EP '14 mechanics/balance

[ComradeP]

C quality MG and field gun units can at least disrupt like everybody else, and the assault system doesn't treat them kindly when the infantry in their hex is disrupted as the support weapons end up taking the losses. A and B quality support weapons will always cause more problems for the attacker than their C and lower quality counterparts because they're unlikely to disrupt, slightly lower fatigue gain doesn't change too much about that.

It can be odd to see a precise 90 men loss result for the defender, killing an MG unit whilst literally not touching the infantry aside from evicting them from the hex, but you get used to those things as the assault system usually selects a target rather than spreading the losses over the entire stack.

A quality units (and some B quality units like French colonial forces and the lesser gods amongst Guards units) don't get replacements. If a C quality unit takes about 100 losses, it loses ~10% of its strength but can recover quickly, but for the A quality units the losses are permanent.

The most practical way to employ A quality units or other units without replacements when it comes to minimizing their losses, namely having them as a second wave behind something that soaks up the opportunity fire and weakens the defender a bit, already means their fatigue gain will usually be limited and they get a bonus at the moment as is. Having a handful of slightly more functional "true" Guards or elite units in balance terms doesn't weigh too heavily compared to allowing the vast majority of the other units to stay in the fight a bit longer. If you end up using the A quality units more, that also means they might grind themselves into a pulp more quickly than they do now.

As a complete aside: I've just reinstalled France '14. JTS customer support kindly provided a new download link after I lost the original one when formatting.

The Grand Campaign options are nice, however at the moment a number of the French units that arrive as reinforcements moving up to the Ardennes in the case of the Plan Michel (these are further away) and the XVII modified war plan are not Fixed at the start, so they can march into the Ardennes unopposed as the Germans are Fixed. This also means that achieving termination is easier because they only need 1 or 2 additional objectives to win after marching to the objectives they can reach whilst the Germans are Fixed.

They do have releases assigned to them, so it might've been a case of forgetting to Fix them after adding the new strategy options.

I might create a seperate thread about those strategy decisions, as they're an interesting mechanic and worth of an in depth look as to how they influence the game and the incentives they offer.