What about Training...

[Night]

What if you could do additional training of troops in SC? with a max gain of 1 full bar of exp.

Many more elite unit's undergo more extensive training and this reflects on thier preformance. Maybe you could gain 1/4 or 1/3 a bar for every month you train, so you have to decide if you need that unit right away at the front, or have some time to get it up a little stronger.

[Edwin P.]

Or perhaps having elite units cost more and starting with 1 bar of experience.

[JerseyJohn]

Night

We had a long thread not long ago on this and a few before that one. The conclusion that was always reached is the game scale prevents it.

Truly elite units -- ghurkas, commandos, rangers, seals, airborne etc. ... are generally formed into small units nowhere near to being a corps or army. The closes such a unit came would have been Paratroops as used at Arnhem, where there were enough of them in the same area to consitute a true corps.

We ran the whole gamut of distinguishing between green, trained, crack, elite, etc.. and concluded that once you started putting 40,000 to over 100,000 men in a single unit the chances of it's being elite nosedived.

I think your idea is good, though. Perhaps extra training could produce standards such as capable and veteran even though the unit hadn't yet been in combat.

[ April 26, 2003, 07:20 PM: Message edited by: JerseyJohn ]

[Edwin P.]

Late in the war Germany started rushing units into combat with minimal training.

To reflect this why not:

A corps type unit with a strength of 5 and reduced action points costing 50MPP that a country could mobilize to hold the line.

[Night]

What about forces such as the SS? or Republicin Guard? These unit's might not have been up to par with spec. ops. like Seals or Spentaz but I believe they were atleast slightly better then the basic army unit.

[Carl G. E. von Mannerheim]

LOL!!

Lets not talk about the 'Republican Guard'

CvM

[JerseyJohn]

Night

The SS units at the start of the war were arguably elite, though they got there through training methods the regular army wouldn't necessarily have considered very useful. As the war went along their main advantage was always having oversized units with the first crack at available equipment. Most of their elite soldiers were gone by the end of 1941, but the overall level was still very high.

During 1942 Himmler began padding the SS with anyone he could find, the idea being to put himself in charge of more fighting men than Goering, who was also branching further into ground units. By 1943 Himmler was trying to rival the regular army and from 1944 onwards the SS, with many divisions by then easily capable of forming corps sized units, bore little resemblance to the original elite band it had been in 1940. Beyond that there was the problem of so many of it's members being sadistic sociopaths who did more to hinder a campaign than help it.

True, they always had some divisions that were either crack or elite right up the end of the war, often stocked with graduated Hitler Youth and from mid-1944 sometimes with actual Hitler Youth -- boys. It's a tough call that can be argued either way.

[Night]

Well that's just the SS, I still think the idea could work.

[JerseyJohn]

Sure it can, it has a lot of merit. The only thing I'm saying is it's nearly impossible to put together tens of thousands of Chindits, Marauders, Commandos, Rangers, etc..

On this scale I don't think we can or should have elite units, but extra training should produce better troops. Have them start off at a higher level of proficiency. Have it cost time and MPPs for their training and establish a maximum level they can attain through training alone.

The US and UK in particular would benefit from being able to train otherwise idle soldiers. Which, in any case, is historically accurate.

[ April 27, 2003, 07:09 AM: Message edited by: JerseyJohn ]