Army Overview

From Top Left: Parachute Mortar Platoon 165pts (Finished), Commando Platoon 220pts (Finished), Airlanding Battery, Royal Artillery 140pts (Need to purchase a Staff Team, Observer Rifle Team and Command Rifle Team), 2 Combat Platoons 2x 240pts (Basing on Command and PIAT needs to be done), Combat Platoon 240pts (Command Team needs painting, everything needs basing), Armoured Platoon 280pts (Requires painting), HQ 65pts (requires painting and basing).

2,000pts

I decided to set myself a challenge for January. Part of the challenge was to finish painting my Brit Airborne, and purchase the necessary parts to make it into a complete 1,500pt army. The last time I had counted my point values, I'd come in at around 1,000pts. I figured a Centaur Platoon would be easy to paint up and for an out lay of only $60 would get me up to 1,300pts, meaning that the remaining 200pts could easily be used up adding PIAT teams to my Combat Platoons and some Sniper to HQ.

I decided to draw up a visual representation of my army as it stood so I could easily see what I had and what I need to purchase/add on to my existing teams to make the magic 1,500pt mark. That's when I use a calculator to add up my points to see just what i needed to purchase.

1495pts.

5 whole points to play with.

Somewhere down the track I must have miss-counted and I now have a dilemma. Do I continue with my plan to add another 500pts to my army and make my challenge a 2,000pt army? It certainly appeals to me - there isn't any additional work to what I was expecting to do and whilst I doubt I'll be playing any 2,000pt games, it would give me the flexibility to beef up my infantry army if I'm ever up against a more mobile army.

2,000pts here I come!!

Now I probably need to look at my Mid War German Army and see what points value I have there, who knows, I may well have enough to make up a 2,000pt army to fight my Paratroopers.

Re-Jigging my Germans

Spread out all my German components and worked on a new look army. I wonder if it will work any better.

Another 600pt Grenadierkompanie

Company HQ | 40pts

1st Greadadier Platoon (2 squads) | 110pts

2nd Greadadier Platoon (2 squads) | 110pts

1st Machine Gun Platoon (1 MG Section) | 85pts

2nd Machine Gun Platoon (1 MG Section) | 85pts

Tank Hunter Platoon (3 Marder III M's) | 280pts

Total 610pts

600pt Grenadierkompanie

Ok, so we might be playing a FOW campaign, and this may be comprised of quick, fun 600pt games, so here's my first attempt at a 600pt Grenadierkompanie:

Headquarters | 40pts

1st Greadadier Platoon (4 squads) | 200pts
ADD: Light Mortar Team | 15pts
REPLACE: Command Rifle/MG team with Panzerknacker SMG team | 5pts

2nd Greadadier Platoon (2 squads) | 110pts

1st Machine Gun Platoon (2 MG sections) | 145pts

2nd Machine Gun Platoon (1 MG section) | 85pts

Total: 600pts

The only scary thing about this army is the lack of my usual Tank Hunter Platoon.

Have Tiger, Will Use.

Or, Air Support and Artillery are a waste of time.

For the first time ever, I still had my artillery at the end of the game. Of course, just because my gunners were still breathing didn't mean they did anything to help me.

So, once again, I re-jig my army:

Company HQ
x2 Command SMG Teams 40pts

Grenadier Platoons
1st Platoon (4 squads) 200pts
2nd Platoon (3squads) 155pts

Machine Gun Platoons
1st Platoon (2 sections) 155pts
2nd Platoon (2 sections) 155pts

Tank Hunter Platoon
x4 Marder III M 405pts

Heavy Tank Platoon
x1 Tiger IE 385pts

Total 1495pts

Hhhhmmmm, I wonder if one tank is worth 385pts? Only time will tell...

Late War Army Options

Daniel lent me his Festung Europa handbook, so I've been looking at how I can re-jig my army for a late war setting, and I've come up with two initial options:

Greanadierkompanie:
Company HQ | 40pts
add Anti-tank Section | 25pts
add 8cm Mortar Section | 55pts
1st Grenadier Platoon (with 3 squads) | 155pts
add Command Panzerfaust SMG | 10pts
2nd Grenadier Platoon (with 3 squads) | 155pts
add Command Panzerfaust SMG | 10pts
3rd Grenadier Platoon (with 2 squads) | 110pts
add Command Panzerfaust SMG | 10pts
Weapons Platoons:
1st Machine Gun Platoon (with 2 MG42 HMG Sections) | 140pts
2nd Machine Gun Platoon (with 2 MG42 HMG Sections) | 140pts
Divisional Support:
Tank Hunter Platoon (with 4 Marder III M) | 280pts
Artillery Battery (with 4 10.5cm leFH18 guns) | 210pts
Limited Air Support:
Hs 129B Flying Tank | 155pts
TOTAL | 1495

Required purchases to complete this army:
Machine Gun Platoon | $14

Greanadierkompanie with Heavy Tank support:
Company HQ | 40pts
1st Grenadier Platoon (with 3 squads) | 155pts
2nd Grenadier Platoon (with 3 squads) | 155pts
Weapons Platoons:
1st Machine Gun Platoon (with 2 MG42 HMG Sections) | 140pts
2nd Machine Gun Platoon (with 2 MG42 HMG Sections) | 140pts
Divisional Support:
Heavy Tank Platoon (with 4 Tiger IE Tanks) | 860pts
TOTAL | 1490

Required purchases to complete this army:
Machine Gun Platoon | $14
4 Tiger IE Tanks | $64

Of course, rather than spending $64 on some Tigers I could pretend that my Marders are Tigers and see if I really want to make the investment!

A couple of things that I noticed about late war is that priority air support is no longer an option, and the Tiger tanks are now reliable!

Having some Tigers does sound rather nice, but at 860pts they don't leave me much else to play with, but on the bright side, they sure would scare the living daylights out of Stu!