Conscipts and Attrition

[Powloon]

I am playing S-P and I am about to reach 1852. I am finally starting to take a look at my army after spending the first part of the game coming to grips with the economy. I was wondering if anyone could help me with a few questions (OK probably more than a few !)

The first thing I noticed when checking the F3 Reinforcement and Replacement screen was that I needed 53 elite and 150 normal infantry replacements. A bit of a shock! I am playing with historical attrition set to on so I assume that no matter how I station my troops I will always suffer at least a base level of attrition is that correct? A related question is with historical replacements will my military formations only take on replacements when stacked in a province with a depot?

I did notice I hadn't moved my army from Piemont to shelter inside Turin so I rectified that. I also switched the army over to a passive posture which I am assuming reduces attrition casulties? Should I further split my forces with a corps in each province with a depot? The reason I haven't done so far is I was afraid moving troops to Alessandia on the Austrian border might prevoke a crisis is this a likely outcome? Is there an optimum way to quarter my troops?

I have also made the mistake of draining the conscript pool a couple of times when buying colonial units which has meant I have suffered unnessescary hits when i couldn't maintain my forces due to lack of conscripts.

My main question is the conscript rate for S-P is very low will I at any point get any decisions which will affect this or am I stuck with it until I get more provinces?

Thankyou in advance

[loki100]

in general, I wouldn't play PoN with 'historical attrition' to be honest. It will force you to divert a steady stream of Mfg goods to replacements just to keep things stable.

from other games - shouldn't make any difference if you are inside or just in a province (as long as you own it). Passive only increases the chance that particular formation will be reinforced compared to others, so defensive should be good enough (unless you really are trying to force your replacements to a few particular units).

As long as your units don't exceed the supply capacity of the province it doesn't matter how they are organised and, with S-P at the start, no obvious military gain to spreading them out (you are unlikely to have uprisings and in the event of war Turin is a good central position). If you are gearing up for war, it maybe an idea to deploy some force to Alessandria (to gain the entrenchment bonus in case the Austrians manage to attack into your territory) but movement in N Italy is pretty speedy (esp if you've completed the rail net)

[Kensai7]

I totally disagree with loki100. Especially for SP games, playing with HA on (at least for the player!) will give a nice handicap for you to not accelerate the pace of the game to unrealistic levels. Hits in F3 screen can mean many things, do not panic. Just try not to have huge standing armies (future v1.03 will make costs of large armies/navies even higher) and some other considerations:

• Avoid large unit concentrations. Epidemics can happen.
• In peace time, station your troops to depots. Consider them military bases.
• Do not set them on passive. Use passive only if you need to prioritize which troops should get replacements or weapon updates first.
• Some troops (fortress troops come to mind) are locked and if in a region without a depot they won't be able to recreate their lost elements or update their weapons. These may show up in F3 as permament hits.
• Ideally, the F3 screen should show few hits on your units, but do not obsess over it. It's realistic to have casualties even in peacetime.
• Avoid moving your troops in wintertime. An offensive war in enemy territory is costly in hits. This is WAD.

The conscript levels early in the game for USA and Sardinia-Piedmont are normal. You are not supposed to field huge armies with these nations before some time.

[Powloon]

Mmm as i have 3 depots I think I will try splitting the army and basing a corps at each. Even if there is no direct military benefit (other than province defence in case of revolt and building entrenchments) it feels historically right. Will basing a corps on the Austrian border proke a crises?

[Sir Garnet]

Passive and sheltered does help recover cohesion, but passive is bad if attacked by enemy. Defensive will do.

Think of the replacement chits as reserve depot units to replenish front line forces. They don't cause maintenance like units in the field do, so are a good thing to accumulate when not wanting to build units and your conscript pool is already reasonably full.

[Sgt Bash]

In case you do not know, one chit represents approximately 10 replacements. For 53 elite replacements, you should create 5 chits.