I had to break 2 .50 cals off of my Wildfire to straighten them, and happened to notice that they are NOT the same scale as the .50 cal you find on the Pounders and Hot Dogs. They are considerably smaller. I checked the card to see if perhaps they meant for the to be .30 calibers, but the card is clearly a .50 and the range is the same as a .50 on a pounder.

Anyone else notice this?

Not really, but mainly because I'm not impressed at all with the Allied Light Walkers. Fast for lower firepower (and real spotty firepower from the Honey!), the Wildfire is cheaper, so might be worth a spin though. The Axis Light Walkers are a little bit better, but IMO, still a bit pricey for what you get and in that case, I like the Hermann (Laser AT) better.

Grand Inquisitor Fulminarex said:

Didn't notice the guns, noticed the tiny drivers though.

Major Mishap said:

The walkers in general seem too small for what they're supposed to be. I'm hard pressed to figure out how an average light tank sized crew could fit into the US walkers. My guess has always been that the VK engines either take up next to no space or that the Walkers are actually in a different scale than the infantry. The latter explanation also helps with understanding why the 17 pounder and the 88s are so small, compared to their historical counterparts. Heck, look at the Allied Heavy Walker from GenCon, how is that thing fitting 6 infantry + crew?

I think the Wildfire 50 cals are to scale, the 50s on the Pounder and such are 1/35 scale.

I think that a walker only has 1 crewman in it.

I guess the 50's on the mediums are too big, now that I think about it. Very strange.

I compared the driver of the Honey to a BBQ infantry, and they are the same size, except the driver is not wearing armor.

Grand Inquisitor Fulminarex said:

That might make sense for the German walkers, but the Allied ones with the turrets? That's asking a lot of one person, its even asking a lot of two people.

Not to say you can't cram a lot of people into a small space (the M24 Chaffee is little and had a crew of 5), but the 'body' of the Allied light walkers is almost non-existant.

Look at the comic...the tanks are small in there.

Maybe it is a 2 man crew and they sit tandem like a aircraft trainer?

Sit inside a real tank, there is no room in there either, each crewman has his chair and thats it, he stay's there. The M3A3 light tank that the Mickey is based on is just 4.4 m long and 4 crew.

Major Mishap said:

That's true, but the actual tank has more depth, that's what I'm getting at. They didn't just slice off the tracks and add legs, they removed a good chunk of tank space. Or at least that's what it looks like to me.

Well, speaking about the medium walkers, so far as I can see, the Axis is supposedly manned by a gunner/pilot, but it does appear that there may be room for an engineer/reloader behind him, possibly with the top rear heat vent being a hinged hatch (which might be to access the machinery).

For the Allied version, there is what appears to be a driver's view hatch plus the hull mounted .30 caliber beside it. The turret itself could hold two crew easily enough and would already be designed for two operators for the weaponry they carry. Having one person driving, working the hull mounted MG, plus loading and firing the main weapon plus firing the turrent mounted MG is just a bit much methinks...

Algesan said:

I was under the impression that Axis tanks had reloading machinery. I do agree with your estimation of the Allied tanks crew component.

Grand Inquisitor Fulminarex said:

The only fluff I've read is what is in the various rule books and the little comic that came with the original core set. The big collected Dust book is enroute to my place right now though. From that, I agree that supposedly the Axis only use a gunner/pilot, I was just noting that from the size of the walker, another crewman could be back behind the pilot.

Well, the Axis cannons just *look* like they're self loading is all and there's no way to access them from inside.

asbestos said:

Exactly...there's a drum which implies the rounds are on a (big) belt.

To reload that, one would need to exit the vehicle...and safety. But this is a game. The other WWII game I play, as good as it is, struggles with reality too.

"Dust Sourcebook" inlcudes some technical data from the vehicules. Luther has a 1 man crew, and MIckey a 2 man crew. It doesn´t state wether some extra passenger/crw can be carried along, but my guess is it´s not that far fetched.