Duritz - You worry to much about the next update, after dragging this out for so long I'd hardly kick the loyal tankies in the teeth would I?
trekaddict - That's pretty much the plan. The Army was playing around with the various carriers pre-war and the Motor Bns obviously got the best of them. The troop carrying variant had a capacity of ~10 men so was perfect to carry one section of one platoon. I believe the pre-war split was that one company had carriers and the rest of the Bn had trucks.
That being the case I imagine the plan will be for 'Assault' platoons in the carriers to have SMGs for short range while the 'Standard' platoons in the trucks have the semi-auto rifles for the fighting after. That said the plan will be for the SMG and rifle to not be too specialised so nobody finds themselves with a completely useless weapon if something goes wrong.
Davout - The problem is how would the British even be aware of it? Even if it gets invented a few years earlier if the Aussies don't like it chances are Britain will never know it even existed. They don't have gangs of officers touring the Empire looking for new ideas from the Dominions to contemptuously ignore. It would have to be brought to their attention
then ignored.
DonnieBaseball - The budget will indeed be interesting, but I have a few ideas on that one and I think certain people may like it.
And as you say going for an Aussie gun, particularly when there is a British alternative, is a pretty impossible sell. That said I think some progress has been made and it should be easier (but not too easy) to start licensing Dominion production of British hardware.
merrick - I did worry if I'd gone too far, but then I looked at what Chetwode did in India with a heavy focus on education and training and the use of large regiments (not to mention the fact Britain adopted a regional system during the War and formalised it in the 1950s) so it seemed OK.
The rest is just combat experience, nothing like an actual enemy to point out all your assumptions are completely wrong and that you really need to buck up your ideas. Even those who say 'But we won' are soon silenced with the argument 'But only because of the Navy moving us around and providing the artillery'. I may be over-estimating the power of shame to incite change but I don't think so!
Duritz - The Owen is a better weapon that the Wirraway (relatively speaking obviously) but faces the issue it was a man in a shed inventing it in 1939. As Britain has (very reluctantly) realised it has to licence production to the Dominions or risk them going elsewhere I think Australia will probably get a licence for the new guns before the Owen is even invented. At which point does in the inventor even bother to invent it?
Le Jones - Huzzah, glad someone appreciated it!
It's always the case, in a desperate situation no-one wants to risk the disruption of major change and prefers a mad rush focus on numbers and 'what he had'. Fortunately for Chetwode there's enough motivation to act but everyone believes there is time for reform (As Hitler is being kept safely under control by the French right? Right?).
Nathan Madien - A good burst of modding is a tonic for the soul. Or at least a nice change.
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Election News
Right as the tank update progress along my thoughts are occasionally turning to 'What next'. As we have all enjoyed a nice election in the past, all except the men of tanks who probably didn't enjoy coming last, I thought we do it again. Leaving Britain behind and heading off to matters of plot your choices are;
- Spain over the Winter
- The new US President
- The option I forgot (votes only count if you tell me what it is)
I currently estimate I have at most a paragraph to write on those subjects. I am therefore hopeful that even after the inevitable bloat they'll end up being one update each only. If I have actually forgotten an option let me know, but it can't be anything European or about domestic Britain as they are scheduled for later.
