Doug Beman Posted November 23, 2000 Share Posted November 23, 2000 Has anybody here read this book from David Drake? (I'm sure many have) I think the battles from this book would make EXCELLENT scenarios. What about you? I need to locate my copy of this one and get to work! DjB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullethead Posted November 23, 2000 Share Posted November 23, 2000 Yeah, Drake's "Hammer's Slammers" stuff is some of my favorite reading material. When I read those stories, I feel like I served with most of the characters As to "Rolling Hot" in particular, I think the basic plot is drawn from an amalgam of events in (not surprisingly) Viet Nam. The whole situation seems based on the Tet Offensive and Junebug's force seems to run into situations very similar to those met by forces trying to get into Hue and Saigon. I agree, this is all excellent scenario-fodder. Extremely desperate battles by a small, hodge-podge yet highly skilled force against overwhelming numbers of inferior enemies. You have many types of battle here: firebase defense, breaking through ambushes, deliberate assaults, and free-wheeling tank battles of manuever. The Slammers personnel are obviously at least crack with some elites. All of them have severe combat fatigue so the AI quirks with elite tanks would work well for them . So this leaves the question of what types of units to use for the opposing forces. IIRC, Junebug's force consisted of 3 tanks and about 5 combat cars, with no infantry. I think the only good approximation of the combat car is the US M3A1 halftrack (only 2 MGs instead of 3 tribarrels, but that's as close as I can see). So I guess this leaves the M26 as the appropriate ubertank. This means the "wog" forces have to be Germans. The Viet Cong-type guys could be Volkssturm, leaving Heers for the NVA-types. This would allow using Pumas and such for the big wog armored force in the climactic battle. A few incidents in the book will be difficult to model. I think the arty friendly fire incident can be handled by having a US jabo around. There were no wog vehicles so Junebug's tanks could well draw some fire. But the part with the tank falling through the damaged bridge, I think, is beyond CM's ability. Still, almost all of this book could be done fairly with with CM, I think, and would result in some very good scenarios. I look forward to seeing your results ------------------ -Bullethead In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is strength, in water there is bacteria. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug Beman Posted November 24, 2000 Author Share Posted November 24, 2000 BH, good to see you on the forum! I envisioned the forces the same way, but having Shermans in place of the Pershings. IIRC (haven't looked at the stats) the Sherman had better ground pressure and hp/weight than the Pershing. Given that Rolling Hot involved almost entirely armor vs infantry, the enhanced anti-armor power of the Pershing's gun isn't really needed, whereas the Sherman is a very capable infantry killer (as are Drake's hovertanks) I didn't work on this yesterday (watched football instead) but I plan to start with the first battle, a surprise German attack on a US firebase. Any infantry the US have will start the battle inside big buildings and/or away from their HQ units to simulate a low-security base. I might also have very few company HQ units to simulate the poor C3 the yokels had (but company HQs can command any unit, simulating the enhanced control features an HQ COULD have) The wogs, ~a batallion, will have on map heavy mortars, along with recoilless rifles and light IGs. They'll be almost entirely green, with some regulars, but with a high fanaticism to simulate how hard the wogs pushed the attack in the book. If this works out (and I make no promises) the next battle would be for that bridge. DjB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullethead Posted November 27, 2000 Share Posted November 27, 2000 Doug Beman said: <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>I envisioned the forces the same way, but having Shermans in place of the Pershings. IIRC (haven't looked at the stats) the Sherman had better ground pressure and hp/weight than the Pershing. Given that Rolling Hot involved almost entirely armor vs infantry, the enhanced anti-armor power of the Pershing's gun isn't really needed, whereas the Sherman is a very capable infantry killer (as are Drake's hovertanks)<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Yeah, but Hammer's hovertanks were the baddest tanks available in the known universe. That's why I was thinking Pershings if you're going to use US for the Slammers. In the books, they did have some overkill vs. most things they faced. In the books, the wogs didn't have much that could hurt them, either. Of the 3 tanks, 1 was lost to arty friendly fire and 1 to falling through a damaged bridge. The other got gun damaged but was still running despite taking umpteen hits. I don't think a Sherman could do that. As to stats, the M26 has a ground pressure of 12.5 psi and a speed of 30. This isn't much worse than the M4A3E8(76)W's 11.0/32 or the M4A3E8(76)W+'s 11.8/32. <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>I plan to start with the first battle, a surprise German attack on a US firebase. Any infantry the US have will start the battle inside big buildings and/or away from their HQ units to simulate a low-security base. I might also have very few company HQ units to simulate the poor C3 the yokels had (but company HQs can command any unit, simulating the enhanced control features an HQ COULD have)<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> IIRC, the firebase in question was a yokel thing and Junebug's forces were the only Slammers there. So you could make all the US infantry green or conscript, too. <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>The wogs, ~a batallion, will have on map heavy mortars, along with recoilless rifles and light IGs. They'll be almost entirely green, with some regulars, but with a high fanaticism to simulate how hard the wogs pushed the attack in the book.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Sounds good. A reinforced green Volkssturm battalion vs. a surprised REMF green US battalion supported by the Slammers vehicles. ------------------ -Bullethead In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is strength, in water there is bacteria. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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