Signal companies should coordinate attacks

[lonewolf371]

One of the prevailing metas right now is that 40 width is better than 20 width for attack because all the 40 width always concentrates on one defending division, whereas if you attack with two 20-width divisions, whether they attack the same enemy division is random. This is artificial.

As a simple fix to switch up the meta away from 40-width, I propose to have signal companies promote attack coordination. I could illustrate how a new mechanic might work with a simple example:

Two 20-width divisions attack two 20-width divisions.

1. The first attacking 20-width division rolls for which division to attack - the chance is 50/50.
2. The second attacking 20-width division rolls for which division to attack.
a. If the second division has no signals company, the chance is 50/50.
b. If the second division has a signals company, an extra 10% chance of attacking the target of the first division is applied - so 60/40 to attack the target of the first. Signals company upgrades increase the chance of targeting the first division's target by 10% for each level.

Apologies if this has already been suggested.

 

[walt526]

There are a couple of ways to nerf 40w divisions. Probably my favorite is to introduce some sort of organization penalty to divisions consisting of more than a certain number of battalions. But I do like the idea of a coordination bonus, although it may need to be higher than 60/40 to attenuate the 40w's advantages.

The downside to this idea is that it would make (2) 20w divisions even more expensive than (1) 40w division because you'd have to have the signal support companies in there (plus paying for twice the support ART, ENG, whatever). The more that I think about it, the bonus for coordination would have to be fairly substantial to make it cost effective and viable.

 

[lonewolf371]

The cost being higher is a good point, but I think there's one advantage you didn't mention, which is that this way you can get firepower concentration while making your enemies distribute more. I don't know if this would be enough to swing the meta towards 20w, but it's something to consider.

 

[sekelsenmat]

Sure, 40w divisions being better are ahistorical. But why would 20w be any better?

The most common historical divisions had 27-30 width. What we really need is to decrease the "combat width penalty" from 2x to 1x.

If we combine that with "Signal company" concentrating attacks slightly for non-40w divisions, then it wouldn't matter the width that you use, and finally it would be OK.

 

[Zauberelefant]

If we finally could get line artillery with 12 guns and CW 1, that would already help a bloody lot, too.

 

[HugsAndSnuggles]

Easiest way would be to sum up all attacks first, then randomly distribute them among enemy divisions.

 

[Harin]

Easiest way would be to sum up all attacks first, then randomly distribute them among enemy divisions.

Along your line of thinking, maybe the system could sum up the stats for a division (which it already does) and then distribute these stats to the infantry and tank battalions in the division.Then in combat, instead of the divisions randomly choosing which division it will attack, the battalions randomly choose which enemy battalion they will fight. The artillery and other support gets distributed, they do not fight on their own.

This could eliminate the combat width META problem. The player would not see anything different and would require nothing new to the player. The only difference is that under the combat bubbles the battalions are fighting instead of the divisions.

After each round, losses would have to be accumulated from the battalions back up to the division to recompute the division stats for the next round and these new stats would then by redistributed to the battalions again for the next round.

Signals, could still work like the OP said above, making battalions more inclined to coordinate against one enemy battalion.

 

[KDEstroy]

This is not a bad idea, but I think a better way to buff signal companies would be to change how the reinforcement mechanic works. Currently, when you attack a tile, all attacking divisions start attacking at the exact same time. This means that if some of the attackers forces are down to 0 organization, they can simply stop attacking, then attack again with fresh divisions without having to wait for them to reinforce. A better representation would be to have only one division on either side at the beginning of the battle, and the rest of the army has to reinforce in. The larger a division, the lower its reinforcement chance. So whereas a 20 width may have a 10% chance to join the battle every hour, a 40 width would only have a 5% chance.

 

[homerCCCP]

Along your line of thinking, maybe the system could sum up the stats for a division (which it already does) and then distribute these stats to the infantry and tank battalions in the division.Then in combat, instead of the divisions randomly choosing which division it will attack, the battalions randomly choose which enemy battalion they will fight. The artillery and other support gets distributed, they do not fight on their own.

This could eliminate the combat width META problem. The player would not see anything different and would require nothing new to the player. The only difference is that under the combat bubbles the battalions are fighting instead of the divisions.

After each round, losses would have to be accumulated from the battalions back up to the division to recompute the division stats for the next round and these new stats would then by redistributed to the battalions again for the next round.

Signals, could still work like the OP said above, making battalions more inclined to coordinate against one enemy battalion.

I trink this would not work out with the current ORG System. You would have all artillery and tanks directly leaving the battle. Might be even realistic in some cases as tank operations and the initial artillery fire did not last forever, but with then still being part of a division how would you make them able to regain their org and comeback? Such a change would also render the division maker useless which currently is a major gameplay component.

I really like the idea with the signal companies though.