Matrix Games Forums

I’m curious how you guys decided to treat the British 79th Armored Division. Historically it was a divisional formation but was never used as such in combat. Instead it was doled out in smaller pieces to lower echelon formations for special tasks as needed.

It’s a unique unit, but it had a large effect on combats in the west so I would say it merits special attention in this title.

http://niehorster.orbat.com/017_britain ... 79_ad.html

Jim

If you analyse it functionally, it is actually the 'home' unit for a load of support units. Thus (like many other larger support units) it doesn't need to appear, just its sub elements. Flak and engineer units have larger commands doing pay, rations and professionalism (at least in peace time...)

Don't know how the game will do it - it wasn't really set up to fight as a division so would be very lopsided if you tried.

Good question - it appears as its constituent Brigades which chopped and changed as I'm sure you know. 27th Armd Bde, 30th Armd Bde, 31st Tank Bde and 1st Armd Engr Bde all appear. (1st Tank Bde with CDLs appears in Westwall for accuracy but the CDL function isn't coded). All are Multi-Role Units so can appear on map or as support units when they split into three elements for easier attachment to units so you can set up 3 BR Inf Div to land on D-Day with an element of each (up to a max 3 support units).

Here's the Unit Detail screen of 30th BR Armd Brigade - you'll see the screen is different from WitE and where we can find them we've added the unit insignia. As 30 Armd Bde didn't have its own insignia it has the 79 Armd Div insignia and the formation bumper number.

More significant is how to treat the British and Canadian Independent Armoured Brigades: Some of these were not far off the strength of armoured divisions - 3 big tank battalions, an armoured infantry battalion and 24 field guns. How are they handled?

The are Multi-role units. That means they can be on map combat units (brigade size), or they can be made into support units and attached to an HQ or directly to a combat unit. When they are in support mode, they are split into 3 sub units of equal strength. Since a combat unit can have up to 3 support units attached, you can attach a brigade to a division by using all 3 of the direct attachment support slots. If they are kept in an HQ, then each of the parts can try to commit into combat in support of units under the HQ.