Daunted by Long Campaign force selection

[Mobhack]

Oh - the other thing about having a core off-map arty unit is that after they have gained much experience they become ace counter-battery boys.

My core arty battery if provided with a decent-ranged piece will often stay silent in reserve waiting to splat enemy off map firers for most of the battle. I only plot them for on-map fires when the enemy off-map dies down, or if I spot a concentration of on-map arty that needs immediate attention, like Katyushas.

Once they have got up to about 80+ experience and 10+ kills, its a nice little specialisation for them. Remember that in war, 50% or more of all the arty's fire missions were counter-battery fires.

[RVPERTVS]

Thanks Andy! Very useful information indeed, it has changed my view of how my battalion should be organized. Though a couple of questions arose though regarding the info you just posted:

Originally Posted by Mobhack

Having the flak elements have gained experience means that when converted to arty (in a non German core) they then have quicker response times.

Why in a "non" german core? are things working differently if the units belong to a german core?

Originally Posted by Mobhack

3) Destroyed units with no survivors start as fresh - they were wiped out. Anything with experience gained and 1 crew left alive only loses 5 or so points for buying a new ride

You mean they loose experience points?

Does it works the same way when they only change to a new ride?

Thanks in advance

[Mobhack]

Q1) In a German core, you may well be wanting to turn core ATG into AAA of some sort late war as the air gets black with Allied planes...

In an Allied core, AAA is only useful early/mid war, so is best turned to more arty or SP-AT etc, come the later war.

Q2) Dead units will be refreshed with a leader straight from the replacement pool at basic experience for that year.

Any other unit when changed to another type in a campaign, will lose a few experience points as they are unaccustomed to the brand new kit. So players who swap troops lots in between battles wont see as much progress.

[RVPERTVS]

Thanks a lot Andy! Fast and useful as always. I'll form my battalion as advised for my next campaign and see how it goes.

BTW, there's a lot of advice and useful info about the game engine scattered trough these forums, I believe it would be nice if it finds its way into the game guide.

[RVPERTVS]

Originally Posted by Mobhack

And here is a 1943 start pre-baked German LC, if you want to play the other side. Slot 42, ready for deployment with supports bought. (This time I remembered to cross attach the APC platoon to the tankies!)

I see in this one you got extra Flaks, AT and SP Assault guns.

I was expecting more howitzers, should I keep just one battery in my battalion-sized core?

[Mobhack]

Did you read post #2 in this thread, the section headed "Stage 1"?

Did you read post #17's last paragraph, starting "Things not to have in the core" or somesuch - part beginning "any more than a battery.."



The standard military rule-of-thumb allocation of artillery is one (1) battery per battalion for general purpose fighting.

A 3-4 battalion brigade will have one regiment(bn) of 3 batteries of Field Arty, and therefore its usually divvied out one per constituent battalion of the supported brigade.

You will only get more than that in a planned assault or defence. Those are the ones you buy with your support points.

Now - perhaps you may be getting confused with say the pre-baked British core, thinking that core had "2 batteries" when it does not. British field batteries were 2 platoons (troops) of 4 guns, for 8 guns total, whereas some continental armies only had 4 guns per battery. Some had 6 - which in the game will be 2 platoons of 3. Again, not 2 batteries, but one (1) battery made up of 2 elements.

The Brits actually used a 12 gun battery, 2 off in a regiment (Bn) in the 39-40 period, but went back to 3x8 gun batteries per regiment of 24 field guns. 12s were too cumbersome. But if your UK core starts in 39, feel free to buy 3 Troops - it is historical.

The real strength of the Allied armies in WW2 was in their artillery arm, and the ability to supply these guns with large amounts of ammo. Unlike the Germans who were always short on guns, and were usually rationed to a small number of shells per day in the late war.

So feel free to "go large" with arty if USA or Commonwealth, in your core or in support points. Soviets should only do so in the attack - and then the batteries should be general Support or perhaps Direct Support - cheaper and less responsive, but then more tubes can be bought for the same points expenditure.

[RVPERTVS]

Yes I did, sorry, actually I believe I was confused with your force selection on the LC as it includes some extra stuff besides the Stages on your first post, but then I realized that they were support assets though I also noticed that you bought the close recon and Inf AT elements mentioned on Stage 2 with supply points so I was wondering if some howitzers could be traded for some SP guns and flaks. The issue was if I should keep just one battery for all the campaign.

Anyway, thanks a lot for the info, I was reading some online material on the subject, I see that every nation had its peculiarities but overall it's as you say: 1 battery per battalion and the Germans were short on ordnance during the late stages of the war

I read that the Germans could assign more tubes to a given battalion depending on the importance and nature of the mission and special circumstances, but this was uncommon during the late war as the German stance became more defensive.

Also that "great emphasis was also placed on the battalion as the fire-control unit, and the separation of the battalion into independent batteries to be used as attached artillery is never recommended except in extremely large sectors, or under very difficult terrain conditions such as thick woods."

http://www.lonesentry.com/articles/t...artillery.html

http://www.lonesentry.com/articles/t...-division.html

[Tim James]

I'm really enjoying my long campaign, but I seem to be stuck on September 1939. I put the end date in 1945 and 20 battles total. This is my 3rd battle in the same month. I think one was a special counter attack but not the other two.

Did I mess something up?

[DRG]

Just to be on the safe side make a separate save of your campaign just in case this persists and then we would have a base to work from. Other than that keep playing and let us know if it progresses......if not consider this the Polish Campaign

[Tim James]

False alarm. It must have been a second special battle in a row. I just jumped to May 1940.

One of the challenges for me in the long campaign will be knowing when I get new equipment and whether it is worth upgrading. I have a strategy guide that assigns each tank a letter grade relative to the year of the war. Other than that, I'm kind of lost on scount car, artillery, AT gun, and infantry (if relevant) upgrades.