RE: TOE was: Re: Mixed Tech forces

At 10:06 AM +1000 6/29/04, <Beth.Fulton@csiro.au> wrote:
>G'day,
>
>And more from Brian ;)
>
>Cheers
>
>Beth
>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>John Atkinson wrote:
>
>>>  Yup.  What about an ARV and a ZADS?
>
>>Well, there should be 1 recovery vehicle per line
>>company
>
>Attached to the command lance but autonomous, I assume?  One of the
>problems with the DSII unit cohesion and morale rules is that they
don't
>do very well in situations where an element is best used in smaller
>sub-units, or should be readily attachable and detachable from other
>units -- ZADS and ARV's come to mind quite readily.

It just depends. I've never seen a problem where an element (single 
vehicle) would operate alone or near a command unit. Usually the Coy 
SGT or some other senior NCO of a Coy would be running around with 
such an element riding herd. Or so I've read.

Basically, if you want your ARV to be independent, run it 
independently. Don't stick it in the COmmand platoon as there is 
typically a HQ platoon and a coy HQ in many TOE's that are different. 
One is the command unit for the Company (the HQ platoon) and the 
other is the administrative and service support element for the 
company.
>
>
>OK, so one lance of engineers:  two sublances of one AEV and one APC of
>foot engineers each?

I'll have a pair or three of tracks (2 apcs, one specialist vehicle) 
if I have combat engineer support in a game. Usually one is a tank 
with a short barrel (AVRE) that is used for combat demolitions. There 
is another that has a raised superstructure on a typical tank that I 
postulate has the equivalent of other specialized demolition gear as 
well, plus the usual 2-3 tracks of APCs. It depends on the game as to 
how I'll allocate them. There's also a big class V AVLB that I run 
around sometimes for obstacle crossing.

Then there are several ZADs and other elements that I run.

1 ZAD is attached to the Brigade HQ.
1 ZAD is semi-attached to the on-table artillery
1 ZAD is allocated to the secondary Brigade HQ if it's on table 
(sometimes I'll run two Armored Command Vehicles)
2-4 ZADs are semi-attached to the line companies. Usually they move 
forwards as support elements independent with their own command 
markers (usually blue or green 3s).

If I'm running an ARV or two, they're running around on their own as 
they would be in RL. They have their own command chit as well.

>I'm still working on my air cave troop configuration, I picked up some
>more VTOL's this weekend (was in Portland, cleaned out the last of
>Bridgetown's Future Wars stock -- all two packs).  So now I have two
>aitrframes:  I have six of the wide, flat GZG design (four with wing
>pods, tow without), and six of the narrow, two-seat, gunship a la
>cobra/apache/Tigre (two woth wing pods, six without).	I'll figure
>something out.

Wing pods add SLAMs. No Wing Pods run a gun with a few weapons. I 
have slicks, gunships and light gunships as well. 6 Yellow Jackets 
from Ral Partha that have added pods on the side representative of 
GMS/H Launchers, a dozen slick VTOLs from GZG, and 2 smaller Ral 
Partha Helos that act as scouts for the Yellow Jackets. There are 
also some large Class 5 Tilt Rotors that I bought from ral partha for 
transporting class 1 vehicles or a whole slew of infantry.

>I also had an idea for the light arty lance.  I was going to try to
find
>some sort of tube turret or open-backed mortar carrier.  But instead, I
>came up with a RAM design that makes it look like a rocket launcher

Take an APC, stick a tube on the back. The Tube is gimballed to fire 
vertically to nearly 45 degrees from an enclosed space inside. 
Magazine fed and automaticly loaded. The crew inside roll up, double 
check the barrel for obstructions and then hit "GO" for the fire 
mission that the Brigade or Btn TOC has assigned to them via the 
command net.

>instead.  I have some of the LRM-5 launchers from some Battletech
Badger
>omnitanks (and 8 leftover badger hulls, if someone wants to trade
>somehting for them).  I', mounting them on some grav hulls (ok, they're
>supposed to be GEV, but they look close enough to Grav).  I decided on
>the following design:
>
>AG-7 Wendigo
>Class 3 Grav
>Armor 3 stealth 0 superior ECM Superior FireCon Redundant systems
>Light Artillery, SLAM-3 (fixed mount), 1 extra artillery mission, APSW.
>
>The SLAM rationale:  both it and the light artillery are the same
>system:  a non-guided multiple rocket launcher, that can be fired in
>direct OR indirect fire modes.

I run SLAMS as a basic multi shot ZUNI Rocket launcher. Not terribly 
useful on the table. I'd rather pay the points in a ground unit as a 
GMS/H launcher with a smaller hull and better point fire (lots of 
GMS/H are great for killing something you want dead dead dead). 
Anything that I'd run as a SLAM unit on the ground I postulate as 
artillery instead and run it as Rocklet artillery.

>
>My APC's are made from plastic RenLeg TOG Aenas light tanks, with
>turrets from two different modern light AFV's.  The turrets are similar
>but not identical.  I'm trying to find a way to explain this without
>having to make them two different weapons turrets.

One has a GMSH and RFAC2 and the other has a GMS/L and an RFAC2. (one 
is a MICV, one is a scout vehicle with more teeth for dealing with 
Red Force Recce units) I've run some of them as my ZAD for the grav 
force that I run as my ersatz OU force. A whole company of light grav 
MICVs, 2 platoons of heavy grav tanks, 1 platoon of light grav tanks, 
and 1 platoon of more heavily armed MICVs as part of the scouts. 
There is one MICV that was converted to an ARV, 4 that are modified 
as ZAD, one turretless MICV used as an ACV (lots of antennas) and 4 
heavy tanks modified for use as class 4 artillery with a CBR element 
attached.

The force was fun running a large table over the beach assault 
against a friend.

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