Experience

[SlickWilhelm]

Hey fellas, I'm trying to figure out when it's worth it to add reinforcements, and when not to.

If I have unit x, let's say a Soviet Army. It's currently at strength 9. If I add that one extra point of reinforcements, I lose 10% experience.

If I manage to keep this unit at str 9 for a long time, in which the unit is much more experienced...will I always incur that 10% experience penalty when I add the reinforcement?

I assume so, but just wanted to make sure that a unit that has 3 stars of experience doesn't lose as much experience as a unit with no stars when adding reinforcements.

[Bylandt11]

AFAIK experience loss is linear. Units with high or low experience lose just as much. Generally if is better to reinforce regularly. There's no point in keeping a unit at 5 strength, even with 3 stars. You will have to reinforce, sooner or later.

Don't count too much on unit experience. Even 2 star units are very rare. Generally units will lose more experience by replacing the losses than they win by the fighting which caused the losses. The only experience that is lasting is that of your HQ's.

[bo]

Slick Willy is at it again [;)] If I remember right there was a game maybe Panzer General or Panzer Corp where you had a choice when using replacement troops, for example I have unit who has been reduced from a 10 to a 7 after combat, I could buy standard troops to fill the gap at a standard price, but I would lose that valuable experience and that is a correct way to do it. [loss of experience for the unit]

My suggestion would be have two cost columns, replace the lost units with inexperienced troops and lose the critical experience in the next battle, that cost would be minor, or bring in elite replacements at a much larger cost but you would not lose any experience in the next battle.

Now maybe in WW2 that was very hard to do, where do you get these experienced troops from? Just a suggestion that maybe Bill and Hubert had already considered this.



Bo

[Flaviusx]

Personally, I hardly ever even use this feature. At the macro level it is pure chrome. You have to jump through too many hoops here to take advantage of it. Nor is it very cost effective imo.

[bo]

ORIGINAL: Flaviusx

Personally, I hardly ever even use this feature. At the macro level it is pure chrome. You have to jump through too many hoops here to take advantage of it. Nor is it very cost effective imo.

I am not that smart could you please explain "chrome", not cost effective, I hardly use this feature, use this feature, what feature, it is not in this game.

Bo

[Rosseau]

A lot of my time is spent in looking to reinforce units. I will reinforce until I see an experience loss and then undo it one step down. This is probably obsessive behavior on my part, and does become tedious unless engagement area is absolutely critical.

[sPzAbt653]

Even 2 star units are very rare.

Except for the Subs, which easily get to 3 stars as they don't take losses when raiding but do get experience [;)]

[SlickWilhelm]

ORIGINAL: rosseau

A lot of my time is spent in looking to reinforce units. I will reinforce until I see an experience loss and then undo it one step down. This is probably obsessive behavior on my part, and does become tedious unless engagement area is absolutely critical.

Yep, I tend to operate the same way.

[SlickWilhelm]

ORIGINAL: Bylandt11

AFAIK experience loss is linear. Units with high or low experience lose just as much. Generally if is better to reinforce regularly. There's no point in keeping a unit at 5 strength, even with 3 stars. You will have to reinforce, sooner or later.

Don't count too much on unit experience. Even 2 star units are very rare. Generally units will lose more experience by replacing the losses than they win by the fighting which caused the losses. The only experience that is lasting is that of your HQ's.

Thanks, I agree with your assessment.

[James Taylor]

Experience must be nurtured, planned for, it will not "just happen".

[bo]

Made a comment above about replacing units with a choice, you pay X number as per game rules of MPP's for regular replacements or a substantial cost for elite replacement that would not lower your experience for the unit, it would come down, to wow I have to think about that one [;)] It is called decisions.

One post I have no idea what the poster meant. I will take the blame for that [:(] I would appreciate comments yea or nay for Bill and Hubert to consider this option.

Bo

[Flaviusx]

ORIGINAL: bo

Made a comment above about replacing units with a choice, you pay X number as per game rules of MPP's for regular replacements or a substantial cost for elite replacement that would not lower your experience for the unit, it would come down, to wow I have to think about that one [;)] It is called decisions.

One post I have no idea what the poster meant. I will take the blame for that [:(] I would appreciate comments yea or nay for Bill and Hubert to consider this option.

Bo

That was me, I think.

To put this plainly, the original poster asked when you should or shouldn't use this.

My answer: never. Not worth the bother. Not cost effective. There is always something better to do with your MPPs, not to mention the opportunity cost involved with keeping a unit out of action for an extra turn solely to add a single strength point.

Pure chrome. You'd have to make this a lot easier for me to consider it worthwhile. The game's combat model is far too atritional in nature for any of this to make sense. Subs and other naval units raiding are a possible exception, and even they don't make much sense due to opportunity cost reasons. 1 point per turn kills the deal for me. If you could top off the unit to its actual experience level all at once, then, maybe. Having to top it off, and then take one additional turn per point past that? No way. And that's leaving aside the actual up front cost.

This is chrome.

[SlickWilhelm]

ORIGINAL: Flaviusx



My answer: never. Not worth the bother. Not cost effective. There is always something better to do with your MPPs, not to mention the opportunity cost involved with keeping a unit out of action for an extra turn solely to add a single strength point.

Are you saying that you leave your units at whatever strength they are no matter what? So if a unit gets reduced to strength 3, you leave it in line? Is it more cost effective to let the unit get eliminated and then purchase it again rather than spend MPPs to reinforce it?

I wonder if you always play Axis. As the Allies(Soviets), I can't afford to let my units get eliminated at the beginning of the Barbarossa campaign.

[gravyface_]

ORIGINAL: Flaviusx

ORIGINAL: bo

Made a comment above about replacing units with a choice, you pay X number as per game rules of MPP's for regular replacements or a substantial cost for elite replacement that would not lower your experience for the unit, it would come down, to wow I have to think about that one [;)] It is called decisions.

One post I have no idea what the poster meant. I will take the blame for that [:(] I would appreciate comments yea or nay for Bill and Hubert to consider this option.

Bo

That was me, I think.

To put this plainly, the original poster asked when you should or shouldn't use this.

My answer: never. Not worth the bother. Not cost effective. There is always something better to do with your MPPs, not to mention the opportunity cost involved with keeping a unit out of action for an extra turn solely to add a single strength point.

Pure chrome. You'd have to make this a lot easier for me to consider it worthwhile. The game's combat model is far too atritional in nature for any of this to make sense. Subs and other naval units raiding are a possible exception, and even they don't make much sense due to opportunity cost reasons. 1 point per turn kills the deal for me. If you could top off the unit to its actual experience level all at once, then, maybe. Having to top it off, and then take one additional turn per point past that? No way. And that's leaving aside the actual up front cost.

This is chrome.

I'm afraid no one here knows of this "this" you speak of, my friend. Are you talking about adding Elite Replacements and oversizing the unit (i.e. from strength 10 to 11)?

[Yogol]

What I do is this...

1/ I select a few units as my "XP-units".

2/ I only attack with them if the odds tell me I won't take damage.

3/ If I take damage anyway (maximum 1), I strengthen them to 10.

4/ When I have a star, I give them elite-replacements.


This way, I can have some elite-units, who will wreak havoc on softened targets.

But...
a/ it's a lot of extra work
b/ it doesn't help me get decisive victory on maximum difficulty level: I simply can not take the 3 Russian cities on this difficulty level, no matter what.