Discussion: Support weapons embedded into platoons.

[Kanov]

Hi all,

What do you think about integrating say a MG and an AT/recon team to infantry platoons? As it is now your only chance to have AT capabilities or some extra firepower on an infantry BG is if you choose them in support which sometimes only has like 4 spots.

Integrating these assets will be like in old CC5 platoon compositions, be it 1 HQ team, 1 light infantry, 1 heavy/med infantry, 1 AT team and 1 MG team.

Also giving the german pzGrenadieres an Half-track or truck to their platoons so they have that extra mobility and so those teams get some action. Or giving the half-track a team of infantry so they are not completely useless but I don't know how doable is that.

Other thing is, how much are the support teams representing? are they the actual historical numbers or just a fraction? they seem like there are too many support teams for so little slots. Like sometimes there are platoons worth of engineers and guns what seems the allocation for the whole division not just your company. What are the other guys using then??

[thesock]

I have done every third inf platoon as a support platoon. A leader, a heavy mg, a 50mm mortar, an a/t wpn (bazooka or Schreck), an engineer team. The other slota are inf teams.

[Kanov]

Did you adjust the actual support for the BG? like reducing the teams you've put into the third platoon from the support elements?

What I've done as a test with the pzgren germans at least, is to distribute the Halftracks (They're like 5) from the company support into the second and third platoon (two each) and send the kompaniechef to the first platoon and disband the company's support asset. Because really who would choose halftracks and the company commander as support?

[Turre]

Hellohello.

I think it's essential to integrate support weapon teams/squads in platoons in this 21-slot case we're dealing with. I've actually done it as I started working my own mod this summer.

First of all I made every BG to have all 21 slots available.

I changed the infantry platoon structure mostly to have full squads instead of half-squads to get free slots. Then I added some support elements (AT/MMG/HMG) from Company/Battalion or higher level to these empty platoon slots. It works quite fine to me. The infantry platoon strength maintains historical and you save all the support slots for something else.

I also added few half-tracks to mechanized platoons. However 7 slots is not enough for all mech recon or mech infantry platoons to include every half-track they ought to have. That's why I concentrated mainly on fire support half-tracks.

The ultimate fact is you just can't have all you need even with 21 slots.

[thesock]

I made all slots available, threw out all the soft skinned vehicles, all the mg halftracks. Made anti tank packs of two 75mm, two 50mm and two 80mm mortars. Took the Ertsatz Zug platoon and changed the teams to a 50mm mortar, a HMG, a PanzerSchreckt, an engineer squad, a leader team, 2 rifle teams. Added 1 of these platoons to every company, so each company has 2 rifle platoons and 1 support platoon.