"Multi-theatre campaign" Topic

I want to run a German infantry company through three battles per theatre for the entire war.

First, what sequence of theatres would be accurate (i.e., Poland to France to north Africa to Russia to Berlin) for a well used German division? The more theatres the better.

Second, the existing campaign rules don't cover upgrading units (after technological progress). While a panzer 2 from Poland still been usable in Barbarossa could work, I don't think much of its chances in the defence of Berlin. Are there any good methods of upgrading without destroying the flow of the campaign?

Since you're talking about a company which is within a division, you really must look at the campaigns a division fought in. There is a lot of data on the interweb that will allow you to see which divisions fought where. You can go from there. The North Africa theatre is harder, sicne the divisions that fought there died there, but they were raised again, so maybe that could work. For example, the 21st Panzer Div was re-constituted in France in 43 and fought in Normandy, but not in the Bulge battle.

On your second question, again some research would yield data on when the Germans started fielding new equipment.

Good luck!

I believe that the history of the 3rd Panzer Grenadier Div covers all those theatres.

link

These guys went everywhere.

That's almost ideal and answers both questions.

I'll have to make sure its not in Stalingrad at the end though.

The upgrades are simply enough – at set points high command reequips them completely. Not so much filtered in, just dropped wholesale.

Regarding equipment upgrading, if you are really going for a pure (historical) infantry company, then actually a whole lot of equipment stays the same throughout the war.

1.) The basic small arms encountered at the squad level at the beginning of the war stay in use until the end. These include MP40 submachinegun, Kar98k bolt action rifle and MG34 machine gun.

2.) There are some new infantry small arms issued during the war, but not every unit necessarily receives them. These include G43 semi-automatic rifle, Stg44 assault rifle and MG42 machine gun.

3.) On the heavier equipment, the 5 cm and 8 cm mortars were in use at the beginning of the war. However, as the war progressed the 5 cm mortar fell out of favour, as it was found to be of limited utility for the manpower required.

4.) Anti-tank weapons are probably the area where most change happens during the war. In the beginning of the war, infantry was provided with anti-tank rifles, but as the tank armour thickness increased during the war years these became of limited utility and were phased out. On the other hand, various close assault explosive devices were designed and provided to the brave infantrymen to defend themselves once things got desperate. Once you get to the late war years, panzerfausts and panzershrecks become available.

What actions did the German participate in in the Pacific?

Would I have to include a rule for the change in replacements? By Berlin, they'd be rare, inexperienced and badly equipped so presumably the theatres before would have a slowly degrading recruitment level.

And yes they did get involved in the pacific. The only land battle was the battle of nauru with most of the combat be conducted by merchant raiders (normally disguised Q-ships).