Improvised weapons and equipment

[Rockwolf66]

Now what interesting and often unreliable weapons and equipment have my fellow posters come up with over the years?


Me I've been known to come up with some strange and sometimes juvinile equipment for special occations. hence the Dildo cannon.

Now our parties resident mechanic and gadget freak had been collecting up a whole bunch of fired off baton rounds. You know the stuff used for riot control. they also collected up a half dozen pipes...to be used as barrels. They found the time to do a bit of weilding and machineing. the result was the dildo cannon. a six barrel volleygun intended to cow angry mobs into submission. the idea was that you rammed a black poweder charge down the barrels and then topped it off with a baton. The poor fool mixed up the smokeless powder with the black and when they went to fire it...their body armor saved theim from some real nasty damage as they were using riot modified ballistic armor. they got 10s for height and distance but only a 7 on the faceplant landing.

[Legbreaker]

I'd say the most imaginative use of available materials players in my experience came up with was capturing a BMP with no more than some plastic explosives, a few litres of gasoline, and a zippo.

BMP was moving slowly through a cutting lined with trees to either side. The PCs (3 of) had rigged the trees with explosives to fall across the roadway. Trees fell in front, on top (preventing turret rotation) and behind the BMP, gasoline was tossed on top and threats yelled. Crew vacated vehicle rather than get toasted (and rightly so I think!).

[Targan]

In my last campaign Major Po and the Navy SEAL PC built several underwater limpet mines that were self-forging munitions containing shaped charges. For the self forging projectiles they used copper bowls used by chefs to fluff egg whites, they molded plastic explosives into cone shaped blocks for the shaped charges, used magnets out of hi-fi stereo speakers so the mines would grip ship hulls and water proofed the packages with shrink wrap plastic and duct tape.

They used the mines to sink several of the larger vessels operated by the Vistula River pirates near Warsaw. In the ensuing mahem they captured the pirates' flagship, a Shershen-class torpedo boat. That was a vicious boarding action, up there in my top 10 gaming sessions of the campaign.

[Sanjuro]

There is always a use for superglue in an urban environment...

[WallShadow]

While not exactly a weapon, one of my players, who was a medic who spoke Polish, dressed up in a Pact uniform, moseyed up to an enemy soldier standing guard at the door of the mayor's house (which we needed to get into without a lot of notice). The character was smoking a cigarette and offered the guard one, lit it for him, then wandered off. The guard kept taking surreptitious drags on the butt, and the other players noticed that his arm was getting slower and slower as he inhaled. Soon the narcotic blend that the medic had injected into the tobacco had done its work, and the team propped him up in the doorway as they quietly went in through the front door.

Another sneaky trick was to toss a few HE or frag grenades, followed by several smoke grenades, and when the visibility was impeded, toss one more grenade. Follow this up with throwing a rock against the enemy vehicles, alternating them with a grenade every now and then. The enemy gets really paranoid and reluctant to move from cover when they don't know if the next thump is jive or if it's Semtex. This can buy you some time to extract yourself from a tight situation.

[HorseSoldier]

Never used them in a game, but dummy IEDs can be really effective to help slow pursuit -- chainsaw (or det cord) a couple trees down at a tight spot in the road and you can slow wheeled pursuit, but nothing much to tracked vehicles. Throw in a dummy AT mine or two, or something that looks a lot like an improvised charge, and you'll bring tanks to a halt. (Non-T2K someone hard nosed might be inclined to call the bluff if they were in enough of a hurry, but I can't think anyone circa 2000 would risk a tank or other AFV.)

Makes a formation stop, kick dismounted security out, send up dismounts (or maybe even call for engineer support), and so on. If you're only goal is to be hauling a$$ up the road after you put in your dummy mine/IED you should be able to open a gap fast.

For extra fun, do the same trick a couple times, then -- when the bad guys are getting sick of stopping and doing their clearance drill, and start getting sloppy and pushing their speed to make up for lost time, put in some live, well camouflaged mines to keep them honest and slow them back down . . .

[dragoon500ly]

Well, in one of my games had some players decide to clear out a bunker the hard way...

It involved a 5-gallon of diesel/oil mixture, a block of C-4, a couple of WPs and about 10 feet of det cord...I was impressed that the munchkins came up with a MacGyver bomb, but they had neglected to figure out a way to deliver it other than running up to the firing slit....

[dragoon500ly]

Originally Posted by HorseSoldier

Never used them in a game, but dummy IEDs can be really effective to help slow pursuit -- chainsaw (or det cord) a couple trees down at a tight spot in the road and you can slow wheeled pursuit, but nothing much to tracked vehicles. Throw in a dummy AT mine or two, or something that looks a lot like an improvised charge, and you'll bring tanks to a halt. (Non-T2K someone hard nosed might be inclined to call the bluff if they were in enough of a hurry, but I can't think anyone circa 2000 would risk a tank or other AFV.)

Makes a formation stop, kick dismounted security out, send up dismounts (or maybe even call for engineer support), and so on. If you're only goal is to be hauling a$$ up the road after you put in your dummy mine/IED you should be able to open a gap fast.

For extra fun, do the same trick a couple times, then -- when the bad guys are getting sick of stopping and doing their clearance drill, and start getting sloppy and pushing their speed to make up for lost time, put in some live, well camouflaged mines to keep them honest and slow them back down . . .

Don't forget the trick that the engineers pulled on the PanzerLehr during the Ardennes fighting....laying a dummy minefield across a key road...nothing more than a dozen soup plates with a thin layer of dirt on top...

One can still almost hear the German officers cursing the damn engineers!

[WallShadow]

And under the middle couple of rows of hastily-concealed soup plates, one real mine and several grenades with pins pulled, waiting for someone to lift the plate....
That'd keep them guessing, and slowed down.

[Rockwolf66]

How does Pipe shotguns used as pipebomb launchers* sound? For a pre-planned evac from a prepared position something like that going off is not going to be fun for the people following you.


* The joys of growing up in a family that has explosives experts and generally creative people in it.

[Sanjuro]

Some of these require manufacturing support;
During WW2 the British SOE invented a number of innocent-looking weapons, including the exploding rat- what looked like a dead rat, dropped in a pile of coal, which would explode when placed in a furnace or boiler. There was also the explosive turd- a suitable dropping for the area, whether horse, cow or even camel- which had enough explosive to shred a tyre if a driver surrendered to temptation and drove over it.
My favourite was "SOE grease"; a substance which looked, smelled and even felt to the touch like mechanics' grease, but was in fact grinding paste- apply that to the working parts of any vehicle and they will seize solid. After D-Day, when "Das Reich" 2nd SS Panzer Division tried to move to Normandy by rail, its entire rail transport stock was disabled in this way- by two girls aged 14 band 16!

[dragoon500ly]

Originally Posted by WallShadow

And under the middle couple of rows of hastily-concealed soup plates, one real mine and several grenades with pins pulled, waiting for someone to lift the plate....
That'd keep them guessing, and slowed down.

In real life...the engineers didn't even bother with bobby traps...they really did place a daisy chain of soup plates covered with dirt and then motored off...probably laughing their heads off!

There is another story of the engineers getting ready to blast a bridge, and waiting until a Panther was in the middle of the span before dropping the bridge and tank into the river.

Another has the engineers simply putting out several "Warning! Mines!" signs out, right like the ole guide book told them to....counting on the German engineers to have read the same book and waste time searching for mines.

The same engineer battalion tried the same trick later down the road, this time "marking" a safety line with engineer tape...you guessed it, the only mines were in the safety line....damn engineers!

[Abbott Shaull]

Well all of the nasty thing we have seen in Iraq and Afghanistan the last 8 - 10 years, I am sure would be trade craft to soldiers of the T2K era. The thing is they are opposing situation. Where as out attempt is bring Iraq and Afghanistan where they have 'Free' government and eliminate those who wish to do other harms. In T2K it was all out war, so all things would be consider fair for both sides to use.

So NATO unit coming up with IEDs would be second nature. Especially if one has say some 105mm and 155mm how. rounds and no how. left to use them. Well you do the math and figure out why you still lug them around?

We wouldn't go to the extreme that many units.

[dragoon500ly]

Originally Posted by Sanjuro

Some of these require manufacturing support;
During WW2 the British SOE invented a number of innocent-looking weapons, including the exploding rat- what looked like a dead rat, dropped in a pile of coal, which would explode when placed in a furnace or boiler. There was also the explosive turd- a suitable dropping for the area, whether horse, cow or even camel- which had enough explosive to shred a tyre if a driver surrendered to temptation and drove over it.
My favourite was "SOE grease"; a substance which looked, smelled and even felt to the touch like mechanics' grease, but was in fact grinding paste- apply that to the working parts of any vehicle and they will seize solid. After D-Day, when "Das Reich" 2nd SS Panzer Division tried to move to Normandy by rail, its entire rail transport stock was disabled in this way- by two girls aged 14 band 16!

This dates back to pre American Civil War days (1850s), make a hollow cast iron ball with a rough outer surface, fill will black powder, seal, coat with pine resin and then roll in coal dust. Leave in a coal pile and it would soon be loaded into a steamship and then make its way into the ship's boilers. The rebels nailed a couple of Union gunboats using this trick.

For the Germans, their Tiger tanks often weighed more than the local road bridges could support. So they used special rail cars to hail the heavy tanks around. It never occured to the Germans that empty railway cars parked on a siding would need guards. The Resistance threw a real monkey wrench into the deployment of the heavy tanks by simply taking several stone jugs to the siding, draining the lube oil from the rail car trucks and taking the "rescued" oil with them.

With the rush to assemble trains and load the Tigers, nobody thought to go around and check oil levels, the result was a trainload of tanks, trapped on immobilized rail cars, prime targets for the Jabos!

Its the simplest, most easily overlooked things that get your arse blown away!

[dragoon500ly]

Originally Posted by Rockwolf66

How does Pipe shotguns used as pipebomb launchers* sound? For a pre-planned evac from a prepared position something like that going off is not going to be fun for the people following you.


* The joys of growing up in a family that has explosives experts and generally creative people in it.

This one is straight out of Improvised Muntions....take a block of wood, say 3 inches by 3 inches, ground a small depression in the center, glue a tack in place, the depression should allow just a bit of the point to show. Glue a 12 gauge shotgun shell over the depression. Bury in a shallow hole with just the tip of the shell showing. You now have a home made antipersonnel mine.

Want to make a homemade antitank round? Simply take a wine bottle, you will need two sticks of C-4, mold the C-4 around the neck of the bottle (covering the mouth as well) and well up the sides of the bottle. Insert blasting cap and/or delay fuze and place bottle on the target. This will penetrate about 76mm of armor plate.

Stationed in a mountainous area and you have a bridge that enemy armor is going to use? Rather than mining the bridge and running the risk of engineers disarming all of your hard work. Move uphill, if you can find a small cave, great, if not, some digging work and a few cases of C-4 will help turn part of the mountain into a really awesome antitank weapon. Let the landside remove the bridge and some of the enemy armor for you!

The Improvised Muntions manual dates back to WWII and covers all of the tricks that both sides used on each other. And let me tell you! A lot o'this shit is plumb scary!!!!!

[Abbott Shaull]

Originally Posted by dragoon500ly

This dates back to pre American Civil War days (1850s), make a hollow cast iron ball with a rough outer surface, fill will black powder, seal, coat with pine resin and then roll in coal dust. Leave in a coal pile and it would soon be loaded into a steamship and then make its way into the ship's boilers. The rebels nailed a couple of Union gunboats using this trick.

For the Germans, their Tiger tanks often weighed more than the local road bridges could support. So they used special rail cars to hail the heavy tanks around. It never occured to the Germans that empty railway cars parked on a siding would need guards. The Resistance threw a real monkey wrench into the deployment of the heavy tanks by simply taking several stone jugs to the siding, draining the lube oil from the rail car trucks and taking the "rescued" oil with them.

With the rush to assemble trains and load the Tigers, nobody thought to go around and check oil levels, the result was a trainload of tanks, trapped on immobilized rail cars, prime targets for the Jabos!

Its the simplest, most easily overlooked things that get your arse blown away!

LOL Seems to be you wouldn't have to drain the oil from all of the cars. Just enough to make sure when they were used that enough would seize up and stop the train...lol

[dragoon500ly]

Originally Posted by Abbott Shaull

LOL Seems to be you wouldn't have to drain the oil from all of the cars. Just enough to make sure when they were used that enough would seize up and stop the train...lol

In this case, the Resistance drained oil from about 40 rail cars, the Germans made it about 10 miles or so and got stuck in a cutting....easy prey for the P-47s!

[Abbott Shaull]

Poor column of armor on train cars going no where...lol Yeah, speaking of which, it leads on to wonder just how many rail lines and highways would of been tied up bringing up equipment for fresh Divisions and Armies when they were needed to bring up supplies....

[Sanjuro]

With all the immobilized cars stranded everywhere, anyone with handtools and a little ingenuity has a good source of crossbows- either the traditional kind (but very powerful) using leaf springs, or a rather nasty concealable kind using a McPherson strut...

[raketenjagdpanzer]

Originally Posted by Sanjuro

With all the immobilized cars stranded everywhere, anyone with handtools and a little ingenuity has a good source of crossbows- either the traditional kind (but very powerful) using leaf springs, or a rather nasty concealable kind using a McPherson strut...

One of the sci-fi compilations I have somewhere has an alien force deciding that we're too violent for our own good so they use [MAGIC ALIEN TECHNOLOGY] to stop explosives (gunpowder and others) and nuclear power from working, incidentally putting the kibosh on internal combustion engines, power generation, etc., which sets us back at around the 1500s. Once things settle down they show up to become our benevolent overlords...imagine their absolute horror when they're met by a horse-mounted US Army using M1 carbines converted over to be very powerful crossbows, and swords made from machined spring steel which punch and cut through their environment suits quite nicely.

[HorseSoldier]

I think I read that story. It opens with US troops in the Korean War trying to stop the Chinese with bayonets attached to (inert) M1 Garands and carbines and using mechanically initiated poison gas dispensers they'd rigged up or something like that.

[weswood]

I missed that one, do you remember the name & author?

[raketenjagdpanzer]

Originally Posted by weswood

I missed that one, do you remember the name & author?

I'll have to dig through my sci-fi compilations and see if I can find it. I think it's in Aldiss' Galactic Empires either Vol. 1 or 2.

[dragoon500ly]

Originally Posted by Abbott Shaull

Poor column of armor on train cars going no where...lol Yeah, speaking of which, it leads on to wonder just how many rail lines and highways would of been tied up bringing up equipment for fresh Divisions and Armies when they were needed to bring up supplies....

You know, the really intresting thing about the German Army was not that it was able to keep forming new divisions...it was their ability to organize and reorganize kampfgruppes made up of just about every type of odd sod and piece of equipment to throw back into the combat. It was only latter in the war that the US Army started to perfrom at the same level...anybody remember Team SNAFU?

[Abbott Shaull]

Originally Posted by dragoon500ly

You know, the really intresting thing about the German Army was not that it was able to keep forming new divisions...it was their ability to organize and reorganize kampfgruppes made up of just about every type of odd sod and piece of equipment to throw back into the combat. It was only latter in the war that the US Army started to perfrom at the same level...anybody remember Team SNAFU?

Yeah but what more interesting is the US Army OOB that I had one time that had units history for US Divisions and Regiments. It was surprising the number independent Infantry Regiments were attached regular Divisions and also the regularity that some Division detached units from their organization.

Also interesting are the Medium Armor Divisions in which they had 3 Armor and 3 Armor Infantry/Mechanized Battalions that were placed into Combat Command A, Combat Command B, and later in the war officially Combat Command Reserve. In the end these resembled the modern Heavy Brigades. Where as the 2nd and 3rd Armor Division retained their original 2 Armor Regiments and 1 Armored/Mechanized Infantry Regiment...

Also with the Armor Divisions specially usually had Combat Command detach to this Corps or that Division to add fire power at times.

[dragoon500ly]

Originally Posted by Abbott Shaull

Yeah but what more interesting is the US Army OOB that I had one time that had units history for US Divisions and Regiments. It was surprising the number independent Infantry Regiments were attached regular Divisions and also the regularity that some Division detached units from their organization.

Also interesting are the Medium Armor Divisions in which they had 3 Armor and 3 Armor Infantry/Mechanized Battalions that were placed into Combat Command A, Combat Command B, and later in the war officially Combat Command Reserve. In the end these resembled the modern Heavy Brigades. Where as the 2nd and 3rd Armor Division retained their original 2 Armor Regiments and 1 Armored/Mechanized Infantry Regiment...

Also with the Armor Divisions specially usually had Combat Command detach to this Corps or that Division to add fire power at times.

For one of the operation in late war, the 1st Infantry Division had its normal attachments of a tank, tank destroyer and a antiaircraft battalion; but it also had the following units attached: a fourth infantry regiment; two combat commands, no less than seven battalions of heavy artillery, three tank battalions, four tank destroyer battalions and three antiaircraft artillery battalions....so we a division, reinforced with what amounts to an additional division.....like I said, by late 44-45, the US Army was getting to be almost as flexible as the Germans. But the hands down winner for mix-and-matching on the fly was the German Army. They could create a kampfgruppe from just about anything, throw it into the fight and stop Allied divisions cold, pull the remainments and reorganize them into another kampfgruppe and do the smae thing a few miles further down the road.

Like the Brits always claimed "One can never understand war until one has fought the Germans!"