Union damaged unit strategy

[Treefrog]

The game suggests a strategy for the CSA on how to deal with 2 damaged regular infantry available in the same region.

Does the same strategy apply for the Union?

[herwin]

ORIGINAL: Treefrog

The game suggests a strategy for the CSA on how to deal with 2 damaged regular infantry available in the same region.

Does the same strategy apply for the Union?

I habitually combine 2 damaged regular infantry. It saves supply and manpower. I need some militia for garrisons and mounted infantry.

[Treefrog]

Yes, but Harry, we social science majors rely upon you math guys to crunch the numbers.

Do you save resources and manpower by combining 2 regular damaged infantry?

I don't care about training the militia. Anybody that has ever seen Kentucky go to the other side knows there are many, many places to train troops in Kentucky.

[Tempest_slith]

Combining units doesn't affect manpower.

If you combine, you wind up with 1 inf and 1 militia vs 2 inf not combining.

The two advantages to combining is saving 15 supply plus having the inf appear immediately so it can be attached to a leader and be ready next turn.

[GShock]

I generally start the issue considering the month of the year. In winter spawning militia is harder, so when i have the manpower i do NOT merge damaged units but i rebuild them immediately. This saves their experience. I also take note on the post draft month, in post draft, like in winter it's harder to recruit new militias so i basically merge only when i am about to call on a draft or when it's summer.

[Mike Parker]

Here is the bare knuckled calculus.
 
Assume you have 2 INF units in a region.  You can either build them, or combine them.  If you combine them you get 1 INF immediatly on the board.  Since building a damaged inf requires 1/2 the population to recruit a militia, you then have enough excess pop to produce a militia over what you otherwise would have.  You then also have 2 production points you did not use to rebuild the damaged INF so you recoup 15 supply from that once you subtract the supply used to recruit the Militia.
 
So instead of 2xINF you get 1 INF 1 Militia and 15 Supply.
 
This looks like a great deal, but you do lose battle stars (if any) and you now must go about training the militia into something useful.
 
For the CSA this is almost required, for the Federals not so much.  Often its better to just take the two INF and send them to the front, your not hurting for supply like the CSA, and unless you need Militia to turn into mounted (which I have had problems with before) you really do not get much use out of Militia (only so many can be on garrison duty in Missouri and Kentucky).
 
So unless you have excess horses or really need supply, as the Union I would not combine.  As the South your almost compelled to combine because of the supply situation.

[GShock]

I agree with you... it would be easier to pick a choice if we could see the infantry experience in the production page... unfortunately you really have to guess and hope you are saving a good inf by repairing it. As of CSA those 15 saved supplies are desperately needed. It's only a matter of time before blockade kills CSA with attrition so unless the INF is really really needed and needed at once, the best strategy for CSA is always to wait and merge. 

[Bangui]

The Union can get into trouble when heavy losses occur in Tennessee.  Most damaged infantry ended up in the Chicago production queue in one of my games.  There was not be enough population points available to repair all the units in a reasonable time.  Does the number of factories influence where the infantry goes for repair?  Chicago had 10 factories which was the highest factory count in any western city.