The Commander Series Forum

Inspired by both the new release of the Not-Colonial Marines from O8 and the expanded cavalry squadron Macunaima put together, I've been working up a unit of Polish troops for my First Upheaval milieu. I'd debated making them a unit of Royal Marines, but somehow I feel the urge to do an Eastern Coalition force instead - plus I have a great logo in mind using a stylized horse-dress from the Winged Hussars.

Preliminary work: infantry-heavy, with the O8 "heavy infantry" as the main force. I prefer the look of the Badger armor, which will be a main support unit in three-suit squads (purchased from Mitteleuropean arms companies, given the close ties between the MDR and the Eastern European Coalition). Infantry is all mechanized, with the wheeled M577 as the primary APC, with mortar and AAA support at the company level. Each Hussar battalion is four mechanized infantry companies and a light armored company. Depending on how many vehicles a dropship looks like it could carry (four might be reasonable) there'd be three Dropships for an aerospace-interface company, though I don't know how many I might model for actual game use.

I'll have a TOE pretty soon I think.

Sounds cool - I like the idea of the mortar vehicle being a general purpose capable support platform; bit like the current Swedish mortar set up where it's also a really nasty ATGM etc...

I've been thinking of the general-purpose thing, myself, actually, and wondering about how to combine arms for a unit like this. I've been considering at how low a level an effective combined-arms unit could be for the Hussars. If at the platoon level, it could be two APCs, four teams of Infantry, and two tanks, carried in either one or two dropships, depending on the capacity. I kind of like the idea, although I'm not sure how it would work in practice, and might end up dispersing the armor too much to allow the force to be concentrated. Still, reorganizing would be relatively easy.

So:

Krakow Winged Hussars I. Eskadra
(8) Combined Arms Platoons (2 M577 APC, 4 Heavy Infantry teams, 2 M76 Light Tank) each with 1 or 2 organic AS-15B Dropships. Two platoons would make a section. One team in the first platoon in a section would have a heavy antipersonnel weapon, and one in the second platoon would have an antitank guided missile launcher.
(1) Special Weapons Section (4 M52 Mortar Carriers, 4 M59 AA Vehicles) with 2 AS-15B Dropships
(1) Command Section (a single AS-15B Dropship with a command element of 1 M577 APC (Command Variant) and 1 M76 Light Tank)
(1) Support Section (a single AS-15B Dropship with 2 Thor Heavy Missile Carriers and 2 M577 APCs equipped as FAC and FAO units)
(1) Air Cavalry Section (4 suitable Ground Attack VTOL units, possibly German Tigers with a suitable paint job and a little tinkering to give them more advanced-looking engines).
(1) Atmo-Interceptor Flight (something from the Ironwind Metals micro-fighter range for Battletech - the Shilone is an old favorite, as I'm a sucker for a flying wing, but the Slayer or the Corsair might be a little more conventional)

Total:
12 Dropships (assuming four vehicles to each dropship)
64 Strips of Heavy Infantry (two strips per team base, of which 4 are HQ elements)
19 M577 APC (of which 1 is part of the CO element, 1 is FAO, and 1 is FAC)
17 M76 Tank (of which 1 is part of the CO element)
4 M52 Mortar Carriers
4 M59 AA Vehicles
2 Thor Missile Artillery Vehicles
4 Tiger VTOL
2 Aerospace Fighters (of some description)

Two platoons would make a section, four sections would compose the full squadron. One APC in each section would carry an HQ element (one of the Heavy Infantry teams). It could dismount, but wouldn't fight - probably in most cases the Section HQ would remain in their APC to coordinate combat, and so that particular squad would fight short with only a single dismount team. I think I'm bending the rules slightly to make that work, but I'm not too worried about it. The CO unit is its own separate element carried in its own Dropship (as shown above)

This unit would be carried (off-table and not modeled) by one of the Brigade's four combat transports - I. Eskadra would be assigned to the vessel Tadeusz Kosciuszko. This would be a compact, space-mobile force capable of operating in places like the Moon or the Jovian Satellites, in contrast to units like the Earthlight Division and the St. Vincent Brigade, which are largely earthbound because of their dependence on hover vehicles. The CO element included is there mainly to make the unit functional independently in a FWC context. If more than one squadron were present in a battle (the Krakow Hussars Brigade has four in total), the CO element would not be duplicated for each one, but might be substituted with a more sophisticated model and given some escort VTOLs or a guard platoon in its own dropship, for security.

Not sure about the game balance yet, until I play with it a little bit. The appearance of fully-armed dropships over the table, in force, would be enough to make any opponent sweat, even the heavy tanks of the Earthlight Division. However, the Hussars commander would have to be careful - losing dropships to AAA fire would mean a tougher extraction if things went cross-eyed - there are already some good scenarios I can envision dealing with the very issue.

The unit would be an excellent candidate for a 'Light' BOLO of some kind, maybe one of the non-Superheavies from the Plasmablast Marhaf Legion range. Not sure how to get it to the surface, though - might still need a heavy lift vehicle instead of one of the dropships. Possibly one of the 'true scale' APCs from Reaper's CAV line would fill the bill, they tend to be about right for a superheavy SSTO transport at this scale; I've been using them as infantry dropships at 6mm scale already.

I'm informed by O8 that my eyes deceive me: a Crow dropship will only really carry a single vehicle. So, reconsidering the doctrine, the first section will ride down in Dropships to secure the LZ, then the second, third and fourth sections, support and artillery, will have heavy lifters and descend as units. The eight AS15B Dropships will unload, and freed of their cargo will then do double duty as VTOL support, obviating the gunships and possibly the fighters.

The CO, FAO and FAC elements will still have their own Crow assigned.

I'm thinking this bad boy for the Section Lifters:



One of these could be attached to carry a pair of light BOLOs as well. Might need a little touch up to scale down the cockpit, but I might just live with it. Doctrinally, it would be useful for carrying a large ground force but would be like a transatmospheric Chinook, with mainly defensive weaponry, where the O8 Crow is a dual purpose lander and heavy gunship.

That's nice... and a hefty piece of kit, from the look of it. I like the idea of the lighter droppers slamming through, doing their own auto suppression of air defences, dropping the first wave who can secure the LZ and then the big boys come in with the solid punch...

Probably a good bet for mercs - lose the gunships & fighters, cut out the cost of three platforms in dollars and man power and logistics.

I hadn't considered that, but it makes perfect sense, and even more so for an interface unit transported by spacecraft.

I wouldn't want to bother with seizing the drop zone, then dropping the VTOLs, then assembling them, then arming them and then finally getting them into action if I could just do the job with the stuff that would drop them anyway

It's there, it's ready, it fights in space and air, carries troops or cargo, provides air support etc. Reduces your logistics foot print and training time and...

Granted they might not make *good* space fighters, but depending on the opposition and your own level of support it may be all you need. The droppers are probably capable enough that replacing them in the role would require a dedicated fighter wing of some sort (perhaps like a Marine Air Wing if it's integral to the Hussars, or provided by their employer as another merc unit or a national space/close orbit & aerospace command if not...).

My 2 penneth, anyway

Indeed, it makes perfect sense, and further encourages a particular style of play attached to the force, which I've been trying to get going on the role playing side. Personally, I try to get players "into" the game more than just "Red is fighting blue and it's sci fi." That's just a bore.

Looks really good, Mathieu!

I'mgoing to swipe your winged hussars idea for my set-up,with a different TO&E.

The Colonial MArine Technical Manual is amust-read here, folks. It describes in loving detailexactly what these dropships can and cannot do:they are not space fighters - or any kind of fighter, for that matter. They are the equivalent of helicopters, basically. Zero manuverability diving in or climbing out of atmo.

I doubt anything fights well during re-entry

It's been a rough couple of weeks, so I decided to do something nice for myself and go ahead with the KWH, now that the O8 Dropships are back in stock at PicoArmor.com, and my Earthlight force is on the painting table. Unfortunately, the Reaper dropships I desired seem to have gone out of production, so I chose the next best thing:



A suitably chunky bit of hardware to get the Hussars from orbit to the surface, and it has a look of a larger vessel with a bridge. It might even be capable of interplanetary travel on its own.

Word to the wise when ordering Reaper OOP numbers: you can save a significant amount by buying the parts and not the bases and stands, which are dead weight if you use multipart stands, like I do, from CorSec.

We'll see how this goes.

Irony strikes again! I use those self-same Cav figs for 1/600 scale dropships myself!

They fit the part perfectly. I have these as landers for my 6mm scale Third Federated Rifles.

Very tasty, both!

The Hussars arrived in the evening mail, and they are fabulous casts - all I've come to expect from O8 and more! The dropships are especially nice, and, in a wonderful coincidence, have a casing cutout underneath them that's just big enough to hold the little mounting lug for CorSec modular flight stands. The older Reaper heavy lifters (above) arrived as well, and measure up very nicely, looking like they can carry a full section and support. Now all I need is a break in the humidity long enough to prime them - and a little free time to do so. Both are tall orders at the moment, but there you go.

I'm thinking of a Gold and Red color scheme. I have a TOE underway. This is going to be a very fun little force for the table!

Oh, and by the way:

http://www.badassoftheweek.com/hussars.htm...

Should I gather it's a currently a little interesting, weather wise...

http://www.flemcomics.com/d/20020223.html or the slightly later in the series http://www.flemcomics.com/d/20020307.html

Warning, not safe for work or those without a twisted sense of humour.

Also, red & gold sound good, very spiffy!

Man, those Reaper dropships are sooooo cooooooool. [drool]

And an official KWH TO&E:

First Hussar M-577 APC came off the line this morning.

I'm deciding whether or not to reverse the colors, and make this the Command APC, while the line units are gold with a red stripe. One way or the other, that's the scheme, with the Command unit the inverse of the line unit.

Special thanks to Macunaima for his 'neon highlighting' scheme - the bright pink edges help a lot to boost the contrast, I think. And although it's a little washed-out under my fluorescent light here, it does have a nice edge contrast.

Looks cracking - I hadn't noticed the edges were such a neon pink, they just "popped" really well!

I'd do one in the reverse scheme before deciding

Very effective.

Wow, that is an effective scheme! I agree with Toxic: do the reverse scheme before choosing. Really. Ice!

Thanks, guys! I like it, too. I'm trying to find time to do the Gold and Red scene, but that's easier said than done. Red and yellow are notoriously the hardest colors to work with, and it's no lie!

Finally got a unit of Hussars together. If all goes well they're going into combat against the Regimento Acero this weekend.

Looking very good!

Up Warsaw!