Reply To: V3 NEW platoon composition! Edit: and discussion apparently

[Aidan]

Thank you guys for weighing in your opinions on this matter, it’s really been informative to hear all the different opinions. I can see both sides of the argument,-on one hand the new composition is more true to history. Take for example the standard German rifle platoon in 1941; it was 49 men strong with 4 squads of 10 men each with 6 riflemen, a NCO w/SMG, a 2 man LMG team, and a LMG ammo bearer w/rifle. Additionally a 3 man light mortar team, a stretcher bearer, a 4 man HQ, and a platoon leader rounded out the force. Notice the lack of Nebelwerfers, single tanks or armored cars, flamethrower teams, or inexperienced heavy mortars. In fact, the biggest thing they have for firepower here is a light mortar and a few LMGs. That’s because artillery, tanks, engineer squads, heavy mortars, or scout cars all have their own support platoons. If the infantry needed to tackle a tough objective, they would be assigned a panzer platoon or heavy weapons platoon for support, the company leader was never like “aw, lets give them an armored car and a howitzer and throw em at the enemy.” additionally this new composition makes for some more diverse gameplay, before you new that your opponent probably cherry picked the best of each support unit and threw them into a min-max list. Now you have to consider your options. “do I bring an artillery platoon in case he brought tanks, or an engineer platoon in case he doubled up on infantry?”

 

On the other hand, I can see how some people would prefer the old composition. being able to just bring the one tank that they had in their collection definitely worked better, and getting to bring artillery and flamethrowers without extra officers (AKA the infamous “list tax”) was nice. Additionally, if you are playing out a battle for Berlin scenario or whatnot where the Heer was throwing everything plus the kitchen sink at the Soviets, a hodgepodge list with a lone tank and Flak 36 is more thematic. BUT, the new theater selectors may allow lone tanks like before, who knows.

Excuse the essay, I just find this discussion fascinating. Cheers,

-Aidan