"Do you use Drills?" Topic

We have recognized a few cases where the normal routine of a game cannot adequately represent some actions. An example is when for instance, a driver of an AFV is n position and the Driver is told on the Third shot reverese immediately on a predetermined path.

Another may be a BMP 1 crew who is told, "when I say NOW" reverse to a pre-defined point open up and prepare to reload.

The point is that the drill is preset at a time and place and must be obeyed as there will be no time to cancel it and it takes game time to activate such a drill before it can be used.

Do you have such drills and for what condition/actions?

We have not had one for AFV's that need to reload a missile externally for example. However in some circumstances the "bound" is too long to make a credible time increment for say reloading a guided missile manually from an unbuttoned vehicle. Probably only an issue for those playing at 1:1 with 1/144 scale or smaller.

In some cases with such a drill it may be necessary to define the target type while enacting the Drill. As an example in our IGUGO system were a drill to be reload i.e unbutton, crew get out, load and and button up. It may be necessary in our particular system to class the re-loader in that instance as Unbuttoned until after the reaction phase or the end on the enemies following phase. Effectively allowing the re-loaders to be engaged as unbuttoned during the reloading phase potentially as a target of opportunity in effect, although our rules doe not use that as a game term.

Opinions?

During my days as a TC our platoon had move to bp, fire, and reverse drills.

We'd start in turret down position.
Plt leader would say over the radio "Top hat".
The entire platoon would advance to hull down position, identify their target and engage.
After the first round is fired the PL would then say "Big Sky", and we would reverse back down to turret down position allowing the tc's to continue scanning the battle area.
It worked quite well.

Murphy Thanks

To tag on to what Murphy said from some AARs and info from some TCs I know.

While turret down the TC identifies the target and gets the range estimation data and direction to the gunner to set the elevtion and traverse the turret. If the tank has a roof mounted panoramic telescope for the gunner he may also be able to see the target too and engage it while turret down.

While TD, the TC gives the command to move from turret down to hull down and stop. The gunner then makes any fine adjustments to get the crosshairs on the target and fires. As soon as the driver hears the shot go off he reverses back to turret down or relocates to another firing position.

Former TCs have told me it takes about 4 seconds to move from TD to HD and back and 3-4 seconds for the gunner to fire while HD.

The defenders need to be ovewatching in the right direction to react and get a shot off before the target disappear.

At least that how it works in my game.

However in some circumstances the "bound" is too long to make a credible time increment for say reloading a guided missile manually from an unbuttoned vehicle. Probably only an issue for those playing at 1:1 with 1/144 scale or smaller.

Here is a video showing a BMP-2 reloading while not exposing a crew member. link

From what I can find the BMP-1 takes from 7.5 to 10 seconds to reload.

Here is an account from a Russian BMP-1 gunner:
The hatch used to reload the ATGM is hilariously hard to use – I have relatively long arms and I still had to stand up and really stretch myself to put a missile on the rail. Malutka is guided using a joystick that folds under the gunner's seat – it kind of looks like you are playing with yourself while you're aiming the thing. I don't think we ever used the autoloader in training because of the risks.

Wolfhag

Wolfhage, great link thanks, also the BMP1 comment is very usefull.

You are welcome. I was at the Fort Moore Armor Exhibit on Saturday and took some pictures of BMPs. I'll send them to you.

Wolfhag