Assault Pioneers in QB

[7thGalaxy]

I've been playing around with Brits in QB and have noticed a slight oddity - I seem to get a disproportionate amount of assualt pioneers - what settings should I use to get normal infantry?

Cheers!

[Elmar Bijlsma]

A complete guess but are you perhaps trying to have Tiny battle sizes?

It could be that the system that decides which units you get can put together a force small enough only if the infantry are pioneers.

[7thGalaxy]

Not always tiny - sometimes small or medium battles throw them out too.

[Kat Johnston]

I'm going to look into this - watch this space.

[Kat Johnston]

Okay, I've been looking at QBs with the force set to BRITISH - INFANTRY - LIGHT, MEDIUM OR HEAVY INFANTRY, QUALITY EXCELLENT, first impressions are:

1) You get an erratic force power on Tiny battles. I really wouldn't recommend them if you want balance. One time you might get a Recce platoon with a dozen Jackals, the next you might get three TUMs and a couple of snipers. ^^

2) If you pick a Medium battle with the settings above, you are likely to get at least a Rifle platoon and possibly a whole Rifle company. You're also likely to get a bunch of light vehicles of one sort or another, snipers, and Javelin teams. You're quite likely to get engineers and less likely to get assault pioneers.

3) You get bugger all by way of antitank firepower unless you get a Javelin team, which is not guaranteed even with a Medium size battle.

4) For some reason you're quite likely to get a bunch of dismounted vehicles, with no crew visible. I'm not sure what's going on there!

I'm going to do some more testing with mech infantry and armoured infantry settings, but I've run out of tea and Swedish electronica, so will have a break for a bit.

[Kat Johnston]

I've tried QBs with the force set to BRITISH - MECH INFANTRY - MEDIUM OR HEAVY INFANTRY, QUALITY EXCELLENT, first impressions:

1) You get a more regular force power on Tiny battles. Generally you get a mech platoon of some kind in Bulldogs and Spartans.

2) If you pick a Medium battle, you are likely to get a mech platoon (engineer, assault pioneer, rifle, firepower support, antitank, sniper) of some kind, possibly even a mech Rifle company. You are very likely to get a reconnaisance group with a bunch of Scimitars. Because force size and battle size are tied together, these will be operating at short range. Basically, it's distressingly likely that a significant portion of the force you get will be very difficult to employ.

3) As per ordinary Infantry, you're not guaranteed any antitank firepower unless you get a Javelin team. I think I'm right to say that an equivalent Syrian force would be guaranteed to have antitank firepower from their BMPs.

[7thGalaxy]

So my experiance with constantly getting engineers is just bad luck then? Not that they can't be useful - I was just curious as to why they kept turning up!

[Kat Johnston]

It certainly seems that for Medium sized battles, there's no bias towards Engineers and Pioneers, you're more likely to get a Rifle platoon. I'm not sure about the Tiny battles though, I think Elmar is right, there are some combinations of battle size and force which favour certain units. For instance I tried a dozen Tiny battles with Infantry - Light Infantry and when it did give me a dismounted platoon, they were Pioneers only - when I tried with Medium Infantry I got Pioneers or Engineers, when I tried with Heavy Infantry I got Pioneers, Engineers or Rifle. It would need more extensive checking to be really certain. I've looked in the scenario editor but I can't see how to easily compare the forces available there with what a given battle size chooses.

[Kat Johnston]

And to finish up the infantry, I tried BRITISH - ARMOURED INFANTRY - HEAVY INFANTRY, QUALITY EXCELLENT, impressions:

1) For Tiny battles, you get an armoured platoon, in appropriate vehicles. Antitank or Rifle in Warriors, Engineer or Assault Pioneer in Bulldogs. Nice and simple and predictable!

2) For a Medium battle, you may also get the dreaded Scimitar reconnaissance group, or a Sniper or Javelin team (distinct from an Antitank platoon) in Warriors, or an extra platoon or two as above.

3) There's still no guarantee you'll get serious antitank capability.

(edit - I was wrong about Syrian mech infantry necessarily getting AT weapons, but I think the chances are better.)