1:1 in 6mm - How do you build your force?

[Xavier]

I picked up the Cold War Commander 2 rules recently. One thing that drew me to them was being able to play games in 6mm, as well as play using the rules with 1:1 unit representation (instead of a tank representing a platoon, a tank would represent a single tank, an infantry base would represent one section of infantry instead of a platoon etc).

Has anybody else done this? How did you go about organising your forces? Did you find oddities with points?

A British Cold War tank platoon that I have put together has 2 tanks on a single base representing the platoon command (I was going to count it as a HQ) then 12 tanks, organised into three platoons. They are all Challenger 1 tanks. The thing is, this comes to 2800+ points! I also have a mechanised infantry platoon - 3 sections of infantry, each mounted in a vehicle, and then a platoon HQ. This comes to a value of 260 points.

Now, I assume that playing at this level, I am probably not going to have the whole tank platoon deployed - perhaps a section of 4 tanks with the HQ, and then a couple of platoons of infantry. Do games of this scale work well?

Anyway, it would be interesting to know what others have done. I am brand new to this game, and to the Cold War era, so it would be great to hear others experience, knowledge and approaches to putting their forces together.

[Big Insect]

Hi Xavier

The game works just as well at 1:1 as at its standard ratios. The one change I'd suggest however is that you play it with the 'hits stay on' alternative mechanism. As the 'hits come off' method is designed to replicate each model being a platoon, and not all 'kills' are actually total right-offs.

Your observation about points is an interesting one but if you consider that a Challenger II tank cost approximately £4.2 million (per vehicle) - before you add the crew and the ammo. This is actually relatively 'cheap' as an A1M1 is quotes as being c.$10-13m per vehicle and that's before some of the latest upgrades

You don't say what APC/IFV your mechanised infantry are in (but I assume it would be the FV432 APC?) which is relatively cheap at c. £180,000* + crew, passengers and ammo etc. (NB: you can buy a second hand FV432 - in pretty good condition, with spares, for c.£22k currently)  *this is a guestimate as the actual cost is not published and like so many things, it all depends upon which variant you are trying to price.
An FV432 is fairly basic compared to a Bradley or Warrior IFV, but you get the idea.

It is also about the vehicles/units effectiveness - Challengers are pretty 'tough' and resilient and it will take a pretty 'state of the art' ATGW (of significant caliber) to blow it to pieces. That's not to say that it cannot be disabled by a good shot from an IATW or a mine (suppressed in CWCII game terms) and then targeted by heavy caliber artillery (which is what is going on in Ukraine at present).

So the cost of the Challenger IIs from a points perspective, in comparison to your Motorised Infantry, is probably right. But then if you start adding INF:ATGWs (MILAN) and various IATWs (Carl Gustav) to your Infantry, the cost is going to start raking up pretty quickly.

I play a lot of 6mm CWC and I use published OOBs to help me work out what my formations look like.

If you've not already seen it (or downloaded it) this online BAOR OOB (c.1989) is a good starting point:
https://www.orbat85.nl/documents/BAOR-July-1989.pdf

Cheers
Mark