The Commander Series Forum

My mind has been very much on Eastern Europe lately, which has inspired me to expand the doings during the First Upheaval along the Donbas-Bryansk Front, where the St. Vincent Brigade and the Kraków Hussars are engaged alongside regular forces of the Ukrainian Federation, fighting the Gromyla People's Democratic Republic.

I've so far built a pile of elite mercenaries with the best equipment. For the GPDR, though, I want a force based on size and tenacity, propelled into battle by the patriotic bayonets of the people standing behind them. To that end, I want to build a Motor Rifle Regiment for the GPDR, using Soviet-era organization and a pile of spare T90, some T228 tanks (lower-grade tracked versions of the hover tanks used by the Vinnies) and newer Alligator IFVs for the main force of infantry. I also have in mind to support them with Russian Confederation "volunteers," using heavy walkers from the Microworld Kreen line, deployed without markings ("I wonder where these Russian walkers came from?!)

It may be a little bit on the nose, but what the hell. As ever, suggestions are welcome. I've been eyeing the Army of Salvation, in particular (looking in your direction, Mac!). Suggestions would be welcome, in particular, on integrating walkers in a blievable way with an otherwise conventional force.

In my universe, heavy walkers are very much high tech... Ao high that humans can't make many of the necessary components. Only rich armies have lots of them.

The Sallie unit I built is based on a Soviet-style shock division. They have an integral Cybertank battalion, but the rest of the unit is just massed prodused tanks and APCs (Borises and Alligators). They are thrown against the enenmy lines and, when they are used up, are brought back for rebuilding.

Heavy Walker battalions in the Army of Salvation are independent units: think Tiger battalions in WWII. They are attached by high command to particularly important operations as support. There are never enough of them to go around and the battalions are often understrength. Most of the mecha pilots are in fact Neo-Pole "volunteers".

The Sallies also have soem mercenary mecha battalions. This is to give me an excuse to do some rag tag OOBs with a wide vareity of mecha.

First question - why (and how) are walkers better than a tank? Your background gives Slammer style fusion powered hover tanks not grab doesn't it, so whilst they're remarkably good in close terrain (200t of fusion powered behemoth can crush or ride over most terrain) walkers probably have an edge in BUAs or really dense woods or rocky mountainous terrain?

Or is it as Mac suggests, they're so high tech only they are capable of mounting "system X" which is potentially a game changer so no serious army that can afford them can be without them?

Otherwise they're probably an expensive way of doing something a "real" tank or a squad of armoured infantry can do better...

Good questions on all counts! I think walkers are more like Mac's "Titans," which is to say, agile, versatile, but expensive and difficult to obtain and use. As there are no known aliens in the conflict I'm modeling, the walkers are more like advances on the Cybertank. Most if not all are massive units. intermediate walkers, like heavy battle suits, come around later in the war.

I'm still thinking over the Russian Confederation forces and how they'll factor in. I have however refined the setup somewhat. There has been another revolution in the Donbas-Bryansk Theater since the thread started, and the Gromylan forces have been overthrown by the Zaporoskiye People's Democratic Republic. The 743rd is now supposedly a "guards" unit, but that term is debased in the ZPDR - almost everyone is in a "guards" unit. The ZPDR 743rd Guards Motor Rifle Regiment, of which I'm modeling the first battalion, has been reinforced with a company of T228 tanks. The three mechanized companies are also being backed up by an AAA platoon, an ATGM battery, and a battery of 122mm Guns. In contrast to the St. Vincent Brigade, I'm basing them on platoon stands - one base is a single platoon or battery.

To fight them, the Kraków Winged Hussars remain on the scene - the two units are right-sized for battles around Luhansk. I also have in mind to put some ENSPUN forces into the fray, but not until later. I'm planning on playing mainly vanilla FWC with this set, only using Mac's cybertank mods and 1/2 ground scale.