Small independent combat units

[Insp Herring]

I've been thinking it would be cool to try and make things like corps artillery or the German heavy tank battalions.

But from what I understand, creating a division that was just a single battalion of heavy tanks or a few battalions of artillery would not work because it would have no HP or org. So it would immediately retreat/be destroyed as soon as it joined a battle.

Would adding a MOT or INF or 2 be enough to bulk them up?

Something like "corps artillery brigade 1 INF + 3-4 ART" or "heavy tank battalion 1 MOT + 1-2 HTANK".

 

[Dalwin]

Yes one battalion of any type of infantry should make these units viable. Obviously you are not trying to min/max so no arguments along those lines need to be considered. You could even think of your one infantry unit as support personnel if it feels better that way. Cooks, camp guards, mechanics, whatever it takes, it is not that far fetched of a concept.

 

[Insp Herring]

Yes one battalion of any type of infantry should make these units viable. Obviously you are not trying to min/max so no arguments along those lines need to be considered. You could even think of your one infantry unit as support personnel if it feels better that way. Cooks, camp guards, mechanics, whatever it takes, it is not that far fetched of a concept.

Thanks for the tip. I was a little worried I would spend a bunch of time organising and such, then as soon as battles start I notice that my special units all suck but at least someone else says it should work
You're right that it's just a SP thing for my flavour needs. I think you can put a INF/MOT/MEC in with your "target" units and still keep the feel of it.

 

[Sir Garnet]

The combat mechanics do not favor units with expensive equipment and no warm bodies to provide security and get in harm's way, but even a battalion on the map keeps enemies from walking (or parachuting) in and peacefully occupying the location. There will at least be a token fight.

 

[hkrommel]

Thanks for the tip. I was a little worried I would spend a bunch of time organising and such, then as soon as battles start I notice that my special units all suck but at least someone else says it should work
You're right that it's just a SP thing for my flavour needs. I think you can put a INF/MOT/MEC in with your "target" units and still keep the feel of it.

Yeah as a general rule you don't want to go under brigade strength because of the way the mechanics work, but adding in light tanks or infantry and thinking of them as support staff and armored recon should help a bit.

 

[War Emblem]

Tiger Battalions had 45 Tigers historically. In game terms a fairly realistic Tiger Battalion would be:

2xTigers, 1xMOT (Wehrmacht) or 1x MECH (SS). You probably don't have the ORG to add many attachments so I would just do recon. You could add AA as by late war all Tigers battalions had mobile AA with them.

For a slightly more effective historical unit you could build Kampfgruppes. Let's envision this as a Kampfgruppe featuring the 501st Schwere Panzer Abeilung
2x Tigers, 1x MOT, 3xINF, 1xMSPA - support AA, ENG, RECON. Here we have the 501st with some Panzer Grenadiers (with their AA and Recon company) supporting a brigade of infantry (and their ENG). Division has given you an attachment of StuH42s to help out.

 

[Sir Garnet]

Recon bns would be a fairly practical and expendable unit in the field for scouting and for raiding open space behind enemy lines. but probably mounted for speed - cavalry, motorized, or mech. Annoying, to be sure, particularly as flipping provinces obstructs enemy supply and strategic redeployments. .

 

[War Emblem]

Indeed, the German Aufklarungsabteilung would be another good historical example of a small independent unit. These are actually my favorite units to play in war games at a small scale because they have all sorts of cool units attached to them - the BMW R75s, Schwimmwagons, armored cars and half tracks. Unfortunately there are no armored cars in this version of HOI but we could still make a respectable model of a Aufklarungs unit.

2xMECH, 2x Light Tank, add Recon, AT.

Our Mech units represent our infantry companies mounted in Sd Kfz 250 half tracks. These two units give us the basis of a fairly decent defense. While we can't model the 231, 222 or Puma armored cars we can call them light tanks while being in the ball park of history. The Aufklarungs did use light tanks and frankly the later armored cars performed the role of light tanks. The attachment of recon is obvious and while Aufklarungs weren't supposed to take on enemy armor it was inevitable that they clashed with it being the tip of the spear for the Panzer divisions so all groups were equipped with AT companies of PAK 40s. A radio would likely be in order as well but I am not sure we would have the ORG to include one nor would it give us many benefits with this size of unit so I would say skip it.

 

[safe-keeper]

Would be cool if it was possible to field such units, though, if for example you could designate a division to be a "Support unit", which didn't participate directly in combat by taking up combat width, but just bolstered the strength of the units already fighting.

 

[Insp Herring]

It's only just 1940 in my latest Germany game but here's what I'm planning so far.

Assault gun battalion (StuG) - 1 MTD, 1 MSPART, 1 MEC
Heavy tank destroyer battalion (Elefant) - 1 HTD, 1 HSPART, 1 MEC
Heavy tank battalion (Tiger) - 2 HTANK, 1 MEC

I would use 1 each of TD and SPART because German vehicles like Elefant and StuG were effective and were used for both roles.
Maybe even add more, like an extra SPART just to give them some more impact.

The MEC provides infantry 'base' but keeps hardness as high as possible.
For support, probably maintenance > recon > engineers > AA in that order (whether they get them all or not)