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points differential between KIA and WIA


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In a recent discussion in another thread, someone asked what benefit there is to providing buddy aid to wounded troops. I answered that, to my knowledge, the only benefit in game terms, is you might pick up some ammo or weapons from the wounded troops.

A few other people answered that there might be an awarded points difference between KIA and WIA troops. In other words, they thought that opponents would receive fewer points if they performed buddy aid so that more of their casualties would become WIA rather than KIA at the end of the game.

I stated that I believe that, as far as scoring goes in quick battles, KIA and WIA are treated exactly the same.

I had some time between PBEM turns today, so decided to conduct an experiment. I setup a large size meeting engagement quick battle on a tiny map and selected the forces for both sides. I gave the Axis two companies of infantry (no vehicles), and the Allies one platoon of infantry, a forward observer, and ten batteries of offboard 60mm mortars. Basically, I intended to cause as many casualties in the first turn as I could by dumping a massive amount of mortar fire on and around the Axis setup zone, and then call a Cease Fire and compare the scores.

I ran this experiment about ten times, and half the time the Axis surrendered after the first turn, skewing the score, so I disregarded those. After the first turn or two I decided I would keep doing the turn over and over until I came up with two results in which the Axis side had exactly the same number of "OK" men.

Final Result:

Game 1 score: 556 to 0

Axis troops: 16 OK, 189 Killed, 49 Wounded

Game 2 score: 556 to 0

Axis troops: 16 OK, 183 Killed, 55 Wounded

Conclusion:

There is no points difference in quick battles between KIA and WIA.

Scenarios might be different, but I doubt it.

Whether or not providing buddy aid helps troop morale is also unknown (to me anyway).

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Thanks for doing a test.

Pity about the results, as I feel that doing buddy-aid should be rewarded ( even if only slightly ) beyond the obvious benefit of weapons-and-ammo.

It feels more realistic to have one or two teams "off the line" helping out ( XO teams, I'm looking at you :D )

But at least one of the new features is described as "•Casualties are shown in the Soldier/Crew Panels to track soldiers lost during the game"

I'm assuming that means a red-based 'man' remains in the squad UI.

Good news for those of us who like to keep track of the number of men in a squad.

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Check out this post from 6 years ago. I wonder what happened.

The benefit of Buddy Aid is that the soldier being attended to won't become a KIA because he is removed from the game and can not be harmed further. This is reflected in the tally at the end of the game.

Presently the effect of Buddy Aid is more "feel good" value than it should be, so we will change things so that there is a point difference between the categories. Probably something like 0.5 for WIA, 0.8 for WIA, 1.0 for KIA. This yields a system like Cpl Steiner is asking for without having to do any complicated recoding. And we like good ideas that don't take a month to implement :D

Dunno when Charles will stick this in, but it will go in sooner rather than later.

Thanks!

Steve

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Could be that my one simple test produced a result that was so close (0.5 vs 0.8) as to not make a single point difference in the final score.

Anyone else is welcome to continue testing.

Could it be that value of units KIA or WIA also affect the score?

e.g.:

  • HQ (officer) vs private
  • regular vs. veteran
  • etc.

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Offhand my take would be making the 0.8 to 1.0 point difference would be desirable. I would think at least 20% of seriously wounded men could at some time return to front line duty. I know of no army that would prefer its men dead to seriously wounded despite the medical attention that must be spent on them.

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