Adding additional armor battalions to German Pz/PzGren/Motorized divisions

[bclemans]

From playing "War in Russia", some German Armor divisions (whether Pz / Pz Gren / Motorized / SS Pz / SS Pz Gren) have more armored battalions than others.

Usually, on the Army side:
-Pz divisions have 3 armor battalions.
-Pz Gren (or motorized) has 1 or 2
-Other motorized divisons have none

On the SS side:
-The first 4 SS Pz divisions have 4 armor battalions.
-The other SS Pz / SS Pz Gren divisions (such as Norland) has 2 battalions (which makes them much less effective).
-Others still have no armor battalions at all.

Volkstrum (not sure about the spelling) infantry divisions and some army infantry divisions:
-These infantry divisions often have 1 "Stug" or "JgPz" battalion attached.

With so many independent “Stug”, “JgPz” and “Panzer” battalions available, maybe it make sense to allow players to intergrate them into some of the less powerful armor / infantry divisions (as mentioned above). In fact, historically, the Germans have sometimes detached / attached pz battalions from one armor divison to another.

By adding more battalion(s) to a single division, it boost the fighting power of it, making it a better match against a Soviet Armored Corp (which may have 800 to 1000 tanks). This is more important if a player plays as the Germans from late 1943 onwards to have a better fighting chance against the Soviets which enjoy a superiority in men and materials.

This request is really different from the ability to add a battalions to a corp. I think the ability to only allow battalions to be attached at a corp level have a limited effect in raising the stength of the corp.

Thanks for your consideration.

[Apollo11]

Hi all,

Players are allowed (and encouraged [:D]) to add such support units to German divisions and Russian corps units!

You can add up to three of those... [:)]


Leo "Apollo11"

[Captain B]

Besides armor battalions (being a tanker once, I guess I should say are there any other kind of battalions needed?) will you be able to attach artillery batteries/battalions; engineer companies/battalions, etc. Nothing digs a deep hole for defenses like a good engineer battaliion.

[elmo3]

Artillery, armor, engineers, flak, perhaps some others I can't recall off hand.

[Zaratoughda]

Being a 'tester' of sorts now on WitE.... I guess I would like to add here that...

This question has come up before.... as mentioned re WiR and otherwise... and IMO, Gary has done a truely oustanding job in putting together the systems to handle this.

You can let the computer handle it for you. Moving independant battalions from areas where they are not really needed to areas where they are needed.

Or, you can LOCK this out and manage it yourself. Then, it is a matter of moving these independant battalions from one HQ to another.

On top of that, as mentioned by the other posters here, you can assign up to three of these independant battalions directly to divisions. I don't believe you can assign howitizers, mortars and the like, but engineers, light flak, and of course the stugs, flammpanzers and the like, can all be assigned directly to divisions, and when you do assign them, you can see the division's combat values going up.

Then in combat, the computer will assign independant battalions in the HQs to battles with divisions in their chain of command.

When testing the start of the campaign game, after the attack on the Soviet airbases, the next step is deciding what you want to do with the independant battalions. Give Hoth and Guderian every gun you can scrap up?? Hmmm... I guess the answer to that is what is left to the players to decide.

Zaratoughda

[PyleDriver]

Well here's a screen shot of the Das Reich SS, July 43, just before the Kursk offence. Such a stout division to be thrown into the grinder...Ah but we have a choice not to...

[Zaratoughda]

Hmmm... I should add here that, in PyleDriver's screen shot, there is a line ASSIGN/FORM, and that is where you click to assign independant battalions to the Das Reich division here. When you have some attached they are shown under this and so, DR does not currently have any attached.

Zaratoughda

[PyleDriver]

Well since it was mentioned, I'll attach 2 pioneer battalions to Das Reich SS. Notice it costs 1 Admin Point per attachment. Also the CV of the unit went up with the attachments...