Bicycle Infantry

[Wolf sword]

Now forgive me if this was covered before, I did not find a thread on it.
Bicycle Infantry, why don't we see more of it in T2000? One would think that this would be an no brainer, your mechanized infantry regiment is all out of mechanized items, change them over to bikes. Yes they don't move as fast as they did, when they had the fuel but they will move faster then on foot.
It was used in Europe between WW1 and into early ww2 so why don't we see it? Is their something that I'm missing?

[kato13]

This thread

http://forum.juhlin.com/showthread.php?t=2649

Starts out about Cavalry but moves onto bikes as well with probably about 40 posts regarding them. Probably our most in depth discussion of them.

[Wolf sword]

Thanks, I missed that one.

[kato13]

It is easy to miss stuff. Glad to help.

[Silent Hunter UK]

I'd argue that one reason they don't get to be used is that they don't feel "right" for the setting. People's post-apocalypse media does not tend to involve heroes riding pedal bikes, it doesn't look gritty enough.

Seriously, can you imagine Tom Hardy riding a BMX to a battle?

[Raellus]

Originally Posted by Wolf sword

Now forgive me if this was covered before, I did not find a thread on it.
Bicycle Infantry, why don't we see more of it in T2000? One would think that this would be an no brainer, your mechanized infantry regiment is all out of mechanized items, change them over to bikes. Yes they don't move as fast as they did, when they had the fuel but they will move faster then on foot.
It was used in Europe between WW1 and into early ww2 so why don't we see it? Is their something that I'm missing?

I don't think that the original writers thought of it. It's easy to overlook, if one's not heavily read on WWII military history. Another possibility is that thought that bicycle-mounted infantry would be too vulnerable on the modern battlefield, and ruled it out as not believable to the layman (basically, what Silent Hunter said) I don't really know.

Regarding the military use of bicycles in WWII, bicycle infantry was used right up to the end of the war. The Volksturm had tank hunter-killer units- consisting mostly of children- equipped with bicycles and Panzerfausten. As the Germans ran out of trucks and petrol, several formerly motorized units were issued bicycles. The British even had a folding bicycle for some of their Parachute reconnaissance units.

I'd have to take a look, but I don't think Free City of Krakow featured any bicycle-mounted infantry. As described in the module, Krakow would definitely be able to manufacture basic bicycles. In my Pirates of the Vistula PbP campaign, I had Krakow doing so and, although they never featured in the story, my version of the Krakow ORMO OOB included a battalion mounted on bicycles.

In the latest edition of my Rook's Gambit Module (available on DrivethruRPG for $2.99), one of the Polish 19th Cavalry Division's infantry companies is bicycle-mounted (see page 25).

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/...--Rooks-Gambit

[Olefin]

The Japanese also had bike infantry as well - from what I remember they used them in Malaya and other areas and they were used extensively in China.

[unkated]

Originally Posted by Olefin

The Japanese also had bike infantry as well - from what I remember they used them in Malaya and other areas and they were used extensively in China.

Bicycle infantry was mostly a between the wars concept, a mechanically mounted infantry before motorized infantry - and skips the stabling and finding fodder on the move parts of mounted. By WW2, the only military that used bicycle infantry in action (that i know of) were the Japanese in Malaya, where they had little ability to land vehciles (and had few vehicles available).

There was a case of the Australian 2/30 battalion pulling off a nasty ambush on a Japanese bicycle regiment at the Gemencheh River (14-Jan-42).

https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C175811
https://www.230battalion.org.au/hist...wm67_3_111.htm

Uncle Ted

[Adm.Lee]

From various wargames, I know the Belgians had a bicycle brigade in 1940, and as late as the 1944 Normandy campaign, the Germans had separate brigades and battalions on bikes. ISTR some German infantry divisions about the same time mounted their reserve battalions, or at least some elements of them.

[Olefin]

Actually the Japanese bicycle infantry were a prime reason they won in Malaysia -and they managed to find all the bikes they needed once they got ashore - a prime example of living off the land.

And with fuel becoming short after 1998 I could see a lot of soldiers, on both sides, switching to bikes as an alternative to walking everywhere or having to wait for weeks to brew enough fuel to be able to fill the fuel tanks of their vehicles - and there would be huge numbers of bicycles available in Europe for sure.

[lordroel]

Originally Posted by Olefin

The Japanese also had bike infantry as well - from what I remember they used them in Malaya and other areas and they were used extensively in China.

The Netherlands also had bike infantry during World War II, can see them being used again during the Twilight War.

[Olefin]

I agree with you there Roel - again used as dragoons - i.e. you get to where you have to fight with the bicycles and then fight on foot - or you use them to patrol in relatively safe areas to conserve your alcohol fuel for vehicles that can go into harms way in the areas that arent safe at all

[swaghauler]

One thing this Thread highlights for me is the very general way Twilight2000 handles movement. I use movement as a plot device in my campaigns so I tie it to the Character's physical Characteristic scores.

A Character can march a number of Kilometers per HOUR (X4 for period movement) equal to THE AVERAGE (rounding down) of that Character's STR, CON and AGL (ie STR+CON+AGL/3). So a perfectly average Character can move 5km per hour (20km per period).

A Riding Animal (4 legged) can move THE AVERAGE of their STR, CON, and AGL (I assign these to horses, mules, camels etc...) BUT a rider can push his mount (with a skill roll AND a risk of injuring the mount) to move up to THE TOTAL of STR, CON, and AGL. So an average animal being pushed COULD average 15km per HOUR (60km per 4 hour Period).

A Character can ride a bike a total number of Kilometers equal to the TOTAL of STR, CON, and AGL per HOUR (X4 per Period). Thus a perfectly average Character could do 15km per hour (60km per Period).

This gets really fun when you have elderly civilians and young children (who have scores of 1 or 2) whom you are trying to evacuate in the face of an advancing enemy force.