Axis minor countries changing sides

[Peter Stauffenberg]

You can still use Axis minors as coastal garrisons in the west. Nothing bad happens if you do. You just have to monitor the situation and know that if the minor power is conquered the unit you used as a garrison will change side. If you prior to losing the minor power rail the unit to the east then you won't experience a problem at all.

The best way for the Axis to use these minor power units is to put them on the east in front of their capital so the Russians must kill them before the capital falls.

I just mentioned that people might be less inclined using the Axis minors as coastal garrisons in e. g. 1944 when Overlord is imminent and the Soviets are about to overrun Balkans. Some times you don't have the rail capacity to rail the Axis minors to the east before the fall of the minor power.

This is perfectly fine with me and if you fail getting such a unit out you can always destroy the unit yourself with German units to recapture the port city before the Allies land.

Before it was a no-brainer to send Axis minors as coastal garrisons and keep them there. Now you might be better off using the Axis minors as partisan hunters in e. g. Greece and Yugoslavia and instead use German garrisons to occupy the French port cities.

[gerones]

I think it's historically reasonable that Germany would use Romanian/Hungarian/Bulgarian units in the west.

No romanian or bulgarian units were used in western front. And I have serious doubts that this would have been historically reasonable because of the relatively "comfortable" western front scenario compared with the war in Russia. Hitler wouldn´t have allowed that units from minor allies be deployed in France whilst the germans would be fighting fiercely against the soviets. There´s low probabilities that something like that would have happened.

So, romanian units were mainly used in Eastern front and they were heavily crushed by the soviets there, specially in Stalingrad. This is what also happens in CEAW GS when an Axis player uses romanian units in this scenario: they are almost annihilated because of their inferior tech level, severe winter, etc.

Bulgarian units did not participate in Eastern front but only in Yugoslavia and Greece, so it would be a little pain for the germans if Bulgaria is about to fall into soviet hands. Germans will have to garrison Greece and Yugoslavia with german units or (as historically happens) will have to withdraw from those territories.

I think this new coded rule will avoid this gamey and not historical way of garrison France cities with "cheap units" from Romania or Bulgaria or even more to use romanian and bulgarian units in France in antipartisans missions to gain some xp for them. IMHO, this is an exploitation that would be good to remove from the game.

[BuddyGrant]

This is perfectly fine with me and if you fail getting such a unit out you can always destroy the unit yourself with German units to recapture the port city before the Allies land.

Absolutely fine with me too, especially if we want to encourage the axis side to do what they did historically. That said, if the scenario I presented occurs you have to admit it would be a gamey & rather bizarre result: A unit far from the front lines and in the middle of 'enemy' territory suddenly changing sides .

In regards to the term "historically reasonable": Absolutely it would be historically reasonable for the axis to use minor country forces in the west. Germany did exactly that with someof the estimated 1.5 millionRussian conscriptsin the German army without concern for conditions in the west being more comfortable. As in CEAW GS, Germany became desperate for manpower as the war dragged on, and since the governments of the minor countries had little say in how and where their forces would be used it would be perfectly reasonable to send minor country forces west if the need was there. It seems to me that if the minor country involved was under attack that it would also be reasonable for Germany to return their troops to defend their own country, for morale concerns if nothing else.

Thinking out loud: This makes me wonder if we could consider some kind of improved effectiveness modifier if a unit is fighting within it's own national borders? That would encourage Germany to do what they would have done historically in my example scenario - Baltic troops returning to defend their homelands. It also makes sense that units from all nations would be a much tougher foe when defending their own homes & cities.