- Yes, I think it’s a great idea exactly as shown.
- Sure, I would organize things a little differently, but I support the overall concept.
- Maybe, I’m on the fence about it.
- No, I don’t like the idea of an Amphibious Support Forces line.
Introduction
One of the least remembered aspects of World War II naval power is the coastal forces, and even less so among them are the landing craft. While most know of how infantry landed on the beaches at Normandy, far fewer know just how many landing operations were really carried out during World War II and how important they were to the success of the war. In order to make these landings as much of a success as possible, specialized support vessels were required. The Amphibious Support Forces tech line aims to introduce these vessels into the game to augment the Royal Navy tech tree and honor the historical sacrifices of these often-forgotten soldiers. This is a potential representation of this concept and does not represent a specific batch of vehicles to be added. The provided layout is simply giving an idea of what could be done.
Key Features
All vessels involved in this new tech line are connected by either direct technological development or similar use purposes. Every ship generally fits into these categories:
- At minimum, supporting landing operations, and most purpose-built to do so.
- Slow, but well armored with good firepower.
- New vessels with unique hulls.
- Majority converted landing craft, but some gunboats included.
While these landing craft conversions were not specifically designed to engage enemy vessels, they are more than capable of doing so in the battle rating brackets provided (again, just as an example). This branch would provide a unique playstyle for the Royal Navy that is not currently found in game, and as the chief progenitor of these vessel types, most likely the only coastal force that would include something specifically like this.
The Tech Tree
The tech tree includes current vehicles (those with thumbnail pictures) as well as new vehicles (those without). An interactive version of the tech tree with short blurbs about each ship can be found at this link: British Coastal Forces (w/Amphibious Line)
Sources
All individual vehicles have their own suggestion posts, which will be linked and carry their own sources. In general, sources relied upon for this project include:
- https://www.iwm.org.uk/
- https://combinedops.com/
- C.B. 04304 (June, 1944): Details of Combined Operations Landing Craft and Barges
- C.B. 04304 (I) (August, 1944): Details of Combined Operations Landing Craft and Barges - Addendum №1
- https://www.navy.gov.au/media-room/publications/wwii-naval-staff-histories
- ONI-226: Allied Landing Craft and Ships
and many more.
Vehicles
Vehicles are organized into individual collapsible tabs by rank.
Rank 1
Rank 1 logically contains the weakest vessels, but is nonetheless a good introduction to what you can expect from the line. The L.C.S.(M)s have decent protection and good guns for their tier, but are slow, while ML433 is a little change of pace for some flavor.
Landing Craft, Support (Medium) (Mark I)
The first vessel in the tree is the L.C.S.(M)(1). It’s definitely the weakest of the bunch, but still has its own merits. The craft is equipped with two .50 caliber Vickers machine guns and a choice of either a 4" mortar or 20mm Oerlikon cannon. This good armament should offset its slow speed at its rank.
Landing Craft, Support (Medium) (Mark II)
The Mark II was the least produced variant of the L.C.S.(M), but introduced drastic improvements over its predecessor. While the armament was the same (two .50 caliber Vickers guns and a 4" mortar), the layout was significantly improved, with the Vickers guns being in an armored, powered turret mount. The vessel was also up-armored, especially with the inclusion of an armored steel deck. These improvements would logically put it at a higher BR than the Mark I.
Landing Craft, Support (Medium) (Mark III)
The L.C.S.(M)(3) was the final and most produced version of the L.C.S.(M). The changes it introduced were not as drastic as the transition from the Mark I to Mark II, but are still noteworthy. The conning tower was extended to create an armored shelter for the crew, a new bow was introduced for better seaworthiness, and the guns in general have better firing angles. It does, however, lose some speed over the Mark II, making it more of a side-grade.
Fairmile B (ML443)
ML 443 is an interesting vessel. Her standard armament was changed to be two Oerlikon guns and six 7.7mm machine guns. With the fields of fire the ship has, it is effectively a larger but faster ML 1383. ML 443 was directly involved in Operation Chariot as a landing craft for the commandos, tying her nicely to this tech line.
Rank 2
Rank 2 is home to a few generally unrelated ships, including the Girl-class river gunboats, Fairmile L.C.C., and L.C.S.(L)(1). You can expect a decent increase in firepower compared to the last rank, keeping with the theme of strong guns on slow platforms.
Girl-class River Gunboat
The Girl-class is not particularly well-armored but carries a good armament of a 40mm Bofors gun and 20mm Oerlikon cannon. She’s slow, flat-bottomed and provided fire support to infantry in Burma, which ties her nicely to the tree, where she fits right in. I think the Girl-class would be a good introduction to Rank II and begins to show the real firepower these ships provide.
Fairmile B Landing Craft, Control
The Fairmile B L.C.C. was a series of Fairmile Bs converted to navigate the waters near beaches and plot out a safe course for the landing forces to find their way to the beach. In terms of gameplay, the only thing this vessel really offers is a unique visual flair, as the armament is the same as the Fairmile B currently in game (1 x 3-pounder, 3 x Oerlikon gun, depth charges). Owing to its visuals and significance, I still think it deserves a spot in the tech tree.
Landing Craft, Support (Large) (Mark I)
Unsurprisingly, the L.C.S.(L)(1) is basically a smaller version of the Fairmile H L.C.S.(L)(2) found in game. It was based on the L.C.S.(M) and is generally an improvement, being slightly larger with a new armament layout putting the Vickers guns at the back and a 40mm 2-pounder gun in a Daimler AC turret at the bow of the ship. This vessel would play quite similarly to the L.C.S.(L)(2), just with worse armament. It is still historically significant and makes perfect sense as an inclusion in the tech tree.
Rank 3
Rank 3 contains the sole proposed reorganization compared to the current tech tree - moving the L.C.S.(L)(2) into the new amphibious support forces line. In addition, it adds the L.C.F.(2) №2 as well as the L.C.S.(L)(2) Late model in a folder.
Landing Craft, Support (Large) (Mark II) Late
There’s not a lot of information on this variant floating around (full pun intended), but it’s pretty much identical to the current vehicle, except with twin Oerlikon gun mounts replacing the singles. This did remove some armor and made some firing angles worse, so this is more of a side-grade. I’m presenting it as its own vehicle, but I think it could just as feasibly be added as a modification for the current L.C.S.(L)(2).
Landing Craft, Flak (Mark II) №2
The L.C.F.(2) №2 would be an interesting addition to the game. She’s slow and big, but has an absurd amount of automatic cannons to shoot aircraft and light vessels to bits alike. I am including her for historical significance, but also because of her smaller size. Despite the majority of L.C.F.s being based on L.C.T.(3)s and L.C.T.(4)s, I did not include them in this proposal simply because I felt they were too large for their armament and would be hard to place in game.
Rank 4
Rank 4
Rank 4 contains four new vessels in the tech tree. Two are different models of the same type, while the other two are unique. Along with L.C.F.(2) №2, these vessels represent a serious increase in firepower for this tech line.
Landing Craft, Gun (Medium) (Mark I)
The L.C.G.(M)(1) is the first L.C.G. on offer to players in this tech tree proposal, and it’s a strong first impression. The L.C.G.(M)(1) would provide a similar sort of ship to some of the Russian gunboats in their coastal tree, with heavy armor up to two inches thick covering various areas of the vessel and two 20mm Oerlikon cannons for AA defense. In my opinion, this is definitely one of the highlights of the Amphibious Support Forces. The craft could equip either 17 pounders or 25 pounders, giving it another cool gimmick as captains could select which gun they liked better.
Landing Craft, Gun (Medium) (Mark II)
Now, I know what you may be thinking from the lack of photograph. This design is not paper, as hulls were laid down and launched, but I unfortunately have no photographs and cannot confirm for sure if they were ever armed as described. Still, it’s a real vessel with working weaponry. The Mark II would trade some armor for a new secondary armament arrangement and would overall weigh less. I included it in a folder with the Mark I, but it could equally be included as an event vehicle or some other off-tree element.
HMS Locust
Locust is inexorably linked with landing support operations. Despite not being a dedicated landing support vessel, she basically checks all the boxes of the stereotypical vehicle in this tree, being somewhat slow with good firepower and a shallow draft. Locust operated at Dunkirk, Dieppe, Normandy, and more, making her historically significant and tying her to the Amphibious Support Forces branch.
Dragonfly-class River Gunboat, HMS Locust (T28) - “Plaguing the Shores”
Landing Craft, Gun (Large) (Mark III) early series
For lack of a better term, the first twenty L.C.G.(L)(3)s can be described as the “early series”. These L.C.T. conversions were not playing around, with two 4.7" naval guns as primary armament. That’s the same caliber as some destroyers in game! The obvious tradeoffs here are low speed and relatively ineffectual armor. In addition, the AA armament is not great, being only two gun mounts concentrated at the bridge. I think it is reasonable to say this could be at BR 3.3, but it would of course be at Gaijin’s discretion.
Rank 5
The pinnacle of the Amphibious Support Forces, Rank 5 includes four new vessels in the tech tree. As before, two are similar models in a folder, while the other two are unique ships. These are the strongest vessels this line has to offer and definitely one of the highlights of it.
Landing Craft, Flak (Mark II) №1
Despite being an L.C.F.(2), №1 and №2 could not be more different. №1 has a full-on conning tower with a large rangefinder, and her main armament consists of two 4" twin guns with 3 20mm Oerlikon cannons for secondary air defense. While this is in name an AA vessel, similar to the SF 40 Heavy, I think it’s obvious what this would actually be used for. The tentative BR of 3.3 considers the fact that the firing arcs of the main guns are not good and the armor is rather poor, but I can definitely see if someone thinks this should be placed higher, as the 4" guns are deadly weapons.
Landing Craft, Gun (Large) (Mark III) late series
The last three of the L.C.G.(L)(3)s are a bit of an enigma. They are essentially a blend of the L.C.G.(L)(3) and (L)(4), but they are more similar to the (4), so I foldered them together. The late series consists of three vessels with greatly improved armament: the main guns have much better firing arcs as they are now superfiring, and the AA defenses were bolstered with two extra Oerlikon mountings. Obviously, this increase in capability warrants a higher ranking.
Landing Craft, Gun (Large) (Mark IV)
While the L.C.G.(L)(3) late series is definitely an improvement, the L.C.G.(L)(4) is the pinnacle of the L.C.G. concept. The wider platform of the L.C.T.(4) allowed designers to give a more even spread of anti-aircraft guns, with no less than seven different Oerlikon mounts spread across the ship for good arcs of fire. The (L)(4) also features a better bridge and more armor all around. You do lose a little speed, but I would say it’s worth it.
HMS Ulster Queen
Ulster Queen is the crown jewel of the Amphibious Support Forces branch. She began life as an anti-aircraft cruiser, which is what she is being suggested as, though she was converted to a Landing Ship, Fighter Direction vessel, which ties her to this tech line. Ulster Queen has an impressive three twin 4" gun mounts, two quad pom-poms, four Oerlikon guns and two Vickers machine guns, making her deadly to any aircraft unfortunate enough to enter her airspace. The 4" guns are no slouch, either. The armament and armor layout would essentially be the same as Abdiel in a smaller package, albeit a slower one. At a similar size to Leopard and Blackpool, Ulster Queen would fit nicely as the capstone of the new tech line.
Premium/Event/Squadron Vehicles
I have included a sample of some ships that could potentially be good premium/event/squadron vehicles to go along with this new tech branch. These ships, for the most part, are not too different from the tech tree versions, but are unique enough to be interesting.
Fairmile B (ML 196)
Honestly, this would just be the Fairmile B L.C.C. with a new coat of paint, which is already not the most original vessel in the first place. I am simply suggesting it to show a sample Rank II premium, though it is hardly necessary. There is an excellent scale model of this ship built by robgizlu on BritModeller.
HMS Mosquito
Mosquito is the sample premium counterpart and sister ship to Locust. While they are the same class, Locust has significantly better anti-air armament, putting her a little bit higher in BR. Still, Mosquito is nothing to scoff at, with a quad 2-pounder gun for air defense and two 4" guns for surface targets. Her service life was brief, which is also part of the reason why I did not include her in the tech tree.
Landing Craft, Gun (Large) (Mark III) №19
L.C.G.(L)(3) №19 is a unique version of the ship with a storied history. The crew of the ship tell its story better than I ever could; you can find their firsthand account at combinedops.com. This vehicle is being suggested as a sample event vehicle not only because of its history but because of the unique 12-pounder gun installed at the bow. This would be a blessing and a curse, as it makes the already “meh” firing arc of the 4.7" gun even worse, but adds a new unique weapon to this ship and the game. It’s definitely the kind of vehicle you would consider event material.
HMS Palomares
Palomares is suggested as a sample of a top-rank squadron vehicle. She is tied to the tech line in the same way as Ulster Queen, having originally been an anti-aircraft vessel before being converted to a Landing Ship, Fighter Direction vessel. Palomares and Ulster Queen are pretty much interchangeable, with one being top of the tech line and the other as a squadron vehicle, but they are also both different enough to each other that it would be worth making one a squadron vehicle.
Thank you for reading!
If you like the idea, but think a few things would be better if they were changed/omitted, please comment your ideas in the replies. My goal with this suggestion is to showcase the amount of potential this group of ships has as a member of the British coastal tech tree, adding a third line in a unique and interesting way, and I hope I succeeded.