Mobile Warfare
Prerequisites
Requires:
- Repeating Rifles
- Automobile
Statistics
Gives:
- Stormtrooper
- Self-Prop. Gun
Gameplay
The introduction of Tanks on the modern battlefield only started the revolution in warfare. To be really effective, tanks must be combined with Stormtroopers and Self-Propelled Guns able to keep up with the tanks, making a fast, powerful combined-arms team for the Modern Age.
Historical
Mobile warfare strangled on the machinegun-covered barbed wire of world war one. From 1914 to 1917 every combatant in that war tried to find some way of restoring mobility to war. The Allies managed it with tanks supporting their infantry, the Germans with infantry trained to bypass resistance and strike deep into enemy defenses. When these two elements were combined, the blitzkrieg resulted. Frequently overlooked is the fact that the essence of the blitzkrieg was not the tank, but combined arms. When Heinz Guderian began formulating plans for the first German Panzer Divisions in the early 1930s, from the start he envisioned a team of tanks, infantry, artillery, and engineers all moving at the speed of the tanks and fighting as a single unit. The early panzer divisions had almost all of their support in trucks, but more and more of their infantry and artillery was armored as world war two continued. German industry could never build enough half-tracks and self-propelled guns to armor all of the panzer divisions. The US Army could command such resources, and every American Armored Division had all of its infantry, artillery, engineers and all supporting elements in armored vehicles. The armored combined arms team not only returned mobility to warfare in the twentieth century, it was the most flexible combat force seen in centuries, able to move operationally or tactically at high speed, assault, take, consolidate or hold territory, and operate effectively in any terrain where tanks could go.