witchbottles
Forum Guru
The dreaded 9-0s (or worse, 10-0s) walk about the backfield, "motivating" the broken or disrupted into the fight one way, or the other...... Let's talk about Commissars.
During the period where the swap out is allowed, (up to a scenario date of 10-31-42) - the majority (but not all) of the scenarios you are likely to see them in have the Russians defending. With their superheroic powers of ignoring DM status and raising the ML of any MMC stacked with them by one with just a wave of their latest motivational speeches about saving Mother Russia, they are rather often seen in these scenarios.
Certainly, if it is allowed by # of leaders in the OB and by the scenario date, switching out the lowly 8-0 for a grand and resplendent loyal party member 9-0 makes perfect sense. You gain everything possible and lose nothing at all. but let's talk about the tougher choice. Swapping out the 8-1 for the 9-0's superior, the division's political reliability officer himself, the dreaded 10-0 Commissar.
When do you choose to do this?
The trite answer is "it depends" , but I am interested in what circumstances everyone uses to decide if it is time for "it depends" to kick in or not.
Do you value the -1 LDRM over the powers of a Commissar who is nigh unbreakable with a 10 ML himself?
Do you make that choice based on the number and type of SWs allotted in your OB?
Is it something you consider the function of the Russian leaders in the game? Obviously, a vast majority of these are going to have a limited number of SMCs for the Russians to begin with, so their primary function regardless of LDRMs is going to be rallying broken troops back into the fight, over any fire direction leadership opportunities.
Maybe it's the terrain you grok to make this choice? In a close action city fight, you take the Commissar every time in exchange for a lost -1 LDRM, but in an open battlefield, you feel the extra -1 LDRM will come into play enough to counterbalance leaving some broke units to their own devices.?
The choice is not always a simple one. Sometimes a scenario may turn on the ability to ensure that HMG gets his fire lane every turn until it malfs out, and sacrificing a powerful ML 10 Commissar in order to tie him to the HMG position seems to be a waste of his resources. the 8-1 with a manning 4-4-7 and another 4-4-7 concealed just behind and out of LOS, to step up when the original guy breaks and drops the HMG, is the ideal position in that case. Then the -1 LDRM can be used for fire direction, for passing MC's and TC's and for the odd rally attempt if the HMG teams are both broken and time allows for him to try rallying one of them before the position gets overrun by the enemy forces.
So what do you look at before you make that pre-setup choice to swap out the 8-1 for that lord of the local party committee, the 10-0 commissar?
KRL, Jon H
During the period where the swap out is allowed, (up to a scenario date of 10-31-42) - the majority (but not all) of the scenarios you are likely to see them in have the Russians defending. With their superheroic powers of ignoring DM status and raising the ML of any MMC stacked with them by one with just a wave of their latest motivational speeches about saving Mother Russia, they are rather often seen in these scenarios.
Certainly, if it is allowed by # of leaders in the OB and by the scenario date, switching out the lowly 8-0 for a grand and resplendent loyal party member 9-0 makes perfect sense. You gain everything possible and lose nothing at all. but let's talk about the tougher choice. Swapping out the 8-1 for the 9-0's superior, the division's political reliability officer himself, the dreaded 10-0 Commissar.
When do you choose to do this?
The trite answer is "it depends" , but I am interested in what circumstances everyone uses to decide if it is time for "it depends" to kick in or not.
Do you value the -1 LDRM over the powers of a Commissar who is nigh unbreakable with a 10 ML himself?
Do you make that choice based on the number and type of SWs allotted in your OB?
Is it something you consider the function of the Russian leaders in the game? Obviously, a vast majority of these are going to have a limited number of SMCs for the Russians to begin with, so their primary function regardless of LDRMs is going to be rallying broken troops back into the fight, over any fire direction leadership opportunities.
Maybe it's the terrain you grok to make this choice? In a close action city fight, you take the Commissar every time in exchange for a lost -1 LDRM, but in an open battlefield, you feel the extra -1 LDRM will come into play enough to counterbalance leaving some broke units to their own devices.?
The choice is not always a simple one. Sometimes a scenario may turn on the ability to ensure that HMG gets his fire lane every turn until it malfs out, and sacrificing a powerful ML 10 Commissar in order to tie him to the HMG position seems to be a waste of his resources. the 8-1 with a manning 4-4-7 and another 4-4-7 concealed just behind and out of LOS, to step up when the original guy breaks and drops the HMG, is the ideal position in that case. Then the -1 LDRM can be used for fire direction, for passing MC's and TC's and for the odd rally attempt if the HMG teams are both broken and time allows for him to try rallying one of them before the position gets overrun by the enemy forces.
So what do you look at before you make that pre-setup choice to swap out the 8-1 for that lord of the local party committee, the 10-0 commissar?
KRL, Jon H