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JacquesDeLalaing -> Readiness and Vigor - Explanation and Thoughts (1/31/2022 1:38:35 PM)
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Readiness and Vigor are probably the most important stats in the game. And yet I find it quite hard to get a basic understanding of how the system works. Here is my attempt to explain. I'm not 100% sure about it, so if you find any errors let me know. :)
READINESS (RDN)
Readiness resembles cohesion or disruption (inverted). It accumulates fast but can also be recovered fast.
EFFECT OF READINESS
Each point of missing RDN (below 100) decreases your unit's
close combat-attacker combat power by 1%,
close combat-attacker protection by 0.5%,
close combat-defender combat power by 0.66%,
close combat-defender protection by 0.33%,
ranged combat fire power (direct or indirect fire) by 1%,
ranged combat protection against direct fire units by 0.5%
ranged combat protection against indirect fire units by 0.16%
chance to conduct intercept fire by 1%
Action points. At the start of each turn, a unit's action points are set to 50 action points + ( the unit's current RDN / 2 ). I sometimes found this formula to be incorrect, sometimes I had fewer AP than the formula suggests. Note that action points are determined AFTER RDN recovery (see below).
HOW TO GAIN READINESS?
If a unit is fully supplied (entire supply need was met by supply in internal storage), it recovers 20 RDN points at the start of its turn. Note, however, that RDN can never exceed the unit's current Vigor (see below).
HOW TO LOSE READINESS?
A unit loses RDN if it moves (mot./mech. units lose 0.1 RDN per AP moved, foot units lose 0.3 RDN per AP moved).
If a unit is active in a combat round (ranged and close combat), it loses 1 RDN. Note that an element that does not fire back or counter-attack is not considered to be active and does not lose any RDN.
If a unit conducts an intercept fire mission, it seems to lose only 1 RDN (despite the mission lasting 2 combat rounds)?
Units lose additional RDN from suffering hits in combat, depending on a) the size of the unit* and b) the effectiveness/power of the enemy.
Note that any losses of RDN in combat (aforementioned three bullet points) are updated live during combat. So overall RDN of both sides usually decreases with each combat round. Also note that the factors shown in the combat preview window seem to include all the changes that happen during combat! So the RDN malus shown in the preview window is typically higher than one would expect from just looking at the starting situation.
If a unit is not fully supplied, it will lose up to 20 RDN at the start of the turn (depending on how much supply it was missing).
If you re-assign a unit to a different HQ, the unit loses roughly 20 RDN. (maybe a percentage of current RDN?)
If you change a unit's composition (via "micro"), the unit loses 25 RDN.
If you change a unit's movement mode from "combat" to "march", it loses 25% of its current RDN (there is no loss for switching from "march" to "combat").
VIGOR (VIG)
Vigor resembles combat fatigue (inverted). It accumulates slowly but lasts long.
EFFECT OF VIGOR
Vigor is the cap on Readiness. A unit's Readiness can never exceed its current Vigor. Therefore, Vigor indirectly has the same effects as Readiness (see above).
HOW TO GAIN VIGOR?
A unit that is active (moves, initiates fire combat or close combat, intercept-fires) does not recover any VIG.
A unit that is inactive for a full turn recovers about 23 VIG at the start of its next turn. If the unit is in an enemy zone of control, VIG recovery is reduced to just 15 points. If the unit remained inactive during a night turn, it recovers 50% extra.
Vigor recovery for inactive units is reduced by at least 50% if the unit is attacked by the enemy. It's not entirely clear, but it seems as if both close and ranged combat qualify as attacks, and it doesn't matter if any hits are scored. The malus on recovery is increased depending on how much current VIG the unit has left. If the unit is almost at full VIG, it's recovery will just be decreased by 50%. If it is at only 50 VIG, it will hardly recover any VIG at all if under fire.
HOW TO LOSE VIGOR?
A unit that is active during a turn (moves, initiates ranged or close combat, initiates intercept fire) automatically loses 2 or 3 (the manual states 5, which seems wrong) points of VIG at the start of its next turn.
If a unit loses elements in combat, it loses VIG according to the formula: VIG loss = percentage of losses / 2
CONCLUSIONS / THOUGHTS
If you are the attacking player in a scenario, Readiness is your friend. Your biggest advantage is that you're the one who choses the moment of attack: You can first use your artillery to reduce the enemy's RDN (protection, fire power) and then proceed to assault his weakened positions in the very same turn, i.e. before your opponent's units can recover RDN at the start of their turn.
If you are the defending player in a scenario, Vigor and Intercept Fire are your friends. As the defender, it is hard to leave a lasting impression on your enemy's RDN directly. Sure, if you hit him with artillery, his RDN will be reduced. As the defender, however, you will rarely find yourself in a position to follow up and exploit the temporary weakness caused by your artillery. In order to do so, you'd need to assault. But by assaulting, you'd throw away your biggest advantages as the defender (defender role in close combat, accumulated entrenchment). But then again if you don't assault, you give your opponent time to recover (units recover 20 RDN at the start of their turn!) and he will be ready and fresh to attack in the next turn. So that's a problem.
Instead of targeting your opponent's RDN directly, my suggestion is to go after his VIG instead. Your goal is to force the opponent's units to be active every turn. Each turn of activity will prevent them from recovering VIG and instead further reduce their VIG. Apart from having better combat odds (if the opponent needs to attack your position several times, he needs to be more active!), the best method to force your opponent into activity is intercept fire. How come? Intercept fire stops your opponent's units in their tracks. Units lose a lot of AP if they're hit by effective intercept fire. This means that your opponent's units will take more turns to cover the same distance. They will need to be active for more turns, which will decrease their VIG. So in my opinion, intercept fire is the strongest tool for the defender and you should try to optimize it (arty units should have 80AP left and good Readiness, you need proper Recon on the target hexes,...). Apart from that, you should target inactive enemy units with artillery in order to prevent their VIG recovery, particularly during night turns. And in very desperate situations, just run away. Both your own and your opponents units will lose VIG, but the attacker suffers more from it (see above, the RDN-malus in close combat is much bigger for the attacker). Delaying an opponent also works (retreat a bit in order to reduce the number of combat rounds that can be fought).
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*Individual elements in the unit will lose quite a lot of RDN due to pinned hits (-25% of current RND!) and retreat hits (-50% of current RDN!). However, the bigger the unit, i.e. the more elements it has, the smaller the effect of these individual RDN-losses will be. That's because the RDN of the unit is re-calculated as the average RDN of all the elements within the unit after the combat. So the larger the unit, the more firepower you need to bring to bear on it to achieve RDN-loss.
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