Attrition

[tyronec]

I am playing two games as Soviet, HvH, latest version.
On game 1 am on turn 52, my attrition is around 47k.
On game 2 am on turn 56. My army is 0.2m smaller and has a slightly higher average morale. The attrition has just jumped to 86k (I think it first went up last turn). Am pretty sure it similar to the 47k a few turns ago.
Any idea why this should happen ?

Tyrone

[morvael]

Weather? Lots of movement or combat?

[Stelteck]

Attrition is also proportionnal of the number of units in contact with the ennemy.

[tyronec]

T48 Mud 34k
T49 Clear 49k
T50 Mud 34k
T51 Mud 26k
T52 Clear 49k
T53 Mud 64k
T54 Clear 83k
T55 Clear 86k
T56 Clear 81k
The reduced numbers for 48 & 50 & 51 (&53) is because I had less units in contact, the Clear turns would have had similar in contact.
No significant difference in movement, combat or contact for the clear turns.
I thought logistics attrition was proportional to morale & units in contact, I have a fairly static front line and army.
It looks like my attrition roughly doubled from T53 !

[morvael]

Your infantry is upgrading from 11-man Rifle Squad 41 to 9-man Rifle Squad 42. From the logistics report on turn 56 you can see that 25 447 squads were converted in one turn (this quick upgrading is necessary, because old squads are no longer built, and this would mean no replacements for units in the field for a long time, hence the process was quickened a few patches ago). 25 447 squads converted means 50 894 extra men being sent back (don't worry they will be used quickly and return to the front in other elements). However, when converting in such circumstances (I call it emergency conversion), only ready squads are converted, damaged squads are sent back - this means men are unpaired from equipment, and then 40% of these men become disabled (remember - rifle squad in pool is only equipment, not men; rifle squad in unit means equipment and men), the same happens to equipment (either it's lost or sent back to ready pool). So while on turn 49 only 1 386 squads were sent back and 321 squads were lost, on turn 56 there were 2 261 squads sent back and 431 squads lost (57% increase, similar impact on attrition).

I wouldn't worry if I were you. Your army is "upgrading" to smaller rifle squads, and this conversion process forces damaged squads out of units, requiring men to be disabled. Without conversion that process would be slower, hence you see higher attrition at this time. However, as you can see in ARMY STATUS summary, on turn 49 your army was short 1 751 512 men, but now it's only 1 299 011 men short (452 501 men less). In the process your army increased its size from 6 908 485 to 7 049 323 (140 838 men more), while TOE requirements decreased from 8 659 997 to 8 348 334 (311 663 less). In the process your disabled pool grew from 2 201 815 to 2 489 230 (287 415 men).

This can be seen as fault on the part of the model, in that it requires higher attrition to quickly upgrade squads, but this is required, in order not to starve your army of replacements.