Scenario: What to do with the A0 Unit

[shahadi]

What to do with the A0 unit when your scenario is of company size or lower. I use my A0 unit as the Hq commander, whether it is a squad, platoon, or company. I simply change the unit name in the Editor, and reduce the number of men accordingly.

To proceed, in the purchase screen, I buy the headquarters unit as section or a formation. In a USMC rifle company, I’d purchase my sniper, mpad section, and 60mm mortar section, or I’d create a formation in MobHack containing those units.

There is a compelling argument to keep the A0 in the rear and someplace “safe.” Most often, you’d find the A0 in the rear with AA and FA guns, or just someplace seemingly detached from the battle. This is done to preserve the force effectiveness in the game. How the units recover from suppression for example is impacted by the presence of the A0, how quickly they route and take damage is affected by the A0. I maintain, along with other designers, that placing the A0 in a fight is what happens in the world.

Even with my scenarios of battalion size, I may put the A0 right in the fight surveying the battle as a commander ought too. In armor fights, he is definitely up front.

I’m reminded of what gingertanker shared in a post about one of his duty assignments. He said something to this effect: “I was the driving the battalion co… it was a bullet magnet.”

What to do with the A0, give that unit an appropriate role in the scenario is what I say.

[Suhiir]

I also tend to use A0 as the command unit, whatever size scenario I'm playing.

[Imp]

Company size you can eliminate the Company Co & use the HQ unit instead.
Anything much bigger & the HQ is you, the guy in the tent co-ordinating the battle & your link to the rest of your forces like arty.
Most of the time he stays well out of the battle though he might well send his 2nd up to the front to give him a clearer picture.
With the God mode we have that's already modelled.

[shahadi]

Here is the USMC Rifle Squad organization. Suhiir has done a great job putting together the USMC OOB as evidenced from the squad organization graphic.

I would add one change in adapting this org in our game. I would increase the number of men in the lead unit from four to five to similar the Squad Leader in the Rifle Squad formation. And, I would change the weapons depending on the mission, and that kinda goes without saying.

[Suhiir]

Ummm ... if you're talking about the Platoon(FT) and Squad(FT) formations you'll see they're made up of one 5-man and two 4-man Fireteams... 13-men. And from 1962-1970ish there's another man added to the squads with an M79 GL ... 14-men. Also the standard Rifle Squad is 14-man during this period.

[shahadi]

Originally Posted by Suhiir

Ummm ... if you're talking about the Platoon(FT) and Squad(FT) formations you'll see they're made up of one 5-man and two 4-man Fireteams... 13-men.

Yeah, I was looking at the Rifle Plt(FT) formation #332 where the unit 1 is #784 a unit class 122 with 4 men. The Rifle Sqd(FT) is formation #334 with the lead unit #825 with 5 men and unit #784 with 4 men with the third fire team another #784, making a squad of 13 guys.

[Suhiir]

Yeah the Platoon HQ unit is 4-man (CO, Plt Sgt, radioman, corpsman).

[shahadi]

Originally Posted by Suhiir

Yeah the Platoon HQ unit is 4-man (CO, Plt Sgt, radioman, corpsman).

Good point. Are not the corpsmen normally attached from battalion at the company level, although, depending on the mission, corpsman may of course be attached at the platoon level.

On this we agree, that most students of the scenario process will put the A0 unit in the fight.

[Suhiir]

Depends.
In peacetime usually corpsmen are at company level because there's not that much need for them. I wartime they tend to be at platoon level for obvious reasons.

During Gulf I the MP Company I was with at the time had 3 Corpsmen attached, not quite enough for one per platoon but it's not like USMC MPs actually deploy/operate as platoons, usually squads, one per infantry battalion.

[shahadi]

In the game, the platoon hq roles that I use in the scenarios are as follows:

Platoon Hq

• Platoon CO
• Platoon Sergeant
• Platoon Guide
• Messenger

or,
Platoon Hq

• Platoon CO
• Platoon Sergeant
• Platoon Messenger

(absent the Platoon Guide or Assistant Platoon Sergeant)

Really, the point is the platoon hq is crewed by four or three if you want to edit the unit in the Editor. In other situations, depending on type of platoon, you may want to have five guys with one being a Messenger/Driver...but you won't have to do that as the vehicle the messenger is to drive will have a crew in the game, or if you're building an Anti-Armor Pl, you may want to make the Platoon Hq three guys: Platoon CO, Platoon Sergeant, and Messenger/Driver guy.

For example, the Sniper Platoon Hq of the Weapons Co may only have two guys, the Platoon CO and the Platoon Sergeant, commanding up to 24 guys in 2 sections of 2 teams per section, six Marines per team.

I normally do not field a separate Weapons Co or Platoon for ease of gameplay (so players don't have to cross-attach in the Editor.) But, if you wanted too, then it would be welcomed as well.

I study the scenarios by Ulf Lundstrom, trying to improve my own designs.