Matrix Games Forums

Wondering who is getting counted in creating an HQ at the higher levels.

Just the officers? Just the officers and NCO's? Where do the developers see the line being drawn here?

I am looking at a 1960 edition of FM 7-21 on the HQ and HQ company of an infantry battlegroup.

In the HQ section there are five officers, five specialized NCO's, and then assorted (and uncounted) chaplain's assitants, mail clerks, etc.

In the HQ of the HQ company are the commander, XO, two sergeants, an armorour, clerk, driver, and some number of "mess personnel."

Then you have the comms platoon,supply and maintenance platoon, personnel section, and so on. Heck, the HQ even had its own engineer platoon, but I know how to handle that.

At the company level HQ (1959 FM 7-10) I am looking at two officers, a first sergeant, a comms chief, two operators, two wiremen, and a messenger. Then there is a service group with a sergeant, armorour, clerk, and "mess personnel."

I want to make sure I have the US all cleaned up before I move on to the Aggressor, as the Soviets were called in the field manuals of the era.

Lacking a better formula I have decided to count the number of pistols in the TOE, if I have one. Forty pistols in a regimental HQ? Then seven infantry HQ. And so on.

Between the summer heat, and the impending update, I am on a slow bell. So just puddling along going over everything again.

We are pretty much just running with the combat elements right now. Items like kitchens, water trucks, medics, etc are all abstracted out. You can always and in more truck and HQ troop types to fill these in if you want the get the numbers up. I wo9uld suggest making "Support" units attached to the main HQ to not overflow the units per counter. This will also lead to larger HQ foot prints on map to stay out of stacking violations too.

When I did the American side I definitely went lean. I don't know if it effects game play much (except they may evaporate sooner) but one of the complaints about the Pentomic organization was how thin command and control was.

Doing the Soviet side by counting the pistols gets me quite close to the numbers already in use for the modern Soviet OOB. And that is good enough for me. I don't need to count every guy unless the game system has a use for them. And the pistol count gives me a rough guide for comparison.