Support units - artillery

[Icekill]

I'm having a also some problems understanding well the abstract concept of support units. I would prefer them to actually be displayed in the map like the rest of my units, but i guess there is a realistic reason of why aren't.

after reading that part of the manual three times and reading this thread I understand now that they do not appear on the map as counters, but they are there attached to the HQ units that "loan" them to your units in combat after some dice checks by your units leaders and some other factors, but i have some questions:

1) As they do not appear in the map, how can you attack those support units? bombing for example the HQ counters?

2) Are they factored in the counters displayed CV value? I know i can go back from an unit to it's HQ to see the support units attached and that could support in battle, but it would be nice to be also to see directly on each unit if it can be supported by those support units without having to go to it's HQ unit screen (less clicks) and how could they raise that unit strength.

3) Also, what about enemy units? how can i know if they are supported or not? can recon over that unit or over it's HQ tell me anything about it? Else i could be attacking a single stacked unit thinking it's an easy task when it could be in fact supported by heavy artillery, sappers, tanks, mortars and AA that are nowhere to be seen in the map as are support units attached to it's HQ. In a real battle recon would tell me more about nearby enemy sappers/artillery/tanks regiments/divisions instead of them being "teletransported" to the battle once i attack.

4) In the tutorial scenario i saw i can build a few of those support units from my HQ, and some are filled by units after 1 turn while others don't. How can i know which and why some support units can be created and filled by units and which ones not? How can i know my limits when creating support units?

Thanks in advance and hope this will also help others with same doubts.

[ComradeP]

1) As they do not appear in the map, how can you attack those support units? bombing for example the HQ counters?

Not sure if bombing HQ's will damage non-AA support units (those will fire back), somebody else will have to clarify that.

You're mostly damaging and thus possibly destroying support units in a combat they participate in. For example, in the 1943 game between Bob and Flavio, German artillery battalions were blown away in droves by artillery divisions due to participating in a battle where they were seriously outmatched in the number of artillery present.

2) Are they factored in the counters displayed CV value?

Yes, but the CV they add would in most cases not be enough to increase the on-counter CV.

3) Also, what about enemy units? how can i know if they are supported or not?

You won't. Just like you can never be completely sure of the strength of an enemy unit even after attacking it, you'll never know what kind of support you (unless it's attached to a combat unit) or the enemy will attract prior to attacking an enemy unit. You can make a pretty good guess based on earlier battles against units in the area/the same unit, though.

4) In the tutorial scenario i saw i can build a few of those support units from my HQ, and some are filled by units after 1 turn while others don't. How can i know which and why some support units can be created and filled by units and which ones not? How can i know my limits when creating support units?

Production sometimes works in mysterious ways for equipment that is produced with armament points (the equipment that has an "A" listed as their capacity on the production screen. Note that filtering the production screen fill remove these units from the screen as filtering only shows in-production equipment with a numerical capacity). You can make a pretty good guess of whether a support unit will be full strength or not in the next turn based on the production numbers. Generally speaking, anything requiring solely something that can be build with manpower (say, sapper squads and support squads) has a much higher chance of being full strength the next turn than something relying on production of some sort.

[ComradeP]

Correction: really good support units do increase on-counter CV, but the battalion sized ones are not likely to do so.