Concerning pick lists

[Imp]

Firstly will admit being lazy as have little idea on how work but help with the following please.
Firstly the Guide mentions
"2) Never alter the core dates of an existing Camo Workshop OOB formation - by all means, extend it back or forward, but never shrink the time band it is available for."
I take this to mean any existing formation.

What I want to do is make a second Russian OOB which is less MBT intensive picking more formations
122 BTR Co + Tank Platoon
126 BMP Co + Tank Platoon
186 Light APC Co + CS tanks
My thoughts were to copy these formations to say
400/401 MBT Co
Also Possibly
6 Rifle Co
89 Rifle Co B
I would leave MBT platoons as is so could still pick.
Am I on the right path or do you have any suggestions for which formations to replace so it uses these as the basis for its force more frequently.
If possible still letting it throw out a more traditional force mix from time to time
Thanks & realise I will have to test
　

[Suhiir]

Creating new formations will not add them to the list the AI picks from - you can - of course manually choose them however.

If you want them to be available for the AI to choose you have basically two choices.

1) Create a new picklist
2) Modify the existing formations

Neither of these is easy or for the feint of heart.
And it's VERY VERY easy to make a minor mistake and totally screw the pooch.

This help at all?

[Imp]

Suhiir
1) I have no idea where the picklist is or even how to access it let alone change it.
2) This was my idea changing formations 400/401 to the ones I listed then when it picks them I will instead get a Mech Co with tanks.
Or at least thats what I think but really unsure hence why I am asking before playing about.
On making a mistake, yep quite capable of doing that after all each unit probably has 20+ odd details to be inputed. Multiply that by all the units in the game now make formations & its surprisng its not full of them.

[Suhiir]

If you alter existing formations the AI will in fact select your new formations during the time period in question...assuming that formation is in the existing pick list.

If you alter the start or end date of those formations the AI may or may not select them during the earlier start date ot later end date period (you'd have to look at the pick list or run experiments to be sure).

The total point cost of your new formations will effect the AI's force selection in that if it's more expensive it'll have less points available for the rest of its forces and if less expensive it'll have more.

Also last time I looked the Russian OOB had mixed mech + tank formations in it already.
However I can't say offhand if these are selectable by the AI or just included for manual selection by players.

This help or add to the confusion?