7 replies to this topic

[Steven Landers]

I am getting ready to start doing some WWII Pacific theatre units, and have a question.From what I have read, for Japanese troops, their tactics do not allow them to split their squad into seperate fire teams, so I was thinking about basing the squad on a single stand roughly double the size of a normal stand - Call it a double stand or something, then basing the squad LMG as a half stand. Then allowing the squad to take three hits +1 for the LMG stand.Since I am still fairly new to using the rules, I was wondering if that sounded usable.

[Joel Tompkins]

There are at least a couple of us that call a standard base (1/2" sq or a penny) a squad without changing anything else. Works just fine and can be argued that it gives a more accurate frontage at the 1"=50yds nominal scale of the game.

[Bob Benge]

Basing is not a critical aspect of the game. You can base as you wish as long as you keep things consistant. I would suggest that you use the standard mounting and just keep the stands together (maybe using metal bases but use a magnetic large (double) base, or visa versa, to put the 2 stands on). I would also use the standard number of hits for the stands (thus 4), but remove one stand when two hits are accumulated. You will also want to combine the rifle FP when firing. This would keep things simple. You could your suggested basing, but I can see complications arising including; trying to access the penalties for the large stand taking hits, i.e. do you 3/4 the firepower after 1 hit? 2/2 the firepower after 2 hits? etc. Mull it over and let me know what you think or end up trying. I would be interested to know how it pans out for you.Joel pointed out that he and others (MMGers I believe also) use squad based stands instead of the Half Squad based stands as in the rules. This is fine too. As a matter of fact, in the upcoming revision of the MP Core Rules we will be switching the game to squad based stands from the original half squad stands. We hope that simplifying the infantry rules some, to get them in-line with the tank rules, will make the game run and flow better. We are not getting rid of the half squad rules but will be splitting them off as a supplement/add-on/independant game for the people who like using the fire team scale stands. We will be beefing up these split off infantry rules, which will be called Mein Truppen, with more detail and some more rules refinement. This will offer the gamer an intermediary infantry game scale between the skirmish level and the squad based levels that are already on the market. The reason for doing the split off was that we found that many of our players found that the current scale of the infantry tended to bog down the game too much for the scale of the game. A couple of groups used the squad level infantry stands and this, coupled with streamlining the infantry stats, made the game play and flow much better. Thus, the rework of the MP Core Rules infantry chapter as outlined above. Some of the gamers still liked the scale of the play of the original Core Rules Infantry so we thought of pulling it out, touching it up and beefing it up and make it a game that can plug-in to MP or can function as a game on its own. More to follow on this so stay tuned.I think that the info you mention here will be considered for the Mein Truppen game/supplement and will be looked at. Since squad sizes tended to vary from country to country, and even service to service within these countries, we were looking at addressing similar issues. The Russians and the US Marines, for example had large squad sizes and could require an extra fire team for the Russians or extra BAR stands for the US Marines. Suffice it to say there will be a lot of interesting thngs will be looking at for MT. Thanks for you question. :)

Post edited by: bbenge, at: 2006/02/28 07:58

[Steven Landers]

I kind of like the current scale, and now you have me drooling at the potential for the revised rules. I will look forward to hearing about them.In the meantime, I like the idea of moving the squad as one, and combining their rifle fire. I guess what I will do is say that they have to be in base-to-base contact, and just up their ROF by whatever the second section has.Thanks,Steve

[Bob Benge]

No problem Steve. Is the LMG included in the squad stand? I would only combine the Rifle firepower (essentially doubling it), but I would not change the ROF. Personally, I would also fire the LMG seperate using its own FP and ROF. ;)

[Norbert Schmetz]

Hi folks.I'm just starting with MP, painted some vehicles (Afrika Korps) already. I want to begin with my infantry now, but I'm afraid you could change the size of the bases. So, my question is, what will be the size of infantry bases after the upcoming revision of MP? Greetings, MadMan.

[Bob Benge]

Actually the base sizes are remaining the same. :)The composition of the stands will change a little though. The basic infantry stands are being converted from half squad stands to full squad stands. The squad stands will now be; rifle, rifle/SAW (squad automatic weapon), rifle/LMG, assault rifle, assault rifle/SAW, assault rifle/LMG, SMg, or SMG/LMG stands. Basically a squad level stand will have its support weapon on the combined on the stand now if it had one. Honestly, if you have based a rifle stand without its support weapon that is fine, it really doesn't matter as long as the stats are waht you want. Rebasing is not necessary if you are consistent as I have mentioned in this thread somewhere before. If you are just starting to base units or desire to match the changes then simply including a squad support weapon on the stand will do the trick. Pop off a rifleman and replace it with an LMG or SAW (BAR). Everything else remains as it is. We are still using MMG, HMG, XMG, crew (which is now broken into small and large; large crew being used for large guns, i.e. 88mm flak gun among others, that used 6 or more men), command, FO, Flamethrower/Demo (2 man team), and staff. To base a large crew, which was not in the rules before, base 4 crew figures on a squad sized base. Hope this helps, Mad Man. :)

[Norbert Schmetz]

Yep, thanks.:cheer: