Hello bajtársak and fellow forum dwellers.
The update “New Era” released in 2023 december, more than half a year ago, but Armored Personnel Carriers available in the tech tree are just a bunch of trucks.
The actual APCs are only available as premiums and event squads. I believe that this should change.
The premium APC squads are awesome, they come at a good price (~25$), with 6 specialists. The weapons of the squad are changeable thus they can be deployed in any BR with the exception of BR1. It’s basically a free squad slot if this is your first premium with the faction.
Adding other cool APCs to the tech tree won’t make the premiums less lucrative at all.
While the APCs squads are very popular thanks to their mobile rally function, rider class is depressingly unused. They have a dubious role of flanking which paratroopers and APCs do better. They need a lot of rework to be interesting.
The idea is that these vehicles have enough protection to protect its crew and passengers from small arms fire, drive up to the objective, dismount and attack.
To make this possible new vehicles and armoured cars should be added and the personnel limit of the squad increased to at least five. I did not include any armoured vehicle with an armament stronger than a 20mm autocannon so the class does not turn into a tanks squad 2.0
Additionally USSR and Japan must also get their rider squads.
Most WW2 IFVs don’t have enough space inside them for 4 or more soldiers, but no one said they must be inside…
Vehicles for Germany and Italy
Armored Personnel Carriers
Opel Blitz
Most common truck of the Wehrmacht, Germany and Italy is the only faction without a truck. Fun fact the Sd.Kfz 7 in game was produced and used by Italy designated as Breda 61.
Sd.Kfz.250/1
The Sd.Kfz.250 is a smaller and lighter vehicle similar to the Sd.Kfz.251. The 250/1 a troop carrier variant.
Erwin Rommel speaking to soldiers from his SdKfz. 250/3 vehicle ‘Greif’, near Tobruk, Libya, Jun 1942
It may look small, but don’t worry all of your friends can fit on
Rider Class
kübelwagen
It’s already in the game actually, you can find it on some maps.
SPA-Viberti AS.42 “Sahariana”
Built on the chassis of the AB41, the Sahariana is a long range, highly manoeuvrable vehicle, similar to those widely used by the highly successful British LRDG.
They were well armed with either 20 mm Breda Model 35 autocannon or a 20 mm Solothurn S-18/1000 anti-tank rifle, alongside 1 to 3 machine guns.
Seven vehicles fought on the Eastern Front as part of the 2. Fallschirmjäger Division.
Sd.Kfz.222
One of the most recognisable vehicles of the war, served from the beginning until the end of the war on all fronts. Armed with a 20mm Kwk 30 L/55 autocannon and a MG34, operated by a crew 3, but potentially more men could fit on top of the vehicle.
Premium APC
SPA Dovunque 35 protetto
The SPA Dovunque 35 prottetto is a wheeled armoured troop carrier, designed for Bersaglieri but employed by the Black Brigades of the Italian Social Republic. The Black Brigades are the continuation of the CCNN blackshirts, following the armistice on 8 September 1943. They were party loyal paramilitary with the primary task of fighting partisans and acting as military police, but they did fight the Allied units as well.
Good opportunity to add Italian CCNN and black brigade uniforms.
Premium Rider
Autoblinda Lince
Late war armoured car of the Italian Social Republic (RSI) based on the Daimler Dingo.
It had a crew of 2 and a single 8mm machine gun, but multiple people could fit on the back of the vehicle.
Vehicles for the United States and British Empire
Armored Personnel Carriers
Canadian Military Pattern truck
Canadian Military Pattern (CMP) vehicles are a series of different vehicle designs produced by Canada for the British and Commonwealth armies. These vehicles put the British Empire on wheels, these trucks saw wide use in all theatres of war in which the Empire participated.
Britain considers these vehicles to be Canada’s primary contribution to the war effort.
The picture is of a CMP C15A No.13,but any troop carrier CMP could be added.
M3 Half-track
The United States built the M3 half-track vehicles and supplied them to other Allied nations via the lend-lease effort. It’s a bit scandalous that the USSR has M3s, but not the US. Just finally add it to the faction it belongs to.
Rider Class
Willys MB jeep
American versatile, highly mobile vehicle, well liked by Allied soldiers.
Universal Carrier
It’s already in the game as an APC, it was joked with even before players unlocked it.
Universal Carrier had many different configurations, a visually very different one (so it can be differentiated from APC variant) should be added to rider class.
This little UC is packing a lot of fire power!
T8 Armoured Reconnaissance vehicle “Stuart Recce”
A turretless variant of the Stuart mainly used in Reconnaissance role. Armed with a 50.cal M2 Browning heavy machine gun with a crew of 4 men, but more could fit on the top of the vehicle. Commonly known in British service as Stuart Recce
Premium APC
Rover Light Armoured Car
The Rover was designed in 1941 by Australia. It used Ford 3-ton Canadian Military Pattern truck chassis, either F60L or the shorter F60S. The armoured bodies were produced by Ruskin Motor Bodies of Melbourne. Production was stopped in 1943, a total of 238 cars were built.
Premium Rider
Chevrolet WD 30 CWT
Famous for its use with the LRDG, the Long Range Desert Group was a reconnaissance and raiding unit operating behind enemy lines. Earned its fame in the North African campaign.
Vehicles for Japan
Armored Personnel Carriers
Type 1 Ho-Ki or F B Swamp vehicle
Type 1 Ho-Ki was a Japanese heavy armoured artillery tractor and troop carrier similar to the Sd.Kfz.7, it had no weapons of its own.
The F B was an Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) military transport/personnel carrier used for crossing difficult swampy terrain. It was part of a series of vehicles developed by the army in its effort to mechanise and give mobility to their forces.
Rider Class
Type 97 Rikuo
The Type 97 motorcycle, or Rikuo, was a copy of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle produced with a sidecar from 1935 in Japan under licence from Harley-Davidson by the Sankyo Company.
Type 95 Kurogane
It is one of the world’s first four-wheel drive passenger vehicle placed into mass production
Its nickname is “Yonki” which in Japanese means “all-wheel drive”.
Type 92 Heavy armoured car
The Type 92 heavy armoured car, also known as the Type 92 cavalry tank, was the Empire of Japan’s first indigenous tankette. Operated by a crew of 3 and armed with a 13mm and a 7.7mm machine guns.
Premium Rider
SR-II Ro-Go tank
A successful amphibious tank design that was not selected for mass production.
The crew of the vehicles consists of 3 men with an armament of 2 Type 97 6.5mm machine guns.
2 tanks have been produced. The fate of the vehicles is unknown. At least one was captured in 1945 by Soviet units in Manchuria; there are no known survivors.
Vehicles for the Soviet Union
Armored Personnel Carriers
T-20 komsomolets
While not exactly an APC, the T-20 komsomolets is an artillery tractor, but if the Universal Carrier got a pass as an APC then the T-20 can function as APC.
Rider Class
Dnepr M-72
During the Winter War the Red Army was not satisfied with its domestic motorcycles and thanks to the Molotov-Rippentrop pact, it turned to the king of warbikes, BMW.
The Red Army adapted the R71, which had been rejected by the Wehrmacht.
GAZ-67
Domestic jeep of the Red Army.
BA-64
Built on the chassis of a GAZ-64 or GAZ-67 jeep, it incorporated a hull loosely modelled after that of the Sd.Kfz. 221. Armed with a single machine gun and consists of a crew of 2.
There isn’t much space to add extra squad members, poor guys on the front would be literal meat shields, the alternative is BA-64E a turretless version that can fit passengers 6 alongside the crew of 2.
Premium Rider
Landsverk 181
A swedish armoured car, 6 vehicles were purchased by Lithuania in 1933.
Armed with a 20 mm Oerlikon 1S automatic cannon and 2 8mm Maxim machine guns.
Under Soviet occupation the Lithuanian army was absorbed into the Red Army alongside their Landsverk 181 vehicles.
While not exactly a Soviet design, the Red Army did operate 6 of the vehicles.
Commonly used equipment should be in the tech tree, while rare but interesting vehicles like the Landsverk 181 should be premium.
