My impression of the US Army Vehicle Guide and its companions is to provide players with a point of reference. We know what the division looked like on paper at the start of the war. One need only leaf through the unit histories to see how much that all changed.
Players like to ask questions like "Did this unit belonging to this division have M1A1 tanks?" We ask questions about what kinds of equipment are likely to have been in formations like 92nd Infantry Division. I don't see this information as delimiting at all. Players also like to come up with good stories for why unlikely events occur. I have light armor and howitzers belonging to an MI brigade in southern Arizona, a force of light infantry operating under the command of the US Coast Guard in northern New England, BTR-80A operated by Japanese-styled motorized marauders in Nevada, an an ad hoc riverine force operating in San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento River in my take on the Twilight: 2000 universe. I have used information in the various sourcebooks as a starting point for my story-telling, not an end-point.
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“We’re not innovating. We’re selectively imitating.” June Bernstein, Acting President of the University of Arizona in Tucson, November 15, 1998.
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