Matrix Games Forums

Slowly moving in the big league scenarios after having explored the 1st Panzer Army one...

Now some German Army HQs officers have the 'Emergency Unit' card, giving the German player 2 x 1,200 infantry in an Ersatz Group. As far as I can see these units perform like regular iNF...

So my questions:
1 -do they really perform like regular INF? Do they have penalties?
2- is there a negative side to producing these units? (worst I can see is to strain the German supply)
3- is it truly 'free infantry' so to speak? Or is it affecting the replacement rate (I don't think so)
4- Every time so far I received 2 units - the card says the officer will 'try' to create a group, is it working 100% of the time?

I suppose a reasonable strategy with these guys is to set them on 'Disband' so as to funnel precious INF reinforcement to the regular divisions...

Don't these cards giving a great boost to the German line? Are you guys using them systematically, or do you also use other Army cards.

Seems like a winner to me... Germany is in dire need of more units to plug the line, so this is better than nothing...

Thanks for your feedbacks!

I tend to prefer to play Personnel rather than build emergency units. I think there was a post that they do not affect replacements but perform poorly.

Most of the time I get one when I play the card. Occasionally I get two. I never get none.

Ersatz infantry use their own infantry type, of which there are no replacements. But if they take casualties, they can get regular infantry as replacements (you don't want that, so set them to 25%)

Their starting exp is very low...but they will slowly climb up.

I use my ersatz to replace the coastal battalions (which I disband). I put one in every port, and every big vp city. I used to use them to chase down partisans since they are cheap to rail, but have switched to using the STuG battalions instead.

I once used ersatz to invade the Caucaus, as they are really easy to supply by air...and you don't really care if they die.

In the beginning of the game, I will play the Ersatz card as much as possible. (OKH, 6th Armee, 2nd Armee). Then I will switch to Personnel. The personnel card only raises staff experience in an HQ, so I like to make sure my HQ's are full up on staff first, since replacements will only lower the exp.

Why STuGs to hunt partisans?

They are fast. They are easy to rail. They don't add a lot to combat on the front line. Because they are non-divisional, they lower the divisional bonus you get for attacking.

But mostly because they are fast. I can surround a partisan unit and kill it the turn after I rail near it.

So yes, HQs spawn 1 or 2 Ersatz units.

Seems the only difference with regular INF is their starting experience: they start at 15%. This, the fact they are also non-divisional and finally that they have no guns mean they are weaker indeed.