I've just joined to ask about this thing, so forgive my rather unappealing profile.
I got TOAW on one of the steam sales, as I recently discovered my love for hex&counter wargames. After playing through some scenarios I thought I'll try my hand at designing one.
Most of the mechanics of the game I managed to figure out thus far by reading the manual and just playing, but I still don't really understand how Formation Proficiencies work. I know that unit proficiencies influence their strenghts in combat and influence unit quality for making checks, but formation proficiencies? No idea.
The manual tells me that Formation Proficency % influences the Formation Quality, and that quality is used for making checks to see if the units in this formation will manage to reorganize or if they will be available for orders in a given turn.
I've also looked at scenarios by Bob Cross, because he usually goes into great detail in his briefings with explaining how stuff works (I wouldn't know that supply units cancel eachother out if they're within the same radius, for example) and in several of his scenarios I found some references:
Waterloo 1815:
Note that Allied formation proficiencies are equal to the average of their respecitve unit proficiencies. But French formation proficiencies are 20% higher than their average unit proficiencies. French formations will therefore be less likely to reorganize.
Cambrai 1917:
The British were unveiling a revolutionary artillery fire control system at Cambrai and this has been reflected in this force factor (Force Communication). The French did not benefit from this so their artillery units have had their proficiencies reduced to 84% of their formation proficiencies, to reflect this.
France 1944 D-Day/Cobra:
Note that UK land units have formation proficiencies that are only 75% (US are 110%) of their unit proficiencies. They will be more likely to reorganize if subjected to heavy combat.
So the wording is sometimes super confusing to me and in the end I don't get it at all what does it all mean. Can someone please explain to me what do Formation Proficiencies determine and how does it work with unit reorganization? What does it mean and what does it translate to in terms of gameplay when unit's proficiencies are below, equal, or higher than the ones of their formation?