Prep bonus/penalty in land combat

[jwolf]

Can someone point me to some experts' take on this? Granted I have only a little experience, nevertheless I have NEVER received a prep bonus in combat, no matter how well prepared my troops were. On the other hand, I have received a prep penalty occasionally, particularly as Allies in the early war period. On the gripping hand, I just had a battle at a Japanese occupied base in China in which the Japanese defenders had a prep penalty. Well, I don't know what their level of prep was, but I suppose it must have been very low. But the weird thing is that NONE of my units was prepped for that location; they were all prepped or prepping for other bases in China. So how could the Japanese have been more poorly prepped than my Chinese attackers?

All that is to say I really have no idea in what way good or bad prep is determined within the game. All tips and comments would be most welcome.

[Lokasenna]

Prep is only for 3 things:

1) Defending a base. Without prep, you see the penalty like you have seen. I'm not sure if preparation is compared between the attackers and defenders, but I don't think so.

2) When landing at a location. I believe you know this one also.

3) An HQ can provide a bonus to your units attacking (and maybe defending? Never tried this one) at a base if the HQ is prepped for the base.


Also keep in mind that, apparently, even if an HQ is providing a bonus to the adjusted AV it may not show up as HQ(+). I have only seen HQ(+) once in my thousands of turns.

[BBfanboy]

I think the HQ+ result only shows up if your unit gets bonuses from both the Corp/Army level HQ and the Command HQ. That would be rare because Command HQs are rarely close enough to the target they are prepped for.

As for Prep +, I am not sure it exists. If your unit is fully prepped, that is expected. Less than fully prepped can get you a Prep -.