The 4-person crew is composed of commander, driver, mechanic, and rigger. The latter two have no combat roles, effectively being passengers, but each position has its own roof hatch, so they can stand up to fire small arms from partial cover. I’ve been unable to substantiate GDW’s claim that the cabin includes four passenger seats for the crew of a disabled AFV under tow.
Speeds given are for normal movement. The vehicle can tow up to 45 tons at half speed. Two M88A1s in tandem are required to safely tow a vehicle above that weight, such as an M1 Abrams-series MBT.
Beyond the numbers, the M88A1 has four interesting pieces of equipment worth noting for game purposes.
Winch: Front-mounted, 60-meter cable, 41-ton capacity. Treat the winch as a component in the
penetrating/cargo hit location with Reliability 5.
Crane: A-frame boom, stowed on top of the vehicle but forward-facing when elevated for work. Can reach up to 2.5 meters in front of the vehicle, with a maximum lift of 7 meters. It’s intended for lighter vehicle recovery (think truck or APC as opposed to MBT) or changing major components (like engines), but can be used for other construction tasks in a pinch. 60-meter cable, 23-ton capacity (drops to 5 tons if the dozer blade is not in use to stabilize the vehicle). Treat the crane as a component in the
non-penetrating/external stores hit location with Reliability 4.
Dozer blade: Front-mounted, full width of the hull. Primary designed function is to stabilize the vehicle when winching but can also be used for light earthmoving, including carving out hull-down fighting positions for vehicles. Treat the blade as a component in the
non-penetrating/external stores hit location with Reliability 5.
Auxiliary power unit (APU): Can provide limited electrical power without use of the main engine. This enables battery charging (both for the vehicle’s own batteries or other devices), as well as use of the hydraulics that drive the three items described above. Consider this a 5-kilowatt generator (“large” for fourth edition purposes) that consumes 15 liters of fuel per shift (doubled for alcohol, of course). For damage purposes, treat the APU as a component in the
penetrating/cargo hit location with Reliability 3.
At the referee’s discretion, appropriate use of appropriate equipment may provide bonuses or reduce the construction time for base facilities. I’d say a fully-functional M88/M88A1 reduces the time for building defensive works from a day per hex to a shift per hex. Most of the other base facilities in the 4e
Player’s Manual won’t benefit as much from earthmoving and winching capabilities, but I’d still call it a +1 bonus for anything requiring heavy construction work.
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Notes on the conversion are on my gaming blog at
https://libellus.de-fenestra.com/.
- C.