Question about loss penalties

[Xandamere]

Are they based on units eliminated or equipment (squads, tanks, etc.) lost?

[Richard]

Appears to be a combination of both

I have never seen the figures however

Does anyone know?

I admit to powerful curiosity about such matters

Cheers

Richard

[Mantis]

There's also a setting the designer can use to make one side's losses 'cost' more than the other sides. Loss tolerance, and all that.

[Bob Cross]

These are answers Norm gave on the old Talonsoft site long ago. The questioners were Jarek Filis and myself:

What is loss penalty depend on?

It is based on a comparison of the total raw strength (just equipment, without any modifiers) of all units at the moment of the check vs. the original raw strength.

Why disbanding of own unit increases it?

The equipment of the disbanded unit is temporarily unassigned. But in most scenarios if you wait a bit the equipment will be reassigned and the loss penalty for the disbanded unit will vanish. This means you might want to be careful about disbanding units if there isn't enough time for the equipment to recycle before the end of the scenario.

What about recieved reinforcement, event activated reinforcement that never entered the game, withdrawn units, reconstituted units, that wait for future turns

All units defined in the scenario, including those that never enter the game, are included in the calculation. Withdrawn units are considered as intact.

By "original raw strength" are you referring to just assigned equipment, or to all authorized equipment?

Assigned equipment.

If a unit begins the scenario at half strength and ends it at half strength does it add to the loss penalty?

No.

What if that same unit ends the scenario at full strength?

It would actually make up for losses elsewhere. There is a limit in the calculation. The force value can never actually be raised above the original for victory purposes. So you can't grow your way to victory. Of course, that's not likely to happen in most scenarios.

Are all equipment types equal or does the value of the equipment enter the calculation?

It's based on anti-personnel strength. I just checked the code and it actually surprised me. I thought it checked for anti-armor as well. So you really want to avoid losing things like warships, late model bombers, and heavy artillery. On the other hand, you can feel free to "expend" things like ATGM units.

A loss of 2 Me-109E/F is the same a loss of one MMG? I'm not sure, that Speer could agree...

I'm pretty sure he wouldn't. Actually, neither do I, so I will hit the code on my next tinker day. But it will probably only show up on the next iteration of TOAW (years off) or another game which inherits part of the TOAW engine code.