So I've never played with attrition, any tips?

[HidekiTojo]

Basically its all there in the title, I want to go for more realism but id like some help in making the transition so that I can do well and learn quickly without having to endure endless frustrating mistakes

[Durk]

Just play with attrition. It is not that bad, just need to be careful in the winter.

[Mickey3D]

Just play with attrition. It is not that bad, just need to be careful in the winter.

+1

You must definitely be careful in the winter when your supply has to move through wild regions (mainly areas west of the Mississippi)

[Captain_Orso]

+ to the above.

Keep your troops warm and fed. They fair better in entrancements than on the field. So when the weather gets bad only move them if necessary. Always keep them well supplied. This cannot be overstated. Your forces will trade hits in cohesion and from Wear-n-Tear™ for supplies.

If you do have to move them, once they have reached their destination, if it is practicable, send them inside a town or fort to recover for one turn--set them to enter the town upon arrival, every day counts--.

Pay attention to your replacement pools. Every turn a pool hits zero is a turn in which you waisted the opportunity to bring some unit(s) up to strength.

Here's a practical tip: open the replacement "Atlas" with <F2>. If you hover your mouse pointer over one of the NATO symbols, it will tell you the "Maximum number allowed". This refers to how many 'chits' you may purchase of that replacement type. This is also the total number of elements of that type you have in the game. This is an important number in deciding how many replacement chits you want to have in each pool. The tool-tip on the little man symbol above and to the left of the NATO symbol says

N hits are missing (this is also the number shown to the right of the man) in elements using this replacement chit.

It is advised to always keep a buffer of replacements, ideally 10% of the number of elements using it.

If you watch these levels closely, which I would suggest, you can allow the number of chits to be lower. I generally shoot for about 5%. But when you know you are starting a campaign in which you will suffer large losses, it is advisable to increase this to about 10% so that your troops recover as quickly as possible after a battle.

[minipol]

I watch the replacements every turn. I move troops, check the enemy moves, move my new troops to their units, check the F1-F10 keys, do regional decisions, and recruitment.
My turns take time to play

[ArmChairGeneral]

Units in regions with structures do not suffer hits from weather attrition, whether they are in the structure or not. Some (like me) refer to this protection as "cover," although that is not a defined game-term. Route your forces from cover to cover, especially during the winter.

To clarify a point made by Orso above, forces WITH WAGONS trade supply for weather attrition hits. Wagons can be thought of as providing cover for their stacks at the cost of using supply at a faster rate.

Attrition losses increase when a force is low on supplies. Stacks can trade wagon supplies for weather attrition, so when the wagon runs out they are exposed to the weather. Then, once they do not have full packs, ALL sources of attrition (and I believe cohesion, but not 100% sure) are magnified, not just weather related ones. (And of course, starvation inflicts attrition all by itself.)

Bottom line: you need lots of wagons.

Naval units suffer serious attrition (and naval replacements are expensive) in bad weather, so be careful of riverine operations in winter. River region weather is not necessarily the same as the land regions they touch, so keep a close eye on the rivers themselves (same with coastal regions, but they are larger, so easier to see at a glance).

You should find that playing with attrition is not that much more difficult than without, you just have to be a little more cautious and use the weather map-overlay more often.

[HidekiTojo]

I have learned that the historical attrition is not that bad like you said,

I think the much more difficult part is dealing with normal instead of easy supply. That's been a difficult adjustment to make, and its a much bigger change than moving to historical attrition.

So that's the area where I think I need some advice.