Constr. battalions automatically change cities

[shgenerolas]

Hi guys. I got strange problem: in Grand Campania (HvH) construction battalions assigned to cities changed cities by themselves. For example, I try to assign a construction battalion to Minsk for the second time and it still change city at next turn. In T7 this happened only in Minsk, but in T8 already in five cities construction battalions were taken away from the city and were assigned to other cities where construction battalions were already located. So I don't have a construction battalion in Minsk, but I have two battalions in Vilnius.

I don't use AI logistics management, HQ support is locked. The only change - after the construction battalions in Riga, Vilnius and Vinnytsia have completed the railyard repairt, I have instructed to expand the air bases. Could this be related?

Do you have any ideas what I'm doing wrong and how to stop it because I'm forced to waste my AP.

[MarkShot]

I think construction getting assigned is the result of a priority adm pt repair. I thought they go back on their own when the job is done. Was the first repair already done?

[shgenerolas]

I didn't use AP for set repair priorities.

Construction battalions were removed from cities where the railyard was far from full repair. Same exeple: Minsk railyard is currently 64% damaged, but for the second turn in a row the computer automatically removes a construction battalion and assigns it to another city that already has a construction battalion.

[Wiedrock]

How I understand it, the sytsem spreads those Construction units randomly (at least somewhat). This it does at certain distances to the HQ the Cont. Unit is attached to. That's why you can use Corps HQs to repair small rails behind the lines with some Construction Units attached to it (a Corps's range is 5 IIRC).
Now the term priority and the fact that you have to pay AP for it indicates to me that this causes the system to give it priority, so assigning repair units to the factory you have chosen to prioritize before it makes his other assignments.
So you have to pay the Ai to do what you want it to do.
If you don't want to pay AP, one thing you can try is to do the same as I explained in regards to the rails, maybe this works, since the Corps doesn't know what else to do with the Const. units besides sending to your chosen town (with hopefully no other 5-Hex-range destroyed things nearby). ....this ofc. requires a Corps at hand to use for this shenanigans (if it works at all, I only used it for rails so far).

[shgenerolas]

Now the term priority and the fact that you have to pay AP for it indicates to me that this causes the system to give it priority

But the manual says that if the construction battalion is assigned to the depot the system considers the repair of the railyard as a priority. Therefore, when the rail line reaches a city or town, I build a new depot and assign a construction battalion. I've never encountered such automatic spawning of construction battalions. I've never seen a system deattach construction battalions I've assigned and send them to another city (before they fix railyard's).

[MarkShot]

Somewhat related is what is the best way to use not the FBD, but rail SUs. If I assign them at the corps level, they don't range far enough, but at the Army level they range too far, and I need my Army HQ to be positioned for the larger strategy and not baby sitting the rail network.

I am considering having a rail/security corps with maybe a single div incase a supply line is threatened and using it to apply the rail SUs where needed (as often I find them off connecting ... G-d knows what).

BTW, if you click on return to HQ do you lose a turn of repair work?

Wiedrock, I would love to know your thoughts on this.

Thanks!

[Wiedrock]

Now the term priority and the fact that you have to pay AP for it indicates to me that this causes the system to give it priority

But the manual says that if the construction battalion is assigned to the depot the system considers the repair of the railyard as a priority. Therefore, when the rail line reaches a city or town, I build a new depot and assign a construction battalion. I've never encountered such automatic spawning of construction battalions. I've never seen a system deattach construction battalions I've assigned and send them to another city (before they fix railyard's).

Ok, I have no idea where in the Manualt this stands, I only can see "prority" everywhere at the top (from how I read it).

I am considering having a rail/security corps with maybe a single div incase a supply line is threatened and using it to apply the rail SUs where needed (as often I find them off connecting ... G-d knows what).

That's somewhat what I described and what is also described in the manual. Up to range of 5 Hexes the (correct) Construction Units will repair the rails around the Corps. Only thing that could mess this up is if a FBD is nearby I assume, since they somehow stop some repairs of the automatic rail repair SUs.

BTW, if you click on return to HQ do you lose a turn of repair work?

If you mean the "automatic ral repair SUs" - once the rail in the Hex is orange with the unit in it the Hex will be repaired either way, at least under "normal" circumstances (I have no idea when/if weather would make the unit take longer than one turn to repair one Hex).

[Joel Billings]

You don't lose the rail line repairs already done when you return construction units to their HQ manually. The system should be if it is down to 1 damage remaining, it will auto repair at the start of the next turn, but if there is more than 1 point of damage (number in the damage circle), then it takes more repairs to fix it so you should leave the unit out on the map (I don't think this guarantees the unit will remain there, but it used to at least up the chances). So much changed over time that things may not be working this way, but that's how I remember it.

[shgenerolas]

BTW, if you click on return to HQ do you lose a turn of repair work?

I'm not talking about R.A.D. or FBD units, but about Construction battalions, which can be directly attached to a city (depot). Whenever a larger town or city is captured, I build a depot there and add a Construction Battalion. However, in the last few turns, the system deattached them (city's railyard has not yet been fixed) and added them to other cities that already had the construction battalions attached.

[shgenerolas]

Ok, I have no idea where in the Manualt this stands, I only can see "prority" everywhere at the top (from how I read it).

At least that's how I understood this point:

[Joel Billings]

I don't know how things ended up, but at one time, if you paid the points for priority repair, you'd get a construction unit assigned and it would stay at the city until things were fixed. Otherwise, units would go out each turn and then would have a chance to be sent somewhere else on the next turn (they were not locked down for multiple turns). The "depot" kind of priority meant that, having construction units sent to repair ports and railyards in the hex, would be more likely each turn and/or they would focus on repairing the ports and railyards first before repairing other items in the hex. The complete details of this were never documented, and if they were, it's very possible they changed multiple times during development and even after release (I know rail repair changed, but not sure about the city repairs). So it's possible that even if it was working as I think it was, it might no longer be that way. At some point about 1-2 years ago Gary and I decided that "repair" was as good as it was going to get, and we decided to accept it all as it is. So at this point the players are going to know more than we do about how it works.

[MarkShot]

Very funny, Joel.

I think the diagnosis is developer senility. I hope this means you are busy on a new title, and not simply getting old.

[shgenerolas]

I don't know how things ended up, but at one time, if you paid the points for priority repair, you'd get a construction unit assigned and it would stay at the city until things were fixed.

In my case it was like this:

In T6 I saw that construction battalion assigned to the Premysli depot was gone (railyard was not yet fully repaired; if I remember correctly, there were 8 damage left). Then I thought that I had mistakenly deattached that construction battalion, because there was another depot nearby where the railyard had already been fixed. I re-attached the construction battalion to Premysli and then it finished the job in next turn.

In T7 exactly the same thing happened in Minsk: construction battalion disappeared, even though the railyard was not fixed yet. I re-attached the construction battalion, but, to my surprise, it disappeared again in T8.

In T8 I also noticed that disappeared construction battalions from Alytus (3 railyard damage left), Gomel (48 railyard damage left) and another depot near Tarnopol (there was 1 damage left). At the same time, I noticed that Riga, Vilnius, Baranovič and Vinitsa already have 2 construction battalions each. Since railyard in those cities was already fixed, at the end of T7 I instructed to expand air bases there. I expected the system will use the already attached construction battalions, but instead the system took battalions from other depots where railyard repairs were not yet completed.

Anyway, the expansion of airbases does not explain why the construction battalions disappeared during T6 and T7.

The "depot" kind of priority meant that, having construction units sent to repair ports and railyards in the hex, would be more likely each turn and/or they would focus on repairing the ports and railyards first before repairing other items in the hex.

Yeh, that's how I understood the Manual. So it is more valuable to spend 1AP on building a depot than to prioritize railyard repair for 1AP.

[Joel Billings]

Very funny, Joel.

I think the diagnosis is developer senility. I hope this means you are busy on a new title, and not simply getting old.

Yes, and yes.