which brigades are good in AoD?

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I usually use ART and HARM, sometimes ENG for GAR/ART+GAR/ART+GAR/ENG defence corps.
Although other brigades are also worthwhile - AT now has some real nice soft attack bonus, so it should be great for FRA, POL and maybe ITA. AA is a bit better than in vanilla, but still very situational.

The only brigade I am somewhat underwhelmed is TD, imo it should inherit at least 1 or 2 points of soft attack from AT.

 

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Has anyone else tried assault guns besides the above poster?

I did.
Assault guns are somwhat inbetween SP-ART and TD, or, if you want to see it that way: Some sort of H-ARM with less softness reduction. Personally I don't use them. Why use a medicore brigade when I can have many specialized ones?

The only countries that might ebenfit from this are oil or IC rich minors (maye lso ITA, ROM, HUN and so on) - but even here it is better to get some top equipped units with H-ARM or ART instead of several with AGs...

Plus: In vanilla AoD, assault guns have only a models and will become obsolete during the later war.

 

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Yeah, that's why I removed the speed penalty from them in my tech mod - and also added 3 additional models.

 

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Observations:
-Heavy armor seems inferior to SP-ART even considering the combined arms bonus (and it actually makes the bonus worse for armor). Perhaps give a % combat bonus to the division when engaging enemy with no HARM, SHARM or Tank destroyer
-Tank destroyer seems godawful. It only gives 1 soft attack and that's if you produce the advanced model. Probably should give a % bonus to attached division when engaging enemy ARM divisions(?)
-Super heavy armor seems interesting, perhaps you can attach it to MOT. Should probably give additional penalty for river crossing for historical accuracy.
-Anti air seems worthless. Maybe should reduce the ground attack effectiveness of all enemy planes attacking units in the province, since they have to be more wary of ground fire
-Rocket artillery seems a bit redundant, perhaps it should be changed to be truly different from ART
-Anti tank should probably give a defensive bonus to the defending division when it actually fights against enemy tanks
-Assault guns seem terrible. Perhaps give them an urban/landfort attack bonus? I don't really know how to salvage this brigade

1) H-ARM was great to reduce softness in DD/Arma. In AoD, due to the new softness reduction system, it is less useful, but still good to get low softness tanks. Remember: 20% less softness is often much, much better than having 5% more CA bonus. I increased the softness reduction further to make it a bit more worthwhile.

2) TD are indeed bad. I increased soft attack a bit and gave them much better softness reduction.

3) SH is ironically a good garrison unit (both in AoD and HoI3 - imagine you have to assault a beach with marines and encounter this monsters!), but both cost and speed reduction is simply a bit over the top. I increased softness reduction by 10% and decreased speed penalty to -3.

4) AA is rather good, esp. when you have several units. Since the ground-to-air combat mechanics have been altered some time ago, all ground units can attack enemy planes now (instead of only the units actually targeted by air craft). So if the enemy can and will have air superiority, let's take UK garrisons at Hong Kong for example, some AA brigades can be very, very cost-use effective! Nevertheless, I buffed them a bit in my mod.

5) R-ART is indeed a copycat. I gave it a bit more ART attack and 5% ORG bonus to make the tech worthwhile, plus I added a Semi-Modern tech for it.

6) Yep, AG is terrible. Added some addional toughness to make it at least somewhat worthwhile for offensive units, plus added some tech levels.


And about AT:
I really love AT as FRA, SOV or POL. It took me a while to notice it, but the upper levels are - unlike in DD/Arma - very, very nice!

 

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1) So is the idea in this game that you attach HQs into Corps/Army groups with other units?

No, it is enough to have an HQ around. A commander in charge of an HQ will lead the attack and has doubled command limit.

2) Also, how do I keep from getting that dreaded "commander commanding too many units" thing?"

The highest ranked officer from each province will lead the attack and can only command units from HIS province (note: not just his corps!).
Command limits: Gen. Mj. - 1 / Gen. Lt. 3 / Gen. 9 / FM 12

Example: You have 6 DIV with a Gen. Lt. in one province and in an adjected provnce 9 with a FM. 3 of 6 Divisions from the first province will be over command limit, but none from the other province.

On defence on the other hand each commander will command his own corps. So you can have 12 divisions all under Gen. Mj. without having any penalties.

3) Any way to break off an attack? Or do I just gotta wait till they can?

Select all attacking units and right click into their province (as if you would give a move order).

4) How can I tell my "stacking penalty?"

Select the combat your units are fighting in and move the mouse cursor over your divisions - a tooltip will list your bonuses and penalties.