Variable unit cost?

[Blindicide]

Maybe I'm missing something here but can someone explain why a MG42 HMG costs 28pts to buy as a support unit,27pts if it's bought as part of a rifle company and 25 pts as part of a PzGren company (mot) when buying units for a QB.All other factors remain equal.The same effect occurs with other units as well including Panzerschreck and 251/1 halftracks.Surely if point costs are calculated on effectiveness the costs should remain the same?

[Robert Mayer]

Perhaps, but it could (I emphasize "could," as I don't have anything to go on but a hunch) be a matter of economies gained by purchasing "package deals." A machine gun section purchased a la carte, as it were, might cost more than if you bought the whole company (the whole meal, to continue the analogy--it's dinner time!).

Or not.

[L.Tankersley]

Robert is right - the idea was to encourage realistic force purchases by providing small discounts (~5% IIRC) on the price of units purchased as part of larger historical formations. So a rifle platoon might cost, I don't know, maybe 70 points "a la carte," 67 points as part of a company, and 63 points as part of a battalion (since you also get the discount for buying the company as part of a battalion). This cost savings is offset to some degree by the fact that most of these formations have units that may not be particularly useful (at least in some tactical situations) and you're compelled to pay for them to get the discount.

Yes, costs should theoretically stay the same if they are based solely on effectiveness, but in this case the desire to discourage "cherry-picking" dominated the desire for an entirely effectiveness-based point cost. The discounts are quite small, though - I'm pretty sure that a one-level change in troop quality overwhelms the discount in most cases.

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Leland J. Tankersley

[Maj. Bosco]

I think that the small discounts might have also been to offset the price of the HQs and make the larger formations purchasable in QBs. Especially with the Brits, Canadians, and Polish that small difference in points helps a lot because so many of their platoons come with two support weapons.