2./512. Schwere Panzerjäger Abteilung - Defending Ludendorff Bridge

Finally received my price book "Bridge at Remagen" for Best Painted in Ace of Aces contest from Battlefront, big thanks for them!

This book is The Book for every player wanting to field a mix of Big Cats with Big Guns. And as you might have quessed from my previous post, I'm the kind of players to like and want them. From the first time I read that Carius, Jagdtigers and King Tigers were going to be in a same list I knew I just wanted to have this book ith all the sweetness.

Now that I've had my first look on the book I've come up with a list where I can have them all. It's not a competitive list in any way but you just can't have it all! ;)

This is 1650 points list using 2./512. sPzJgAbt. Nice thing with this is I only need one compulsory combat platoon.

This gives me 5 platoons, 4 which counts when counting for reserves. From the list you already might quess which platoons would go to reserve, unless there is a damn big tankrush coming my way and I need to bring as much long range AT into bear as possible. Reluctant isn't that bad when you still are veteran or have high armor value.

Remagen AAR 1660 US 1ID versus 1645 SS-panzerbrigade Westfalen.

So, in the sleeping wintery village somewhere in Russia, the weary remnants of SS-panzerbrigade Westfalen with support from rather Fearless and quick pair of King Tigers are enjoying a break.

They get suddenly thrown into battle by 1 US ID arriving on a spur of the moment attack. (Hasty attack.)

I had real doubts on how to deploy the halfs on this one. In the end I decided on having the Ostwinds and the 2 Westfalen infantry platoons, another one in Immediate Ambush. My opponent deployed 1 Rifle platoon, 105mms, the 6 priests and 1 Cav recce. He rolled reserves and got his first right away, he took the 4.2" mortars.

In the first round I shot down the AOP which was foolishly put into range from all of my Ostwinds. TBH there wasn't too many hiding places there so he just took the gamble, even though I did warn about it. Still, the AOP is more useful in scenarios bit different from HA.

I generally stayed put, and he maneuvered aggressively towards an objective, the Priests formed a Gunline, and were shot to pieces by couple of faust traps and the Ostwinds. US got all of it's reserves in 4 turns :D. I got 2 platoons on the second reserve roll. Mortars and KT's, middle and wrong side.

KT's killed a Sherman a turn, while moving towards the objective.

US rifles that were at half 6 teams total, assaulted my pinned platoon, that had 2iC and Cic in tow, total 9 teams I think. After 5 rounds of combat, I had 2 HMGs left and the burly 1ID guys had 3 teams still. Grrr, well that's the breaks.

There was one bailed Ostwind in the proximity, which the US boys destroy in the process, triggering a reluctant platoon check, which I fail. Next turn I get Nebs on the corner been attacked, and the Neb Command team buys time, again the US guys assault, this time with 3 teams, after DF there's 2 teams assaulting a neb, I fail the reluctant counter attack roll, which leads the guns dead, further platoon check and the Neb platoon is gone.

The 12" a turn moving KT's arrive JIT to contest the objective.

Time out and 4-3 for Westfalen.

My new friend gave a helluva fight to me, while in the end the 2 KT's schnelling from the far side, made it just in time to contest the objective, we'd agreed a time limit for this, and played 7 turns so not that bad. If it had gone a while longer I'd probably lost, CiC and 2iC gone in the assault, and 3 platoons left, the mortars were not dug in, so possible morale loss. He still had 1 full Infantry platoon and 105mm, chem mortars, 60mm mortars, couple of cav recon patrols and stuff left, so unlikely for me to have won that battle.

And he did make mistakes, I easily shot down the AOP, and trapped/Ostwinded the Priests. But assault from half a platoon of US rifles beat easily my 7 or so FT Westfalen boys. I managed to whiff 2 rounds of assault, which helped :). 2 HMG's left, 2 2+ rolls, If I'd made them, the 2 HMG's would have ripped the rifles to shreds = roll of 1, ETW and automatic failure on last man standing.

My thoughts:

Hasty attack is a beast to defend with 6 platoons versus Tube heavy US CV rifles list, Ostwinds were golden though, but I kinda had to have infantry on board, although the KT's might have been a better choice, the FJ player in me couldn't resist. Trained is hard, RV is best there is, I really love the RV given best of both worlds aspect on tanks. Better than FV King tigers for 300 points :D. Since I'm into attacking and all things tracked nowish, I don't think I'll continue practicing too much with this, though I do think it has potential. My list lacks THE AMBUSH platoon as well. 

Few pics, lot of proxies, some unpainted stuff as well, been busy with terrain lately, so getting there. I ordered some 4Ground buildings to better go with the NW Europe we plan on fighting over, Brit Paras, US Infantry/tanks and my myriad of German Panzer/Mech/Infantry. I'm leaning towards running panzers though, I find that a lot more enjoyable than sitting in defense...

Bridge by Bridge - 2./506. Schwere Panzerabteilung in Oosterbeek

Lately I've been thinking heavy, and I mean German heavy. I have a lot of planned lists of German Heavy Tanks that I'd like to run given enough heavy tanks (right now not nearly enough).

One of these units is the Schwere Panzerkompanie from Bridge by Bridge. It's currently the only heavy tank kompanie that I've planned with full King Tiger (another list that I have King Tiger is Schwere Panzerkompanie from Atlantik Wall with one KT).

With only four platoons and such a limited numbers I'll be always outnumberet and outgunned. But what this list gives me is heavy anti-tank weapons (88mm KwK43/L71) with excellent armour with infantry support that can scare a s**t out of enemy armour trying to flank my Big Cats. Lastly there is my Coup de Main, 3 StuH42s ready to take out any gunteams or soften up dug in infantry before my pioniers or King Tigers make the assault.

I didn't take recon as four fearless veteran teams for 155 points is kind of a lot. Also no artillery as not enough points, but for that I've my StuH42s.

Lastly with points limited and after checking multiple times that I couldn't get anything else useful, I took Bergepanther. No obvious use for this but it nicely works as a bullet-magnet, and it has AA MG.

This all drops me few points short but I think I can manage that. All in all this list needs to be played in concert, each element supporting and protecting the other (an obvious thing!).

All ideas and comments are welcomed.

Bridge at Remagen - SS Panzerbrigade Westfalen

My new best opponent forever wants to try attacking with his Paras, so I need to have something that defense always :P

We will use 1500 points as his got the rules now, with 4 games or so. I have no idea what he'll have, but this what I will have.

The SS guys have Enjoy the War at 2+ for everyone. The traps are nice to get without paying for any hero. Also Ostwinds with RV are really nice, nebs are so and so, but so what, this will be somewhat painful exercise but so is life :)

We'll see how this goes.

HQ is CiC and 2iC with Fausts and SMGs
We'll add two Schreks
3 of those PF traps

2 Aufk platoons, CA MG42 and Schreck to each

Full 8 cm Mortar platoon, no observer

2 RV King Tigers for 600 points :D Tiger Aces and all

2 RV Ostwinds

RT Nebs

Edit. Decided to go with 1650 points, so will add 1 trap, 2 MG42's, an observer for the mortars and 1 Ostwind.

I really, really enjoy attacking after years with my FJs, though I attacked with them quite lot also, but they are not the best mobile force. So, I really hope this guy does not want to attack me after this game :)

Reports from the Front - soviet edition - Updated

Edit. IS2 is back on the top complaints list, 'we had our assault guns fixed with no cost, why not IS2 as well'.

Based on the fact that most people think it's not worth to include in a list, it should be made better. Panthers anyone? :)

ed. IMHO/I think the 'Tally Ho!' kind of solution would fit the best, VF is too powerful./IMHO


Generally, the soviet playerbase seems to be rather content, the revised Red Bear and not as much the DM have restored the reds former glory somewhat, with little help from Cat Killers. Also the extinction of Panther helps.

IS-2 is something people have issues to put in good use, otherwise it's infiltration as normal.

Tankovy is good again. The fear of a KT is alive, but no really complains from the Soviet base, RT jagdtigers or no.

Hero motorstrelkovy, PO, Rota and Tankovy are the lists people still talk about.

In EW the light tank nastiness beats low at infantry left and right, mostly right.

The tournament game does benefit from redundancy and always attack plus spearhead, and Soviets have that.

Reports from the Front! Your fearless reporter plunges into the murky depths of war-torn BF forums and gives you the headlines!

I'm gonna be starting a new series here on my funky, little blog, of mine. I know quite a lot of Distinguished Gentlemen who get rash just thinking about trawling through the nasty sea of flames of war forums.

So, here we go with the latest what's happening.

NGFS Playtests

From behind the scenes we have learned that a few good men sacrificed some of their valuable time to conduct a series of tests, to show the monster and excel to BF folks. Who, obviously lacking in excel calculations themselves, figured that there is perhaps something off in the way the Naval Gunfire is depicted in the game.

BF still tries to convince us all that all the testing can be done by the merry volunteers from the community, in the form of running the NGFS with fixes, and reporting them on the forum. This has led to one German lobbying the utter worthiness of the NGFS, along with the usual sing-along folk, who enjoy the occasional flame war now an then.

The slight issue seems to be that not that many people are playing the NGFS, nor too willing to report. We do know though, that most ETC teams had NGFS planned for use, or at least prepared for.

Germans suck

The hunt for why the Germans are so crappy in the game continues, with some help from yours truly, in fanning the flames.

Notable findings have been:

Panthers are too pricy! ( "Still very nice and not too bad for the points, but anyway :)" )

US are OP

TOT is something that doesn't happen for most US players ever, and their opponents receive it on a constant pace.  It's easy to calculate though, trained team in the open, moving gets hit by TOT at 3+ on a one die, veteran at 4+.

Old v1 had the TOT bombardment at +1 to roll for rangin-in. JR suggested a single die for TOT bombardment that would need to be declared prior to rolling. Seems fair, and in with the fluff.

My first text here. German Reinforcements ready!

Hi all!

My first text here and I want to thank Mikko H for inviting me in. And specially I want to thank you dear readers for reading!

First something about me. I'm more of a slow painter, furious gamer. I like when my units look a bit better than just dipped into a can of paint. I've never used an airbrush and I doubt I never will, I like more of the close touch and the control of the brush. So don't expect some fancy airbrushed models :)

Enough of me and on to my first showcase.

Decided to show you my third Tiger I E that I've painted. With this one I wanted something different from the earlier ones so no mudguards and more of a rag-a-tag look.

I basecoated the tank black and after that gave it a few light coats of Middlestone. Second camocolor I used is Beige Brown and I did it with an old medium sized drybrush. Tracks, tools, cables and jack were first being painted with Light Grey and then washed over with Nuln Oil. Red oxide was done by mixing 2 parts Red Gore and 1 part Dark Brown and being washed over again with Nuln Oil.

And here are the pictures:

  

As you may notice I haven't done any mud or dust as I'm not sure yet what kind of mud or dust should I do. My older Tigers have just some drybrushed Dark Brown and Beige Brown but I may want something new for this one.

But heres all for now. Thank you for reading ladies and getlemen!