new player question

[rlm60]

HI,
I am new to this game but have been a long, long time wargamer. I have a silly question I haven't been able to find an answer for. What is the stacking limit for a hex? Does the stacking limits change dependent on type of terrain? I.E. is the stacking higher in clear vs mountain? Thanks

[Twotribes]

There is no physical limit how ever when you attack from a hex you sustain a penalty if you go over the limit imposed by the game for combat. I forget the numbers but someone will be along to provide them.

[bobarossa]

I think if you have 200% of stack limit, you fight with a 50% penalty. You can look in the detailed combat results to see the value. When you are attacking, you only count the units in the battle, when you are defending everyone counts. The AI is prone to really big stacks and can take a lot of casualties when you attack. I try to stay under 150 stack points. I don't think they vary with terrain in random games (not sure if this can be changed in a mod or not).

[ernieschwitz]

Also there is a limit to the number of units (regardless of their size) that can be in a hex at one time. That limit is 16.

[icym]

Stacking limits in ATG work differently to your average wargame.

First off there is a hard limit of 16 units in a hex. As an example in a coastal city hex the 16 unit limit could comprise a mixture of naval units, air units, ground units and HQs.

This 16 unit limit applies to all hexes, regardless of terrain.

As for the units themselves, each can contain no more than 8 different types of subformation. Thus one ground unit could comprise 30 rifle, 5 MG, 3 mortar, 2 AT guns, 2 Infantry guns, 2 flak and 5 trucks. That is 7 different subformation types, so there is still room for one more. However there is no hard limit on how many of each subformation can be in a single unit, so one unit could, in theory, be 10 times larger and have 300 rifles, 50 MG, etc. etc.

The disincentive for making huge stacks comes from combat penalties. If you make a ground attack, beneath the map will be shown:

"Select land attack participants. Attack Stack: 00/100"

The second number shows the point at which adding extra forces becomes less effective. Each unit is assigned a stack point value, for infantry it is 1, medium tanks are 10. So if you attacked a hex with 4 medium tanks and 60 infantry, the stack value of the attackers would be exactly 100.

If you attack a hex from more than one direction, the 100 figure goes up and you also gain a concentric attack bonus, which will be shown on the screen.

The attack stack is not a hard limit, you will often want to exceed it due to the defender being in a strong position. Going 50% over isn't too bad, double the attacking limit means your attackers are getting in each other's way and not fighting so well anymore. If the overstack increases even further, the penalties continue to increase.

The same applies to defence. You can pile a thousand defenders in a hex if you want, but when you are attacked your losses will be massive due to the defensive overstack.

Similarly, artillery and air attacks start to decrease in effectiveness if too many units are participating.

There are no stack limits in naval combat.

HQ units are not subject to the limit of 8 subformation types per unit. So you can send all your diverse production to a HQ without encountering any problem.

Lastly, to finally answer your question, different terrain types have no effect on the above rules, so cities, plains, mountains are all the same (except of course motorized and tracked vehicles can't move into mountain hexes unless there is a road there).

[rlm60]

Wow,
Thanks everyone for the quick and helpful answers. I just bought this game today and already love it. The only other computer game I play is Gary Grigsby's war in the East because it reminds me of Fire in the east/SE (My favorite game). I have been making random games and having a great time. Another quick question, Is it ok to use the "Unplayable large Map" setting? I don't want the game to crash or anything.

Thank you guys again
Rob

[ernieschwitz]

Yes, unplayably large, is within the parameters that you can play without the game crashing.