I swear I'm still not dead, just a little preoccupied....

So it's been a while since I've posted anything and I just wanted to say thanks to all the people who've been stopping in to see whats up and or write to see what I'm up to.

To be honest I haven't been around lately and that's been the largest factor contributing to my lack of posting.

So then, where have I been?

Yeah right now I'm hangin' out in good old Afghanistan. So hopefully some of you out there understand why the blog has fallen a bit by the wayside.


I have managed to pick up some new stuff for when I get back. I picked up a couple boxes of Volksgrenadier for cheap, along with some PaK40s, those should be fun and interesting to run, as I thought I'd change it up and try more of the 'junk' German lists.



I also picked up a whole band of 15mm Chechens from Eureka and plan on putting together a bit of a modern force to play out Grozny with a couple of friends. Modern is all the rage right now and I figured I'd give it a go. Plus who doesn't want to paint chest rigs and sneakers?

I'm pretty excited to delve back into it all when I get back and I'll post up on it when I do.

Until next time.

Prairiecon Photo dump

It's been a while but training has take up a ton of my time recently. Thankfully I got to play in a 4000pt total war game at Prairiecon with my Buddy Lance and his son and fearsome competitor Brody.

This was my first Total war game and I have to say I like the format, reserves is always good, and with recce and paras coming on at unusual points(compared to a normal game) there was a great balance and a real sense of fog of war.

We played on the 8th of June and as a demo we figured we might as well represent the forces that fought on that day in 1944. Lance headed up two companies of Canadians from the 3rd Div, one armoured and the other Infantry.

Canadian Armoured Squadron
British Late-WarTank Company
Headquarters Canadian Armoured Squadron 2 Sherman Vs with .50 cal AA MGs 1 Sherman ARV = 155 points

Canadian Armoured Platoon 3 Sherman Vs with .50 cal AA MGs 1 Firefly VC with .50 cal AA MG = 310
Canadian Armoured Platoon  3 Sherman Vs with .50 cal AA MGs 1 Firefly VC = 305 points
Canadian Recce Patrol  3 Stuart VIs = 130 points
Anti-tank Platoon (SP), Royal Artillery (4th)  4 M10C 17 pdrs = 270 points
Royal Engineers 1 Cmd Pioneer Rifle team & 6 Pioneer Rifle teams = 75 points Armoured Car Platoon 2 Staghound Is & 1 Daimler Dingo = 110 points
Field Battery (SP) 4 Sextons = 205 points
Corps Medium Battery, Royal Artillery  4 BL 5.5" guns =245 points
Air Support  [Limited Air Support] Typhoon = 170 points
Air Observation Post 1Auster AO = 25 points
Total Company Points = 2000 points


Regina Rifles
Confident Trained Rifle Company (C3rd)
British Late-War Infantry Company

Headquarters Rifle Company HQ (C3rd)
2 Cmd Rifle team & 1 Jeep =30 points
Rifle Platoon (C3rd) 1 Cmd Rifle/MG team, 1 PIAT team, 1 Light Mortar team, & 6 Rifle/MG teams = 150 points
Rifle Platoon (C3rd) 1 Cmd Rifle/MG team, 1 PIAT team, 1 Light Mortar team, & 6Rifle/MG teams = 150 points
Carrier Platoon (C3rd)  6 Wasp Carriers = 205 points
Armoured Platoon [Reluctant Veteran] 3 Cromwell IVs & 1 Firefly = 325 points
Crocodile Tank Platoon  3 Churchill Crocodiles = 400 points
Anti-tank Platoon, 1 Cmd Rifle team 2 OQF 17 pdr guns = 85 points
Naval Gunfire Support  4 Naval Guns & 1 Observer Rifle team = 200 points
Assault Field Battery (C3rd)  3 Cmd Rifle teams, 1 Staff team, 2 Observer Rifle teams, 2 OP Carrier, 8 OQF 25 pdr guns = 260 points
Air Support  [Limited Air Support] Typhoon(s) = 170 points
Air Observation Post 1 Auster AOP = 25 points
Company Points Total = 2000

Brody and I were representing the 12 SS as they counter attacked.

Brody ran
Fearless Veteran SS-Panzergrenadierkompanie (12. Hitlerjugend)
German Late-War Infantry Company
HeadquartersSS-Panzergrenadierkompanie 2 Cmd Panzerfaust SMG teams 2 Panzerschreck teams = 140 points

SS-Panzergrenadier Platoon 1 Cmd Panzerfaust SMG team & 6 MG teams = 230 points
SS-Panzergrenadier Platoon 1 Cmd Panzerfaust SMG team & 6 MG teams = 230 points
SS-Heavy Platoon  1 Cmd SMG team & 2 MG42 HMGs = 80 points
SS-Mortar Platoon 1 Cmd SMG team, 3 Observer Rifle teams & 6 8cm GW34 mortars = 215 points
SS-Scout Platoon 1 Cmd MG team & 3 MG teams with 4 Motorcycle & Sidecar with Passenger-fired MG = 180 points
SS-Panzer Platoon 4 Panzer IV Hs = 435 points
Heavy SS-Panzerspäh Platoon 4 Sd Kfz 231 (8-rad)s = 170 points
Rocket Launcher Battery Confident Veteran [Allied Platoon] 3 15cm NW41 = 105 points
Heavy SS-Anti-aircraft Gun Platoon  2 8.8cm FlaK36 gun (8 crew)s = 210 points
Total Company Points:1995

I had 12 SS GpPzGren
HQ with a schreck
2 x GpPzGren pl with fausts each HQ veh had 2cm AAA
armoured cannon pl with 4 Stummels
3 x Pak40s with halftracks
Barkman
4 x PzIVs
3 x Panzerwerfers with extra crew.

Germans won on points, everyone won on fun.

Until next time.

Speed and Violence, or how to get the most out of German Mech Infantry

I've been asked on a few occasions to talk about how I run my Gepanzerte Panzergrenadier(GpPzGren) lists in Flames of War, and so I figured I'd drop a few thoughts down here for people to look over.

The GpPzGren are probably my most familiar list, mechanized Infantry tactics are my comfort zone and this list allows me to best apply that on the table top. GpPzGren were Infantry units designed to work with tanks but they could fight on their own and as they continued to develop their tactics throughout the war they became more and more adept at fighting in and out of them. There are lots of great articles out there about their historical employment, here is a quick article Panzergrenadier tactics

So to start what are the Pros and Cons of a GpPzGren list?

Pros:

1. Mobility
2. Firepower
3. Protection from small arms
4. Defensive fire
5. Flexibility
6. Offensive ability 

Cons:

1. Lightly armoured
2. 5 hits of any type stops an assault
3. DISMOUNT! DISMOUNT! DISMOUNT!
4. Easily stripped firepower
5. Need for Support

So with the lists on the table lets break some of this down starting with the Pros.

Mobility:
The GpPzGren list is hell on wheels (and tracks) in the right hands and it's great mobility is the key to its ability to out maneuver and apply fire where needed at any given time. Halftracks give you the ability to rapidly redeploy a force or close with the enemy saving you valuable time and lessening incoming fire by rapid aggressive movement using the terrain tactically. The most important thing in using the mobility of the GpPzGren is their halftracks ability to rapidly shift the direction of violence. I find mine are most effective when I present one way, bringing concentration of force upon my enemy and then when he realizes he needs to shift forces and begins to do so I change my direction and swoop down on the forces moving in the open.

Firepower:
The lowly machine gun. When you have 15 of them all the sudden becomes a fearsome beast. The GpPzGren bring with them the power and ability to pin most anything and in proper combination they can bring with them the tools to dig out their enemies even quicker. Stalin said quantity has a quality all its own, and he was very right, remember this with the mounted firepower a GpPzGren pl can dish out, with just mgs it can have 19 dice (with riders if moving slow enough) and absolutely terrorize even dug in infantry or gun teams.

While I could talk about tanks and other weapons of war in a  list for now let us talk about the company as it stands and the greatest resource to a GpPzGren coy, the heavy pl. Two things about the heavy pl make it important, the 8cm mortar halftracks and the stummels. So why are they important?

Both have ROF 2 AT 3+ weapons or as I prefer to call them, gun team killers! These roll with your GpPzGren pls and lay waste to the Gun teams that you fear. The Stummel as a tank team has the added benefit of being able to assault, and as we all know every die counts in an assault. Again combined with their speed they rip open gun team attachments and open the door for your assaults.

Defensive fire
GpPzGrens are all MG troops, so on your worst day you're getting 2 dice each in defensive fire. This catches people off guard more often than you think. Add to that the fury of fire that you can drop on someone with some well placed halftracks and you can sit tight and know that nothing is getting in on you. In late war you can have the same feeling against tanks with the man portable AT.

Flexibility
It stems from the mobility really but a well made GpPzGren is ready to take on anything and can quickly react to any threat. I love them for this as they always give me options and allow me to be where I need to be, when I need to be, with what I need to be, and having everything mechanized allows me to bring everything all at once for excellent concentration of force.

Offensive ability
So if you've been reading any of the pros I don't think I need to go overboard on explaining that these guys have some serious offensive ability. The big thing to remember is that their ability to force project, to concentrate force and their sheer shock action stuns and breaks apart enemy forces. Unlike most combined arms forces this army can be entirely upon you all at once and then be gone. Speed and aggression.

So with the good comes the bad and this list isn't without it's problems.

Lightly armoured
So anything outside of small arms is pretty scary to a bunch of dudes in halftracks. Some of my personal nightmares are .50 cals and AAA guns with their high rate of fire and their AT they rip apart halftracks or at least bail them out. So force protection is huge with these guys. It can be done in a number of ways, speed getting you on the enemy before they can really hurt you, smoke to obscure or terrain to get you onto the position. Either way these guys can't take a lot of punishment and so need to get in and out quickly and can't go in against much in the way of firepower which makes gun teams in the defense your primary targets.

5 Hits stop an assault
Well the title says it, but remember 2 hits that damage the vehicles (even bailing) will end an assault quickly, and a bunch of GpPzGren stuck in their vehicles right in front of the enemy are definitely in harms way.

DISMOUNT! DISMOUNT! DISMOUNT!
So when trucks get hit people have a tendency to bail out as the trucks take off, so all those great things we talked about, the mobility, firepower, flexibility and the like all can go away in a heartbeat if a single halftrack gets hurt, so again plan on protection and mitigate fire, because even the best laid plans can go south when a single car bails out and you find yourself legging it in all the way through the dangerous space.

Easily stripped firepower
So as said above, the tracks can either run away or just get blown up easily and this rapidly takes away their firepower and can really strip their combat effectiveness and leave you inches short of victory. Protect the halftracks and always have a backup plan.

 Need for Support
The GpPzGren list needs support, be it arty and smoke, tanks or tank hunters you need to support the GpPzGren pls so they can get in there and do the business. It's a hard thing to balance sometimes and you can really get swept away either with too much support on not enough. But remember you need to absolutely focus your efforts with this list. Using your support here and there ends in failure, hit your target hard and hammer through them, break their position and force them to regroup, as soon as they do this you have them with speed and aggression.

So thats part 1 of all of this. I'll talk more about GpPzGren in the future, maybe break out the camera on the table and show you how I like to move and exploit the terrain and the enemies position, I'll do a list building for both Mid and Late war ( I don't really do EW yet) and I'll look at the varieties of GpPzGren that are out there. Again if you have questions or things you want me to focus on or talk about leave a comment.

Until next time. 

The Triad of List Building

I was thinking about list building the other day when people were running lists by me and I tried to think about what it was I look for in a list.

Flames of war is a game of objectives and while you can win games by breaking a company you need to be able to threaten and or take objectives in order to:

a)establish and force the enemy into kill zones and;
b)take objectives to avoid ties or as we all know the dreaded double loss.

Defensive forces can fight and win in Flames of War but they commonly require the enemy to do what you want them to, something I try and avoid as my main strategy and a little luck as they more often than not become a fight to break a company. What makes a force truly competitive or more accurately competent at victory is being able to force project on the table top. Now some take this to mean causing effects across the battlefield and to some extent it is but in terms of my thought here it also requires the ability to move and or stay somewhere. The easiest way to think about this distinction is aircraft, in FoW they can hit anywhere on the table, but can't at any point take and or hold that point.

So when I look at list building there are three things I look for or my triad: Ground takers, Anti tank assets and enablers.

So starting at the top Ground takers, the people who take and hold ground or the important ones. Ground takers are where the meat hits the metal and are what you use to threaten or hold ground that is either key or vital during a game. Ground takers can be either armoured tank teams or infantry teams but in either case there are some distinct considerations that should be addressed when choosing a force. The key considerations for ground takers are numbers, firepower, movement and morale/skill rating.

Numbers are important to a ground taking element for many reasons the most important being survivability. Ground takers are going to take casualties, from moving into position to taking a position they will be shot at and assaulted and lose teams. Larger platoons like American armoured rifle pls or strelkovy companies have the numbers to take casualties and also be able to assault and because the necessary damage to take positions. Managing the combat effectiveness of your ground takers is vital and will mean the difference between taking an objective and killing off your own pl! The one big advantage that Infantry has over tanks is commonly numbers allowing them to not only take more casualties but also giving them more assaulting teams to kill off the enemy when they get there.

Firepower is always a consideration and everyone wants to have more of it. Firepower is important in considering ground takers ability to fire themselves onto an objective and repulse assaults by fire either against infantry with the weight of fire namely from MG teams and LMGs and HMGs or against tank teams with bazookas, panzerfausts and the like. Making sure a pl has enough firepower to take an objective is often less important in that you can use other units firepower to get you onto an objective, but holding an objective takes firepower on the objective and for that you need to ensure that you bring everything you could possibly have want for, essentially bring the kitchen sink when you can.

Mobility is a huge concern for Ground takers, you have to get to the objective after all. This is where vehicles have a huge advantage over infantry but mechanized or motorized infantry can also use the advantages of vehicles to even the playing field. Extra movement can also be garnered from special rules like Stormtrooper and hussar and should also be considered when picking a unit or two to take ground.

Skill and morale are huge to ground takers, I usually take the best troops I can to take an objective as they will commonly not have the benefits of cover, bulletproof or not and will also be taking casualties and need to make morale checks both for losses and pinning. In my luftwaffe force my ground takers are always my FJ, if you're going to send someone to take the hill, send the biggest meanest kids you know.

In the end I often take Gerpanzerte Panzergrenadier pls and Panzer IVs in at least 4 tank pls as my ground takers. Both these units have good numbers (excellent in the pzgren) great firepower, mobility and ratings. They allow me to take ground and positions and can be supported by my other elements with ease. All armies have their versions and players find their favorites.

No big deal

Anti tank is the next consideration I always love to make. Tanks are too dangerous to allow to run amok on the battlefield. AT assets are the next consideration I make, there isn't a ton to say about this other than make sure you take enough (totally an individual opinion based on the meta) and that those assets have the range and staying power to get the job done.

I find Marders, Pak 40s and one of my personal favorites the FlaK36 88 to be some of the best AT assets out there as well as other tanks ( I don't rock panthers but you could include those here). Tanks and marders do have the advantage of being able to more quickly move to a threat but don't underestimate the power and cost savings of the static guns.

Enablers are great to have, not always vital but always helpful. In my opinion they include well everything but the ground takers and the anti tank assets but to be more specific the main ones I look at are Recce, arty both for smoke and HE, AAA and HMGs.

Recce is the new black, in 3rd ed it is pretty much a requirement especially with a tank force. They can help make objectives easier to take and even threaten some with their extra movement.

Arty is great to soften a position and smoke it in the end to help ensure an assault makes it through.

AAA is a force protection asset. Again, it is key to have your forces protected to help allow them onto an objective at full strength. AAA also has the benefit of having a high rate of fire which is key against infantry and light vehicles and 9 times out of 10 I find my AAA assets out preform most everything else and surprise my opponents that often leave them alone in favour of attacking other pls.

HMGs are a luxury, but what a luxury they are. People forget how often they are until they get to fire them, 4 models putting out 24 dice can really change a game. Remember that when picking a list, or when moving in front of their arcs.

So those are my basic thoughts on list building and the triad I use. It's the beginning of how I make a list and how I look at lists when presented with them for review.

But who's to say I know anything, this really could just be me rambling.

Until next time.