Hey Designers : How About BIG Battles

[Matt W]

Vince:

I started to look at this issue previously. Certainly we could be looking at divisional battles. The frontages of German and British battalions in defense were roughly 10-11 hexes (i.e. a short side of a board). Doctrine called for two battalions to be engaged with one in reserve. Thus a typical divisional battle would have one division covering a four to five board width, with four battalions in the front line, two in close reserve and three in a more removed position. Soviet small unit frontages were similar but their larger units tended to cover wider frontages by reducing the reserves available.

Attack frontages were 1/2 that. So for a large combat I would expect to have an infantry and armored division (or two infantry divisions) attacking an infantry division with some support on a 12-15 board set (4-5 short sides on the "front" and three long boards deep). After determiing that such a scenario was physically barely within possibility I found that I did have enough units to put together such forces. I started to look at possibilities and thought that Brody for Army Group South might be a good place to start.

Then I stalled out.

Most of the "battles" at Brody were far more extensive than this in terms of geography. The "frontages" only hold in set piece battles of which Kursk is one of the more representative and is well represented at the battalion and regiment level already. It seemed as though much of what we were looking at for interesting situations involved substantial movement and smalelr unit engagements in several locations. This led me to look into the campaigns and the construction of scenarios through movement. I haven't played the Cassino or Normandy campaigns yet and do wonder how they will play out but I dislike the hex capture mechanic.

The real issue is that PG is not really built, at the scenario level, to handle much above regimental battles. Between the FoW mechanic and the free ability to mingle formations there would need to be several modifications to successfully handle the larger battles. In addition, the rear area functions are not well defined in the countermix, etc. So far I like the campaign system for space, maneuver, and scale of engagement as well as the ability of the "commander" to avoid a combat if on reflection it appears to be forlorn.

Having said that, if one is designed I will play it and probably rank the darn thing a 5...