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What is the best time to wipe out encircled units.
When the benefit of low supply and the "cost" of the assigned troops outweigh on another?
At Barbarossa i made some big encirclements and catch most of the red army. Now i not sure if i wipe them out immediately or let them starve a while before mop the floor with the remains.
If u are doing real blitz encirclement is about opportunitty, not about "right time".
But, but, its depends on how many spare troops divisions u have,
if u are in "middle" or "deep" russia, theres less provinces so u can spare some troops holding the pocket, to rest before finish the encircled unluck dudes.;....
if u are in initial days of barbarrosa, must finish the pocket asap.
If a country capitulates you get a share of the equipment not only of the stockpile but also of the units they have fielded.
Quick demonstration:
(1) France Army beaten normally (walk to Paris): -> 19k Guns
(2) Tag over to France, delete their Army (send all Equipment to Stockpile) -> 24k Guns
(3) Encircle and overrun all French units -> 787 Guns
That means: IF you don't need to wipe up encirclements, don't do it.
But there are several reasons to do it anyway:
Weakening the enemy now may be better than some equipment in the future
Encirclements can be a problem for supply ("Control of incoming edge province" ...)
You need troops to guard the encirclement.
So the final answer is, as it is many times: It depends.
An example from my experience:
At the beginning of Barbarossa I encircle the Mountains at the northern Border of Romania, pushing through Lwow. I prepare an Army of 24 to hold that Encirclement for ~3 Months, because it's very hard to wipe them out in the mountains and I don't have time for it.
After 3 Months they lost almost all org (Encircled Divisions slowly lose Org *) ) and even weak Infantry Divisions can mop them up.
*)
When out of supply, the division also suffers from an extra organization loss of 0.3 per hour scaled by out of supply progress, reaching full in 30 days.
