Late War list from the example?

Looking for inspiration to play a Late War 1750 list (I just couldn't settle on anything I wanted to play) I opened up the 'Grey Wolf' Eastern Front Late War book and came across an example German Armoured list. An SS Tank list with the Biermeiyer Warrior who is in a 5 strong Panzer IV platoon. Hmmmmm...why not. I quickly decided that would be my list for gaming versus Alex and his American tanks. When I told Alex what I had done he said I may have well set a new first by using a pre-made example list from the book. I don't recall ever doing that. Well, it wasn't exactly that list as in the book it comes to 1760 and we had agreed on a 1750 game so I looked at my miniatures in my collection and it didn't take long to swap the AA Quad Armoured Halftracks with armoured single 2cm halftracks (I don't have any 2cm Quads) and give the Panzer Gren platoon a Command team a SMG/Panzerfaust upgarde. This made the list under 1750.
I rarely use an SS list and I was facing American Armour with 'Detroits Finest' upgrades giving them 14inch movement!

My Fearless Veteran Tank Company List.
HQ. 2 x Panzer IV H (Boss tanks gets a Tiger Ace roll).
Combat One. Biermeyer Warrior (5 x Panzer IV) FV but count as Trained when shot at.
Combat Two. 3 x Panthers
Infantry. Panzer Grens with Halftracks 7 teams with a SMG/Panzerfaust Command upgrade
AA Support. 2 x 2cm Armoured AA Halftracks
Heavy Anti-Tank platoon. 3 Teams...2 x 88mm Lasers on Turntables with a Command Team.
The Heavy Anti Tank is Herr support so remains as Confident Veterans.

My force above and Alex's force below (with my Thunderbolt on loan). Dozer Tank is the 2iC.

We had 3 games on the same table. Missions....Free for All, Cauldron and Surrounded. The table layout was good and even though we did not change it the dynamics of the missions (deployment areas, objective placement etc) meant that it took on different tactical dimensions each time. It honestly felt like a new table each game. I thought that was a very cool testament to how well thought out the missions are and also the table layout we had on the day. All credit to Alex for the table set up as he created it while I had to zip home and get my army that I forgot after loading terrain boxes etc into the car. DOH!

I am not going to give three After Action turn by turn break downs but a few thoughts on my experience.
My list. Excellent. Balanced, fun, flexible...I would consider taking it again for sure.
I never used the Halftrack transports for the infantry in any game. I faced tanks so no point really but still they may come in handy facing a different list.
The big 88mm anti tank guns are great for really making opponents think about running tanks in sight of them.
Detroits Finest. Alex had just Shermans and Stuarts so typically after Turn One I no longer had to consider my front armour as a source of protection. DOH!
In two of the 3 games I think I lost the Panther platoon (I got lucky in the first game and they survived). Even after about 5 failed bail back in attempts...so much for Fearless.

After the 3 games we played a quick 4 player game of Tank Aces at 500 points and Alex used the Jumbo upgrade which meant that typically the first hit on that platoon of Shermans just bounces off. It's a great way to counter act the Elite German tanks sniper tactics of nibbling away at tank platoons. More dice are needed when shooting that platoon.

It was a great day of gaming in the Air-Con at my local club while outside it is very hot and sweaty as our tropical build up season runs it's natural course. After many experimental Late War lists (that usually lost) it has re-kindled my interest in German Tank lists again. In fact I think it has brought me back full circle to a type of list I settled on a long while back. Very similar to the list above but without the Fearless aspect and at least 1 recce element. hmmmm...back to the calculator and the army lists.

Cheers from Brendon (The Kiwi)

Random game pics.

Below my HQ tanks about to get whacked!

Below...Surrounded and under attack! Thunderbolt takes out a Panther and Shermans destroy the rest.

Fun with Soviets

A few weeks back I was challenged to a 2,000point midwar Flames of War game. I wasn't sure what to take but I wanted a fairly simple list. Something with less variation so it's a lot easier to remember any special rules and so on. I settled on a Soviet Guards Heavy Tank company from East Front with KV-85 tanks. It's a list I have not used all that often as well...perhaps never. It's been a while since I used some of my Soviet collection as well. With a massive 2,000 points to spend I took the crazyness to it's limit I think and included a HUGE platoon of Soviet Infantry with all the bells and whistles. I think I needed a movement tray for so many teams. When the very first morale check for the Fearless Infantry to unpin took place they failed so....re-roll from the Kommisar....POP the infantry take offence to his Politial ravings and make him disappear. Hilarous! I think it was my first casualty and a self inflicted oned at that. I was up against a Tiger list and mostly due to Reserves 2 Tigers turned up too far away to stop a Soviet Steam Roller victory. The infantry swarm was like a Biblical locust plague.
I didn't have a camera handy for the game but here are some pis of the horde of doom.
Cheers from The Kiwi.

The tanks look a little naked without any markings and they look a little dark as well. So I will put them down for a future project. Add some sort of markings and perhaps some brighter green on them might do the trick.

Recce carriers in Flames of War

By Big Pete

One of the interesting things I find is how people use Recce units in Flames of War. Naturally there are many different approaches and every player will have their own style that works for them. There are various options available for carriers, however these can be largely broken down into two main schools of thought, to up-gun them or not. This decision will make a big difference on how they are used in a game.

The first strategy is to up-gun them to give them, most commonly with 50cal MGs. This option is certainly very popular, I know many players who will do this every chance they can. I will admit this is very attractive - shooting at full rof3 when moving with AT4 and FP5+ can certainly be very effective, particularly against light armour. You can use your recce move to get out there and get into the action really quickly. However, there are downsides to this strategy. Shooting means you can't disengage when shot at, plus they are fairly vulnerable units and also can be forced to disengage when they are shot at (meaning they spend the next turn re-organising).

The other strategy is to use them as is, primarily for recce. moving in cover with cautious movement and not shooting. The idea here is to use them as enablers for other units, removing Gone To Ground (GTG) making units easier to hit. For example, consider a veteran unit that is concealed and GTG, normally when shooting at it you will need a 6+ to hit. By removing GTG, you can hit on a 5+. This may not seem like a huge difference, but it means by removing GTG every other platoon that shoots at that platoon is twice as effective. In many cases these other platoons will be a much more effective units.

Points-wise it costs 10 points per carrier to add an additional 50cal MG for a Confident Trained unit for a unit that costs 70 points for 3 carriers, which is just under 50% on top of cost of the carriers. The question that has to be asked is - are these up-gunned carriers 50% more effective? The answer will undoubtedly vary for very player and once again it depends on your force composition, style of play and how you use intend to use them.

Personally I prefer the second strategy, I don't often see the cost for up-gunning carriers to be worth it in many cases (unless I have spare points). In most cases I would rather upgrade other units or simply get more carriers. If I do up-gun them to 50cal, I usually get encouraged to use them more aggressively, which often results in them being more exposed (usually resulting in losing them easily, giving my opponent easy VPs). For me they are better used in cover to screen other units and to make them more effective. There will be times when you use them as MG platforms (for example if you can catch infantry in the open), but the standard Hull MG is enough to get the job done. For me the 50cals are only effective if you want to be able to take on light armour, in which case other units are usually much more effective options.

Don't get me wrong, I really like using carriers, but it is worth considering how you intend to use them and how they fit into your overall strategy/game plan.