Spring Offensive

It's been far too long since I last posted here and I intend to turn that around.  I've got a nice big goal for myself this year and that is to build and run an entirely new army for the big West Coast Nationals event coming up this year at Kublacon.  I've got a fair amount of stuff finished in my FoW collection but it is predominantly American Late War units and FEC French units.  I've wanted to get some sort of coherent German army on the table for awhile so that I can run demo games for people and be able to flex into playing whatever other people don't want to.  I'll outline my army list choice and reasons for my picks.

I was originally going to run a list made from the Eastern Front Panzer Brigades pdf that came out late last year but I had only really gotten as far as the purchasing and the assembly of the tank portion of that list.  I was hoping that something cool would come out with the new Bulge books but to no avail, the German lists from those are mostly poor with serious flaws and omissions in nearly every one.  Very recently though the new Fuhrer Brigades lists came out in Wargames Illustrated and on the BF website.  I'm guessing that these and a few other German lists that have shown up recently are going to be put into a future Bulge Compilation book.

I really liked the Grenadier Fuhrer Panzerfusilier list that was in WI #303. It has access to multiple tank platoons, recon (of a sort), and the awesome Panzerfusilier platoons as the core platoon choices.  The list is Confident Trained, however that does allow we to take lots of guns to the party.  This is also mitigated somewhat by the lists ability to bring Otto Remer as a warrior team and the Fuhrer's Guards special rule which allows me to re-roll platoon morale checks. That should help somewhat with losing VPs too easily as even my beat up platoons should stick around.  I'll discuss Remer and what he brings to the list a little later.  Hopefully this is enough to counter my opponents who will likely be bringing Veteran lists to the battle.

Starting with the core of the army first here you have your HQ, no surprises here (or choices really).  There is some odd interaction with the rule for the 2iC and the fact that his transport is also a tank team. I'll have to research that a bit more to see how that works. The HQ gives me a very quick way to move my CiC around the field of battle and the 2iC becomes an interesting reinforcement for wherever he's needed that deploys a nice 2cm anti-aircraft gun.

The next choice is two full strength Panzerfusilier platoons.  Due to the fact that the Sdkfz 251/21D half-tracks are tank teams these platoons actually have a strength of 8 teams.  They include an integral AA gun and a boatload of machine-guns on the half-tracks. In addition the core teams are Panzerfaust MG teams meaning that they are very difficult to assault with tanks or infantry They have a pretty good chance to turn back any assault due to the large number of MG shots they can put out against infantry and the fact that 2 hits will turn back nearly any tank assault.  In general I expect to be attacking with one of these while the other is set up in defense.

From there I have two supporting platoons, one of Sdkfz 251/9D (7.5cm) self propelled guns and one of Sdkfz 251/21D (triple flak).  The gunned half-tracks will hopefully work as a utility platoon. Their guns are RoF 2 and Firepower 3+ so I could potentially use them to help dig out infantry sitting on an objective. Their guns are powerful enough to threaten allied Shermans if they are not careful and can certainly smash US tank destroyers if given the opportunity.  The flak halftracks can be used to provide additional covering fire for the infantry or I can use them to tag along and provide covering AA fire to the attacking elements.

The core armored part of the list is the two platoons of Panzer IV/70 (V) tank hunters.  I think these are a good compromise between the Panzer IVJ's in some similar lists and Panthers.  I expect that the allied players will likely be using numbers of the newer high AT assets in expectation of running into German Panthers and King Tigers.  Front armor 9 ensures that I can ignore the allied Cromwells, 75 Shermans  and Chafees but I have the AT 14 gun of a Panther that can cut through any allied armor in return.  They are overloaded however, so I need to avoid bog checks whenever possible.  6 of these tank hunters should allow me to force my opponent to fight me head on.

The last two choices round out the list.  First, the panzergrenadier platoon equipped with Schwimmwagens functions as a fast moving recon and exploitation unit.  They all have Jeep movement, can cross water easily, get to make a recon move, and can dismount and become panzerfaust/MG teams.  This platoon should function as a good counter to American Tank Destroyers as I can move them quickly and block them from making favorable ambushes.  If needed they can stay in their Schwimmwagens and lift GtG from dug in enemies.  The Volks Rocket Launcher provides a cheap source of smoke and pinning. Without gun shields and being Reluctant I'll need to get the dug in right away and keep them from getting pinned.

The last choice is Otto Ernst Remer, this guy is a beast. He comes with his own Sdkfz 251/1D transport and in addition to being a higher command team he has three great special rules. He, and any platoon he joins, pass Stormtrooper checks on a 2+, pass motivation on a 3+, and hit on a 2+ in assaults! Combined with the fact that all platoons (except the rockets) get re-rolls on platoon morale checks I will often be making platoon morale checks as if I were fearless with a re-roll. If I put him with the attacking part of my army I have a platoon that passes motivation checks easily to assault and counterattack, hits with almost every attack in an assault,  and can pass Stormtrooper much more easily than my Trained rating would suggest.  Basically for any platoon he joins, he fixes all of their weaknesses and super charges all of their strengths.  He should be the most interesting part of the list.

That's all for now. I'll post up my painting schedule and photos as I progress. I should have another post up by the end of the week.