Command Points Calculations

[G-Burg Bullet]

Hi All... I need some help with the how CP's are calculated. I get the general concept, but some of the calculations just don't make sense to me. For example, I'm playing the Shiloh Battle scenario as the Union. It says that Grant is providing 21 CP's. I can't figure out where they are coming from. What I know:

3-star Army commander: +12
"Good Subordinates" ability: +2 plus an additional +1 per "ability level"
Signal unit: +1 plus an additional +1 per "ability level"

First off, what "ability level" are they referring to? Ability level of the leader? Where do you find that? Putting aside the "ability level" bonuses, I only see 15 CP's above.

Where are the others coming from?

[melvi]

Umhh lets see if i can help...

.....
First off, what "ability level" are they referring to?

Sorry if it sounds gimp... but the "ability level" refers to the level of the ability... If you move your mouse above the small icons on the left botton side of the general portrait or special units portraits ( when you "select" them) a tooltip will appear telling you " Whatever ability name ( level X)", where that X is the number you are looking for, the "ability level". Most of the abilities can go from 1 to 3 iirc, they improve as your general either is promoted or he gains experience ( someone confirm this please, i am not sure). Not all of the abilities will go up though, for instance the HQ support abilities wont improve ( if i am not wrong..). Here you can see some "examples":

[ATTACH]26406[/ATTACH]

Well i had not realiced the mouse pointer doesnt appear on the screenshots, but it is above the special engineer ability in first and above the first of the 3 abilities Grant has on the second.

Sorry if these are poor examples, but do you know what?.. i am playing a long campaign Union side and it is early feb. 63 and sadly i must admit that after looking for a general with an ability at lvl 2..... i have fount out that i have none Maybe i havent fought enought battles with any of them to get one of their abilities to lvl 2, bah.

Another thing i "discovered" is that you can only know the ability level if you move your mouse above the icons in the portrait. You cant check the ability level opening the unit info screen.

[ATTACH]26404[/ATTACH][ATTACH]26405[/ATTACH]

As you can see in the example above, the ability level doesnt show in the tooltip when i put the mouse pointer on Grant ability icon, but it appears for the engineer.. .dunno if thats a bug or working as intended.

In adition keep in mind that the sentences " this ability applies if the leader is in command of the stack" and " this ability applies to all elements of the stack" are very important. There are abilities that will only work if the owner general is in command of the stack ( the one most to the left in the stack) and there are others that will work even if the owner general isnt in command.

I hope this helps

Regards:

Melvi

[G-Burg Bullet]

Thanks very much for such a thorough answer. It is quite helpful. That notwithstanding, I still can only account for 17 CP's now that the "ability level" riddle is solved:

3-star Army commander: +12
"Good Subordinates" ability: +2 plus an additional +1 for "ability level" 1
Signal unit: +1 plus an additional +1 for "ability level" 1

That's 17 total. I'm still 4 short. Coincidentally, that's Grant's Strategic Bonus (6 - 2 = 4) Do generals in charge of an army provide the strategic bonus to "themselves?" Otherwise, I'm not sure where the other 4 are.

[Pocus]

Yes, there is a bug about that which is fixed in the next patch.

[G-Burg Bullet]

Yes, there is a bug about that which is fixed in the next patch.

Oh, good. I was racking my brain on that one. Just couldn't figure it out. Thanks.

[BigDuke66]

Was it ever fixed?
Still can't makes sense of some CP values I get, the problems seems to be if the leader gets stacked with a unit.

Buell(2-2-2) 3* gets 8 if I stack him with divisions, as 3* he gets 12 what is halved, so he should get 6 not 8. If he is alone he gets 6, why does he get 8 when stacked with a division?

Some goes for Banks:
Banks(2-0-2) 3* corps CO gets 17, as 3* he gets 12 and has a signal company what gives 2, as McClellan(1-1-2) is the Army leader he gets -1, so overall he should get 13 not 17. If he is alone he gets 11(13 with the signal company) what is in line with McClellans -1, why does he get 17 when stacked with a division?

And some goes for McDowell:
McDowell(2-2-2) 3* corps CO gets 15, as 3* he gets 12, as McClellan(1-1-2) is the Army leader he gets -1, so overall he should get 11 not 15. If he is alone he gets 11 what is in line with McClellans -1, why does he get 15 when stacked with a division?


In the manual p. 35 mentions:
"Grouping Units into Divisions whenever possible helps you optimize Command
points usage (see below). A Division leader is required and provides bonuses to the
Division. This can be in addition to the commanding officer of the Stack to which
the Division belongs (whatever the nature of the Stack: Army Stack, Corps Stack,
or an Independent Stack). Since a Division is a Unit, it cannot include more than
18 elements."
So does the division leader give bonus?
And if so, why 2 points to Buell and 4 to Banks & McDowell no matter how many divisions are stack with them?

And while we're at it, in the manual p. 37 mentions:
"Units in the region are part of a Corps or attached to an Army which includes
a capable Aide de Camp (i.e., A non-Army commander leader with a Strategic
Rating of 4+ who is in a the Stack): 1"
Strangely formulated, does it mean I need a none-combined leader(no division leader or leader of a brigade) within an army or corps stack with a strategic rating of 4 or higher to get 1 CP?

[Cardinal Ape]

Yes, extra commanders provide additional CP's to the stack, they don't have to be leading a division, any commander will do.

The reason for the difference of 2 CP's to 4 is that all CP's provided by commanders within the Army/Corp structure is doubled. The base CP for a formed army is 12. The amount of CP can increase based on the strategic rating of the army commander; for each point beyond 2, 1 extra CP will be provided to the army and all attached corps. For example, a 6 strategic rating Sherman with the 'Good Subordinates' trait in charge of an army would have 19 CP's when alone (12 from army command, 4 from his strategic rating, 3 from his trait.) The maximum amount of CP generated through generals is 16, so Sherman can add another general to gain 4 more CP's. Add in an HQ support for another 2 CP, and a ballon for another 1 CP, bringing the total to 26 (12 from Sherman's army command, 4 from subordinates, 4 from strategic rating, 3 from traits, 3 from support units.)

As far as I know, the aide de camp bonus doesn't work, it may have been made obsolete by the HQ support units.

[BigDuke66]

I think I got it.
The really important point(that is missing in the manual) is that if the max value of 16 is reached by the base value of the leaders it's done.
So it's not like I can add up 1* division COs that give just 2 CP till I reach 16, it doesn't work that way.