This guide contains instructions (and soon subscribe-able configs) to create specialised "divisions" for each faction, each of which has a specialisation and designation.
Currently included are the Union's infantry focused 54th Air Special Operational Group, the well rounded 15th Alpine Special Operational Group, the heavy hitting 33rd Combined Operational Group, the amphibious 9th Expeditionary Group and the speedy 99th Mobile Operational Group, the Federation's quick-to-deploy 45 Airborne Division, lighter yet potent 1 Mountain Division, slow and deadly 6 Armored Division, maritime 20 Marine Division and the balanced 788 Infantry Division.
[Guide will be and is continually updated with new stuff, check back often!]

First, make sure you have the 4 mods below downloaded.
https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2025881424
https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2160195458
https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2619025746
https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2170535160
To use these, follow the included tables, they should look something like this


Occasionally, a table will have a modifier at the bottom, as seen below. The modifier will usually explain itself, but due to the open ended nature of this guide what the modifier means or is remains up to your judgement.


Simply look at the Vehicle selection menu for a team,














Check the "show all vehicles" box, and select the corresponding vehicle from the menu.


The Divisions included here don't come with turrets, boats or aircraft, those are (for now) up to you.

On request, here is a polished-up and slighty incomplete map of the setting this guide's lore snippets take place in. Currently not too happy with it, but keeping it here because I still think it looks kind of cool. Will likely be taken down and replaced with a better map.

Ever since the unification day period in the early 2000s, the changes made by unification from Global Security Alliance to Federation have had sufficient time to make themselves at home as the new status quo. Despite its novel namesake as a Federation, ambiguous language and easy amending of the Federal Constitution allowed policymakers in the Federal Congress to bestow more power upon themselves, effectively turning the Federation into a federal republic. While the largest and most influential member states can confidently propose and pass legislation, smaller members with a sliver of the seats must (and often do) fight tooth and nail to have their interests discussed. Though, even the fact that they can is already much better than the alternative, thus the system is generally regarded as a success.
Amidst most major parties being averse to taking power away from the congress, and most people ambivalent about having their government expanded upwards by a level, positive economic developments and domestic comfort seems to guarantee the new Federation's ability to survive the rest of the century for the time being. However, the rest of the world had not been sleeping as the nascent Federation established itself as the latest global hegemon. Deadly insurgencies in Federation client states abroad, and the upstart Union's meddling in the Federation's international activities are of increasing cause for concern as the resource and trade pipelines fuelling the Federation's prosperity could be severed in an instant if another player would try and usurp the Eagle's position as number one. Consequently, military spending has been steadily on the rise, as foreign aid packages, economic treaties, naval exercises, and peacekeeping ventures are exchanged on the world stage between the Federation and Union in place of bullets and shells. Like 2 predators circling each other, both with everything to lose and everything to gain, the stage is set for the next major conflict.

Whether it will be over in 1 year or 100 years, is now the real question.

Emblem based off of the 3rd Motor Rifle Division

The Great Wars demonstrated to the world's preeminent military theorists that armour must be concentrated to achieve its full potential. When shackled by slower attached infantry, tanks moved sluggishly. However with the new advent of the forces of mechanisation, armour could move fast. Extremely fast. Coupled with infantry riding alongside in trucks or half-tracks, armoured units were able to exploit breakthroughs far faster than anyone or anything else could. Thus dawned a new age of warfare. The various nations that made up the Alliance continuously maintained a cadre of armoured divisions throughout the decades. Though they accomplished this much, Alliance military thought remained based off of experience in the Great Wars where in most cases the most efficient way to solve a tactical problem was brute force. Following unification into the Federation, military thinking remains centred around concentrating armoured forces in a few divisions, and figuratively smashing their skulls against the enemy until the enemy's collective brain-case gives way.
6 Armored Division, despite being descendant from the defunct 6th Armored Division, is technically a new unit established during the Federation's Millennium Reforms. It boasts excellent divisional reconnaissance capabilities, an infantry regiment and 2 of the prized armoured regiments. Although its predecessor had a second-to-none track record of victorious engagements and conflicts participated in, 6 Armored has only ever been deployed once in full, in 2005 for anti-riot duties. It along with other parts of the at-the-time new Federal Armed Forces were mobilised to assist overwhelmed capital police in putting down unrest in the face of Unification day.

Emblem based off of the 144th Guards Motor Rifle Division

In contrast to the Federal Armed Forces' supposedly elite armoured divisions, the infantry divisions are by far more numerous. In fact, many question whether or not the distinction remains necessary, with the Union having proved that a cookie-cutter combined arms setup can work all the way up the chain. In the face of this, the Federal Congress continues to write off paperwork for and equip new infantry divisions. They are structured opposite to the armoured divisions, following the triangular division formula. two infantry regiments, and one armoured regiment. They are also the first formation that those undergoing National Service are distributed to, lest the "pristine" reputation of the armoured divisions be stained by Sunday-soldiers. Noted by outside observers, your average Federal infantry division is allowed a fair more amount of soldiers on paper than is officially stated in the TO&E. Whether due to the presence of so-called "ghost soldiers", allowance for attached National Servicemen undergoing training, or a simply a generously wide margin for casualties, is unclear.
788 Infantry Division is one of the post millennium reform units that are becoming more and more commonplace. Without any significant historical heritage or baggage, it nevertheless began its life with a rocky start, being deployed to put down unrest in the capital alongside other units in 2005. As of current, it stands poised to quickly and violently cross the border into Halcon should there be a major international incident between it and the Federation ally of Faucon. An incident, which appears to be more and more likely as news of border skirmishes becomes increasingly common.

Emblem based off of the 8th Guards Mountain Motor Rifle Brigade

The Federation is home to a varied climate, owing to the diversity of the members of its predecessor, the GSA. The tallest and coldest climates demand a different, lighter and yet more intensive way of war. The genesis of this demand is the Federation's mountain divisions, all of which were created during the millennium reforms, in an attempt to unify the various preceding types of mountain troops. From Mountain Commandos to Alpine Chasseurs, Mountaineers and Mountain Rifles, it took a considerable amount of force to mesh the smattering of unique forces into one. Unification of the various mountain infantry created the modern Federal Mountain Divisions, now abiding by the new regulations and schooling decided at the Federal Mountain Training Center.
Lacking in the historic prestige of some other units, the Mountain Divisions yet managed to forge a reputation for themselves near solely on the rigour of their training and their quality as soldiers. Though the mountain role requires them to make do with vehicles that are lighter and modified to intake more air in the thin mountain atmosphere, mountain divisions like 1 Mountain Division retain vehicles for infantry support and for transport, with high-power workhorse helicopters like the Dragoon available to assist them and sling load the lighter vehicles. Besides the intense training, 1 Mountain spends its days ascending mountaintops to take photographs of men with icicles hanging from their faces posing with the Federation's Eagle flag for PR, or patrolling the western border with the Caliphate and detaining anyone from indoctrinated extremists to off-course goat shepherds.

Emblem based off of the 56th Guards Air Assault Brigade

During the millennium reforms, the Federal Armed Forces also unified the airborne forces of the Alliance. Over the course of the reforms, many old air-assault regiments received mandatory parachutist instruction, inflating the amount of airborne troops the Federation could lay claim to. Besides the new training, the so called "New Airborne", was loaded with the responsibility for security of the Federation's northern territories, including arctic security. It was these arctic-trained fast deploying airborne forces which the Federation used during the "temporary" occupation of various northern territories. Officially there to help assist indigenous governments as part of new bilateral security treaties, the handful of deployed airborne divisions proved their worth as they quickly secured ocean passages, surveyed the land and had combat engineers construct airstrips.
Unlike the unification of the mountain troops, the airborne was much easier to put together and certain units retained a semblance of a past. 45 Airborne can be said to be descended from the 45th Airborne Battalion and its merger with the 99th Air Assault Regiment, the 12th Air Assault Regiment and the 6th Airborne Battalion. The first being a crack airborne unit and the second being a prestigious air assault unit being used as something of a leadership course for aspiring air assault officers. 45 Airborne itself prominently participated in the Federation's northern escapade, however rather than securing some frigid rock, it was the main ceremonial force which made landfall in the friendly nation's capital and which participated in a welcoming parade, notably in full cold-weather garb, with the snow-white uniform cover now widely being associated with the Federal Airborne Troops.

Emblem based off of the Russian 336th Naval Infantry Brigade

As the Union continues to expand its activities into more corners of the globe, areas previously considered of little value and irrelevant to the global picture have gradually become host to a menagerie of Union facilities and services. Local governments increasingly turn over swathes of their land and oil to the Union in exchange for huge checks of money, aligning themselves with the Ravens and acting outright hostile to Federation diplomacy. The tensions, both between the Eagles and Ravens and between independent governments and the Federation, have shaped the Federation's perception of a new possible war, one fought over vast swathes of desert and with no existing land based supply routes into the region to speak of.
Thus, Marine divisions, specialized in inserting new logistical connections where there previously were none, were called to the task. Only recently beginning a set of changes to accommodate the assumed perils of desert warfare, 20 Marine Division and a few peer Marine Divisions have been fitted with newly desert-painted vehicles as part of their effort to train for fighting in the dunes. While 20 Marine Division's infantry gear has yet to be printed (in sufficiently large quantities) in sand drab yet, training in sandy conditions and for desert survival with Eagle partners in the region has served to cement 20 Marine Division as the premier desert landing force in the Federation for when worst comes to blows.

In the aftermath of the Great Wars, the prospering GSA would leave the nations on the other side of the world in the dust, and floundering as the GSA built itself up from the ruins of conflict. In their negligence to pay much attention to those less-fortunate and developing nations, the Economic Revolution would transform a small group of states into something more cohesive and which ultimately towered over their smaller neighbors. Although supposedly in mutually beneficial relationships, even at its inception it was clear the Union benefited only a choice few. By the 90s, the various business-first and worker-last focused policies put out by the Supreme Council began to work their magic. While the Union quickly skyrocketed into prominence, it did so at the expense and suffering of the people. Hundreds of thousands evicted off their land, millions paid pitifully low wages, all in the name of progress and revenue. Ever since the Supreme Council took power, every major protest and strike has been deemed illegal and uneventfully quashed by heavy-handed private security, or at worst the Union Defense Force itself. Due to the authoritarian, top down approach to governance taken by the Council, entire cities change shape with the stroke of a pen and the sending of an e-notice. Even if the government it supports is questionably compassionate, the UDF has nevertheless spent most of its existence trying to rival the militaries of the Alliance and the successor Federation, equipping themselves with the newest and greatest tech money can buy to prove once and for all that the future lies in unchecked progress, and not endless bureaucracy. Wielding latest-generation MBTs, an overhauled organisation, new-fangled communications technology and state-of-the-art fighter aircraft, the UDF certainly looks battle-ready on the surface. Whether or not that is actually the case, however, remains up in the air.

Emblem based off of the Norwegian Panserbataljonen (Armoured Battalion)

When the Council of Defense and Security demanded the Defense Forces overhaul their structure, beginning with a rewrite of the divisions, it was the beginning of a multi-year concentrated effort by the personnel of the Union Defense Force to build the Defense Force back up from the ground, starting at grunt pay grades all the way to how the branches were organized and named. One of the things that emerged from the gauntlet of fire which formed the improved Defense Force was the “Combined Arms Model” which sought to integrate the combat arms at all (as many as possible) levels. Operational Groups sit at the top of the hierarchy, replacing the old divisions. While an Operational Group is principally an administrative affair, they are organized with a specific type of Brigade Group in mind and the requisite supporting assets.
The most common type of Operational Group is the Combined Operational Group, organized around the Combined Brigade Group, further organized around the Combined Battalion Group, which itself is made up of 4 company-equivalent numerically designated Tactical Groups. In the 33rd Combined Operational Group, The 4 are further split between 2 equipped with Kodiak MBTs, and 2 which run the Crocodile Tracked IFV and accompanying mechanized infantry. Despite being capable of bringing immense ammounts of Hatamoto™ and Amax™ firepower to bear on the enemy, A COG’s main drawback is the sluggish speed at which it travels to a theatre, something that would later be claimed “solved” by the UDF with the introduction of the Mobile Operational Group.

Emblem based off of the Norwegian Sambandsbataljonen (Signal Battalion)

In combat, it is overshadowed by the Combined Operational Groups. In mobility, it is overshadowed by the Air Special Operational Groups. However, whereas a COG has firepower but lacks the mobility of an Air SOG, an Air SOG has unparalleled mobility yet lacks the heavy firepower of a COG. With Union Corporations having their interests and activities jeopardized in less secure parts of the Kingdom and a strange uptick in cross-border activity in the Junta, Union Defense analysts found that the deployed Air SOGs had a tough time dealing with increasingly heavier enemy forces. Deteriorating relations with the Junta also brought into the question of whether or not an Air SOG would be able to hold out against a conventional mechanized force, to which the answer was decidedly unsure. These factors ultimately coalesced into the creation of the UDF’s new Mobile Operational Groups, created around the Kraylon™ Caracal wheeled vehicle platform. Officially adopted because it was readily producible, reasonably fast, sleek, and light enough to be airlifted by medium-sized transport aircraft, unofficially adopted because it was possibly-perhaps the subject of under-the-table business dealings between the manufacturer, Kraylon Dynamics, and the Council of Defense and Security. Thanks to the copious amounts of KD-supplied vehicles and equipment, MOGs have garnered the nickname of "Kraylon's Cavalry".
The 99th Mobile Operational Group was one of the first created by the MOG program, giving it some kind of renown and heritage when compared to the newer ones converted from ailing and anemic COGs. Because of the focus on strategic mobility, the 99th MOG follows a standard of being entirely deficient of any tracked armour, being entirely wheeled. While this gives a MOG excellent portability between theatres, it limits its options when engaged, especially against heavier armoured opponents. For this, a MOG relies disproportionately on infantry based anti tank solutions and the ATGMs carried by the reconnaissance screen of a Mobile Brigade Group.

Emblem based off of the Norwegian Brigade Nord (Northern Brigade)

The Union has less of a need for mountain infantry, as it lacks the numerous northern mountain ranges the Federation possesses. However, it does have some more rugged terrain, as well as a good chunk of boreal forests. The unique terrain, as well as the possibility of needing to fight in an enemy’s mountain ranges, maintains the need for specialized light infantry to the Union. The Alpine Special Operational Groups, despite being named for their Alpine talents, are treated by UDF planners more-so like highly capable air-assault, mountain troops, and airlift-able light infantry rolled into 1 high-performance package.
Prior to the Operational Group reform, the 15th Alpine Special Operational Group had been a northerly focused mountain infantry division, just as experienced in ascending up a summit as they were in fighting in the dark shade of the Union's northern woods. Post reform, those same skills were accordingly transferred to the 15th Alpine SOG. Modern-day, the 15th Alpine SOG adorns their vehicles in geometric woodland splinter camouflage, as functional as it is indicative of their crack status as mountain soldiers. Being of such renown, the 15th Alpine SOG enjoys an elevated priority in the equipment procurement process, receiving factory-fresh vehicles and weaponry before some of its peers in the UDF. Among the recent additions include new state-of-the-art high-altitude light tanks for 2 of the 15th ALSOG's 3 subordinate maneuver-focused brigade groups, which augment the traditionally light infantry force with some heavier firepower.

Emblem based off of the Norwegian 2. Bataljon (2nd Battalion)

Early on, Union military planners recognized the utility of a fast moving, light and heliborne force of infantry. In contrast to airborne infantry, air assault troops deploy from helicopters which despite not affording them as much mobility as a heavier fixed-wing aircraft would, they can easily re-board their transport assets and scramble off to the next objective. This extremely quick redeployability as well as the innately smaller footprint of a light infantry force makes the soldiers of an Air Special Operational Group predisposed to more covert and under-the-radar special operations.
While an ASOG's special duties officially include securing airfields, conducting raids, and special reconnaissance, in practice they often are used as guerrilla-hunters wherever Union overseas interests may stir up resistance and resentment from the local population. Such is the case of the 54th ASOG, whose tours of duty lately have found it marauding around desert sands of far off nations, killing off insurgents (often referred to by Union forces as bandits), kicking down the doors of their homes, and marking possible weapons caches for demolition by means of Squall Tacbomber. However some suspect that this focus on counter-insurgent operations has damaged and degraded the 54th's ability to perform its original functions, and that the whole body is "going soft". But to the popular conscience, the 54th ASOG and bandit-hunting have become so synonymous that the very image of the 54th is of soldiers clad in sandy fatigues entering mud-brick buildings with helicopters sprayed in signature geometric desert camouflage passing overhead.

Emblem based off of the American 3rd Marine Division and 4th Marine Division

The Union Defense Force has long had a history of inter-service rivalries, as different branch heads on the Defense Council all jockey for more power and influence, with it being in the Supreme Council's interest to encourage the fight and prevent any one figure from gaining too much power. Thus, the struggle continues. So rather than create easily coordinated forces for expeditionary purposes, it was left to the Union Navy to create Expeditionary Forces, which forged by sailor's steel, operate quite differently to mainline Army units.
The 9th Expeditionary Group is one of the latest EGs created out of a series of perpetual dissolutions and reorganizations, standing up and down various units before hodge-podging them into a new Expeditionary Group. In the case of the 9th EG, it was stood up from the parts of famous-now-defunct units like the 303rd Expeditionary Group and the infamous 505th Expeditionary Group. With this decade's latest restructuring however, the 9th EG is geared towards fulfilling the Union's Northerly ambitions, preparing to tackle the issue of increasing Federation occupation of island chains and waterways in the Arctic. Newly having underwent cold weather training and being issued new gloves and snow-camouflage fatigues, the 9th EG and their freshly winter painted Walrus Expeditionary Fighting Vehicles have been hard at work posturing in the Arctic, showing off to international observers the reach of the Union's expeditionary might and driving home the idea that no land, however small and remote, is off-limits for the Ravens.

[TBA!]

Here's some figures I used to help balance the divisions, they're a total of all the ground vehicles across the bigger vanilla maps, and those of a few modders.

Vanilla maps
Archipelago, Dustbowl, Mountain Range, Canyon, River delta, Coastline




Newer Sofa Maps
Wooded hills, Oblast Highway, Desert Coast, Arctic Island




Altirus Maps
Breakout to Ludow, East Leersog, Descent Through Radetziy Pass, Ilast Valley





Delum Maps
Ilantro Estuary, Battle of Catra, Battle of Lochan





Collection with the best of the above maps: https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2519443877

Among Sofa's newer maps like Wooded hills, Oblast Highway, Desert Coast, Arctic Island, Border Highlands, and Archipelago Revisited,
- Quads, and Jeep MGs are very common, universal, and forward-spawning vehicles, spawning everywhere
- Tanks are rear-spawning vehicles, only spawning at a few flags at the edges of maps
- Jeeps are rarest, and are inclined towards being rear-spawning in maps like Oblast Highway, though also forward-spawn frequently
- APCs are second rarest, and are inclined towards rear-spawning on all maps, but can also be found in forward-spawns occasionally

The Divisions in this guide are best used on these maps, but you're free to use them on any. Just beware that they might not perform as intended, but this is a guide and not a configuration for a reason, Do adjust them to your preference.

In the future, I wish to add more divisions (including 16 for the 4 Kestrel Subfactions) and potentially replace the emblems with more creative ones, so if you have a suggestion for one, try commenting it and I'll see what I can do. Or even try making it yourself, using info in the Creation section. If it's good, i'll add it here!
If you have a specific problem with one of the vehicle selections, also do comment! I'll try my best to fix/replace stuff if they contribute to things like balance.

And lastly, I am not affiliated with Sofa, or any of the official Vanilla+ stuff. I'm doing this as a fan project, mainly for my fix of asymmetric battles, so please don't bug him over something off with this, bug me instead, or better yet leave a comment with your critique.