Matrix Games Forums

Just to be clear because there was a misunderstanding and probably me not writing it clearly...

When you go below 50% of maximum manpower the DEFAULT experience for that country starts dropping.

Units repaired take an average of the unit str/exp and the replacement amount/default exp.

ORIGINAL: Michael T

I agree with your estimate of the experience level at each point 39(70), 40(75) and 41 (80-85). I like that.

I would just like to be able to get my 1939 units and others to those levels by the date. I can't see how it can be done, even following strict historical timetable.

Also the problem is new units, they default to 70. But in reality the new Panzer/Mot units should default to higher levels as war progresses as they were founded on a number of experienced officers and nco's and improved doctrine training etc etc. So I think the game would be well served to have default experience levels going up for some units. So for example new Pz/Mot units arriving in 1940 should start at 75%, not 70%. And those arriving in 1941 80%.

For example the number of Panzer Divisions went from 10 to 20 in 1941. How? They simply took an entire Panzer regiment from each Division, reducing from 2 to 1 per division and added the INF component. So the Panzer Regiment was already seasoned, not raw recruits.

Why not boost the experience every time a country surrenders (Axis) or is liberated (Allies)?
No more Axis units in Africa may boost the experience of the US army?

Because tactically the Allies were pretty bad with the exception of a few units and commanders.

The USA has extra firepower in artillery I believe to compensate. They expended a ridiculous amount of artillery more than the Germans... The Germans expended more artillery than the Russians.

The Russians have higher max strengths to compensate.

The difference was that the Allies had a solid working economy and a strategic goal. Thus why they all max at 50%.

Go read any number of battles and remove who is who. If you just look at number of casualties you will be hard pressed to find the correct winner. Look at Kursk blind. You would think the Germans won. Look at Ardennes in 1944. You would think the Germans slightly lost.

When compared German lost battles to the actual number of casualties vs what they were up against it is incredible they lasted as long as they did.

I believe even Operation Cobra the losses were about even. But the Germans couldn't replace their losses. In this case the Allies had OVERWHELMING air power and yet what broke the back of the Germans was they couldn't replace what they lost.

So I try to mimic this as much as I can in WarPlan.

I personally have not a problem with the current default experiences. And what is said just above is truly correct.
Germans in general fared very well in the war for the numbers they had. When Allied started to net their victories, they had such an overwhelming advantage in terms of materials, resources, and manpower that defeats were pratically impossible. Yet many of their battles were phyrric victories or the like. From a Sicily, to an El Alamein (Where, even despite fuel shortage, the Afrika Korps slipt away to fight another day in Tunisia) and further on as the Allied economical superiority turned more and more prevalent.

But then - talking of WarPlan - late war the German manpower will pummel so their units will be similar to Allied ones.

A treshold of replacements where there is no experience loss would be way better suited for the game - unit by unit. My line of thoughts. (Ie, unit has suffered a few hits, once replacements kick in they're not bringing the whole unit experience down. If they got a hammering and the unit is half strength, then yes, that massive influx of replacements will dilute the combat experience of the troops).

That way veteran troops emerge from long campaigns - at some point the fate of war may get them hammered or even destroyed.
Once grim days and times arrive, any new unit will have a low experience, and so replacements too. That is good.
But right now there is no real curve of improvement in the early days where things go nice and smooth as usually the combat dones erase most of the experience accumulated, and the units for Germany bounce up and down between 70 and 75.