90th Infantry – New MW German Formation

Today Mark takes a look at the new formation box from BF,

90th Infantry

The new 90th Infantry box has arrived.  First spotted last year, it teased 7.62cm Guns and Dianas as well as a new 90th Infantry formation to field them in.  Some people were disappointed that the Afrika Corp book lacked these options and it appears BF has listened and now bought them to MW.  This article will look at using them as a formation and how they will change the German force.  The models themselves wont be covered in this article (mainly because im moving house and havent assembled them yet!).

So without further ado here is the new formation card.

 

Whats that you say? AT12 guns as Core?

Yup, Germans are now the only force in the game to get an AT12 gun as a core troop.  In the world of Chruchills, Valentines and Shermans they will be very useful indeed (not to mention vs the plastic KVs which have been spotted ready for the Eastern Front releases later in the year).

This is the Diana card and it acts as a (slightly) cheaper set of Marders.  Yes, you lose 1 AT, and it has basically no armour (lets face it the Marder had very little armour) but it is a bit cheaper.  The down side for me is that they come in Platoons of three rather than four with Marders.  On the flip side three of these gives a big cost point saving over four Marders and the 7.62cm guns gives a static, long range, high AT back up.

The card shows how you can include it into the support options supplied in Afrika Corp, which is quite a neat way to via the card.  Interestingly you could take the Diana in lieu of the Tiger and actually double up with Dianas and Marders (or even two sets of Dianas).   The Germans definitely have no issue with mobile (or static AT!).

With the 7.62cm guns being a compulsory core choice, its important to note that you can take them as support in your Afrika Corp forces as well.

List building

Lets take a look at what I think is quite a competive list at 100pts.

90th Inf HQ
Afrika Infantry Platoon with HMG and Mortar
Afrika Infantry Platoon with Mortar
Afrika Infantry Platoon with HMG
Tan3 x 7.62 guns

Support

3 x Dianas
1 x Tiger
4 x Captured 25 Pdrs
1 x Light Scout patrol (full)

Cards

Artillery expert (start ranged in).

Here you have an impressive 3 x inf pltns which I feel is needed for the offensive due to the limited number of assaulting stands in the pltns.  The German infantry is a Swiss Army knife with integrated AT, a mortar template as well as bags of DF dice.  The 7.62s are a great ambush and have the range to reach out and touch most things on the board.  Even at long range Churchill’s Can be cracked and Valentines plus Shermans get quite squishy!

The Diana’s can rip open medium armour but will require cover and some good shoot and scoot rolls to keep the, alive.  However always remember a 6 to hit (long range concealed) is the best armour in the game.

The Tiger is your hammer, it’s there to assault and disrupt an enemy plan.  Drive into the enemy and consolidate with the infantry onto the objective. Remember a Tiger can assault non pinned 6pdrs with an surprising degree of confidence.

The 25pdrs are used near an obj in defense due to the turn tables and 8 shots DF, but also kick out a respectable template as well as smoke.  The command card makes sure they start ranged in on the enemy guns (or tank destroyers).  Finally recce rounds out the list and allows you in certain circumstances to be more aggressive and starter closer to the enemy.

Conclusion

The new set adds some interesting options to the German forces both as a new formation and as support for existing forces.  What is very interesting indeed is that you can take the 7.62s as support in your Italians forces.  Yup that’s right, the Italians may take 2 compulsory German pltns and the 7.62 guns are compulsory in the 90th inf formation.  Given the lack of cheap High AT for the Italians I think this could become a competitive auto include in the meta.

Also it’s worth pointing out that if you already own the models you can buy the card seperately from BF website.

For me the 7.62 guns are the stand out choice in the set, giving a cheaper, Flak 88 (I haven’t got much of a use for AT14 in the desert).  I’m convinced AT12 is the cost effective sweet spot.  Dianas have a degree of the ‘rule of cool’ but for me I’d still not want to leave home without 4 Marders.  However I’m open to being convinced and will definitely be running the above list once everything is painted up.  AAR to follow….