What is the advantage of reform units?

[smashtheaxis]

It seems to me that there is no difference between reforming a unit and buying a new one of the same type. Am I missing something here?

[huertgenwald]

Heroes, Medals ?
To be honest: never tried it.

[Tarrak]

You keep the heroes and medals and i think the kill count remains as well. Additionally reform units works as well with SE troops. So if you lose one you don't have to put yourself at the mercy of the RNG to get it back but can just invest the PP and rebuy it. Additionally for old people like me, with memory full of holes, it saves a lot of time when i can see instantly which unit i lost instead of trying to remember or find it out.

[captainjack]

Tarrak has captured the two practical uses of Reform Units, but it can also be done for colour or personal reasons. I mostly use it for the two practical reasons, but not exclusively.

I usually reform SE units - the only time I haven't was when I had a lot of good normal infantry units and had four SE Panzer Grenadiers. I was lucky and got an SE tank about two games later.
I won't usually reform a unit with +1 A or D hero, but infantry with +1 move or spotting, artillery with +1 range or +1 movement, or any unit with +2 or +3 Attack or defence or better are usually worth keeping, even if they lose their experience. The special units with multi-atribute heroes are also worth reforming (eg Rudel, Oleh Dir).

The third use is to preserve units with a history - maybe one of your original starting units, or a captured or reward unit you can't replace. A few months back there was a thread about someone who kept reforming his West 42/43 conscripts and using them in every scenario. I understand this as I occasionally get a bit of a soft spot for units that consistently get away with heroic successes (just escaping on 1 Str and 0 ammo after holding off an entire army).

[smashtheaxis]

Ah, great. Thanks for the information. I didn't know about the medals/heroes and didn't think of the advantage of reforming SE units. I activated reform units for the first time in my current AK campaign (had to start over after reaching Arabia because I ran out of prestige and had a weak core). Looking forward to use this feature.

[Blathergut]

I like maintaining the same 'divisional' units as I progress through the scenarios. It keeps a bit of unit history going.

[the_iron_duke]

Can destroyed units only be reformed at the end of a scenario? I can see them in the Reserve Pool but I can't find a way of restoring them.

[Horseman]

Yeah I believe its in between scenarios only for the reform

[the_iron_duke]

I'm not sure if that's intentional, but it makes it certainly makes it a rather less useful feature. I guess it does help one quickly identify what one has lost so a new equivalent unit can be bought without scouring through one's army list, trying to see what's missing.

[robman]

It's intentional. The idea is that "destroyed" units aren't really completely destroyed, but rather rendered ineffective for near-term combat. Some of the equipment and personnel still exists, but the unit must be removed to the rear for rest and reinforcement before it can fight again. This is actually a better simulation of Real Life that the complete disappearance of units.

[the_iron_duke]

I suppose it is more realistic than instant reformation, but it adds a little complication at the same time.

[Horseman]

Well if you have units in reserve you can always bring them in or buy a new unit....depends how big a core you want!

[wargovichr]

The "cadre" of existing experienced soldiers and heroes form the nucleus of the reconstituted unit preserving its capabilities as opposed to a brand new unit composed of raw recruits.

[dragos]

For realism, there should be a random chance that heroes would be also lost when the unit is destroyed.

[smashtheaxis]

I played the vanilla campaign again, ending up in the loosing path. I had to buy a lot of fresh units in the last couple of defensive scenarios, many of them not surviving even one scenario. So the next scenario the reserve was full with destroyed 0 strength units without heroes or medals. They are also counted as "units in reserve" when deploying. This is a bit confusing and definitely not ideal.

[robman]

I played the vanilla campaign again, ending up in the loosing path. I had to buy a lot of fresh units in the last couple of defensive scenarios, many of them not surviving even one scenario. So the next scenario the reserve was full with destroyed 0 strength units without heroes or medals. They are also counted as "units in reserve" when deploying. This is a bit confusing and definitely not ideal.

I usually immediately disband "extra" reformed units in order to avoid this unsightly pile-up of zero-strength units. Back in the "cheat code" days and in 1.20, you had to first reform and then disband a unit in order to avoid earning prestige for disbanding a zero-strength unit, but this was fixed in 1.21.