Cherbourg is a supply point. If it was me as Allied Commander it would make me focus more on southern objectives, maybe just feint towards Cherbourg.

But holding Carentan as long as possible is still absolutely critical as it gives time for units and reinforcements to dig in and entrench in the Bocage country all around.

[General Staff]

My checklist for a turn is usually:

1) Run the replay to glean as much information as you can from it. Run it as many times as makes sense.
2) Make sure your Air Staff are still safely under lock and key.
3) Check the Air Briefing to see if you damaged any planes- be aware this figure can be wildly inflated. Forget Air Superiority here- you don't have any. Check Interdiction. If it's 4% he's pretty much got everything out there looking for targets.
4) Take a look around the map and survey the damage. Any idea where he's headed?
5) Check for reinforcements and assign what's going where (I also check for these before the end of a turn to see what I can expect next turn).
6) Try and get a grip on that nervous tic and get going.
7) At close of your turn and before ending, always check everything is dug in. Try to site arty for the maximum benefit to as many units as possible based on LOWEST range item in unit. And dig units in as their missions for the turn complete- in case you fail a proficiency check and your turn unexpectedly ends. At around 90% statistically it will happen around 1 in 10 turns, which in this scenario means it is likely to happen once.

If I was Allies I'd also have weather on while planning air attacks/bridge blowing.

Options- I keep:

Location Grid: Visible
Movement Paths: Floating
Formation Highlight: Visible
Place Names: Floating
Possession: Borders
Units: Visible (!?) I guess it can help to see underneath sometimes.
Unit Icons: Icon- Strength
I only use 2D and usually depending on size 2D Large
Supply: Visible (i.e. #s on)
Weather: If I was Player 1 and placing AA to protect bridges, I might put this on while placing. But here it's a waste of time, since you're player 2 and the clouds are going to be different after bookkeeping when the Allies get to move.
Text Contrast: Maximum
No movie thanks.

You could use this as a baseline and experiment.

Hope this helps.

[Heinz57]

More very good notes and tips from General Staff! Getting recon units into the elevation positions will help considerably for both sides.

Another consideration is the use of deception. It is kind of difficult to model well in TOAW, but not impossible dependent upon how observant your opponent is. Presume you don't want to concentrate on a rigorous defense of Cherbourg, but don't want your opponent to know it. Divide some of the units you do want to defend Cherbourg and alternate moving between a few different areas...move a few units around Cherbourg, some near Caen, some near Carentan - mix it up a bit. An unattentive player might see a lot of units moving to Cherbourg...but not pick up that they're platoons...while the battalions are moving to Carentan and St. Lo.

It may work and it may not...suffice that it can lead the unattentive Allied player to over commit on one objective at the expense of another; or shy away from what they think will be a more difficult objective.

In North Africa, Rommel used decoys of this type to some effect.

[General Staff]

Another tip.

If you look at the Inventory & Replacements screen, you'll see that the rate for Rifle Squad per turn is 21, whereas that for Rifle Squad- AT is 60 with 1008 and 966 respectively on map at start. So roughly the same #s to start. But if you look carefully you'll find that the Rifle Squads are only present in Commonwealth units, the Rifle Squads- AT in US units.

What this means in practice is that Commonwealth infantry units will take longer to recover if damaged than their US counterparts, representing the fact that the Commonwealth's manpower pool was pretty much exhausted.

So if you get a good opportunity shot at a Commonwealth infantry unit not dug in and in the open, particularly if it's a stack with a red overstacking light, hit it with arty. It used to be in ACOW that you'd set a broken down unit, maybe armor, to limited attack, minimize losses and use direct arty in support for best results, though please correct me if this is no longer the case in TOAWIII.

By and large, tactics in this for the Germans involve as slow a withdrawal as possible, constantly digging lines in the best defensive locations you can find, and giving up ground grudgingly as you struggle to create another line behind your current one. And hitting targets of opportunity as mentioned above as you find them. Counterattack only for objectives that count for something and if it's achievable- a first turn example would be Pegasus Bridge to try to keep the CW bottled up north of the Orne. Otherwise you'll soon find they're costly and it's a little like beating your head against a brick wall.

[Veers]

My checklist for a turn is usually:

1) Run the replay to glean as much information as you can from it. Run it as many times as makes sense.
2) Make sure your Air Staff are still safely under lock and key.
3) Check the Air Briefing to see if you damaged any planes- be aware this figure can be wildly inflated. Forget Air Superiority here- you don't have any. Check Interdiction. If it's 4% he's pretty much got everything out there looking for targets.
4) Take a look around the map and survey the damage. Any idea where he's headed?
5) Check for reinforcements and assign what's going where (I also check for these before the end of a turn to see what I can expect next turn).
6) Try and get a grip on that nervous tic and get going.
7) At close of your turn and before ending, always check everything is dug in. Try to site arty for the maximum benefit to as many units as possible based on LOWEST range item in unit. And dig units in as their missions for the turn complete- in case you fail a proficiency check and your turn unexpectedly ends. At around 90% statistically it will happen around 1 in 10 turns, which in this scenario means it is likely to happen once.

If I was Allies I'd also have weather on while planning air attacks/bridge blowing.

Options- I keep:

Location Grid: Visible
Movement Paths: Floating
Formation Highlight: Visible
Place Names: Floating
Possession: Borders
Units: Visible (!?) I guess it can help to see underneath sometimes.
Unit Icons: Icon- Strength
I only use 2D and usually depending on size 2D Large
Supply: Visible (i.e. #s on)
Weather: If I was Player 1 and placing AA to protect bridges, I might put this on while placing. But here it's a waste of time, since you're player 2 and the clouds are going to be different after bookkeeping when the Allies get to move.
Text Contrast: Maximum
No movie thanks.

You could use this as a baseline and experiment.

Hope this helps.
1) Run the replay to glean as much information as you can from it. Run it as many times as makes sense.

Ensure that you run it as many times as you need to before you move on rom it, because if you save and then start it up again later to watch it again, I'm pretty sure you're opponent will see a 'Your opponent may have reloaded X times' warning. Almost positive. :)

[Foggy]

That seems to be a common issue w/the larger games in TOAWIII - I'm not going to complain if my German opponent in FiTE takes a turn in pieces:laugh:

[General Staff]

OK- the game arrived today. So looking over it.

Another tip as I play the PO in 2WIN for the first time in years. If you've a unit in 'Retreated' status with MPs left and one or more enemy units adjacent, set up an attack against one of those units if you can and then cancel it. You'll find your unit is now in 'Mobile' status instead of 'Retreated' status. You can then dig in, whether you move away or stay where you are. In fact it's highly useful when you've got a retreated unit which you want to get away and then dig in. Set up the attack, cancel, move away and then dig in.

Some find this a little 'gamey' and I did myself when I first heard of it. But if everyone can use it, well, they say all things are equal in love and war.

[Veers]

OK- the game arrived today. So looking over it.

Another tip as I play the PO in 2WIN for the first time in years. If you've a unit in 'Retreated' status with MPs left and one or more enemy units adjacent, set up an attack against one of those units if you can and then cancel it. You'll find your unit is now in 'Mobile' status instead of 'Retreated' status. You can then dig in, whether you move away or stay where you are. In fact it's highly useful when you've got a retreated unit which you want to get away and then dig in. Set up the attack, cancel, move away and then dig in.

Some find this a little 'gamey' and I did myself when I first heard of it. But if everyone can use it, well, they say all things are equal in love and war.
Jamiam has given it his consent, as P1 never has to experience this.

[General Staff]

Tips:

Try and keep formations together as a group in the line, and use your HQs to provide combat and supply advantages from the second line, preferably always stacked with another unit. That doesn't mean all clustered together, but you don't want half of 12th SS PzG Division in Carentan, the other half in Caen unless absolutely necessary.

Keep supply #s on, so you see what's best positionally supply-wise. It's not a priority, but it can help when siting secondary lines, especially when you're using badly shot up units to dig these lines.

[General Staff]

Another tip as I play the PO in 2WIN for the first time in years. If you've a unit in 'Retreated' status with MPs left and one or more enemy units adjacent, set up an attack against one of those units if you can and then cancel it. You'll find your unit is now in 'Mobile' status instead of 'Retreated' status. You can then dig in, whether you move away or stay where you are. In fact it's highly useful when you've got a retreated unit which you want to get away and then dig in. Set up the attack, cancel, move away and then dig in.
You can also do this with ranged arty units not adjacent to an enemy unit as long as there is one in range. Say you've an arty unit with range 5 in retreated mode and an enemy unit 5 hexes away. Select the arty and target the enemy unit. Then cancel attack. Presto- you're back to mobile and your arty unit is available for orders again.

[General Staff]

Tip:

Interdiction. Best to move units in this order (of interdiction resistance):

1. AA, though in this scenario keep those units with 88s and treat like arty. They'll probably end up being used as tank-killers.
2. Armor.
3. Mech.
4. Infantry.
5. HQs.
6. Arty.

Also, and anecdotally, I find moving units 1 hex at a time reduces interdiction, though I'm always looking for someone to statistically test this. That would still mean move normal 'jumps' with AA and Armor to try and 'defang' interdiction, then hex-by-hex movement with everyone else. A pain, and depends on level of detail/micro-management you're prepared to tolerate.

[Mad Cow]

This thread should have a sticky.

[General Staff]

Tip:

This is blindingly obvious but I’ll mention anyway, since I’m playing this again for the 1st time in years. Since time is of the essence in this scenario, try to restrict Allied movement.

With fewer units, defend crossroads by digging in in best defensible terrain to deny the Allies road movement. Every extra MP they spend having to go round/outflank you equates to time- your ally and key to victory here. It becomes apparent once your # of units goes down and the Allies are off the beaches and making serious 'inroads' inland.

Examples would be 43,30 and 59,44.

[Heldenkaiser]

This in preference over maintaining a continuous main line of defence? Just drop some companies off on important crossroads, preferably in villages, let them dig in and let themselves be surrounded? Lose the company, but deny the enemy the use of the crossroads for 2-3 turns? :rolleyes:

[General Staff]

This in preference over maintaining a continuous main line of defence? Just drop some companies off on important crossroads, preferably in villages, let them dig in and let themselves be surrounded? Lose the company, but deny the enemy the use of the crossroads for 2-3 turns? :rolleyes:
If you've the luxury of building a contiguous line by all means do so, incorporating these ideas into it. If not, yes. And surrounded, yes, if it will buy time. 2-3 turns is almost 25% of total scenario time, and could earn you victory.

Hitler's fanaticism for 'hedgehog' defence worked at this scale (though maybe not for some of the unlucky troops implementing it) and based probably on his WWI experience. Unfortunately it didn't work so well on a strategic level.

[Hank2]

A quick question about breaking out single units from a division and using them at a remote location realtive the the division HQ.

General, you mentioned using a hvy MG unit in Cherbourgh. I had planned on sending its division south to help hold the line at Utah's beach battle.

Is there any negtives to having a unit like the Hvy MG unit dug in 10 or 20 hexes away from the rest of its Division (and HQ)? Or maybe the better way to word it is: what negatives should I be aware of and plan for by spreading out a divisions units more than 10 hexes from its HQ?

I always try to keep my divisions together (in every wargame I've ever played) because to me its more fun ... i guess I'm an organizational fanatic.

I'm guessing supply could be a problem. Maybe readiness/proficiency/etc. ????

hank

[Telumar]

Is there any negtives to having a unit like the Hvy MG unit dug in 10 or 20 hexes away from the rest of its Division (and HQ)? Or maybe the better way to word it is: what negatives should I be aware of and plan for by spreading out a divisions units more than 10 hexes from its HQ?
[...]I'm guessing supply could be a problem. Maybe readiness/proficiency/etc. ????


There are no negative effects, neither in supply nor in readiness/proficiency. The only thing that can happen is that it will be affected by formation reorganisation despite its remote position.
Unit cooperation should be less a problem in this scenario for the germans, so if it comes to combat you may also suffer no negative effects.

I always try to keep my divisions together (in every wargame I've ever played) because to me its more fun ... i guess I'm an organizational fanatic.

Me too..

[Heldenkaiser]

Me too..

Me too. :smoke:

[General Staff]

A quick question about breaking out single units from a division and using them at a remote location relative the the division HQ.

I guess I'm an organizational fanatic.
You're getting too good at this. Along with a couple of other players and congratulations.

It really becomes your call. For myself, Supply, Proficiency and Readiness are issues, but I just considered an MG unit where it started and given interdiction something I could use as a backbone for a defence of the town. Also given unit ratings. T1 moving it down would I think have just got it slaughtered.

I do also try and keep formations together when/if I can, with HQs for supply benefit and just to help me for organization/my thought processes.

Hope this helps and keep it up.