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SMK-at-work -> RE: Do refits dilute unit experience? (12/12/2007 5:20:52 AM)
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Yes you get more bang for your buck with "A" class units than "B" class ones......there's nothing surprising about that.
But if you're going to use your "A" units to do all the work and take all the replacements they won't be "A" for long - you can do 3 times the start strength in 4 strat moves without too much bother......
Troop class represents, AIUI, the quality of the troops -their currency in training and equipment mainly. So "A" are generally the pre-war regulars, "B" are the well trained reserves who haven't been at the colours for a while, "C" are the longer term reserves who may not have had any training for some years or or much less well equipped or motivated troops.
My thinking is that strength points lost are not actually all entirely killed. Instead they represent a semi-abstract loss of fighting ability - certainly many men will be killed and wounded, but many more will "just" be shell shocked or disorganised or demoralised. With some rest, retraining and re-equipment these men can be restored to something like their original effectiveness.
If you assume that 20% of men in "lost" strength points are actually killed or seriously wounded then about 50% of the original men will still be left after the unit has been "wiped out" 3 times. If you assume 25% are removed then about 40% will be left, and if you assume 1/3rd then about 30% will be left. Even at 50% you still ahve 12.5% left after it's been wiped 3 times.
I don't know what unit rates were in WW1, but we can look at the BEF.
In GoA 1914 you get 2 Corps, plus a 3rd corps in Egypt and (I think) a 4th corps arriving in England on T2(?)
the actual regualr British army mustered 11 infantry divisions - the original BEF of 4 divisions (2 Corps), the 1st reinforcements of 3 divisions, and 4 more divisions made up of the 8th division and 3 more from bits and pieces gathered together from around garrisons and the empire (27, 28, 29 divisions).
The reserves were soldiers who had served in the regular army and were currently stil under some obligation. Most of them were in Class I - Class II was insignificant since it was for officers and senior tranks who had an obligation up to age 55 whereas the OR's had it only until age 42. Class III was men medically unfit for duty. These men numbered about 145,000.
There were about 65,000 "Special reservists" too - these men did 6 months full tiem training and then went onto a service scheme much liek the territorials - 12 days in a camp once a year and regualr part time training. But they were under obligation to serve overseas when required.
Many reservists volunteered for active duty befoer being called up, and it wasn't until November 1914 that all class I & II men were ordered to report
So the 275,000 man regular army had about 210,000 well trained reserves before it had to call up territorials or untrained soldiers. In the game the regulars are represented by 3 or 4 corps (I think) - in "real life" they formed 5 corps by January 1915 plus the 29th division which was one of the original divisions landed at Gallipoli.
I don't know how many men were killed in the BEF in 1914, but if you can find some figures tehn you can probably do some meth to make some sense of these numbers!!
The territorials were a home defence force - they did part time training but were not to be sent overseas under any circumstances. Of course in 1914-15 most volunteered to do so anyway. In 1914 there were originally 14 Territorial divisions, but AFAIK most of het men stayed with them and they were sent overseas as whole units. there were also 215,000 "National reservists" - essentially a "territorial reserve" of men who had some military service but no reserve obligation.
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