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Old 04-25-2019, 10:52 AM   #1
FeiLin
 
Join Date: Aug 2018
Default WWII

I'm looking into setting up a WWII campaign to delve into modern for the first time, and as an old Company of Heroes player, I had the idea to model the sides after those factions (focusing on the western front, Germany/US/UK, initially). Starting small, trying to see if I can put together squads similar to the ones in CoH, and it's looking pretty promising. I found quite a lot of the basic (infantry) weapons in High-Tech matching beautifully the CoH units (sidenote: kudos to both development teams for great research!). So far so good, it seems there's great substance for assembling MG teams, infantry units, mortar teams, and tossing in a few snipers here and there.

However, although I'm not really "there yet", I'm planning on introducing vehicles at some point, with blitzkrieg and air support on a tactical level (maybe even pure air combat with pilot PCs), creating adventures (or more like scenarios) that tie into some form of WWII campaign (recently watched Saving Private Ryan, got quite a bit of inspiration from there). Problem I have is while there's a lot of support in the rules for it, the actual vehicles aren't there, and I'm not a military historian to create them myself.

Also, I'm looking for a way to create more elaborate mass combat units based on "PC-level characters and vehicles" (ie evaluate combat effectiveness on a larger scale if my PCs capture some German Tigers to replace their Shermans). I could of course do that arbitrarily by just saying a Tiger's one equipment level above a Sherman, but that's a bit lame.

So, I'm looking for a few things:
  • Vehicles tailored for 4th (preferrably with installations such as FLAK 88s, and similar ones)
  • Air support/involvement for tactical ground combat
  • Converting characters/vehicles to Mass Combat units

I saw there's a Motor Pool for 3rd, but the preview looks really promising. Question is how useable is it with 4th edition?

For air support, I haven't found much beyond a fan-made dogfighting document, which is related but not really what I'm looking for at this point. I wanna have a strife run with some stukas on an enemy controlled bunker before the PCs storm in (for instance).

For Mass Combat, I think there's something in a Pyramid for evaluating heroes as a unit, but are there some guidelines for doing the same for non-heroes? A first step would be to gauge their skill levels and equipment levels. Is there anything else out there?
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Old 04-26-2019, 02:46 AM   #2
cdru
 
Join Date: Nov 2015
Default Re: WWII

Pyramid 3-88 has the articles for converting characters and vehicles to Mass Combat. You could apply them to non-heroes, if you want, but i think part of TS comes from things that don't directly help in combat. As for vehicles, there isn't much material, but Pyramid 3-120 got a guide to converting vehicles, though there is nothing for their guns
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Old 04-29-2019, 03:10 AM   #3
Michele
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Udine, Italy
Default Re: WWII

Quote:
Originally Posted by FeiLin View Post
Also, I'm looking for a way to create more elaborate mass combat units based on "PC-level characters and vehicles" (ie evaluate combat effectiveness on a larger scale if my PCs capture some German Tigers to replace their Shermans). I could of course do that arbitrarily by just saying a Tiger's one equipment level above a Sherman, but that's a bit lame.

So, I'm looking for a few things:
  • Vehicles tailored for 4th (preferrably with installations such as FLAK 88s, and similar ones)
  • Air support/involvement for tactical ground combat
  • Converting characters/vehicles to Mass Combat units
I don't know exactly how to help you to convert individual characters to Mass Combat stats if you don't want to call them "heroes" in the Mass Combat sense of the term (p. 9).
However, when it comes to vehicles, you don't have to "convert" them for Mass Combat. You only have to define them in Mass Combat terms.

For instance, a Tiger tank was a Heavy Tank (which has its own line in the Mass Combat system), and Hans-Christian Vortisch tells us (in Pyramid #3/67) that it was a Fine piece of equipment. He also says it was normally crewed by Good troops. A single vehicle and its crew are an Element in Mass Combat, and the information above tells you what the Troop Strength of a Tiger Element is. Mass Combat tells you everything else you need to know to use it under those rules.

By comparison, a Sherman was a Medium Tank. The decision as to what quality it was as equipment is up to you. Personally, I'd call the most common/earlier models as Basic, by 1944-45, but there were less numerous, later and better armed models that would qualify as Good equipment. By 1945, the crews were normally Good, too.
That tells you their Troop Strength as a Mass Combat Element.

It also tells you that a company of Shermans is vastly inferior in sheer TS to a company of Tigers, but also that they should try to maneuver, because Heavy Tanks don't qualify as belonging to the Cavalry Class, while Medium tanks do. So use that Cavalry superiority in the battle.

So you actually can work this all out on your own if you want to use GURPS Mass Combat.
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