Formation Support Levels

By Heinz57

Potentially the one point to learn that will contribute most to your long-term play in TOAW III is learning
Formation Cooperation Levels. This dynamic has direct influence on the effectiveness of your defenses,
offensives, and ability to get multiple rounds of combat from a turn. It replicates a number of factors that
applied historically in the way of organizational training, doctrines, and multi-national communication. It
may sound complex, but even a little bit of familiarity will go a long way to understanding how it works and
comes together in play.

In World War II, the United States and seemingly most of the Allies were organized around the regiment
in various representations such as the Regimental Combat Team (RCT), brigade, or Combat Command.
Generally, each regiment could be considered a "stand alone" force - having its own anti-armor, engineer,
anti-aircraft and artillery support. But, their relationship to the Division allowed the regiment to be
enhanced with a variety of attachments - coming in the way of extra tanks, engineers, artillery, etc. This
dynamic is modelled very well in Two Weeks in Normandy (2WiN).

Internal Support
The majority of regiments in 2WiN are set to "Internal Support". This means the battalions of each
regiment have full cooperation with other battalions of that same regiment AND divisional support
elements. But, they will not coordinate as well with units of other regiments having the same colors and
won’t cooperate at all with units having different colors. We'll use the US 4th Infantry Division as our
example:

9th Infantry Division

* 9th Division Headquarters – Army Support
* 39th Regimental Combat Team (3 Bn.) – Internal Support
* 47th Regimental Combat Team (3 Bn.) – Internal Support
* 60th Regimental Combat Team (3 Bn.) – Internal Support
- 9th ID Engineer Bn. – Army Support
- 9th ID Recon Bn. – Army Support
- 9th ID Artillery Brigade – Army Support
- 899th Tank Destroyer Bn. – Army Support
- 376th AA Bn. – Army Support

Fig. A. Fig. B.

The three battalions of the 60th Regimental Combat Team will cooperate perfectly with each other. I've
selected 1st Battalion of the 60th RCT (Figure A), outlined in gold (Figure B). The other two battalions of
the 60th RCT, as you can see, are outlined in silver. By Right Clicking on the selected unit and selecting
“Show Formation Support” – you will bring up a box (like below) that details its Support Scope (also
known as Formation Support Level)
Army Support and Divisional Support Elements
In the Order of Battle of the 9 th Infantry Division, the Regimental Combat Teams are colored in Red to
show that they are on Internal Support. The rest of 9 th Infantry Division is colored in green – the 9 th ID
Engineer Battalion, the 9th ID Artillery Brigade, etc. What this means is that any of the divisional support
elements also cooperate perfectly with all other units including each regimental combat team of the 9 th
Infantry Division. Divisional support elements may be mixed and matched freely with each of the
regimental combat teams.

Army Support, however, is even broader in scope than just cooperating with units of the same division.
Units and formations with Army Support levels cooperate perfectly with all units having the same
background and icon color. Further, they can cooperate (albeit with a penalty) with all units having the
same background color, but different icon color. They have further limitations in that they will not
coordinate with units of a different background color.

Force Support
Force Support is the second highest level of cooperation available. Units with Force Support coordinate
perfectly with all units having the same background color – regardless of icon color. Moreover, they have
limited cooperation with units of different background colors.

Free Support
Units with Free Support have full cooperation with all units regardless of background or icon color.

Formation Support Level Quick Reference Chart

Same Formation Different Formation, Same Background Color Different Background
Same Background & Different Icon Color Color
Color & Icon Color
Internal Support Cooperates Limited Cooperation No Cooperation No Cooperation
Army Support Cooperates Cooperates Limited Cooperation No Cooperation
Force Support Cooperates Cooperates Cooperates Limited Cooperation
Free Support Cooperates Cooperates Cooperates Cooperates

Limited Cooperation implies offensive and defensive coordination with penalties.

No Cooperation applies to no offensive coordination and a penalty to defensive coordination.

For additional information on Formation Cooperation Levels, refer to page 26 of the TOAW III Manual.