Commandos: what kit?

[Undave]

I've just been having a game with a playtest version of the new Bolt Action rules, kindly supplied to my club by Warlord, and it's made me dig my WW2 stuff out of it's fox hole again. I got a box of commandos for Christmas but as I had no idea what to arm them with I've held off assembling them until now.

As far as I can make out they used to take whatever equipment they thought they'd need on a mission by mission basis but that doesn't do me much good when the glue comes out to play. What kind of numbers and load out do you guys think would work for a "standard" raiding force in a normal sized game?

(Opinions and hints from them that writes the rules would be greatly appreciated )

[Cubster]

I'd go heavy on the SMG's (maybe even with silencers - how cool!) - perhaps a 50/50 ratio with rifles, and easy on the heavy stuff, depending on the type of mission you want them to undertake of course.

[Undave]

I loved the silenced sten in Return to Wolfenstein. Sneak up behind the guard and phutphutphut in the back of the head

[Cubster]

Yeah, I think it was 'Call of Duty' where my guy was mucking about with them. Didn't stop me swapping it for an MP40 asap though.

[Paul @ Warlord Games]

Silenced Stens are more likely the territory of SOE agents than Commandos. The De Lisle carbine open the other hand is something you could easily add into your Commando units. Silenced Stens were used in the Falklands by the SBS!

That said, if you want to go for silenced Stens, go for it - it's your army!

[Undave]

Silenced Stens are more likely the territory of SOE agents than Commandos. The De Lisle carbine open the other hand is something you could easily add into your Commando units. Silenced Stens were used in the Falklands by the SBS!

That said, if you want to go for silenced Stens, go for it - it's your army!

Heh, yeah that would be fun, especially for special games. I get the impression that they were mostly armed in the same way as the regular rifle platoons though, is that right? If so, what I need to know is what proportions to give Lee Enfields, Stens, Brens etc. and whether or not to give any of them Thompsons.

Those De Lisle jobbies sound good but there aren't any on the sprue. Maybe I could try bodging a few out of Thompsons... Maybe Warlord could oblige by making supplementary weapon packs at some point

[Big Al]

A standard rifle unit would have two teams, one commanded by an nco, likely the corporal, with a sten and four men with rifles. The second would be led by an nco (lance corporal) and have a bren gunner and assistant, possibly with a sten or rifle and two more riflemen.

[Undave]

Right, well I'm going to chalk that one up as a fairly successful bodge

Here's the real thing to compare:


Apart from the pro-create for the forestock it's an all Warlord effort. The main part is from a Lee Enfield, as is the end of the barrel and sight. The magazine was filed down from the cut off part of the Lee Enfield and the main part of the barrel is made from a section of Zulu throwing spear I happened to have on my desk in front of me. If I make any more I'll get a bit of plastruct section as I'll run out of spears otherwise. I reckon I'll be able to make enough to arm at least one of the sub-sections with these.

Silent but deadly

[NTM]

Commando organisation can be found here;

http://www.bayonetstrength.150m.com/Bri ... mmando.htm

Based on Later preriod when they were being used in a more conventional role but shows they did have the option of silenced Stens.

[Undave]

Oddly enough I was just looking at that. He does make a good point that any organisation was probably as fluid as the equipment issued dependent on the mission. I think I'll go with something close to what Al suggests with one sub-section (or maybe just a single team) armed with these De Lisles and probably mix it up by chucking in the odd Thompson here and there instead of a Sten.