GI & Axis personal ammo loads

[John Kettler]

In trying to find the 60 mm mortar squad ammo load (what the squad carries directly with it) to make a point over on the CoC FB page, I found this, which, I believe, can be both useful to putting together scenarios, but also understanding combat accounts when reading about US Army, US Marines, Germans and Japanese troops in action.

https://www.battleorder.org/post/us-ammo-load-ww2

Regards,

John Kettler
 

[fireship4]

Interesting read, thanks.

[Erwin]

Thanks John.  Very helpful as it also outlines how many rounds of a typical German squad would carry.  While most may strive to play "realistically" I suspect we all have the tendency to load our squads with a ridiculous amount of ammo as 1) the ammo ACQUIRE routine is a PITA, and 2) Squads seem to be able to carry a ridiculous amount of ammo with little speed penalty.

[chuckdyke]

1 hour ago, Erwin said:

Thanks John.  Very helpful as it also outlines how many rounds of a typical German squad would carry.  While most may strive to play "realistically" I suspect we all have the tendency to load our squads with a ridiculous amount of ammo as 1) the ammo ACQUIRE routine is a PITA, and 2) Squads seem to be able to carry a ridiculous amount of ammo with little speed penalty.

Why do you think they made 600000 jeeps during the war?

[Splinty]

19 hours ago, Erwin said:

Thanks John.  Very helpful as it also outlines how many rounds of a typical German squad would carry.  While most may strive to play "realistically" I suspect we all have the tendency to load our squads with a ridiculous amount of ammo as 1) the ammo ACQUIRE routine is a PITA, and 2) Squads seem to be able to carry a ridiculous amount of ammo with little speed penalty.

Although we carried as much as we could handle. I always was a good 2 or 3 hundred rounds of 5.56, 3 or 4 more 40mm GL rounds, and 2 grenades over our official ammo loadout. So was every single soldier I served with, in one form or another.

[Erwin]

4 hours ago, Splinty said:

Although we carried as much as we could handle. I always was a good 2 or 3 hundred rounds of 5.56, 3 or 4 more 40mm GL rounds, and 2 grenades over our official ammo loadout. So was every single soldier I served with, in one form or another.

Totally reasonable.  It's when one starts loading up 600 rounds+ each plus AT weapons etc that it gets silly.  But, I do it as I hate the ACQUIRE routine - it can bring the whole game to a halt.  One shouldn't have to split off a min of two men from every single squad just to get more ammo.  Ideally we should be able to ACQUIRE ammo from any other unit (within reason and time penalty). 

[FlemFire]

On 3/2/2021 at 9:33 PM, Erwin said:

Totally reasonable.  It's when one starts loading up 600 rounds+ each plus AT weapons etc that it gets silly.  But, I do it as I hate the ACQUIRE routine - it can bring the whole game to a halt.  One shouldn't have to split off a min of two men from every single squad just to get more ammo.  Ideally we should be able to ACQUIRE ammo from any other unit (within reason and time penalty). 

A "share ammo" button would be nice; something you can toggle on and off as needed. The whole ammo organization in general is a little weird. Sometimes it's a great labor to go and fetch some, other times you can park a carrier nearby and guys magically offload heavy anti-tank missiles into their arms in an instant.

[Erwin]

2 hours ago, Khalerick said:

other times you can park a carrier nearby and guys magically offload heavy anti-tank missiles into their arms in an instant.

Unless its a supply dump units would still have to mount, acquire, then dismount...   I have been wishing for adjacent units to be able to exchange weapons and ammo (within reasonable limits + time penalties).

[JoMac]

On 3/1/2021 at 10:47 PM, Erwin said:

Thanks John.  Very helpful as it also outlines how many rounds of a typical German squad would carry.  While most may strive to play "realistically" I suspect we all have the tendency to load our squads with a ridiculous amount of ammo as 1) the ammo ACQUIRE routine is a PITA, and 2) Squads seem to be able to carry a ridiculous amount of ammo with little speed penalty.

^ THIS ^

I also think Units carry far too many rounds in CM then they should, and another reason I don't like using the 'ACQUIRE' feature...Thou, and at the same token, Units in CM also fire their weapons far too often in comparison (most units only fire when necessary and of opportunity), and tend to use up more Ammo.

 

[FlemFire]

16 hours ago, Erwin said:

Unless its a supply dump units would still have to mount, acquire, then dismount...   I have been wishing for adjacent units to be able to exchange weapons and ammo (within reasonable limits + time penalties).

Might be vehicle-to-vehicle based then because I'm doing a Marines campaign run and can park those carriers next to Javelins and they just stock up instantly.

[Erwin]

8 hours ago, Khalerick said:

Might be vehicle-to-vehicle based then because I'm doing a Marines campaign run and can park those carriers next to Javelins and they just stock up instantly.

It may be that by being close, it appears that there are more Javelins, but what happens when you separate the vehicles by more than 3 action squares?  

[FlemFire]

21 hours ago, Erwin said:

It may be that by being close, it appears that there are more Javelins, but what happens when you separate the vehicles by more than 3 action squares?  

Not sure what you mean, but I'll try to explain how it's been done during the campaign:

I'll put a Javelin team in a spot. They usually carry 2 missiles with them (an inadequate supply for my overkilling mindset).

The Marine carriers typically have a boatload of missiles in them. When the fireteam exhausts their 2 missiles, I'll bring over one of these vehicles and park it. The Javelin team then automatically starts collecting more missiles to shoot. I noticed this on Mission 3 (I think) where you're defending but get vehicular reinforcements. My Javelins were out of ammo, but able to quickly resupply without any seesaw work put in.

I haven't tested this with an empty vehicle, btw, there's always someone in it still driving.

If the vehicle isn't close by, then they don't collect obviously, but I haven't tested at what range they stop doing it; nor have I tested what all ammo resupply is actually taken this way. I think because the Javelin team is dedicated to that sole function it operates like this. I don't think a regular Marine squad with ATG's resupplies in the same way, but again I haven't thoroughly tested it. Might simply be the case the game has somehow assigned the vehicle itself to being an ammo carrier which I suppose makes some sense.