All Quiet on the Quar Front - TO&E

Having figured out I needed (yes, needed; funny I can't find unpainted lead in Maslow's pyramid) an army of Quars mounted in All Quiet on the Martian Front tanks, I now need to write down a shopping list...

Infantry:

I'm still trying to find the perfect ruleset for my 15mm sci fi gaming...  But a couple of things I've nailed so far are: I want reinforced platoon sized combined arms forces, and I want them based in fireteam sized elements!

My rule of a thumb to figure out how many such elements I need for the infantry core of a force gives me 12 teams of low tech level average troop quality quars. The actual number of "men" per team/base is loosely on TL too: the lower the TL, the bigger the fire teams. 

Looking at the TO&E from This Quar War I see companies made of two "sections" (platoons) each one made of two 10-quars squads. I intend to have 5 quars on each base so that company would be made of 8 teams. I'll add another "section"/platoon to make the 12 teams I need, I'll either use it as a third platoon added/detached to the company or use its squads to bulk out the 2 "official" "sections" with a third squad. Not sure yet. 

Quar Company (reinforced with a sniper and a cavalry "troop") by Jay White from Jay's Wargaming Madness.

The Crusader Light Infantry Company also fields a Weapon Squad (reporting directly to the Company CO) made of a HQ team, 2 LMG teams and 2 light mortars teams.

A pack of 2 snipers is also available. You can never go wrong with snipers!

Shopping List:

• Company HQ: Officer, NCO, Standard Bearer, Comms Guy (with message carrying squirels!), Musician, Cook
• 3 x Platoon HQ: 3 x Officer w/ Shotgun
• 6 x Squads: 6 x (NCO w/ Assault Rifle, 6 x Assault Rifles, 3 x Heavy Rifles)
• 1 x Weapon Squad HQ:  NCO w/ Assault Rifle, Assault Rifle
• 2 x LMG Teams: 2 x (LMG, Assault Rifle)
• 2 x Light Mortar Teams: 2 (Mortar w/ Operator, Assault Rifle)
• 2 x Snipers
• Total: 4 officers, 8 NCO, 41 Assault Rifles, 18 Heavy Rifles, 2 LMG, 2 Mortars, 2 Mortar Operators, 2 snipers, 1 Standard Bearer, 1 Squirel Messenger, 1 Musician, 1 Cook

Armoured infantry:

All Quiet on the Martian Front Baldwin Mark II is described as tank rather than a APC... But it has two side hatches and a large top hatch and can be pressed into battle taxi role without too much of a strech...

I don't see this force fielding full armoured infantry units... Rather, taking a leaf from 40K and its "Armoured Fist" squads, I'll use APC-mounted quars has a specialist unit... Maybe some sort of assault/sapper units using their armoured vehicles to cross the no quar's land before pouring in the ennemy's trenches? In fact, They could team up with the not-hellhound heavy flammer carrying vehicle I intend to convert from the Fuel Tender: both vehicles cross the no quar's land, the not-hellhound clean(se)s up a section of trenches before an assault squad pours out the second vehicle and take whatever was the objective of the raid.

I'll use one of the infantry "sections"/platoon above, so no need of extra infantry. I'll assume both squads can be carried in two APCs.

Shopping List:

• 2 x Mark II
• 1 x Fuel Tender

Light Cavalry: 

I would have been happy with a single unit of 6 quars and their mounts, but they sell by the "wedge" (platoon) so a wedge it is.

Cavalry Wedge painted by Robert Avery from Vis Lardia Online.

Shopping List:

• 18 x Cavalry
• 2 x Pack Mount

Armour:

The Quar use fairly conventional troops of 3 Armoured Tractors. I'll add a 4th tank to paint something bright and use as some sort of "Red Baron" officer/ace. I'm still torn on the Super Heavy tank (the tracks...) but I guess I'll just go and buy one right away instead of changing my mind later and paying the postage twice. And a munitions carrier and a second fuel tender (to use as intended by the manufacturer) to keep those tanks firing and rolling!

Baldin Mk III Steam Tank. Picture from the Manufacturer's Kickstarter page.

Shopping List:

• 4 x Mark III
• 1 x Mark IV
• 1 x Fuel Tender 
• 1 x Munitions Carrier
• 3 x Half Tanker
• 3 x Tanker 
  

Artillery:

As I intend to play platoon sized forces on a realisticly scaled 90 cm by 90 cm (3' x 3') board, on-table artillery makes relatively little sense... Yet artillery positions or convoys makes great scenario objectives. I'll go with a 3-guns battery of the smaller Field Guns but curb my enthousiam to a single bigger Howitzer and a single Mobile Gun. But I'll add a couple of trucks Fliver trucks to bulk out the positions. And I'll use spar riflemen, tankers, pack mount to man my battery.

Shopping List:

• 3 x Field Guns
• 1 x Howitzer
• 1 x Mark II Mobile Gun
• 3 x Fliver Trucks

  

Ooh Shiny!

Like most miniatures wargamers I can't just buy a force without also buying at least a single exemplar of every single possible asset that could be detached with my force... The Tesla Mine Carrier and the Clamp Tank are both very specific and I'm not sure how or why to use them yet (especially the Clamp Tank that I have difficulty to see used outside the context of fighting frail legged tripods) but what the hell. Give me one of each!

More posts about this project:

• All Quiet on the Martian Front tanks
• ZombieSmith's Quar infantry
• Drafting a TO&E and shopping list
• Terrain ideas
• More terrain ideas