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I always liked the SPI game Kursk all the units had steps for example a rifle division would be 2 steps where as an elite German Panzer Division had 8 steps & each hex could hold only a maximum amount of unit steps (I forget how many exactly)
Manstein63

It's funny how some game developers have solved the stacking issue for almost decades and others are still in the stone age. For example Tiller has used quite a sophisticated stacking method since I can't remember. Akin to what you cite Manstein63. Yet GG can only manage 3 of anything, and can't seem to progress. Victor (DC3) uses a density penalty to punish over stacking. Ron Dockal (WWIIiE) at least can accommodate a finite number of air units & ground units per hex. Frank Hunter (Piecing Fortress Europa) uses stacking points. All these guys are pretty much one man bands. All have stacking systems light years of GG and his cohorts...

I don't know why nobody has mentioned it, but why can't something like the system used in Hearts of Iron 3 be implemented in some way? In that game you could stack as many things as you wanted in a single province but in combat every unit has a "frontage" requirement based on its size, and every battle has a finite available amount of frontage dependent on the variable size of the border the attack is coming from. This way only a vaguely realistic number of units can participate in a battle, although if they break and retreat the other units you have stacked there have a small chance (rarely better than 2% per hour) to take their place. However, in addition to this, stacking more than a certain number of men (not units) in a province also carries an exponential penalty to combat ability that can be as high as -99%, even if those units are not fighting. This allows you to cram lots of units into one place if you absolutely have to, but very strongly discourages it and nullifies its potential abuses. It would also be effectively impossible to supply a large number of units because the supply system actually moves supplies one province at a time from the capital to where they need to go, and only allows a certain amount of it to move through a province at a time (dependent on its infrastructure level) creating bottlenecks and shortages.

HOI3 is grossly unrealistic in most respects, but it has some interesting elements that really could be copied. HOI4 comes out next week too, who knows how that will be.

HOI3 is grossly unrealistic in most respects, but it has some interesting elements that really could be copied. HOI4 comes out next week too, who knows how that will be.

LOL probably no closer to WWII than Dark Souls III is, which I play for kicks [:D]

I've seen other games like Arsenal of democracy, a Hoi 2 follow-up, using penalties in battle if many units are involved. The larger the involved units (or the more of them) the harder it becomes to properly organize attack or defense operations.