Fire and Dice: Vehicle and Gun Charts

 

A number of comprehensive (but no exhaustive) Vehicle and Gun charts have been generated to assist Fire and Dice players to generate unit cards for AFVs, artillery batteries, Anti-Tanks Guns (ATG) and Anti-Aircraft (AA) units.

The charts contain the vehicle or gun name (identifier), years in service (generally specific to WW2), speed (for vehicles), guns armour-piercing (AP) and high explosive (HE) value, the number, placement and value of machine guns, smoke and flamethrower capability, front and side armour values, reliability, crew number and whether or not they come equipped with radios.

As others have said before me, "I've done the work, so you don't have to". Having said that, if you disagree with any of the values or details contained within the charts, by all means change them. These charts do contain a number of assumptions as follows.

RADIO

Fire and Dice assumes that ATGs and anti-aircraft (AA) guns (unless self-propelled) do not have radio communications. This is because ATGs are generally positioned and sighted to direct opportunity fire at any enemy target in sight. Similarly, AA guns will fire at any enemy aircraft within range. Neither asset require commands to direct fire.

Artillery, on the other hand may be called upon to deliver indirect fire onto communicated co-ordinates and the charts assume if they have a radio, it will be situated in the vehicle towing them - and that may include a horse limber carriage.

When I became aware of limited radio usage, it is specified. Some charts may have 'OIC' for the radio entry meaning that only the squadron leader has a radio capable of receiving and transmission. The rules don't go into as much detail, but you might consider AFVs without radios are required to remain within line of sight at all times with their squadron leader.

All radio communications have a 2in6 chance of failure in Fire and Dice. This may seem high but apart from technical failure there's the din of battle to coinsider from either end.

SMOKE

Not all nations deployed smoke and when they did, it was not always delivered by HE fire. Smoke generators and specialist chemical units were often used for specific, pre-planned smoke deployment for such operations like river crossings. When in doubt, I have left the smoke entries blank. Some nations barely used it and there is no readily available record for their use.

ARMOUR

Expressed as a dice value, there is only front and side values and no bonus in Fire and Dice for shots to the rear of an AFV. Rear values will be no less than side values.

RELIABILITY

This is a chance out of d6 for any single AFV arriving on the table-top when it is scheduled to arrive or at all. The reliability chance takes into account mechanical failure (some vehicles being cited historically as unreliable) and considerations like supply (fuel), bridging issues, field replacement and maintenance logistics. For example, the reliability of a Sturm Tiger will be negatively affected by fuel issues, mechanical breakdown and the inability for many bridges to bear the vehicles weight which all increase the chances against it arriving. A Sherman tank, on the other hand were numerous, more easily repaired, mechanically reliable and fuel was in good supply. If you want a squadron of Shermans to turn up, they have a very good chance of arriving.

This is an optional rule if you are building a game to a list.

AP/HE

Not all guns had both types of ammunition and when they did not, the value is not listed. All guns 76mm (d10) or larger have a defacto anti-tank capability of one value lower than their HE value. So, a d12 HE gun has d10 AP unless otherwise specified and a d10 HE gun has a d8 AP capability.