Battle Taxis and Battle Buses

Battle Taxis and Battle Buses Battle Taxis and Battle Buses
with Mark Nisbet

One of the biggest additions to the British WWIII book (in my own humble opinion), is the inclusion of the FV510 Warrior. A massive improvement over the FV432 in a whole whack of ways. With the addition of the Warrior the British army now have the personnel carriers to support their infantry that the Warsaw Pact, West Germans, French and others have been enjoying for the longest time. So, how would my play style change if I were to field similar forces?

The Trust Old Battle Taxi
My go-to force for WWIII ever since the Brits were released; the British Mechanised Infantry force were rock-solid in defence, able to bring a number of Milan Missiles to bear against their opponent, and backed up by the effective Carl Gustav recoilless launchers should any Warsaw Pact medium tanks get foolish enough to assault the dug-in positions. But what of the actual 432s themselves? Well, I will be perfectly honest here, my 432s almost never saw the table; the risk of the paper-thin armour, lack of armament (not even having the ability to mount a Milan), led to them being used as quick-dash taxis if needed. I would mount up, dash them as quickly and safely as I could, before dumping the infantry off next turn and getting the 432s as far away (usually off the table) as I could to prevent them being easy targets for enemy APCs/AFVs.

Battle Taxis and Battle Buses

Strengths: Larger units (by comparison), for less points, plenty of Milan support.

Weaknesses: Paper-thin armour, no Milan mount for dual-role ability.

Battle Taxis and Battle Buses

The New, Hot Battle Bus
BMP-2, Marder, AMX-10P; Now the Warrior joins the ranks of decently armed IFVs. The effective 30mm Rarden gun gives the Warrior a fantastic amount of offensive power, combined with the anti- helicopter ability to keep pesky Hinds at bay.

That’s the armament, but how is the armour? The regular Warrior is 5/3/1; a cut above the other IFVs in the bracket, and will remain one of the better armoured IFVs until the Yankees get the Bradley, and the Soviets get the BMP-3. But wait, ‘regular’? What do you mean ‘regular’? Well, the Warrior did come with an applique armour package, placing spaced armour round the sides. 

Against HEAT weapons Applique Armour gives the Warrior Front and Side Armour of 13! That essentially makes the Warrior almost immune to BMP-1s, RPG-18s, and gives them a fighting chance against RPG-7s. The Applique Armour does come at a premium though, so your already small Formation will get even smaller.

Strengths: 30mm Gun with anti-helicopter makes it a threat to most enemy forces, armour is effective against small arms, and infantry-carried anti-tank weapons

Weaknesses: A Warrior unit costs as much as much as an FV432 Formation once fully upgraded!

Battle Taxis and Battle Buses

Formation Comparisons
A very quick look at how many points a Formation of each will cost on the table. I’m going to consider 100pt forces, as this points value is regarded as being the standard.

FV432 Mechanised Company
FV432 Mechanised Company HQ – 1x SLR rifle team, 1x FV432, Add up to two GPMG SF teams – 3pts
FV432 Mechanised Platoon – 4x GPMG team with 66mm anti-tank, 3x Carl Gustav anti-tank team, 1x
2" mortar team, 5x FV432, 2x Milan missile teams – 9pts
FV432 Mechanised Platoon – 4x GPMG team with 66mm anti-tank, 3x Carl Gustav anti-tank team, 1x
2" mortar team, 5x FV432, 2x Milan missile teams – 9pts
FV432 Mechanised Platoon – 4x GPMG team with 66mm anti-tank, 3x Carl Gustav anti-tank team, 1x
2" mortar team, 5x FV432, 2x Milan missile teams – 9pts
FV432 Mortar Platoon – 4x FV432 mortar carrier – 2pts
Spartan Mobile Milan Section – 4x Spartan MCT – 4pts
FV432 Milan Section – 4x Milan missile team, 2x FV432 – 4pts
Abbot Field Battery – 4x Abbot – 6pts
Chieftain Armoured Troop -3x Chieftain – 18

Medium Recce Squadron
Spartan Recce Squadron HQ – 2x Spartan – 1pt
Scimitar Recce Troop – 4x Scimitar – 4pts
Scorpion Recce Troop – 4x Scorpion – 4pts
Striker Guided Weapons Troop – 4x Striker – 10pts

Support
FV432 – 1x FV432 FOO – 1pt
Tracked Rapier SAM Section – 4x Tracked Rapier – 6pts
Harrier Close Support Flight – 4x Harrier – 10pts

Battle Taxis and Battle Buses

An absolutely rock-solid formation with three large infantry units, and a whack of anti-tank support. I’ve had so many successes with this force in the past, with the majority of Warsaw Pact forces being  unable to deal with the sheer amount of anti-tank assets spewing forth from the dug-in Tommies.

And as a little extra, having the Recce Squadron in support to spearhead forth and deal with enemy scouts and artillery.

Warrior Mechanised Company
Warrior Mechanised Company HQ – 1x SLR rifle team, 1x Warrior – 1pt
Warrior Mechanised Platoon – 4x GPMG team with 66mm anti-tank, 3x Carl Gustav anti-tank team,
1x 2" mortar team, 5x Warrior, 2x Milan missile teams – 20pts
Warrior Mechanised Platoon – 4x GPMG team with 66mm anti-tank, 3x Carl Gustav anti-tank team,
1x 2" mortar team, 5x Warrior, 2x Milan missile teams – 20pts
Warrior Milan Section – 4x Milan missile team, 2x Warrior – 7pts
Abbot Field Battery – 4x Abbot – 6pts

Medium Recce Squadron
Spartan Recce Squadron HQ – 2x Spartan – 1pt
Scimitar Recce Troop – 4x Scimitar – 4pts
Scorpion Recce Troop – 4x Scorpion – 4pts
Striker Guided Weapons Troop – 4x Striker – 10pts

Support
FV432 – 1x FV432 FOO – 1pt
Chieftain Marksman AA Section – 3x Chieftain Marksman – 6pts
MLRS Medium Rocket battery – 3x MLRS, + minelets – 10pts
Harrier Close Support Flight – 4x Harrier – 10pts

Okay, so maybe I haven’t done a complete comparison of the two forces, but I have slipped in some of the newer kit in the book to give them a run-out. As you can see the main formation for the Warrior Company is a lot smaller than the FV432 Formation (and I didn’t even give them the Uparmoured option!). Only two platoons of infantry, the mortars and MCTs are gone, as well as the anchors that were the Chieftains.

What else could I possibly do to the Warrior List to improve it?

  • Drop the Recce Squadron, integrating the Scimitar Troop directly into the Warrior Formation and
    use the other points to round out the formation
  • Drop the Harriers or MLRS to bulk up the Warrior Formation.

To sum up; would I field the Warrior Company? Damn right I would, the new pretty models, the effectiveness of the IFVs and of course the old ‘rule of cool’ over function all factoring into my choice here. Can’t wait to get them on the table and give Ivan a right good going-over.
~Mark