[Mobhack]

1) The support points are there to buy what you think you need for the mission offered. You can buy anything with these.

Typically in an assault, you would buy loads of arty and some engineers. Barge carriers in a river crossing. Transport planes to jump out of.

But if you think you'll need some AAA because you have zero air, the visibility is fine, and its the 44 USA across the table - buy that.

If you think the map is close (loads of city, woods etc) and you are short on grunts - buy a leg co in support. Maybe 2. Maybe Soviet SMG companies, if it is Stalingrad or Berlin...

In winter, ski troops come in handy. Most folks don't have those in the core since they are wasted points most of the year. My skiers are support extras.

If you are delaying or defending then you may want to buy some extra anti-tank guns or bazooka teams. If defending - some bunkers may be useful.

If you are advancing, you may want to buy some little scout cars, cavalry, motorcyclists or other recce troops to scout out the enemy. If you are a leg-based force, you may decide that for this particular battle a company of trucks to shuttle them forwards as your taxi service may be a good idea.

Ammo bunkers are extremely expensive - but survive well. If in a core they will be gaining experience which increases their core value, but other than the crew getting out and into a pistol fight - of nil practical use. So the longer you have them, the more buy points the enemy gets as they become more valuable through experience gain. So ammo bunkers (and other ammo units) are something to avoid or minimise in the core - and buy with support points. Unarmed trucks perhaps similar - experience gets them very little other than better morale (if they survive) and if you need them, support points is probably the best place, bar your dedicated AT gun towers.

If you are armour-light then some maps may scream at you that some tanks may be a good thing here. Like pancake flat steppe perhaps. A couple of KV-1 can make all the difference to a rifle battalion core with maybe a few T-26 in their golf bag.

It's entirely up to you what you buy with support points, based on your battlefield analysis and what your core consists of.

Of course - if you spend on support troops, then the AI gets more points in proportion to the battle type. So if you think your core is 100% up for the job, you may want to skip the extra spend. Any support points not spent don't matter (unless you are player #2 of course, since #1 has bought already - so in a 2 player campaign if you have 1200 support points as the second player - then use them!).

2) It would help - but be complicated.

3) Destroyed units with no survivors start as fresh - they were wiped out. Anything with experience gained and 1 crew left alive only loses 5 or so points for buying a new ride (so don't swap units every battle - upgradeitis means never learning your new toy!). However - converting something to a completely different type is less good. A tank to an SP Howitzer, say. The tank leader has armour leadership built up - but an SP arty piece wants arty command to do well.