equipment losses

[markslawson]

Soldiers seem to simply throw away infantry weapons in this game - they go through an excrement tonne of the stuff. Unless I'm pumping out a lot or have a huge amount stockpiled when as Germany, I invade Russia or some such, I start to run deficits. I saw one suggestion to have mechanic support groups attached to even lowly infantry divisions.. Is this a good idea? Any other suggestions?

 

[Herennius]

A maintenance company can help in two ways: It helps to compensate low reliability of your own equipment and it allows you to capture a part of the equipment your foe hast lost in a battle you won. The latter effect is IMO even more important: Boosting your own reliability only helps up to 100%, but it never hurts to get extra equipment - especially as a smaller nation it is nice to use tanks your opponent has manufactured

 

[bitmode]

Soldiers seem to simply throw away infantry weapons in this game - they go through an excrement tonne of the stuff. Unless I'm pumping out a lot or have a huge amount stockpiled when as Germany, I invade Russia or some such, I start to run deficits. I saw one suggestion to have mechanic support groups attached to even lowly infantry divisions.. Is this a good idea? Any other suggestions?

First of all, if you have Together for Victory and haven't done so already, check the combat log of the relevant theater to see whether the losses are really primarily from attrition and not combat.

Secondly, you need to pay close attention to attrition. Mountains, marshes, deep snow, etc. cause attrition for every hour you move through them and at the same time they slow your divisions down. Low supply can be another major problem because it affects all units in an entire supply area.

For perspective, a military factory produces roughly 10 infantry equipment per day and an infantry division has about 1000 of them. Ten infantry divisions marching for a day through (or attacking into) bad terrain/weather (~50% attrition) statistically lose 10 * 1000 * 12% * 50% * 10% = 60 infantry equipment, i.e. keeping six factories busy just with their attrition.

 

[GrandVezir]

Soldiers seem to simply throw away infantry weapons in this game - they go through an excrement tonne of the stuff. Unless I'm pumping out a lot or have a huge amount stockpiled when as Germany, I invade Russia or some such, I start to run deficits. I saw one suggestion to have mechanic support groups attached to even lowly infantry divisions.. Is this a good idea? Any other suggestions?

Note that the "equipment" category also includes ammunition, spare parts, tools, and other things needed to actually make the guns go "bang," all added together in one abstract production line.

So massive equipment losses can also mean burning through your ammo stockpile, or losing/breaking tools and spares in hostile terrain or weather.

Edit to add: this is also why artillery takes such huge "losses" in combat: supplies are counted as part of equipment production, and artillery burns through ammo by the literal ton during combat operations. You're not losing the actual guns at that rate.

 

[Secret Master]

First of all, if you have Together for Victory and haven't done so already, check the combat log of the relevant theater to see whether the losses are really primarily from attrition and not combat.

Secondly, you need to pay close attention to attrition. Mountains, marshes, deep snow, etc. cause attrition for every hour you move through them and at the same time they slow your divisions down. Low supply can be another major problem because it affects all units in an entire supply area.

For perspective, a military factory produces roughly 10 infantry equipment per day and an infantry division has about 1000 of them. Ten infantry divisions marching for a day through (or attacking into) bad terrain/weather (~50% attrition) statistically lose 10 * 1000 * 12% * 50% * 10% = 60 infantry equipment, i.e. keeping six factories busy just with their attrition.

To add to Bitmode's excellent summary, it's worth noting if you have La Resistance, your garrisons will also chew up a decent number of kits per year depending on the the resistance target in your states. There's the initial cost of just equipping garrison forces, and then there's the losses every month from partisans.

You should also consider production efficiency in your infantry kit production lines. Swapping 30 MIC immediately from Tier 1 kits to Tier 2 kits might not be the best idea given the hit to production efficiency. Since I never use production lines of greater than 15 MIC, when I research a new infantry kit, I might only swap one production line over to the new type and keep the old line running for months until the new line is up to speed.

There are plenty of things low quality infantry kits can do that don't involve fighting on the front lines, so the older kits you keep producing are not going to waste.

 

[markslawson]

all excellent replies - tnks..