WEAPONS EFFECTIVENENSS IN THE ECHELON SERIES
by
Alan R. Arvold
The following set of rules deals with the First Edition sets
of ECHELONS OF FURY and ECHELONS OF FIRE. A copy of this article
was sent to Medallion Simulations for consideration and parts of
it were used when they developed the Second Edition of the
series. (Or so they say.) Anyway for those who still have the
First Edition, these rules are for you.
In a normal game of either ECHELONS OF FURY or ECHELONS OF
FIRE all Combatant and Support cards have a normal attack
effectiveness towards each other with few exceptions. However
this is not totally true in reality. For example, machine guns
could disable a lightly armored vehicle at point blank range
using armor piercing ammunition. However machine guns could not
pierce the heavy armor of a tank. Yet in ECHELONS OF FIRE a group
of four US Humm-V's with light machine guns can knock out a
Soviet T-80. What a ludicrous and unrealistic result. Or how
about a Soviet squad containing one Squad Leader, three Fire
Teams, and seven Sagger cards? With a total of 35 attack factors
this group can just about destroy anything in the game. While in
reality the formation would be a powerful anti-tank killing
group, it would not be a very powerful anti-personnel force.
Consider, Saggers are primarily used against vehicles, but can be
used against bunkers and buildings as well where infantry can
found. However they are not very effective against dismounted
infantry spread out in a tactical formation. Yet in ECHELONS OF
FIRE this Soviet group can wipe out any US squad that gets in its
path primarily because of the Saggers. To get to the point of the
matter, certain types of weapons have reduced or no effectiveness
against certain types of targets. The rules presented below
simulate this situation.
ECHELONS OF FURY
US .30 Cal. LMG, US Autorifleman, German MG-34 LMG, and German
MG-42 LMG: Attack Value of 1 against infantry-type and
encumbered-type targets. Attack Value of 0 against vehicle-type
targets and infantry-type targets inside vehicles. Note that the
MG-34 still has an Attack Value of 1 against aircraft-type
targets.
US 2.36" Bazooka, German Panzerfaust: Attack Value of 2 against
encumbered-type and vehicle-type targets. Also has an Attack
Value of 2 against infantry-type targets in city and town terrain
and in foxholes and inside vehicles. Attack Value of 0 against
infantry-type targets in all other situations.
US M-3 Halftrack, German Sdk-251: Attack Value of 2 against
infantry-type and encumbered-type targets. Attack Value of 0
against vehicle-type targets and infantry-type targets inside
vehicles. Both have an Attack Value of 2 against aircraft-type
targets.
German 88mm ATG: May full Attack Value against infantry-type
targets inside vehicles.
All other Combatant and Support card have normal effectiveness
against all other cards. Now the player must strive for a
balanced formation to meet all possible threats. For example, an
American infantry platoon group consisting of one Platoon Leader,
three Regular Squads, one .30 Cal LMG, one 2.36" Bazooka, one
Autorifleman, and one Fragmentation Grenade card would have a
combined Attack Value of 10 against infantry-type targets, 12
against encumbered-type targets and infantry-type targets in
foxholes, towns, and cities, and 10 against vehicle-type targets
and infantry-type targets inside vehicles. The player's HQ should
be treated as an encumbered-type target.
ECHELONS OF FIRE
US M-60 LMG, and Soviet PKM LMG: Attack Value of 1 against
infantry-type and encumbered-type targets. Attack Value of 0
against vehicle-type targets, including vehicles carrying
infantry. (Exception: These machine guns have an Attack Value of
1 against US Humm-V targets as these vehicles are not armored.)
US Humm-V/w LMG: Attack Value of 2 against infantry-type and
encumbered-type targets. Attack Value of 0 against vehicle-type
targets, including vehicles carrying infantry. (Exception: This
vehicle may attack other Humm-v's with an Attck Value of 2 as
these vehicles are not armored.)
US Dragon, Soviet RPG-7: Attack Value of 2 against encumbered
type and vehicle-type targets, including vehicles carrying
infantry. Also have an Attack Value of 2 against infantry-type
targets in foxholes, towns, and cities. Attack Value of 0 against
infantry-type targets in all other situations.
Soviet Sagger: Attack Value of 4 against encumbered-type and
vehicle-type targets and infantry-type targets inside foxholes,
vehicles and in towns and cities. Has an Attack Value of 0
against infantry-type targets in all other situations.
All other Combatant and Support cards have normal effectiveness
against all other cards. Now the player must strive for a
balanced formation to meet all possible threats. For example, a
Soviet infantry squad consisting of one Leader, three Regular
Fire Teams, two PKM LMG, one RPG-7 Grenade Launcher, one Sagger,
one Fragmentation Granade, one Smoke Grenade, and one Light SAM
cards would have a combined Attack Value of 10 against infantry
type targets, 16 against encumbered-type targets, Humm-V's, and
infantry-type targets in foxholes, towns, and cities, and 14
against vehicle-type targets and infantry-type targets inside
vehicles. Note that this group also has an Attack Value of 3
against aircraft-type targets for one attack only.
Commentary: Support Weapons are now considered to be Anti-Tank,
Anti-Personnel, or both.
Anti-Personnel: Yes it is true that at point blank range the
machine guns depicted in the game can penetrate a lightly armored
vehicle. Yes most machine guns have an armor piercing round.
However in real life, vehicles would seldom present themselves at
point blank range. Also Armor piercing round were usually
reserved for machine guns on aircraft and on tanks. Also
increasing the number of machine guns firing at an armored
vehicle does not increase the penetrative ability of the
ammunition. (So much for four Humm-V's knocking out a T-80 with
machine guns alone.)
Anti-Tank: The hand carried anti-tank weapons which are depicted
on the Support cards are indeed effective against infantry-type
targets. Each of these weapons used a HEAT round, a type of high
explosive round which would also be effective against infantry.
These rounds were most effective against infantry when they were
in confined locations such as foxholes and inside rooms of
building such as you would find in towns and cities. However in
all other types of terrain depicted, infantry units would tend to
spread out to limit the effects any high explosive weapons used
against them. And then there is also the matter of ammunition
supply. A squad can carry just so many rounds for their anti-tank
weapons and so a squad leader would not want to waste rounds on
spread out infantry.
Both Types: While the rest of the Combatant and Support cards are
equally effective against both infantry and vehicles, some
deserve some explaintion. In ECHELONS OF FURY the infantry squads
had an inherent anti-tank capability in the rifle grenade which
was organic to squads during World War II. In ECHELONS OF FIRE
the infantry fire teams have an inherent anti-tank capability in
the light AT rocket launchers that they carry (such as the US M
72A2 LAW and its Soviet equivalent). Leader cards do not have an
anti-tank weapon, instead their Attack Value could be considered
to be a leadership modifier of sorts.