Command Ops 2 Tip: Rest your units in cold weather and maintain supply

Cold weather and massive Russian attacks that encircle units are things to worry about in “The Korsun Project” data pack.

How weather impacts rest

You might not know this, but the weather in Command Ops is a gameplay factor beyond visibility, air availability, and movement; cold weather can impact a unit’s ability to recover from fatigue.  So, on the Eastern Front, where cold weather is likely, and prolonged periods of fighting are the name of the game, resting your fatigued units over longer scenarios is critical.  What’s more, resting them in the rear, urban areas is a must.

 

From the manual:

“Whenever units are stationary and either resting, defending or waiting, their fatigue will reduce. Resting troops recover fastest. In cold weather, your troops will recover faster in urban terrain.”

Admittedly, in shorter scenarios, fatigue is less of an issue.  But in longer scenarios, where time is measured in days; accumulating fatigue impacts almost everything a unit can do, so keep the cold in mind as your unit fatigue levels rise from prolonged combat and have a plan to withdraw formations from the line to rest whenever possible.

At Korsun, initially finding urban terrain for resting though will be hard to do for the Russians, as most units will start in open terrain and any urban areas they enter will be in or near the combat zone and make effective rest nearly impossible.  German commanders, however, will be able to cycle troops in and out of the frontline, sending them kilometers away to relative safety.

Supply

Maintaining supply is another critical task for battlefield commanders.  In the screengrab above, Russian units are encircling German formations at a frightening pace.  You will find as the German commander that keeping your supply lines open or moving units back into supply is a full-time job and something I believe you need to micro-manage and not leave to the AI.  

1) To see units and their supply lines, mouse over “Cmd” in the bottom toolbar until it says: “Display lines.” 

2) Next, click on the button to change to “Sup.”  This will display supply lines from bases to units in the field.  Red lines indicate a unit is out of supply and green lines indicate a unit is in supply.

If you see red lines, consider moving the impacted units as their inability to receive supply will soon become an issue.

Keep in mind though, this supply line report is not real-time and may contain hours old data. 

From the manual:

“Also note that the status is not necessarily current. It is based on the time the supply line was last determined for the units. This may be several hours old and the situation may now be different – eg. it may show as open but now it is obvious they are cut off. (The reason why current data is not displayed here, is that the processor load to determine the different supply routes would slow the game down inordinately.)”

Having fresh supply data will prove critical for planning purposes and strategic decisions, so make sure you have it before you make a major move.  

At Korsun, I have struggled to keep my supply lines intact in the longer scenarios where more Russian forces are brought to bear.  Perhaps the main reason why is that Russian unit density per square kilometer at Korsun is higher than any other Command Ops scenario that I have played and the terrain is relatively open, which makes blocking every Russian thrust forward nearly impossible.  

Looking ahead

I am getting closer to releasing the second and third scenarios from “The Korsun Pocket Project.”  They are:

“Konev Feints” – A fictional scenario set on Jan 22, 1944.

“Konev Attacks” – A historical scenario set on Jan 25, 1944, detailing the 389th’s defense of the German line.

To play the first scenario, “Lang’s Challenge,” please go here on STEAM or download this scenario directly from dropbox here.