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.

MW Soviet AAR

Intro

Greetings all, it's your friendly neighborhood Soviet commander.  With the completion of some hills and trees, the new board is now ready to use!  Time to break it in with a classic... Soviet vs German mid-war game!

It's designed around 1' x 1', 1' x 2' and 2' x 2' tiles to create a modular board system.  At this point, only roads and open ground are completed for the tiles.  The hills have magnets embedded in them to allow trees to be secured to them to create forests.

Army Lists

Eastern Front - German - Gepanzerte Panzergrenadier - 1500 Points, 7 Platoons

Compulsory Gepanzerte Panzergrenadier Company HQ

               - 1x CinC SMG, 1x 2iC SMG, 2x Sd Kfz 251/1C Half-track (70 pts)

               - Anti-tank Rifle - 1x Anti-tank Rifle, 1x Sd Kfz 251/1C Half-track (30 pts)

Compulsory Gepanzerte Panzergrenadier Platoon

               - 1x Command MG, 6x MG, 4x Sd Kfz 251/1C Half-track (230 pts)

               - Command Upgrade - Replace Command MG with Command Panzerknacker SMG (5 pts)

Compulsory Gepanzerte Panzergrenadier Platoon

               - 1x Command MG, 6x MG, 4x Sd Kfz 251/1C Half-track (230 pts)

               - Command Upgrade - Replace Command MG with Command Panzerknacker SMG (5 pts)

Gepanzerte Heavy Platoon

               - 1x Command SMG, 1x Sd Kfz 251/1C Half-track (must have Mortar Section) (20 pts)

               - Mortar Section - 1x Observer Rifle, 1x Kubelwagen, 2x Sd Kfz 251/2C (8cm) Half-track (80 pts)

               - Gun Section - 2x Sd Kfz 251/9C (7.5cm) Half-track (105 pts)

Tank Hunter Platoon

               - 1x Command Marder III M, 3x Marder III M (345 pts)

Heavy Panzerspah Platoon

               - 1x Command Sd Kfz 231 (8-rad), 1x Sd Kfz 231 (8-rad) (85 pts)

Armoured Rocket Launcher Battery

               - 1x Command SMG, 1x Kfz 15 field Car,, 1x Observer Rifle, 1x kubelwagen, 3x Panzerwerfer 42 (160 pts)

               - Extra Crew - 3x Additional Crew (15 pts)

Light Anti-aircraft Platoon

               - 1x Command Sd Kfz 7/1 (quad 2cm) Half-track, 1x Sd Kfz 7/1 (quad 2cm) Half-track (100 pts)

               - Armour - 2x Upgrade to armoured Half-track (20 pts)

Eastern Front - Soviet - Strelkovy - 1485 Points, 4 Platoons

Compulsory Strelkovy Batalion HQ

               - 1x CinC Rifle, 1x 2iC Rifle, 1x Battalion Kommisar (30 pts)

               - Anti-tank rifle Platoon - 4x AT Rifle team (40 pts)

               - Anti-tank gun Platoon - 2x 45mm obr 1942, 2x Horse drawn limbers (50 pts)

               - Anti-Aircraft Platoon - 3x Dshk AA MG on Truck (45 pts)

               - Sapper Platoon - 5x Pioneer Rifle (75 pts)

Compulsory Strelkovy Company

               - 1x Command SMG, 18x Rifle (210 pts)

               - Komissar - 1x Komissar (5 pts)

Compulsory Strelkovy Company

               - 1x Command SMG, 18x Rifle (210 pts)

               - Komissar - 1x Komissar (5 pts)

Tank Killer Company

               - 1x Command SU-85, 3x SU-85 (305 pts)

Flame-thrower Platoon

               - 2x Flamethrower (80 pts)

Guards Rocket Mortar Battalion

               - 1x Command Rifle, 1x Observer Rifle, 1x Truck, 1x Kommisar, 4x BM-13 Katyusha (150 pts)

               - additional crew - 4x Additional Crew (20 pts)

               - Anti-Aircraft Platoon - 2x 37mm obr 1939 guns, 2x Truck (60 pts)

Air Support

               - Limited Il-2 Shturmovik (200 pts)

Mission - Dust Off

Soviet's attacking, Germans end up moving first.  Great mission as it's quick!

German and Soviet quarters

Peasant village

Church on the hill

Deployment

Germans

·        Half-tracks positioned as a blocking force on the centre objective (PaK40 auf RSO models represent half-track mortar teams).

·        Armoured Rocket Launcher Battery positioned in cover at rear of position.

·        Anti-Aircraft Quad 2cm Half-tracks providing defence in depth between half-tracks and rocket launchers (somebody forgot to initially place the models...).

Soviets

·        Strelkovy Company.  Deployed up front to expediently assault and seize the near objective.  All combat attachments (Anti-Tank Rifles, Anti-Tank Guns, Anti-Aircraft Platoon, Sapper Platoon and Flamethrower Platoon) attached to this company for maximum firepower and assault capability.  Anti-tank rifles positioned in the church and  guns positioned forward to bring direct fire onto the half-tracks.  Sappers and flamethrowers mixed in the company in position to assault.

·        Guards Rocket Mortar Battalion.  Deployed in cover with 37mm Anti-Aircraft guns to cover my flank objective.  Spotter positioned in the church.

German and Soviet deployment areas

Soviet perspective

Objective secure... for now

Aggressive Soviet deployment

The general Soviet plan... and the expected German counter-attack on the flank objective

Turn Report

1.      Opening Moves...

a.      German Turn

                                                    i.     Half-tracks manoeuvre forward to bring effective fire onto the strelkovy company and cause casualties, in addition to removing truck transports for the Anti-Aircraft Platoon.  Rocket artillery causes additional casualties.

b.      Soviet Turn

                                                    i.     Strelkovy company advances forward and returns fire on the halftracks with anti-tank rifles, anti-tank guns and Dshk AA MG teams, causing casualties and withdrawing the half-tracks.  Rocket artillery fails to range in and IL-2s are waived off due to proximity of friendly troops.

General advance to secure the centre objective

Brewed up half-tracks

Strelkovy advance

2.      Onward Comrades!

a.      German Turn

                                                    i.     German infantry digs in on the objective and the Anti-Aircraft Quad 2cm Half-tracks reposition to provide fire on the objective.  Rocket artillery causes casualties on the strelkovy company.

b.      Soviet Turn

                                                    i.     Strelkovy company advances forward to prepare for an assault in the next turn.  Flamethrower teams are pushed forward and lanes are cleared for fire support from weapons teams.  Fire from the company is ineffective against the dug-in German infantry.  Rocket artillery fails to range in and the IL-2s are shot down by the German anti-aircraft assets.

Strelkovy push on towards the objective and Quad 2cm half-tracks move to support

Strelkovy advance to assault positions

3.      Reserves rush in!

a.      German Turn

                                                    i.     Reserves arrive!  Half-tracks rush on to secure the flank objective and fire on the 37mm anti-aircraft to eliminate them.  The half-tracks are brought back on to lend additional fire to the infantry and rocket artillery in stopping the strelkovy company and succeed in causing casualties.

b.      Soviet Turn

                                                    i.     Reserves arrive!  SU-85s roll on to completely outflank the german infantry and half-tracks on the objective.  The strelkovy company pushes forward to assault range, bringing the flamethrowers teams to the front.  Fire from the SU-85s and flamethrowers eliminate some half-tracks and infantry stands and pin the German infantry.  Anti-tank rifles and teams turn around to engage the flanking half-tracks and succeed in pinning two half-tracks.  Additional fire from the rocket artillery and IL-2 cause additional casualties but do not break the infantry.

                                                   ii.     The strelkovy company slams forward against the defensive fire and engages German infantry in close combat!  One team is brought down and the Germans elect to break off.

Germans caught between infantry and assault guns

Half-track turkey shoot

Anti-tank assets re-positioning to engage half-tracks

4.      End Game

a.      German Turn

                                                    i.     Germans start the turn with uncontested possession of their flank objective.  It's all over for the Soviets...

Objective secured!

Summary and Lessons Learned

1.      The Board.  Great looking and great playing!  The scale is bang on.  With the detail of the terrain, you've really got to take a look at the terrain and think about your movement and positioning of your units.

2.      Ground cannot be held by fire alone.  Depending on the 37mm Anti-Aircraft guns and a few Anti-tank Rifles to hold an objective by fire is never going to work... I knew this but I gambled on it.

3.      Army selection.  A lesson I've been (slowly) hoisting aboard is that a balanced army list can bite you in the ass.  With a Soviet strelkovy company you're frequently on the defensive, don't have all of your units and it takes them a bit of time to march everywhere... so take a couple of large and powerful units to start the game.  That way you're getting the majority of your points on the board and can use that to overwhelm your enemy.  For this game, a simple change would have been to drop one strelkovy company to one platoon and boost the other strelkovy company up to three, which would have allowed it the ability to leave a small defensive force on the flank objective.

4.      Il-2 Shturmoviks.  I love them and everbody else hates them... but that doesn't necessarily mean they're the right tool for the job.  They're devastating in late-war, and are one of the few solutions for super-heavy tanks (King Tigers) and mobs of heavy tanks, as you can't shoot it out with German heavy tanks as a Soviet player.  Simply having it forces the tank force to spread out and stick near cover.  However, mid-war has a lower point limit than late-war, is lighter on tanks and the heavy tanks are far more expensive, so there isn't as strong a requirement for a flying heavy tank-buster.  200 points can go a long way in Soviet infantry, gun teams or tanks and are more concrete resources to take and hold ground.

5.      Use a real camera...

Until next time comrades... Za Stalina!

Market Garden Redux quatro

So, it had to be done. I've talked about Kampfgruppe Hummel and the Tiger horde. But really, to be true to myself I couldn't leave this out.

So without further ado,

THE SCHWERE PANZERKOMPANIE!

Alright, this list is simple, like most of the KT lists out there you have few options and a ton of points taken up by very few tanks.

So the base of the list is centered around an HQ King Tiger and two one King Tiger platoons. Those three tanks eat up 1140pts, yeah. 1140 freakin' points.

So from there you have (depending on points level, we'll go with the flavour of the moment 1780pts) 640pts left, or in laymen terms not a whole lot.

So from here there are a lot of options, but in an attempt to cover up some of the major issues this list has, which is namely a lack of firepower, a fear of airplanes and a lack of ability to fight infantry effectively. So basically their not great at fighting 90% of the lists out there. Yeah. I think that's why I like the list so much.

So problem #1 Dealing with a lack of firepower
King Tigers have an awesome gun, range 40, AT 16 and FP 3+, problem is that with 1140pts you get 3-9(tiger ace) shots a turn. So on a normal turn you can expect to smash whatever you hit, but you're not hitting too much as you just can't shoot that fast.

So then how do we up this? There are a few options for some AT in this list and one that people gravitate to naturally is the StuG Zug you can take to augment your armour. It adds another 6 AT 11 shots and some mobility. I think the problem with these is two fold, first enemy armour and AT then focus' on these and kills them fast. Plus the eat up almost half of the points you have left.

Since I wrote my King Tiger Tactica I've been arguing people should be rocking the 88, not only because they are iconic and fun, but because they add some extra long range high AT firepower. Keeping them out of the fight is important and the range 40 helps make this happen. Now in my old KT list I had one or two of these, but this list lets you take 4, IN ONE PLATOON!!!!!! Game on.

Infantry help you take enemy positions and guard your tanks from the enemy so I like stocking up on a few platoons and this list has a ton of options that you can play with and customize. I like to take some pioneers and some Panzergrenadiers in reinforced trucks to get them across the table to add some offense.

Finally this list has a hard time either pinning enemy infantry or cutting off the enemy lanes of fire, so we add some FV Nebs and this list is complete.

So what does my new list look like?

HQ King Tiger

Schwere Pz pl - 1 King Tiger
Schwere Pz pl - 1 King Tiger
SS Aufklarungs pl - 7 stands with a faust and reinforced trucks
Ersatz Pioneer pl - 7 stands
SS Rocket pl - 3 nebs
Heavy anti aircraft pl - 4 88s
1780pts of game on.

Rock out with your KTs

Until next time.

Market Garden Redux Trinity

So two lists down and who knows how many more to go! Like I said, there are a lot of cool lists in this book and I think highlighting some of the neat and different is a worth while excursion.

So without further ado let me get to it.

So V2, not a lot of love for the 88. Plain and simple it sat on a lot of shelves. I had never taken them until I got my King Tigers and since then I haven't looked back. I love the things. They sit back and dominate the ground before them, cut down planes from the skies and look badass while getting it all done.

When V3 came along my 8 tiger list quickly fell to 7 tigers, and 4 88s to ensure that the new plane rules didn't bite me in the ass and to provide more rounds going down range to allow my tigers to move, it was a great thing.

And then Kampfgruppe Von Swoboda (KG VS) came along, and changed the game again.

So KG VS was formed up from four regiments of AA batteries in Germany and sent to the front to support other units do the actual fighting with the tremendous range and firepower that 33 8.8cm FlaK36s could bring along with 12 85mm retooled soviet guns and a bevy of 3.7 and 2cm guns.

So what does that mean in game terms?

More gun teams than you can shake a stick at.

The combat platoons of KG VS are Anti aircraft batteries of varying caliber.  You have to have one 8.8 or 85mm battery of up to four guns. Yup I said it. Four gun 88 battery. Game on boys and girls.  Heck even the 85mm guns in four gun batteries are awesome and the price is right at 115 points for four of those AT 12 guns.

You can take a battery of 3.7mm guns or continue on with the 88 love. And really why not? Or the option for a fourth Combat pl of 8 x 2cm guns is there and this is an awesome choice to give your 88s some great stand off and anti infantry support. With gun shields and ROF 4 these can lay down some serious hurt and all for 115pts for 8.

So with 88s and 2cm Flak 38s the four pls totaling 12 88s and 8 flak 38s comes out (with gunshields and extra crew for the 88s) to a whopping 795pts but for those who like to gamble and look to dig in their 88s you can cut off the gunshields and bring on everything here for a slim and trim 735. Or if you think the extra crew aren't worth it, keep the gunshields and sit at 670pts. Either way these are cheap. Just think about putting down 36 AT 13 shots a turn. Think about that... Seriously... And that's the first 800pts of your army.

So with the core of the force squared away you begin to make the choices that will separate your list from others and how you're going to get it all done!

At this point you add artillery, up to three slots worth of cost effective guns. With either SS Nebelwerfers or 10.5cm guns. You can have three three gun batteries for 480pts if you took it all.

Continue that with some infantry, here I think the 25 stand infantry company will be the way to go. Simply putting that many bodies between yourself and the enemy is always a good thing for your guns and will certainly annoy recce and Tank Destroyer teams trying to sneak past your lines.

But the reality of this list is you can't fill your points (you can, but you won't, I know you wont) without taking some of Hummels tigers. Again, GAME ON! With up to 4 Tigers as your only armoured option, you can add another 4 88s to the list bringing your shot total up to a fun 42 88 shots a turn. This is the hilarity you can pull with this list. I guarantee that is going to hurt. Even needing 6s thats 7 hits. At 5's 14 AT 13 hits, consider that against almost any armoured list. What is left after you shoot that turn? Really? At that point I guess you just have to fire the arty in!

So in 1780 you get
HQ
3 x 4 8.8cm FlaK36 batteries (2 with transport)
8 2cm FlaK38s with transport
4 Tiger 1Es
Sicherheits company with comd with panzerknacker, 16 x rifle stands and 2 x light mortars
3 SS nebelwerfers

7 platoons (8 with KG) 42 AT 13 shots a turn, 36 AA dice (should an entire air wing be coming) the ability to lay smoke templates and some armour to roll up the table once the majority of work is done.

Did I mention it always defends? So the real question is do you ambush with the 88s or the tigers?

Until next time.

Market Garden Redux Part Deux

For those who've read my King Tiger Tactica it's no surprise I like the big cats, mostly because people say they couldn't win. So when I opened up Bridge by Bridge I was overjoyed to see not only a Schwere Panzer company of King Tigers, and Kamphgruppe HUMMEL!

So you're telling me that there is a list, with tigers, with worse training, no ace skills, it's unreliable and it no longer has wide tracks? You had me at unreliable...

The list has some options, King tigers to beef up the ranks when you need some real fire power to knock out pesky Jumbos (my new bane). There are two artillery slots, with rockets, light or medium guns. There are two Infantry slots with either halftracks or dismounted options. AAA is light in this list and sadly it has no armoured AAA, what I wouldn't have given for some Quad 2cm on halftracks in this list. But 88s will have to suffice! And last but not least you can take some BF 109s in air support!

So while the list isn't as deep or varied as the Canadian Rifle Coy it's not to be sneezed at either. This lets set up in a number of ways from Arty to Infantry heavy but always with tanks at the front.

So as soon as I saw this list I played around with it coming up with numerous options. And one of the things I've really liked about the new lists in Bridge by Bridge is I haven't been truly happy with any of the lists. I never quite get the combos I want. AND THAT IS AWESOME! I love that there is some list friction and that choices have to be made. This book doesn't have the super tailor made fits like a glove lists it has the make it work mentality that I love and I think should be more present in the game.

So when combinations didn't work for me I did what I enjoy with the 1Es, I added more tigers. Here's a sample list based on the force of Tigers that linked up with Kamphgruppe Knaust. I went one for one with the tigers of history here.

HQ
2 Tigers: 290pts

Combat platoons
Hummel Schwere Pz Pl - 4 Tigers: 580pts
Hummel Schwere Pz Pl - 4 Tigers: 580pts
Hummel Schwere Pz Pl - 2 Tigers: 290pts

Yup. Thats it. 12 Tiger 1Es. 1740pts of GAME ON!

Games will be quick and one sided. But they'll be fun.

For those more moderates,

HQ
2 Tigers: 290pts

Combat platoons
Hummel Schwere Pz Pl - 4 Tigers: 580pts
Hummel Schwere Pz Pl - 2 Tigers: 290pts

Support platoons
SS Panzerspah 3 cars: 130pts
SS Panzergren with 1 Faust: 230
SS Rocket Pl 3 Nebs: 120pts
Luftwaffe 88s x 2 Dug in: 110pts
1750pts 6 pl

Either way this list should be fun with burning Tigers all over the table.

Until next time