Best infantry. 1940s post WW2

[runequester]

What are your picks (In Steel Panthers terms) for the best infantry squads you can get in the 1946-1949 time frame ?

I figure if people are into it, we can do this for each decade, and maybe talk about tanks, APC's etc as well.


My vote is tentatively the soviets. The RP46 is a decent enough LMG, compared to american infantry, they win on their MG but lose on rifle power.

You do however have the option of squads with the RPG2, giving you close range tank defence, which is sorely lacking in the 40s.

What other great infantry is out there?

[iCaMpWiThAWP]

Infantry doesn't really differ from each other, as they have usually similar set-ups, Rifle(HEK 1 for early, 2 for midwar and 3 for late germans) LMG(mostly similar ones, again germans have a great one) Grenades and special weapon(Rocket launchers, Satchels) I like german squads with STG44 because of HEK 3.

[RightDeve]

Engineers are the most powerful infantry type, at least in SP terms.

[Griefbringer]

USMC has some squads in the late 40's that pack a plenty of punch. Combination of M1 Garand, 3 BARs, sniper rifle and M20 bazooka provides quite a lot of firepower and gives them a decent chance to engage armoured vehicles at close ranges. And with 13 men per squad, they can take quite a number of casualties before they are finished.

[runequester]

Originally Posted by RightDeve

Engineers are the most powerful infantry type, at least in SP terms.

are there any engineer units that also carry LMGs ? More of a German assault pioneer role I suppose

[Griefbringer]

For the late 40's, UK engineer squads pack Sten SMGs, Bren LMG, satchel charges and hand grenades.

Australia gets engineer squad with .303 rifles, Bren LMG, satchel charges and flamethrower.

[Mobhack]

It really depends on who your opponent is.

A rifle section loaded up to the gills with anti-tank weaponry may be wonderful in NATO's central front, but rather less so in Vietnam for example.

Anti-infantry:
I always look for those with 2 decent LMG (600m range) as 2 separate weapons. Or perhaps a long range LMG and a marksman's rifle (e.g some mountain or commando sections).

Anti-tank:
Infantry should not be your main forte for killing tanks IMHO. Sections with 2 AT weapon lines are less useful for general purpose duties unless the weapon can also be used against grunts if necessary.

Ideal section (general purpose)
My ideal section would have:

9-10 men (6's and 7's do not have much staying power)

- full-bore SLR with 10 hex range (FN-FAL, M14, G3 etc)
- full-bore (12 hex range) LMG (FN GPMG, RPD etc)
- ditto
- Carl Gustav/similar (e.g RPG-7) with decent hitting power and 200m range, with 6 or more HEAT rounds to hand.
+ Night vision of 10 or so (not too expensive, useful to have though)

I'll take an assault rifle in slot 1 if I have to, but unless fighting in jungles or city is pretty much guaranteed - the extra few hexes range of a full-bore self-loading rifle tends to be more useful than the extra firepower those have esp. at 3 hexes or less (are treated as an SMG then).

The GP section, if fighting irregulars with little access to AFV could be changed to a 40mm GL in slot 4, with perhaps 3 or 4 HEAT rounds as well as having copious HE. (Platoon HQ element may retain a Charlie G just in case, or to bunker bust etc)

Cheers
Andy

NB:
Also check out the alternative, as used by e.g. Israeli mech infantry. Section is a 2xLMG user (anti-infantry specialist) and the AT weapons are carried by a separate inf-AT team.

They also will operate with plenty of tanks to hand, whose primary task is to look after enemy armour, leaving the infantry to deal with enemy grunts and inf-AT.

[Griefbringer]

Originally Posted by Mobhack

Also check out the alternative, as used by e.g. Israeli mech infantry. Section is a 2xLMG user (anti-infantry specialist) and the AT weapons are carried by a separate inf-AT team.

I must admit that I am not very wild about those 2 man inf-AT teams, at least in campaign games. While their small size makes them difficult to spot, once they come under fire (direct or indirect) they tend to get destroyed rather easily. And once they run out of ammunition for their AT weapon, they are of rather limited usage. Besides they are not all that cheap in terms of points.

Thus, I nowadays prefer to have my infantry AT weapons mainly in the infantry squads, makes them more survivable. And I end up with a few less units to move, thus speeding up the game a bit.

With ATGMs there tends to be less of a problem, since those teams can open fire at long range, and then scoot further back into new safe spot once they have expended their missiles.

[Wdll]

If two inf are the same size, does it make any difference if they have different number of men, for being detected earlier by the enemy, or for the unit itself detecting the enemy sooner?

[DRG]

I believe the code does consider the number of men when calculating spotting in both directions


Don