in the begining...

[Draq]

I like the idea of wargaming the encirclement of Kalisz, but as much as I'd love too, I could never do minis.

[Draq]

I'm thinking for a starting party, a medic, a vehicle crewman with smg, a combat engineer with shotgun and m79, the rest, riflemen.

[Olefin]

I'm thinking for a starting party, a medic, a vehicle crewman with smg, a combat engineer with shotgun and m79, the rest, riflemen"

for your crewman it helps if he is either a driver or a gunner - no fun at all to "obtain" a vehicle and not have the skill to either drive it or operate its gun if it has one

all depends on your vehicle mix - if they get a LAV or Bradley or a tank at minimum they will need a driver and gunner - also keep in mind per the game they are supposed to start at full fuel and ammo load - make sure the players know otherwise - they have money which could be used to buy ammo and you could have that ammo, if you want, instead of on them be a buried cache they had to leave behind earlier in the battle and thus you have to get to it to be able to get the vehicles fully supplied

[Slappy]

We usually went pretty small. 5-7 PCs, maybe a couple of NPCs to fill out skills (i.e. if none of the PCs wanted to be a mechanic). Once ran with a local Polish Free Army liaison as an interpreter and guide. Was a good way for the GM to feed information and drive action.

That means maybe two vehicles. A hummer and a LAV-25 are a nice pair. They have decent abilities, but don't make the PCs invulnerable. They still need to run from real opposition. And you can run a still and tanker trailer, one on each.

Also did this once with the PCs just on horseback. Really limits the amount of stuff they can carry, but keeps them fairly mobile and keeps the profile down. Ran into some issues as I don't personally know that much about horses, but if you do can be a nice twist.

[Olefin]

I wonder if a lot of people do a Hummer and a LAV-25 because that is what is in the guidebook as an example - personally I prefer the Bradley - a LAV-25 is pretty much dead meat against any kind of tank where a Bradley at least has the TOW's on board - and since carrying capacity is pretty limited for TOW's you have to really limit when you use them -

for instance in my last campaign we had a Bradley and used a TOW to save our butts when we got caught in the open by a Russian convoy - but you had to really think about using one because the chances of finding a replacement TOW anywhere outside of Krakow is basically nil

[Twilight2000v3MM]

Problem with heavy armor is just that... its heavy. Try to get a 30+ ton Bradley over a local wood bridge meant for 3 ton trucks. Plus, they. Suck. Fuel. And maintenance is an issue. Atleast with HMMVs and a LAV 25 you can get common auto parts as spares.

Smaller is better especially in the age of you MIGHT see a tank.

[Olefin]

I see it more as the ability to actualy have a chance to survive in a firefight and getting out of the Kalisz area

having light armor that only stops a 7.62 isnt going to help much getting ouf of dodge - and when you have marauders that have BMP's (Krakow and Kalisz), tanks (Warsaw) and other fun things you can run into then that light vehicle is going to be Swiss Cheese or worse very quickly

in my last game we ran into a BMP and a BTR-70 supported by two mortars with our Bradley - we were able to win - barely - because we had the TOW and a 25mm that outranged what they had

if it had been a LAV and a Humvee we would have been burning debris in the field we were crossing and campaign ended on day 2 - with the LAV blowing up when the BMP nailed it (we got it with the TOW before he got off his missile)

now later on you can go for light vehicles or horses - but you have to survive to get out of Dodge first when Kalisz, Krakow and the Madonna have all kinds of nasty ways to take out a light vehicle

[Slappy]

There are obviously a bunch of ways to do it, but I think it depends on what sort of group you have. You just have to change tactics when on foot or mounted. Your escape becomes more an escape and evade than straight up combat. Stay off the roads, travet at night, look for isolated patrols you can pick off.