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To improve the recovery from damaged ground element, my layman sense tells me to move the unit to the rear, to the National Reserve theatre box or set it to refit mode. It is against my layman sense that the unit in contact with the enemy is set to refit mode. However, the majority of the units are in contact with the enemy during the course of war. How to they recover from the damage of the ground element?

By rotating a unit to a rear-area depot and sitting there in refit mode. No army has 100% of its units on the very frontline, there is always a rotation of beaten units to the back.

As for setting a unit in contact with the enemy to refit, refit is just a priority to receive not just reinforcements (which a unit in contact will rarely get), but also ammo, fuel and supplies. So it makes sense to set a unit to refit if it lacks ammo or fuel, as the logistic routines will prioritize the needs of that unit.

5% of damaged vehicles would be returned to the unit per turn. Let say, I have 20 damaged Panther in hand. How many of these Panthers will be repaired and returned to service in next turn?

HOTEC wrote: Wed Jun 22, 2022 7:10 am 5% of damaged vehicles would be returned to the unit per turn. Let say, I have 20 damaged Panther in hand.

1. Where have you got the 5% figure from?
2. Where exactly do you have those tanks - in the transit pool or damaged in the unit?

There is a forum post about panzer having trouble shedding damaged panzers.

I do not know of that 5% either and I am curious but % systems are awful for small numbers as it means rarely one will get off all the damaged elements.
And supposedly divisions have their own mechanics and repair shops.
Especially as to move across the mud or so damages a bucket of ground elements.

In general the recovery rate to me seems slowish for the Germans anyhow - and quite faster for the Soviets.

The fundamental thing to understand is that damaged AFVs (and indeed all other damaged elements) are not repaired 'in unit' but instead in the transit pools.

Damaged AFVs move from a unit to the transit pool. Optimum percentages as follows
Clear 22.5%
Light Mud 20%
Heavy Mud 10%
Light Snow 17.5%
Snow 15%
Heavy Snow 10%

As part of this process there is a chance that damaged AFVs will be lost rather than moved to transit pool - this chance is higher the further from a railhead the unit is. There aren't any specific numbers in the manual, nor is it specified whether the chance is applied to all the damaged elements or just the ones that are potentially returning to the transit pool.

25% of the transit pool is returned to the active pool each turn

Units receive new elements 'as normal' from the active pool to take them up towards max TOE

So lets say you have a unit with 40 damaged AFVs which you take off the front line and leave on a depot in clear weather.

On turn 1, 9 of these AFVs will be returned to the transit pool to be repaired. Note that if there are already AFV elements available in the active pool these can immediately be allocated to the unit. So potentially the unit could only 'repair' 9 AFVs but still receive 20 in reinforcement.

On turn 2, the unit will send 7 AFVs to the transit pool. The transit pool will send 2 AFVs to the active pool, ready be allocated back out to units in the logistics phase. So at this stage you have 24 damaged AFVs remaining in the unit and 14 AFVs in the transit pool.

On turn 3 the unit will send 5 AFVs to the transit pool. The transit pool will send 4 AFVs to the active pool. So you have 19 damaged AFVs in unit and 15 in the transit pool.

The totals in following turns (assuming the unit is not moved and does not incur additional damaged elements) would be.
T4 15 damaged in unit/15 in transit pool (10 of the original 40 damaged AFVs repaired already)
T5 12 damaged / 14 in transit pool (14 repaired already)
T6 9 damaged/ 13 in transit pool (18 repaired already)
T7 7 damaged/ 12 in transit pool (21 repaired)
T8 5 damaged/ 11 in transit pool (24 repaired)
T9 4 damaged/ 9 in transit pool (27 repaired)

So my take home from this is - don't leave your Panzer/Tank units on a depot for turns and turns and turns trying to get all the damaged elements repaired. In the example above it took just 3 turns for half the damaged AFVs to be moved out of the unit back into the transit pools.

Units will send damaged elements back to the transit pool at the same rate whether they are in contact with the enemy or not. However if they are a long way away from a railhead they will risk losing damaged elements in the process and will also find it more difficult to take on replacement elements from the active pool.

A final point to make is that the above means that the 'repair/refit process' as perceived by the player can seem to occur at different speeds in different contexts. If there are plenty of replacement AFVs in the active pool a unit on refit status, supply priority 4 and on a depot might be able to refit to a high TOE very quickly. However, if the active pool gets low/exhausted it can take a while for damaged elements to pass through the system and become available again as replacements.

Hope that is helpful?

There should be a chance that some of the damaged will be repaired during the logistics phase. This depends on many factors, but supply is critical. So units not in good supply condition will have a hard time repairing damage in place. Also, there is a chance that some will be cannibalized at a 1 destroyed of 1 repaired rate (or 2 destroyed for 1 repaired, can't remember) in order to repair a ground element.

1. Where have you got the 5% figure from?

The 5% is from 28.2.6.

AFVs have many types. Let say 37 Panthers and 13 StuG IIIGs damaged. Do they have any priority of the types to be repaired?

HOTEC wrote: Wed Jun 22, 2022 7:10 am 5% of damaged vehicles would be returned to the unit per turn. Let say, I have 20 damaged Panther in hand. How many of these Panthers will be repaired and returned to service in next turn?

In the context of section 28.2.6 where the 5% return is stated, vehicles means trucks and not armored fighting vechicles (tanks, spgs etc).

See Sammy5s posting for a description of the return of AVFs.

Sammy5IsAlive
Hope that is helpful?

Yes. It is helpful.
Thanks.