Small guide for officers

[Shigemori]

At first I wanted to write a big guide about army management as this is my most favourite part of UGCW. But a lot of things depend on the personal style of game play and taste e.g. naming units, so I decided to give the mere facts and numbers. Sadly, the mathematics behind the different stats is well hidden in a kind of black box. So what is the difference between 20 or 100 efficiency? How will a green unit with the first stat perform against an elite unit with the second stat. What does damage and accuracy change in weapon’s stats? You might get a feeling over the time while playing the game, but this questions seem important when you have to decide if you spend your money for new weapons or veterans or what perk you give to your new 2-star unit. As you can see writing a guide can be a very complex matter. So I decided to start with the most obvious part of army management: the appointment of commanders.

An officer can be used in three different roles – brigade, division and corps commander – and has a limited influence on the unit(s) under his command depending on this role. Depending on his role an officer has following effects:

Brigade commander

A brigade commander give two different types of stats to his unit: experience and command points. A captain will give zero points, major 10 points and 10 additional points with every rank he gains. This not only depends on the rank but on his experience (the grey bar) too. So a Colonel can give 30-39 points to his unit and so on. Each time his unit takes losses there is a small chance he gets killed or wounded depending on the amount of losses.

Division commander

A division commander gives half the amount of command points he would give as brigade commander to all brigades in his division. So a Colonel give 15 points, a Brigade General 20 and so on. There seem to be no other effects. He doesn't give experience points. Every time an unit out of his division takes losses there is a small chance (although smaller as for the brigade commander) that he is wounded or killed. This chance increases when a “division" brigade is formed.

Corps commander

 A corps commander is present as unit on the field of battle and gives a moral boost and perhaps some other bonus to all friendly units in a distinct range. The enemy can shoot on him and drive him from the field. But he can't be killed nor wounded and will be present again in the next battle. Thus he is some kind of invulnerable.  He gives some bonuses depending on his rank but no command or experience points.

Choosing the most suitable officer

Command points give the size a unit may have without getting a penalty on efficiency what you want to avoid on every price. So finding the correct combination of division and brigade commander is the key. A maxed out unit will need 60 points. So a 2.5k-brigade needs 60 points, a 2k-brigade 45 and a 1.5k-brigade about 30 points. With other unit types this is similar with the exception of skirmisher units where a maxed out unit only needs 45 points. Thus a major is sufficient for a 1.5k-brigade, a Lt. Colonel for a 2k-brigade and for a 2.5k-brigade you need at least a Brigade General or an experienced Colonel if the division commander is a Major General.  Of course for a 2.5k-brigade you can make a Colonel division commander and a Major General leads the brigade, but it is more advisable to make this the other way around as a brigade commander is more likely to get killed and the division commander gives command points to every brigade in his division. Additionally you can buy some Colonels via the barracks screen, while you will get Major Generals only through promotion, reputation and as prices for won battles. There are other reasons to use the lowest ranking possible officers for your brigades. First when hiring officers their price increases exponential while the gain increases linearly. While the price for a captain is about 350$, the price doubles for a major with about 750$ and doubles again for a Lt. Colonel with 1500$ and so on. Using low ranking officers gives them the possibility to get promoted. A 12-gun-artillery brigade only needs a Major for command. When he is promoted you can move him to other tasks. A maxed out skirmisher brigade don't need a Brigade General in command, a Lt. Colonel suffices. The Brigade General may be useful as division commander or to command a 2.5k-infantry or a 750-cavalry brigade. More command points then necessary don't seem to bring some gain in the performance of the unit. Thus a 3-star elite 1.5k-brigade can be commanded by a mere Major without penalty. 
There is only one reason to use a higher ranking officer: experience. For example as CSA you want a Colonel command a new formed brigade. As green troops of the confederates will bring 70+ experience points a Colonel will give you 30 additional points what brings the first star for free. But after the unit gains some experience in battle you may use a lower ranking officer. 
For corps commanders you want the most high ranking officers you have as every rank brings an additional bonus and corps commanders are virtually invulnerable.
 

[maniacalpenny]

3 hours ago, Shigemori said:

There is only one reason to use a higher ranking officer: experience. For example as CSA you want a Colonel command a new formed brigade. As green troops of the confederates will bring 70+ experience points a Colonel will give you 30 additional points what brings the first star for free. But after the unit gains some experience in battle you may use a lower ranking officer. 

I am fairly certain that efficiency is bound by command stat. So If your command stat on the brigade is 50 but your efficiency is 90, you will act if your efficiency is 50.

 

I'm also pretty iffy on your math, as I'm pretty sure I've seen no efficiency penalty on a 2.5k brigade when using colonel-colonel. I actually don't think that division commander is related at all to direct efficiency penalties, and only influence command stat.

 

It's possible that I'm entirely wrong, but Division commanders would be pretty worthless if all command did was reduce the efficiency penalty, as the threshold for reaching this is quite low and much weaker than the benefits of additional experience.

[Shigemori]

1 hour ago, maniacalpenny said:

I'm also pretty iffy on your math, as I'm pretty sure I've seen no efficiency penalty on a 2.5k brigade when using colonel-colonel. I actually don't think that division commander is related at all to direct efficiency penalties, and only influence command stat.

It's possible that I'm entirely wrong, but Division commanders would be pretty worthless if all command did was reduce the efficiency penalty, as the threshold for reaching this is quite low and much weaker than the benefits of additional experience.

Two Colonels close before their promotion can give a maximum of 58 command points (19+39). That is close enough under the needed 60 points that you perhaps won't see an effect on efficiency. But if you hover the mouse over the efficiency stat there will be that red text stating that the unit is to large for his commander. You can simply test this by exchanging the officer in-game, especially after battle when the position is vacant.

You shouldn't underestimate efficiency as it seems to influence the performance of a brigade in whole. The strength of a division commander is that he gives command points to every brigade in his division. Thus lower ranking officers will be able to lead the brigades efficiently. But honestly I don't understand the math behind efficiency in detail.

[maniacalpenny]

8 minutes ago, Shigemori said:

Two Colonels close before their promotion can give a maximum of 58 command points (19+39). That is close enough under the needed 60 points that you perhaps won't see an effect on efficiency. But if you hover the mouse over the efficiency stat there will be that red text stating that the unit is to large for his commander. You can simply test this by exchanging the officer in-game, especially after battle when the position is vacant.

You shouldn't underestimate efficiency as it seems to influence the performance of a brigade in whole. The strength of a division commander is that he gives command points to every brigade in his division. Thus lower ranking officers will be able to lead the brigades efficiently. But honestly I don't understand the math behind efficiency in detail.

I dont underestimate efficiency, I just think that it works differently. The penalty for command is worthless as you have such an abundance of high level officers that this sort of penalty is entirely avoidable for the vast majority of the game, and units that do get efficiency debuffs are probably fodder units that weren't expected to actually kill anything anyways. This means that the primary use of the command stat is to raise efficiency caps for high efficiency units. It's not uncommon for 3* units to have 100+ efficiency stat and in this case every command  point counts, which is why people suggest to use high level commanders for division commanders. Otherwise your high level generals would be better served as brigade commanders once you pass a threshold where minimum command (penalized for unit size being too large) is no longer an issue.

 

For the unit size, I will concede that I don't know exactly how that works and it is very probable that you are correct. But like I said for most armies I think that becomes irrelevant, as most high-efficiency brigades are not max sized and many 2 and 3* brigades have high efficiency that require high command to be met for optimal performance.

[Andre Bolkonsky]

Efficiency has multiple roles. 

A weapon has an efficiency rating that is applied to its combat values and has a direct correlation on the combat ability of a brigade to reload/fight/aim etc. according to the specific weapon. It goes without saying, there is a massive difference between a Revolutionary era Pennsylvania Jaeger Long Rifle and a fresh-from-the-factory Spencer Rifle. Both rifles will kill, just ask Alvin York, but the Spencer is a bit higher up the food chain. 

A brigade has an efficiency rating based upon its size. The command chain of Corps/Division/Brigade must provide enough command points for its officer to properly command the unit or the brigade suffers a penalty based on the size of the efficiency loss. 

Keep a good stock of quality officers, try to keep your best officers in the highest point in the chain of command as possible. Give a corps a 3-star, a division a 2-star, and a brigade a 1-star commander and you have no problems running full divisions of 2,500 man brigades. Give a captain a 2,500 man brigade with a colonel division commander and we invite you to post all of your frustrations on Steam, we don't need them around here. 

 

 

[Shigemori]

The command points determine the size a brigade may have without getting a penalty on efficiency. This depends not on the experience or efficiency of the brigade itself but only on its size. So your small 3* unit can be lead by a Major without any penalties. You didn't need a Major General as brigade commander at all, as there is no sense for more than 60 command points. Off course later in game you will have a bunch of high ranking officers and you don't need to think about this, but in the early stages when you build your army you want to use your limited officer pool to the biggest effect.

I didn't ment the efficiency of weapons. As this value is some measure for its deadliness. The efficiency of brigades determine how good the unit is in reloading, shooting and melee.

[maniacalpenny]

39 minutes ago, Shigemori said:

The command points determine the size a brigade may have without getting a penalty on efficiency. This depends not on the experience or efficiency of the brigade itself but only on its size. So your small 3* unit can be lead by a Major without any penalties. You didn't need a Major General as brigade commander at all, as there is no sense for more than 60 command points. Off course later in game you will have a bunch of high ranking officers and you don't need to think about this, but in the early stages when you build your army you want to use your limited officer pool to the biggest effect.

I didn't ment the efficiency of weapons. As this value is some measure for its deadliness. The efficiency of brigades determine how good the unit is in reloading, shooting and melee.

I'm not talking about weapon efficiency at all.

 

Under efficiency on the unit tab it says "The largest possible efficiency is achieved according to the Command level of the unit"

This implies that efficiency cannot exceed Command.

 

[Andre Bolkonsky]

7 hours ago, maniacalpenny said:

I'm not talking about weapon efficiency at all.

 

Under efficiency on the unit tab it says "The largest possible efficiency is achieved according to the Command level of the unit"

This implies that efficiency cannot exceed Command.

 

You are correct. A brigades efficiency can be throttled by an inexperienced commander. This is directly related to the size of the unit. Just make sure you don't assign more men to a brigade than its commander can handle. 

[civsully1]

On 9/8/2017 at 4:08 PM, Andre Bolkonsky said:

 Give a captain a 2,500 man brigade with a colonel division commander and we invite you to post all of your frustrations on Steam, we don't need them around here. 

 

 

Oh AB, this last sentence of your reply made me laugh...loudly.  This reply of yours has to go down as an Instant Classic. I admire your comic intellect sir. 

[Hjalfnar_Feuerwolf]

Yeah. Look at my signature.

[civsully1]

Hand salute to you too HF!!!  

[Marshall Davout]

Thanks for taking the time to explain that. I certainly did not understand how all that worked. Much of the game is a little opaque. As it becomes clearer, it becomes better.

[Tyro3]

I am trying to understand this, is there a formula to calculate number of men that a certain officer can command without losing efficiency?

In my latest run through I have two lt. colonels one with command of 41 and efficiency of 37 and he is able to have 11 more men than a lt. colonel with a command of 41 and efficiency of 40, I would think it would be the other way around, am I missing a piece of this puzzle?

[LAntorcha]

On 10/5/2017 at 10:48 PM, Tyro3 said:

I am trying to understand this, is there a formula to calculate number of men that a certain officer can command without losing efficiency?

In my latest run through I have two lt. colonels one with command of 41 and efficiency of 37 and he is able to have 11 more men than a lt. colonel with a command of 41 and efficiency of 40, I would think it would be the other way around, am I missing a piece of this puzzle?

Yes, Efficiency is related to the unit, not to the Lt. Col.