Question about Efficiency

[RavenWargaming]

Hi,

I've read some guides that stress how important preserving unit efficiency is. They caution about increasing brigade sizes too much with an unskilled officer resulting in decreased efficiency... but I'm not sure if this is good advice. I will give three examples of why I'm confused, from my current campaign.

1) A brigade of mine with 1358 men, under a Brigadier General has 40. When I increase brigade to 2000 men the efficiency drops to 32. That's a 20% decrease in efficiency, but on the other hand I get 50% more soldiers in my brigade so that seems like a worthwhile trade off.

2) When I create a brand new brigade under a Major, or Brigadier General the efficiency is 17 with 500 men and remains at 17 with 2000 men. There appears to be no difference in efficiency derived from either the rank of the commander, or the amount of men in the new brigade.

3) I have 2 star veteran brigade with 58 efficiency, and when I reinforce it fully this efficiency drops to 53. I've tried putting a Major in the brigade, and I've put a Major General in the brigade and they both effect efficiency in the same way. i.e. both are commanding with 58 efficiency, and it drops to 53 as I increase size.

Therefore, at first glance it appears that the efficiency mechanic isn't working correctly and a commander's rank has no effect on the brigade, only the proportion of veteran troops. Is this working as intended?

[The Soldier]

Just to inform you, Efficiency is always at 100% of the intended value if the unit commander has sufficient Command.  If he does not have enough Command, then the unit will suffer an Efficiency penalty according to how close to being able to command that sized unit up to the cap.  Speaking of Command, both the unit's commanding officer as well as the Division's commanding officer's experience are added together to form the unit's Command stat.  This means if you have a high-ranking Divisional commander, you can have lower-ranking brigade commanders on bigger brigades as well as a higher cap for the lowest Efficiency possible on a unit.  Should either die in combat, the unit will suffer a Command penalty proportional to the experience of the commander lost, and thus suffer an Efficiency penalty.

As for Efficiency dropping as you increase brigade size, it will only happen under two  conditions - if the unit commander cannot handle the size of the brigade, or if you're reinforcing it with recruits and the recruits dilute the stats of the unit.  Use Veterans so that won't happen, but they cost money.

[RavenWargaming]

So it sounds like the relationship between a leader's skill and efficiency is somewhat tenuous and depends much more on veterancy than some of the guides would lead you to believe.

Thank you.