Capture Corps HQ

[Caoster]

As Prussia, I wupped up on France and capture a Corps HQ(Heavy). This seems to be entirely pointless. It is a gutted unit, with nothing but 4 completely depleted element(1 field arty, 1 med arty, 1 Corp HQ). I rebuild the damaged units, but what's the point. If I disband it, it costs me VPs. It never recovers its troops, AND still has 12 command point costs. It is completely worthless as far as I can see.

[Kensai]

Indeed. Use it only for ceremonial defensive purposes. Let's say that the whole situation abstracts the fact you cannot find replacement tools for the foreign equipment you captured.

[loki100]

or use it to garrison a fort.

A fair bit of the artillery in my overseas forts has been donated by the Ottomans and the Austrians in my current game. For low intensity warfare they are more than good enough to make a pre-industrial fort very hard to take.

[leftguard]

I was playing the Franco-Prussian War scenario just last night, and captured one too - just in the same turn that Paris fell and I received my Victory screen, so I never even got to deploy it defensively

[Kensai]

Yes, the captured units are mostly useful when you get to use them, ie in the Grand Campaign!

A word of advice (although gamey, so "ethically" perhaps not appropriate). Say you are Prussia and capture damaged French units. Deploy them defensively on your border with Russia, cause if you lose them against the French, they will be able to repair them in full condition. Instead Russia will be on the same boat as Prussia!

(I never do so, too gamey for my taste... even in MP)

[SonOfAGhost]

I wouldn't consider that gamey Kensai. It makes perfect sense that turncoat troops would be unreliable against their own countrymen and thus put to better use on another front. Ideally against another group against whom they have traditionally had a high degree of animosity.

[enf91]

Can you build new infantry brigades and attach them to the corps HQ to create a new corps with your own infantry? If so, that would solve a couple problems.

[loki100]

Can you build new infantry brigades and attach them to the corps HQ to create a new corps with your own infantry? If so, that would solve a couple problems.

unfortunately not. Remember that for a unit to regain lost elements it needs to be on a depot and then over time the replacements create the lost element. I've tried it with my war booty and never seen it happen but I have seen an Italian corps that had been reduced to a stump regain some of the combat battalions.

I guess this is WAD, esp as captured guns don't upgrade when new inventions fire - another reason to tuck them away in a corner of the Empire rather than risk them on a European battlefield.

[Sir Garnet]

So long as the maintenance cost is for the surviving elements and not based on the much larger cost of the whole corps when new (I can't verify), they are useful to ship out as second-rate garrison and fortress artillery. Because of their full 12 CmdPt cost, they usually won't fit in well with the usual "shortage" of commanders.

[enf91]

unfortunately not. Remember that for a unit to regain lost elements it needs to be on a depot and then over time the replacements create the lost element. I've tried it with my war booty and never seen it happen but I have seen an Italian corps that had been reduced to a stump regain some of the combat battalions.

I guess this is WAD, esp as captured guns don't upgrade when new inventions fire - another reason to tuck them away in a corner of the Empire rather than risk them on a European battlefield.

I don't mean park on a depot and wait. I mean build a brand new infantry brigade from the menu and combine the units using the merge button.

[Kensai]

I wouldn't consider that gamey Kensai. It makes perfect sense that turncoat troops would be unreliable against their own countrymen and thus put to better use on another front. Ideally against another group against whom they have traditionally had a high degree of animosity.

Good observation! I love it when people find ways to explain stuff. Under this POV, it makes perfect sense.

I don't mean park on a depot and wait. I mean build a brand new infantry brigade from the menu and combine the units using the merge button.

Damaged captured elements indeed can get merged to "healthier" units. Obviously happens to artillery, supplies, and ships (when no own model exists).