So what follows is an abstract argeument; I'm not suggesting for one moment that I would ever advocate this with anyone other than someone who I played with on a regular basis and it was just to see what happened etc:
This is a list from another games system (GZG, I think) it is itself extrapolated from an existing military formation from sometime in the last twenty years. I have 40kificated it a bit, just to bring it into context.
It does not follow FOC (duh !) rules and is certainly not optimised or even vaguely likely to last long on a 5th Ed battlefield (without some AFV back up). In the game system it is from, these guys are mounted in (GMC 4x6) soft top trucks.
Motorised Infantry Company:
Total Strength: 6 Officers, 117 Other Ranks (123 total troops).
Company Headquarters (2 Officers, 1 Other Rank)
The company headquarters comprises 3 personnel - the Company Commander, the Executive Officer (carrying the vox caster), and the Company Sergeant (carrying the company standard).
Mortar Platoon (1 Officer, 11 Other Ranks)
HQ Squad (1 Officer, 1 OR)
The HQ of the Support Platoon consists of just two men - the Platoon Commander and Platoon Sergeant (carrying a vox caster).
3 x Mortar Squad (3 ORs each)
Three three man mortar teams operating mortars. Each team has a gunner, loader, and ammo carrier equipped with a standard Las gun in addition to their mortar.
Forward Observer (1 OR)
Independent figure armed with standard Las gun, carrying an auspex and vox caster.
3 x Rifle Platoons (1 Officer, 35 Other Ranks each)
HQ Squad (1 Officer, 1 OR)
A two-man team, including the Platoon Commander and Platoon Sergeant. The Sergeant is armed with a bolter.
Rifle Squad (9 ORs)
Squad Leader, 2 x Hvy Stubber (Gunner + Loader), and three riflemen and one marksman with a sniper rifle. The squad members, except for the marksman, will have standard las guns.
Rifle Squad (9 ORs)
Squad Leader, 2 x Hvy Stubber (Gunner + Loader), and four riflemen. The squad members will have standard las guns.
Rifle Squad (9 ORs)
Squad Leader, 2 x Hvy Stubber (Gunner + Loader), and three riflemen and one flamer operator with a flamer. The squad members, except for the flamer operator, will have standard las guns.
Weapons Squad (7 ORs)
Squad Leader and two 3-man Hvy Bolter teams. Squad members are armed with the standard las gun and each team has a tripod-mounted Hvy Bolter.
Sometimes the Motorized Rifle Company will also have an attached reconnaissance platoon, or other Battalion level assets. Possibilities are not limited to the following examples but they are fairly representative.
Reconnaissance Platoon (1 Officer, 25 Other Ranks)
HQ Squad (1 Officer, 1 OR)
A two-member team, including the Platoon Commander and Platoon Sergeant. Both will be armed with las pistol and CCW.
3 x Recce Squads (8 ORs each)
Assault Squads include a Squad Leader, Hvy Stubber (Gunner + Loader), RPG [counts as ML] (Gunner + Loader), and three riflemen armed with standard las guns.
Other Attachments
Anti-Air Team (3 OR)
A three-member team, armed with a shoulder launched anti-air missile launcher (counts as a ML on an AA mount). They may have standard las guns or auto guns.
Anti-Armour Team (2 OR)
A two-member team, armed with an ATGW (counts as Hunter Killer Missile). They also have standard las guns.
Grenadier Team (7 OR)
Squad Leader, 4 riflemen, 2 grenadiers. They have standard las guns and the two grenadiers have GLs.
Casualty Aid Team (3 OR)
A two-member team, medic and assistant medic. They may have las pistols or be unarmed.
How do think this would play ? I was thinking that it would make for an interesting Opposing Force for an IG army. It would give the OpFor a distinct flavour, making them an interesting opponent (in terms of doctine/tactics as well as appearance), rather than just IG with the aqilla filed off.
I'd like to hear the nays as well as the ayes, if you have the time.
I like the look of this, and I'd enjoy either playing it or playing against it. It'd be interesting to try to tot up the points...
ReplyDelete...Last weekend I was discussing with a friend of mine (Capt, RE) playing very unbalanced games of 40K - the idea of striving for at least a 3:1 advantage as a basis for any deliberate attack.
That got us onto the idea (which I've long been tempted by) of writing orders for each unit in a deliberate attack' and them having to follow them. Changes would require a Ld test first...
The things that spring instantly to mind would be to take what we know of Op Overlord and try to reverse engineer the points values into FoW.
ReplyDeleteAnd the orders thing makes me think of that TV programme where punters re-fought historical battles VS the computer model it went ok with smaller ones but they struggled when there was one 'hands-off' general giving instructions to two 'hands-on' captains.
On reflection, the above formation would rely on the fact that it had very effective weapons - the ATGWs, for instance, would be better that the 1st generation ATGW of not so long ago; The AA would be fire and forget and not IR guided tail chasers - all Smurf weapons rather than IG ones.