What 3 companies should I buy If I want to be as accurate as possible?

[Listy]

Look for the Information Button. In a couple of OOB's they tell you what you should be buying up to some fairly high levels. A prime Example is the East German "border" units.

[Griefbringer]

In general, the core structure for an infantry battalion TOE (Table of Organisation and Equipment) from WWII onwards looks something like the following:


1 Headquarter company
0-1 Combat support company (AKA heavy weapons company)
3-4 Infantry companies (AKA rifle company)

Headquarter company contains administrative, signal, logistical and maintenance elements. While most of these are not displayed in game, ammo carrier section/platoon might present part of the HQ company ammunition platoon. Still, the men of the HQ company do have small arms for defense should the situation get desperate (and thus could be displayed eg. as reserve platoons in scenarios).

Combat support company contains platoons of various heavy weapons, such as mortars, machine-guns and various anti-tank weapons. It might also contain an engineer platoon and/or reconnaissance platoon (though the later might also be found in a HQ company). In battle, these could be held in reserve or deployed to the for to support individual rifle companies.

Infantry companies are your usual line companies, typically containing 3 infantry platoons and 0-1 heavy weapon platoon. Typical battle deployment would involve one of the companies being held in reserve.


Reconnaissance companies are something that you would not normally find in an infantry battalion - they are likely to be higher level elements (eg. part of divisional reconnaissance battalion).

I am afraid I cannot point any specific websites for modern TOEs, but the following website is excellent source for WWII battalion organisation, and would probably form a good guideline for immediate post-WWII period too:

http://www.bayonetstrength.150m.com/

Griefbringer

[Marcello]

Globalsecurity is a good source but there is a lot stuff if you do not know exactly where to look at.
Here is a list of current US Army field manuals.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/milita.../fm/index.html

Some of them deal with battalion/company operations and organization. You can find them using the seach function in your browser (try "company" or "battalion" in the query).
FM 3-21.11 THE SBCT INFANTRY RIFLE COMPANY offers for example a very detailed breakdown of a Stryker brigade from the brigade level down to the single infantryman

http://www.globalsecurity.org/milita...m#sectionii1_5

That being said paper organization is one thing and reality is an other. For a start the practice is to raise ad hoc task forces on the basis of what is needed or available for a specific task. Therefore to make a real world example from the Iraq war a tank company might get attached to a Stryker battalion to stiffen it up.
Then attrition takes its toll.Again in Iraq a tank or two in a platoon might break down and the crews get issued armored cars and are used as infantrymen.
These are only two examples I remember but the point is that the combination of the mix & match system and attrition would produce a wide range of non standard formations.
I would bet for instance that there is not a single pure paper strenght Abrams battalion in the entire iraqi theater.

[narwan]

Maybe these can help. They're postwar battallion TO&E's for the US.

Narwan

[thatguy96]

Narwan, did you compile those? They're very detailed and generally helpful.

I have noticed one nitpick, and also looking through these brings up an interesting set of questions. Firstly the M114A1E1/A2 didn't enter service until 1969 (its listed in the TO&E for 1965 ACAV Squadrons). The 1965 TO&E for units not in Vietnam should be just 4 M114/A1. In Vietnam these were replaced with M113s with the ACAV kit.

Also, the TO&E here notes 2 2-man scout sections (and I believe, though I don't have the game in front of me now) that this is also represented in game with 2-man cavalry scout sections. The issue I'm starting to have here is that the Scout Sections at least in the 1965 TO&E for the ACAV Troop had a grand total of 12 guys, split between two squads, each with two tracks, each with a crew of 3. These crew members were a Scout Observer and Scout Driver, and while they could dismount if necessary, critical functions of the vehicle would be unable to function (movement and/or weapons). To get to the point, though not looking at it right this second, I believe the setup in WinSPMBT allows for tracks with essentially 5 crew instead of 3 (an additional two dismounts).

[narwan]

Originally Posted by thatguy96

Narwan, did you compile those? They're very detailed and generally helpful.

No, I found them on the web somewhere. Didn't write down where and now I have no idea anymore where exactly I found them!
There may well be a few discrepancies, as of yet I have not found two sets of OB's from different sources that actually match 100%.
That's not really a problem as far as I'm concerned though as these are theoretical OB's and TO&E's. In case of actual conflict there were bound to be divergences from these (one vehicle more or less here and there, some additonal hardware, etc, whatever a local commander could 'commandeer').
But they do give a good feel of what was considered to be appropriate for a given formation.

Narwan