Army Attrition on Land
ARMY ATTRITION ON LAND
CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION
2. ARMY UNIT
3. SUPPLY LIMIT
3.1 GENERAL
3.2 BASE VALUE
3.3 NAVAL BLOCKADE
3.4 ACTUAL SUPPLY LIMIT (DSL)
4. SUPPLY ATTRITION NUMBERS
4.1 MAX SUPPLY ATTRITION
4.2 SUPPLY ATTRITION SUFFERED
4.3 DISPLAYED SUPPLY ATTRITION
4.4 ORDER OF SUPPLY ATTRITION
5. HOW MAX IS CALCULATED AND MODIFIERS TO DSL
5.1 TYPE 1 – ADD TO MAX
5.2 TYPE 2 – ADD TO DSL
5.3 TYPE 3 – ADD TO MAX AND SUBTRACT FROM DSL
6. NORMAL MOVEMENT ATTRITION
7. WHICH PART OF A COMPOUND ARMY IS HIT BY THE ATTRITION
8. EXAMPLES
9. SUGGESTIONS FOR PARADOX
1. INTRODUCTION
Attrition means that an army decreases in size, although it is neither in battle nor the target of an event.
Attrition occurs in two situations
a) MOVEMENT ATTRITION - An army moves during the turn of a month
b) SUPPLY ATTRITION - The size of an army (together with other armies present in the province) is greater than the supply limit for the province
The information about attrition given in the manual and in-game is not very clear and some of the features are also bugged. This FAQ tries to unravel these mysteries. The two basic questions are
- When does attrition take place?
- How large is it?
Credits: Lawkeeper and ws2_32 have been most helpful in the creation of this FAQ. In fact some parts are even written word by word by them. A huge thank you
2. ARMY UNIT (AU)
The concept of “army unit” (AU) is fundamental for the understanding of attrition.
Each 1000 infantry, 1000 cavalry and 10 artillery is one AU. Thus 1001 men infantry and 2000 men infantry are both 2 AU while 2001 are 3 AU. The number of AU are sometimes referred to as the “weight” of one or more armies.
When you have several types of army in a province each type is calculated for itself. I.e. all infantry are added to one sum of army units, all cavalry to another sum and all artillery to a third sum. Then these sums are added. E.g. assume there are two armies in a province. One consists of 5,000/5,999/9 (infantry/cavalry/artillery) and one of 0/5,000/14. The total is thus 5,000/10,999/23. This makes a total weight of 5+11+3=19 AU. Thus, splitting an army doesn't matter from the attrition point of view, its weight stays the same.
3. SUPPLY LIMIT
3.1 GENERAL
The supply limit (SL) is the cap for how many AU you can have without attrition taking place.
The formula used to calculate it is made up of a lot of different things. It is in fact one of the more complex formulas that exist in the game. Hence it may be quite difficult to calculate this cap. In the province info screen there is a SL row. It will be called the displayed supply limit (DSL). The DSL can be green, yellow or red. The meaning of these colors will be explained further down where "out of supply" is discussed.
Unfortunately the DSL only gives a rough estimate of the real or actual SL (ASL), i.e. the one that really decides how many army units you can have in a province without suffering supply attrition.
A quite complicated algorithm is used for calculating the ASL. For ease of understanding it has been split in two halves or groups of values. First one group that we will say adds up to the Base Value. And then a lot of modifiers to this Base Value.
3.2 BASE VALUE / DSL
We have arbitrarily chosen the DSL as the base value in this FAQ. Remember: the DSL is the supply information given in the province screen.
The DSL is calculated according to the following.
OWNED PROVINCES
- Base Tax Value (BTV) * 5
- + Fortification level * 10
- + 10 for Conscription Center (if built)
- If naval blockade: 2*
OTHER COUNTRY’S PROVINCES
- BTV* 2
- If Military Access: BTV * 4
- Controlled enemy province: BTV * 3
- If controlled province is owned by MA-granting country : BTV * 4
- If naval blockade: 2*
ALLY-OWNED PROVINCES
- At peace: BTV * 2
- If ally is in the same war: BTV * 5
- If naval blockade: 2*
THINGS THAT DO NOT EFFECT THE DSL
- Vassal status
- Modifiers to tax income (it's the basic tax value that matter)
- Population size
- Manpower
- Officials
- Manufacturies
- Being the Holy Roman Emperor (but it gives you MA to all empire provinces during war)
OTHER
TPs and colonies apply the same rules as cities.
Unsettled province: not displayed (but it is the BTV) .
3.3 NAVAL BLOCKADE VALUE / DSL
Blockade by a navy during a siege doubles the DSL (after MA modifier) as described above. There are four cases when this bonus ceases to exist
1. Once the fortress falls and you control the province
2. If you take your whole besieging army and starts to move it. But if you keep a covering/besieging army and start marching with the rest of the army the marching army still benefits to the full extent of the naval blockade.
3. If the besieging army involves in a battle
4. If the blockading fleet involves in a battle
3.4 ACTUAL SUPPLY LIMIT
How the ASL is calculated will described later in chapter 5. First we will look closer at how attrition works.
4. SUPPLY ATTRITION NUMBERS
4.1 MAX SUPPLY ATTRITION
In the province info screen, just below the DSL, a "Max attrition" (MAX) number is displayed. This number can be e.g. 10%. It says how much supply attrition (in percentage) you can suffer at most at the turn of a month.
How this value is calculated will be explained in detail in chapter 5.
4.2. SUPPLY ATTRITION SUFFERED
NORMAL CASE
----------------
Rule: For each AU above the ASL you will suffer 1% attrition. For each additional AU you suffer 1% more attrition up to MAX, the cap.
Example: Say the ASL is 25 AU, MAX is 5% and you have an all infantry army (the same applies for an all cavalry army).
1. Your army consists of 25,000 men (i.e. 25 AU). You will not suffer any attrition.
2. Your army is 25,001 men (i.e. 26 AU). You will suffer 1%.
3. It is 26,001 men (i.e. 27 AU). You will suffer 2%.
4. It is 29,001-30,000 men. You will suffer 5%.
5. It is 30,001 men or more. You will still suffer only 5% because 5% is the maximal value for supply attrition.
For a combined army, e.g. both infantry and cavalry, the same applies (i.e. just count the number of AU). But the attrition suffered is not spread equally between each type of army, see chapter 7.
SMALL ARMY PENALTY
-------------------------
Exception: if a small army (500 men or less) gets supply attrition the minimum attrition suffered will be according to this:
Men ------- Minimum attrition
-------------------------
334-500 --- 2%
251-333 --- 3%
201-250 --- 4%
167-200 --- 5%
134-166 --- 6%
126-133 --- 7%
112-125 --- 8%
101-111 --- 9%
91-100 --- 10%
82-90 ---- 11%
...and so on
Example: say you have an army of 240 infantry men and the ASL is 0. Then you will lose not 1%, which would happen under the normal case, but 4%. The reason for the existence of this penalty is easy to understand because if it had not existed a small army would virtually never attrite down to zero.
ARTILLERY ATTRITION BONUS
-----------------------------
Exception: if your infantry and/or cavalry are so few (e.g. non-existent) that attrition hits your artillery then the percentage (for all army types that attrites) is only 0.67, i.e. two thirds of a percent, for each percent of normal attrition.
Assume you should have 10% attrition and attrition hits your artillery. Then the total attrition will instead be 6.7%.
This applies for movement attrition as well as supply attrition.
4.3 DISPLAYED SUPPLY ATTRITION
The game provides three types of in-game information of how much supply attrition you will suffer on the turn of the month.
A) ARMY WINDOW SUPPLY ATTRITION
When you look at an army (in the army information window) there is a value indicating the supply attrition for the army. This one is bugged. It shows 1% less than what the supply attrition really is. Which means that when you suffer 1% supply attrition it displays as zero. This is very annoying. It does of course not mean that when it says 0 it is always 1%. If the supply attrition is 0% it also displays as 0.
Beside the supply attrition number there is a scull that can have different colors. The default value is yellow in tropical provinces and green in the rest. If you are suffering from supply attrition a green scull turns grey but a yellow stays yellow. The scull may also be red. A red scull is displayed when you are in a foreign province. No extensive analysis of these sculls has been made.
B) SIEGE WINDOW AND BATTLE WINDOW SUPPLY ATTRITION
In the siege window and in the battle window you can also find an supply attrition number. In both of these the supply attrition numbers are correct.
A very easy way to see this display error in the army window is to start moving a part of a besieging army. The supply attrition displayed for the army on march will now be 1% less than for the one displayed in the siege window for the army that stays in the province. But in reality the supply attrition will be the same for both armies.
4.4 ORDER OF SUPPLY ATTRITION
When there are armies of different countries in the same province, all troops are summed in each individual catagory infantry,cavalry,artillery for calculating the number of AU.
Two separate caluclations of supply attrition are performed. The first calculation is for any and all armies not in control (and not in control through an active alliance) of the province. All of those armies are reduced in size according to the calculation.
After non-controlling armies are reduced in size, a second calculation is performed for the controlling armies. In cases where a non-controlling army is large and supply attrition is high, the order of attrition can greatly reduce supply attrition for controlling armies. For controlling armies, the supply attrition actually suffered may be less than what is displayed in a army window, siege window (regarding retreating army), or battle window.
For example a 20,000 infantry army that is in control of a province arrives, at the end of the month, in a province with a 20,000 cavalry force present that is not in control of the province. If the ASL for the non-controlling army is 20 and the MAX supply attrition is very high, the non controlling army suffers 20% supply attrition reducing the size to 16,000 cavalry. If the ASL for the controlling army is 36, then the controlling army suffers no supply attrition. Note that 40,000 troops were present but the controlling army suffers no supply attrition at an ASL of only 36.
5. HOW MAX IS CALCULATED AND MODIFIERS TO DSL
This chapter has a twofold purpose.
1. It explains how the MAX value is calculated. This is not very important for the player. You can just look in the province information screen and hover over the MAX row and the number will be explained.
2. It explains those modifers that creates the ASL from the DSL. A modifier either adds or subtracts to the DSL, i.e. DSL + modifiers – other modfiers = ASL. This is very important. Without it you cannot calculate the ASL and, as indicated above, the ASL number - in contrast to the MAX number - cannot be found in-game, you have to calculate it yourself.
There are a lot of things that influence these two things. They have been grouped into three different types.
Type 1 - only adds to MAX
Type 2 - only adds to DSL
Type 3 - both adds to MAX and subtracts from DSL
5.1 TYPE 1 – ADD TO MAX
Tech level x%
Looted 5%
Out of supply 10%
Desert 8%
Mountain 5%
Marsh 2%
Desert is a problem. First, when you hover over MAX it says “Desert 5%”. That is wrong. In reality it is 8% and this is correctly added to MAX. (Fixed in post 1.08 beta patch of June 9th, 2004)
Secondly not all provinces that are depicted as desert on the map (i.e. yellow color) get the Desert penalty. Examples of this is the Chagatai desert provinces. And some provinces that are not yellow gets it. Examples of this is the provinces around the Nile that in-game are displayed as Plains but as we all know mostly consists of desert in real life. This apparent inconsistency has to do with the fact that "Desert" is a type of terrain as well as a type of climate. The Desert penalty we speak about here stems from "climate". The climate for a province can be found in the provinces.csv file were a value of 4 or 6 means that the province has a "Desert climate". Thus Nile (terrain: plains) gets a desert penalty while the Chagatai provinces (terrain:desert) does not.
The tech level percentage is made up by subtracting a value from 10, i.e. 10 - x. The x value is 0 at Land tech 0 and then increases with 1 for every 6th land tech level up to 54. E.g. when you reach Land tech level 6 x will increase to 1 thus giving you a tech level penalty of 9%. And when you reach Land tech level 54 x will increase with 1 from 8 to 9 giving you a tech level penalty of only 1%. It will not increase to 10 at level 60, thus you will never reach 0 tech penalty. This is the one factor that means you can never reach zero % supply attrition when you are over the ASL. You will always have at least 1%. Don't let yourself be fooled by the display error in the army window (see 4.3 A).
Out of supply occurs in all provinces except the following
a) provinces controlled by you (the DSL number is green)
b) provinces controlled by an allied nation if you are in the same war (DSL green)
c) provinces that are covered by you and to which you can trace an unbroken chain through 0 or more covered provinces to a province type a-b (DSL is yellow)
d) provinces adjacent to a), b) or c) (DSL is yellow)
If out of supply the DSL number is red. You can also detect that this is the case by looking at the info displayed when you hover over the MAX number.
5.2 TYPE 2 – ADD TO DSL
A conquistador adds 4 AU * the maneuver value to the ASL. Other leaders adds 2 AU * the maneuver value. By hovering over the leader stats you can see which value is the maneuver value.
5.3 TYPE 3 – ADD TO MAX AND SUBTRACT FROM DSL
Tropical: add 5% to MAX, subtract 5 AU from the DSL
Winter: add 10% to MAX and subtract 10 AU from the DSL. If you do not own the province then subtract 25 AU from the DSL (but still add only 10% to MAX).
This is a source for much confusion. Say the DSL is 20 AU and you are in India (tropical). Normally you could have 24 AU (20 for the DSL plus 4 for the leader). But in reality you can only have 19 (24 minus 5 for the tropical penalty), i.e. less than the DSL. In winter climate a player will not be as surprised that supply attrition may occur although not above the DSL.
6. NORMAL MOVEMENT ATTRITION
When an army is on the move on the turn of the month it will suffer a 1% movement attrition of its infantry and cavalry. This movement attrition is not added to the supply attrition stemming from being above the ASL. If the latter occurs then no movement attrition occurs, thus movement attrition only occurs when the army does not exceed the ASL. An army led by a conquistador will never suffer from movement attrition.
This means that if you start an army on its march somewhere during a month and it arrives in the new province on the 1st of the next month it was moving on the turn of the month. If it arrives on the 30th or earlier it was not on march. This may be easier to remember if you imagine that all start and stop of marching takes place at midday.
Note that an all-artillery army may be so small that the movement attrition cannot be seen in the display (the same applies for supply attrition). Assume you have an army consisting of 100 pieces of artillery only. If it moves on the turn of the month it will now consist of 99.330 pieces (remember the bonus for attrition of artillery, chapter 4.2) and that will be displayed as 100 (but if you look in the savefile you can see that it really is only 99.330). If you move it once more it will sink below 99 and thus be displayed as 99. Hence an army of 25 guns will attrite 1 gun every fourth month. This can be utilised when you wish to move artillery. Instead of sending a huge artillery army, instead split it and avoid attrition. The same kind of math applies for infantry/cavalry armies but such armies rarely have fewer than 100 men.
7. WHICH PART OF A COMPOUND ARMY IS HIT BY SUPPLY/MOVEMENT ATTRITION
If an army contains more than one type of army unit the following will occur
Army with Infantry + Cavalry: The infantry will take 5/6 and the cavalry 1/6 of the attrition
Army with INF+CAV+Artillery: Same as the previous one
Army with INF + ART: The INF will take all the attrition
Army with CAV + ART: The CAV will take all the attrition
If the number of infantry according to the formula above is higher than the actual existing number, then all infantry will attrite and the missing part will attrite from the cavalry (so it adds up to 1%), and so on.
Note: artillery will never attrite as long as other types exist.
8. EXAMPLES
In this example, as in all other, a standard leader with a maneuver value of 2 will be assumed.
EXAMPLE 1
A normal plains province in Europe and under your control. I.e. no winter or other special feature. The MAX will now be the tech level penalty only.
Assume the DSL is 20 and assume MAX is 5%.
This means you can have 20 AU plus 4 for the Leader, i.e. 24 AU, in the province without suffering supply attrition at the turn of the month. If you have 25 units the army will suffer from 1% supply attrition at the turn of the month, 26 units = 2%, ... 29 units or more 5%.
EXAMPLE 2
A looted mountain province under your control in tropical climate. MAX will now be tech level penalty (say 5%) + 5% for mountain + 5% for tropical + 5% for looted.
Thus MAX will be 20% and further assume the DSL is 20. This means you can have 20 plus 4 for the Leader minus 5 for tropical, i.e. 19 AU, in the province without suffering supply attrition at the turn of the month. If you have 20 you suffer 1% supply attrition. If you have 39 or more you suffer the maximum supply attrition (MAX) possible, i.e. 20%.
COMMENT
As can be seen, when calculating the ASL it is convenient to start with the DSL.
9. SUGGESTIONS FOR PARADOX
1. Let all modifiers be included in the DSL (with default leader assumed), thus it will show a true value (the ASL) when you have a default leader. Since MAX is updated each month (depending on winter e.g.) it cannot be too difficult to check the DSL value monthly as well. And the algorithm to establish what this value should be already exists because it (minus Leader influence) must be used when the displayed attrition is calculated.
As a minimum let the DSL include the tropical and the winter penalty; hence you will never suffer attrition as long as you do not exceed the DSL.
2. When a blockaded province is controlled the bonus from blockading is removed. The new bonus given (based upon tax value) is smaller. If anything, one imagines that in reality supply would be easier when you control the province than when you do not. Either ships outside the coast could still give you a bonus or the new bonus could be increased.
3. Fix the display bug of the supply attrition in the army window.
ARMY ATTRITION ON LAND
CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION
2. ARMY UNIT
3. SUPPLY LIMIT
3.1 GENERAL
3.2 BASE VALUE
3.3 NAVAL BLOCKADE
3.4 ACTUAL SUPPLY LIMIT (DSL)
4. SUPPLY ATTRITION NUMBERS
4.1 MAX SUPPLY ATTRITION
4.2 SUPPLY ATTRITION SUFFERED
4.3 DISPLAYED SUPPLY ATTRITION
4.4 ORDER OF SUPPLY ATTRITION
5. HOW MAX IS CALCULATED AND MODIFIERS TO DSL
5.1 TYPE 1 – ADD TO MAX
5.2 TYPE 2 – ADD TO DSL
5.3 TYPE 3 – ADD TO MAX AND SUBTRACT FROM DSL
6. NORMAL MOVEMENT ATTRITION
7. WHICH PART OF A COMPOUND ARMY IS HIT BY THE ATTRITION
8. EXAMPLES
9. SUGGESTIONS FOR PARADOX
1. INTRODUCTION
Attrition means that an army decreases in size, although it is neither in battle nor the target of an event.
Attrition occurs in two situations
a) MOVEMENT ATTRITION - An army moves during the turn of a month
b) SUPPLY ATTRITION - The size of an army (together with other armies present in the province) is greater than the supply limit for the province
The information about attrition given in the manual and in-game is not very clear and some of the features are also bugged. This FAQ tries to unravel these mysteries. The two basic questions are
- When does attrition take place?
- How large is it?
Credits: Lawkeeper and ws2_32 have been most helpful in the creation of this FAQ. In fact some parts are even written word by word by them. A huge thank you
2. ARMY UNIT (AU)
The concept of “army unit” (AU) is fundamental for the understanding of attrition.
Each 1000 infantry, 1000 cavalry and 10 artillery is one AU. Thus 1001 men infantry and 2000 men infantry are both 2 AU while 2001 are 3 AU. The number of AU are sometimes referred to as the “weight” of one or more armies.
When you have several types of army in a province each type is calculated for itself. I.e. all infantry are added to one sum of army units, all cavalry to another sum and all artillery to a third sum. Then these sums are added. E.g. assume there are two armies in a province. One consists of 5,000/5,999/9 (infantry/cavalry/artillery) and one of 0/5,000/14. The total is thus 5,000/10,999/23. This makes a total weight of 5+11+3=19 AU. Thus, splitting an army doesn't matter from the attrition point of view, its weight stays the same.
3. SUPPLY LIMIT
3.1 GENERAL
The supply limit (SL) is the cap for how many AU you can have without attrition taking place.
The formula used to calculate it is made up of a lot of different things. It is in fact one of the more complex formulas that exist in the game. Hence it may be quite difficult to calculate this cap. In the province info screen there is a SL row. It will be called the displayed supply limit (DSL). The DSL can be green, yellow or red. The meaning of these colors will be explained further down where "out of supply" is discussed.
Unfortunately the DSL only gives a rough estimate of the real or actual SL (ASL), i.e. the one that really decides how many army units you can have in a province without suffering supply attrition.
A quite complicated algorithm is used for calculating the ASL. For ease of understanding it has been split in two halves or groups of values. First one group that we will say adds up to the Base Value. And then a lot of modifiers to this Base Value.
3.2 BASE VALUE / DSL
We have arbitrarily chosen the DSL as the base value in this FAQ. Remember: the DSL is the supply information given in the province screen.
The DSL is calculated according to the following.
OWNED PROVINCES
- Base Tax Value (BTV) * 5
- + Fortification level * 10
- + 10 for Conscription Center (if built)
- If naval blockade: 2*
OTHER COUNTRY’S PROVINCES
- BTV* 2
- If Military Access: BTV * 4
- Controlled enemy province: BTV * 3
- If controlled province is owned by MA-granting country : BTV * 4
- If naval blockade: 2*
ALLY-OWNED PROVINCES
- At peace: BTV * 2
- If ally is in the same war: BTV * 5
- If naval blockade: 2*
THINGS THAT DO NOT EFFECT THE DSL
- Vassal status
- Modifiers to tax income (it's the basic tax value that matter)
- Population size
- Manpower
- Officials
- Manufacturies
- Being the Holy Roman Emperor (but it gives you MA to all empire provinces during war)
OTHER
TPs and colonies apply the same rules as cities.
Unsettled province: not displayed (but it is the BTV) .
3.3 NAVAL BLOCKADE VALUE / DSL
Blockade by a navy during a siege doubles the DSL (after MA modifier) as described above. There are four cases when this bonus ceases to exist
1. Once the fortress falls and you control the province
2. If you take your whole besieging army and starts to move it. But if you keep a covering/besieging army and start marching with the rest of the army the marching army still benefits to the full extent of the naval blockade.
3. If the besieging army involves in a battle
4. If the blockading fleet involves in a battle
3.4 ACTUAL SUPPLY LIMIT
How the ASL is calculated will described later in chapter 5. First we will look closer at how attrition works.
4. SUPPLY ATTRITION NUMBERS
4.1 MAX SUPPLY ATTRITION
In the province info screen, just below the DSL, a "Max attrition" (MAX) number is displayed. This number can be e.g. 10%. It says how much supply attrition (in percentage) you can suffer at most at the turn of a month.
How this value is calculated will be explained in detail in chapter 5.
4.2. SUPPLY ATTRITION SUFFERED
NORMAL CASE
----------------
Rule: For each AU above the ASL you will suffer 1% attrition. For each additional AU you suffer 1% more attrition up to MAX, the cap.
Example: Say the ASL is 25 AU, MAX is 5% and you have an all infantry army (the same applies for an all cavalry army).
1. Your army consists of 25,000 men (i.e. 25 AU). You will not suffer any attrition.
2. Your army is 25,001 men (i.e. 26 AU). You will suffer 1%.
3. It is 26,001 men (i.e. 27 AU). You will suffer 2%.
4. It is 29,001-30,000 men. You will suffer 5%.
5. It is 30,001 men or more. You will still suffer only 5% because 5% is the maximal value for supply attrition.
For a combined army, e.g. both infantry and cavalry, the same applies (i.e. just count the number of AU). But the attrition suffered is not spread equally between each type of army, see chapter 7.
SMALL ARMY PENALTY
-------------------------
Exception: if a small army (500 men or less) gets supply attrition the minimum attrition suffered will be according to this:
Men ------- Minimum attrition
-------------------------
334-500 --- 2%
251-333 --- 3%
201-250 --- 4%
167-200 --- 5%
134-166 --- 6%
126-133 --- 7%
112-125 --- 8%
101-111 --- 9%
91-100 --- 10%
82-90 ---- 11%
...and so on
Example: say you have an army of 240 infantry men and the ASL is 0. Then you will lose not 1%, which would happen under the normal case, but 4%. The reason for the existence of this penalty is easy to understand because if it had not existed a small army would virtually never attrite down to zero.
ARTILLERY ATTRITION BONUS
-----------------------------
Exception: if your infantry and/or cavalry are so few (e.g. non-existent) that attrition hits your artillery then the percentage (for all army types that attrites) is only 0.67, i.e. two thirds of a percent, for each percent of normal attrition.
Assume you should have 10% attrition and attrition hits your artillery. Then the total attrition will instead be 6.7%.
This applies for movement attrition as well as supply attrition.
4.3 DISPLAYED SUPPLY ATTRITION
The game provides three types of in-game information of how much supply attrition you will suffer on the turn of the month.
A) ARMY WINDOW SUPPLY ATTRITION
When you look at an army (in the army information window) there is a value indicating the supply attrition for the army. This one is bugged. It shows 1% less than what the supply attrition really is. Which means that when you suffer 1% supply attrition it displays as zero. This is very annoying. It does of course not mean that when it says 0 it is always 1%. If the supply attrition is 0% it also displays as 0.
Beside the supply attrition number there is a scull that can have different colors. The default value is yellow in tropical provinces and green in the rest. If you are suffering from supply attrition a green scull turns grey but a yellow stays yellow. The scull may also be red. A red scull is displayed when you are in a foreign province. No extensive analysis of these sculls has been made.
B) SIEGE WINDOW AND BATTLE WINDOW SUPPLY ATTRITION
In the siege window and in the battle window you can also find an supply attrition number. In both of these the supply attrition numbers are correct.
A very easy way to see this display error in the army window is to start moving a part of a besieging army. The supply attrition displayed for the army on march will now be 1% less than for the one displayed in the siege window for the army that stays in the province. But in reality the supply attrition will be the same for both armies.
4.4 ORDER OF SUPPLY ATTRITION
When there are armies of different countries in the same province, all troops are summed in each individual catagory infantry,cavalry,artillery for calculating the number of AU.
Two separate caluclations of supply attrition are performed. The first calculation is for any and all armies not in control (and not in control through an active alliance) of the province. All of those armies are reduced in size according to the calculation.
After non-controlling armies are reduced in size, a second calculation is performed for the controlling armies. In cases where a non-controlling army is large and supply attrition is high, the order of attrition can greatly reduce supply attrition for controlling armies. For controlling armies, the supply attrition actually suffered may be less than what is displayed in a army window, siege window (regarding retreating army), or battle window.
For example a 20,000 infantry army that is in control of a province arrives, at the end of the month, in a province with a 20,000 cavalry force present that is not in control of the province. If the ASL for the non-controlling army is 20 and the MAX supply attrition is very high, the non controlling army suffers 20% supply attrition reducing the size to 16,000 cavalry. If the ASL for the controlling army is 36, then the controlling army suffers no supply attrition. Note that 40,000 troops were present but the controlling army suffers no supply attrition at an ASL of only 36.
5. HOW MAX IS CALCULATED AND MODIFIERS TO DSL
This chapter has a twofold purpose.
1. It explains how the MAX value is calculated. This is not very important for the player. You can just look in the province information screen and hover over the MAX row and the number will be explained.
2. It explains those modifers that creates the ASL from the DSL. A modifier either adds or subtracts to the DSL, i.e. DSL + modifiers – other modfiers = ASL. This is very important. Without it you cannot calculate the ASL and, as indicated above, the ASL number - in contrast to the MAX number - cannot be found in-game, you have to calculate it yourself.
There are a lot of things that influence these two things. They have been grouped into three different types.
Type 1 - only adds to MAX
Type 2 - only adds to DSL
Type 3 - both adds to MAX and subtracts from DSL
5.1 TYPE 1 – ADD TO MAX
Tech level x%
Looted 5%
Out of supply 10%
Desert 8%
Mountain 5%
Marsh 2%
Desert is a problem. First, when you hover over MAX it says “Desert 5%”. That is wrong. In reality it is 8% and this is correctly added to MAX. (Fixed in post 1.08 beta patch of June 9th, 2004)
Secondly not all provinces that are depicted as desert on the map (i.e. yellow color) get the Desert penalty. Examples of this is the Chagatai desert provinces. And some provinces that are not yellow gets it. Examples of this is the provinces around the Nile that in-game are displayed as Plains but as we all know mostly consists of desert in real life. This apparent inconsistency has to do with the fact that "Desert" is a type of terrain as well as a type of climate. The Desert penalty we speak about here stems from "climate". The climate for a province can be found in the provinces.csv file were a value of 4 or 6 means that the province has a "Desert climate". Thus Nile (terrain: plains) gets a desert penalty while the Chagatai provinces (terrain:desert) does not.
The tech level percentage is made up by subtracting a value from 10, i.e. 10 - x. The x value is 0 at Land tech 0 and then increases with 1 for every 6th land tech level up to 54. E.g. when you reach Land tech level 6 x will increase to 1 thus giving you a tech level penalty of 9%. And when you reach Land tech level 54 x will increase with 1 from 8 to 9 giving you a tech level penalty of only 1%. It will not increase to 10 at level 60, thus you will never reach 0 tech penalty. This is the one factor that means you can never reach zero % supply attrition when you are over the ASL. You will always have at least 1%. Don't let yourself be fooled by the display error in the army window (see 4.3 A).
Out of supply occurs in all provinces except the following
a) provinces controlled by you (the DSL number is green)
b) provinces controlled by an allied nation if you are in the same war (DSL green)
c) provinces that are covered by you and to which you can trace an unbroken chain through 0 or more covered provinces to a province type a-b (DSL is yellow)
d) provinces adjacent to a), b) or c) (DSL is yellow)
If out of supply the DSL number is red. You can also detect that this is the case by looking at the info displayed when you hover over the MAX number.
5.2 TYPE 2 – ADD TO DSL
A conquistador adds 4 AU * the maneuver value to the ASL. Other leaders adds 2 AU * the maneuver value. By hovering over the leader stats you can see which value is the maneuver value.
5.3 TYPE 3 – ADD TO MAX AND SUBTRACT FROM DSL
Tropical: add 5% to MAX, subtract 5 AU from the DSL
Winter: add 10% to MAX and subtract 10 AU from the DSL. If you do not own the province then subtract 25 AU from the DSL (but still add only 10% to MAX).
This is a source for much confusion. Say the DSL is 20 AU and you are in India (tropical). Normally you could have 24 AU (20 for the DSL plus 4 for the leader). But in reality you can only have 19 (24 minus 5 for the tropical penalty), i.e. less than the DSL. In winter climate a player will not be as surprised that supply attrition may occur although not above the DSL.
6. NORMAL MOVEMENT ATTRITION
When an army is on the move on the turn of the month it will suffer a 1% movement attrition of its infantry and cavalry. This movement attrition is not added to the supply attrition stemming from being above the ASL. If the latter occurs then no movement attrition occurs, thus movement attrition only occurs when the army does not exceed the ASL. An army led by a conquistador will never suffer from movement attrition.
This means that if you start an army on its march somewhere during a month and it arrives in the new province on the 1st of the next month it was moving on the turn of the month. If it arrives on the 30th or earlier it was not on march. This may be easier to remember if you imagine that all start and stop of marching takes place at midday.
Note that an all-artillery army may be so small that the movement attrition cannot be seen in the display (the same applies for supply attrition). Assume you have an army consisting of 100 pieces of artillery only. If it moves on the turn of the month it will now consist of 99.330 pieces (remember the bonus for attrition of artillery, chapter 4.2) and that will be displayed as 100 (but if you look in the savefile you can see that it really is only 99.330). If you move it once more it will sink below 99 and thus be displayed as 99. Hence an army of 25 guns will attrite 1 gun every fourth month. This can be utilised when you wish to move artillery. Instead of sending a huge artillery army, instead split it and avoid attrition. The same kind of math applies for infantry/cavalry armies but such armies rarely have fewer than 100 men.
7. WHICH PART OF A COMPOUND ARMY IS HIT BY SUPPLY/MOVEMENT ATTRITION
If an army contains more than one type of army unit the following will occur
Army with Infantry + Cavalry: The infantry will take 5/6 and the cavalry 1/6 of the attrition
Army with INF+CAV+Artillery: Same as the previous one
Army with INF + ART: The INF will take all the attrition
Army with CAV + ART: The CAV will take all the attrition
If the number of infantry according to the formula above is higher than the actual existing number, then all infantry will attrite and the missing part will attrite from the cavalry (so it adds up to 1%), and so on.
Note: artillery will never attrite as long as other types exist.
8. EXAMPLES
In this example, as in all other, a standard leader with a maneuver value of 2 will be assumed.
EXAMPLE 1
A normal plains province in Europe and under your control. I.e. no winter or other special feature. The MAX will now be the tech level penalty only.
Assume the DSL is 20 and assume MAX is 5%.
This means you can have 20 AU plus 4 for the Leader, i.e. 24 AU, in the province without suffering supply attrition at the turn of the month. If you have 25 units the army will suffer from 1% supply attrition at the turn of the month, 26 units = 2%, ... 29 units or more 5%.
EXAMPLE 2
A looted mountain province under your control in tropical climate. MAX will now be tech level penalty (say 5%) + 5% for mountain + 5% for tropical + 5% for looted.
Thus MAX will be 20% and further assume the DSL is 20. This means you can have 20 plus 4 for the Leader minus 5 for tropical, i.e. 19 AU, in the province without suffering supply attrition at the turn of the month. If you have 20 you suffer 1% supply attrition. If you have 39 or more you suffer the maximum supply attrition (MAX) possible, i.e. 20%.
COMMENT
As can be seen, when calculating the ASL it is convenient to start with the DSL.
9. SUGGESTIONS FOR PARADOX
1. Let all modifiers be included in the DSL (with default leader assumed), thus it will show a true value (the ASL) when you have a default leader. Since MAX is updated each month (depending on winter e.g.) it cannot be too difficult to check the DSL value monthly as well. And the algorithm to establish what this value should be already exists because it (minus Leader influence) must be used when the displayed attrition is calculated.
As a minimum let the DSL include the tropical and the winter penalty; hence you will never suffer attrition as long as you do not exceed the DSL.
2. When a blockaded province is controlled the bonus from blockading is removed. The new bonus given (based upon tax value) is smaller. If anything, one imagines that in reality supply would be easier when you control the province than when you do not. Either ships outside the coast could still give you a bonus or the new bonus could be increased.
3. Fix the display bug of the supply attrition in the army window.
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