Beyond The Foxholes: Ear and Eyes - Night Attacking German Armour

Hello All

Welcome to Beyond the Foxholes: Eyes & Ears Episode 10, our premium content podcast available on Libsyn.

In this episode we join Ben and Adam as they chat about using the Night Attacking German Armour in Late War, we have tips on how to make your lists, how to get the most out of the special rules and

AAR 3RTR vs FJ - No Retreat - Firestorm in the City

Myself and Winner got together for some FoW for Cameron's Firestorm Caen Campaign. We agreed that we wanted something a little more interesting than British Para's vs FJ's, so I bust out the 3RTR from overlord.

We each put together a 1500 point list and rolled to see which Beach I'd be hitting - we got Gold beach - I opted for the actual firestorm troops, where as Winner opted for the extra Points.

After Action Review - One Day Late War Tournament at IBuyWargaming

On Saturday 31 October I braved the suburban wilderness of Woking to take part in a one day Late War tournament at their local gaming store, IBuyWargames

The tournament was organised by our very own Fez and was a 1675pts open affair with no restrictions.

The venue was very nice and very welcoming and the action took place in the store itself, with a couple of games taking place upstairs in their dedicated gaming area.  This had the advantage of putting the action on display for all the customers on the day to see and ask questions about, something which I am always in favour of.

Great War Stosskompanie - List Discussion

Hello all

So when I first got the new Great War book I as happy to see that the original two nations had been bulked out to four with the French and the U.S. and while I wanted to collect a Entente army there was one list that stole my attention, The Stoss Company.

Why a Stoss Company? Simple really, how doesn't like elite troops? Add the imagery of these elite troops using ,at the time, revolutionary tactics to raid and take enemy trenches and break the deadlock of the Western Front.

Beyond The Foxholes: Eyes and Ears Episode 7 - Late War German Auto Defend Armies

Hello All

Welcome to the 7th episode of Beyond the Foxholes: Eyes & Ears, our premium content podcast available on Libsyn.

In this episode we join Adam and Roger as they talk about Late War Auto Defend German Armies. The guys look at all the special rules, tactics and all the different list builds.

Late War AAR - SAS Squadrons vs Panzer Grenadier Kompanie (25. Division) - Hasty Attack

Having just completed my SAS list I was itching to try it out.  So I got in touch with one of my regular sparring partners Dave M and set up a game.

We both agreed that this would be a fun, friendly game rather than a tournament practice game so we bought bought lists we’d like to try out that we never normally get the chance to play.  I turned up with my SAS Squadron, all fast moving recce jeeps and Comets, and Dave took a Panzer Grenadier company from the Nuts book.

This was shaping up to be a good historically themed bash.  The desperate Germans holding off the ever more confident Allies in the final push into the German heartland.  Unfortunately Dave didn't have a Jdgtiger to hand so the trusty old King Tiger had to stand if for him.

Overlord Brit v FI 4. Fallschirmjägerdivision 1750 AAR - Pincer

Hello

It's been an age since I did an AAR.  There have been a number of abortive attempts, but hopefully this candidate will make it to production.

To set the scene, Ben was coming over to get some practice for Art of War Too.  He'd had some recent success against Tankovy so the FJs were back on the table to give him some practice facing veteran infantry.

Now I've had a desire to do the whole, infantry backed by a single super heavy tank for a while now.  I don't think it's particularly competitive, but you do see it alot.  My only offering for this is an Elefant so I used the EasyArmy unit finder thingy and remembered that you can take them in Fortress Italy.  In fact I found a list I'd been experimenting with hand written tucked inside my book.

There were a few tweaks I really needed to make, like squeezing in an extra Shrek, and downsizing the mortars.  This is a terrible list btw, but I didn't have time to write a new one.

Beyond The Foxholes: Eyes and Ear Episode 5 - Early War German Armour

Hello All

Welcome to the third episode of Beyond the Foxholes: Eyes & Ears, our premium content podcast available on Libsyn.

In this episode we join Ben and special guest Wild Bill Wilcox as they talk about Early War German Tank Armies. The guys look at all the special rules, tactics and all the different list builds.

Volksgrenadiers - The Next Generation

Well I'm in a really good mood! It's well known that there has been one list I've been looking forwards to for, well forever - and when we chatted to Battlefront about the Berlin books and they said it would happen in the digital release - I started salivating - and now it's here! Yes Volksgrenadiers are back, and this time they're more reluctant and confident than ever before!

Just so you can catch up on why I love volksgrenadiers you can see my old articles on them here and here.

Late War AAR - 21st Panzer Grenadiers vs 51st Highlanders - Fighting Withdrawal

Hello All, Welcome to the second AAR from my weekend at Matt's. Matt was once again using 21st Panzer Grens but this time the list was a little different having Tigers instead of Panzer IV's and the FlaK 8.8's.  I was trying out a 51st Highlanders list I quite liked the look of. I'm not sure about playing with reluctant troops as I like to use my British Infantry aggressively but it a lot of tournament players have been using them as I figured I'd give them a go.  We rolled up Fighting Withdrawal, one of my favourite missions. I chose to night attack (stop me if you have heard me say that before), I wasn't sure if that was the best idea as I would be relying on Defrocked Priests and Reluctant troops to get the job done, but I love to attack and you need to try these things out.

21st Panzer Grenadiers (Confident Veteran) HQ + 1 Panzerfaust + Von Luck Full Grenadiers + Faust Full Grenadiers + Faust 3 7.5cm (Sf) 39H 2 Tigers - In Ambush 4 10.5cm (Sf) 39H 3 Pak40's 3 Nebs + Pak38

51st Highlanders (Reluctant Veterans) HQ + Bagpipes Full 51st Highlander Infantry + Defrocked Priests Full 51st Highlander Infantry + Defrocked Priests 4 6pdrs 3 Carriers 3 Wasps 4 M10's (Confident Trained) 2 Mk VI Chruchills + 1 Mk III Churchill + Applique Armour (Confident Trained) 4 25pdrs 4 5.5s (Confident Trained) AOP

Late War AAR - 21st Panzer Grenadiers vs Sherwood Armoured Brigade - Counter Attack

Hello All The other weekend I travelled up to Matt's place with the family, while the wife's and kids were out we got in two Normandy themed games.  Game one saw me running a CV Sherman company against Matt's 21st Panzer Grenadiers. We rolled up Counter Attack which is a mission I always enjoy playing. As I was a tank force I was the attacker. We decided to keep the terrain quite light for the first game as most of the British fighting in Normandy was away from the bocage that dominated the American sector of of the fighting.

21st Panzer Grenadiers (Confident Veteran) HQ + 2 Panzerfaust Full Grenadiers + Faust Full Grenadiers + Faust 3 7.5cm (Sf) 39H 4 Panzer IV's 4 10.5cm (Sf) 39H 3 Pak40's 3 Nebs 2 Luftwaffe 8.8cm FlaK36 (Reluctant Trained)

Sherwood Armoured Brigade (Confident Veteran) 2 HQ Shermans 3 Shermans 3 Shermans 3 Fireflies 3 Stuarts Full 51st Highlander Infantry + Defrocked Priests 4 51st Highlander 25pdrs AOP

Great War AAR - British Rifle Company Vs Germans Infanteriekompanie - The Big Push

Hello All  So after 11 months of no Great War games myself and Winner Dave got are second game within a week! As I talked about in the last game, this time I would defend in the Big Push against Winners British. Winner decided to change his list into a Veteran version of his old list. If I'm honest I had been thinking of doing something similar so I'd be interested to see how this works out for him. We decided to play at Entoyment, partly as it's halfway between are houses and partly to try and drive up some interest in Great War as a period. When I rocked up Winner had already set up the terrain so we got stuck in!

British Rifle Company (Veteran) HQ Full Infantry Platoon Full Infantry Platoon 4 HMG's  1 Mark IV Male 2 OQF 18pdr (Artillery Detachment)

German Infanteriekompanie (Trained) HQ + 2 Flame Throwers + 1 Granatenwerfer Full Infantry Platoon Full Infantry Platoon 4 HMG's (Turned into HMG Nests) 2 A7V's 2 Trench Guns

Thoughts On Using A Panzergrenadier Company

Ok sitting back having now played 9 games with my little panzergreadier list (and a few previously with the Lehr aufklarungs panzergreadier) I thought I'd share my reflections on using them.

Firstly I'd suggest in future ask yourself the simple why are you playing this list? That might sound an odd question but it's important. As a mech player you have to set yourself up to defend vs tanks and attack infantry - As a tank player (especially the AA variety) you need to attack vs infantry and tanks, as an infantry player you need to defend, (occasionally attack I will admit) but the percentage is less than for Mech.

Great War AAR - Germans Infanteriekompanie Vs British Rifle Company - The Big Push

Hello All  It might have taken 11 months but myself and Winner Dave have finally got around to playing a game of FoW Great War together! We decided to play each of the core missions twice, once as the attacker and once as the defender. I won the first dice off and was the attacker in The Big Push, your classic assault on the trenches. For the first game we kept it to the forces in the army deals we got summer last year, we will propably change the armies a little over the next few games, I for one want to try out a Stoss Platoon or two! So here is are first battle report, that has been 11 months in the making. Note:- We got a couple of rules wrong (not surprise it being the first game) mainly trench reserves (Winner didn't roll for it) and shooting at damaged tanks.  Also I ended up having to write this post twice as Blogger went odd and deleted my post and my memory wasn't great the second time around. I think I got it right but I may have made a few mistakes. Sorry.

British Rifle Company (Trained) HQ + Sniper Full Infantry Platoon Full Infantry Platoon 4 HMG's (Turned into 4 HMG Nests) 1 Mark IV Male 1 Mark IV Female 1 Whippet 2 OQF 18pdr (Artillery Detachment)

German Infanteriekompanie (Trained) HQ + 2 Flame Throwers + 1 Granatenwerfer Full Infantry Platoon Full Infantry Platoon 4 HMG's  2 A7V's 2 Trench Guns

More German Reinforcements, Panzerwerfer and Brummbär

Hi all, thought I'd bring to your attention another two platoons I've painted up for my Germans.

Every so often there are units which you want to have, but lack any real reason to paint them up, both of these units fall into that category.

The Panzerwerfers I've had for years, when I originally painted my germans I'd thought about doing Panzer Lehr, and loved the idea of having these guys supporting them in a really mobile force, and the model I always think looks fantastic, the armoured body, the rack of rockets, just looks brilliant.

Late War AAR - 29th Infantry vs 9th Panzergrenadiers - No Retreat

Hello All  I have had a hankering to play some themed games and so I asked Andy if he'd be up for a Normandy Bocage game with his German vs my US. He was really up for it so rocked up at his house with a bucket load of Boccage terrain and we set out to play.  We decided on 1675pts, Andy was using the 9th Panzer Division in the form of Grenadiers as thats basically the only list he could make from what he had. I was using the 29th Infantry as I had just painted up some Crocs and I wanted to use them. We rolled up No Retreat and as I was auto attack thanks to the Crocs I was the attcker.

US 29th Infantry HQ + 2 Bazookas Full Infantry Platoon + Pioneer Upgrade + Flame Thrower Full Infantry Platoon + Pioneer Upgrade + Flame Thrower 4 81mm Mortars 4 M10's Cav Recon 4 105mm Artillery 4 155mm Artillery 3 Churchill Crocodiles - Allied Platoon AOP

9th Panzergrenadierkompanie HQ + Panzerschreck Full Grenadier Platoon + Faust Full Grenadier Platoon + Faust Full Grenadier Platoon + Faust 4 12cm Mortars 3 Pak 40's 5 Panzer IV's 4 10.5cm Artillery

Great War German Commission - Beute Mark IV

Hooray my first minis painted since the big move.  Life has dramatically changed for me since the house and job move, but I can't tell you how glad I am that it's finally done.  Unfortunately I'm not able to paint in the kitchen any more, which is where I used to do my airbrushing as I found being near running water and a sink invaluable.

I haven't quite figured out where my new painting spot is in the new gaff...but it didn't stop me from getting my Great War German commission finished.

German Obsessions

I honestly wish I didn't enjoy playing Germans! The problem is that I do, and unlike every other nation it requires relatively little expenditure to move from list to list to list.

Well there's been one style of list I've not been able to do before - and I'm rectifying this mistake now - I'm coming for you Gepanzerte Panzergrenadiers!

Berlin Book Preview - German List

Hello All

So the last book of Late War is finally here, we are at the gate of the German capital and the last days of the Reich. Berlin is a 73 page book that covers the German defenders of the city (Kampfgruppe Berlin) and the street fighting lists of the Soviet Union (Hero Strelkovy, ISU and IS lists). Today we are going to cover the Germans, please come back on Monday for the Soviet lists (click here to see it.)

Berlin has only one German list, but it makes almost every other list in the game look restrictive. The book starts with a history section that is about 12 pages long and gives you all the info you could want about the battle.

Missing Lists - Panzer-Abteilung 211 (Russia 1941)

Hello All

Welcome to a new series of posts I'm planning to do monthly or bimonthly. In this series I'm going to look at some of the missing options in Flames of War, platoons, lists or campaigns that haven't been covered yet and work out how to get them onto the table top.

I'm starting with the Panzer-Abteilung 211 - a tank battalion fully equipped with captured French tanks that operated out of Finland at the start of operation Barbarossa. The unit took part in Operation Silver Fox, a joint Finnish and German offensive to capture the Soviet port of Murmansk, before sitting out the rest of the war until the Finnish swapped sides.