When you guys are purchasing infantry for your force do you think it's better to go with leg infantry because they will be cheaper so you will get more of them, or to go with mechanized infantry so they will get there faster? Is the map terrain a big consideration when deciding this? Are truck mounted infantry ever worth getting?
Thanks in advance.
Mech infantry is better except in deep forests / jungle / swamps. Not only is infantry faster but the APC machine guns are a nice support to infantry vs infantry.
Truck transport is not worth the low cost. It is easily destroyed by infantry / tanks / arty / APC, and so is the mounted infantry. Also, trucks carry no weapons.
Map plays the biggest factor in my buys. First off, I always buy some straight legs to deploy on my open flanks. Whether to buy mech or trucks depends on the amount of points you have available. If low points then I would go with trucks but use them in a relay method. What I mean by this is load up your company and take them to the front, unload, and return for the next company (while the trucks are moving to the front the legs start walking to meet up with them). Instead of buying a company of trucks for each infantry company, buy one or two depending on the number of companies and just keep relay ferrying them around.
I consider M113s the same as trucks since they have no real combat capability. There 12.7 is useless so I don't hold them in the front lines. If the terrain is heavy I will try to go with tracks, if open then trucks.
If I am defending I will go with legs with mobilized/mechanized in reserve.
They all have there places, no one scheme fits the bill. Also you can go with tank riding, although I don't do this if I can avoid it.
I try to buy the least amount of transport I can get away with. I prefer to load infantry on tanks for their trip to the front.
The map and your plan is important. Where are you going to defend and where do you hope to advance or break through? Or how much mobility do you need?
In meeting engagements, it's important to get to the centre as fast as possible and hold the better positions. To do this I often have to buy transport (other than tanks) but like Matxer I avoid trucks/lorries and buy halftracks, which have MGs and can be used to support the infantry later.
Halftracks also have some armour and even some AA ability. I will often only get a platoon of halftracks for a company of infantry. The HTs will rush a platoon forward, who will be expected to hold the ground while the HTs go back for reinforcements.
Infantry transport by tanks may be a good idea which I should test.
However, I see 3 drawbacks:
* some tanks have no infantry carry capacity
* Tank transport means that infantry and tanks are going to the same place, which isn't always optimal. Also, infantry can't protect tanks efficiently since it is in the same hex as the tank. Adding some cheap vehicles in front or around the tanks negates the cost advantage of tank transport
* Tank transport implies that you'll have few infantry units, as little as the number of tanks.
Hi Cross,
Yes, APC are just as vulnerable to arty as tanks. Even more I'd say, as their top armor is inferior.
Unloading infantry at the end of the turn is costly in terms of speed: you need to reload at the beginning of next turn which reduces the move counter of the APC or tank.
I think you're right: transport by tanks should be used as an addition, saving the cost of APCs for one platoon, not for the entire infantry company.
I'd like to comment on the statement of Weasel saying the 12.7 MG is useless. I don't have as much experience as Weasel but it seems to me a light MG can be pretty useful, for suppressing purpose for example, using the area fire feature. I'd say that any gun is useful. I recently killed an ATGM infantry with a crew manning a pistol and grenade (at 1 hex range, of course).
matxer Wrote:Hi Cross,
Yes, APC are just as vulnerable to arty as tanks. Even more I'd say, as their top armor is inferior.
Unloading infantry at the end of the turn is costly in terms of speed: you need to reload at the beginning of next turn which reduces the move counter of the APC or tank.
I think you're right: transport by tanks should be used as an addition, saving the cost of APCs for one platoon, not for the entire infantry company.
I'd like to comment on the statement of Weasel saying the 12.7 MG is useless. I don't have as much experience as Weasel but it seems to me a light MG can be pretty useful, for suppressing purpose for example, using the area fire feature. I'd say that any gun is useful. I recently killed an ATGM infantry with a crew manning a pistol and grenade (at 1 hex range, of course).
Agreed it has it uses, but I don't think that holding your M113s in the front line to use them for that is worth the risk of them being clobbered by everything from hand held AT to arty. Thus I use them as trucks and set up the relay.