Units to build and units to stay away from?

[Saltynuts]

I saw mentioned somewhere that tank killers in the game are considered worthless.

Does anyone have an opinion on what units you generally want to build and what ones to stay away from? I'm talking about general land operations - not sea and air.

Thanks!

 

[unmerged(110232)]

All "brigades" are essentially worthless. It is more cost-efficient to instead build more infantry or tanks. Especially when you take into account their research cost.

Note that infantry is more cost-efficient than brigades with regards to both IC and manpower. Intuitively, one would assume that artillery is more cost-efficient with regards to manpower, but that is not the case.

Also, infantry is more cost-efficient than tanks and motorised/mechanised infantry. So don't use your mobile divisions in "plain battle", only use them where you can take advantage of their speed, such as encirclements.

 

[Macknull]

You know, you can always count the battle modificators in. What do I exactly mean: let's say you have 1 feldmarshall and a couple of generals. As we know, they can only command 12[fm]/9[g] units in a battle without a negative att/def modifier. The solution to improve the efficiency while staying within those borders would be to equip their brigades with artillery/w.e. . Especially engineer brigades may prove worth it when crossing a river, they reduce the negative modifier by 20% or so. It may seem not important, but I catch myself on being suprised why my 20 up-to-date units fail to defeat a 12 unit stack. [6%/8% against 156%/160% or so]
It is also hard to defeat a tank for an infantry unit, as it has low att. attribute against panzer divisions. The solution, again, would be an artillery.
And I don't exactly know how brigades affect your transport capacity...

 

[Zardnaar]

brigadescan help low MP who need to conserve their manpower or for units like marines hitting a beach where you want the extra firepower regardless

 

[Eugenioso]

stop scaring him away from the brigades!

while its true you might have to devote some time to researching them, they are not that costly anyway and they take less time than other techs.

just use them as you would deem fit. if you want to cross rivers, build engineers. if you want to attack fortified enemy positions, use artillery. honestly, anti tank is not worth it, since youre far more likely to fight infantry, and artillery does a good enough job anyway. military police is an ever useful resource, but they cost manpower that adds up, so keep those garrisons to a minimum.

as for units that you dont want to build... armored cars, the tank destroyers, super heavy armor brigades. they simply become unnecessary. anything else has its uses.

 

[unmerged(138457)]

If you want to roleplay, use brigades.

If you don't, then don't use them.

Basically the only brigades that have any real use are artillery for infantry and engineers for everything else. And you do better even without these.

 

[unmerged(110232)]

A good read for anyone interested in brigades and their (lack of) uses:
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?215028

brigadescan help low MP who need to conserve their manpower

No, they do not. Brigades are less effective than plain infrantry manpower-wise. You conserve manpower by not building brigades.

 

[unmerged(160706)]

Depends on what you are playing. In an Multiplayergame it is plain suicide to play without brigades, due to the fact that:
a) you often need to concentrate as much firepower as possible within a given command limit
b) They actually help conserving manpower. If I remember correctly Emus analysis on brigades shows that you can win a battle with a force of plain infantry against a force of brigaded infantry with the same ICdays. Also, he showed that the losses in MP after a fight is greater for the unbrigaded player then for the one playing with brigades. Multiplayergames normally end in brutal attrition warfare and MP is a often the most scarce ressourse one has to manage. Therefore the question on brigades or not is a question of Multiplayer vs Singleplayer (However in singleplayer one can also win by only producing HQ for example.....)

 

[AlexanderXII]

Seems like the community is pretty divided in this brigade thing.

 

[unmerged(22760)]

Of course the community is divided about brigades. Because the community is also divided between those who know how to play the game, and those think they know.
It is true that brigades are not so cost-efficient than plain infantry. But also it is true that they are the most manpower-effective.
So brigades should be build be nations with low manpower and more IC.
Just an example : the SA/man-power ratio.
For Inf3 is 12/10 = 1.2 and for Art5 is 5/2=2.5
Also some brigades enhance the unit organization, like armored cars, light-armor brigade and also artillery if you have the right land doctrine.