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With aircraft, as soon as you exceed 10 aircraft in a city or airbase, you see the penalty flagged as a colored (green?) small box on the icon with the % shown.

However, I am able to stack multiple artillery units that each have 10 artillery in each unit (100 stack points), e.g., 3 of these for 300 stack points. I do understand that once I do an artillery strike, the hex attacked will show that you did an artillery barrage on that hex, and checking the hex you can see that, e.g., the "BSART" data box will show 100. However, what if I stack 3 units, each with 100 stack points for a total of 300 in one hex and spread any barrage out to 3 different hexes with no more than 100 BSART on any one hex, am I correct that there is no penalty?

The same goes for land units. Are the following three examples all true? I can ...

* stack as many units as I like (well over 100 stack points) in one hex. If this stack-hex is attacked by my enemy, I will suffer a penalty.

* I can use a hex as a "depot" having a lot of units, say 500 + stack points or more and as long as I am not attacking an enemy hex adjacent to me, but I do attack an enemy hex 2 or more hexes away with no more than 100 stack points from this 500 stack point stack, then this will be penalty free?

* launching an air attack from a city/airbase, "even with only 100 air stack points used to strike" will still have a penalty applied if the originating hex had more than 100 air stack points in total???

It is possible that the penalty for the air example is indicating that "if" you use all available aircraft, this is the penalty you will suffer, but using no more than 100 air points on a hex that has zero BSAIR so far applied to it from this stack-hex that is over 100 can be done without penalty. I hope this is true but please let me know.

Please let me know if these four statements are true or not. What got me curious was I saw the penalty on the icon right away as soon as I exceeded 100 stack points with aircraft in one city/air base but stacking more than 100 artillery units in the same hex does not show any penalty.

Thank you very much for any answers and input.

The penalty shows for aircraft because the stack penalty applies to airbases. As far as I know there is no stack bonus for actual attacks with aircraft. Not sure on artillery but ground attacks are defined by the number of hex sides you attack across not by whats in the stack.

I should probably do some experimentation on this. But, I think the artillery question is answered by rulevar 834 (in Combat Calculations), which is "AttackMax in Frontage points for Artillery attack on hex". This is set to 100, so I would assume that an attack with artillery summing above 100 stack points in total would have a penalty.

However, I am able to stack multiple artillery units that each have 10 artillery in each unit (100 stack points), e.g., 3 of these for 300 stack points. I do understand that once I do an artillery strike, the hex attacked will show that you did an artillery barrage on that hex, and checking the hex you can see that, e.g., the "BSART" data box will show 100. However, what if I stack 3 units, each with 100 stack points for a total of 300 in one hex and spread any barrage out to 3 different hexes with no more than 100 BSART on any one hex, am I correct that there is no penalty?

Thank you Ormand but let me be clear about what I asked because it may be confusing; I put it in quotes here again.

What I am asking is:

1) If I have a hex with three units of 10 each artillery, e.g., I have 300 stack points in that hex. I "do understand" that if I attack a hex with all this artillery, there is a penalty. If you go over 100 stack BSART "attacking a hex", there is a penalty.

2) What I want to know is if I take this same hex with 3 X 10 artillery, and even though it is 300 stack points, if I now attack three separate hexes with 10 artillery on each hex, am I penalty free? I am not exceeding 100 "BSART" on any one hex that I am attacking, I am laying down 100 on three separate hexes, even though I have 300 stack points where I am attacking "from".

I am new and I want to be clear, and if you are clear on your answer it is because I am new that I don't understand. I am trying to differentiate if the "key" is a) the amount of stack points in a hex from which an attack was launched or b) the amount of "stack points" or "BSART" that is laid down on any one hex.

I am assuming, and I need to know if I am wrong, that you can stack as many points as you want in any one hex; the penalty comes in if you attack "a hex" with more than 100 points, not the number of stack points in the hex "from which the attack was launched".

This is what I need clarified. Thanks again to all for any input.

Sorry, I misunderstood. I can't say for absolute sure, since I haven't looked at combat details (I never have), but I believe that you are correct. I believe that in the case of three separate attacks on three different hexes, there is no penalty. Much like I think is true for a ground attack. I believe that if you have three units in the same hex that are at max stack points, and attack different hexes with them, there will be no penalty. But, if you attack the same hex, there will be a penalty because it exceeds the maximum for a single hexside attack. I haven't checked this, but I believe so, since that is the way the rulevar is worded.

The one case where the penalty applies based on overstacking is aircraft from operating from a base. This modeling the fact that the base just can't handle all those aircraft efficiently. And this is evident as you look at the unit on the map.