Homebrew: Sweden national rules and vehicles

[Nanashi]

I was bored so I spent a bit coming up with this. Totally untested, minimally researched. Feedback welcome.
Army Special Rules:
The Callup
All Swedish men 18 to 47 were subject to periods of national service with regular refresher courses and should hopefully remember how to shoot straight when war is declared. Inexperienced Swedish infantry do not take the -1 to hit penalty for being inexperienced.

Six-Five
Despite originating in the 19th century, the 6.5x55mm cartridge used by the Swedish military is considered exceptionally well suited for long range shooting, even by the standards of the 21st Century. Swedish Rifles (including when used with the Sniper rule), Automatic Rifles, Light Machine Guns*, and Medium Machine Guns have an extra 4 inches of range. This increases applies when determining the distance that can be shot without the Long Range penalty.

Free War
Swedish forces were trained to resist invaders at all cost, even if cut off from command, as well as to identify and destroy priority targets with zeal. When rolling for exceptional damage, a shot scores exceptional damage if the second die is a 5 or a 6. Additionally, Swedish infantry do not suffer the to-hit penalty for attacking a Small Unit if the target is an HQ unit.

*I can’t find any evidence (but didn’t look too hard) that Sweden even had an LMG at this time.

Units:

Strv m/37
Cost: 56 (Inexperienced), 70 (Regular), 84 (Veteran)
Weapons: 2 turret-mounted medium machineguns with a 360 degree arc of fire
Damage Value: 7+ (Tankette)
Special Rules: Recce
Movement: Tracked
(Considered an armoured car because its parent vehicle, R-1 Tankette, is classed as one)

Tanks:
Strv m/41
Licensed copy of, and thus identical to, Panzer 38(t) (German etc.)

Landsverk L-60
Cost: 107 (Inexperienced), 125 (Regular), 143 (Veteran)
Weapons: Light anti-tank gun with co-axial MMG
Damage Value 8+
Movement: Tracked
(Already in BA as one of the upgrade options for Hungary’s Toldi II, so inexperienced/veteran values are slightly off)

PvKv m/42
Cost: 188 (Inexperienced), 235 (Regular), 282 (Veteran)
Weapons: Medium anti-tank gun with co-axial mounted twin MMGs
Damage Value 9+ (medium tank)
Movement: Tracked
Special Rules:
Narrow: While not exceptionally well armoured at the front or rear, the m/42 is noticeably narrower than contemporary medium tanks, making it difficult for attacks to get proper attack angles on it. Against all shots hitting the front of the vehicle it counts its damage value as 10+, and all shots hitting the rear of the vehicle count as hits against the side armour (i.e., +1 penetration modifier rather than +2)

PvKv m/43 (Tank destroyer)
220 (Inexperienced), 275 (Regular), 330 (Veteran)
Weapons: Heavy AT gun with pintel mounted MMG
Damage Value: 9+ (medium tank)
Movement: Tracked
Special Rules:
Open-Topped
Narrow: As above

(Note: While this vehicle was designed during and entered production during the war, production examples weren’t ready till after the war ended. I included it anyways since, if Sweden actually been invaded, no doubt it would have had production accelerated. Closed top was post war change)

Transport:
Terrängbil m/42 Karosseri Pansar
62 (Inexperienced), 77 (Regular), 93 (Veteran)
Weapons: None
Damage Value 7+ (Armoured Carrier)
Transport: Up to 16 men.
Tow: ???
Movement: Wheeled
Special Rules: Open Topped
Options:
May have a pintle-mounted MMG with 360° arc of fire for +15pts
(Note: Enclosed top appears to be post-war modification)

[SteveT]

https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/Kg_m/40_light_machine_gun

[Nanashi]

Despite the name given there, it’s just a BAR variant and decidedly in Automatic Rifle territory, not LMG.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 4 months ago by Nanashi.

[SteveT]

Under some classifications , the BAR is type of LMG, since its about how it was used not its ROF or mechanisms.

See The Encyclopedia of Weapons of World War II, under the US BAR entry.

” It may be regarded as a rather light machine-gun or as a rather heavy assault rifle, but in practice it was used as a form of light machine-gun.”

(same for the Swedish gun)

 

 

[Nat]

A couple of points….

1)Due to BA’s homogenisation of weapon stats I wouldnt give extra range to the sweedish.. as its not just the weapon range but contact range that is taken in to account in game
EG the standard Lee Enfield 303 is accurate to a mile…. the Bren (like the SA80 & LSW) were ‘de-accurisied’ to make them less accurate so they can fill the job properly!  (done by making the breach of the weapon slightly larger than the cartridge so the actual bullet doesnt enter the barrel exactly straight…. )

2) Free War…. That is broken in two ways
Exception damage – you are changing the chances of it happening across the board for all weapons!
Removing the -1 for small team of HQ units is again un balancing..as that’s normally their main defence.

I’d say free stubborn to all infantry /artillery units & the ability to ignore the -1Ld for loss of NCO/team  would give a better feel for defending your homeland even if cut off.
For identifiying and targeting prioty targets – I’d argue thats out of scope of BA, which is the tip of the fire fight – once your at that level the prioity target is the most pressing one for victory /surival.

[invisible officer]

As Nat stated there should be no longer Swedish rifle range.   That it is 19th century is the reason for the range, in that time technical doctrine in all countries asked for amo able to break a cavalry charge starting fire at long range.

 

Svedish cavalry still trained in mid of war the mounted charge, strange because most had dropped the sword.  Attacking ANZAC mounted rifle  style. 😉  There is a nice movie showing a Hussar charge in 1941.

 

 

Callup is like the German reserveübung, nothing special.

 

 

I’m with Nat too on the Free war thing.   They would have made a stubborn resistance

[richard zamudio]

Great idea about adding a new “force” to BA! What figures/range would you contemplate for such a force? Were their helmets unique ( i.e. something odd, such as Swiss or Dutch?) Why don’t you post a 1000 point list- give an idea what to work with.

[Nanashi]

The “Bren gun was too accurate” thing is a thoroughly debunked myth. The SA80 was never considered accurate except in one official test done for propaganda purposes that measured <i>”</i>accuracy” in the stupidest way possible so they could claim the program was anything less than a total disaster. In reality the results boiled down to comparing the ability to hit distant targets with an unscoped rifle vs. a scoped rifle. Were it an actual test it would have used equal or equivalent optics (M16s of that era could all mount a scope on the carry handle).

I don’t buy into ranges being based on engagement ranges for the simple reason that MGs already have a longer distance than rifles.

Assuming the “reserveübung” (I can’t find English results for it) is referring to the exploit in the Treaty of Versailles where soldiers were rotated so the troop count was always under 100,000 men but the number of trained troops in the population was much higher, the two aren’t really comparable. Universal conscription means virtually every male is taught military skills, while rotating troops just means you can have a larger army than allowed by treaty.

I considered ignoring the morale penalty for losing NCO, but that is already taken by Germany.

[Nat]

<argh… forum ate my reply>

So short version – SA80, I’m going off the armourers and not reports!… The Bren, that is just what Ive read, so if its wrong fair enough…

Ranges of engagement are only part of what generates the rules,  in v1 LMGs had 6″ less range and 1 less shot but got buffed to V2 because they werent being used… so at 6″ more than rifles you are looking at the approximation of how an LMG is used…

My real concern about the increase in range is that you want it across the board… 40″ sniper shot on a weapon that is quite possibly undercosted already isnt good for the game…. now if you was to limit the range increase to standard rifle shots, & BARs then yeah fair enough game play wise

The call up rule – compared to the only other removal of the -1 inexp mod is frontnik /politruks who remove it in a 6″ buble from squads only…. limit it to HQ teams & squads?  so not heavy weapon /specilist teams?

Free War – this is where I have the most issues, on paper it looks very game breaking – however if you do replace it with stubborn across the board then your Sweden list looks very similar to the other minor nations in terms of special rules

Italy – yeah lets ignore them
Axis – two rules, one of which is a german unit + the ability to take a german tank
Allies – normally 1 negative & 2 positive often free units

• This reply was modified 2 years, 4 months ago by Nat.

[Nanashi]

If you don’t count National Rules which are really just special unit rules that are for some reason explained in national rules section instead of the units section (Tiger Fear, Show your Loyalty, Not One Step Back, and, as the errata and 10 point premium cost over British use of identical vehicles confirm, Gyro-Stabilizers), nations consistently have 3 positive rules if they aren’t intentionally underpowered for LORE reasons. The core book nations of Germany, Japan, US, Commonwealth, and Soviets all follow this, as do Finland and Partisans. I’ve never seen anyone seriously say making the game unbalanced for LORE reasons was good when Germany isn’t penalized for being short of everything (except in Last Levy, where they get a point discount for it) and the US isn’t given cheaper units for being the industrial superpower.

Limiting the removal of the -1 to small arms or infantry squads (not teams) is doable. Only thing to be concerned about is anti-tank launcher (Pvg m/42, whose limited quantity can be ignored for the same reason as the PvKv m/43) since mortars still can’t use spotters if inexperienced, MMG/HMG teams are underpowered in BA, only Partisans can take inexperienced snipers, and I’m not sure Sweden had a flamethrower.

[Nat]

And there (germanys lack of hardward, US excesses of hardware) you have the difference between pickup game & simulation :p

Limited number of equipment is NO reason not to put it in the list (how many vehicles already in the game were limited… a lot :p)…. and as for flamethrowers, I’d put one in – if someone invaded Sweden they’d pretty soon have one!  (IIRC Britian didnt have one until 39/40….)

 

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