Wheeled Infantry

[Cheater]

I know that the subject of motorized versues mechanized infantry have been discussed elsewhere. But my post is something diffferent so please let this remain as its own thread. It was written that mechanized was the natural development of motorized but I cant agree on that. I think that what began as motorized canvas "armoured" trucks has evolved i two different directions. The matter between motorized and mechanized is not simply a matter between steel armour and canvas armour, but a idelogical split between tracked and wheeled vehicles.

As it is in the game, motorized is almost wothless. But the thing is that wheeled vehicles like trucks require significantly less maintainance than tracked vehicles. They are less likely to have mechanical failures and consume much less fuel. Now, this is reflected in the game. But what I want is the option to develop wheeled armoured personal carriers. I discovered that having many mech units as Germany would consume all my coal.

The natural response is wheeled armoured vehicles. They preserve the advantages of low fuel consumption and maintainance but removes the drawbacks of poor protection and sensitivity to bad roads. Like the Russians had many 8 wheel personal carriers in the cold war. BTR-60, BTR-70, BTR-80.

Now the Germans had 8 wheel armoured cars in WW2, they were recognicance vehicles but not personal carriers as far as i know.

http://www.army-technology.com/projects/

This link shows that many countries are investing in 4, 6 or 8 wheel drive vehicles today. Because of the obvious advantages. These vehicles can move very fast on roads and just as good as tracked vehicles in poor terrain. They are cheaper to maintain. They dont need trucks to move them from one front to another.

The wheels of these vehicles can function even if they have 8 flat tires. loosing one tire isnt that serious. Changing a wheel is much easier than changing tracks, belive me.

I dont know of wheeled personal carriers in WW2 but they were certianly possible as Germany had such vehicles for recognicanse. Considering that you can develop A-bombs and Icbms I think that you should be able to develop 8 wheeled armoured personal carriers, the obvious development from pure motorized infantry.

This would be great for countries that are poor on oil, like Germany. This should be possible without too many techs, reachable long before Barbarossa I think.

While I think that motorized units are underpowered, I think that armoured wheeled personal carriers should have slightly lower defense and attack values than mechanized units. The mechanized units are stronger without a doubt, but not much stronger. But the new wheeled units should have a speed of 10 at least, maybe 12 as fast improved light tanks since they require no transport trucks and can drive for many miles without breakdowns. These are after all cars. And these units should not have penalty for low infrastructure like trucks have but follow the mech speed in low infra provinces. These vehicles have drive on all 8 wheels!

I think 6 or 8 wheeled armoured personal carriers should be possible in the game, the technology is nothing special, it was possible in 1936 already, it just wasnt done as far as I know.

Some techs improve Motorized and Mechanized stats and org values. The vehicles that I describe cant carry as heavy weapons as the tracked vehicles so they should gain less with every tech. I purpose this rule on how the "armoured wheeled" unit type should evolve.

If a tech improves Mech with X and Motor with Y, than Wheeled should be improved with (X+Y)/2, since this vehicle would be in between.

This would make armoured wheeled vehicles good to save oil and supplies and give them improvements to improve with time enuff to justify their existance. Still mech whould be considerably stronger as it should.

I have talked with a swedish reserve officer and he confirmed that wheeled vehicles have many advantages, that is why they are being adopted worldwide right now. The amercins are intrudicing them to their units that have no tanks, but keep the strong tracked bradley for those uints. I havent confirmed this but belive him. Wheeled should have as high air defence as tracked thoug, in my humble opinion, since they both have light protection, but the wheeled vehicle can maouver much faster and possibly find cover.

This would open up new strategcal possiblities as speed 12 wheeled and fast light tanks could be fun. I hate chasing a lone cavalry unit in france with my slow panzers. A fast response force could reach an allied landing fast and kill it before it moves over 5 empty provinces. It could easily catch up with the lone cavalry unit that keep escaping my panzers. I want wheeled infantry!

As Germany the resources could be used better ?

What do you think ?

[TwiggerTheGreat]

i think your points aree valid and if implimented would actually give me a reason to build them

as you mentioned them being used as recon vehicles they should be given a better spot value

[whyamihere]

I was thinking of something like this, but inregards to paratroopers - another build option giving them some increase in defense and speed. Small vehicles were airdropped.

However, I also like your idea. Question is, is it easy to implement? I have no knowledge on the HoI file structure, but I got to know the EU ones very well. And educated guess would be that this could easily be created in a mod.

If you can provide the info for each nation (vehicle name and stats) I don't mind trying to implement it. Is the tech tree hardcoded? A quick glimpse suggests no, so a description and pic is all I'll need.

[Stigger]

Great ideas... I hope it gets in there sometime in the future, mod or official, it really doesn't matter.