Unit Breakdown Penalty

[Taffy6]

Gentlemen- My two cents as a once-upon-a-time Modern Campaigns scenario designer is that in the case of DF85 (and FG85, NGP85 and K85), the unit breakdown / fatigue issue caused me to shelve my scenario work indefintely.  The battalion/company/platoon breakdown / fatigue mechanics may make sense in the 1940's PzC, but absolutely no sense in the 1980's MC.

To me, the fact is that NATO doctrine was to fight as company heavy combined arms teams against Warsaw Pact heavy battalions.  The scale of one or more miles per company front was not unrealistic against WP heavy battalions.  Even stacked heavy battalions.  We even trained that way in the US Marines during the period.  I know this because my "Leg" unit was trained for a Norway mission during the late '80's.  

Yet US Army, UK and Bundeswehr battalions (and the other nations), broken down into companies, cannot fight in MC per doctrine and survive contact.  At least not in my MC gaming experience.  

During extended scenario play testing, the ability of Warsaw Pact artillery and massed battalions to completley obliterate NATO company teams in the span of a single two-hour day turn made breaking down into companies certain death. In playtesting my Zapad_85 scenario, NATO breaking down into companies lead to huge holes in defensive coverage, vaporized units, crippled NATO BN-level formations, and the complete inability of NATO to hold the line.  The NATO cavalry screen, for example, could not fight the covering battle at all.  Broken down, the screen was obliterated.  Combined, the screen couldn't cover the avenues of approach..

Since there are no plans to change the MC breakdown / fatigue mechanics, not even as an optional rule for the scenario designer, there is little point of playing MC designer scenarios against a human opponent.  Aaron's 1989 Bolt was about as close as a good DF85 scenario could get under the circumstances. The "KG" solution was a flawed work-around at best, but better than the default mechanics.  In the end, for my DF85 scenario, I just gave up.

Regards,

Taffy

Edited to note that the OP was referring to PzC, not MC.