Monday, March 28, 2011

Fow Army list:

Wow, been a while since I bothered to post anything, and that's no good.

So here's a quick one since I haven't finished up anything yet.

When I first took a peak at Stalin's Europe back in December, I was a touch underwhelmed with the German options. The Panzergrenadiers looked pretty standard, baring the ability to take fortifications, but as Earth & Steel had just hit shelves in slipcase, there were plenty of other fortification-boasting lists to consider.
The panzer kompanie, while it did have the alluring Panzer IV/70s seemed questionable. Afterall, German Panzerkompanies are small enough without going for tanks that cost even more than the StuG.
But, recently, I noticed that it can take *two* Gepanzert Panzergrenadier squads. That's pretty interesting.

So I drew up the following list:
CHQ: Panzer IV/70 (A) 135
Combat: 3x Panzer IV/70 (A) 405
Combat: 3x Panzer IV/70 (A) 405
Combat: 3-squad strong Gepanzert Panzergrenadier with Faust 285
Combat: 3-squad strong Gepanzert Panzergrenadier with Fuast 285
3x 15cm Nebbelwerfers 120
2x Armored Kfz7/1 AA Halftracks 110
Total: 1745, though it's probably a good idea to swap the AA for Recon any time you have to deal with ambushes. 

Why I like this list:
It's a tank company, with a respectable number (For Germans, anyway) of tanks, and almost as many stands of infantry (and half-tracks) as a mechanized company. That's pretty cool. It even has smoke, and either AA or Recon.

The Panzer IV/70 looks excellent on paper. One of my biggest gripes with playing a German Panzerkompanie has been the overall lack of focus in the Panzer IV tank. Is it supposed to dogfight other mediums? Fa6 + At11 is okay, but it can't compete with the Russian At12 Fa7 T-34/85. Assault infantry?To expensive to have the numbers for that. Hold ground? Nowhere near durable enough.
The Panzer IV/70 has a clear purpose. With its gun that makes heavies quiver (Rof:2 At:14 Fp: 3+) and takes mediums out with little, if any, resistance their business is tank hunting, and business is a'boomin'. They, similarly, has better front armor than any medium out there, pushing into the realm of heavy tanks (8 on the As, 9 on the Vs)
It does suffer from being both slow and overloaded so it isn't going to be getting assaults off, especially into woods, any time soon, combined with only having 1 machine gun, it falls somewhere betwee mediocre and pathetic against infantry.

Which is where the Gepanzert Panzergrenadiers come in. Two full squads of them puts plenty of MG shots on the table, the ability to dig-in to hold objectives in the open, 12" of movement a turn (via halftracks) and a unit that can assault into terrain without all getting stuck on stumps. Their ability to bust tanks is nearly non-existent, but at least they get a Faust for any tanks that manage to get past the Panzer fire.

Sure, the army is small, and it may not have quite everything you want (I'd love to be able to fit smoke AND recon AND  anti-air) but that's par for the course when you play Germans in late war. It's got 4 good, focused combat units, and that little bit of support to help them synergize.

The downside? Stalin's Europe didn't get the point discounts to MG-infantry, Halftracks, or Nebbelwerfers, all of which are present in this list. It adds up to ~ 140 points that you're "Short". That could easily be a whole recon platoon, upgrade all the Panzer IV/70s to the superior (V) variant, or just cram an 8th tank in there.

Then again, I hear the late war East Front compilation book will be out in time for Christmas. Imagine what this list would look like with that extra ~140 points.

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