I still think that a single mechanized heavy infantry brigade would be a much more worth investment. As it stands he has little heavy infantry as such. His armored units would be busy doing their little door banging act, and what he has left would be thoroughly demolished by either Sweden or Norway, both of whom have significant strike capabilities, something he can't protect himself from adequately. Though your GDP relevant point is valid, lets keep in mind that the population is 100 000. So given that his scenario puts ~4-5% in the permanent armed forces, that's not enough to keep the equipment he already has in operational condition. And the higher his % of military spending the worse off he is economically. The country is in fairly fertile land, and has some oil, but it's not swimming in oil, nor is it particularly large in terms of any other valuable commodities. It might be doing better then average, being an offshore zone and everything, but I doubt it's military spending is large enough to maintain the equipment in working order. Unless they have magically gigantic sized income that comes out of nowhere, the picture he painted is not in any way capable of supporting the military in question.
EDIT: By the way, the equipment problems that he faces with tons of different types, aren't just his tank forces. Look at his other equipment too. It's a nightmare. I don't know how large ghis budget IS, but I know it would have to be pretty damn large to keep all of that running.
The country of Georgia, with population of iirc 4 million, has an armed forces comparable to what he has here.
I absolutely agree with your suggestion about heavy infantry, and will start converting one of my motorized infantry battalions into a heavy infantry battalion, as I fully understand the usefulness of the heavier firepower, I have some quiestions though.
My first thought when thinking about heavy infantry, is supplying the unit with IFVs, in my case the M2 Bradley would be the best choice, as I already deploy more than 50 of these. But this would mean aquiring the corresponding support units, such as recovery, transport, recce, and air defence units, thus actually creating a Mech Infantry Bn, which I think might be a bit over the top as this unit is primarily intended to FIBUA combat.
I think it would maybe be a good idea to build the unit around the armoured Hummer with TOW II, Avengers, 105 mm towed light artillery, 50 cal' and whatever modern heavy infantry weapons I can lay my hands on. I have to update my knowledge on this to see if there are some new, interesting weapon systems for such use developed the last 10 years (which, more or less, is where my updates stopped) Any ideas would be appreciated.
As for the Norwegian capability to repel my "door banging act", I think you are wrong. As far as I can see, my armoured brigade would be a major threat even to a mobilized norwegian military. Without mobilization and with, lets see, one week prior notice of Midtguardian intentions, I think Norway would be unable to defend its capital. It would be interesting to see which forces you guys think Norway would be able to field against me. I know the Swedes have somewhat more than Norway and with their capital much further away I would probably have greater difficulties of threatening Stockholm.
As to the GDP question, please remember that Midtguardia has a major merchant fleet sailing international waters (just like Norway had when WWII broke out, when the Norwegian merchant fleet was the worlds third largest, generating a major income from international earnings) this, to some extent, explaining "the magically, giant sized income".
Finally, on the logistic problem, catering for the different types of equipment, I'm a little bit non-plussed about the amount of flack coming my way in this regard.
:
First of all, I know Norway for generations, have operated two types of tanks in comparable number as Midtguardia, e.g. in the 80's when operating Leopard I's as well as M 48 (in a norwegian configuration), without causing insurmountable problems.
Secondly, the problems of maintenence and training are really not that much greater due to also using the Leopard I, this mainlys because many of the specialized armoured vehicles I do operate, are based on the Leopard I chassis, such as the Dachs (engineer vehicle), Gepard (air defence tank), Bergepanzer (recovery vehicle), Kieler (mine clearing) as well as the Leopard main battle tank.
Thirdly, the problem of training, maintenance and spares posed by different wheeled vehicles, are not that great. I do, infact, myself, operate three different motorvehicles in real life scale 1:1, taking care of everything from simple maintenance to major refurbishing, one of which is an ex mil off road vehicle, without this causing any problems what so ever. (This in addition to my day to day cars) I have all the necessary tools and equipment and the proven ability to undertake any needed repairs, even though I'm not a trained mechanic, but a lawyer. I have difficulty in beleiving that the maintenance and logistics created by operating a number of different vehicles will be insurmountable, I understand it will put a strain on such resources that could be avoided by stramlining, an option I unfortunately do not have the luxuory of entertaining. I do understand that this is more complicated with the tracked vehicle.
I absoloutely do not agree that a permanent force of 5 - 6000 is not sufficiant to maintain operability of the listed equipment, as this is the same size as the norwegian permanent defence, operating a much larger airforce and navy as well as an army of more than comparable size. As far as I can see, the armoured brigade would need no more than 500 professionals to maintain the equipment and training of reservists.
Finally, some of the problems are alleviated by the fact that the front line units are as streamlined as possible, while the more disparate equipment is used in 2. echolon units, e.g. my Rapid Deployment Force, which, in effect, is no more than a rag tag force of M 60's and leapard 1's with Marders without any support to be deployed as a stop gap force to counter enemy breakthroughs of the FLOT until other units can be redirected and brought to bear. The point is, these units are not used very much, not expected to travel far nor fight a protracted battle, wherefore maintenance and logistics are of lesser importance
