Using historical units as your core forces in campaigns

[AirdefMike]

The "rename unit" function or mechanic is one of my favorite functions in a wargame... as it adds spice to the campaign play and makes the units really feel like they are yours.

Well, of course I use this in OOB as well. Finding and then choosing the right ones is somewhat difficult though.
For the Winter War DLC I'm building the Finnish 9th Infantry Division as it fought atleast in 2 scenarios (the Unit's CO H.Siilasvuo is featured as a Ground Commander and is seen in one of the Event pics in the game). One of the Division's Regiments was from my hometown and 2 others from the neighboring towns. It is the closest one I can think of for atleast some realism although I use Battalion level scale and all of the Isthmus scenarios of 1940-44 are regimental scale scens.

Sandstorm DLC is easy in this case as the Axis oob is easy to find.

What historical units are other players using? I could also use some tips for the Allied and German trilogies as I plan to take a serious dive playing them.

[StuccoFresco]

The scale of the units make going close to historical OOBs quite difficutl.

[Erik2]

I think battalion-sized units is the best compromise in OOB. You have specialized units like AA, AT and historical unit names works fine. My maps tend to be on the large side to make room for classic historical scenarios.

[conboy]

Yep, Erik,
I think that battalion sized units are best and use about 1/2 mile hexes which is a standard coverage for US infantry battalions. Only thing is, I think it makes the artillery range much shorter than actual. EG, range of a 155 was about 14 miles, or about 28 1/2 mile hexes. That seems a little far even for a Mod. I think it's best for me because it makes it easy to transpose the US Army historical maps to OoB grids. But US infantry battalion frontages ranged from 1000 - 2000 yards, more or less, per FM 7–40, so I'm putting more units on the map than would actually be required IRL.

Maybe the devs were thinking the squares would be 2 miles so the long tom range would be 7 hexes. Which would be good for large battles I guess like Dubno or Kursk. But the US Division frontage was about 9000 - 15000 yards, which would give a 7-hex range of the long tom a range of up to 60 miles if you used that larger number for a hex size.

The math gives me a headache.

conboy