4.2" mortar pl

[TMO]

A British infantry Bn would normally be supported by a 4.2" mortar Pl. With this in mind I decided to add a 4.2" Pl to the Irish Guards in the Joe's Bridge scenario. Consulting the ever-reliable Gary Kennedy War Establishment Tables, a British 4.2" Pl has 38 men (currently modelled as 60) and so I changed the number of personnel rifles etc, hit 'save' and 'compiled'. I then opened the Scenario Maker and (as a test) assigned this Pl to 100% of its estab, i.e. it should show four 4.2" mortars.

What actually happens is that when you start the game you only have two mortars even though the unit is supposed to be at full strength (i.e. four mortars). Reducing the number of crew for the 4.2" from 6 (currently the Estab standard) to 3 - seems to sort this out.

Anybody else noticed/able to replicate this? Is this due to a gun crew to unit strength ratio?

Regards

Tim

[Lieste]

You could also try reducing the number of 'rifles' or vehicles (& crew). While "everyone and his dog" has a rifle Cmd Ops assumes that crews operate their weapon and are not simultaneously combat effective as a rifle-man.

[TMO]

Thanks Lieste, did all those things, i.e. reduced rifles etc from 60 to 38 in a commensurate fashion.

Regards

Tim

[Lieste]

Not 38 ~ if you have 38 men serving 4 tubes at 6 men each then reduce 'rifles' to no more than 14.

[TMO]

38 is the correct number (according to the WE tables) - how does crew individual weapon (rifle etc) allocation affect the way the game plays?

Regards

Tim

[TMO]

Not 38 ~ if you have 38 men serving 4 tubes at 6 men each then reduce 'rifles' to no more than 14.

So does reducing the number of 'rifles' sort this out?

Regards

Tim

[Arjuna]

The allocation process simply assigns pers to weapons. If there is not enough pers to man the weapon then it is culled. So you should ignore heavy weapons crew from any small arms count. As Lieste recommends you should first determine the number of 4.2" mortars you want. Then multiply this by their crew. Then deduct this from the total PersQty and that is the number of pers you have to crew other weapons like rifles and mahine guns. So if you have 4 mortars each with a crew of six then you have 24 of your 38 crewing these and only 14 remaining to crew other weapons. So allocate just 14 rifles and then it should work. If you have more than 14 rifles then there will be achance in the allocation that the additional rifles will get crewed and one or more mortars miss out.

Does that help explain it?

[TMO]

Thanks Dave, that explains a lot - will have a play and report back.

Regards

Tim

[TMO]

A thought - given the above advice, how about adding that info to the manuals.

Kind regards

Tim