Bicycle Infantry

[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.

[Legbreaker]

5 kph is pretty slow really - patrol speed which is slow enough to allow proper awareness of your surroundings.
Faster than that is quite possible (I've done around 10 kph fully loaded), but awareness drops dramatically and fatigue becomes much more of an issue. You REALLY don't want to be doing that sort of speed for more than a couple of hours.
Slower and you tend to get bored (again with a drop in awareness) EXCEPT in close terrain such as urban or jungle. In REALLY close terrain (can't see more than a two or three dozen metres at best) you might be lucky to do 5 km in a whole day though!
And then you add in the effect of hills, swamps and other obstacles....

[Trooper]

Finnish Jaeger infantry used bicycles to increase their marching speed during Continuation war. In early stages of continuation war, it was found that bicycle infantry could easily keep pace with Vickers and T-26 tanks that army used in first months of war.

Yes you could drive to ambush with your bicycle, but even then man driving a bike wasn’t easy target, after all bicycle marching speed (10-12 km/h) is good running speed and if you’re not very close to target, it’s likely that you miss. You don’t drive thru ambush with bicycle, you should immediately dismount and open fire . After that it was normal infantry action move, shoot and communicate.

In home front security units used bicycles to hunt parachute or long range patrol desantniki. There was not simply enough fuel, trucks or even horses for home guard units. Idea was simple, usually local security platoon tried to make educated guess in which direction desantniki unit tried to escape. After that security unit raced ahead desantniki unit. Usually only observation post could be established in open areas like rivers, fields or meadows. Idea was to ambush enemy patrol on open ground and usually other platoons and squads joined in combat after their heard sound of gunfire.

Today Finnish Defence Forces units are of course motorized. Only small tip of spear is mechanized and if you are not member of tank crew or panzer grenadier, you will do a lot of marching. Every member of armed forces should able to do 100 km a day bicycle march, even in air force or navy. Troops on bicycle wear their helmet, flak vest and combat vest. Backpack is on carrier and mortar crews have to even haul their mortars and ammo with them! Yes you can transport 81 mm tube if you use leather straps and attach it to bikes top tube.

It’s nice to see all those shiny trucks and APC:s when you return to your barracks while trying not to faint due exhaustion. Finnish officers firmly believe a motto “the more you sweat and suffer in training - the less you bleed in battle”.

[swaghauler]

Originally Posted by Trooper

Finnish Jaeger infantry used bicycles to increase their marching speed during Continuation war. In early stages of continuation war, it was found that bicycle infantry could easily keep pace with Vickers and T-26 tanks that army used in first months of war.

Yes you could drive to ambush with your bicycle, but even then man driving a bike wasn’t easy target, after all bicycle marching speed (10-12 km/h) is good running speed and if you’re not very close to target, it’s likely that you miss. You don’t drive thru ambush with bicycle, you should immediately dismount and open fire . After that it was normal infantry action move, shoot and communicate.

In home front security units used bicycles to hunt parachute or long range patrol desantniki. There was not simply enough fuel, trucks or even horses for home guard units. Idea was simple, usually local security platoon tried to make educated guess in which direction desantniki unit tried to escape. After that security unit raced ahead desantniki unit. Usually only observation post could be established in open areas like rivers, fields or meadows. Idea was to ambush enemy patrol on open ground and usually other platoons and squads joined in combat after their heard sound of gunfire.

Today Finnish Defence Forces units are of course motorized. Only small tip of spear is mechanized and if you are not member of tank crew or panzer grenadier, you will do a lot of marching. Every member of armed forces should able to do 100 km a day bicycle march, even in air force or navy. Troops on bicycle wear their helmet, flak vest and combat vest. Backpack is on carrier and mortar crews have to even haul their mortars and ammo with them! Yes you can transport 81 mm tube if you use leather straps and attach it to bikes top tube.

It’s nice to see all those shiny trucks and APC:s when you return to your barracks while trying not to faint due exhaustion. Finnish officers firmly believe a motto “the more you sweat and suffer in training - the less you bleed in battle”.

Are these the same guys who can SKI the enemy into the ground during the winter months? I know the Scandinavian countries are unmatched for Arctic and Mountain troops, I trained with those guys.

[Raellus]

We've all known about the NVA's use of bicycles to move supplies down the Ho Chi Minh trail, but I was unaware that the ARVN was looking at "battle bikes" to move troops around.

http://warisboring.com/south-vietnam...ttle-bicycles/

[bobcat]

bikes make a lot of sense in a post TDM world. without regular supplies of petrol bikes are a cheap and reliable means of transportation for troops that need rapid transport over relatively short distances. they are also quiet enough to get fairly close to an enemy position before a raid.

[Raellus]

Recently, I learned that Sweden still had a few bicycle infantry battalions in its OOB into the late 1990s (this is particularly relevant for 4e), and Switzerland disbanded its last major bicycle unit in 2001. Apparently, there's a small but passionate community that collects mil-surp bicycles, and Swedish models are much sought after. A couple of Swedish companies still make civilian versions of the Mk42 military bicycle that dates back to WW2. It's reportedly simple, robust, and reliable.

[swaghauler]

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

5 kph is pretty slow really - patrol speed which is slow enough to allow proper awareness of your surroundings.
Faster than that is quite possible (I've done around 10 kph fully loaded), but awareness drops dramatically and fatigue becomes much more of an issue. You REALLY don't want to be doing that sort of speed for more than a couple of hours.
Slower and you tend to get bored (again with a drop in awareness) EXCEPT in close terrain such as urban or jungle. In REALLY close terrain (can't see more than a two or three dozen metres at best) you might be lucky to do 5 km in a whole day though!
And then you add in the effect of hills, swamps and other obstacles....

Yes, it is. It is a standard movement rate (which also matches the game's base rates) that will allow you to arrive in a proper fighting condition. The players COULD move much faster (up to double the listed speed) if they succeed at a task;

To Move Faster Than Base Rate:

Roll under [the Average of STR & CON] + AGL on 1D20. The Difficulty is modified by the terrain (as well as distance traveled).

I also allow Drivers to either stretch their fuel OR "make time" by performing a Driving check.

If they are "Driving for Time," a successful roll under the needed number will reduce the time it takes to travel a given distance by 1% +2% per number rolled UNDER the required Target Number for the task. Outstanding Success (rolling 10 under) will reduce Time Required by 20% (or more at the GM's discretion).

if they are "Hypermiling" (driving for economy or range), they get 1% + 2% per point rolled under the required Target Number for the task. Outstanding Success (rolling 10 under the Target Number) will net an increase in Mileage of 20% or a reduction in Fuel Used of 20%.

Example: Joe is trying to conserve Fuel and needs to roll a 13 or Less on his Skill Check. He rolls a 9 scoring 4 points (13 - 9) on his Success. This translates into Joe saving 9% of the Fuel the vehicle would normally consume.

So that's a look at movement in my Twilight2000. Your Twilight may vary (of course).

Swag.