Soviet Machine Gun Platoon

[jony663]

There was a post on the Yahoo group, I believe, for a beta test of a Soviet Machine Gun platoon. I thought I saved it but now that I am looking for it I cannot find it. Can anyone offer me help in finding this email or blog post?

Thank you
Jon

[Seret]

I wrote that list, check the link to my blog below.

[jony663]

Thank you
Looking forward to give them a try with the Far East Border troops.
Jon

[Seret]

Excellent. I look forward to hearing of your attempts to stop a human wave armed only with gum.

Seriously though, they can be difficult to use effectively. The bunker upgrade fit the Maxims is a good idea, the 3-man crews are pretty vulnerable otherwise. They'll also struggle against large low-quality enemies, particularly in games like the Probe where the small size of the unit can make it difficult to cover all the angles. The unit needs a decent amount of support points to beef up the small core platoon a bit.

[Truscott Trotter]

This gives you some idea of the larger formation and support
http://fowlists.blogspot.com.au/2015/05 ... yetno.html
It appears there was some integral infantry with LMG and rifle but fairly minmimal

[Seret]

Not integral, but infantry regiments were sometimes attached. Ditto sappers, etc. In CoC an infantry section is a good choice to give your defence some flexibility.

[Truscott Trotter]

Hmm BF are normally pretty good at their research - when I have time will look into more detailed research
Have you got any links to TO&E's Seret?

[Seret]

Sure, here you go:

Machine Gun Battalion TO&E

As you can see, the Fortified Region MG Bn is a strange beastie. I can understand why Battlefront included infantry and tanks in their list, it's to make it more playable by including some manoeuvre troops. I did think hard about allowing armour such as assault guns on the support list, but in the end decided to leave it as a mix of infantry and static heavy weapons. CoC's deployment mechanic makes that a viable option, as you've got a lot more flexibility about where you put static units than most rule systems, and the infantry are there if you want a mobile reserve.

[batesmotel34]

Looking at your TOE, it might make more sense to model the platoon as four MG teams, each with its own JL plus crew, sort of like having a battery of guns each with team and crew. The TOE doesn't seem to imply any section/squad structure and four teams with JL would seem more like an artillery battery organization for an MG artillery formation.

Chris

[Arlequín]

I think Seret has the sub-platoon organisation correct, unless they were grouped into sections by type of weapon that is (which I doubt). Where you have four weapons and six NCOs, the inference is that they would be grouped into two sections of two teams each. The later re-structuring into four individual teams probably still gave a MMG NCO 'rank' over the one in a DP team; they just seem to have dispensed with the section leader position making it leaner.

The lack of manpower would make a nonsense of having a JL for each gun and push up the FR rating into the bargain. I know nothing about Soviet fortifications, but I imagine they were positioned to be mutually supporting and the DPs provided security for the 'blind sides' of each pair of positions. A single JL for each section position seems quite adequate to me.