Originally posted by Mithel
Bolt, could I ask what your source is for:
"We have real statistics called "Total Peak Wartime Strength" and "Total Wartime Battle Deaths" which, when summed, give you a strong indicator of the number of men involved in the national militaries from 1936 to 1945. "
Your numbers sound very accurate and I'd love to look at the same sources.
From some of my sources the indication is that Germany attacked Russia with 160 divisions against Russia's 400. Even if we divide the numbers in half the game is straining to reach these numbers.
From what I've read a division was anywhere from 10,000 to 18,000 men. A Western Division was normally 15,000 to 18,000; while a Soviet Division was 10,000 to 12,000. (I'd love to find more sources to double check these figures). Try looking at your data again with thinking of a division as 15,000 men instead of 10,000.
I think we are all agreed the game should produce more divisions (at least land divisions anyway). And I think (since we can't alter the code) one of the best tweaks we can do is to reduce the low infrastructure death trap provinces that seem to screw up the AI so badly.
- Mithel
Check out these webzones from this website.
http://www.freeport-tech.com/WWII/013_usa/40_org/id-triangular.html
US Divisions. If you look, there are about 7000 Rifles in a 1940 Division. There were also machine guns and artillery.
http://www.freeport-tech.com/WWII/014_japan/41-12-08_army/ija_ground-units/_3-rgt_organization.html
Japanese Divisions were more Infantry heavy. Even still, they numbered, in 1941, about 9000 frontline troops.
The vast majority in the US 1940 15 000 man, IJA 1941 19-21 000 man Divisions served in roles outside of Infantry. A good 50% of a Division's troops served in outside roles.
This is important when you come to Russian Divisions. The 5000 man Russian Divisions are quite possibly showing only the frontline soldiers in that division, which were not far off from most other European Divisions. German Divisions were probably containing total manpower in their factors.
Divisions should still be around 15 - 20 000 men, but it is also difficult to determine exactly what Paradox meant by 1 manpower. Does it equal 1000 men? If so, then does a division take 15-20 manpower to make? Does this really matter?
What matters, to me, is not wether or not divisions take X amount of manpower, but wether or not nations CAN achieve historic sizes of military forces? If Germany only builds 'historic' units, and follows a 'historic' war, then they 'should' be able to build EXACTLY all of the 'historic' units that they actually built.
If they cannot, then manpower is too low, if they can build more, then manpower is too high. It does not matter that these 300 or so divisions did not exist at one time, what matters is if Germany cannot build these 300 divisions from 1936-1945. When a division was destroyed, only a very tiny fraction can be salvaged for a replacement formation, so in effect, Germany did build 300 divisions virtually from scratch (even though they did not all serve together).
Manpower is important to get the right proportions. We are not expecting that Germany should be able to build 300 Panzer Divisions, or even 300 Infantry Divisions, but 300 divisions of mixed quality (Armoured, Infantry, Mech, Motorized, Cavalry and Militia). A player COULD build 400 divisions, if they were all Militia, or might only be able to build 100 if they were all Panzer and Mech, but if a balanced force cannot get even close to historic numbers, then rebalancing of manpower needs to take place.
