Elite reinforcements, need help

[bo]

After many many hours of playing this game I still do not understand "elite reinforcements".

Outside of my para unit which had no combat action and one armored unit I have never been offered a elite reinforcement, they mention bars in the book, do they mean the dots on the unit, I have a lot of units with great experience but no offer to upgrade to elites, what am I doing wrong?

And does experience really matter in this game?

Bo

[bobarossa]

You can only add elite reinforcements when you have a 10+ strength unit that has a full experience point showing. It's hard to get as reinforcements lower your experience so quickly. I'm in June 1942 and have maybe a half dozen that qualify. You can only add one strength point per experience point.

[James Taylor]

Does experience matter? Hell yes!

Bo, its like a triumvirate of enhancements, experience is like numero uno, then supply/readiness, and finally HQ attachment.

You max those things, those units are unbeatable.

[bobarossa]

My question would be "does experience matter if I don't use elite reinforcements?" I rarely have the time to add elite reinforcements, especially since you can only add one at a time. I can't keep the unit out of play that long. Winter is short, thanks to 44 day turns.

[Solaristics]

ORIGINAL: bobarossa
I rarely have the time to add elite reinforcements, especially since you can only add one at a time. I can't keep the unit out of play that long.

I agree, in many dozens of hours of play I've made exactly one elite reinforcement, and that was to an artillery piece that couldn't do anything else that turn. The tempo and economy of the game is such that there is very rarely both spare time and spare resource to add that +1 cherry on the top. If I've got a 10 strength unit, it always seems better to use it this turn than have it not do anything useful just so it can become an 11 strength unit next turn.

[BillRunacre]

ORIGINAL: bobarossa

My question would be "does experience matter if I don't use elite reinforcements?" I rarely have the time to add elite reinforcements, especially since you can only add one at a time. I can't keep the unit out of play that long. Winter is short, thanks to 44 day turns.

Yes, if a unit is experienced then it will suffer lower losses in combat, so it's not necessary to assign Elite Reinforcements in order to benefit from experience. But they can help if you have the time and MPPs available to do so.

[Malor]

Bill,

A nice future option would be the ability to pay double (or adjustable additional % based on Research categories or simply a manual entry on option screen) for elite replacements when a unit is under 10 strength so the earned unit experience is not lost when adding replacements. This would make it possible to have more experienced units on the board, but at a higher cost that would be offset by preventing other units getting an upgrade or replacements at all, making the spending of MPPs more of a challenge for the player. This probably would make it difficult to code for the AI to use though.

Adding the additional cost to the option screen with different % for both sides would allow for it to be used for play balance. An experienced human play could help the AI or another human by charging more to themselves.

Malor

[AlbertN]

It does not really help in the way experience and elite reinforcements go. As difference between 10 vs 11 strong unit is minimal, and that "1" extra point is easily lost away.
A radical change is required in both experience and how elite reinforcements go.

[bo]

ORIGINAL: James Taylor

Does experience matter? Hell yes!

Bo, its like a triumvirate of enhancements, experience is like numero uno, then supply/readiness, and finally HQ attachment.

You max those things, those units are unbeatable.

When you post James, I duck [;)] because you pull no punches, you are very accurate in your answers, and very helpful and a credit to the posting community.

Bo

[James Taylor]

Shut up Bo! [:'(] I'm not a credit to nuthin, can't even spel corectlee. I put my pance on won legg at a time, just like the rest of U.[8|]

Anyway, the thing about over strengthening a unit is it helps to get to the next level of experience, makes a unit less susceptible to a loss.

Once you get them into the 13 / 14 range they are monsters. I get lots of them to 11-12 but those magic upper numbers.[8D]

This is not a hard thing to do, but it takes a little planning. Make sure you use those units identified for accumulation of experience to finish off weak enemy units, the ones that have been beaten down by your assault units.

You must protect them early, build them late, and they can turn the tide.

[bo]

I will not shut up and that is a mean thing to say especially from a man who is from the great state of Texas that gave us the Alamo and Ted Cruz, you have a problem with free Speech [;)]

Oh ok I will shut up and try getting some of these units upgraded, it took me a long time to understand the power of supply [&:] so maybe I will get this solved sometime this year.

Bo

[James Taylor]

You just found the way to my heart, deep in the heart of Texas, my humble apologies, Bo you may converse on anything deemed acceptable to the forum or otherwise.[:D]

[bo]

ORIGINAL: James Taylor

You just found the way to my heart, deep in the heart of Texas, my humble apologies, Bo you may converse on anything deemed acceptable to the forum or otherwise.[:D]

It is the otherwise that is making me nervous James [:D]

Bo

[johnvmcnichols1973]

ORIGINAL: Malor

Bill,

A nice future option would be the ability to pay double (or adjustable additional % based on Research categories or simply a manual entry on option screen) for elite replacements when a unit is under 10 strength so the earned unit experience is not lost when adding replacements. This would make it possible to have more experienced units on the board, but at a higher cost that would be offset by preventing other units getting an upgrade or replacements at all, making the spending of MPPs more of a challenge for the player. This probably would make it difficult to code for the AI to use though.

Adding the additional cost to the option screen with different % for both sides would allow for it to be used for play balance. An experienced human play could help the AI or another human by charging more to themselves.

Malor

+1

[Steely Glint]

How many of us are Texans?

[Yogol]

ORIGINAL: Malor

Bill,

A nice future option would be the ability to pay double (or adjustable additional % based on Research categories or simply a manual entry on option screen) for elite replacements when a unit is under 10 strength so the earned unit experience is not lost when adding replacements. This would make it possible to have more experienced units on the board, but at a higher cost that would be offset by preventing other units getting an upgrade or replacements at all, making the spending of MPPs more of a challenge for the player. This probably would make it difficult to code for the AI to use though.

Adding the additional cost to the option screen with different % for both sides would allow for it to be used for play balance. An experienced human play could help the AI or another human by charging more to themselves.

Malor

This has been suggested before and personally, I am fan of this too. It gives you a feeling of advancement, to see your units get stronger and stronger.

It's one of the (very few) aspects that I always missed in Strategic Command: your units do not get "heroes" or "leaders", nor is it possible to accumulate experience for infantry, tanks or fighters.
You can get experience on HQs or artillery and even on some of your bombers when you're very, very careful, but for most tropps, it's impossible to get experience when you play on the highest difficulty level.

[Malor]

On a a division or smaller unit level, a leader would work well, but we are moving armies and corps around the map without any prior planning required. The abstraction of SC3 is the reason I like playing it. We can click on a unit and say go here or attack there and all of the simulated "micro-men" inside the unit handle all of the details for us.

I would not appreciate heroes or leaders in this game so hopefully they will not be added. The scale is simply to high for an individual to have an impact. The HQ units serve that purpose as does the ability to over-strength a unit due to experience.

Malor