Impact of equipment shortages on divisions

[ohdear]

What effect is there if a country doesn’t have enough equipment to meet its needs? E.g. A country has enough manpower to reinforce divisions but a massive shortfall in infantry equipment. Will they reinforce the men, be short of equipment? If so, what effect does that have? Or do they not reinforce at all until the shortage is plugged?

 

[Bunnytob]

Yes, the manpower will be reinforced but the equipment won't.
The effect of this is that the stats gained from the equipment are reduced proportionally to the amount of equipment - so, for example, if a division with only 10 infantry brigades and 0 support companies has only 50% of the required equipment, it would (or should) have exactly the same stats as a fully-equipped division made up of 5 infantry brigades and 0 support companies.
If a division is down on manpower, all stats are lowered, including speed* - though I can't say I've ever checked if a division with 50% manpower and 50% equipment would fight at 25% stats or 50% stats.

*This, as far as I can tell, only applies to divisions faster than 4km/h. Don't quote me on this.

 

[ohdear]

Thank you.

 

[DGuller]

It results in a downward spiral, which is unfortunate for game balance. The less equipment you have, the less defense or breakthrough you have, which means you're taking on more damage unabsorbed. Taking on damage is not a good way to get out of the equipment shortage hole. When it comes to suicidal AI, the inflection point is reached when it starts running out of equipment. After that inflection point, the casualties skyrocket, and the brown bar just keeps going down.

As far as the effect of having manpower but not equipment in the division, I think it's a lot worse than just having a smaller division. I think you're going to take on much higher casualties as a 20 width division with 50% equipment than as a 10 width division with 100% equipment. The most extreme case is when you get caught in the middle of changing the division template; if you get attacked during a brief moment when your brown bar is very low, all your manpower in the division is going to vaporize.

 

[Orbs]

And don’t overlook the effect manpower or inf eq shortages have on garrisons. When garrisons aren’t properly equipped resistance goes up, which causes more equipment and manpower losses, further putting stress on the existing shortage and hoooo boy it gets out of control quickly. You can lose the whole empire this way

 

[noobermenschen]

Another factor I have noticed, if a division is even a little short on equipment the armour value and piercing are the first numbers to plummet.

Also if you are exercising divisions short of equipment they take longer to gain experience, and this delay appears to scale with how short of equipment you are.

 

[Quantum_AI]

And don’t overlook the effect manpower or inf eq shortages have on garrisons. When garrisons aren’t properly equipped resistance goes up, which causes more equipment and manpower losses, further putting stress on the existing shortage and hoooo boy it gets out of control quickly. You can lose the whole empire this way

Yea, although that is easily fixed by giving garrisons equipment priority. I always have garrisons on top priority and reinforcements on middle.

 

[HugsAndSnuggles]

I can't say I've ever checked if a division with 50% manpower and 50% equipment would fight at 25% stats or 50% stats.

Fairly sure it's the minimum of two: a division with 75% manpower and 50% equipment will fight at 50% strength. If you think about it, it's not like dual-wielding rifles doubles your actual firepower, and meat shields are a pretty niche thing to boost overall effectiveness.