Flames of War Ironman Progress

Despite missing out on 'Day of Days 2012' and generally not actually playing Flames of War at all last year, I've been plugging away at a new army. My contribution to the Christchurch Ironman challenge is coming along. I've got my copy of V3 now and some AA half-tracks (because Air seems nasty) and a new plan for the army. I've decided to do the Ironman thing properly and chuck out my usual practice of taking two mobile AT platforms. This army is for Midwar and for that period, my only tank will be a Tiger I - though I might get a second StuG to field a pair of those or better yet get some plastic PzIIIs.

Jason innocently asked my if I wanted to Dunkelgelb (or however it is spelled) them and do a proper white-wash. However, to your right you see my distinctive 'Cow Pattern Camo' and that will be the livery for the whole force.










Most of the newer stuff is the excellent Plastic Soldier Company halftracks. The Quad AA is by Battlefront. They compare very, very poorly to Plastic Soldier Company. I know I always see 'Premium Product' etc etc to justify the Battlefront price BUT.... I spent as much time on these two Halftracks, with cleanup, resizing the wheels to fit the front, cutting other buts to get the ends to match, and assembly, as I did on all seven of the plastic ones that I did. I cut a lot of fiddly little bits (those Jerry Cans!) out but that was much easier than dealing with the BattleFront models. The plastic kits went together perfectly every time. How did I even put up with making whole armies with Battlefront these in the past?

HQ -
CiC and 2iC with Panzerknackers and 2 x Halftracks.
Combat -
Full PzGrenadier Platoon with Panzerknacker  and 4 x Halftracks (Plt HQ has 37mm gun).
Full PzGrenadier Platoon with Panzerknacker  and 4 x Halftracks (Plt HQ has 37mm gun).
Weapons -
Antitank Gun Platoon with 3x Pak 38
Support -
Antitank Gun Platoon with 2x Pak 40
Tiger I
Panzerwerfer Battery with 3x launchers and loaders.
Armoured AA platoon with 2x Quad 2cm AA.
1500pts even.

Anyway, I'm very much looking forward to this - despite all the distractions from other projects - and would love to get a V3 game in ASAP.

Comments

  1. Nice work and a good looking force.
    You clearly have a thing for snow - it features on your LOTR stuff too.
    I concur on the PSC halftracks, I've just finished a marathon session painting up 20 of them...

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  2. Just converted a couple of BF 251/1Cs to 8cm mortar carriers- doing my forces again it would be PSC all the way.

    Great force Jamie.

    The weekend made me realise how handy the heavy platoon can be (through lack of smoke options) so have painted up a heavy platoon to add to my own PGs tonight

    Craig

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  3. @ Scott - yes from Invers originally, over 2/3 of the year an unprotected Human would die of exposure if outside in that wind. So I gravitate to the snows of the Ostfront and never really 'got' the Desert/Med.

    @ Craig - thought you'd appreciate a force where I've given up on the 'mobile AT' mantra. I have been mulling the smoke issue myself and have two more HTs and the mortars to model it, if need be. I think that if air turns out to be over-rated then that is an easy swap. It may be overkill but I was planning to use Panzerwerfers as smoke platforms on the attack! Only 75pts more than the mortars, much more smoke and range, and good HE too.

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  4. One of my thoughts is mortars for smoke and nebs for artillery- the mortars counting for platoon strength now makes the heavy platoon an attractive option. allw eekend Ian and i struggled deploying our pak 38s- the 7.5cm half tracks would have been far more useful. Vs Cal/ Ian B our pak 38s deployed and promptly fell to 3x 6s for rifle fie FP tests to destroy them!

    I might look at Heavy weapons 7.5cms instead of pak 38s and use the pak 40s as your manouvre platform. Looks like a fun list. I see PSC are talking of a heavy platoon option for their half tracks.

    Craig

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  5. There might be a few similar gepanzerte panzergrenadiers about. I found the heavy platoon mortars very useful for smoke and the nebs were great for hitting the place I was planning on assaulting. If artillery fires at the nebs then that's a bonus as they're not hitting my half tracks. I spent longer sticking one wheel onto a battlefront halftrack than I did assembling a PSC halftrack.

    One question about the heavy platoon. I haven't checked the Eastern front army list but in the Tunisian Aufklarangs pdf the armoured mortars are tank teams. The platoon commander's halftrack is a transport team and the platoon doesn't have the mounted assault rule. Does that mean the mortars can assault in the halftracks but the commander has to dismount to assault?

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  6. I see Forged in Battle does a two-pack of a pair of armoured mortars and a pair of 7.5cm SPW, which might be worth looking into to replace the Pak 40s in what I have.

    No idea about your tricky question, Chris. I might look at the books tomorrow though. I am such a FOW newbie that I need people to show me how to play V3 lol.

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