Flamethrower team vs. Engineer squad

Home › Forums › Historical › Bolt Action › Flamethrower team vs. Engineer squad

Viewing 10 posts - 1 through 10 (of 10 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • February 23, 2020 at 4:18 pm #174573
    Haskeer
    Participant

    Hi all,
    I’d be interested to hear your opinions on this –

    Do you use flame throwers?
    Do you use the two man teams, or an engineer squad to give them a bit more durability, or use both to max out the number of flame throwers you can field?
    Do your gaming buddies still like you?

    😂

    John.

    February 24, 2020 at 7:38 am #174580
    Nat
    Participant

    … well as not every nation has Engineers squads, and the ability to take flamethrowers in squads I take it you are aiming this question at the Soviet players amongst us? :p

    However to answer the question -I have 1 flamerthrower… currently been running it as a team not part of an assault engineer squad… mainly because assault engineers are Vets so I dont really take them…

    Now I’ve had mixed results with my team – one game they single handly took out 2 infantry squads, another one never got in to range… and the last game killed 1 infantry men out of 2 attempts (and that unit passed their moral check – twice) then ran out of fuel!

    (Dont forget to check fuel after firing! teams disapear as a whole, but only the flamer themselves disapear from squads)

    February 24, 2020 at 12:08 pm #174585
    Richard
    Participant

    squad based flamethrowers are far more robust and cheaper than a team but it does mean that team is basically a FT delivery system and useless for anything else (ie they have to run up the field and can’t really stop to snipe)

    Peple also haev a habit of mixing FT and SMGs which always seems odd, if the FT does it’s job then what are the SMGs for? Far better to have a cheap squad the FT and another SMG squad

    February 24, 2020 at 12:48 pm #174586
    Nat
    Participant

    hmm… not sure on the robustness or cheepness arguments

    5 assault engineers with 1 flamerthrower is 85 points. Flamerthrower can be picked out by exceptional damage has 5 normal wounds

    flamethrower team – vets with RSOK-2 is 70 points, cant be picked out by exceptional damage has to take two wounds

    still heads and tails argument, your local opponents and tournament enviroments may alter how you see the arguments (disclaimer – I’ve played in 0 BA tournaments!)

    February 24, 2020 at 1:28 pm #174587
    Haskeer
    Participant

    Thanks for the replies.

    Nat – why can’t the flamethrower, in a two man team, be picked out by exceptional damage?

    February 24, 2020 at 1:36 pm #174589
    Nat
    Participant

    Its the ROKS-2* upgrade (+5 points)

    *sorry got the letters mixed up before – this is a soviet upgrade for flamethrower teams. I added it in to make the unit as expensive as possible compared to the assault engineers who are the cheepest possible.

    February 24, 2020 at 1:58 pm #174591
    Haskeer
    Participant

    Ah, thought I was missing something for my Japanese!

    Thanks,

    John

    February 25, 2020 at 3:46 pm #174629
    arcole
    Participant

    For the Soviets, the flame thrower team can be upgraded with ROKS-2. This has a special rule that makes it immune to exceptional damage. The flame thrower in an engineer squad does not get this upgrade.

    February 26, 2020 at 1:24 am #174639
    Jan Doernte
    Participant

    Quick question related to tak8ng smgs in a flamer engineer sq.

    If you elect to fire the smgs in addition to the flamer at, say a 10 man squad- Do you shoot the smgs first and apply a pin (if hit) and roll for casualties- and then the flamer and apply additional d3+1 pins, causalities and an morale check?

    Because if you only apply pins once- then I see your point about the negligible value of smgs in an engineer squad. Chances are that the hits and casualties are wasted if the squad is going to fail it morale check.
    Unless of course you’re in a total melee “cqb” situation and you can use smgs at another target.

    February 26, 2020 at 7:49 am #174642
    Nat
    Participant

    Flamethrowers add an additional D3 PINs if they hit*… therefore you get 1 PIN for being hit by a unit firing then you add the flamethrowers D3…. well technically you should do all the to hit rolls, calculate PINs, then roll to damage… but still :p

    *Its in the rules of the flamethrower,

    Edit – although with some scenarios flamethrowers might not do anything (vets with a Capt near by and you roll a 1 or 2 on your D3 pins…they are still testing on a 10 – plus I’ve had a target unit pass on a 4..TWICE!!)

    • This reply was modified 4 years, 9 months ago by Nat.
  • Author
    Posts
Viewing 10 posts - 1 through 10 (of 10 total)
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.