After that, the next most often built is the MOT XX. This is not because they are great combat units, but because they are cheap. They are continually getting killed in attacks, and as soon as one is killed, one rebuilds it to die in the next attack. Of the others, I feel the MECH XX it and the MOT are the worst in terms of combat value per build point. Thus I did not build many MECH XXs. I just realized I was being silly. The value of the MECH XX is not how well it fights, but how well it dies. If you are attacking, there are never enough MOT XXs. If you have to take losses, and don't have MOT XXs available, MECH XXs are the next best thing.
This should have been obvious, but I didn't realize this fact about MECH XXs gave a good reason to build a number of them until one front ran out of MOT XXs in my most recent game, and that side suddenly realized that the next loss in a blitz attack would have to be an ARM, which meant that good but not great attacks should not be made, more or less bringing that front to a halt for a turn or two. With weather, "a turn or two" can all too easily turn into "a year". There aren't that many years in WiF. A few MECH XXs, while not as good at taking losses as a MOT XX, are a lot better than losing ARMs, or even MOTs.
Until this game, I had more or less hoped that MOT XXs would always be there, and grumbled when they weren't. It had not occurred to that MECH XXs were a poor mans (rich mans?) substitute, and should be built because of that.
(Maybe the fact that grumbling is so much fun is the reason I didn't realize this until now.
)
