[WarInEur] Attrition and France

[Wardall Clark]

1) the CWIE CRT favors defense to an extent that makes me wonder.  Most military experts regard 3 to 1 superiorityas being a good assurance of sucess.  IF playing the basic game of BWIE and CWIE(w/o attrition) this curtails counter attacks.  In campaigns in which this is a massive difference between the combat value of division sized units it pretty much eliminates them altogether. 
 
a) Some early Avalon Hill games had CRTs that were so bloody they created simia similar problem. An unsucessful attack could completely eliminate all the attacking units with no casualties to the defenders. (You cannot make the opponents retreat at less than 1-2 odds so the only reason to roll attacks at lower odds is because the rules require an attack role when sitting in an Enemy ZOC. ) The player on the strategi defense is basically limited to rolling attacks only when large local superiority is attainable.  
 
b) This problem was "fixed" in large part by getting rid of all or nothing eliminations when the forces involved are near equal. Instead, the large units are reduced to ineffectiveness by stages (often called steps).  The simplest form of step reduction is found in BlitzKrieg, in which the steps represent combat factor losses to the component brigades. In order to bring the unit back to full strength it has to "merge" with brigade-sized units, which must themselves be moved into place via normal movement.   The essential effect is that the deeper a spearhead penetrates the more difficult it is to keep those divisions up to 90% or better strength. 
 
c) The CRT tables for the step-reduction games tend to "attrit" both sides, with superior numbers bringing the ability to inflict lopsided casualties.  
 
2) Any game that has steps of any sort needs a replacement system.  In Blitzkrieg and Anzio, replenishment requires that a unit move to the hex and the actual increase in value in limited to 1 step (roughly 2 combat factors) per week.  Thus it could take as many as five weeks to get an Axis paratroop division from remnants back to elite status. Contrast that with the practically instant boost fron 1-5 to 6-5 or from 2-8 to 10-8. we find in Basic WIE.   
 
a) The Attrition option eliminates this historical inaccuracy, divisions simply do not return to full effectiveness, they must be "un-attrited as well as replaced. One thing that I have not yet tested is what the procedure is when three BG combine to a single Diviions or Soviet Corps.  What is the strength of the resulting division?  
 
3) Green division do not fight as well, man for man and gun for gun, as experienced units do.  This is true whether or not the Army in question uses modern Battalion training methods.  If the mock combat is realistic, then the war game counts as combat experience. However, until a significant percentage of a units battalions have recently experience either real or mock combat the Division or Brigade is not FULLY combat ready (i.e. it could acheive a yet higher combat value) 
 
a) In this, the Attrition option adds a major dimension to the game, since units new to the map may not be rushed to the front at full effectiveness.  
 
b) In Fortress Europa, the Allies receive a high percentage of their reinforcments in a 1/2 strength state.  This is more practical than in WIE, since the difference between a full strength and a half strength unit is not so large as the gap between a WIE division and its BG. 
I have long maintained that the BG for a 6-5 should be a 2-5  so that three KG add up to a divisions worth of combat value. (The 10-8s should have 3-8 KG for the same reasons.) 
 
4. This impacts on the 1940 FRance campaign in clear ways 
(a) counter attacks, even attacks by otherwise doomed units make sense because both sides are attritted by the attack regardless of the Combat odds involved. 
(b)  French and German reinforcements are not battle ready, and using them too soon may lead to embarrasments similar to the overrunning of the Green 106th Us Infantry in the opening days of the Battle of the Bulge. 
(c)  LInes can be broken via the two-stage process of first attacking to create casualties and then the following turn attacking to break through. 
 
Kent's posting about optimal defensive tactics under the Attrition option is informative, but it also illustrates a strategic/political deficiency of WIE.    The border between France and Belgium is a straight line, and thereby easily defended with relatively limited units. 
Belgium is indefensible because Holland cannot defend itself, creating a crescent shapes battle line. If the Allies write off Belgium then the Battle of France takes place under maximally favorable conditions for the defenders.  Militarily, this would have been a excellent idea in the real 1940, but geopolitically it would have been disastrous, That is why the list was discussing ways of inducing/requiring the BEF to 
move into Belgium once Holland is violated. 
 
So to our newbie who wondered why the CWIE and BWIE campaighs do not seem much like the Historical ones.  THe answers are 
====the french do not fortify until 10 weeks after the invasion of he Low Countries, 
===A "smart" WIE players writes of Belgium as a lost cause. 
==The untried French units are overrated as 3-4s. and the British Divisions are overated as 8-10s and 9-8s
 
Bob in Louisville 
=The allied player in WIE will never underestimate the ability of Armored units to cross the broken terrain hexes of the mapboard. 
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