You take 1/2 to 1% losses of all troops in contact with the enemy at the beginning of your turn: and so does the enemy at the beginning of his turn. So unlike combat, where you want as many of your troops in contact with as few of his as possible, in attrition you want as few of your troops in contact with as many of his as possible.
Think of it this way. You have a 100 hex front. Both sides have a 10,000 man division in each hex. 1,000,000 men are on each side of the line. Just cycling the turn, without any combat, each side takes 5-10,000 casulties at the beginning of the turn. I've got 7,000,000 men under arms. If they are all in contact that is 35,000-70,000 casulties at the beginning of the turn. If I only have a million in contact I save 25-60,000 losses every turn. That is why it is a good idea to split the Corps, so instead of 30,000 men in contact you only have 10,000. Reduce attrition losses by 1/3. My current practice is only leave Corps in contact if they cannot move or no smaller unit can occupy the hex.
You know what the really neat part is? The opponent takes the same losses no matter how many men you have in contact. In the notional 100 hex front if one side had only a 1,000 man battalion in each hex (100,000 men) then instead of 5-10,000 losses per turn, he would only take 500-1,000 losses. The enemy? Still taking 5-10,000. But what if you only had a 10 man observation post in each hex? Your 1,000 men would take 5-10 casulities, and kill 5000-10,000 of the enemy. Of course he would just attack all along the front.
You can further reduce attritional losses by setting defenders to static mode. Plus they dig in faster and you gain AP! The only penelty is it costs more to take them out of static mode than it did to put them in.
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From the Rule Book-Pg 18. "Attrition: Damage and losses to men and equipment not directly caused by player initiated combat. Attrition occurs during the phasing players logistics phase."
9.5.2. FRONT LINE ATTRITION
Units that begin their turn adjacent to enemy units during their logistics phase will suffer additional attrition losses representing low intensity combat, with approximately one-half to one percent of ground elements in a unit being destroyed (one-half of the manpower is killed and the other half is disabled). Combat attrition losses are dependent on unit morale, the number of ground elements of a certain type in a unit, and the experience level of each type of ground element. The higher unit morale and ground element experience level, the fewer combat attrition losses. This attrition is in addition to the additional fatigue effects from being adjacent to enemy units (9.4.1).
Ammended by patches:
V1.05.28 – September 29, 2011
5) Rule Change – Reduced front line attrition by 30-50%. In addition, Static units will now only suffer half of the normal front line attrition.
V1.04.10 – April 18, 2011
14) Rule Change – (Section 9.5.2) Increased front line attrition, but reduced the proportion of these attrition loss that is KIA to 30% (was 50%). The net impact should be similar KIA but an increased amount of manpower disabled due to front line attrition.
