Sunday, June 12, 2016

The Nafziger Collection

In 2010 George Nafziger donated his order of battle collection to the
http://usacac.army.mil/cac2/cgsc/carl/nafziger.asp  so that it would not be lost if he passed away.   In addition to the order of battle collection there are a large number of books available from http://www.nafzigercollection.com/  covering armies, tactics, and campaigns from 1300 through World War 2.   Some of the books can be found on Amazon.  

I purchased "Soviet Infantry Tactics in World War II" and "Soviet Armor Tactics in World War II" both by Charles Sharp.   Both provide detailed information on the tactics used by the Soviet army in WW2.   Both are well worth obtaining if interested in the actual tactics used by the Soviet army, but the casual gamer would probably not be interested in them.   They ;include information on the spacing between individual tanks and infantry when engaging in combat.   Tanks were to have a spacing of 30 to 50 meters between vehicles in order to allow them to maneuver, while infantry would have about 6 to 8 paces (15-20 feet, 4.5 to 6 meters).   I use 6mm figures (1:285 and 1:300).   At 30 meters for the figure scale this would be 100mm/4 inches per vehicle or twice the width of the 50mm bases I use.  3mm would be about right for 1 vehicle per 50mm base while 2mm could be on a 30+mm base.   I mount three to four infantry figures per base which is close to the minimum distance of 6 paces per man.

The spacing for Soviet infantry is similar to that of other armies.   The following site has information on infantry frontages and spacing
http://balagan.info/infantry-unit-frontages-during-ww2
http://balagan.info/usmc-unit-frontages-and-formations-in-late-ww2

Steven's site has a lot of scenarios and other information for Crossfire and other rule systems.

For modern unit frontages see
http://18clovehamhock.blogspot.com/2012/06/warpac-and-nato-unit-frontages.html