I've just had a look at the makeup of SS Division Reich in 1941. Assuming that all Art, AT & AA guns are assigned to combat brigades, we have the following support elements:
Recon: 6 companies
Engineer: 6 companies
Logistics: 6 company equivalents
Signals: 5 company equivalents
Maintenance: 4 company equivalents
Medical: 3 company equivalents
Military Police: 1 platoon
With only 1 MP platoon, it has to get dropped, but that still leaves 6 types of support companies, all with 3-6 actual companies and only 5 slots. The smallest group is the medical, but the Germans had greater success in returning wounded troops to service than many other nations, so it doesn't seem right to drop it. Next smallest is maintenance, but the Germans were better than most at recovering damaged equipment on the battlefield so it doesn't seem right to drop it either. Then were getting into signals, but good signals were integral to the Germans coordinated method of waging war so we can't drop it. Next are the engineers and recon with 6 companies each. Are we seriously going to drop the recon ability from German motorised divisions and given the desperate defence demonstrated by the Germans over the 41/42 winter that pretty much held the line after the initial Soviet attacks ran out of steam, are we going to drop the engineers? I don't think so. Limiting the support column to 5 slots might make for interesting choices for players, but its going to short change the major powers and prove to be maddeningly frustrating for players who are also interested in the history.
For anyone interested, my take on the division's combat brigades is as follows:
Bde 1: 3 x Mot Inf Bns, 2 x Art Bns (1 of regimental infantry guns and 1 of light field howitzers assigned from the Artillery Regiment)
Bde 2: as Bde 1
Bde 3: 3 x Mot Inf Bns, 1 x Art Bn (lt field howitzers), 1 x AT Bn (regimental AT companies)
Bde 4: 2 x Mot Inf Bns (the motorcycle and recon battalions with 10 companies in total after assigning 1 recon company to the support group)
Bde 5: 2 x Mot Inf Bns (engineer & field replacement battalions with 8 companies after assigning 1 engineer company to the support group), 1 x Art Bn (the heavy field howitzers), 1 x AT Bn, 1 x AA Bn
I understand that some poorer countries only fielded companies of engineers or recon, but the major powers tended to field whole battalions in their divisions. Accordingly I'd really like to see engineers and recon as combat battalions that can be assigned to brigades, and still provide the bonus for having them in the division. Just limit a division to getting the bonus once in case players want to stack 2 engineers or 2 recon battalions in the one division.
