Current meta-Brigade size

[Arwing20]

Been playing through a Union campaign and I was wondering if my army layout was the best in can be in terms of countering AI scaling and having good firepower. My current unit sizes are 1400-1600 for infantry and 12 for artillery. cavalry I keep around 300-500.

[BHunterSEAL]

See this post: https://forum.game-labs.net/topic/26142-hidden-mechanics-and-weapon-damage-degradation/

Particularly the section "Optimal Unit Sizes for Damage" which details the size at which a firepower penalty is applied to brigades of various types. This is eliminated if you use the J&P mod or the UI mod.

Note that AI scaling works differently for major and minor battles. In minor battles, the enemy has a fixed number of brigades that scale based on the average size of your brigades of the same type (regardless of whether they're in a corps that deploys for that battle). I usually create fresh brigades of ~750-1000 between major battles to act as my reserve force in the next battle, either in a reinforcement corps or replacing line brigades when in camp in multi-day battles. This has the benefit of reducing my average unit size and therefore the number of enemies faced in side battles, even though they never deploy. Ideally, as my line brigades get experience I'll have extra weapons, Colonels (CS) or BGs (US) which will allow me to make these units larger and one-star veterancy before they actually need to deploy in major battles.

The math for major battles is more complicated / opaque (if Panda sees your post, he can explain far better than I) but the AI size is a dynamic calculation based on the size of your force and casualties taken over the course of the campaign. The best way to fight the scaling curve is by capturing units. Only KIA / captured enemies are removed from the AI manpower pool, shattered units are not. There's a definite balancing-act for how many casualties you can tolerate while eliminating as much of the enemy as possible.

[Arwing20]

Well as it stands my first 2 Corp follow my current formula of 1400 infantry and 12 arty. So I should fill my third Corp with a bunch of 1000 Brigades? P.S. to save money should I fill my third Corp with trash guns since my first 2 have pretty high end guns

[pandakraut]

The sizes you are using should be just fine. As long as you're killing or capturing most enemy units and maintaining good k/d ratios of 3:1 or higher scaling won't get out of hand.

There a good examples out there on how to succeed with basically any unit size now. Max sized infantry is the current trend since you can get all your recruits onto the field to gain experience and then disband and rebuild your army at will.

[Arwing20]

Originally posted by pandakraut:

The sizes you are using should be just fine. As long as you're killing or capturing most enemy units and maintaining good k/d ratios of 3:1 or higher scaling won't get out of hand.

There a good examples out there on how to succeed with basically any unit size now. Max sized infantry is the current trend since you can get all your recruits onto the field to gain experience and then disband and rebuild your army at will.

Steady as she goes then, thanks