Greetings

A question asked in another thread made me consider how many of my (10mm) forces are raised for an order of battle (or more than one):

1.  Seven Years War:  French and Allied with named units etc planned for all phases - the result is a bit of a mix across the 1757-62 spectrum but all units participated. 
2.  Napoleonic: Austrian part of Hiller's V/VI Corps and II Reserve Corps April 1809 with plans for later reinforcements to cover elements of these corps through July 1809
3.  Franco-Bavarian: Elements of Massena's IV Corps plus of Wrede's Bavarian division and supports
4.  Franco-Prussian: Frossard's II Corps and v Alvensleben's III Corps in both cases with supports.
5.  WWI: Imperial and Turkish - forces around Qurna 1914
6.  WWI: Russian -just starting and not sure where ending up so currently just an unnamed supported Rifle Brigade
7.  WWII: Western Desert elements of 7 Armoured Division to cover June 1940-February 1941 (and then later); will be reinforced by elements of 4 Indian Division
8.  WWII: Ostfront: elements of 7 Guards Army (mainly a rifle regiment of 78 GRD and supporting armour) and of Armee Group Kempf July 1943 (mainly 7 Pz - also used for 6 and 9 PzD) with a few other units from neighbouring forces

Regards

Edward

Sounds remarkably like mine, Edward. I must confess that I have, on occasion, diverged from the strict OoB in order to include "interesting" units. However:

ECW:   Mainly based on Marston Moor, with additions.*

WSS: Painted for Blenheim - our 2000 convention game. Now with the addition of a whole raft of Imperials taken from the north Italy OoB.+

SYW: Prussians and French originally taken from the Rossbach list, but subsequently added to. Austrians, Hanoverians and Brunswickers from various lists.*

Napoleonics: Mainly adapted from the 1813 OoB for the Grande Armee and the Army of Silesia.*

Franco-Austrian 1859: Austrian V Corps and French II Corps, unit for unit.+

Austro-Prussian 1866: Prussian 1st Division, Saxon 2nd Infantry Division, Austrian brigades Kreysern, Fragnern and Schindlocker. ditto.+

WW1: German 35th Infantry Division. Russian 4th Infantry Division (incomplete), ditto.*

WW2: Barbarossa: 3 and 4 Panzer Divisions. Soviets from a variety of units. **
          Western Desert: British 10th Armoured Division, German 21 Panzer Division **
          Kursk: Das Reich Panzergrenadier Division (part) Soviet 5th Guards Tank Army (part) +

1985:   Soviet 21st Guards Motor Rifle Division. Elements of U.S. 11th Black Horse Cavalry and 2nd Armored Division. **

* 15mm         ** 1/300th       + 10mm

Greetings

If one goes outside 10mm the list gets more extensive :-)

Regards

Edward

Yep, doesn't include renassaisance (no OoBs), ships or aircraft.

Later Imperial Roman, Valens at Adrianople in 15mm, Garrison of Britain c400 in 10mm

Scots at Bannockburn in 15mm

English at Agincourt 25mm

Parliamentry forces for Battle of Montgomery 1644, 25mm

Maximillian French and Mexicans 1864 Pueba 15mm

Saxon Army 1866 10mm

1870 French 2, 6 part 1 and the Guard Corps , plus associated cavalry. 10mm
Prussian III, 1st Division VIII, X Corps. Wurrtembergers, Hessian Divisions, Bavarian 1st Corps and all attached artillery and cavalry for the above forces.

Pony Wars American Infantry 15mm

1914 British 6th Division and German 17th Divisions. 15mm

Battle of the River Plate both sides 1939 1:3000
British Home fleet, Battle of North Cape Dec 26th 1943
1:3000

WWII PLANES British, Russian, Finnish 1:600


5/RTR outside Abbeville summer 1940
1/KSLI anzio Italy 1944 15mm
2/KSLI Normandy DDay 1944 15mm
Kelly's Heroes Sept 1944

Football War 1969 planes 1:600 (both sides)

Falklands forces. Modern 10mm
Falklands Argentine airplanes 1:600
British modern airplanes 1:600
Soviet Planes modern 1:600


There are about two dozen extra armies on this which are either generic (Marian Roman, WWII Germans) where you cannot be that accurate or the details don't exist.

I tend to go with fictional units built to historical "average" OOB's

Thus, for example, my 1943 Eastern Front Germans are elements of 28th Panzer Division - a little known unit who's exploits are lost to history due to confusion with the other (real and historical) 28th division - 28th Jäger Division

I tend to go for TOE based forces, the units tend to end up including more 'odd' bits that way than if I try and make something up.

From what I've seen so far here this is apparently not the case for a number of forum members 

I like your thinking Sir.  Much my preferred method too.  For medieval and renaissance I read as many different accounts as possible of an action, then make up retinues for each of the nobs who gets mentioned plus the usual levies and mercenaries.

Greetings

Where forces are smaller I will generally build based on unit TO&Es to reasonable campaign strength - some examples from my in progress 15mm WW2 forces (which do for 1:1 and 1;£ish Battlefront WW2) are:

(a) British late war infantry battalion (BF WW2) [rifle company with extra platoon for 1:1 plus assets] representing 7 Hampshires or indeed any of the battalions in 43 (Wessex) Infantry Division, together with AT Battery RA (choice of 6pdr, 17pdr or M10 SP), armoured squadron (Sherwood Rangers), tank squadron (A 9 RTR), plus specialised armour. 

(b) German SS late war panzergrenadier battalion (mot) (BF WW2) [company for 1:1 plus assets] representing II/SS-Pz-Gren-Rgt.22 with 5. and 7. kp SS-Pz-Rgt.10 (Pzkw IV and StuG III respectively) and support elements [I'm not wild about portraying the SS but it's difficult not to have them if using 43 (Wessex) as they came across SS-Pz-Div.10 at Hill 112, Mount Pincon and in Op Market Garden.  They can also stand in for Kursk if one ignores some of the later pea-dot camo.

(c) German mid-late war grenadier battalion (BF WW2) [again company 1:1] representing mainly a battalion of Inf-Div.326 or 84. 

(d) Gurkha battalion 1944-45 Burma representing 4/8th Gurkha Rifles with attached armour (Gordons)

In 10mm the stands tend to be platoons but I try to make sure what I build was present or at least available.  I am building an OB document for Operation Battleaxe (June 1941) for future reference using divisional and regimental histories and (in due course) war diaries. 

Regards

Edward

I tend to make a generic army/battlegroup that can be used over a good period of a conflict. So for example my British infantry or German Fallschirmjager can be used from '39-'45, just by adding on appropriate support units. With regards the Brits they are most likely to be used as part of 129th Brigade, 43rd Wessex Division, due to a lot of the battalions being local to Bristol. Always nice to have bit of background for your units.