My German OOB setup...

[ddiplock]

Ok, so I've got a game going as Germany. And in another post in the AAR section, regarding a certain failed Soviet defence against Barbarossa , someone made a comment that the Soviet player's armies were too clumsy and that he should've split the army into smaller corps under lower ranked leaders so they can gain experince.

Now, the way I've always played HOI, is simply to have massive 9 division armies commanded by Generals, I've never considered spitting it down into Corps which are 3 divisions in size commanded by Lt Generals.

However, the flaw in my way of playing is that if you have a wide front to cover, you'll need ALOT of divisions and you lose a hell of a lot of flexability/mobility in your forces and as i've discovered, you can very quickly have gaps develop in your lines as you advance over a wide front.

So, bearing all this in mind, I've quickly changed my command setup along the Polish boarder, and have split it all up into 3 Division strong Corps with Lt Generals commanding each. This will give me greater flexability in the ensuing Polish campaign when it begins, and allow my lower ranked leaders to gain valuble command & combat experince.

Take a look at the screenshot. I'd like some people to offer their opinions/advice on my decision

 

[Titan79]

I always play the same way as you're doing now, so yeah, go on .

BTW: a very nice topbar you got! Where did you find it...?

 

[henkalv]

that`s how i always do it, well for LARM the best thing to do is (in my opinion) to have them in single brigades

EDIT: Titan, i think it is the minor graphic mod or MGM

Second edit: :facepalms:

 

[Titan79]

EDIT: Titan, i think it is the minor graphic mod or MGM

I know... it was a joke . That topbar has been done by me.

Edit: ...as well as the counters you can see in that screenshot too

2nd edit: no problem, you weren't required to know that

 

[unmerged(34917)]

I almost always use my armoured units in corps of 3. But sometime they get higher leaders so that they can lead up more units into battle at once.

But I like stacks of nine infantry, just because it is easy to move them around and with arty and AT they pack a good punch!

My airforce is almost always in units of 4, so they dont get killed easy and do heavy damage to the enemy.

 

[ddiplock]

I always play the same way as you're doing now, so yeah, go on .

BTW: a very nice topbar you got! Where did you find it...?

Oh I wonder where I found it indeed Titan. Its a very special topbar don't you know

Thanks for your input, my only slight concern is how stacking penalties will work....if I have several Corps all fighting at once...I do have an HQ in the province behind so that should assist with any stacking issues i'm hoping :wacko:

 

[Blecky]

It´s not HOI 3. If you have a general in one of your corps there shouldn´t be a problem. The lt-gen will still gain experience.

 

[ddiplock]

It´s not HOI 3. If you have a general in one of your corps there shouldn´t be a problem. The lt-gen will still gain experience.

Ah right, so one of my corps will need a general....as right now they're all Lt Generals

 

[Johnhawkwood]

For Poland I have both MG's and Lt G's commanding single divisions while the Gens and FM commands two (including HQ's). You really don't need that many divisions for Poland so management is no real prob and this gives your commanders valuable experience - especially the Panzer commanders.

Then for France the MG's still on one, Lt G's usually get two divs, Gens also two and the FM's three.

For Russia LtG's 3, Gens 3 FM's 3

 

[Blecky]

Usually I use ARM/MEC/MOT units as single divisions, some of them commanded by MajGen, some by LtGen, and some by Gen. This gives me enough flexibilty to exploit opportunities as they come up while many leaders gain experience (and will eventually be promoted to higher ranks).

 

[Murkk]

Depends on your leader traits. You're top leaders should be stacked with as much as possible.

 

[unmerged(159798)]

Ah right, so one of my corps will need a general....as right now they're all Lt Generals

For defending this is not a problem but for attack you need a General or higher otherwise there a massive penaltys for overcoming command limit.

Basic formula is as follows...
Major General: 1 Div
Lt.General: 3 Div
General; 9 Div
Field Marshal: 12 Div

A HQ in the same or neighbouring province doubles command limit for the officer in command of the battle.
When attacking from 2 provinces with HQ the command limit for a Field Marshal can be extended up to 48 or up to 64 depending on how much Field Marshals are involved in the battle. Dont remember the exact formula right now...

For defending all this is not important...any Officer can command huge amount of troops while defending...

For the beginning against Poland,France, Jugoslawia and Greek I use a lot of Maj.Gen with already 5 experience to command single divisions in order to raise their experience even more...with that you can make a few nice Generals and Field Marshals with 4 or 5 experience until Barbarossa...
cause if not autopromoted raising their rank manually cost 1 experience for each rank but this is not a problem with a Maj Gen with 7 experience....will still make a 5 exp. General or a 4 exp .Field Marshal...

Is this stuff not in the Manual ?????...:rofl::rofl::rofl:

 

[unmerged(19908)]

In my first test game, Poland had 11 units in each province. You are only facing 5 in each. Maybe I had the difficulty turned up. :wacko:

 

[ddiplock]

In my first test game, Poland had 11 units in each province. You are only facing 5 in each. Maybe I had the difficulty turned up. :wacko:

I've got a feeling that will change. Its only Jan 1939, so Poland still has time to beef up their defences....

 

[unmerged(106010)]

For defending this is not a problem but for attack you need a General or higher otherwise there a massive penaltys for overcoming command limit.

Basic formula is as follows...
Major General: 1 Div
Lt.General: 3 Div
General; 9 Div
Field Marshal: 12 Div

A HQ in the same or neighbouring province doubles command limit for the officer in command of the battle.
When attacking from 2 provinces with HQ the command limit for a Field Marshal can be extended up to 48 or up to 64 depending on how much Field Marshals are involved in the battle. Dont remember the exact formula right now...

For defending all this is not important...any Officer can command huge amount of troops while defending...

For the beginning against Poland,France, Jugoslawia and Greek I use a lot of Maj.Gen with already 5 experience to command single divisions in order to raise their experience even more...with that you can make a few nice Generals and Field Marshals with 4 or 5 experience until Barbarossa...
cause if not autopromoted raising their rank manually cost 1 experience for each rank but this is not a problem with a Maj Gen with 7 experience....will still make a 5 exp. General or a 4 exp .Field Marshal...

Is this stuff not in the Manual ?????...:rofl::rofl::rofl:

So you use auto promote? I've never used that...Whihc is better...manual or auto protmote?

 

[Pal]

So you use auto promote? I've never used that...Whihc is better...manual or auto protmote?

Define "better".

Auto-promote has the "disadvantage" of promoting troops to higher ranks (d'Oh!) so they gain experience more slowly. But then, the promotion itself takes no skill points away, which would happen in manual promotion mode. Also, just because you checked "auto promote leaders" that doesn't mean you cannot promote manually anymore

Summary: Unless you are *really* concerned with getting leader exp as quickly as possible, auto-promote is a no-brainer to turn on.

 

[ddiplock]

How many people use large numbers of tanks in their invasion of Poland??

Because I'll be lucky if I even have two armoured divisions ready for the push into Poland....the rest is all just a MASSIVE amount of 39 infantry brigaded with artillery to blow them to pieces. Having said that, i'm confident I can crush Poland inside a month with the stupid numbers I have boardering Poland. As long as they're down within a month, like history....i'll be happy

 

[Titan79]

How many people use large numbers of tanks in their invasion of Poland??

Because I'll be lucky if I even have two armoured divisions ready for the push into Poland....the rest is all just a MASSIVE amount of 39 infantry brigaded with artillery to blow them to pieces. Having said that, i'm confident I can crush Poland inside a month with the stupid numbers I have boardering Poland. As long as they're down within a month, like history....i'll be happy

Historically, by Sep '39, the Germans had only 5 Panzer Divisions IIRC, the great part of them being composed by light Pz I-II tanks. So you're perfectly on schedule, I'd say .

 

[unmerged(159798)]

So you use auto promote? I've never used that...Whihc is better...manual or auto protmote?

I have it turned on,yes...in my current game it gave me a 5/69 exp. Field Marshal Rommel before Barabrossa...autopromoted from Maj.Gen to Field Marshal in the moment I sent him to Africa...so,not much left to reach level 6 ..
As well It gave me a 4 exp. Field Marshal Leeb...fair enough...if I need more Generals I have a look to the experience and promote the ones with most expecience...normally the Lt.Generals with 6 exp.....

 

[ddiplock]

Well, as I suspected, Poland HAS beefed up their boarders. Pretty much all of their army is concentrated on the German/East Prussian boarder with 9 and 10 division stacks, they have stripped their Soviet boarder totally bare, not a single division guarding the Soviet boarder. But i'm confident the numbers I have will be enough to smash them nonetheless.

I have also remembered, now its April 39, Slovakia is my puppet....i'm guessing it would be worth stationing some German divisions in Slovakia to avoid them being swallowed up by any Polish advance??