Quick demonstration on making ground units

[Garfunkel (OP)]

EDIT: a new, improved video with voiceover.

Creating unit types, unit formations and adding elements to the formations, ending with creating an OOB. Using SM mode to instantly research and build them.

[DoctorDanny]

I have a question related to ground force design.

I'm not exactly sure if it's best to integrate support and hq units into my unit design or if it's better to have these roles as separate unit designs.

So, should I, for example add supply trucks to an Infantry Platoon or should I design dedicated supply and HQ units and deploy them alongside my infantry?

[Garfunkel (OP)]

Always tick "Avoid Combat" for both HQ and supply, as well as STO.

The vehicle-based supply unit can supply ANY formation in its chain of command so there is no need to include them at the lowest levels. What I'm doing in the video is to have one set of supplies at the regiment level, and then another set at the division level. These will keep the division fighting at full tempo for a week, which gives me sufficient time to transport more supply trucks to the invasion planet.

However, you don't need to have supply as part of your OOB at all. The units carry some supplies with themselves - certainly, enough for a day of combat - and they can still defend when out of supply. Then you can build pure supply formations that get shipped to wherever they are needed for when you're planning an offensive.

For HQs, the reason to use them is to get to use Ground Commanders and to utilize their bonuses. How intricate your OOB becomes is all up to you - how much micromanagement in designing, building and forming your formations can you stomach? Remember, you have to manually replace all combat losses too.

[Father Tim]

I have a question related to ground force design.

I'm not exactly sure if it's best to integrate support and hq units into my unit design or if it's better to have these roles as separate unit designs.

So, should I, for example add supply trucks to an Infantry Platoon or should I design dedicated supply and HQ units and deploy them alongside my infantry?

It largely doesn't matter, as there is not yet any "rebuild to template" functionality.

So, for example, when a PW-INF formation with, say, 20 INF-based Supply members gets into sustained combat and consumes half of them, it will forever more* have only 10 'supply guys'.

In other words, you can add or remove supply at any time and the only things you need to worry about are HQ rating and transport size.  Even in the middle of active ground combat you can shuffle surviving supply units from one formation to another

- - - - -

*so, clearly, NOT forever more, but rather only until you (or combat) make changes.

= = = = =

The basic trade-off is that vehicle-based supply is less efficient to produce & transport, but infantry-based suply makes the supplied unit 'larger' in combat and thus more likely to be attacked.

[Droll]

I have a question related to ground force design.

I'm not exactly sure if it's best to integrate support and hq units into my unit design or if it's better to have these roles as separate unit designs.

So, should I, for example add supply trucks to an Infantry Platoon or should I design dedicated supply and HQ units and deploy them alongside my infantry?

It largely doesn't matter, as there is not yet any "rebuild to template" functionality.

So, for example, when a PW-INF formation with, say, 20 INF-based Supply members gets into sustained combat and consumes half of them, it will forever more* have only 10 'supply guys'.

In other words, you can add or remove supply at any time and the only things you need to worry about are HQ rating and transport size.  Even in the middle of active ground combat you can shuffle surviving supply units from one formation to another

- - - - -

*so, clearly, NOT forever more, but rather only until you (or combat) make changes.

= = = = =

The basic trade-off is that vehicle-based supply is less efficient to produce & transport, but infantry-based suply makes the supplied unit 'larger' in combat and thus more likely to be attacked.

I hope that some sort of auto-replenishment becomes a thing in the future. I should be able to replenish all ground forces on a planet with training facilities to template defaults.

[Ektor]

That really should be the case. Steve should look into that after he's dune bug smashing.

[Alsadius]

However, you don't need to have supply as part of your OOB at all. The units carry some supplies with themselves - certainly, enough for a day of combat - and they can still defend when out of supply. Then you can build pure supply formations that get shipped to wherever they are needed for when you're planning an offensive.

FWIW, the dev diaries pre-launch said that each unit carries 10 combat ticks of supply, and a ground combat tick is 8 hours. So every unit carries 3 days and 8 hours of supply, before any external supply is added. The GSP value for a formation is the amount required to refill them for the 10 turns, by the way, not the per-turn consumption. Units can also fight while out of supply, but the penalty is pretty brutal (-75%?).

As for the foot logistics, they cost about 60% less (1 BP for 500 supply, instead of 2.48 BP). But they go on the front lines, instead of being held safe, and losing them in combat is kind of lame. In this game, I'm using infantry logistics for my garrisons, but for my attacking units, I'll pay the extra to keep my supply forces safe.

[Father Tim]

If you're into that sort of micro-management, there's also the option of having a large pool of supply units and none in your fighting ranks, then after three days of combat parcelling out 'supply guys' to units as necessary.  Repeat every three days to minimize the number of supply units that actually end up in the front lines.

[bankshot]

So for non-combat units like construction, survey, and archaeology teams should I include a supply element?  Re: are supplies only used for combat?  And if I in a moment of weakness I decide to deploy them near the front lines - can I add infantry supply units into those formations post-deployment?

[Garfunkel (OP)]

You can always add and remove elements later.

Supplies are only needed for combat.

[Father Tim]

So for non-combat units like construction, survey, and archaeology teams should I include a supply element? 

Nope.

Re: are supplies only used for combat? 

Yup.

And if I in a moment of weakness I decide to deploy them near the front lines - can I add infantry supply units into those formations post-deployment?

Yup.

[bankshot]

Thanks.  I've created a unit with 10 vehicles but forgot to include a HQ element.  I was able to create a separate unit with an HQ and 9 more vehicles and I have dragged the first unit as a detachment under the second, but I'd rather directly move vehicles between units - in part because I now have 1 too many vehicles in the formation.  Is there a way to do this?  And does delete formation return the individual units to some sort of pool that could be used to create another formation?  Re: could I delete both formations then create a new formation including all but one of the vehicles? 

This will also be relevant later after taking losses from ground combat - I could build a formation designated as combat replacements and then peel units off of this formation to bring the combat formation back up to full power.  Otherwise I could see combat line units becoming a tangled nest of replacement sub-formations.

[Father Tim]

Easiest way is to open a second Ground Unit window and drag-and-drop between screens.

[JacenHan]

There is a "Show Elements" tick box at the top-left of the Ground Unit screen, that should let you drag and drop units between formations.

[bankshot]

Thanks, I missed the show elements checkbox.  And also the "Amount popup" checkbox which allows transfer of a partial stack.