Unit Breakdown Penalty

[Tanker Mike]

A question regarding Unit Breakdown Penalties. As I try to get my head back around Bulge '44, I seem to recall there are penalties when a battalion is broken down into separate companies. Faster disruption for example. However, I can't seem to find any documentation regarding that.

Can anyone please enlighten me?

Thanks,
Mike

[Green]

You are correct. It affects the probability of disruption and also fatigue accumulation. The manual says;

"When Morale Checks are applicable, they are determined based on a probability using the given loss as:

loss / (loss + base-value)

where the base-value depends on the size of the unit and is:
• 5 for platoon and uncombined company units.
• 10 for combined company units consisting of 2 subunits.
• 15 for battalions and combined company units consisting of 3 or more subunits.

Thus, a battalion unit that takes a loss of 15 men has a 50% chance of requiring a morale check and a battalion unit that takes a loss of 60 men has about an 80% chance of requiring a morale check"

And...

"Fatigue is gained from losses in combat. The factor used to determine Fatigue accumulation depends on the size of the unit.

• For Battalions, the Fatigue accumulation factor is 2.
• For Companies and Platoons, the Fatigue accumulation factor is 6

(When 2 Companies are Combined, the factor is 4 and when 3 or more Companies are Combined, the factor is 2)."

Hope that helps.

[pax_xap]

This is a table that shows the probability for having to go through a Morale Check during combat resolution.

https://www.theblitz.club/uploads/files/...0check.gif

[pax_xap]

Well, sorry about that. I did my best. The picture was very small and I do not know how to get it larger :)

[2-81 Armor]

A question regarding Unit Breakdown Penalties. As I try to get my head back around Bulge '44, I seem to recall there are penalties when a battalion is broken down into separate companies. Faster disruption for example. However, I can't seem to find any documentation regarding that.

Can anyone please enlighten me?

Thanks,
Mike

Mike,

As far as I can recall, you're correct about this. It can be a handicap in some games because of the scale and situation in some scenarios that almost require units to be broken down. Some people (Tazarron with "Bolt Out of The Blue" for DF '85 comes to mind) have attempted a work around where company-sized units are designated "KG" when they created scenarios. This works to eliminate the penalties, with the downside that once a Battalion composed of KG's is broken down, it can never be recombined.

I also dimly recall (and might be wrong) that the only game in the Tiller operational series that does not impose penalties on companies and platoons is ME '67. I seem to remember this was done intentionally by JT in order to accommodate the flexibility of Israeli units, and was a modification he did to the game .exe file. This is from some discussion here years ago when the game was new, and had just been released, IIRC. Again, I could be wrong, and better informed people I'm sure will correct me.

[Tanker Mike]

Thanks everyone for their answers!

Mike

[Outlaw Josey Wales]

There really should not be a penalty when broken down. I understand the safety in numbers mentality, but, a soldier usually is only concerned about his company or his platoon. Many is the time a unit fights the odds very well. My 2 cents.

[Fhil]

There really should not be a penalty when broken down.  I understand the safety in numbers mentality, but, a soldier usually is only concerned about his company or his platoon.  Many is the time a unit fights the odds very well.  My 2 cents.

I agree here completely. Should be left only to when they are combined into battalion, fatigue recovery would be faster maybe. 

One of the things that could have been left for optional rule. My 2 cents.

[Liebchen]

I think that it reflects the unit's resilience, though, since it includes more of the support personnel and better CnC.

[Jeff Conner]

Gentlemen

I think that it would easier to understand this dynamic if you consider it to be a modification rather than a penalty. For battalions, the average fatigue gain per casualty is one. So a battalion of 300 men that suffers 10% losses, on average, gains 30 fatigue points. The average fatigue gain for a company is three per casualty. So a company of 100 men that suffers the same 10% loss, gains the same 30 fatigue points. If this modification is not included, then companies become much more potent than battalions, which for some of the reasons mentioned above, is not realistic. Hope this helps.

Jeff