How often are landmines used in scenarios, and in what way are they used?
I am busy looking at the option for some of our games here in the south, and would like to know what everyone else is doing. Our first - and easiest option - was to use something like car hubcaps to replicate Tellermines, and then sow them in an area where the one force has to pass through. The field will be clearly marked, and the advance cannot pass past that point until the entire field has been cleared (the defenders will respawn right behind the field, in their fieldworks, so the field will be covered by fire most of the time). Once the field has been cleared, the attackers can then push through and capture the defending position - and its respawn point.
The options I am considering here are, among others:
- rig the mines to fire a blank cap in some way if depressed; however, since these will be anti-tank mines, non-functional designs would be perfectly sufficient versus infantry
- get a mine detector backpack and sweeper for the attackers, to aid them in places where they are not under immediate fire; this can easily be approximated by using something like a Soviet R105D radio case (they look virtually identical to the German Feld Fu b cases, which were also used for the Wien and Frankfurt detectors), and a more modern Garrett detector, suitably camouflaged to disguise its modern look
- for clearing the field, the idea is to mark the boundary boards of the field with the usual "Achtung! Minen!" signboard - but then add a number below it, something in the region of 15 - 25. This number then indicates the number of mines in the field, and the field is only considered cleared once that exact number of mines has been found and removed from it (easiest would be to stack the removed mines on the boundary of the field, next to one of the warning signs).
For multiple, overlapping fields, the mines can easily be colour-coded as well - so field X is "10 red", field Z is "13 green", etc; the colour on the sign then corresponds to a paint dab/dot on the bottom of the mine; this method would be effective for sappers clearing a corridor through a big field, instead of needing to dig up the whole field
Thoughts? I'm thinking the implementation on this type of thing should be dead easy to set up, and can easily add a big chunk of realism to any game - having to go prone and using your bayonet to probe for mines, having a dedicated sapper squad that are the only ones capable of removing them (anyone can find them, only sappers may remove), and so forth.
So example hubcaps that I picked up to play around with - they measure in at about ~24cm diameter, and ~6cm height.
there is already use of mines in many games and they can be used to limit advance of armored vehicles or to prevent bypassing specific game scenario parts or as a specific part of the game .many organizers already have teller-mines in their box of tricks as well as mine field signs,if all this appeals then i suggest you book onto either an "army group south " or "gunman airsoft " game asap as they both run southern games and heavily use prop's in the game.
armoury
m1a1 Thompson,sten mk2,mp40,stg44,sterling,mk2 bren gun,lee Enfield no4 mk1,Mauser Kar98, Walther ppk,smith and Weston m10 and Mauser m712
Give me a big enough hammer and a place to stand and I could fix the world.
i'll kill a man in a fair fight or if i think he's going to start a fair fight or over a woman or.......
a problem shared is a problem halved ,but an advantage shared is no advantage at all
if a job's not worth doing then its certainly not worth doing well
Heh, 'south' as in south South Africa Dadio!
Anyway, yes, landmines have featured in many games over here - from functioning pressure sensitive schumines and tellermines to simple buried metal objects that have to be cleared by mine detector (famously tins of carrots at a Gunman game and nick-named "Carrotin" - Carentan, geddit!). Bayonet probing is just as good fun as mine defusing, so it doesn't need to be over complicated.
Although I have to say your capacity for complex rule structures knows no bounds!
Oh come now, using dummy mines in this fashion is hardly complex! 
You see the minefield signs, you go prone, and you start probing for buried objects - just like in real life.
My biggest worry at this point is finding an affordable and reliable source of metal hubcaps.
I'm just trying to think - I think every game has used mines on roadways, whether or not vehicles were in use in-game. Apart that is from Boshman's schumines which, appropriately, were used off-road as anti-personnel mines. Oh, and we have used trip mines as well.
viewtopic.php?f=13&t=7842&p=126996&hilit=schumine#p126996
my grasp of geography slipping again
armoury
m1a1 Thompson,sten mk2,mp40,stg44,sterling,mk2 bren gun,lee Enfield no4 mk1,Mauser Kar98, Walther ppk,smith and Weston m10 and Mauser m712
Give me a big enough hammer and a place to stand and I could fix the world.
i'll kill a man in a fair fight or if i think he's going to start a fair fight or over a woman or.......
a problem shared is a problem halved ,but an advantage shared is no advantage at all
if a job's not worth doing then its certainly not worth doing well
Do you get Fray Bentos pies in SA? They're perfect as a facsimile land mine and the mine clearer is rewarded with an almost edible prize.
No easy pie tins for us, although it does look a bit fragile? I suspect the old chrome hubcaps would be better able to handle someone stepping on them. Am planning to build up their bases with plank discs to get the correct height (as well as for extra weight), and then add a simple handle on the side for carrying. The final step will then be to make a carrying crate for the lot. Probably won't be the quickest or most exciting project on our construction calendar for the next 6 months...
Thanks for the link to the blank-firing Schu-mine, will see if I can source blanks locally and reproduce something similar. What is the British purchasing requirements for getting blanks? Any paperwork required?
Boshman's ones are made out of circles of MDF, painted and varnished. They're actually really quite substantial, will happily stand up to being stood on, though probably not driven over.
I've actually got a British Anti-Tank mine shell, with a blank firer mechanism fitted inside it. That will happily handle a truck driving over it.
If you have access to decent machine tools, and propane bottles, you could cut the bottom off and use them?
Funny you should mention propane bottles, I am actually in the process of collecting some as game props for a "raid the German gas factory" scenario. Never thought of using their bottoms as mines though, will have a look.
Btw, does anyone have pics available of the mines mentioned in the scenarios above?
"Boshman's ones are made out of circles of MDF, painted and varnished. They're actually really quite substantial, will happily stand up to being stood on, though probably not driven over. "
Umm, they survived being driven over by a GMC lorry at The Gothic LIne back in November. Slightly cock up on the mine clearing front.... the track was very muddy, not sure they would have survived if it had been on tarmac.
Cheers
Martin
"Mistakes in the initial deployment cannot be rectified" Helmuth von Moltke
Toys: AGM MP40, Cyma M1A1, TM M14/G43/SVT40, TM VSR/K98, SnS No. 4, ASG Sten, Ppsh.
Arnhem3,Gumrak,Campoleone
Btw, does anyone have pics available of the mines mentioned in the scenarios above?
If you look on the first page of photos from 'The Gothic Line' (Nov 2012), abut halfway down is a photo of McVickers lifting a Teller Mine.
Cheers
Martin
"Mistakes in the initial deployment cannot be rectified" Helmuth von Moltke
Toys: AGM MP40, Cyma M1A1, TM M14/G43/SVT40, TM VSR/K98, SnS No. 4, ASG Sten, Ppsh.
Arnhem3,Gumrak,Campoleone
Some more info on my, and others mines also on this old thread 
:
[link]http://www.ww2airsoft.org.uk/php/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=12460&p=189990&hilit=schumine#p189990[/link]
Whilst my mines do have Pyro's attached and have got the odd "kill" there are primarily used as an objective at events where the designated Engineers must be called up to defuse them before the units can move on. SImilarly we often use Czech hedghogs and plastic barbed wire to create obstacles which must be cleared. Barbed wire is cut with wirecutters and hedglehogs "blown up" with a small pyro before they can be moved.
“I wanted to come to the Volga at a specific location at a specific city. By chance it carries the name of Stalin himself. So don’t think I marched there for this reason – it could carry another name – but because there is a very important goal... this goal I wanted to take – and you know – we are very modest, we have it already."
Adolf Hitler, November 1942
"Comrades, Red Army men, commanders and political workers, men and women guerrillas! It is on your perseverance, staunchness, fighting skill and readiness to discharge your duty to the country that the defeat of the German-fascist army and the liberation of the Soviet land from the Hitlerite invaders depend! We can and must clear the Soviet land of Hitlerite vermin."
Joseph Stalin, November 1942
