Land Combat Battalions

[tommylotto]

Okay. Now that the smallest land unit building block is the battalion, some of the unique units that populated the Hoi mods can now really claim a legitimate place in the game. I have always loved the game when the divisions are composed of a complicated mosaic of various different units with different stats and capabilities. The new division builder will now allow even more complicated division builds. Here is a list of the land units that I would like to see in the game

Land Combat Battalions​

Infantry Type Battalions
Militia
Mounted Militia / Irregular Cavalry
Conscripts
Garrisons
Coastal/Naval Garrisons
Infantry
Light Infantry
Heavy Infantry/Machine Gun
Bicycle Infantry
Motorcycle Infantry
Cavalry / Horse Mounted Infantry
Mountain
Ski Mounted Mountain
Marine
Paratroopers
Air-Transportable (Non-drop)
Glider Infantry
Commandos
Semi-motorized Infantry
Motorized Infantry
Mechanized Infantry

Armor Type Battalions
Armored Car
Light Armor
Medium Armor
Heavy Armor
Super Heavy Armor
Amphibious Armor
Flame Armor
Light TD
Medium TD
Heavy TD
Super Heavy TD
Assault Gun
Heavy Assault Gun

Recon Type Units
Light Infantry
Bicycle Infantry
Motorcycle Infantry
Cavalry / Horse Mounted Infantry
Armored Car
Light Armor

Support Type Units
Artillery
Alpine Artillery
Coastal Artillery
Light Horse Artillery
Motorized Artillery
Self Propelled Artillery
Assault Gun
Heavy Assault Gun
Anti-Tank
Motorized Anti-Tank
Light TD
Medium TD
Heavy TD
Super Heavy TD
Anti-Air
Motorized Anti-Air
Self Propelled Anti-Air
Flak Anti-Tank
Motorized Flak Anti-Tank
Self Propelled Flak Anti-Tank
Rocket Artillery
Motorized Rocket Artillery
Self-Propelled Rocket Artillery
Mortar
Motorized Mortar

Engineers
Engineer
Motorized Engineer
Armored Engineer
Airborne Engineers

MISC
Military Police

Nation Specific Units (Optional)​

With all of the above units, we would not really need nation specific units, but let’s be honest, to some of us the game would not be complete unless the evil SS are given distinctive black counters/sprites. So, here is my list of entirely optional nation specific battalions.


Germany
SS Militia
SS SM Militia
SS Infantry
SS Mountain
SS Cavalry
SS SM Infantry
SS Motorized Infantry
SS Mechanized
SS Panzer
SS Heavy Panzer
SS Super Heavy Panzer

Italy
Alpina
Bersaglieri Bicycle
Bersaglieri Motorcycle
Bersaglieri Motorized
Carabinieri
CCNN Militia
CCNN SM Militia
CCNN Infantry
CCNN Mountain
CCNN Cavalry
CCNN SM Infantry
CCNN Motorized Infantry
CCNN Mechanized
CCNN Panzer
CCNN Heavy Panzer
CCNN Super Heavy Panzer

USSR
NKVD Militia
NKVD SM Militia
NKVD Infantry
Guards Infantry
Guards Mountain
Guards SM Infantry
Guards Motorized Infantry
Guards Mechanized
Guards Panzer
Guards Heavy Panzer

France
Chasseurs Alpins
Légion étrangère

USA
Rangers
Marine Raiders

UK
Gurkha

Japan
Imperial Guards


Anything that I am missing?

 

[Axe99]

If we're getting this specific, what about 'support armour' (not quite sure what you'd call it), but the range of amphibious, flamethrower and mine-clearing tanks used primarily by the UK and primarily by the 79th Armoured Division - they had whole regiments full of crazy tanks. I think the above list may be a bit detailed for the game (although I'd personally love it if it was there ), but if we're having bicycle regiments, then we should have DDs and Crocodiles as well .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobart's_Funnies

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/79th_Armoured_Division_(United_Kingdom)#Order_of_battle

 

[Gamer_1745]

A few more:
Amphibious Armor Bat
Airborne Engineers
Airborne Artillery
Ski Troops
Military Police bat
SD bat

 

[safe-keeper]

Someone's been playing Black ICE .

 

[Alech]

What's SS SM Militia and SS SM Infantry?

And SD bat?

 

[DocDesastro]

They are nazi space marines. Do not get in the way of 8 feet tall blond haired guys in servo-armour. They use rocket launchers as pistols and have cyber-dogs

I can only guess: SD was 'Sicherheitsdienst' so it could be a kind of police batalion
SM could mean 'semi-motorized' probably meaning militia with trucks for transport.

 

[farlite]

I'm sure the mod designers are in their laboratories thinking hard on how to make this game as micromanagement intensive and realistic they can. I think the hio4 vanilla wont be that complicated at first

 

[Midden]

I am puzzled by the conscript battalion. Is it not covered by militia? If we bear in mind pretty much 90%+ of the armed forces of every combatant nation was conscripted in WW2.

 

[1alexey]

Militia
Conscripts

What is the difference?

Mounted Militia / Irregular Cavalry

Why?

Garrisons
Coastal/Naval Garrisons

What is the difference?

Infantry
Light Infantry
Heavy Infantry/Machine Gun

The difference is supposed to be in support battalions, not in INF battalions.

Bicycle Infantry
Motorcycle Infantry

Part of recon units?

Paratroopers
Air-Transportable (Non-drop)
Glider Infantry

One unit is enough.

Armored Car

Did armored cars ever had such high numbers? Should be just part of recon.

 

[Wulf145]

I am puzzled by the conscript battalion. Is it not covered by militia? If we bear in mind pretty much 90%+ of the armed forces of every combatant nation was conscripted in WW2.

Was about to ask the same question.

My Comments/questions:

Conscripts - What would be the difference to an Infantry Unit made up of Conscripts?
Coastal/Naval Garrisons - What would be the difference to a regular Garrison Unit?
Heavy Infantry/Machine Gun - did these (MG Infantry) exist in Battalion strength in Divisional OOBs?
Air-Transportable (Non-drop) - What would be the Difference to Light infantry?
Commandos - since Commando operations were usually quite small (amount of participants) I do not think they should be part of a division.

What about Combat Engineers (Pioniere)? Why are they not included, there were a lot more prevalent than "Bicycle-Infantry".

 

[ringhloth]

Part of recon units?

There were a couple of countries that fielded battalion strength dedicated bicycle units (Finland and Poland, IIRC). That being said, they'd be almost identical stat-wise to cavalry units (faster infantry with no fuel cost).

 

[Meanmanturbo]

Conscript infantry? What, you mean like the majority of the German infantry?

edit
oh yeah, someone beat me to it

I am puzzled by the conscript battalion. Is it not covered by militia? If we bear in mind pretty much 90%+ of the armed forces of every combatant nation was conscripted in WW2.

 

[Reeveli]

I am puzzled by the conscript battalion. Is it not covered by militia? If we bear in mind pretty much 90%+ of the armed forces of every combatant nation was conscripted in WW2.

My guess is that militias would be like the Volksturm, some military training and sometimes composed of men not normally accepted into the regular army. Conscripts would be just random peasants with few rifles herded into the general direction of the battlefield. So the conscripts would be the HOI equivalent of medieval levy. Whether or not these should be included in the game is another matter.

Air-Transportable (Non-drop) - What would be the Difference to Light infantry?

Light infantry has nothing to do with air transports IMO. I usually associate them with either the Japanese divisions tailored for the Malaya campaign of the German Jäger divisions. I believe in both cases the battalions had different equipment and/or training than those of the regular infantry divisions and thus you could argue they should be represented separately. The air-transportable infantry probably means something like the 22. Luftlande-Division. A far as I know the 22. was nothing special in terms of equipment although according to the external link removed - Had a dad they received special training.

 

[Snow Wolf]

why so many SS units
whats the actual difference between SS any regular army? and please don't come up with "they had elite training"

 

[podcat]

What about combos, like: Super Heavy Bicycle Infantry?

 

[PanH]

What about combos, like: Super Heavy Bicycle Infantry?

That's pretty much how I feel about so much different types. It's ridiculous, and an army certainly didn't have so many distinctions. Also, about support units, it's rare that a unit had only artillery or only anti tank, etc, and it should be a mix.

 

[Meanmanturbo]

That's pretty much how I feel about so much different types. It's ridiculous, and an army certainly didn't have so many distinctions. Also, about support units, it's rare that a unit had only artillery or only anti tank, etc, and it should be a mix.

Yeah, more generic support brigades with composition between ART, AT, AA etc decided by doctrines or something plox.

 

[Kriegsspieler]

This level of specificity in battalion mission and specificity raises a couple of questions to me.
First, although it would be unreasonable to expect the vanilla game to provide the level of detail suggested by the OP, might it be possible for a post-release mod to take it on? And if so, would such a "battalion mod" be able to provide only historical flavor in their names, or might it also be possible to mod in strength/combat/equipment/experience details that might make the battalions more than just some cool names?

 

[Centurion1973]

Amphibious Armor Bat

hahahahahahaha

 

[Beagá]

As someone who really hated Black ICE approach, NO to the OP.

Vanilla HOI 3 had too few brigades, yes, but I wouldn´t put what the OP asked in anything that isn´t a mod.