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Converting a .50cal Carrier – How to annoy your opponent!
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Converting a .50cal Carrier – How to annoy your opponent!
with Adam Brooker
One of the Command Cards that I think is interesting in D-Day: British is the .50cal Carrier Card. In the previous version my regular opponent would always upgrade his bloody annoying carriers with .50cals and shoot up my poor German armoured cars and infantry... I hated these things with a passion! Every time we played, I would make sure I wiped out those things as soon as I could. But soon he would use that against me as well, and would use them as bait. So a few lessons there, carrier patrols are cheap and can be very annoying! Also don’t let your opponent know that certain units piss you off, as he can use that against you as well!
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| So when I opened up my copy of D-Day: British and decided I was going to make a Motor Company to go with my 8th Armoured Brigade Sherman DD Squadron, I was looking at the units that I would need. Lo and behold a Universal Carrier Patrol is a black box compulsory unit, and I can take up to 3 units of them... and combine that with the .50cal Carrier Command Card and you get small bundles of annoyance! Excellent! |
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So what does this magic card do? Well the card changes the machine gun weapon profile to the .50 cal profile, so a longer range 20”, but a lesser moving RoF of 2, with a better AT of 4 and firepower 5+, as well as self defence AA, for 1 point for the Patrol.
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This makes the carrier patrol much better versus other light recce vehicles, and even useful for digging out gun teams and infantry in a pinch. You can also shoot down the odd plane that makes it through the Normandy D-Day fighter screen, which is something the basic carrier cannot.
Additionally you can also add a PIAT to each carrier in the patrol for 1 point each. This can make these small carriers very dangerous versus tanks. I think I would personally only take one of these upgrades in the patrol, as otherwise it would be too many points in a fragile unit, but sure if you want you can go for your life. All of this does increase the cost, it takes a 2 point carrier patrol, to 3 or 4, or even up to 6 points a Patrol, if you fully kitted it out with .50 cals and 3 PIATs. But you now get a lot of mobility, and the ability to move and fire, so you can flank a lot of tanks
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So 30 seconds later I pulled out my Universal Carrier patrol box, handset about adding the appropriate armaments. It’s very easy. You can do it one of two ways. The first one is to use a small piece of wire, about 1mm in diameter, a small hand drill with a 1mm drill bit, and the plastic 50 cal from any of the Sherman kits. The other uses an M10 sprue. You will also need the Wasp Carrier flame projector to use as a plug for the front of the carrier.
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So first assemble the carrier, except don’t assemble the front gun mount. Then you need to cut the WASP flame projector mount in 2 areas. See cuts in Red.
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It then slots in the front.
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Then get your 50cal, and cut the bottom plug off, so you can drill the hole for the wire.
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Then insert the pin (wire) on the .50cal, and then glue it to the front of the Carrier.
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Or you can cheat, if you have an M10 sprue, you can use the .50cal on the large mount, and you won’t need to drill or pin it.
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I painted 3 up, and I think I’ll probably do 3 more, with some PIAT gunners.
So I hope this puts some more firepower in your games to annoy your opponents with. That’s what this game is all about making friends, having fun, and starting vendettas!!
~Adam
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