Much later
I decided that I might as well get some Germans to fight against the commandos,
so I can learn the game myself at home, and with young son who was just getting
interested in WWII. So I picked up a Festung infantry company boxed set as a
starting point.
Since then
I have added massively to my German forces! For starters it's always fun to
play 'the bad guys', so I guess that was part of the appeal for me. Plus the
Wehrmacht had so many iconic pieces of equipment and machinery of war, that I
just about couldn't help myself.
When the
Plastic Soldier Company released their excellent boxed set of 251 half tracks I
was in seventh heaven as this was one of those iconic vehicles that had great
appeal to me, little did I know what I was letting myself into...
So a
Gepanzerte Panzergrenadier (GPg), armoured mechanised infantry, force was
planned collected and painted up.
Now it must
be said, that many FoW veterans would state, that a mechanised force is quite a
difficult one to play right and get the best from. Its not an easy army to use!
Yet that is the main army I have chosen to learn this game with.
They also come in various 'flavours' - Panzer Lehr with all their extra panzershreck tank hunter teams, and Waffen SS varieties. Each with slightly differing support platoon options.
I have
played a great many games now with this force, with some success and a lot of
defeat.
Like any
force they have their pro's and con's.
PRO's They are a very mobile force and
pack a lot of anti-infantry firepower. And with the German special rule
(Mounted assault), they can fight directly from the half tracks in the assault
phase, and if they dismount, the half tracks can stick around spitting out MG
fire.
CON's The problem is, though they are
'armoured' that armour is pretty thin. Plus the fact that they are open topped
means plunging artillery fire and aircraft can also make quite a mess of them,
if caught in the open.
So, I spend
a great deal of time mulling over how best to use my GPg force.
There are
so many platoon support options it gives a dazzling and confusing array of ways
to field them and fight with them. These options have lead to a constant state
of collecting and painting up all these support options to try them out, hence
my large Wehrmacht collection!
Some of
the problems, and possible solutions I have are...
a) getting
caught advancing mounted up, by artillery, and aircraft - Solution: advance
quickly (ATD / storm trooper) to get past the 'kill zone'...
b) but it
you ATD, you can run into a storm of fire from AT guns especially from ambush -
Solution: push recce elements ahead to push back Ambushing forces and try and
end move in cover...
c) trying
to get mounted assault to work - needing to pin enemy and smoke them to ensure
I don't suffer the 5 hits or two bailed that force back assault... not easy to
pull off, and enemy can always get lucky with their dice roll; 5 hits on 8 dice
needing 5+ can really get you down... and even infantry weapons can hurt
through side armour 0, if you roll 1's for armour saves...
d) if
mounted assault successful, try and make it unstoppable on first assault, as
with confident troops there's only a 50/50 chance of fighting on in each
subsequent turn (no British bulldog), so need the CO or attached Warrior Higher
command character team near for re-roll to motivate, and use attached HQ elements
and combat attachments from 'Heavy platoon' to bulk up size of platoon.
Things to
think about
1)
advancing infantry alongside/in front of half tracks, not in them... infantry
saves of a 3+ are better odds of staying alive than a 5+ passenger save in a
burning vehicle...
2) keeping
half tracks off table and hiding infantry GTG, until main threats to halftracks
have been eliminated... using Heavy tanks / Heavy AT guns ('88' Flak 36) and Heavy
artillery to knock out threats - protect all with AA until ready to advance,
pushing recce forward to remove GTG on any target platoons...
Its this
last option I am working on at the moment... in a recent game against Paul, I
got to try out Tigers for the first time and though I lost the game, it could
have gone quite differently. It was also very interesting to see just two
Tigers virtually dominating one flank of the table... so a pair of Tigers seem
a likely future support choice for my GPgs.
The other
thing I want to do is pound the enemy into submission, with some decent
artillery...
From some
of the reports and tips I have read, if you are going to use artillery, then do it
well!... I am considering a platoon of 4-6 Hummels, should be able to give me a
fair bit of umph! With a bombardment range of 80" they can hit anywhere on
board, with AT 5 and FP 2+ even tanks will get scared , and will dig out
infantry and guns with ease, and with 6 elements firing that's a double wide
template, or re-rolling misses... . Plus with a 24" direct fire range,
they get AT 13, FP 1+ and 'bunker-buster' too - not many things will want to get in front of
that! Send some recce forward to find hiding targets, protect this battery and the dismounted GPgs and Tigers with
decent SPAA, and hopefully once everything on
other side of board is a squishy mesh, THEN mount up GPg's and roll forward....
So that's
the 'next' plan, at least for LateWar. We'll see how it goes (I may have to proxy some of the stuff to
try this out in the mean time, until I can get it ordered and painted up)...
but of course it will always be tempered by the mission rolled for to play and
the opposing force !
No plan
survives contact with the enemy!
Cheers
Scott
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