What are the best support companies?

[microspace38]

Are they just there to exist and drain resources, or are they truly worth the resources?

[salamander_svk]

They're worth it. Some more than others.

[sicriu]

they are worth it. if u dont have support comapnies then its like trying to beat a 40width infantry divison with a 12 width infantry division. the ones i usually go with are field hospital support artillery (and anti tank for infantry and anti air for tanks), engineers and recons and military police. i find them better when attacking and recovering

[defraeter]

I find it depends of your land doctrine, and if you have slots of research available. Support companies are for rich countries which have many slots of research...
Anyway artillery/AT gun/AA gun make support automatically.

For me, the support companies most important:
Mobile warfare:
Signal, Logistics and Maintenance. Maintenance is not a mandatory in Western Europe, but elsewhere, with attrition (terrain, weather i.e mud in SU) it begins to be very important if you don't want your motorized/mechanized units be a ruin for your industry.

Superior Firepower
As this doctrine is a true ruin for manpower, Field Hospital is a mandatory.
Maintenance may be useful as it is heavily dependant of equipment.

Grand Battleplan
Engineer and Recon because of the synergy with the doctrine.

Mass Assault
Logistics as you'll use template 40/44 width, and Field Hospital for the "less XP loss" to prevent that your unit begin experimented and finish rookie.

Military Police is only useful if you go to war against allies and have to occupy countries without be able to annex.

[FDX]

Already most of the info is false/sub optimal.

As a major you never need field hospitals, unless you're playing like an idiot.
Military police never needed.
Logistics only on tanks.
You should only take support AT if you already have AT in your divisions.
AA not needed as you'll beat AI in airforce easily, in MP it's debatable.
Signals are a must on tanks.
Maintainance is very sketchy, I'd refrain from using it.

[drewbstar]

They're awesome.

Eng/Recon are basically a requirement.
Eng for attacking rivers/forts, entrenchment, etc.
Recon for the speed boosts and attack tactic boost.

Logistics: Good for SA/Africa/Final push to the Urals.

Support Arty/RArty: good for SF doctrine, good for getting a little bit more out of your division without changing the width/supply too much.

AT/AA: self explained. AT helps with the lighter tank divisions, AA helps counter enemy air. Good for smaller IC countries or mid-divisions.

Field Hospital: great for keeping exp up and losses down. Perfect for high-combat classes. Also good for preserving manpower.

MP: only use on calvary/trash inf soldiers. Only for keeping resistance down, don't use on any frontline units.

Maintence: only use after 2nd research. IIRC, it doesn't change anything for the better until you have the additional +5% reliability. Made for tank divisions.

Signal: kinda weird. Either helps shape up a weak end, or hones a strong one. Good for GBP/MW. GBP by helping it get to full planning within the year, and good for MW as you can hit max planning in a second. Also okay for SF/MA as they don't really get bonuses for planning.

[|H|H| Fr3ddi3]

Depends on the role of a division but by en large for any divisions which are gonna see combat, i'll always have Engineers and Recon where possible, Support Arty on most things too and Signals but only for tanks.

Everything else, is more or less down to what country i'm playing as, where I'll be fighting, and what my future enemies will have at their disposal.

Logistics and Maintenance get used sparingly depending on weither or not I have the contsruction rights in occupied territory or not, maint only being used on tanks.

Hostpials I only take as Canada and the like, where manpower issues are not uncommon.

Support AA and AT get rare outings for 'reserve' divisions. While rocket arty is only used for Marines and Mountaineers. Paratroopers, depending on the opponenent may be given AT support.

I don't bother with MP's at all.

[zz_tophat]

They are great and and tend to have a much bigger effect in game than they do on paper, field hospitals for example even at low level can often reduce casualties by far more than the % they actually say they do (this has been tested, it's a pretty significant margin)

However:

If you are a major with a large military it is actually much harder to produce support equipment for for the entire army, if every division your produce has 5 support divisions you will be looking at making almost as much support equipment as infantry equipment just to keep up with demand in your front line divisions. This is especially wasteful with smaller divisions, if you plan on spamming out a lot of very narrow divisions don't worry about giving them much beyond recon and engineers however your 40 width tanks can absolutely benefit from filling all those slots.

EDIT: special mention for MP divisions as they are both useless and useful depending on the situation, obviously it hard to justify the research for them but they do have a very significant impact when it comes to resistance suppression, IMO germany can use them in dedicated garrison divisions but I don't know if I would use them as anyone else.

[microspace38]

Here's what I wanna do in my next game, and a little recap to make sure I'm understanding everything:

Plan: USSR, historical focuses, ignore Japan until after Germany is beat, going for Mass Assault & Positive Heroism, massive divisions, plan on doing a couple arty units per infantry divison to free up a support slot, spam CAS fighters and strategic bombers, eventually do a couple heavy tanks per infantry division, mediums and mechanized for tank divisons, a few BTs for motorized divisons, save NKVD & horse bois for supression.

Support companies: recon, engineering, hospitals, logistics, radio for infantry and maintenance for tanks.

Does everything look good?

[Feliz Jueves]

Well, MP doesn't have any support company penalties beside having 0 org, so it basically another infantry battalion inside your division(extra Def/SA). Maybe be useful with SF doctrine as it push it even more.
Should probably get some love from developers, buffing its suppression bonus from 20+10+10+10 to 40+20+20+20, I think.

[4FCG]

I consider engineer a must on pretty much anything.

[Leon Declis]

If you ever intend to have a unit take a punch, it needs to have Engineering companies. These are worth their weight in gold.

If you intend for a unit to move forward, then a Recon company is worth it.

If you want to bleed the enemy, which is great if you want to drain the enemy manpower, support artillery are great.

These three will serve for 90% of the game.

Everything else is to taste. If you have a small population, Field Hospitals. If you're in an undeveloped area with bad supply, logistics are good.

[buddy299]

Recon, Engineer, Support ART. Support AT if lots of heavy tanks but usually you don't need AT at all