Support Battalions

[Topas]

What do you think. Which one is usefull.

There are:
Engineers
Recon
Military Police
Maintenance
Field Hospital
Logistics
Signal

I think my infantry divisions get: Recon, Engineers, Field Hospital
and my tank divisions get: Recon, Engineers, Field Hospital, Logistics

I am not sure about Maintenance und Signal.
I plan to upgrade the reliability of my tanks by XP, so does it mak sense to attach a maintenance battalion?
And is the signal battalion worth the price?

 

[sunnyboy310]

You wanna fight in Russias wide steppes and dark forests? You definitely want logistic support units.
You dont wanna lose a lot of yout precious equipment or experienced soldiers to General Winter? Better go with Maintencance and Field Hospital units.
You dont wanna lots of partisans raiding your supply lines? Add military police!
You want your generals to have the best overlook over the battlefield and your units to be well prepared for combat? Recon and Signal battalions you may need.

What I wanna say is, that every support battallion is useful in its own way. Some depend on your general strategic orientation. E.g. you can outproduce the hell out of everyone and have enough manpower you mabe won't need Maintenance or Field Hospitals and add instead more useful battalions to your units.

It's a nice feauture imo that you have to chose which ones to add and which ones not. Its a bit of an agony of choice there

 

[Midden]

Assuming for a combat division:

Engineers - always useful
Recon - always useful
Military Police - situational
Maintenance - situational
Field Hospital - always useful
Logistics - situational
Signal - always useful

Always useful = adding combat stats that help.

Situational = Only contributes to combat stats if certain conditions apply.

 

[endimielle1]

Signal should be especially useful in europe (both west and east) when really large armies clash in big stacks. The one who get reinforced first will have a significant advantage.
Recon seems to be must_have when it comes to real fighting.
MP should be assigned to garrison troops, not frontline.

Other than that it depends on general warfare philosophy, production and theatre infrastructure.

And don't forget about support artillery / AT / AA / etc. btns that compete for the same support slots in division OOB. They could be really useful in some cases. Especially for minors.

UPD. Engineers. Yes, i forgot them somehow. Engineers are also must have in every major power frontline division.

 

[Ctanr]

i would put th maintenance to my expensive tanks for the reliability bonus which also allows me to have tanks with upgraded armor and guns without having an awful reliability

 

[Topas]

Whats the point with Signal Battalions. As I understand Signal gives faster reinforcement und more initiative.
I do not plan to attack russia, I plan a non aggression pact, if possible.

 

[Ctanr]

Whats the point with Signal Battalions. As I understand Signal gives faster reinforcement und more initiative.
I do not plan to attack russia, I plan a non aggression pact, if possible.

yeah and the initiative gives you a planning speed bonus which can be quite useful with your tankarmy

 

[panzerzombie]

IMO signal battalion is only worth the price if you really intend to stop from time to time and renew that battleplans, if you - as seen in the WWW - use up your initial plan and never bother to make a new one during the campaign then its a waste ( however if the increased chance to reinforce is not a bonus but instead the real bonus then my remark is useless )

 

[Da9L]

Remember that you can also have artillery in the support slots
Anti-Air
Anti-Tank
Artillery
Rocket Artillery

So you got to balance between support battalions and artillery. I usually go with Recon, Engineers, Anti-tank in my standard infantry divisions, then depending of what nation I play I pick the others.

 

[bklement]

My current plan based on watching the WWW videos:

Heavy or line infantry: Recon, Field Hospital and Engineers. Logistics if enough equipment - used to hold the front line and advance.
Light or garrison infantry: Military police, then mostly depending on circumstances.
Motorized: Recon, Field Hospital, Engineers, Signal and Logistics or Maintenance. Or maybe military police, if I play as Germany and station them in France awaiting an invasion.

 

[bklement]

Remember that you can also have artillery in the support slots
Anti-Air
Anti-Tank
Artillery
Rocket Artillery

So you got to balance between support battalions and artillery. I usually go with Recon, Engineers, Anti-tank in my standard infantry divisions, then depending of what nation I play I pick the others.

After watching you play I think I will use arty and anti-tank as combat battalions, trying to reduce the manpower loss and thus keeping up the production, maybe it will balance out the increased equipment need. But initially, till production goes up and more support is researched, arty will probably go into support.

Oh btw, if i put support anti-air into garrison divisions, will it help against strategic bombing, or it's only effective against planes directly attacking the division like CAS?

 

[CountZeppelin]

Realtive costs for 1942 companies, where 1 is 1942 infantry battalion:
Engineers - 1.15
Field Hospital - 1.485
Logistics - 0.915
Maintenance - 0.875
MP - 0.75
Recon - 0.75
Signal - 1.965
Support AA - 0.75
Support AT - 1.2
Support Art - 1.08
Support RArt - 0.84

Engineers and recon are a must for pretty much every division (if they don't reduce speed that is). Logistics are cheap and reduce supply consumption a lot with late war tech, 1942 logistics company reduces supply consumption more than Logistics Wizard trait. Signal and Field Hospitals are good but pricey. You probably want those in the bigger division. Support artillery and rocket artillery are relatively cheap for the soft attack bonus they provide. Support AT may be good if you lack piercing. Support AA is meh. Maintenance is situational. Military Police for garrisons.

 

[kviiri]

I'm pretty sure recon, engineers and possibly field hospitals are ones you'll want as often as possible for any unit you expect to see a reasonable amount of combat.

 

[mursolini]

Well, for me:
Armor: maintenance, recon, signals, field hospital, (Anti-Air)?
Point obviously is that I want to reduce the pace at which my armor "wears out", thus I can sustain offensives longer.

Infantry line:
recon, hospital, engineers, possibly anti-tank

various specialists:
hospital, engineers, signals, artillery.

It seems like Engineers are only useful against forts and rivers on offence, so I wouldn`t put them into attacking divisions outside of those that should do fort or river attacks.

 

[Da9L]

After watching you play I think I will use arty and anti-tank as combat battalions, trying to reduce the manpower loss and thus keeping up the production, maybe it will balance out the increased equipment need. But initially, till production goes up and more support is researched, arty will probably go into support.

Oh btw, if i put support anti-air into garrison divisions, will it help against strategic bombing, or it's only effective against planes directly attacking the division like CAS?

Not against strategic bombing, for that you got to build the Anti-Air "building".

 

[Sun_Killer]

Realtive costs for 1942 companies, where 1 is 1942 infantry battalion:
Engineers - 1.15
Field Hospital - 1.485
Logistics - 0.915
Maintenance - 0.875
MP - 0.75
Recon - 0.75
Signal - 1.965
Support AA - 0.75
Support AT - 1.2
Support Art - 1.08
Support RArt - 0.84

Engineers and recon are a must for pretty much every division (if they don't reduce speed that is). Logistics are cheap and reduce supply consumption a lot with late war tech, 1942 logistics company reduces supply consumption more than Logistics Wizard trait. Signal and Field Hospitals are good but pricey. You probably want those in the bigger division. Support artillery and rocket artillery are relatively cheap for the soft attack bonus they provide. Support AT may be good if you lack piercing. Support AA is meh. Maintenance is situational. Military Police for garrisons.

As far as i understand it, support companies never can slow down the divison.

 

[McBeast]

Assuming for a combat division:

Engineers - always useful
Recon - always useful
Military Police - situational
Maintenance - situational
Field Hospital - always useful
Logistics - situational
Signal - always useful

Always useful = adding combat stats that help.

Situational = Only contributes to combat stats if certain conditions apply.

I would disagree with Engineers. As far as I know will engineers support in defence and river crossing. Will the cost/value rating for that support benefit during an offensive in a region without major occurrences of rivers? I would also regard it situational.

 

[Ricox]

Realtive costs for 1942 companies, where 1 is 1942 infantry battalion:
Engineers - 1.15
Field Hospital - 1.485
Logistics - 0.915
Maintenance - 0.875
MP - 0.75
Recon - 0.75
Signal - 1.965
Support AA - 0.75
Support AT - 1.2
Support Art - 1.08
Support RArt - 0.84

Engineers and recon are a must for pretty much every division (if they don't reduce speed that is). Logistics are cheap and reduce supply consumption a lot with late war tech, 1942 logistics company reduces supply consumption more than Logistics Wizard trait. Signal and Field Hospitals are good but pricey. You probably want those in the bigger division. Support artillery and rocket artillery are relatively cheap for the soft attack bonus they provide. Support AT may be good if you lack piercing. Support AA is meh. Maintenance is situational. Military Police for garrisons.

Almost certain that support companies don't reduce speed. Which is why you need to have artillery, anti-tank and such units set as support in light & medium armor divisions to avoid losing speed, unless there's an SP Artillery unit (and you can use TDs for armor units).

 

[GsusNSV]

I would disagree with Engineers. As far as I know will engineers support in defence and river crossing. Will the cost/value rating for that support benefit during an offensive in a region without major occurrences of rivers? I would also regard it situational.

According to the Wiki, the River crossing bonus only starts with the 1942 research. The Terrain bonus in the base research, may be already worth it. Else It would be a must have for defensiv units, due to the higher entrenchment.

1936: +5 entrenchment; Terrain bonuses
1939: +10 entrenchment; +10% attack and defense on forts
1942: +10 entrenchment; +10% attack and defense on rivers
1945: +10 entrenchment; +10% attack and defense on urban

http://www.hoi4wiki.com/Support_Battalions_technology

 

[CountZeppelin]

As far as i understand it, support companies never can slow down the divison.

Almost certain that support companies don't reduce speed. Which is why you need to have artillery, anti-tank and such units set as support in light & medium armor divisions to avoid losing speed, unless there's an SP Artillery unit (and you can use TDs for armor units).

Most support companies don't have speed listed for them but engineers, recon and military police do. I am kind of confused about it.