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Merging units?

Posted: Jun 26 2005
by Thog
Greetings, delurking here for some questions;

How do you merge units? I have various damaged air or ground units, and don't have time to repair them, so I'd like to merge them. I've seen references to doing this in various places, but I've not seen the command itself.

I've tried having them in reserve, deployed, 'repairing', etc. All in the same hex, selecting individually or two at at time.

What's the trick?

Posted: Jun 27 2005
by 3iff
Have both units in the same hex.

Select one, rightclick ADVANCED. You should get a menu box that allows selection of MERGE UNIT. This opens another menu box asking merge with which unit.

Select other unit to merge with and press EXECUTE ORDER (bottom right icon). The units will then merge.

Note. I saw this effect once but have forgotten to try it again. If you select a unit to merge with itself, it will disappear! I'll try this again when I get an opportunity - I may have been seeing things!

Posted: Jun 27 2005
by Balthagor
Did a quick search for the another thread about this;

http://www.bgforums.com/viewtopic.php?t ... ight=merge

Posted: Jun 27 2005
by Thog
Ok, this one is tricky. If I'm seeing this right, the problem is that the Merge command -only- appears if you select the unit, Right-Click on it, select Advanced from the tooltip menu that appears. Then you have the option to Merge.

If you simply get to the Advanced Commands menu without going through the above sequence, the Merge command does not appear in the Advanced list (and yes, we're talking about the same list. The one that has all of the various commands, icons and information).

Someone might want to check on that for me (I only had two groups of eligible candidates).

Thanks for the help.

Posted: Jun 27 2005
by Balthagor
This is sort of how it was designed. It needs to know what hex to look into for a "compatible" merge unit. It also does not appear if you right click a hex that has a unit of the correct type but that is too large to merge into.

Posted: Jun 27 2005
by Thog
Which makes sense. The problem is that I think I should be able to immediately go to 'Advanced' and have this option availible for any units in the hex. The extra step without any clear indications as to why made it look like a missing feature.

Generally speaking, I assume that if there are two routes through a UI to a command screen that both of them will result in the same list of commands being availible, unless there is a significant difference in workflow. Since there isn't, I would never have found this once I'd figured out my preferred route through the UI.

In anycase, thanks. Now I won't have 4 units of F-15's with 3-5 planes each sitting around and trying to rebuild themselves.

Q: Does experience transfer in a merge? Is it averaged, based on the larger unit, or something else?

And just because I'm here; where on earth can you find out Commander experience?

Posted: Jun 27 2005
by Balthagor
There is no specific commander experience AFAIK, unless it is a value George keeps behind the scenes. Not sure on the experience.
Generally speaking, I assume that if there are two routes through a UI to a command screen that both of them will result in the same list of commands being availible, unless there is a significant difference in workflow. Since there isn't, I would never have found this once I'd figured out my preferred route through the UI.
Actually, there is a difference. The right click of the hex sets the data for the contents to be examined. I spoke to George about it and he says it's likely to be quite difficult to change at this stage and we're better of focusing on other things like more content in the game :-)

Posted: Jun 28 2005
by 3iff
See my bug report on "Merge Unit problems"

Posted: Sep 17 2005
by foo
Thanks for this description of merging units. It almost works...

Merge units should be the inverse of the split unit command. i.e. take two less than maxium strength units and combine their strengths to regain the units that was split. However, it's not exactly providing that function. By clicking on the strength bar, you can see its numeric value. The number on top is the current value, the number below it is the maximum strength of the unit. Sorta like current hit points on top of maximum hit points.

The problem is that the merge operation only appears to affect the upper number, or current unit strength. It leaves the lower number at its previous value. Does this mean that future casualties in that unit will only be restored if it falls below the lower number? I suspect that is true. If the merge operation affected both the upper and lower numbers it would really be more compatible with the split operation. Afterall, the split operation changes both numbers. Otherwise you could split and let each half unit resupply until it was back to it's original full strength. A truly organic army! :)

In short, the merge operation should affect both the upper and lower numbers. I'd like to take 3 default strength units, split one and merge each of its halves with the other two default strength units. I should end up with 2 maximum strength units.

Posted: Sep 18 2005
by Balthagor
I'm not sure about what the numbers report, haven't watched them closely enough, but I have done precisely what you're describing. If I have 2 smaller helos, I'll split one, merge it with the unsplit group so that it is large enough to transport my garisons around the map. We have some bug where you could merge a unit to itself accidently but other than that, no one has reported a bug in the system...

Posted: Sep 18 2005
by foo
I agree that the described split and merge "works" to allow transporting larger units. But the remembered "maxiumum" unit strength is still the original default unit strength. I'm guessing that this means that casualties won't be replaced in the unit until it drops from the overstrength value back below the old maximum.

This is confusing.... I'll use a concrete example. I'm playing South Africa. They have a nice mechanized infantry unit called the Ratel-20. Its default unit strength is 54. If I split it, I have two half weight units of 27. If I then take one of the half weight units and add it to another default 54 strength Ratel, I get an 80 or 81 strength unit. But the lower number displayed on the unit description still says 54. So, I'm guessing the game is not going to remember that the actual full strength size of the merged unit is 80, the value that I get if I maximize the strength slider when I build a Ratel, but will only repair the unit strength up to its listed max of 54. I thought I could use split and merge to convert my default strength units to maximum strength units. But, it's sorta like a temporary power up and not a permanent hit point increase. Not the inverse of the split function.

I'm not denying it merges the current unit strengths, only that it doesn't appear to apply to the maximum unit strength and therefore would not be remembered after the unit suffers casualties.

BTW, I also noted that in merging, the unit kill info is summed and the experience is the weighted average of the two component's experience. The experience numbers is like experience per each member of the unit (i.e. to be multiplied by the unit strength) and so that after the merge, the number displayed is again equivalent to the average experience of each member of the unit. So merging doesn't lose experience or kills.

Posted: Sep 19 2005
by Sebastiaan
There seams to be another problem with merging. Although I can merge and split a unit without any problem in my own territory, I can't seem to be able to do the same in allied territory. Is this a bug or intentional?