trucks, what for?

[fitterpete]

Okay reading Company B's thread on what is missing in 28mm vehicles a lot of replies are about trucks,motobikes, and such.
My question is what the heck do you actually do with the truck in a wargame?Heck I was even thinking of getting rid of my US halftracks because at the scale I play  the guys should be dismounted  before the game even starts.
If its just for terrain wouldn't any old truck blown up work?
Then the question of how many trucks do you really need?If your using them as a objective and only need one then do manufacters really want to produce them?
I'm not trying to start a argument or looking down on people who want trucks but when ever I see a new releases thread and its a bunch of trucks I think "Why the F@$^%% aren't you making more tanks!!:"
So just curious what the truck are you doing with them?

[CompanyB]

We've played games where taking out the convoy is the objective.  And as in the real world, you need to figure out which truck has your cargo objective, and which one is full of troops ready to gut you.

These are games in which the objective is to successfully extract the  cargo, and not how many of the enemy you've killed.

Now, we do happen to have lots of trucks in our lineup.  But most of the those have large gun options as well.  Things that shoot generally sell better at first.  But the trucks seem to fill out ones needs after you have filled your tank/gun quota.

[Keith]

I play on a very large table 

[BAMeyer]

Wargaming groups drift in different directions.  One group I game with has enough figures to play just about anything they'd like in WW2. Rather than move to another period and start new figures we've devoted ourselves to scenery and accessories. During that pursuit we've discovered a wealth of scenario ideas.  One thing we fell upon is that a vehicle doesn't have to shoot nor a figure armed to make a good wargame.  No disparagement intended but we don't play as much line them up and shoot it out anymore.  Not for everyone, but the idea of having to solve a tactical problem that includes more than the decison of where to charge or where to flank has caught our interest.

Some of the scenarios we've played using trucks:

LRDG attack on an Axis resupply convoy.
French partizan attack on a German rear HQ. Any HQ worth its salt has trucks and autos.
Winter War Finns vs isolated Soviets.  Soviets had more trucks than tanks with them strung out on the roads.
Aussies in New Guinea vs. retreating Japanese.  How many men will the Japanese Colonel order to their death to save his Izuzu truck full of New Year's O Sake?
Chindits in Burma behind the lines with orders to disrupt an destroy.
Hungry and isolated East Front Germans infiltrate to find food and ammo.

I will be the first to admit that old wargamer habits die hard and often our particpants ignore the objectives in favor of just killing stuff.  There actions or inactions provide wonderful fodder for the post game review.


  

[Helen]

I find that soft-skin trucks add extra flavour to any gaming table, whether its for towing anti-tank guns, for command type vehicles, recon elements, ferrying supplies or casualties. To me this is as important than your main battle tank.

Cheers,

Helen

[Sirius]

^ What they said ^

In my mind, 28mm WW2 is not about gaming with the entire force organisation for huge battles, where trucks are low down the pecking order, or irrelevant, but using a vehicle or three when the scenario calls for it. And often those vehicles are not the hard-nosed, hard-hitting kit...

[David]

i have 6 trucks for my and four armoured cars for my polish army (1919 to 1921 polish/russian war)
i have loads of trucks for FOW , but they are used for quick movement and then debus or for my artillery and of course my engineers truck.
I use trucks for my Rif war
It depends on what rules you are using.