Reinforcement bug or user error?

[nakorkren (OP)]

I wanted to build a "base" unit size of 75k tons, with the following general force structure:
Army (HQ 1M), consisting of 3 Divisions of 225k each, each Division has 3 Brigades of 75k each (two infantry and one armor). Unfortunately it takes almost 6 years to build a 75k Brigade of armor, so I split each brigade in half, i.e. I have four ground unit Formation Templates: Brigade Armor, Brigade Armor (template), Brigade Infantry, and Brigade Infantry (template). A Brigade Armor is half a Brigade Armor (template). Then when a Brigade Armor is done cooking, I set it's template to "Brigade Armor (template)", and when the next one is done (usually around the same time), I set the second one to "Use for Replacements", with the intent that it's elements will be sucked into the Brigade Armor, bringing it up to full size (75k).

I just tried to test this by Instant Building six Brigade Armors and 14 Brigade Infantrys (replacing 20 Brigades I had half-way built). Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be working. None of the Brigade Armors are changing at all, while the Brigade Infantry partially reinforced and then stopped. I really can't make heads or tails of it, hoping I'm just missing something, but it feels like a bug since I'm getting different behavior between the Armor and Infantry variants despite the settings being the same. Any ideas?

[Zook]

Not that I've ever used the reinf. function, but I thought templates were good only for unit production, and lose all connections with the built unit (unlike ship designs)?

[nuclearslurpee]

You need to set up the Unit Series in order for reinforcements to work. See Steve post here or just go to the last tab of the Ground Forces window and create a series for each unit type and click+drag the unit types to the respective series. Later when you design upgraded versions with better tech you can drag them into the same series as before and the game will use the most up-to-date version to reinforce (where "up-to-date" is defined by the vertical ordering of the units in the Series, a bit of a kludge but it works).

[nakorkren (OP)]

Thank you slurpee, that was the problem: I hadn't set up the unit series for the specific units which weren't moving. Seems like it's a bug, since you shouldn't need to set up a Unit series to make reinforcement work if there's only one of that "type" of unit, for example the HQ, but it's a low priority bug since you can make it work once you understand why it's not working.

[nuclearslurpee]

It's not a bug, as it is how the system is designed to work. In order for the replacements to use any unit of a series, it has to be run through the unit series system which adds the extra micro step.

That said, I agree it's not intuitive and adds micro, I hope in a future update Steve can automate the creation of unit series, really IMO they should be integrated much more closely with formation templates using series instead of base unit types, but the ground forces mechanics have evolved over time so there is some messiness included.