Newbie Questions

[Mowgli]

Small update:

I think the missing link in my calculations of fire combat is related to unit size. I haven't had the time to check it systematically yet, but I might be on to something (there is a system in the deviations of my calculations to the numbers shown in the game).

My suspicion is that there is a factor that gets added (in addition to the ordinary strength factor) based on unit size. I don't think that this is actually related to the "unit category" (pltn/coy/btn). I think it's just related to (on paper) strength of the component. 

Examples: 

I had a large unit (soviet rifle btn, component strength on paper 450 men) fire at a german motorcycle company. The resulting fire value was *1.4 of what I was expecting (if you calculate the result according to what the manual says). Note that this did not change when I combined several motorcycle companies into a combined unit (+++). The result was also multiplied by 1.4, no matter whether the target consisted of a single or 2 or 3 combined motorycle coys.

The motorcycle coys firing at the rifle btn., however, fired at *1, that is: as my calculations and the manual suggested. (Again, it did not matter how many of them were combined into a single unit).

Then I took a closer look at the same 450-rifle-btn firing at a german btn whose on paper component strength was  250 men. The result was *1.25. So the large rifle btn did not get as big a bonus as against the smaller companies.  

The german 250 man btn firing at the large russian rifle btn, however, also got a small bonus (*1.2).

Things get messed up when it comes to tanks. E.g. 13 tanks firing at a large infantry unit (450 on paper) also had their fire value multiplied by 1.4.

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By the way this is how I calculate the fire values for infantry:

soft fire value
*max. paper strength
* effective strength % (as indicated in the combat report, not by the unit info)
* quality
* all other potential factors, including terrain and defenses of the target, disruption, target in travel mode, etc.
/ defense of target (watch out for changes due to travel mode if target is mech/motor. inf)

@ max paper strength: you need to look it up in the database, or use this method (pick the closest plausible nr.): "nr. of current men" / "current %" *100

In the instances mentioned above, these calculations seem to be quite precise (within ca. 5% of the actual fire result; the difference might be caused by differences in rounding up/down?)

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So my hypothesis is that - at least for infantry? - larger units (classified by max. component strength?) get an additional bonus on their fire value. The larger their target, the smaller the bonus. It seems as if this bonus can be as big as *1.4. I suppose that tanks are classified differently (in general higher than the infantry?). I've not taken a look at arty or tanks vs tanks yet.

I will update this post once I've had time to take a closer look and have gained more insights.