FWWC France 14 Musing and Wonderings

[CheerfullyInsane]

I may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but what that says to me is to the Russian every tool is a hammer and every target a nail.  I mean seriously, command radius 1......form up, hit hard, rotate battlations, do it again.  Divisional frontage MIGHT be 4 hexes, more likely 2

More like 7-8 hex for a Division. The Russian divisions are structured a little differently.

They usually come in 2 brigades of 8 battalions each.
Since the brigade HQs have a command radius of 1, they'll each take a 3-hex front. And since 8 battalions stack so deep, it's normally safe to leave a space between the two brigades.
The hard part is actually keeping divisional command. Division HQs come with a whopping 3-hex command  range.  

Good news is that each brigade also sports two decent MG battalions and a field-gun.
So there's no lack of firepower.

And of course, if all else fails you can return to the tried and tested Russian way of war; throw bodies at the enemy until they run out of ammo.

[Ricky B]

I have not even opened EP14 because I keep hearing about 1 hex command radius and I just don't need that kind of negativity in my life  

Sounds daunting I know but you can use the Russian infantry effectively if you use the correct tactics, the C quality boys are a tough nut to crack and there are just so many of them.........

I may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but what that says to me is to the Russian every tool is a hammer and every target a nail.  I mean seriously, command radius 1......form up, hit hard, rotate battlations, do it again.  Divisional frontage MIGHT be 4 hexes, more likely 2

That is about right Paul, if you want a solid front. Lots of reserve battalions to rotate in, just don't let the flanks collapse as the Russians. So very hard to maintain an attack that way, as things get so scattered. Grumpy and I are playing Lodz as Russians, in the winter, and I have 2 Russian Corps packed into about 11 hexes on defense, some brigade HQs are placed to support 3 front line hexes that wrap around.

[Mr Grumpy]

The long and the short of things for me are that FWWC is NOT PzC, and I'v had to unlearn things.  

Exactly why I wrote my article detailing the differences between PzC and FWWC, to a PzC veteran they look the same but oh boy they are so different, amazing that basically the same game engine can produce such a different feel to a game with just a few tweaks under the hood.

You haven't even mentioned cavalry yet? Learning how to best utilize their capabilities is a game within a game, once again they are oh so different to the cavalry unit types you see in PzC......

Nice.  That article could have saved me some early frustrations.  lol

The Cavalry I have not truly experienced yet.  The first small scenario I played PBEM had me defending as Beligians against a German Cavalry heavy force, and in my opinion the Cavalry had serious drawbacks, but again those were visual I did not "feel the pain" first person.  In the larger PBEM I'm currently playing I have been using the available French Cavalry (no Cav Divisions, just Divisional and Corps Level Cav units)  as Division and Corps Commanders I believe would have, to spot and to screen.  I think to see and experience a full blown offensive Cavalry charge you'd need more space than the map I'm currently on.  Maybe some opportunities in the CG scenarios, or based on what I know of history, out Tannenberg way.

Yup, that's why I try to point any PzC player who is going to try FWWC to that article.

Nothing more satisfying than a full blown cavalry charge that takes out some MG/FG units, however the trick is not then to lose heavily to return fire or assaults on your opponents next turn, cavalry loses are very valuable in terms of vp points for your opponent and you don't get any replacements so each charge has to be very carefully considered.