Infantry - What Do You pick?

[Charles22]

It has occured to me that when discussing long campaign forces we generally talk about how much infsntry we picked, but never about what kind, at least not to the degree that we mention what they do. IOW, what do you desire them to carry into battle?

For my part, if I can get it, I like to reflect in my infantry, just what my entire core force represents, a force which can at least handle anything the AI can throw up against it. What this means, for me, is that generally they not only have some sort of LMG, but also have a dependable anti-tank weapon. If that anti-tank weapon can also double for being very useful against infantry, such as flamethrowers, so much the better. I also like the team to have "2" LMG's if possible, but this is very rare. The German Brandenburgers, for example, have 2 LMG's and they can be quite devastating at times. You're talking a mere 3 unit platoon with the LMG firepower of double their size and their satchel charge equipment makes them very hard to beat. Their being elite isn't terribly important to me, however it's another factor that helps in their effectiveness, but they are terribly expensive. The Brandenburgers, like a lot of infantry types also have a lot of weapons versatility, for example, they could use sniper rifles as their 4th weapon slot instead of satchel charges if you wanted to.

You will see something of the extremes in my force. I will carry the absolute best German infantry in the Brandenburgers, but also the worst which are the Schgerungs or whatever they're called. The same goes for equipment the forces will carry. I don't think it makes for terribly interesting play if my entire force is equipped to the hilt, so some won't have the best equipment just for some struggling sake.

So my core infantry basically consists of 2-4 basic or worse infantry, 2 engineer platoons (one platoon with flamethrowers, the other more anti-infantry, with 2 rifles per squad), 1-2 elite infantry (in the German sense 1 Brandenburger and 1 SS inf platoons [possibly substituting mountain, ski, or pnzrgrndr for SS]). I don't think mentioning scouts, unless one "fights" with them a great deal, is really worthy of discussion here.

Also, I almost never will have them equipped with whatever grenade launcher they may have available. Not only because I don't have much call for using them due to their lack of range (I fight quite a lot of battles either VERY close or far, such that the intermediate range fo the grenade launcher is hardly ever used) but also because they're not very effective, though for what little I have used them in the latest campaign, they do seem fairly effective. The fact that grenade launchers are often in the 3rd or 4th weapons slot aften makes them fairly useless as well, just because if you are close enough to use them, then a good deal of the time the target is lost before that weapon fires, due to the prior guns knocking the target into retreat.

So my ideal infantry, not that I would equip them all that way anyway, would be 1 rifle, 2 LMG's, and a flamthrower. Later, it's probably better to substitute 1 LMG for a bazooka type weapon, but for the units I want to be equipped to the hilt, that is my idea of their best equipment.

One last little thing about engineers. I'm not too sure what every country carries, but most (excepting the USSR marine engineers) engineers don't come with LMG's, so you suffer generally against infantry with engineers, however, in the German case anyway, they can come with one unit that has 3 LMG's, largely making up for the lack of anti-personnal ability in the platoon.

I also will carry a sniper; the best I can get. I would be curious to hear if people who use sniper rifles in regular infantry, which are usually in the 4th weapon slot, have much success with them, at least more than you typically get out of an LMG. They at least would extend infantry range, but they don't have half the effectiveness of the really concentrated sniper unit, due to not having the fire control and range finder ratings of any worth.