Question about Staff bonuses

[Jabod]

I have a new question I hope someone will be able to help me with. I have been puzzling about this for days.

It concerns the combat and morale benefits from Staff. What I get is that there is a basic benefit that is determined by Rulevars 140 and 141. Then on top of that there is a benefit determined by the SFType settings under Statistics 1: StaffCombatMod and StaffMoraleMod.

These are described in the editor as "the maximum combat (morale) modifier for units under a HQ with this SFType."

Meanwhile, in the manual it says:

4.4.5.8. STAFF & HQ ATT
Staff with 0 XP give a rulevar 140 bonus to their troops. Each additional XP point gives an
extra percentage point bonus based on the settings of the SFtype the staff belongs too.

This is quite puzzling and appears to have been interpreted differently by different scenario designers.

E.g. in the main WW2-based scenarios I see modifiers like this:

Staff 1
StaffCombatMod 1
StaffMoraleMod 0.5

Staff2
StaffCombatMod 1.25
StaffMoraleMod 0.5

etc

On these numbers, I assumed that this means that for each additional XP, the staff in question will add this number of percentage points to the combat modifier. So Staff 1 with 10 XP add 10% to the combat modifier - on top of the original 25% modifier under Rulevar 140.

The first thing that is puzzling me is why the SFType staff combat and morale modifiers are described in the editor as "maximums"? What is maximum about them?

So it occurs to me that maybe I have got it wrong and in fact a StaffCombatMod of "1" does not mean 1 extra percentage point added to the combat modifier per XP, but rather that "1" actually means 100%. This is similar to the what the numbers mean in Rulevars 140 and 141, where 25% is expressed as 0.25.

On this interpretation, I suppose all types of staff get a one percentage point combat mod boost per XP, but that there is a cap to this at 100% (for Staff I), at 125% (for Staff II), etc.

Adding to my confusion is what I see when I look at some scenarios, e.g. tweber's "Napoleon at War" scenario.

He uses staff SFTypes as away to represent commanders (both named historical ones and generic ones). Here you see SFType statistics like this:

Brigadier General

StaffCombatMod 10
StaffMoraleMod 10

Marshal

StaffCombatMod 40
StaffMoraleMod 40

Murat

StaffCombatMod 50
StaffMoraleMod 50

Napoleon

StaffCombatMod 60
StaffMoraleMod 60

These figures are pretty astonishing if you compare them with those much smaller figures for Staff I, Staff II etc in the basic game (1, 1.25 etc).

If these are the multipliers one gets per experience point (my first interpretation above), with 50 XPs the combat modifier from Murat would be 50x50 = 2,500%!

And what if my second interpretation is correct (1=100%, 2=200% etc)? In this case the maximum combat modifier for Napoleon would be 6,000%!

True, as Napoleon begins (strangely) with zero experience points, his starting modifier (beyond the basic Rulevar 140 modifier) is zero.

I am not trying to comment on that particular scenario - I see similar issues with other ones. What I am trying to emphasize is that even experienced designers seem to be confused about what these numbers really mean, making it hard for me to make sense of them. [&:]

This confusion doesn't surprise me because neither the editor nor the manual are very clear on the matter. [:-] Are these numbers percentage point gains per experience point, or are they caps on the overall gain permitted? And does "1" mean 1% or 100%?

Perhaps someone can clear this up as it is driving me nuts! [:)]

[Vic]

The first thing that is puzzling me is why the SFType staff combat and morale modifiers are described in the editor as "maximums"? What is maximum about them?

It is the modifier applied if the staff as 100 XP. If the staff would have 0 XP no modifier would be applied.

And does "1" mean 1% or 100%

1 means 100%. 0.5 means 50%.

Best wishes,
Vic

[Jabod]

Aha! That helps greatly to clarify matters. Thanks Vic!

I suppose one could also think of these stats as the percentage point gain per XP (so 1 does mean 1%), but there is a cap on all these gains at 100 XPs.

With officers in the officer-pool (with RuleVar 343 enabled) I suppose that the CombatMod and the MoraleMod are expressed as percentage points, so 25 means 25% not 2,500%. Is that right?

[ernieschwitz]

Yes, 25 means 25%. That is with officers.