Break Down Battalions or No??

[Volcano Man]

Just to add to what has already been said:

I also think separate attacks for each company (one at a time) does have a higher chance at causing disruptions than attacking with them all combined as a battalion (simply because there are more "checks"), but if you fire with all the companies in one shot then the probability seems to be identical since it is still one combined check (or so it seems). I say that because there is a drawback of firing with companies, one at a time for more chance of disruptions, and it is that when you do so you invoke more enemy return fire which can be devastating.

Also, lets not forget everyone's trick of stacking several companies and a battalion (of like units) in one hex, and then putting the battalion on the bottom of the stack. What you should do in this circumstance is, if you fire on units in the stack and see that one is gaining high losses and/or putting out effective fire, then chances are it is a combined unit and you should concentrate fire on it.

There are other advantages to having units combined though; combined units are either completely low on ammo or not, where as broken down units can have some of the companies in the battalion low ammo at times sine more checks are occuring. Combined units also put out far more effective opportunity / defensive fire than a single company ever will on your opponents turn.

I would say that the main advantages of breaking units down are, obviously, that you can cover more ground with ZOCs as the first, and the second is that individual companies do seem to hold objectives longer since you have more units to disrupt, although a good assault can dislodge non disrupted companies as long as most of them (in the stack) are disrupted.

Both approaches have advantages and disadvantages depending on the circumstances.