Rivet Counting ! And why you should not use too many vehicles

Ok, as you can see my transport pool is expanding, something others have noticed before:

Mort: Giles, you have too many tanks !

Whilst he was looking at my AVBCW collection of Vickers Medium tanks at a game in Tring. I wasn’t fielding them all they were just in the box

Its an oft repeated joke that more model King Tigers are used in WW2 games than were built during WW2. The same goes for AVBCW and RCW. Especially in 28mm large skirmish games. No mater they are comparatively pathetic, they can dominate a game too easily as in both periods anti-tank weapons were equally rare (and pathetic).

But we all like eye candy.

A German Erhart captured by the Russians – by the use of the Triangle and circle markings, it was being used by the Don Cossacks. This one was also upgunned with a 37mm cannon.

Here’s a really useful site that lists how many of each type of Armoured Car was built during WW1 and into 1920.

If you click through the links half way down the page, you get to some real obscure photographs I’ve not seen before and are very interesting. A very useful resource site. It correlates well with the the books I have on A/Cs in the RCW.

So in wargaming terms:

• None of the armies of RCW/BoB standardised their vehicles, so you can mix and match and still adhere to historical accuracy.
• The numbers of vehicles were tiny.
• So limit the number of vehicles on the game board…for the size of games we play no more than one armoured car per player, unless you modify the scenario.
• Don’t forget they’d have been unreliable due to few spare parts, little fuel, and little support in terms of supply chain and support crews,

Several players at the BoB Big Game I ran, did comment favourably that limiting the A/Cs made for a different but still enjoyable game. You also need to limit the number of field guns, HMGs, and LMGs similarly.

Many of the points above apply also to AVBCW. In or ear the cities and ports you could justify A/Cs, in the country and remote locations start cutting down on the number of vehicles or insist on Heath-Robinson contraptions made by the local blacksmith after one pint too many.