Tachankas

[spielmeister]

Hi everyone,

I'm slowly preparing for a FTF Twilight 2000 game I hope to run soon.

I recall a thread on these forums talking about horse cavalry in Twilight 2000. An offshoot of the thread were references to Tachankas to beef up the firepower of the cavalry detachment.

My question is, what would be the heaviest weapon one can fire from a Tachanka (whether the Tachanka is standing still or moving slowly) without compromising the safety of the vehicle, crew and horses?

I have zero real world experience in crew-served weapons so I would not know for instance what the real world effects are on a Tachanka if say, a 23mm 'sergei' autocannon were somehow mounted on the bed of a large wagon and fired. In fact, I'm not even sure if this is at all possible?

Is it safe to assume that the heaviest crew served weapon one can safely mount on a tachanka (and fire) would be an M2 50 cal? What about a Mark 19 or AGS-17 Plamya? From historical pictures I've seen on the net, most Tachankas mount machine guns like maxims or the vickers.

What about ATGMs and/or recoilless rifles? Won't this just spook the horses as well?

Would anyone care to share some observations or comments?

Many thanks and a good day to you all. :-)

[Targan]

Horses can be trained to tolerate loud, sudden sounds like gunfire but it takes time and by the end of its career you'll have a deaf horse. I think a four wheeled wagon with a couple of tonnes load capacity could definitely handle having a smaller sort of autocannon or a recoiless rifle fired from its bed but that would shake up even the best trained horses. The poor things would become nervous wrecks. I guess you could keep the horses in their yokes or harnesses but move them away from the wagon before firing.

Firing an M2 50 cal, Mark 19 or AGS-17 Plamya while stationary or moving shouldn't be a problem.

These are just my opinions because I have very limited experience with horses, wagons or heavy weapons.

[spielmeister]

Thanks Targan.

Yes, I would imagine the noise and flash of an autocannon or RR in close proximity to the horses will wreak havoc on them.

I also want to bring in more horse-drawn vehicles and weapons in my game as an additional piece of scenery to drive home to point to my players how scarce motor vehicles (and fuel) have become.

[Mohoender]

I agree with Targan but I would add mortars to the list (up to 120mm) and may be even automatic mortars such as the Vasileks. In addition you'll find anti-air weapons: missiles (if they are available) on special support, mutli-MG looking like the quad maxims used by the Russians in WW2, HMGs, ZPU-1 and ZPU-2 14.5mm HMG.

ZPU-4 and ZU-23, however, would probably, be too big.

Just to give you an idea, I visited a wild reserve in the mountains close to my place this summer. That visit was done by horse-cart (4 wheels) tracked by 2 horses and off-road. the cart itself weighted 1.5 tons and we were 14 people on it (an additional 1.5 tons). These two horses were then, capable of pulling 3 tons with a relative ease and with an impressive speed while on the mud roads.
With only 3-4 people on it and a weapon of no more than 200-300kg, a tachanka should weight only 2 tons at full load. With a good driver, speed and crossing capabilities could be impressive.

[spielmeister]

Hi Mohoender!

Well, I really have also zero experience with wagons and the like save for a few sightings during a few infrequent visits to the provinces. I've seen a lot of water buffalo here though and they seem rather strong from what i've seen.

Those are respectable qualities you stated there with just 2 horses pulling the wagon.

The tachankas i envision in my game may also take the form of cut-up and lightened car/van/light truck chassis rigged to a horse yoke. I've seen some of these in our rural areas here and they seem to work.

Your suggestion on multiple LMGs did get me thinking. I agree. I spotted a picture while googling this point on the net and came up with an early german WW2 set up with double MG34s mounted on a horse-drawn wagon. I can imagine the firepower this can bring to bear against two-legged targets of the player character variety.

[Targan]

Many Soviet autocannons come in towed variants. They could be towed from the back of a cart or wagon (which itself would carry ample ammo for the AC) or could have an extra set of wheels rigged onto the towing armature and have horses hitched to it directly.