Matrix Games Forums

On the one hand, units (teams) with 50%+ casualties are "disbanded":

Any infantry unit that has 50% or more of its soldiers killed or seriously wounded is disbanded, and its survivors are either sent to other units or rotated to the rear. Infantry units that take less than the 50% losses are assumed to find replacement men from disbanded infantry units or from new men brought up from the rear.

On the other hand, units (teams) with 50%+ casualties are "returned to the forcepool":

After a battle, units with less than 50% personnel strength are automatically returned to the Forcepool, and their soldiers are used to fill out losses in other teams. If enough soldiers from low strength teams are left over (i.e. not needed to fill out other units in the Battle Group) they are grouped together to form reduced strength teams (4 man ad-hoc / ersatz rifle teams, or 2 man light machine gun teams) that are added to your Forcepool automatically.

In the example shown below, the lone survivor of an Ersatz team is paired with one of the two survivors of a Grenadiere team to form a "reduced strength" Ersatz team of two, not four. The other Grenadiere survivor "was sent" as a "replacement" to become the third man in a Zugtruppe team that had taken two casualties. The Grenadiere team that lost 3 out of 5 was "disbanded" not "returned to the Forcepool". The sole survivor of a Grenadiere (MG) team was "rotated to the rear" rather than being used to "fill out" the 3-man Zugtruppe.

Replacement doesnt just happen between strategic turns. The player can also affect replacements. In the example below, when the Zugtruppe with 3 wounded men is returned to the forcepool, the remaining Zugtruppe is "filled out" by automatically gaining the last wounded man from the Zugtruppe that was returned to the forcepool.

Player "replacement" becomes useful as shown below. A 'fresh' Ersatz team is returned to the forcepool. The composite Ersatz team, referred to in the original post, automatically gains two of the soldiers from the returned Ersatz. Another Ersatz team can now be purchased resulting in a net gain of an extra half Ersatz team (two soldiers) for the price of one.

It would be great if this was proved with tank crews. That would validate the reasoning for tank and gun crews leaving the map.

IIRC in CC5, for your example to work, the unit had to be cut off from supply. You could return a partial team to the forcepool and gain a full team back. While some of the men from the partial team filled out other sections. The problem is, you are out of supply, you should not be gaining extra men. For units in supply, you never see this situation of seeing a partial unit show up the next battle, is all done automatically.

The manual should be amended to say incapacitated vice seriously wounded. There is only one type wounded as far as I know, and they get to stay in the selected forcepool.

I like the partial/combined teams, whether in or out of supply. In the context of 3 hour turns it makes sense. Be cool if the midnight turn allowed the player to "refit" unengaged BGs CC3-style by purchasing individuals to fill out depleted teams.

Crews exiting the map feels more realistic than crews that become commandable infantry. I'd prefer a chance that some high morale/experience crews might take an ambush position near their knocked out vehicle/gun with a further chance of routing off the map when attacked. However, in the overall game scheme I feel dismounted crews are relatively unimportant.

Agree the "carefully crafted" (p. 14) game manual needs to be amended so it:
1) doesnt contradict itself (disbanded v. returned to forcepool)
2) clearly explains the game mechanic

Hi,

I'm just reading this and trying to get the same behaviour but I couldn't replicate it. Is this still present in the current version or was it removed? anyone else not seeing what xe5 reports or just me?

I believe this was removed or is now bugged. We do not see this behavior at all in the latest version.

Thanks mooxe.

It seems this amusing dynamic reinforcement feature was changed in some patch between xe5's post and present day so that the way it seems to work now is that individual reinforcements within a squad are filled with new soldiers (not members from depleted teams) and it's dependent solely on the cohesion & supply levels of the Battlegroup. Basically the 'old' way since CC4, or CC3 if you count the manual 'refit' option.

I remember in CC2 the paras at Arnhem would sometimes end up grouping into similar teams after taking casualties but they would keep their weapons, so you could see some times these beefed up Bren teams with two machine guns; a tough enemy for any German trying to root them out!

I am not seeing depleted squads get any reinforcements. If a team loses one of its men in a battle, they enter the next battle short one man.

mooxe wrote: Wed Apr 12, 2023 12:55 am I am not seeing depleted squads get any reinforcements. If a team loses one of its men in a battle, they enter the next battle short one man.

I have seen it vs the AI in the stock GC. You need to keep them out of battle and Battlegroup cohesion needs to be good (how good is unknown to me), try to rest them a couple of turns plus a night they should get at least a couple of guys to fill some slots in some, not all, depleted teams. You're right in that I haven't seen it happen in BG's that keep fighting continuous battles, that's why I wrote at the start that you need to keep them out of the fight (rest or withdraw from map).

I don't know if other stuff affects this (fatigue? commander attributes?). Supply is a must too, definitely must have some positive supply (how much the level of supply affects replacements, again , I don't know but seems obvious you need positive supply, no?) and then the chosen difficulty level I think it has some effect there.

I just got to witness this merge of a 2-man Command team with the sole survivor of an PzGrenadier MG squad from last turn Veghel bridge battle, so I guess some form of 'in-field' refit merger still happens between survivors to some degree. Notice the Pzgrenadier soldier still carries his original squad position (gunner)...shame he didn't keep the weapon! (hint-hint)

I remember him because of his peculiar last-name (Desert storm anyone..?). Last battle he was in ambush position on an hedgerow near the bridge at Veghel, a sherman tank came down the road and started picking up his teammates point-blank until a PzIVH challenged it from out behind a house, bad aim from both tanks but luckily the Panzer prevailed. The panzergrenadier (now alone) then defended against a couple infantry attacks, panicked for a short period of time but got it together and was successful in his defence. I guess he impressed the near-by command team so much they decided to keep him as messenger haha

He was reunited with his beloved gun after all. Thanks to mick(xe5) for posting the hexadecimal table in another thread.

And immediately performed 2 acts of cowardice with his gun crew lol. The poor guy needs some R&R.

kweniston wrote: Thu Jan 23, 2025 10:12 am And immediately performed 2 acts of cowardice with his gun crew lol. The poor guy needs some R&R.

No I think you got the timeline wrong:
-Schwarztkopf was a member of a PzGrenadiere team. The MG42 gunner actually.
-His whole team was killed by a tank, he was the whole survivor.
-He panicked in that battle (hence the 2 cowardice acts) but got it together and actually defended against a couple infantry attacks.
-At the start of the next battle he was merged into an command team that are themselves short 2 men I think.
-He retained his old position designation (gunner) but was given a rifle instead.

That bothered me so I hexEdited the save game to give him the mg42 again.

Haha, good. This is relevant micromanagement haha.