Scouting is always a difficult thing to pull off in wargames, because the valuable part of the unit is its intelligence gathering and mobility, both of which are not represented well (if it all) in most games, and so light units like this tend to be either relegated to scenarios (hold out until the real army shows up) or expended as speed bumps for the heavies, when in reality they ought to not engage in any sort of even combat.
Chain of Command has some notion of how this works with its patrol phase, and keeping units off the table until needed by the dictates of the game at hand, but even there light units are mostly targets. (and as a platoon scale game, something like these Lynx still would not make much of an appearance)
Now you've got me wanting to start hacking rules to make recon vehicles good.
There's two benefits recon vehicles really offer - a benefit to survivability to your own vehicles by allowing you to be aware of enemy movements and move your tank appropriately, and a benefit to offense in terms of effectively "spotting" targets for your MBTs.
Some options that occur to me:
- A core mechanic for "spotting" an enemy tank, with recon vehicles being super good at it and other vehicles not so much - but you gain a bonus for existing vehicles in your force having sighted and relayed information. Realistic, but could get frustrating.
- Represent the same thing by lowering the effective range on your guns for anything not right out in the open, but increase it back up if a recon unit has been able to spot and relay a target.
- Allow a recon unit to grant bonuses to armour saves for your own units, as they're warned of an opponent and have more time to move to cover or present their stronger armour to the enemy.
- Allow a recon unit to grant bonuses to your units attacking a particular enemy, as they direct fire for them.
- If the survival of a unit is only representing "what happens when a gun actually fires at a unit", then recon units are going to be poorly served. Stats for historical games should be including the practicalities of conflict in the first place, preferably modelled off historical data. I'm a big fan of Philip Sabin's approach in "Lost Battles" - although that applies to warfare in the ancient world, the principles are easily transferable.
...
I think I just reminded myself why I stick to fantasy and sci fi - because it seems that for historical gaming, I have Opinions...
Fabulous looking wildcats Greg! As for your thoughts on recce assets in tabletop games I‘m inclined to think that‘s mostly down to the scale we‘re using for our figures with tanks and other AT-assets being usually able to cover the whole of the table with their guns. Also there‘s sadly not much need for reconnaissance with both commanders being able to see what his troops shouldn‘t be able to see. The use of blinds could provide an answer to this conundrum?
October 27, 2019 at 1:04 PM
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A patrol of Canadian "Lynx" armoured vehicles.
Some additional Canadian Content for my "Team Yankee" forces. These are two "Lynx", a variant of the M113 CRV - basically mini-M113s. The Canadian Forces used them for reconnaissance duties - a squadron of these vehicles were attached to each Canadian armoured regiment, and they also supported the work of the mechanized infantry battalions. These models are from Battlefront. The decals are a mix of Armies Army and a 1/87 Canadian Forces decal sheet I found online.
[Image]
Rear view on the models - great sculpting work by Battlefront.
In "Team Yankee" the Lynx are deployed in pairs as a "patrol". I had already painted two of these vehicles, so I now have a second "patrol" to use with my Canadian battlegroup. I have to give credit to Battlefront, they did a fine job on these models - they are the more traditional mix of resin and metal components (a declining portion, it seems, of the Battlefront product mix these days).
[Image]
Practice maneuvers in my kitchen.
In real military operations, vehicles such as the Lynx (and their hardy crew, of course) provide a vital function. The Lynx would be out ahead and on the flank, watching for enemy
movements and providing vital intelligence to the formation commanders. Any modern military force would be asking for trouble without this kind of support.
But I find that critical nature is very hard to capture in tabletop wargaming. On our gaming tables, the recon vehicles mostly just serve as early targets for your opponent. The M113 CRV is a light armoured vehicle. While the MGs can fight (a bit) against similar enemy vehicles, In "Team Yankee" they will...mostly blow up very fast.
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Commander in the hatch, always a useful way to show a command vehicle for a troop.
I find that many wargame rules struggle with the best way to reflect the value of reconnaissance assets - and I don't really know what the answer is. "Spearhead" comes the closest - and this makes sense, given the division-level nature of that ruleset. For these more tactical games, you could structure a game where the reconnaissance units have the goal of scouting/spotting something and then escaping/falling back...but as gamers we (or, at least, I) want to have the big tanks blasting away at each other too...it's hard to combine both aspects on one 6'x4' table.
Well, no matter what service they render on the table, my lead/plastic/resin Canadians will welcome the support. When you are facing the Warsaw Pact hordes, you'll take all the help you can get!
"Canadian Lynx Patrol for "Team Yankee""
5 Comments -
Scouting is always a difficult thing to pull off in wargames, because the valuable part of the unit is its intelligence gathering and mobility, both of which are not represented well (if it all) in most games, and so light units like this tend to be either relegated to scenarios (hold out until the real army shows up) or expended as speed bumps for the heavies, when in reality they ought to not engage in any sort of even combat.
Chain of Command has some notion of how this works with its patrol phase, and keeping units off the table until needed by the dictates of the game at hand, but even there light units are mostly targets. (and as a platoon scale game, something like these Lynx still would not make much of an appearance)
Nice work on these two btw.
October 24, 2019 at 1:39 PM
Now you've got me wanting to start hacking rules to make recon vehicles good.
There's two benefits recon vehicles really offer - a benefit to survivability to your own vehicles by allowing you to be aware of enemy movements and move your tank appropriately, and a benefit to offense in terms of effectively "spotting" targets for your MBTs.
Some options that occur to me:
- A core mechanic for "spotting" an enemy tank, with recon vehicles being super good at it and other vehicles not so much - but you gain a bonus for existing vehicles in your force having sighted and relayed information. Realistic, but could get frustrating.
- Represent the same thing by lowering the effective range on your guns for anything not right out in the open, but increase it back up if a recon unit has been able to spot and relay a target.
- Allow a recon unit to grant bonuses to armour saves for your own units, as they're warned of an opponent and have more time to move to cover or present their stronger armour to the enemy.
- Allow a recon unit to grant bonuses to your units attacking a particular enemy, as they direct fire for them.
- If the survival of a unit is only representing "what happens when a gun actually fires at a unit", then recon units are going to be poorly served. Stats for historical games should be including the practicalities of conflict in the first place, preferably modelled off historical data. I'm a big fan of Philip Sabin's approach in "Lost Battles" - although that applies to warfare in the ancient world, the principles are easily transferable.
...
I think I just reminded myself why I stick to fantasy and sci fi - because it seems that for historical gaming, I have Opinions...
October 24, 2019 at 4:46 PM
Thanks guys! @Responsible - those are all excellent ideas for house rules :)
October 25, 2019 at 8:59 AM
Great work as always on these Greg!
October 25, 2019 at 4:30 PM
Fabulous looking wildcats Greg! As for your thoughts on recce assets in tabletop games I‘m inclined to think that‘s mostly down to the scale we‘re using for our figures with tanks and other AT-assets being usually able to cover the whole of the table with their guns. Also there‘s sadly not much need for reconnaissance with both commanders being able to see what his troops shouldn‘t be able to see. The use of blinds could provide an answer to this conundrum?
October 27, 2019 at 1:04 PM