M20 utility cars need a little tweak

[nik mond]

When the commander/gunner of an M20 gets shot nobody else seems interested in defending the vehicle. Kinda reminds me of the Hummer in BHD where nobody wanted to man the 50 cal. I think this may be an oversight as the halftraks do a good job at rotating anyone other than the driver into gun tub. Since there is a co driver and a rad op in the M20 they should step up I would think.

[TrapOne]

I'm curious about why the M20 requires a crew of four. There's one ring-mounted machine gun. It's a vehicle whose value is mainly as battle taxi and as command post, but with the big crew, there are only two seats available for passengers. Not many teams will fit into that space.

[JasonC]

TrapOne - well it carries 6 people max and you need 2 of those to drive and run the MG. The rest you can consider part of the crew or additional passengers, depending on what the car is being asked to do. The normal thing was to use it as a moving command post, which meant you needed a radio operator (right side front seat, next to the driver) and a commander, who didn't have a job other running anything because the whole vehicle's job was to run him around to where he could see stuff and let him issue orders over the vehicle's radio. And that is your "crew of 4". Though one of them is more like a "passenger in charge" than part of the "crew"...

In game terms, you can put a bazooka team in them (they actually had one per vehicle, standard) to make quicky roadblocks, or a scout team (specialist or just from splitting a full squad that way) to "recon by death" on foot, or a sniper team to recon by stealth (creep to a spot with a view and use the optic), or an FO, or a BAR I suppose (though the 50 on the ride is better at his job). It is pretty useful to get many of those items where you want it safely and quickly on a battlefield. Just don't expose the car doing it. Against pure infantry they can keyhole with the 50 cal as an MG nest in addition, but these specialist taxi roles, especially the ones related to scouting, were their reason to exist.

[TrapOne]

I find the vehicle's representation, in the TD/Cavalry units, to be quite reasonable: a four-man HQ that also crews the vehicle.

It's the "single vehicle" M20s that are less useful. Yes, you can get a BAR or sharpshooter team into the vehicle, but not a three-man unit like a scout team, FO, or platoon HQ.

[akd]

I was going to say you could just bail the crew and remount who you want, but if you have less than 4 people in the M20, no one will man the gun!

[JonS]

I was going to say you could just bail the crew and remount who you want, but if you have less than 4 people in the M20, no one will man the gun!

Well, then make sure you put 4, 5, or six men in there

Also, what are you valuing here - the protected mobility, or the MG?

[MikeyD]

I just checked a M10 TD battalion and it seems all the M20s are assigned to HQ units. Commanders, OXs, Operations Teams, HQ support teams. So there's no generically assigned M20 'utility vehicles'. They're also in among HQ units in towed TD battalions. No M20 anyplace else that I can find. They seem to be highly specialized in their task as VIP carriers, much like the M2A1 HT which only appears in the game towing anti-tank guns.

[Battlefront.com]

The TO&E is an exact representation of the official organization. It was a little tough to get the sub platoon level organization exactly right, but the numbers of vehicles, who crews them, weapons, etc. should be spot on.

As stated, the M20 was mostly a C2 vehicle, unlike the M8. My assumption about the 2 extra seats is those were primarily for moving around junior leaders, messengers, etc. during non-combat activities (such as conferring over maps, visiting neighboring units for meetings, etc.).

Steve