Well over at shrapnel someone suggested for a game some % numbers to keep the components of a force in reasonable boundaries.
To be honest I didn't pay much attention to it as I was doing only scenario games till now, but now I think well maybe that idea is not too bad, before one stumbles into a totally crazy composition like 80% tanks and the rest snipers or some other weird setup it would be bad to lay out some boundaries.
So any ideas for it?
Maybe someone as some good statistical source at hand that could show the average allocation of unit classes in the various conflicts, that could be handy as a guide.
I don't do that by unit but by mission. Unless the terrain screams out for something else I use 40% in the first line, 30% in the second, 10% in reserve and 10% on each flank. The composition of each part depends on the plan. It doesn't make sense to attack thru a wooded swamp with armor. So my first line would be mostly infantry, MG's and small mortars. The second would be Armor plus mech, with the reserve being the same only less. Scouts on the flank reinforced with anti-tank kit.
SP is a combined arms game so I see it as a basic mistake to not use combined arms.
My purchasing approach:
Artillery: Generally this is capped at 15% or 20% in the pregame negotiations. You generally want to spend to the cap, because artillery cleans up mistakes and creates opportunity better than any other unit. That said, if you're facing a very low force-to-space ratio, you may want to cut back a bit here. Big maps and/or small point totals dilute the usefulness of arty.
Infantry: In the desert with no cover, maybe 25% mostly in scouts and MGs to ferret out opposing AT units. In the jungle, you should be 65% infantry, mostly rifle squads with MGs in support. Typically, about 45% of points invested here. Think carefully about which units can get where they need to be on foot, and let 'em hike if they can get there in a timely fashion.
AA: Often is 0% if your opponent insists on no air points. If your opponent does have air points, do invest. Something like 3-5% should knock down his recce flights and make him think twice about where he sends the jabos. The former are the real concern. If he's buzzing a Piper Cub over your head every turn, you're losing.
AT: The most ahistoric thing that happens in this game (in my opinion) is how savvy players pack AT guns into fast HTs and sprint them into overwatch. It works. If your opponent is OK with this, then spend 5-10% of your points on building tank-sniper teams each consisting of an AT gun, an MG, and maybe a sniper or scout all wedged into the best off road vehicle you can buy. If your opponent is all about company-sized purchases and historical ambiance, then you may want to skip the AT guns. They are very difficult to use effectively with no or truck transport.
Mechanized recon: Cheap fast ACs are the most important units you can field. Spend at least 5% of your points on units that can pop over a ridge, ignore small arms, and duck back down if they spot trouble.
Armor: Depending on how the above items break out, you should have 0% (jungle with air points and AT cheese) to 55% (historical units in desert with no air points) of your points left over for frontline armor. I would say about 15% of total points is typical for an experienced player unless the scenario is 1939-42, in which case the poor infantry AT options make a blitzkrieg approach viable and you may want to bump up that percentage.
Nice, now in case no airpoints are used what about helicopters?
Can you still combat them effectively without real AA?
I remember vaguely that helicopters over jungle terrain can very well bump into infantry and receive small arms fire from them.
Depending on the map and force ratio, I'd still buy some SAMs. You generally can't insert infantry everywhere, and your opponent is going to have a real good idea which east-west lanes should be exploitable. You'll probably want something that can reach out and ruin an Apache's day.
It would be nice if they introduced the actual OOBs for each country each year so people would have the option of a scenario where you buy your own or they would have the option of buying an actual unit like say one person buys the 1SS Pz Div and his opp buys the 2nd U.S. Arm Div, for example. Of course they could go smaller like having x amount of points for purchase to create their own TFs or KGs from that division only or they could be randomly assigned a div and have to create a TF or KG from that div and it's attached units. Just something a little different.
In WW2 the German especially had "paper" formations and then the "real" formation which was the one that actually went into battle. I read a book called "Panzer Gunner" in which the gunner was riding in a PzIII (G or H, with the short 50) in late 44 on the Western front. He claimed to have stayed alive since '42 because of that tank and the driver. The driver knew how to throw a track while going straight and slow. So when ever they got orders that would lead to them dying, the driver would do his thing and they would survive. That PzIII was destroyed by Jabo's a couple of months after D-Day. The gunner was re-assigned to Assault guns, the driver went into a retraining program for Panthers since he was a seasoned veteran. He didn't make it. The Germans were so short on equipment that the official TO&E was mostly rainbows and unicorn farts.
British commanders of battalions had quite a bit of leaway over their equipment.
If the Col like Kangaroos better then halftracks, that is what he got. The closest the Brits came to a standard was 3 75 gun Shermens and a 17lb Serman as a platoon. IF the Col, liked Shermans.
The Americans used the Combat Command system after about mid '43, IIRC. Each division had 3 combat commands, which were the staff and commo needed to command what today would be called a brigade. Formations were attached as needed. So even after a massive research project to determine just who had what when, it would double or triple the code of the game. Not worth it.
Indeed the only thing one can use as orientation is the TOEs written on paper, that this setup was most of the time followed is just the nature of war.
For details of German formations check this out:
http://www.wwiidaybyday.com/
and take a look a all the stuff under "Kriegsstärkenachweise".
I am reading Steel Inferno right now about the 1st SS Corps in Normandy. The 1st SS PzDiv had and authorized tank strength of each REGIMENT was 79 panthers and 101 PzIVs but on 1st July (its first day in Normandy) it had 67 panthers ad 102 PzIVs in the DIVISION. The 12th SS had 79 panthers and 96 PzIVs in the division.
(Regiment in German is equal to two battalions of US for panzer)