Posted by: nuclearslurpee
« on: November 30, 2021, 12:36:18 PM »1x STA+HQ25As I understand it, one of the main advantages of this division is its cheapness, due to the 3000 INF + PW in it.
3000x INF+PW
300x INF+CAP
150x INF+LAV
100x INF+LB
186x INF+LOG-S
Suppose I have enough resources / buildings so that the division does not have a problem, and there was a new goal - the most powerful division for its size (tonnage)?
At the same time, the price is of secondary importance.
What can be done?
Keep in mind that "price" is not always the big limitation, building time is also a significant consideration. You can have a formation that costs 4x the above, but it will take 4x longer to build as you cannot accelerate the process by using multiple training centers (unless you train the regiment as a set of smaller formations and manually combine them later). If you want to amass a large army quickly, infantry is the way to go.
If you already have plenty of infantry and you do have the freedom to start building some heavier units, there are a few options. VEH with 4 armor are your basic armored units, you can research bigger and better but this is not necessary. As Jorgen suggests, VEH+2xCAP are very good infantry killers. Many players use a VEH+MAV+CAP "main battle tank" design, however this has the disadvantage that MAV is very expensive in supply usage and is wasted if it shoots mostly at infantry. I would suggest using only limited MAV tanks with an equal or greater number of 2xCAP tanks. Another option is to eschew MAV and use MAC instead, it is a bit more supply-hungry (18 GSP vs 14 for MAV) but with three shots it is much better against infantry and will still perform acceptably against armored targets.
The other option to expand your forces is to start using higher-HQ formations which can contain artillery units, resupply units, and if you have developed them construction vehicles which can fortify your infantry and artillery to a higher level. These don't have to be much more expensive than the infantry, but once you have a lot of infantry artillery acts as a significant force multiplier since the enemy will struggle to target your heavy guns due to all the front-line infantry in the way. Think WWI tactics or perhaps more familiar would be the Imperial Guard in WH40K.
If you want to be cheesy and keep it simple, a mass of INF+PW supported by VEH+2xCAP and STA+MB formations (with the necessary logistics units somewhere in your OOB) will be good enough to beat any infantry-heavy NPR armies you run across. It is a bit weak against armor but once you have mowed down the enemy infantry you can win by weight of fire. Of course this assumes you have the two most important advantages...technology, and numbers!
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Apart from the obvious - replace PW with CAP? (by the way, how much does that make sense?)
It can make sense... personally I would not do it, both for RP reasons and because I feel PW strikes a good balance of offense, defense, and meatshield ability to protect the tanks or artillery. Jorgen has pointed out that in terms of killing infantry, INF+CAP are a bit better than INF+PW, however I think once you start to consider other weapon types and unit types a healthy mass of INF+PW is a good thing to have.
That being said, it is not of great importance how you compose your forces. Numbers/tonnage and tech level are the most important factors by far in winning a ground battle.