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I am having a bit of trouble understanding exactly how replacements work. I have read the manual, the wiki, some assorted threads here along with a forum search and haven't quite found the answers I am looking for. Based on the above reading and playing from April-July '61 a few times here are my (likely mis-)understandings:

1. Each replacement chit is a single, 100% strength element.

2. Each chit can be used in two ways:

[INDENT]A. The chit as a whole can be added to a brigade that needs/wants it. The manual says it will do this when an entire element is lost in battle. As the Union I bought a couple of cavalry replacements very early and they were added to existing Infantry Brigades before they were ever involved in combat. Outside of the 18 elements per division, is there any control on what replacements elements can or will be added to which brigades?

B. Any understrength elements can draw replacements from the replacement pool. Does this mean that the manpower in each individual chit is tracked separately and any brigade element can draw from any chit of the same type?[/INDENT]

3. Units that you build as Reinforcements will grow to strength on their own, but units that show up by event need replacements to get them up to strength. I tracked a couple of the divisions and brigades that showed up by event and while the strength number on the Roster page of the ledger increased (due to increased Cohesion I assume?) I didn't see any increase in the manpower numbers of each element.


I guess there is no actual question here, but if someone could verify and/or explain how these situations really work it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

sbr wrote:I am having a bit of trouble understanding exactly how replacements work. I have read the manual, the wiki, some assorted threads here along with a forum search and haven't quite found the answers I am looking for. Based on the above reading and playing from April-July '61 a few times here are my (likely mis-)understandings:

1. Each replacement chit is a single, 100% strength element.

Yep.

2. Each chit can be used in two ways:

[INDENT]A. The chit as a whole can be added to a brigade that needs/wants it. The manual says it will do this when an entire element is lost in battle. As the Union I bought a couple of cavalry replacements very early and they were added to existing Infantry Brigades before they were ever involved in combat. Outside of the 18 elements per division, is there any control on what replacements elements can or will be added to which brigades?[/INDENT]

You don't have any control over which elements get added to which units. Those cavalry elements were probably added to McDowell's army, which has a bunch of really big 2/3INF,1CAV,1Art brigades. Heer's a tip: if you select two of those brigades and move your cursor over the combine units button, you'll get a tooltip telling you how many of what elements each brigade can carry. That should help you figure out what replacements you need to fill that army up.

[INDENT]B. Any understrength elements can draw replacements from the replacement pool. Does this mean that the manpower in each individual chit is tracked separately and any brigade element can draw from any chit of the same type?[/INDENT]

I don't know the exact mechanics of it, but it does seem that understrength elements have a chance of drawing hit points from the replacement pool. Your replacement pool can take quite a hit as your armies draw replacements to make up for winter weather losses, even if you're not missing entire elements.

3. Units that you build as Reinforcements will grow to strength on their own, but units that show up by event need replacements to get them up to strength. I tracked a couple of the divisions and brigades that showed up by event and while the strength number on the Roster page of the ledger increased (due to increased Cohesion I assume?) I didn't see any increase in the manpower numbers of each element.

Most units that show up by event don't even need replacements. IIRC, only McDowell's and Patterson's the only Union forces that are given to you understrength, and McDowell's is the only one missing whole elements.

I guess there is no actual question here, but if someone could verify and/or explain how these situations really work it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

The developers/beta testers/just about everyone other than me can probably give you more detailed answers, but I think that's the basics.

dublish wrote:You don't have any control over which elements get added to which units. Those cavalry elements were probably added to McDowell's army, which has a bunch of really big 2/3INF,1CAV,1Art brigades. Heer's a tip: if you select two of those brigades and move your cursor over the combine units button, you'll get a tooltip telling you how many of what elements each brigade can carry. That should help you figure out what replacements you need to fill that army up.

Yep that was it, thanks for the tip that should help.

Most units that show up by event don't even need replacements. IIRC, only McDowell's and Patterson's the only Union forces that are given to you understrength, and McDowell's is the only one missing whole elements.

Yep now that I have gone back and looked it was McDowell's Army and the 5 Divisions that show up with him; every element of every brigade is at about 30%. So I do need to buy replacements to get those all up to full strength then.

The developers/beta testers/just about everyone other than me can probably give you more detailed answers, but I think that's the basics.

That helped, though anyone else can feel free to chime in.

For some more information about replacements etc. see the link below.

http://www.ageod-forum.com/showthread.php?t=16119&highlight=replacements

One other thing. It has been stated elsewhere that a stack can only get 1 element per turn (this becomes important when a division loses all of it's elements except artillery - which happens on occasion).

Good luck.

Jim-NC wrote:For some more information about replacements etc. see the link below.

http://www.ageod-forum.com/showthread.php?t=16119&highlight=replacements

One other thing. It has been stated elsewhere that a stack can only get 1 element per turn (this becomes important when a division loses all of it's elements except artillery - which happens on occasion).

Good luck.

Also when a division loses all of its elements except artillery... I've has a few 2INF/1Art brigades get an extra artillery element on occasion, leaving me with a 1INF/2Art brigade. It happens very rarely, and probably has something to do with me never having enough infantry replacements for such disasters. Just something to be aware of.