Units and Stacks

A / Units Information and Data

The main tool at the disposal of a player in SGS is the Combat Units (CU). Such a unit, be it used on land, air or sea, is the one that directly fights in battle. CU always have the same type of parameters, as indicated below (see Illustration 9.1): See examples below to find the disposition of information on various kinds of CUs.

The information on the unit counter, whether numerical or iconic, is presented in a similar way for air, naval or land units:

Top
• Top left, the owning nation flag (sometimes below it an icon 1 to show its type, e.g. artillery, fighter, tank)
• Top center, the unit’s name 3 (usually shortened)
• Top right, in a blue diamond, the Morale Factor (MF) 2 if the value is in red color instead of white, it means it is reduced by a penalty. If green, it has received a bonus.
• Some units are costing VP when lost (or giving VP to the enemy when he kills them). This is shown by the Name 4 being colored in dark red instead of white.

Center
• In the center the unit’s picture or icon 8
• If the unit is a combat unit, on the middle-left en side, there is a hit point gauge 9 (one white rectangle/point). Non combat units (support) or leaders don’t have hit points bars.
When the unit is damaged, the white turns grey (as shown on the British 4th Brigade Tank unit in the above display).
• If the unit has some special characteristics, like Mines , Antitank or Elite , a special icon 5 (for instance mines here) is displayed on the right, below the morale diamond.

Bottom
• Bottom left, inside the white square, the Stacking value (SV) 10.
• Bottom mid-left, above the icon, the Attack Factor 11 usually a value between 0 and 9. When the background is colored green, this unit is a booster (see last point below). When value is reduced by cards or event, the figure is colored in red. When it is boosted, this background is colored in green 16.
• Bottom mid-right, above the icon, the Defense Factor 12, usually a value between 0 and 9. When value is reduced by cards or event, the figure is colored in red. When it is boosted, it is colored in green.
• Bottom right, the Movement 13 potential in points, known as Movement Points (MP). Heavy units have a black background behind the figure, and motorized units show the figure on top of a circle. Immobile units have a dash instead of a figure, and a triangle pointing up behind (to show the static state). When value is reduced by cards or event, the figure is colored in red. When it is boosted, it is colored in green.
• Some units have a large size and thus a multiple Rate of Fire 14 which is shown by the number of dots to the left of the attack and/or defense values (usually Divisions have a ROF of 2, while most other units have only 1).
• Some units may attack in multiple domains, like the Naval Bomber shown on the far right. This is indicated by displaying a Star 15 at the right of the unit’s attack and / or defense value.
• Some leaders or support units may be considered as boosters (an icon showing the boosted feature/icon such has with a + sign). Boosters give bonus to attack, defense, morale or a combination of those.
If this is the case, the value is presented above a green background (e.g. O’Connor is an attack booster).
• Some leaders may also reduce (not increase) the stacking value of the stack they are in (e.g. Rommel has -2, in essence increasing stacking by 2 points for his other units in stack)

All this information (and many other) is also found inside the unit detail pop-up tooltip – see Illustration 9.1a above – that automatically shows up if you hover the mouse pointer on top of the unit counter stamp in the unit panel.

B / Leader Units

The information on leaders is the same, with the addition of the stars showing the rank (between 1 and 3), plus the following data:

• Hierarchy: shown only in the leaders detail panel, it’s a letter that allows distinguishing the hierarchical order of leaders of same rank (i.e. same number of stars)

Maximum Command and Command Penalties

In the game, leaders can efficiently command only a certain number of units. This is calculated in terms of units’ stacking points (see C below).

The * leaders may command without penalty up to 10 STACKING POINTS
The ** leaders may command without penalty up to 20 STACKING POINTS
The *** leaders may command without penalty up to 40 STACKING POINTS

If a leader commands more units than his allowed maximum, he receives a penalty of -1 to its MF (Moral) and-1 to its CF (Combat), both cumulative for each extra 5 STACKING POINTS in excess of its command maximum.

This is called Command or Grade Penalty, as per Illustration on the right

Some leaders may also reduce (not increase) the stacking value of the stack they are in. See also C/ next.

Example: Rommel has -2, in essence increasing stacking by 2 points for his other units in stack)

Leaders and Combats

Leaders are a great bonus, when they are good, for battles, on two grounds:

• Their Attack and Defense factors will influence the combat performance of all the combat units in their stack.
• Their MF value influences also the stack morale (the higher it is the better as it is added to the battle morale, used to determine when the stack is demoralized and ceases to fight).

See Combat Section.

C / Stacking

In the game, stacking is not unlimited. Each terrain type (and sometimes even specific regions) has its own Stacking Value (SV). Similarly, there is stacking in the air for each region (set at 4 in this game for regions without airfields or with small airfields, or to the airfield value if there is one which is higher than 4). Every unit of every kind has also a Stacking Value, usually 0 for leaders, very small units, forts and mines, 1 for battalion to regiments, 2 for brigades and 4 for divisions (some divisions, lightly equipped, may cost 3). Most air units cost 1 (see also New Air Rules (stacking)).

When you toggle ON the Stacking Button 2 on the minimap top tab, the game displays for each region two numerical information 1. The first figure is the current sum of units’ stacking values (all added) present in the region. The second value, on the right, is the maximum SV the region can hold. When the figures turn red, you have reached the maximum allowed.

E / Overruns

When during movement a land stack with combat units moves into an enemy region that contains enemy CU without any bunkers, forts or any kind of defensive immobile unit, there can be an overrun situation. A calculation is made between the moving stack total hit points and the defending stack total hit points. If the ratio is 10:1 (ten to one) or more, the defending CU are overrun and eliminated. The operation uses up 1 MP of all units inside the moving stack which may continue moving if it
has sufficient MP left. Overrun is solved without battle. See Illustration 9.5 below.

If not enough PM are available to pay the overrun cost, or if the ratio is not met, or if at least one defending units is of immobile or bunker type (i.e. defenses, shown by triangle below the movement factor- see Units description) a land battle will occur instead.

F / Units and Stacks

When you put the mouse over one of your stacks (not the enemy’s), a popup window will appear next to the stack, showing its actual content in terms of individual units (combat, support, leaders). This is a rather practical shortcut to the stack panel and allows you to view your stacks’ contents without too many clicks. See Illustration 9.6 below.

G / Information Windows

As a rule, a right-click on a individual unit, structure or region will open the information window on same, as shown in previous paragraphs. This function is always active on friendly elements, and only on regions and structures (not units) for enemy elements. Those windows remain open until the player decides to close them by click on the X symbol located on the top right of the window.

H / Manipulation in the different phases

Most of the time, a left click on a game element will select it (stack of units, card, region). During movement, a right-click will launch the simplified movement procedure (see Handling Units and Stacks on the Mapboard just below).

Handling Units from or to Windows

This function is not active for now in SGS Afrika Korps, as not required.

Handling of Cards

See Section X next. Here also click-drag function is used. Left-click on the card, then drag it to the location of the screen where required (it is usually shown with a highlight).

Handling Units and Stacks on the Mapboard: splitting and moving

SPLITTING

The click-drag function can be used within a region for units as a useful way to split units from a stack (or you can also use the splitting button – see below). Just left-click on the selected unit and drag it to the location within the same region where you want it. See Illustration 9.7 below

You can do so as many times as you want (provided the region is large enough to accommodate sufficient space to put stacks side by side). Each time you can either create a new stack, or you can drop the selected units onto another newly-created stack in same region (the mouse counter will change to show that, to two squares moving on top of each other).

Another way to split is simply to select which units you want to take out from the stack (click on them inside the unit display) and then use the split button located at the right of the units stack panel (see yellow arrow in Illustration 9.8 below), push it, and then a new stack with the selected units is created inside the same region. This stack will be the one automatically selected by default (if you want to go back again into the initial stack, you need to re-select it). See Illustration 9.8 below.

MOVING

When moving stacks (or even a single unit which is de facto a stack by itself) to another region on the map, you can click and then drag or push the whole stack towards the destination, without releasing the click. Releasing the mouse is equivalent to ending the movement where the mouse pointer is located. See Illustration 9.9 below

You can move over more than one regions, the map filter and the tooltip will adjust to it, as shown in Illustration 9.9 above.

Another way to move units and stack, even simpler (and much better if you plan to move on very long distances), is to select the stack (see 1 below, the O’Connor stack), then right click on it (mouse pointer change to a horizontal arrow, see in yellow square in Illustration 9.10 below). The map will show various colored filters indicated every region in range (light blue green color 2), regions you can reach but cannot enter because of overstacking (in purple color 3) and region you can reach but where your move will trigger a battle (orange color 4) because region is currently enemy. Then (left) click on destination region and the move is immediately implemented.

I / Fog of War

The player is not allowed to examine the content of enemy stacks. The only thing he can see is the stack on the map, with no other indication than the shape of the background counter and, in some case, the image of the most numerous unit in the enemy stack (by default a leader picture if one is present). If your nation benefits from Fog of War advantage, the enemy will only see a flag on your stacks (see 2 below), and nothing else. See Illustration 9.12 below.

Also, every region which is not adjacent to your own stacks is fully covered by the fog of war, and usually displayed under a darker layout, as shown in 2 in Illustration 9.2 above.

Last, some cards allow the player to examine the enemy stacks (via spying, reconnaissance, leaks, etc…). When such a card is played, the player will see the stacks he is allowed to examine with a yellow highlight. Clicking on the stack de-activates the highlight and shows the stack content in a separate window.

Note that the information thus received is only valid during the current player’s phase and will be lost in another phase. It will be lost also if you play another card immediately after it, so be careful to take good note of the feedback as it will not be possible to re-access it later.