PZC System not much being said

[JonS1]

Hi there,
something I've been thinking about recently is the unsatisfactory way trucks are represented. In - for example - US and UK infantry divisions the riflemen in the infantry bns had to walk everywhere, unless some part of a relatively limited pool of transport trucks were allocated to carry them to their destination. In "Decisive Battles of WWI : The Ardennes Offensive" this is simulated passingly well by having a small pool of trucks that can be used to motorise a few infantry units each turn.

PzC could significantly expand this idea:

* Each side would have a pool of GS Transport Companies, with each company able to lift the infantry of a Brigade or Regiment (or it could be set up so that each truck 'unit' could lift a single battalion). All units of the Regt (or bn if that is chosen - actually, bn would probably be a better sized unit for this) would mount and dismount at the same time.

* Allocating a truck unit would give the unit it was allocated to a status of "On Trucks", which is analogous to the "On Foot" status we have now.

* For extra staff-work frustration, the system could be set up so that the "On Trucks" status is only acheived the turn after the trucks are sent to a unit. Similarly, trucks would only become available the turn after they were withdrawn. Think of this delay as the time taken to move the trucks from wherever to their enw destination, and to refuel, carry out maintenance, etc. Imposing the delay would also serve to punish leaving the trucks with a particular unit for lack of anything better to do with them - in general the trucks 'should' be in the pool, and only allocated when there is a requirement to motorise a unit.

* For super-extra frustration, mounting should only be allowed out of ZOC, and dismounting should be automatic once a unit enters ZOC - and mounted untis cannot dig in or carry out any other game function (incl firing).

* These trucks would not exist as explicit units. They would simply be a notional pool of truck points that could be used or hoarded as required.

* A useful enhancement would be to allow increases and decreases to the pool of trucks over long campaigns (eg, no Allied trucks at the start of an N44 campaign, but gags of them by August, etc)

* The current MOT and "On Foot" rules can be retained exactly as they are for units that really did have their own trucks - UK Motor Bns, Ger PzGrens, etc.

Regards
JonS