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I just happened to accidentally take a look at the ANZAC section of encyclopedia, and was quite surprised. I thought them to be just poor cousins of normal Brits, but they also had an interesting mixture of US equipment and native specialities (Jungle troops, Sentinels etc.) - luckily not the experimental NZ tank though!

Something that got me really interested was the notion of the separate 2-man flamethrower teams, that could even be bought singly. Sure, they have short range, little ammo and no other weapons, but the idea of having a 2-man flamethrower or two attached to every infantry platoon for support sounds like a really cool idea to try in a close terrain.

So is it really as good idea as it sounds - I am going to try playing a game with ANZAC in near future.

Griefbringer

Hmm... just about any engineer platoon of any country sports a 2-man flamethrower team, if not FTs withing the squad itself. Just check the German OOB :p

1.We couldn't count on help from those Poms during the war.

2. I like fire.

I used these ANZAC 2 man flamethrower units for quite a while.

My conclusion is that they are too expensive for the damage they deal out. You would be better served by US Marine FT, Indian FT, or brit/marine Mech FT (wasp/tank) units instead.

Originally posted by Griefbringer
I just happened to accidentally take a look at the ANZAC section of encyclopedia, and was quite surprised. I thought them to be just poor cousins of normal Brits, but they also had an interesting mixture of US equipment and native specialities (Jungle troops, Sentinels etc.) - luckily not the experimental NZ tank though!

Something that got me really interested was the notion of the separate 2-man flamethrower teams, that could even be bought singly. Sure, they have short range, little ammo and no other weapons, but the idea of having a 2-man flamethrower or two attached to every infantry platoon for support sounds like a really cool idea to try in a close terrain.

So is it really as good idea as it sounds - I am going to try playing a game with ANZAC in near future.

Griefbringer

Be glad you didn't look at them back around v4-5, the jungle patrols back then were 18 man, size 0, elite, recon, special forces that also had a flamethrower in each unit. It was an oob error since they were supposed to be 6 man units, but even then they kicked. The only thing they couldn't do was lay mines.

If you want to have a fun time manage to target one of their 1 ton bombs onto an infantry cluster, it will cause casualties in a several hex radius, it is the only weapon that can clear a Japanese 20 man squad with one hit.

Oh yes there certainly are some nice items in their oob.
thanks, John.

I haven't noticed many other separate flamethrower teams so far - usually the flamethrowers are part of the engineer squads, not available on their own. Perhaps I need to check more carefully some other OOBs.

I was thinking that because fire on a hex tends to have an suppressing effect on enemy, it might be good idea when establishing a defensive perimeter in jungle to torch up near-by forest hexes, so that enemy would be having harder time advancing through them. I am not sure if this would be truely effective, as the flame-throwers usually have rather limited fuel supply, and I am not sure how great the suppressive effect is - and the most likely opponent in jungle fighting would anyway be the Japs, who seem rather hard to suppress anyway.

Another thing I like about flame-throwers is that the fire totally blocks LoS, and produces a plenty of smoke on top. This is more effetive than smoke grenades, as the effect does not even dissipate during the game. I remember at least one game where my engineer squad saved their skins from an enemy armoured vehicles by torching up near by hexes.

I guess I should also try one of those USMC assault squads at some time - the one armed with SMGs, satchel charges, flame-thrower and bazooka! Sounds great for bunker-busting or blowing up enemy vehicles in close terrain (even the Krauts in their Kitties don't like getting assaulted).

Griefbringer

I guess I should also try one of those USMC assault squads at some time - the one armed with SMGs, satchel charges, flame-thrower and bazooka!

yeah, great units for that 1st assault turn but with limited repeats (they dont have a high number of shots), and VERY expensive.