Morale and experience

[Kiwikkiwik]

The game gives standard infantry an Experience (E) and Morale (M) value and then adds Roughly 10 to 15 points for an elite force. Here is an alternative way to allocate these values, take paratroopers as an example.

Russian 41 infantry is E 55 M 55 paratroopers are plus 10 for ME gives 65 65.
German 41 infantry is 75 75 paratroops are plus 10 for ME gives 85 85.
Were the Russian paratroopers really that bad? maybe they should also be 85 85? or thereabouts, and the Russian regular infantry stays at 55 55?
So maybe there is no need to always keep the gap between regular and elites to around 10 to 15 points. Maybe the difference between elites and regulars could be much higher in some armies, 30 in this Russian example.
Or much lower, maybe the German paratroops were only 5 points better than the regular infantry? because the German regulars had been brought to a very unusually high level of ME early in the war.

It is a much more responsible job to be in charge of an AT gun or artillery piece than a rifle, most men will rise to this type of responsibility and perform better. As Napolean said, Leave the artillerymen alone they are an obstinate (Brave) lot.
I notice that in low ME nations the rate of fire of many quick fire weapons like small artillery pieces is very low, These weapons are simple to use, so maybe low ME Nations artillery units could have a higher ME rating to make up for this. After all the espirit de corps in the artillery is usually of a good level maybe better than the infantry. Even Italian gunners in the desert sometimes died by their guns even though they had no hope of penetrating the tanks overrunning them. Maybe overall the gunners could also have a roughly equal ME level across nations? maybe something like a ME bonus of +10 for 55 ME nations gunners, +5 for 65 ME nations gunners, +0 for 75 ME nations gunners? sort of a law of diminishing returns.

Specifically, if you read panzertruppen by Thomas Jentz it is pretty remarkable how highly trained the early german tankers were, they spent a lot of time actually fighting and recon outside of their tamks. I think early war German tank crews might have a ME bonus up until that force was rapidly expanded.

I also think that when a unit is suppressed it might be an improvement if it only has its number of shots reduced but not the chance to hit (accuracy) of its weapons. After all they are pinned not panicked, so surely it would be OK if those that do shoot still took proper aim? Accuracy will decrease anyway when/if they run away
I think this change would discourage my opponents overuse of Z fire. Z fire would be les effective.
It would also discourage my opponents usual method of dropping one turn of light artillery on my infantry which are then largely unable to defend themselves, and get overrun next turn, With no chance to hit penalty for suppression it should take a few more turns of shelling to nuetralise infantry.

If this post generates any discussion it is important to consider that some forces got better results because of better equipment, not because of better Morale or Experience.