Just bad luck or did Soviet Corps mess with GC SE Units

[TigerTiger007]

I finished Soviet Corps and decided to start a new Grand Campaign. So my second battle in Poland I get an SE unit, Gebirgsjager (not the Oleh Dir, but an actual SE). I figure that's cool, nice to get an SE so early on. I get to Norway, the computer hands me another SE unit, another Gebirgsjager. Now I have two SE and the Oleh Dir unit. I rip through Norway with these guys. I am about to invade France and the game gives me another SE unit, a THIRD Gebirgsjager. Now instead of joy it becomes a WTF moment as to why not a panzer or a plane? So I have 4 Gebirgsjager, 3 SE and Oleh Dir. I know I can upgrade to Grenadiers, but I am just wondering if this is bad luck or did Soviet Corps mess up the randomization of the SE units?

[captainjack]

It's probably bad luck.

Early in the game the only SE units available are infantry, so if you get an SE unit it has to be infantry. SE panzer 3 becomes available only when the normal Panzer 3 is available. Even then you will get a random unit from 3 SE infantry and one SE tank, so the chances of infantry are still high at 75% (and 60% once the first SE Panzer IV arrives). Later, when there are several types of tanks (3F, 3G, 3H, 4D and 4E) your chance of getting a tanks is higher than getting infantry.

Remember that the game doesn't remember what SE units it has given you, so your chances of getting a particular SE unit are the same whether you have no SE units, all infantry or all tanks.

[robman]

If you get an SE unit you don't want, just disband it. You will receive prestige equal to the purchase value of the unit, and the "slot" will be empty again, so that you will (eventually) receive something else in its place.

In the GC, I disband all SE infantry units immediately. Since SE units don't count toward the soft cap, a slot filled by an infantry unit wastes one that could (ultimately) be filled by a Panther or Tiger that will not count toward your average unit value, even if said beast is overstrengthed to the max. I build my experienced infantry units in the regular core instead.

[TSPC37730]

What Captainjack says is correct. If you look at the upgrade path for the SE tanks, the lowest unit you can get is a Panzer 3F. It doesn't become available until the first Norway scenario, so, that's the earliest you can possibly get one. I think the Grenadier unit isn't available until then either, so, up to that point the only SE unit you could get would be just the basic infantry unit or Gebirgsjager. That said, if you'd rather wait for an SE tank, there's no rule saying you can't disband the SE infantry unit you receive & instead take a small prestige bump. Personally, I like to keep one SE infantry unit, upgrade it to a Grenadier as soon as it's available & wait for tanks for the rest of the slots. Good luck - or at least better luck than you appear to have had.