East Front: Forgotten Battles - Now with Medical units

[John Given]

wow Petri, you have really done us proud!

There are a few things I wanted to comment on, so here goes;

"The recovery of disrupted units into their normal status is to simulate them being relieved of their wounded comrades."

That's a good way of looking at it - yes.

"these units are leaders. There is no separate way to present morale boost. As such, they can of course perform other duties the Unit type=Commander units can do. As leaders, you don't see the unit bitmap in unit info, but a leader pic instead. As leaders, they can spot too."

I was afraid of that, but if it can't be helped than it can't be helped. On the other hand, since medic-class units won't usually be right on the front lines, any enemy units they see should will be minimized.

"if you see them used in offence, they are legitimate targets. For this reason, their VP value is zero."

Considering their latent combat-boost ability, which is 'fixed' in place, I suppose this is the best compromise.

"if an enemy field hospital is left behind your advancing forces, they can be captured into POWs with an assault without a negative result for victory score."

I agree with this mainly because they can spot - although I would prefer a 'gentleman's agreement' on not using medical units for spotting purposes, this is again, I think, the best compromise. Also, it would be rather silly to capture an enemy hospital and LOSE points, so I agree with you again, Petri.

a. "Added difficulty, too. Like with Battalion Aid Stations, it took for some planning to have them near but not too near the front lines. Especially as they have a 100 AP load / unload cost, the risk of losing them to enemy is real."

b. "As for medics, having them on an out-of-LOS hex just behind the front line works very well with my practice of rotating disrupted units out of front line to recover. Stretcher bearers were kept busy, while the recovered platoons became available sooner than without medics."

c. "All the above could be simulated with placing your leader there too, but this way you can actually free your battalion leaders to be much more active with their combat duties, instead of being stuck behind the lines to boost disrupted troops."

A,B, and C (letter emphasis mine) are the three prime reasons why I brought the medic unit idea to the club in the first place. Thank you, Petri.

"Caveat: as the medical units are leaders, they need to sit on a proper level of the OOB. Unless you want to dedicate the medics for their parent units only, they all need to sit on a top level. I provided the scenaro designers with Coy, Bn, Regt and Div OOBs, but they should remember to distribute these units within the OOB to have them with any effect. For the scenario I provided for test, I put them all on top level, so they will help any wounded units regardless of their organization."

Yes, and I brought this up in the discussion threads last month. It actually occurred to me when KKR mentioned that medics would heal any units, not just the ones they are 'attached' to.

The main reason for all of this - to add fun, variety, and more tactical options - the very core of our hobby.