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Squads the size of platoons


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Reading about the Italian squads being "the size of platoons" i was wondering how literally i should take this. A 40 men unit is an awfully big maneuvering unit, even if broken up in smaller "teams".

It sounds interesting enough, i would to play with an "underdog" nation like Italy.

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Italian squads are 20 men. Now, having 20 men in one Combat Mission Squad is obviously ridiculous from a game play perspective. What we've done is made the squad the CM-equivalent of a section, with two squads of 9 men and a HQ of 2 that contains the squad leader.

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A whole lot changes actually. The rifle platoon has two of these squads, and the platoon contains nothing heavier than a few Breda M30 LMGs which have to reload every 20 rounds, and the rest of the small arms almost entirely consist of rifles.

The company doesn't have heavy weapons either. It's just rifles. You have to go to the battalion support company to find HMGs and light mortars. There are also zero radios. None at all. Makes command and control quite interesting.

Combine that with typically lower experience and motivation, and you've got a unit that handles very, very differently from a US or German formation.

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Even with all the men those poor italians are undergunned - with their bolt action rifle and low power bullet, and not a smg in sight. That is, unless they find themselves up against a U.S. all Springfield rifle unit who haven't been issued Garands yet. Then it 20 bolt action rifles versus 11 bolt action rifles... and a B.A.R. ;)

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Hmm, CM:PTO may just have found a new base army to use for the Japanese....

LOL man you are always thinking aren't you? Glad to see it. Sounds like the models for the pixeltruppen are significantly different as well and may hopefully offer more options.

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LOL man you are always thinking aren't you? Glad to see it. Sounds like the models for the pixeltruppen are significantly different as well and may hopefully offer more options.

Face it, BFC is going to do PTO, sometime...after today's news and information, it's clear that their stock is rising, or they are getting really focused, or both. But they are cranking, compared to the long slow build since CMSF came out. CMBN sales must have been very good, and that's good news to me! In the mean time, your mods are really going to spice up CMBN. I already have tried them out, and am building a map for myself. Way cool!

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I think the best way to think of the Italian Squad is a REALLY weak German Rifle Platoon with yet one more level of C2 to attempt to maintain.

Normal C2

Company -> Platoon ->Squad/Team

Italian C2

Company -> Platoon -> Section (real world a Squad) -> Squad/Team (real world a Team)

Even if the Italians had radios, this longer chain of command would present difficulties for players. Trying to get higher level support, for example, now has one more point of failure.

On top of this, the Italians are forced to keep their Squads (size of Platoons, remember) closer together in order to provide effective mutual support. That's because they are armed like WW1 units as well as sized like WW1 units. Volume of fire back in WW1 was achieved by mass of rifles, not rate of fire from automatic weapons. Tactical flexibility in WW1 was therefore far more limited and it's why most nations broke away from this model before the outbreak of WW2. Apparently the Italians didn't get the memo :D

Steve

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Normal C2

Company -> Platoon ->Squad/Team

Italian C2

Company -> Platoon -> Section (real world a Squad) -> Squad/Team (real world a Team)

Given that, as of CMBN, the chain-of-command section of the UI accommodates no more than four levels (from top to bottom: squad > platoon > company > battalion), does the greater number of C2 levels with the Italians mean that the corresponding part of the UI is different in CMFI? Or is the Italians' structure different enough that it actually can fit within the existing four-level UI?

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Even with all the men those poor italians are undergunned - with their bolt action rifle and low power bullet, and not a smg in sight. That is, unless they find themselves up against a U.S. all Springfield rifle unit who haven't been issued Garands yet. Then it 20 bolt action rifles versus 11 bolt action rifles... and a B.A.R. ;)

Does this mean a US squad with Springfields is possible for a unit with a poor equipment rating?

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If I can recover my stuff a friend's supposed to be watching for me (before his life went into the toilet on the other coast), I have the Italian module for Avalon Hill's "Up Front" card game. Frankly, I couldn't believe what I was seeing when I first saw them played. I used to think the Japanese had big squads. Verged on the surreal! I recall a ROW battle in which the fight was so intense my teniente storming a trench actually killed a Brit with his Glisenti pistol. Also, I think it takes brave men to crew an ATG entirely devoid of a gunshield.

Regards,

John Kettler

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