Support Battalions

[Volodio]

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.

It isn't better to have artillery in a normal slot ? What's the difference ?

 

[kviiri]

It isn't better to have artillery in a normal slot ? What's the difference ?

Artillery in a normal slot is a complete battalion. It uses more men and gear, but provides better firepower. However it means you can't use the brigade you put it in for motorized/mechanized/armoured troops. It'll also slow down the division because there's more guns to tow, and prevent paradropping if the division would otherwise be able. You could think of the support options as a lightweight extra battalion instead of a complete proper one.

 

[Denkt]

All of them seems to have their uses but given the limited amount of research you have it is unlikely that you are going to have all or atleast all at top tech.

• Engineers give some combat bonuses against forts, urban and rivers but their main bonus seems to be the high entrancement level they can build.
• Maintenance can reduce attrition of all equipment by a massive amount which is especially useful if you have very little equipment stockpiled.
• Hospital will save you large amounts of manpower and keeping your divisions at good experience levels will also save you manpower.
• Signal will make it easy to keep planing bonus at a maximum and the reinforcement bonus allow divisions to operate more independently as they can quicky reinforce each other if they come under attack.
• Recon can give you combat bonuses due to countering enemy tactics but I can not say how valuable recon is because I do not know what a recon value does.
• Military polices make your suppresion effort more effective for a very low cost in terms of logistics.
• Logistics companies reduce the supply consumption which can be translated to allowing more battalions at the front.
• The support guns allow you to bring firepower without the problems normal artillery have, such you can paradrop support guns and move them at same speed as tanks.

 

[P3D]

Is is possible to attach both an Art and a RArt support company?
It would put a great boost for a breakthrough division for maximizing the attack value for a given combat width. At the extreme case, a single infantry Bn with Art, RArt, AT, Eng, and MP support would have a SA of 70 or so for a width of 2 (1941 stats). And it is not crazy expensive - production cost is around 584, lower than a single light tank Bn (at 600). This is the equivalent of a total value of 5600 soft Attack for a combat width of 80 of a single province.

Combine it with the Superior Firepower doctrine for even more fun.

The easiest to balance it would be to give the combat-type support companies a combat width of 1.

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.

 

[Maizel]

Logistics, Signal, and Field hospitals will be a must if you can affford them