Support Units

[Q-Ball]

There are several interesting choices for support units to build, and with a little playing under the belt, I am curious what the most economical use is of the various units. Can experienced players comment on how they use them, and whether they are worth the cost to build? I am thinking of:

HQ UNITS: Expensive, but are basically a Hospital and Signal Co. in one. One with large and important Corps seems like a good use.

SIGNAL CO: All it does is expand the units you can command.....but I wonder if its a waste. The largest Corps may have an HQ unit anyway, and after that, I rarely run out of command points in a Corps as it is.

ENGINEER: Handy if you plan a defensive campaign, yes?

PONTOONS: Really handy in certain theaters, particularly Virginia, where there are rivers everywhere. They can help in sieges too.......is that correct?

BALOONS: See Signal co.......

HOSPITAL: Good unit for a large body of troops that's going to be in combat...worth it

NAVAL ENGINEERS: Waste of money, don't build

Can others comment, and let me know if I am on the right track on these? Not sure I am or not.

[Ol' Choctaw]

The HQ unit also acts like a Master Trainer giving experience to every unit each turn.

Naval Engineers will speed up ship production roughly by one turn.

[minipol]

I like balloons for reconnaissance although you could use cavalry to do so as well i guess?

[Captain_Orso]

8<
HOSPITAL: Good unit for a large body of troops that's going to be in combat...worth it

NAVAL ENGINEERS: Waste of money, don't build

8<

Except for Naval Engineers, I try to put one of each support unit type (Army-HQ in the largest corps, otherwise an Hospital and a Signal Co.) of my corps and army stacks.

Balloons help only with detecting the enemy and his makeup. A Signal Co. IIRC can also improve special abilities your corp command might have.

Hospitals increase the rate of cohesion recovery. If you are a corp, "don't leave home without it".

Naval Engineers not only speed up the building of new naval units, they also speed up by about 10% IIRC the repairing of damage. I'd have to look up the details to be sure, but naval repairs (don't forget Ol' Man River) are IIRC 3% per harbor level per ship per turn.

In the East you have them in Boston, New York City, Philadelphia and Baltimore and generally don't lose them. If you have Norfolk and Richmond I'd put one in Norfolk or in the largest harbor on the Atlantic coast you've taken south of Norfolk, to support especially riverine units doing duty around Wilmington and Charleston.

In the West in St Louis and Cairo. If you lose either Nav.Eng. in the west early in the war I would always replace them. If it's later in the war, I'd only replace the one in Cairo. Once taken a Nav.Eng. in New Orleans is almost mandatory. I'll also buy one for Memphis and once taken move it to Vicksburg. If you find you don't need a Nav.Eng., you're not using your Navy enough.

[Le Ricain]

Except for Naval Engineers, I try to put one of each support unit type (Army-HQ in the largest corps, otherwise an Hospital and a Signal Co.) of my corps and army stacks.

Balloons help only with detecting the enemy and his makeup. A Signal Co. IIRC can also improve special abilities your corp command might have.

Hospitals increase the rate of cohesion recovery. If you are a corp, "don't leave home without it".

Naval Engineers not only speed up the building of new naval units, they also speed up by about 10% IIRC the repairing of damage. I'd have to look up the details to be sure, but naval repairs (don't forget Ol' Man River) are IIRC 3% per harbor level per ship per turn.

In the East you have them in Boston, New York City, Philadelphia and Baltimore and generally don't lose them. If you have Norfolk and Richmond I'd put one in Norfolk or in the largest harbor on the Atlantic coast you've taken south of Norfolk, to support especially riverine units doing duty around Wilmington and Charleston.

In the West in St Louis and Cairo. If you lose either Nav.Eng. in the west early in the war I would always replace them. If it's later in the war, I'd only replace the one in Cairo. Once taken a Nav.Eng. in New Orleans is almost mandatory. I'll also buy one for Memphis and once taken move it to Vicksburg. If you find you don't need a Nav.Eng., you're not using your Navy enough.

Washington DC and Annapolis, MD also have Naval Engineers.

[marquo]

I have been loading up my division commanders with these units - is this wrong?

[Ace]

Yes, it's wrong. You load your div with combat units costing cp

[Ol' Choctaw]

Units that have no CP cost should not be put into divisions. They take up space and give no additional benefit.

A division always costs 4 CP. If you fill it with units that require 0 cp you are only hurting your self.

Support units, rangers, partisans, and others have no cp cost. Putting them in a division is not the best use of them. They provide their benefit just being in the stack.

[marquo]

Thanks

[fred zeppelin]

What does a HQ Support unit do exactly? Can't find a description in the manual. Thanks.

[Ebbingford]

Check the tooltips for the ability icons on it.
Basically it is a training centre, hospital and signal unit all rolled into one.

[fred zeppelin]

Check the tooltips for the ability icons on it.
Basically it is a training centre, hospital and signal unit all rolled into one.

Thanks. Figured that out about one minute after I posted the question.

[GraniteStater]

There are several interesting choices for support units to build, and with a little playing under the belt, I am curious what the most economical use is of the various units. Can experienced players comment on how they use them, and whether they are worth the cost to build? I am thinking of:

HQ UNITS: Expensive, but are basically a Hospital and Signal Co. in one. One with large and important Corps seems like a good use.

SIGNAL CO: All it does is expand the units you can command.....but I wonder if its a waste. The largest Corps may have an HQ unit anyway, and after that, I rarely run out of command points in a Corps as it is.

ENGINEER: Handy if you plan a defensive campaign, yes?

PONTOONS: Really handy in certain theaters, particularly Virginia, where there are rivers everywhere. They can help in sieges too.......is that correct?

BALOONS: See Signal co.......

HOSPITAL: Good unit for a large body of troops that's going to be in combat...worth it

NAVAL ENGINEERS: Waste of money, don't build

Can others comment, and let me know if I am on the right track on these? Not sure I am or not.

My take, based on experience and reading other well informed posters:


HQ UNITS: Expensive, but are basically a Hospital and Signal Co. in one. One with large and important Corps seems like a good use.

Inexact. AFAICS, you want these with Army Leaders. These are actually a game changer, not immense, but they do change how I'm looking at the Command tar baby. They deserve their own thread, just about. They change the game 'cuz you can have Armies created 'free' (and Divs - which means, that Corps always having been 'free', that past Mar62, you can have Corps crawlin' everywhere, subject to your number of TwoStars available). Now, what you do is put HQSpprt with your better Army Leaders and you have a Training and R&R center to support your (hopefully) co-ordinated campaign conducted by your several Corps (howzat fer alliteration, huh?). Not only that, now the Army Leader's Abilities are goosed - as if Grant, Lee, Sherman, Jackson, Longstreet needed more help. Or, put 'em with Rosecrans and AS Johnston if you wish, to try to give 'em a leg up. In AACW, it was not uncommon to put a few Support Units (or more) to an Army stack (although I had come around to putting them more in my Corps, for reasons implied above). Now, I would say, putting much other than HQSpprt with an Army Leader stack is either overkill or a waste or both - in general (ha ha). YMMV & there are exceptions. To sum, I say put the single Support Units in Corps.


SIGNAL CO: All it does is expand the units you can command.....but I wonder if its a waste. The largest Corps may have an HQ unit anyway, and after that, I rarely run out of command points in a Corps as it is.

Increases Abilities & CP, what's not to like? Stuff these puppies in every Corps.

ENGINEER: Handy if you plan a defensive campaign, yes?

Wait 'til you've just taken Nashville after a hard campaign and have had AS Johnston come howling outta the hills with 675 PWR and trash Thomas and sent him packin' & bleedin'. Think a quicker entrenchment cudda helped? Don't let your Corps leave home widdout 'em.


PONTOONS: Really handy in certain theaters, particularly Virginia, where there are rivers everywhere. They can help in sieges too.......is that correct?

New - no comment. other than I luv 'em. I've seen some crossings at light speed.

BALOONS: See Signal co.......

Similar, not the same. Balloons are good for Detection; SigCo better at CP/Abilities combo. I could be overlooking something, but I usually build Sigs and skip the Balloons. YMMV.

HOSPITAL: Good unit for a large body of troops that's going to be in combat...worth it

+100

NAVAL ENGINEERS: Waste of money, don't build

Mebbe the CSA. Never built one.

***

In short, use Support Units with Corps, be selective and effective with HQSpprt.

[MrFreeze]

Hi,
I am not sure to understand, to have the bonus do we need to merge the special units with the division generals (1*), are we can keep them at the corps level and every divisions will benefit the bonus?

[GraniteStater]

Hi,
I am not sure to understand, to have the bonus do we need to merge the special units with the division generals (1*), are we can keep them at the corps level and every divisions will benefit the bonus?

Tooltips are your friend.

A) Support Units may not be integrated into a Div. They are always 'loose' in a stack.

B) Most of 'em either affect the stack Commander (tooltip) or do affect the entire stack (Medical Unit, for example). Engineers are the stack, IIRC. SigUnit is for the Leader, IIRC. Pontoons- stack. Balloon - Leader.

[ArmChairGeneral]

The benefits from multiple support units of the same type don't stack, right? Do the different units stack with each other (i.e. an HQ and a signal corps would give the benefits of both, adding together where they overlap)?

[GraniteStater]

Really can't say, other than I don't think the bonuses accumulate. Really don't know, though.

[ArmChairGeneral]

I've never had enough cash for it to come up, but when I get a good peek at DC Athena often has multiple balloons, multiple signal corps etc in the main army stack. Wondering if this is just a bad habit on her part or if there is something she knows that I don't.

[GraniteStater]

She's just all flustered and doesn't know where to hang the curtains.