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kris gorham
United States
albuquerque
New Mexico
I wasn't born ! I sprang from the forhead of God , as he contemplated a particularly vile joke !
I wasn't born , I was hatched in the deepest darkest part of the ocean , and raised by sharks !
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PANZER AUFKLARERLAUFER I-Q “ENGEL”
When we think of other countries, its easy to forget that countries are just geographical boundaries , and on them live the people . As such , its easy to misinterpret or misunderstand something our enemies have done , because we forget that each group of people is led by other people ; by individuals , that think like individuals , and go about life with their own set of priorities .
The realm of vehicle design is no different . The design priorities of one army will be very different from the priorities of their enemies .
The PANZER AUFKLARERLAUFER I-Q “ENGEL” is an example of how different design priorities are represented on the battle filed , and evolve on their own paths based on how individual command structures use them .
Well before walkers became so prolific on the battle filed , not so very long ago , all the major powers have tried incorporating flame throwers into an armored tank platform . In the allies , they pursued its use on medium tanks , and eventually onto medium walkers , where they see substantial use in clearing enemy fortifications .
For the German armored core , the idea was only actively pursued in lighter out dated tanks , and saw limited success in the Panzer II F “FLAMINGO” , and was eventually temporarily abandoned due to poor performance ,and a perceived lack of need .
But with the rapid expansion of the battle fields across Europe and Asia , and the new realities of close in urban warfare , the idea has resurfaced in the Engel . Though it is still based on a light walker platform , and armed with only a pair of light flame throwers its proving to be very useful in dealing with clearing out enemy resistance in urban warfare .
By removing the more sophisticated ballistic weapons , the extra bracing , additional gyros , and advanced targeting gear , the Engel is lighter , faster , easier to repair , and much easier to drive . There is no need carefully maneuver to line up on the target , all the pilots have to do is rush in and spray the enemy in cleansing flame ..
The new Engel is seeing a rapid increase in use : on the eastern front ; where its flame throwers can turn a cold winter street into hell rapidly with just the pull of a trigger . And at lab facilities dealing with biological agents ; the flame throwers can cleanse a facility of potential accidental outbreaks getting into local communities .
In addition to the standard Mk. I , a Mk. II variant is being deployed for urban use in axis cities and military installations . Almost indistinguishable from the Mk. I ; the flame throwers have been replaced by high pressure , high capacity fire extinguishers . Additionally , a more sophisticated air filter system has been installed in the cockpit . The walkers agility and armor give it a huge advantage when trying to fight the raging inferno’s that result from allied carpet bombing of axis cities .
Well , with all the space that was being taken up by obstacles , I lucked out and had a little extra space while my last order was drying out doors after getting base coated , so I got to work on finishing a Ludwig and this one . Once I get my next batch of obstacles done , I will take a few days and work on a couple more walker variants as well as getting the rest of my axis infantry painted up .
Believe it or not , this idea has taken me a year to complete .
I have always loved the idea of a flame thrower tank , and saw this as the perfect game to make a flame thrower tank based on the flamingo tank that the Germans developed . It had 2 flame throwers that had remote operated mini turrets on its fenders with nozzles that could swivel from side to side as the gunner directed , each spraying out 30 foot long jets of flame , and a heavy machine gun in its main turret .
Now the reason its taken me a year to finish is because I am part of the group that believes that we should see some more mundane units in the game . I really feel that the walkers in this game , and infantry as well , are as cool as they are because their story is set against the back drop of world war 2 . We all have at least some degree of historical learning related to it , and with all the movies and TV shows , the look and feel are familiar to us .
I think having mundane units in the game makes it all come even more alive as the visual appeal of the walkers contrasts with the older trucks and tanks and it fills its niche even more . Games like WH40k just drowned the players in their over the top units , so that after a while , players HAVE to spend tons on custom made units to get away from the same boring bland units that every one has , and has been using for over a decade .
So my original direction I wanted to go was with a flame thrower tank , but with all the other projects I have done , I never got around to buying a die cast tank to build it from .
And then several months ago , the light walkers came along . While I was not overly enthused with the weapons choices available for it , I LOVED the visual look of the light walker body . I decided that it would be a better choice to make a flame thrower LIGHT walker , that that would keep it in the spirit of the original designs .
Also keeping it in the original idea of just a light walker , reflects the different priority that German commanders had VS allied commanders .
I opted to leave the machine gun off , and just go with the 2 flame throwers , I figure it will be deadly enough against infantry without the need for an MG to back it up , though I have toyed with a variant that swaps a MG for one of the flame throwers just to give it a little more range than the flame throwers have .
But I have wrestled with how I wanted the flame thrower units to look . While the DT units have a strong visual flavor of WW2 era design elements , the axis walkers have their own unique appeal , and I wanted something more than just a hose and a fuel tank .
I should also point out to those that would suggest painting the fuel tanks orange or red or some such color , this isn’t WH40K , so such conspicuous colors on the exterior of the walker would have been very out of place on a WW2 battle field . While a part of me wants such a splash of color , I am trying to keep the paint schemes in line with historical paint schemes .
I also wrestled with the parts I would use . I didn’t want to just grab a WH40K heavy flamer , though I wont begrudge those who have . And while I hate to use GW parts on Dust Tactics models ( because I think they pull you away from DT , and back to thinking about 40K ) I thought this was an acceptable compromise in aesthetics .
Now a lot of people think that light walkers should all have fast , and in this instance , I would agree . With flame weapons , and a lighter frame , the pilot doesn’t need to worry so much about drawing a bead on an enemy target ; in this case all they have to do is point and spay , so the pilot can choose to open up the throttle , and move a little faster .
I chose to give it 2 stat lines for the flame throwers so that it can target 2 separate enemy units ( like the original “flamingo“ ) , and rather than just use the stats of the napalm thrower , I chose to use the stats from a regular flame thrower and just increase the range to 2 to represent having a higher pressure tank to spray it farther .
When I play tested it , it was a lot of fun , and though I don’t plan to play it too often , its second on my list of favorite units to play . This is another walker that I wish was a standard design .
This was obviously NOT a 2 point unit , so to begin with ; I played it a few games at 3 points , and it worked out well :
Its “fast “ ability allowed it to cross the field quickly in an attempt to close range with its opposing units . This worked really well on smaller fields , but not so well on larger ones where it took greater thought , and some hard fought alleys to get across the field .
Lacking a machine gun or other longer ranged weapon , it was at an extreme disadvantage when facing other walkers one on one , but did fairly well in hunting infantry as long as it got to go first . A wise allied player can use other infantry squads to screen this one , and let tank busters or bot hunters get shots off that will easily kill it with its meager 3 life points .
While flame throwers are very good weapons in general , as anyone who has played the game long enough can tell you ; its entirely to easy to roll 12 dice and miss with every one . As such , when hunting armor 3 units , it was at an extreme disadvantage since it only has 3 life , and unless you manage to kill the infantry unit , it can retaliate and seriously put the hurt on .
After 4 or 5 games , I played it another 4 or 5 games at 4 points , and it didn’t play as well . Its low armor and low life points made it just to frail to justify as being equivalent in points to a generic medium walker , and far weaker than the allies “Hot Dog”
After a few more games at 3 points , to be sure , I left it at the 3 point mark where it makes a good points filler unit to balance out other odd pointed units .
Very much a fun unit to play .
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