@Flashman:
Britain and America were completely different from Continental armies. They didn’t have compulsory military service, which meant that not only did they have tiny professional armies before going to war, but that the masses of men they conscripted had no military training (unlike the large trained reserves of European armies).
Understood, I was simply trying to get a baseline understanding in IPC terms of what 2 million men looked like. I based it on known figures for the French army.
@Flashman:
The figure for income then should be based on the cost of the number of infantry they sent over in a turn averaged out over the course of the war from American entry. This is very difficult to calculate given the crazy timeline of the game.
I think my explanation was more than sufficient. The U.S. needs to have 60 IPC’s worth of land units by the time they go to war (on turn 4), and they do with the OOB rules.
@Flashman:
Another process I’ve though about is that of equipping this army with British and French weaponry. When they arrived in France the Americans had nothing more than small arms; virtually all the helmets, trucks, horses, planes, tanks and artillery they used were supplied by the Allies. This did not bother the Allies, who had been running out of manpower, but had by now a well developed weapons industry producing a surplus of equipment.
So, keep American income relatively low, but when the purchased infantry arrive the Allies can pay to equip them, the cost being the difference in unit price from infantry.
In essence: Any American infantry unit in an Allied controlled tt in or adjacent to London, Paris or Rome can be upgraded to a tank, artillery or fighter by paying the difference in price. Any Ally can pay this, the upgrade taking place in the purchase units phase of it’s own turn.
I like it. Adds a bit of complexity, but it makes sense.