What do you do with mauled units?

Depends on the player and the type of units.

If the units are artillery, ships or planes: get or make double the amount of damaged troops (if 2 tac bombers are at 10%, then get 4 tac bombers) and combine them to get them to an acceptable level. Unless in a desperate scenario, then do not use those troops in any battle whatsoever. After combining the units, then you can use them as you see fit.

If the units are ground units (inf, tanks, etc. If there are units that can readily replace the role that they are being used for (defense, invasion), then retreat the damaged units back from the frontlines and exchange them. If there are no units to replace them, then halt their movement (assuming their defensive troops, if they're offensive then retreat them no matter what and try and replace them with defensive troops (even militia is fine tbh unless its plains). Use those damaged troops to invade AI nations, they can usually deal with it if there is air/arty support.

And to answer your question about if the rations are worth the KDR, then yes, I would say so. This doesn't have much to do with stats (but help anyways), but you should always try and conserve the number of units you lose in a battle. Of course, it is expected sometimes, when you are inactive or in desperation, but in an organized battle, your units should be conserved as much as possible. Only exceptions are if you are Comintern/Allied doctrine (where units are more expendable) or you can afford the losses.

Just my two cents, anyone is welcome to debate

I just move them to my cores. They are still decent defensive units there, and in a few days, they are good enough to return to battle.

If the front is desperate, they are absorbed into bigger stacks. If it's not, I usually put them on 'border patrol', where they just scout out other borders to make sure nothing fishy is going on.

One strategy I've had luck with mauled units is putting them in providences I think will revolt. With their low HP, they will do nothing to reduce the revolt likelihood and if they go, you don't have to pay upkeep on them anymore and they are easy to deal with. With them tweaking the revolt chances, this doesn't work as well anymore...I'm a little disappointed.

Sometimes I move them to key areas just for the view range and to give them time to heal.

I never bonsai charge with them. Just can't do it.

6thDragon wrote:

I never bonsai charge with them. Just can't do it.

I'm still not sure myself. I banzai'ed them myself when this mechanism was introduced, but I'm not doing that anymore, even though that's not really a rational or even a conscious decision.

Upkeep is one of those invisible things, I think very very few people (including me) keep tabs on how much they're spending on upkeep. Cost per unit ranges all the way from 50-300 resources (excl. money) for a L1 infantry to a L6 bomber; or in different wording, about 4% of the new unit price. So when you have a 100 unit army, you're spending an equivalent of 4 units on upkeep every day. That's pretty significant; especially when you're considering that many of those units aren't top-notch anymore (behind in tech).

A mauled unit at 10% takes four days to heal to 53%, and another five days to get to 79%. By then they're usually behind in the tech race, so when you want to get a functional unit you should also include an upgrade (half unit price) in your calculations. Nine days upkeep = 36%, upgrade = 50%, total 86% of <>. Slightly not worth it for getting a 79% unit in the end. But of course there are several advantages of having the unit (even damaged as it is) around during that time; for example, the mobile radar tower role mentioned above, emergency defense when under attack, or the fact that they don't need to use city buildings anymore. And of course, keeping it also preserves your k/d which is very important to many (most?) people. For many of us there's also the sentimental thing about not wanting to send those loyal veterans who fought bravely for your country on kamikaze missions. They may be virtual units and nothing but a few bytes of computer memory in the end, but we still love them.