Pickup Trucks

Get in loser, we're going hunting!

"Regrettably, the Toyota Land Cruiser and Hilux have effectively become almost part of the ISIS brand!"

– Mark Wallace

The Pickup Truck, also known as a Technical, is perhaps one of the greatest weapons of war ever fielded by mankind. And as much as we want to say that is a joke, there is a reason there is a literal war called the "Toyota War".

Yeah when it comes militia vehicles, the Pickup Truck is a tried and tested design. Despite this, you have to remember that for all the memes about the Toyota Hilux the Pickup Truck is literally just that. A civilian Pickup Truck

In Team Yankee

The Pickup Truck is an option for Irregular Militia Groups. And by option, we do mean it's a 1 pt option (2 if you want Machine Guns). The vehicle can help get your militia into position, but bare in mind the rule Resistance. You can already deploy Militia anywhere on the board, so movement isn't that much of a concern. Now granted once the Militia have destroyed their target, they can mount the Pickups to move one. So in that case there may be some advantage to having these things in the unit. But outside of road movement, the Pickup is just barely better than walking. Before you start suggesting using Pickups as a cheap harassing unit, you have to remember the rules Unit Transport and Passenger Fired. Unit Transport basically means your pickup's leader has to stay near the militia leader if you don't want to lose it. Passenger Fired meanwhile means that unless this vehicle is transporting something, you can't fire the MG. Like the Militia, this unit may be situational. But that can change once the book drops.

IRL

Ok, where to begin. The idea of creating improvise vehicles has pretty much been a thing since war existed. But for the sake of simplicity, we will say that the use of the Pickup Truck as a military vehicle began with the use of Tachanka. The general idea was to mount a machinegun onto a vehicle that permitted quick movement and response. With the Dawn of the Automobile, it was only inevitable that mankind would start mounting guns on the things like the Orks we are. While WW2 had instances of Guns being mounted onto trucks, the image of the Technical wouldn't be a thing until the Bush Wars of Africa. And from here, the glory of the Toyota Hilux would be known. The vehicle would become something of the AK47 of combat vehicles. Rugged, simple to maintain, cheap, are all words that can be used to describe the Technical So why don't actual armies use the thing? Well, if you want to be technical (don't laugh) they do. The HMMWV is in essence a pickup truck with a machinegun. A Jeep is a pickup with a machinegun. A BTR is pretty much a pickup with a machinegun. But the thing is these and other vehicles are designed for combat. They have things like dedicated weapon mounts, armor, part familiarity, fuel specifications, ETC. Pickup truck meanwhile are meant to transport things like lumber or food produce. While they can be used for combat, that's not their main focus. So why then are these things so popular with militias? Well as stated earlier, these things are Rugged, simple to maintain, and generally cheap. They are also available. A Warlord may not have access to things like a M113, BTR, or even a Deuce-and-a-Half. But they might have a pickup. And if they need to transport their buddies around the battlefield, the truck is more than adequate. Ironically, in the case of Team Yankee, the Pickup can have a place in a US army list. The US military has a vehicle called the CUCV. Its literally a military pickup. It's meant more as a vehicle for when you need to transport small amounts of cargo (especially since CUCV stands for Commercial Utility Cargo Vehicle). Still, it's not impossible for a Commander to provide a local militia with these things in exchange for support.