Chris21wen
Posts: 6249
Joined: 1/17/2002
From: Cottesmore, Rutland
Status: offline
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Here's a copy of some tests I did on construction. If only rough as I gave up but it's worth a read and sheds some insight.
Constructing Forts
All tests where carried out using the 1942 Campaign scenario. Two reasons; I didn’t want First Turn nor First Winter rules interfering and the Soviet Eng-Sap Bde was available. No combat took place in any test. As this scenario has no Soviet Construction Bns nor Eng-Sap Bdes when it starts (I find that weird but it is what it is) all Bn/Bde had to be built from scratch on the turn the fort was built except for some tests were full Bn/Bde were use.
I recorded six things:
Level 2: Build time in turns between level 0-2.
Level 3: Build time in turns between level 2-3.
Increment: Percentage added per turn between level 2-3 without any assistance.
Bonus: Build percentage added by construction units, generally a Bn but could be Bde.
Bonus increment: Percentage per turn between level 2-3 with assistance.
Total: In turns to reach 3.1, the max for a fort in clear/town terrain.
The same Army and level 9 leader except for two tests when I checked admin effects. The army had no units attached other than applicable construction support units and was always 1 hex from the fort, whether attached or not. Army’s TOE was set at 100%.
The Front used the same admin 6 leader throughout. Like the army it no units attached and only applicable construction support units. It was either 4 or 8 hexes away from the fort. Front’s TOE was set at 100%.
STAVKA was 20 plus hexes away so never in range of any test and therefore had no effect in any test.
One strange anomaly in all this testing was, I never got an odd number?? E.g. 1.18, 2.80 and never 0.43, 2.35 etc.
Time to reach 100% TOE
It took on average 4 turns for the Fort to reach 100% TOE. No construction was ever recorded on the first two turns of any test although a mud turn on either always resulted in a slower level 2, hence total build.
The average time for a Construction Bn to reach 100% TOE varied depending upon were it was! Not, as you might think Army or Front but HQ or fort. When attached to an HQ it took on average 9 turns; when attached to the fort, 7 turns? Strangely the Eng Sap Bde took same length time??. Interesting in it’s own right. The more Bns there where the slower it tended to take to reach level 2 but usually only by one turn. This was often offset by the fact that there were more of them so the level 3 was reduced.
Weather
Weather was either clear or mud. I forgot about mud so the first few test I carried out resulted in a mud turns occurring. There was always mud turns 16-19 (in Oct), turn 20 snow all the rest clear. I didn’t want mud in the test so I often had to back track one turns to get back to clear. I could do nothing about October’s mud. The effects of MUD on construction is to HALF the build rate for the turn.
Total Build time to reach level 3.10.
Without any assistance the total was 19 turns. I ran this test 3 times and it highlighted mud turns halve the construction speed for the turn. Even 1 mud turn resulted in it taking 20 turns. I never had more than one mud turn excluding those in Oct.
The increment was almost consistent 12% resulting in level 3 being 8 turns. This is an important figure as you’ll see. I chose to record this increment between level 2-3 because the build speed had slowed, resulting in more of them to record and the construction units/fort TOE were always over 98%.
Fort TOE Size
In a few tests I set the TOE of the fort to 60%. This had a marked effect on construction time. It took on average two more turns to reach level 2 and the fort never reached level 3 in the 20 turns.
Each increment was 8%, roughly 2/3rd which is what you’d expect with only 2/3rd TOE. It was 4% in mud.
Army Admin Tests
With one construction Bn placed in the HQ the tests were run 2 times at admin levels 3 (lowest I could find), 5 and 9. In all the tests the total time was only ever reduced by 1 turn, e.g. it took 18 turns.
The increments could change, with the construction Bn adding a possible 2% bonus. Not much and would only ever results in a 16% increase over 8 turns for a typical level 3 time. The problem is it based on an Admin check and therefore random. As you expect the unit passed more checks at level 9 than 5 etc but it had negligible overall effect. They all took 18 turns.
Next step was to add more construction Bns, 2, 3 and finally 6 to the HQ. Not one of the tests ever produced more than one bonus, so the bonus increment never exceed 14% (12+2%). There was never more than one bonus added per turn no matter how many construction Bns I used. What did change was how often they occurred, i.e. the more Bns there were the more chance there was of the bonus being generated. Even when a bonus was applied every turn for level 3 (8 turns) the total was only ever reduced to 18 turns. It might be possible for it to get to 17 if all the admin checks succeeded.
The next series involved using Sapper Bn. Because they reached max TOE quicker (one turn, yes one turn) the level 2 times were always one less than when a construction Bn was used. They also consistently generate the bonus more often but the overall effect of the two was to only reduce total build to 17 turns.
For the final test I used 1, 2 or 3 100% TOE Sapper Bns from the start. Basically everything was quicker to level 2, level 3 and total time. Total time was now 15-16 turns. Note that when I used 3 full Bns every level 3 turn had a bonus generated but it still took 7 turns to reach level 3
Observations. Worrying about admin as far as construction goes is pointless. Proviso is, it might at higher levels which I have never tested.
As far as the bonus goes it appears to be working as intended, there was never more than one bonus of 2% added in any test I did that involved only one HQ and one fort no matter how many construction units there were in the HQ. Putting more than one construction unit into the HQ improves the chance of this bonus being generated however. Using Sapper Bn does, as does 100% TOE units but the best you can do is reduce total by 4 turns, mud allowing.
Corp, Army and Front test
In these tests I was only interested in the possible HQ bonus so All tests started with a fort at level 2 (2.4 actually) and with full construction and Sapper Bn. I used various combinations with the fort always attached to the lowest HQ, C+A, A+F, C+A+F and A+F+STAVKA.
It does work as the manual says with up to three HQ all within 5 hexes of the next possibly adding a bonus but there are some big howevers.
Any bonus generated by an HQ is never guaranteed although the more construction units there are the more chance of the bonus being generated. STAVKA (and I suspect any high HQ) never helps with construction. When using Construction Bn I never got more than one HQ bonus no matter how many nor where the construction Bns were located. Sapper Bn did work as the manual suggests, often generating 18% increments to level 3.
Observation. So far the quickest build time I had from 0 to 3.10 was 13 turns. To achieve this I used 3 full Sapper Bn in each of the three in range HQ. (C+A+F). When using 3 Construction Bn the typical time was 15-16. turns.
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Question about leader admin value, and dig in speed... - 
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