You say BMP-C, I say BMP-3.

[Tegyrius]

My PCs are heading in the general direction of Czestochowa and there's a non-zero chance they're about to bump into Shotkin's marauder crew around Radomsko. While setting up my battlemaps and referee notes for that contingency, I was reminded that the BMP-3 is one of the predictions where GDW went somewhat astray.

The first edition boxed set gave us the BMP-C, which it portrayed as an upgraded model of the BMP-B. The distinguishing features of the -C were a better rangefinder, an AGS-17, an eighth troop seat, some minor armor increases, and slightly higher weight, fuel capacity, and fuel consumption.

In second edition, GDW switched the nomenclature to BMP-2 and BMP-3, probably reflecting open-source intel that had become available in the seven years since the boxed set's release. Second edition's BMP-3 was a direct port of the one from first edition.

It wasn't until the v2.2 core book and the East Europe Sourcebook that we got a game-world BMP-3 which matched the real-world design with its 100mm low-pressure gun/launcher. Of course, GDW still seems to have assumed production numbers vastly greater than what the real-world post-Soviet factory managed to crank out.

All of which is to say - which BMP-3 do you guys prefer in your T2k universes? Do you cleave to verisimilitude and deploy 100mm-armed BMP-3s with your formerly-Category-A marauders, or do you prefer GDW's incremental upgrade of the BMP-2 for supply chain simplicity?

- C.