No unit, even fresh from training, went into combat at full strength. Many units started campaigns at 90% of their authorized strength. Additionally, front line combat elements were often at lower strength than the unit as a whole. Therefore, when planning scenarios and work ing up units, it is more realistic to have units that are weaker than authorized TO&E strength. Since units rarely had full complements, Battalions In Crisis! platoon rosters have ten man squads, even though the actual TO&E may call for twelve or thirteen men in a squad. When setting up a scenario, it will sometimes be quite realistic to have even fewer men than allowed on Battalions In Crisis! platoon rosters. While some supposedly elite units, such as the German SS, tended to have extra weapons, they often had a smaller number of men. This smaller number could be the result of long periods of combat, a willingness to take casualties, or a number of other factors. Units in combat, especially those that are retreating, tend to lose their heavy weapons first. Also, heavy weapons and automatic weapons are often primary targets for an enemy's supporting arms. Since many armies tended to keep their best units in combat, those units may experience the highest casualties and the greatest wastage of equipment. Players and scenario designers should be careful when establishing morale ratings. There is a big difference between elite, professional troops proven in combat (American and some German paratroops or Russian guards, for instance) and fanatic, overequipped units like the SS. Troops on different fronts tended to be equipped differently. One case is the Germans who had more assault rifles on the Russian Front than the Western Front to enable their battered units to deal with the Russian hordes. So, pay careful attention to each morale category as you establish the ratings. For a discussion with examples of actual combat strengths, see the TO&E v Actual Unit Strengths article on the 112th Cavalry unit in this issue. Back to Table of Contents -- Combat Simulation Vol 2 No. 2 Back to Combat Simulation List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1995 by Mike Vogell and Phoenix Military Simulations. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com