Hi All,
Below is an update of my progress with the British counters.
With regards to scale and unit choices there are some notes that I’d like to make.
I’m using armored cars to represent Recon units instead of cavalry. I think it’s more relevant.
I’ve tried to keep the Fighters and TAC a/c at the same scale while the larger Medium , Heavy/Strategic and Maritime aircraft have a separate but common scale. The Tanks have their own constant scale as do the ships with the exception of the Subs and MTBs. The size in most cases gives an indication of the relative strength of the unit within its class. In some cases this results in some tiny units for which I apologize, but that was my rational.
I noticed that the Production charts specify CVE while the original stock unit counters indicated CVL which is what I modeled. Not sure if I should switch back to smaller CVE silhouettes.
I had a rough time finding anything with regards to a British armoured train. There were some curious references to a successful attack by a miniature train, but the only full size train was a lash up of Bren guns and old 6pdr cannon. Nothing close to what the Russians and Germans were fielding, but then again, the Brits didn’t really need them.
For the Special Forces and Paratroop units I’m hoping that they are recognized as such by their insignia's and won’t require Para or SF text on the units. Most of us playing these games will recognize there significance and I think it adds a lot of flavour to include them. With regard to the LRDG, in the previous SC2 game I was able to limit its appearance exclusively to the desert, but I can’t control its appearance in Europe with the current counter set up options.
I’ve since learned the white-red-white recognition stripes on the armor were not as ubiquitous during the early years as I first thought. I may remove them as it turns out that they were supposed to be used only to help distinguish friendly armor from captured armor in use during the North African Crusader campaign. The practice may have continued unofficially after that. There was even some reverse R-W-R appearing on other armored vehicles. After that it was the White Star for all the Allies.
The Matilda tank presented a dilemma. I’m equating the British Infantry tanks as heavy tanks but the keen eye may have noticed that it appears in the medium tank mix as well. It was very dominate in the early stages of the war so I felt it should appear there too.
The medium tanks are a mix of early home grown and then American supplied units after 1942. I felt that the numbers involved made this the logical choice but they do culminate with the Firefly in the fifth rank.
I included the “String Bag” as the initial level TAC a/c. It had to be one of the most effective attack aircraft in the early stages for the Brits, if only for a lack of viable alternatives. Though not strictly a ground based a/c and with the relatively ineffective Fairy Battle, I thought it would be a crime not to include it. To be fair, the Battle operated in areas with fighter opposition were as the Swordfish’s most famous victories were accomplished when no enemy fighters were about. They faced mostly Ack-Ack.
I’ll try to work them both into the mix.
On another note, I was surprised not to find the German or Italian MTB equivalents in the stock production build menu. Why MTBs for the Brits and not the Germans or the Eyeties?
Some of the best examples of Italian courage were displayed by members of the MAS, both the small torpedo boats and the Decima Flottiglia MAS commando frogmen. Both managed to put Capital ships on the bottom, albeit the former in the previous war. None of the other nations could claim the same results. I’ll be including them in the counter mix but will need to Mod the production in order to actually get them.
Next is some testing to make sure things line up and work OK before I go any further.
Cheers,
Angus.
