Problem with the formation in defense and cover

[Jager_1]

First Post and I have just a few hours with the game, but I have been reading the forum and the the whole manual.

In my first battles in this excellent game I have encounter an issue that bother me in the defense, I have to defend a plain in Volokonovka 1942 that has a line of trees in a flank of the suspected direction of advance of the enemy, so I put a platoon to defend that line of trees but my problem is with the position of my troops on every squad, because no matter how I arrange them (1 file, in line, with the direction of the enemy, arcs of fire, close or dispersed) all the time they choose to be behind of the line of trees (partially at least) with two or three people on the front toward the enemy and the rest behind when the line of trees end the terrain fall into a valley that doesn't allow them to see the enemy, kind of a reverse slope defense but mess up. So, the main effort of the defense was in the hands of the few in the right position.

My qustion is, there is a better way to make them behave better in the defense? because I just came from the theatre of war series and the action to place them on line is far more esasier in those ones, although a little unrealistic as been too rigid to be real. Did I miss something?

2 additional things:

1. Is there is a way to limit the pool of reserves to the enemy and ours in the limits of the realistic? Because in that first battle I could give to every platton of infantry a support gun,a morter or a spotter in a Sdfk 251, which is far unreallistic from what I have read about structure of the platoons at that time.
2. How can I see the structures of my squads or the characteristics of them?, in the encyclopedia I can see the vehicles but I like to see what a Recce (mid. 1942) has in comparisition to another type of squad, again kind of what you can see on the Theatre of War Series.

For the rest, It's an awesome game, the operational feeling on this one is strong, kind of a more detailed, complex and yet compact Command Ops.

[Dane49]

There is no way to micro manage the squads into exact positioning.
The best you can do is tell them where to defend and face them in the direction you want and set covered arcs.

No way to limit reserves either. They are regimental and divisional assets(In reserve) that are individually assigned to the battalions, companies' and platoons(Much like building your own Kampfgruppe or task force). If you want you can disband them and they will go into reserve and you can reassign them to other units.

You can check out the infantry compositions by setting up quick battles and looking at the units you choose for comparison.