Scale Question: Mortar Deployment

[protevangelium]

I am trying to put together scenarios based upon rough unit organization approximations (squad, platoon, company) I suppose it can be safely said that one rifle unit of any sort equals a rifle squad (or at least it's equivalent firepower). However, where do the various mortar units rank? Take the Type 89 Mortar (actually, a grenade discharger), for example. Within a Japanese rifle platoon of three rifle squads was also a grenade discharger section wielding on average three of the 50 mm knee mortars. Incidentally, they were treated as a crewed weapon, and they had about three men or so assigned to each.

For comparison, the German MG 42 Machine-Gun Team unit when paired with a Kar 98 Mauser unit seems to equal the firepower of a typical German infantry squad. In addition, German military doctrine placed heavy emphasis on the MG. Basically, a "squad" would equal about 13 points.

The Japanese squad LMG was nothing to rave about, the Type 11 and Type 96s being rather inferior to Western MGs. However, they compensated for this by the deployment of the Type 89 knee mortar. So a knee mortar per one Arisaka rifle unit equals 12 points.

To portray the firepower of a Japanese platoon in AAM, would one use the Imperial sarge, three Arisaka rifles, and one Type 89 mortar OR the Imperial Sarge, three Arisakas, and THREE Type 89s? In other words, does each mortar represent ONE mortar and its crew, or several mortars plus crews?

An annoyingly obscure question, but I'm sure the attack dice were calculated with such facts in mind.

Thanks!

[Y2UAsk]

The scale of AAM is sufficiently abstract that either of your proposed answers could be considered correct. The rulebook indicates only that each model soldier represents "several" soldiers. Some people interpret that to mean approximately a half-squad (4-5 men). Based on the ground scale and how units perform, I'd say that each model soldier is more like a full squad, a commander represents a significant officer (platoon or company commander) plus assorted runners and SMG-armed fire brigade, and a weapon stand represents platoon or company assets. Because of the game's abstractness, however, you can decide whether a Japanese mortar stand represents just one mortar or all three. For myself, I'd assign one mortar stand per platoon, because the design of the "knee mortars" made it almost impossible to drop multiple rounds on the same target, which resulted in a lot of wasted firepower.

By way of comparison, I'd maintain that the German Mauser unit's firepower already includes the squad's inherent MG-42. It has equal firepower to a British squad and only slightly less firepower than a US Garand squad. If we assume (as I do) that those Allies squads also include inherent Bren guns and BARs, and that the German stand represents a mid- or late-war squad that is under strength, then I'd say the firepower of all three is about right. In that picture, the MG-42 stand represents a separate, 4-man LMG trupp under the command of either a gruppenfuhrer or LMG schutze 1 and functioning essentially as a medium machine gun (the same role as the British Vickers).

BUT, because the game leaves these designations vague, someone else can decide that a Mauser stand represents 4-5 riflemen, so that two Mauser stands and an MG-42 stand constitute a single, early war German squad. It's truly not set in stone because it's meant to be flexible.

Steve