Sunday, December 31, 2006

Too many troops or too few?

Today I made an attempt to organize my troops, sorting out the British WW2 forces to try to create a proper Operation Warboard organization for them. But I find myself with the unusual problem of having too many troops now, rather than too few before. I suppose there's never really a balance of such things.

Yet, in spite of having too many troops, I have way too few of some types, with too many of others.

Useful British/Commonwealth forces available are:

Radios: 1 (only 1 despite having roughly 6-7 boxes worth of troops)
Officers/leader types: 17
Men with binoculars as spotters: 4
Bren guns: 40 (this is, in OWB terms, enough for more than 3 platoons composed solely of Bren guns!)
2-man PIAT teams: 10
2-man Vickers HMG teams: 3
2-man Mortar teams: 6
Other ranks with Sten guns: 16
Other ranks with Thompson SMG: 25
Other ranks with Enfield rifles: 138

In OWB terms, this gives me roughly 1 HMG platoon, 2 mortar platoons, and enough men for over 15 platoons of infantry.

Forces I'm not sure what to do with:

Minesweepers: 6 - useful in some scenarios, certainly, but what do I do with them otherwise? And do I draw troops from other types to fill this into some type of platoon sized unit?

Bagpipers: 4 - These might be useful for a morale boost, but would only fit for certain units

2-man HMG crews without guns: 4 - do I keep these about and look for guns, or dump them?

Men stabbing downward with their bayonets: 13 - These would be fine for dioramas, but kind of odd marching across a wargames table. Why must there be so many of them?

Riflemen in ANZAC Slouch Hats: 10 - My only problem with these is that they're only useful for desert or pacific battles, and I'm not sure whether to try to fill out an Aussie company with the non-slouch hats even though it wouldn't be usable in my European battles, or dump these off to someone who might need them.

Men helping wounded comrades: 2 - again, nice for dioramas, but not so useful for a wargaming table, unless you use casualty markers, which OWB rules don't. Possibility: could be used if evacuating wounded was a victory condition, perhaps relieving a position under fire or emptying a field hospital to avoid capture.

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