Pendraken Miniatures Forum

Pendraken Rules! => Blitzkrieg Commander IV => Topic started by: Timecommander on 20 December 2022, 12:23:16 PM

Title: Unit size, not bases
Post by: Timecommander on 20 December 2022, 12:23:16 PM
At our club we use both Rapid Fire and Blitzkrieg Commander, for the latter we use 10mm Russians and Germans.  Our organisation is based mainly on the Rapid Fire books which would give a typical Russian battalion strength of 24 infantry plus support units, Germans are similar.  I can't find any references to battalion sizes in the rules, only platoon's, very American. As each base can take 6 casualties we could just use 4 companies to represent a battalion, what do other readers do and where do you get your organisational information from
Title: Re: Unit size, not bases
Post by: Lord Kermit of Birkenhead on 20 December 2022, 12:56:17 PM
1st Welcome. The Rapid fire stuff is very specific for Rapid fire. The higher structure is OK, it gives the number of Companies but not no of Platoons. For BKC normally one pbase is a platoon. This Gives - as a generalisation :-

Soviet - BHQ (command base) 3 Companies - 3 Infantry Bases 1 SFMG base, 1 Support Company 1 37/45mm ATG,
         1 or 2 MG bases, 1 82mm Mortar base

2 or 3 (3 Offical) make up a Regiment which adds 3 AT platoons, and a 76mm Infantry gun battery. The guns were replaced by 120mm mortars later on.

German - There are several Btn organisations, but all have 3 companies of 3 platoons and a support 
         platoon with a support company. Rgts had 3 Btn initally by 43-4 they had dropped to 2 btn.
Title: Re: Unit size, not bases
Post by: steve_holmes_11 on 20 December 2022, 01:51:04 PM
I may have misunderstood the question.
One of the best sources for WW2 organisations was Gary Kennedy's "Bayonetstrength" site.
The original which included formations up to division size (and Japanese) was lost when his hosting service dissolved.

The current site is a lot smaller, but has great detail of battalion forces for British, German, US and Soviet armies.

https://www.bayonetstrength.uk/ (https://www.bayonetstrength.uk/)

There's a breakdown of the battalion to platoon level.
This is an excellent top level view.

This is followed by details of the title, rank and equipment of each man.
This lets you know which solder (officially) carries the grenade discharger.
You may find details of the official issue of telephone cable (in kilometers) to a company or battalion.
It also provides a breakdown of platoons into squads and sections.


One of the site's great strengths is in tracking al the major (and some very minor) amendments at battalion level and below.
For example there are ten separate Soviet rifle battalion organisations from 1941 to 1945.


Title: Re: Unit size, not bases
Post by: Ithoriel on 20 December 2022, 02:18:10 PM
Organisation comes in part from half a century or so of hoovering up info from any military history book I could lay my hands on, supplemented by suggestions from various wargames rules/ scenario sources and online TO&E info like bayonetstrength, already mentioned.

Below is a picture of my 1943-ish German army as of the 2014 painting competition. The lead component has grown since, the painted portion not so much :(

It is very similar to Lord Kermit's suggestion.

One Heer infantry battalion moving and dug in, one Engineer company moving and dug in, one tank battalion, an assault gun battalion, AT and howitzer artillery, command, FAO, FOO.

(https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img922/2223/ficjS5.jpg)

Title: Re: Unit size, not bases
Post by: sultanbev on 20 December 2022, 02:25:30 PM
That's weird, my post with links disappeared  :-\
For actual organisations:
Anyways. I also recommend the BayonetStrength website.

Another excellent source is the Leo Niehorster one
http://www.niehorster.org/000_admin/000oob.htm

And there is the massive Nafziger collection
https://cgsc.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15040coll6

and you might find some of interest, including BKC lists, in the MicroMark collection over at the Wargames Vault, which I have permission to link to in Pendraken forums:

https://www.wargamevault.com/browse/pub/3426/MicroMark-Army-Lists

Mark
Title: Re: Unit size, not bases
Post by: fred. on 20 December 2022, 06:14:53 PM
The rapid fire figure count stuff - its a bit odd, quite how 8 figs represent a company of 3 platoons...

I've found the pictures for RF pretty useful and tally more with typical organisations. 

I've drawn some pictograms of platoon level organisations for BKC 
British http://www.kerynne.com/games/BritishInfantryBttnTOE.html
German http://www.kerynne.com/games/GermanRegt.html