[WarInEur] Cav Movement

[Kent & Sue Haunschild]

Don Wrote:

Basically your right the current WIE model of Cav sucks and I never purchase them which for the Soviets is not historical.

Glad we agree on something.

Oh, we should increase the Soviet counter mix to 600 1-4 and also increase the Soviet Stacking limit to 4 units in 41, 5 units in 42 and 6 units in 43-44 and 8 units in 45.

But I think if you take a moment to analyze the counter mix and what it represents you might think differently about your second point.

Separate divisions (in Counter mix) = 297
4-4 corps (each 3 div) = 75 x 3= 225
5-5 corps (each 3 div) = 90 x 3= 270

Total = 297+225+270 = 772 infantry divisions (equivalents) in counter mix.  Which ones do you want to reduce.  

Stacking limits

1941 - 3 div at start transitioning to 5 division as soon a 4-4 corps is added to the stack.
1942 and later - usually a 5 division per hex stack increasing to twelve divisions plus artillery for attacks.

Just how many men do you think can fit in a hex.  The Soviets had more vehicles per unit, so their march columns actually required more road space.


When you look at these numbers I think you will find that most of the divisions Glantz cites in his Soviet OOB info are represented.  If anything the numbers for the Mech, Armored, and Artillery Corps are over represented in the counter mix because they greatly exceed the number the Soviets actually fielded.  For example I think the actual number for both tank and mech corps at any one time was 23 but there are 36 tank corps and 48 mech corps in the counter mix. So they appear to be over represented by about 300% given the historical record.

So on balance I think the Soviet player is given a counter selection that allows him to project the necessary combat power per hex even if you don't agree with the stacking limits the designers imposed.  The thing that confuses the stacking issue is that all countries except the Soviets are limited to divisions per stack.  The Soviets have corps units that represent multiple divisions, so they are the only country that can exceed the four divisions per hex stacking limit even if their stacking limit is only three per hex.

Now if you wanted to argue that the Soviets should be allowed to stack up to twelve "divisions" or 3 corps per stack then you might bend my logic, but not by much. Twelve 3-5 mech divisions would be 36 attack factors, while 3x8-6 would be only 24.  12 x2-5 would be 24 while 3 x 9-6 would be 27.  So there are trade offs but I could live with them.  If nothing else it would help the Soviets hold Leningrad which falls to easily and prevent the Axis player from hustling the Soviets into overstacks which then are eliminated because they can't move in 41.

On a related but different subject. The first tank corps appeared in April of 42 and were not successful in battle (not enough infantry in the mix).  They were reorganized and the mech corps started appearing in September of 42.  In my games I build or am facing mech and tank corps in the first winter, because there is no restriction on when they can be built.  So, while for historical accuracy we forbid the building the SS units until later in the war, we don't impose the same "historical" limitations on the Soviets.  While it may be good gaming it's not a good simulation.  I would like to see a variable counter mix that changes over time in a manner similar to the SB build limitations.  That is there would be a minimum number of each units type available to build all the time and this number would be incremented over time to better reflect the historic availability.


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