question on unit availability

[tankibanki]

When you browse through http://cmbb.jemian.com/ and look at the infantry units, you can see multiple squads of the same name in the same time period but with differing firepower.

Does anyone know how to explain this?

[Hensworth]

The same squad type can have different weapons compositions.

For example a Fusilier 43 squad can have MP40 SMGs or scrounged PPSh's.

[DREVAK]

Perhaps it shows the same squads with different weaponry (like the Germans sometimes having Russian smgs instead of German ones)? That's the first thing that came to my mind. Perhaps if you pointed out the specific infantry type you were thinking of...

[tankibanki]

yes, I'm aware of that, they show up with different weapons, e.g. the "Fallschirmjäger 41" squad exists in a version with Russian SMGs and with German ones.

I should have asked like this: How does CM handle this? If you select a unit of that type, do you get random selections of units of that name?

[JasonC]

Yes the weapon assignment is random. The big one for the Germans is whether the MG is an MG-34 or an MG-42, with a secondary question whether the SMG guys have the better PPsH or the German MP40s. A squad with MG42s and PPsH can have seriously better total fp than one with MG34 and MP40, particularly at close range. You see it the most at mid war, as early on all the MGs are MG34 and late all of them are MG42. The remaining SMG differences only really matter at point blank range.

[tankibanki]

Thanks for the info.