Various Pot Luck Easy Questions

[dolphin]

I will only include one question per message so it is easier to respond with a quote to the pertanent one.



When you have a leader that grants a bonus to the stack such as Artillarist, or Good Army Administrator and that leader is your Army Commander with the HQ and is operating as the direct support of a seperate corp stack in the same region is that Army Commander considered in the same stack for purposes of granting the bonuses to the subordinate Corp Stack?

[dolphin]

One of the Leader stack bonuses is Good Army Administrator which gives +15% to Fatigue Recovery rate while the Field Hospital bonus gives +15% to the Cohesion Recovery rate.

I have already received an answer from someone that these two bonuses are identicle and the same despite the difference in wording. Both grant +15% in cohesion recovery. (Fatigue in fact = Cohesion)

What has not been answered is are these bonuses stackable?


Furthermore it would be interesting to know if any bonuses for anything is stackable. The only one I know for sure that is NOT stackable is the "Signal Company". You only get the bonus for one no matter how many you have in the same stack and I also know that the bonus does not effect a subordinate Corp Commander if the Signal Company is with the Army Commander in the same region. It will not grant his Corp Commander any CP bonus. If we can assume that as a precident I am then forced to operate under the basis that an Army Commanders inherent Good Administrator +15% bonus does no good for his subordinate Corp Commanders in a seperate stack in the same region and that most likely holds true for all Trait and Support Element Bonuses

[dolphin]

Explain the reason you would ever choose to purchase a HQ Replacement?

It costs as much to build a new one as it does to build a replacement. It seems to me it would be better to just keep a brand new one in ready reserve somewhere on the map. Besides that who wants to have to worry about resting your Army a whole turn if the only unit damaged is a HQ.

Also :

Once a multi-element brigade loses an element its gone and I don't seem to be able to see any reference in the tool tips to be able to determine at a glance if a particular brigade is currently missing any elements? How would you ever be able to tell what to do if you decide you want to combine units with missing elements with other units.

I had a situation in a game the other day where I combined three single cavalry element units into a a single Cavalry Brigade with now three cavalry elements. I was only able to di this because I stumbled up it allowing me to do it by accident.

I do remember that after I combined all three of those cavalry elements the unit was labled as the 3rd Virginia Cavalry and now became a Cavalry Brigade with x3 cavalry elements. One of the elements was also called the 3rd Virginia Cavalry the same as the entire Brigade, so it occured to me that this particular instance was not involving one of those multi element cavalry brigades with a special name. What was also worthy of note is that during the same turn I combined these three cavalry elements it allowed me to seperate one of them back out, but would not let me seperate all three of them back to individual elements. Then the following turn I was not able to seperate even one of them. I then went about trying to do the same thing with other Cavalry and even artillary as well as other units. No luck.

Am I missing something that maybe you might know about that would explain why I was able to do this with the Cavalry in this one particular instance?


One other thing.

When you combine various individual units into a Division under a leader are all the elements within the newly formed division considered to be a single unit for element replacement procedures using the replacement pool even if certain elements in the Division were individual elements and would normally have been removed from the game if they were eliminated in combat in their seperate individual formation? For instance if they were merely assigned to a contingent stack such as would be the case in many of the Fort garrisons.

If that is true it is most certainly cheaper and far safer to assign individual artillary elements to division assignments to avoid their outright risk to game elimination since a single parent unit with multiple elements can actually replace one whole element per turn?

Maybe someone who knows the ins and outs of this issue could clarify things.

[dolphin]

In my "FINANCIAL" page it shows my current income and expenses along with my projected balance for the next turn.

In a current game I am playing I am showing the current expenses for my turn.

Money (60); Conscripts (6); and War Supplies (30)

What am I spending this on? I am building no Replacements, Reenforcements, Industry, Railroads, or Riverine, nor am I doing any of the other options that would cost anything that I know of.

The only thing I can think of is that it is possibly related to the cost of repairing damaged elements and is an automatic function that I have no control over, but if that were the case how could that possibly be calculated since I have not decided yet which damaged units will not move to be able to receive replacements.

[Cromagnonman]

Replacements do seem to be used for damaged elements. I have been bleeding replacements left and right, tho I haven't lost any elements.

Most traits do not affect other stacks, unless the tooltip explicitly sez it does. Artillerist might be one of those that spreads if it is the highest ranking officer in the region.

To find out if bonuses stack is easy. Take a stack that has the army admin leader and a hospital and a low-cohesion unit. Hover your mouse over the unit's cohesion bar to see how much it is gaining per day. Then remove the hospital from the stack and recheck the recovery rate. Then remove the leader and recheck. Lastly, add the hospital back and recheck.

Based on those exact expenses, it looks like you are creating 6 divisions this turn. They do have a cost, and it is shown on the ledger.

[Gray_Lensman]

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[Gray_Lensman]

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[Cromagnonman]

Give the man a cigar... Probably the correct answer.

Yay!

[dolphin]

Replacements do seem to be used for damaged elements. I have been bleeding replacements left and right, tho I haven't lost any elements.

I spent quite a bit of time last night reading all I could find on the replacement issue and you are correct. It uses them for both. In fact I completely edited my question above to something totally different.

Most traits do not affect other stacks, unless the tooltip explicitly sez it does. Artillerist might be one of those that spreads if it is the highest ranking officer in the region.

I did not think so, but the idea that a Corp Commander in the same region as his army commander both acting simultanously suggested to me there was an off chance it might.

To find out if bonuses stack is easy. Take a stack that has the army admin leader and a hospital and a low-cohesion unit. Hover your mouse over the unit's cohesion bar to see how much it is gaining per day. Then remove the hospital from the stack and recheck the recovery rate. Then remove the leader and recheck. Lastly, add the hospital back and recheck.

Duh. I had not realised there was a detailed readout on cohesion recovery rate. Thanks.

Is there also one that tells you the speed at which you are entrenching.

There is a Generals Trait that increases the rate by 10% as well as an Engineer?

Based on those exact expenses, it looks like you are creating 6 divisions this turn. They do have a cost, and it is shown on the ledger.

Mystery solved. I been activating every general worth having as was possible even when they don't have any troops just because I can't stand it when I need a particular one and he is inactive.

I guess from now on I will be a bit more selective and sparing.

[dolphin]

because... If you don't replace the damaged hit points and end up LOSING the entire HQ unit in lieu of fixing up the damaged hit points it'll cost you the full reinforcement cost IF there are even any available in the reinforcement screen.

As in all replacements, HQ elements included, a replacement chit can theoretically restore 2 completely damaged elements. (90% is the effective max damage however since 100% means the element is totally destroyed necessitating a new reinforcement to be bought for single element units. Sometimes, an element will be totally destroyed WITHIN a multi-element brigade and eventually that destroyed element will be rebuilt at the cost a whole replacement chit instead of the theoretical 50%.

How it works: Say you have an element damaged at 60%. Providing you have a replacement chit for that element, a die is rolled at 30% odds (1/2 of 60%). If the 30% is rolled, the chit is used up, otherwise it remains unused. 90% damage would result in a 45% chance of a replacement chit being used up, etc. As above, totally destroyed elements within a multi-element brigade will always use up a replacement chit similar to the player/gamer having to pay the cost to build a new reinforcement unit. One last note, the cost of replacement chits is dynamic based on the average of the cost of the elements in play in the game.

Of course, if you want to ALWAYs guarantee paying full cost for elements... Don't buy ANY replacement chits and when the elements are totally destroyed. Voila, you guarantee paying full cost. I bet they'll be plenty of PBEMers waiting to play you, especially if you choose to play the CSA.

Thank you. Especially for the formula used in determining when a chit is used up as that is not in the WIKI. All the WIKI mentions is that each replacement chit averages repairing two units with half damage.


You made one point that begs yet another question about something I been wondering about.

What seems to be the rate and actual number of HQ's that become available in the force pools?

Is there a maximum number that will eventually appear that is hard coded and once they are gone that is it?

Right now I have a 4th one available as the CSA. Will my buying it sooner have any effect on my force pool making a 5th one available sooner, or will a 5th one appear at some point irregardless of my building the 4th one?

[Gray_Lensman]

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[Gray_Lensman]

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[Gray_Lensman]

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[dolphin]

In regards to replacements chits...

There are none for Naval units. It was discussed but never pursued that I know of. Repair of damaged elements of Naval units is different therefore. The damage cost to repair them is directly proportional to the damage they have received. i.e. if a Naval unit is 60% damaged, the cost to repair it is 60% of the full cost of the original new unit paid when the unit enters a port.

Hmm That is good to know. I was not aware that it cost anything at all to repair fleets/boats. So it is all automatically deducted when you enter port for repairs? Very interesting indeed.

Since the CSA can only ever get five HQ's I guess they better repair the ones they have as a priority. That is unless if you lose one it allows you to rebuy it fresh?


On a side note I have been researching understanding the way River Boats/Ships engage in shore bombardment and how land troops bombard naval units.

In my search I ran across this written by you.

The purpose of the troop's "Bombardment Button" is twofold. 1.) It means that they are enabled to bombard adjacent ships and 2.) the troops are also in a position to suffer counter bombardment.

If land troops have the bombardment button "turned off", it means that the player/gamer has desiginated them to be far enough inland to NOT be bombarded NOR be able to bombard adjacent shipping.

I am using v1.16rc4a in case there are any changes.

I had a situation occur where I besieged St. Louis, MO. and the following turn the Union player bombarded me with his River Fleet from all three river areas.

Knocked off half my cohesion and forced me to withdraw.


I can't remember if I had the bombard fleet button pressed, or not. If what your saying is true then I must have had it pressed, or otherwise I could have just remained keeping him under siege without ever being fired upon by his ships.

Is this true? Did I screw up?

[Cromagnonman]

Most likely he had his ships set to bombard and then arranged some sort of land battle. Ships set to bombard will do so to support an adjacent land engagement, whether the enemy is set to bombard or not.

[dolphin]

Most likely he had his ships set to bombard and then arranged some sort of land battle. Ships set to bombard will do so to support an adjacent land engagement, whether the enemy is set to bombard or not.

So basically the gamey trick in that situation is to have the dinkiest worthless independent element in your city, or fort go out by itself and committ suicide allowing all your ships to fire on the Sieging force while your real troops sit safe and snug inside?



Anyway I just talked to the person I am playing against and we discussed what all happened.

First off I had no button to push as I was not at an entrenchment level of 3, or better.

Second off all his troops were in town on defensive posture and he sent none out to initiate a battle.

Third my stack was also in defenve posture. No land battle insued. The only thing he did was tell his ships to bombard me and they did.

Seemingly the only requirement to bombard the enemy with your ships is for you to have forces in the same region.

[Ace]

One of the Leader stack bonuses is Good Army Administrator which gives +15% to Fatigue Recovery rate while the Field Hospital bonus gives +15% to the Cohesion Recovery rate.

I have already received an answer from someone that these two bonuses are identicle and the same despite the difference in wording. Both grant +15% in cohesion recovery. (Fatigue in fact = Cohesion)

What has not been answered is are these bonuses stackable?

These two are stackable.

[quote="If we can assume that as a precident I am then forced to operate under the basis that an Army Commanders inherent Good Administrator +15% bonus does no good for his subordinate Corp Commanders in a seperate stack in the same region and that most likely holds true for all Trait and Support Element Bonuses[/QUOTE"]

Army commander doesnt pass special abilites to his corp commanders.

[Cromagnonman]

Army commander doesnt pass special abilites to his corp commanders.

There is one that does, explicitly. There's a CP bonus that Grant, and maybe Meade have, that can be passed to subordinate corps commanders.

[dolphin]

Here a good question about a situation that has messed with me quite a few times.

When making a General a Corp Commander in a situation where you have two different army commanders close by it seems the choice as to which army the Corp Commander gets assigned to is made automatically and you have no choice in the matter.

Is there some trick in the inferface to allow you to choose which Army you want your corp assigned to?

[Cromagnonman]

Here a good question about a situation that has messed with me quite a few times.

When making a General a Corp Commander in a situation where you have two different army commanders close by it seems the choice as to which army the Corp Commander gets assigned to is made automatically and you have no choice in the matter.

Is there some trick in the inferface to allow you to choose which Army you want your corp assigned to?

I've often wondered the same thing. I usually keep my HQ's far apart for this reason. Have you tried de-HQ-ing one commander while you join a corps to the other army?

[dolphin]

I've often wondered the same thing. I usually keep my HQ's far apart for this reason. Have you tried de-HQ-ing one commander while you join a corps to the other army?

So you won't take the penalty then as long as you give him back his command before ending turn?

If thats the case then that certainly works as a work arround.



That reminds me to ask another question regarding promotions.

I have a situation where I can promote 5 generals this turn, but since HUGER has seniority if I promote anyone over him I take a penalty.

Huger is one of the 5 generals I can promote. If I promote all 5 the same turn since he is being promoted too do I have to have to take any penalties?

[Cromagnonman]

No, if you promote Huger then you won't lose seniority for bypassing him- but you might lose it for someone else.

[dolphin]

No, if you promote Huger then you won't lose seniority for bypassing him- but you might lose it for someone else.

I did the turn with just promoting Huger because I did not know what else to do. Now the other ones say I will take a penalty because Bragg ones one next, but he is not promotable.

I guess that means I am stuck unless I want to pay the price to promote one of the other 4. Live and learn.

Its very interesting that if you do want to promote more than one in a turn you have to check all the seniority ratings on every general individually and painstakingly to find out if you will take a penalty because the tool tip only tells you who the next one in seniority that would get pissed is.

[Mickey3D]

Is there some trick in the inferface to allow you to choose which Army you want your corp assigned to?

Disband the army you don't want to attach the corps to. Make your general a corps commander (he will be assigned to the remaining army). Recreate the first army.

If you do all of this in the same turn there won't be any penalty.

[sbr]

Hopefully dolphin won't mind if I jump in with a quick question. How and where do naval units recover cohesion? Can they gain cohesion outside of a city/town?

[Pat "Stonewall" Cleburne]

Hopefully dolphin won't mind if I jump in with a quick question. How and where do naval units recover cohesion? Can they gain cohesion outside of a city/town?

No. You gotta stick them in a port somewhere to recover hits/cohesion. The size of the harbor or presence of naval engineers affect how fast they recover.

[sbr]

No. You gotta stick them in a port somewhere to recover hits/cohesion. The size of the harbor or presence of naval engineers affect how fast they recover.

Thanks. It seemed that way, nice to know for sure.

[dolphin]

Disband the army you don't want to attach the corps to. Make your general a corps commander (he will be assigned to the remaining army). Recreate the first army.

If you do all of this in the same turn there won't be any penalty.

There is a rare case where that does not work.

For instance if your the CSA and either do not have, or do not want to use a HQ unit to make LEE an army general if you disband one of your other Army Generals to switch a corp you will then be stuck either having to promote LEE, or take a penalty. This is not the case throughout the beginning portion of the game, but it does become an issue once the game reaches a certain point in 61 where Lee is on the way, but not unlocked. It actually happened to me. I had no choice but to wait because my fourth HQ was still being formed.

Correct me if I am wrong, but that seems to be the case. The fact that my fourth HQ was still forming was preventing me from teleporting it out West.

Let me explain.


I desperately needed an Army General in the West, but simply could not afford one until Lee became free to move which he finally did. Problem was the time it was going to take to get someone out West.

So what I did was anticipate putting PGT in the West using my one teleport per turn by first sending a HQ out West using a previous turns teleport.

I then had PGT go meet LEE where I disbanded his army in order to teleport him and then gave Lee his HQ. PGT then picked up the new HQ I already had teleported the previous turn. That avoided any penalty and it worked out perfectly.

I am sure most of you veteran players have thought about that trick, but I thought it worth mentioning.

[dolphin]

Alright. Lets try another batch of questions that have been bugging me.

Can someone point me to a link that explains the specifics and details of how the Leaders statistics work exactly.

I want to be able to comprehend the formula.

Particularly when it comes to Army and Corp Generals and their effects on their subordinate commanders.

Not talking traits, but rather the Strategic, Offense, and Defense values.




Another topic I have questions about is regarding the Simultanious Move option.

I understand its effects between Army and Corp Commanders in the same region, but am wondering if it will also have Corp Commanders in adjacent regions arrive to a destination region at the same time? I don't think it does, but would like verification on this. In anycase what happens if your multiple corps are in different regions and you execute your moves with the simultanious setting? Does the game engine just ignore the setting since it does not apply, or do all Corps and the Army move towards the same location, but at different times based on distance? I seem to recall a situation I had in a practice game where I did this and I got some kind of message the next turn saying that my orders were illegal and could not be processed, but I did not pay good attention to it. I forget the wording of the message.


If you have two, or more Corps in the same region and you are attacked will having the synchonize Move order on all of them have any effect on the battle, or are defending corps in the same region always regarded as simultaniously defending as a single group?


Another question has to do with an Army Commander in a single stack with divisions. When you order an Army Commander in charge of a single stack to attack can I presume it will. I am a little vague on the issue involving how a HQ Army unit handles itself when by itself in a region given what I have read regarding how it is protected in other situations where it has its Corps in the same region with itself. As I understand it an Army Stack in the same region with at least one of its corps cannot even be affected by the combat in terms of taking damage? Is that not part of the reason it is best to keep your artillary under direct command of your Army Commander?As an example lets say you have in the same region x2 Corp with your regular divisions and a third corp with nothing but artillary because your Army CVommander for whatever reason is not in the region. Would your artillary in that third corp be vulnerable to direct damage from an opposing corp?

In other words does a single stack Army in a region by itself pretty much act the same and treated by enemy formations the same as a Corp in all respects?

Is artillary just as safe under the direct command of a Corp Commander and just as effective in the combat calculations in terms of bypassing frontage restrictions and applying more damage to more enemy units as it would be under the direct command of an Army Commander, or is there in fact a difference in the calculations of how artillary damage is parcelled out when it is attached to the Army Commander as opposed to the Corp Commander?


If your defending, or attacking a region and you have say four, or five divisions is it better to seperate them into two corp, or combine them into a single 4, or 5 division corp? I guess I am asking what the point of diminishing returns is when it comes to frontage. Just as important would be to know if seperating your divisions into multiple corps in the same region increases your overall frontage that can be involved in the battle calculations.


In a situation with only two divisions in a region is it better to have x2 One division Corps, or a single x2 division corp? Presuming of course the Corp Commanders have the same exact stats?

[Mickey3D]

Correct me if I am wrong, but that seems to be the case. The fact that my fourth HQ was still forming was preventing me from teleporting it out West.

Right

I desperately needed an Army General in the West, but simply could not afford one until Lee became free to move which he finally did. Problem was the time it was going to take to get someone out West.

So what I did was anticipate putting PGT in the West using my one teleport per turn by first sending a HQ out West using a previous turns teleport.

I then had PGT go meet LEE where I disbanded his army in order to teleport him and then gave Lee his HQ. PGT then picked up the new HQ I already had teleported the previous turn. That avoided any penalty and it worked out perfectly.

You're already an old "Grognard"