Options For Change – List Building WW3:British (Mk.2)

Options For Change was the 1990 restructuring of the British Army on the basis that the end of the Cold War removed the need for a large standing force as we would never need to worry about a war in Europe again. Yep.

So, we previously covered what has changed in the new WW3:British Book. But how does that impact list building?

Let’s look at two of the lists I run, plus a third option. I’m going to have to make some assumptions on dynamic points (we never get those in advance) so we may need to adjust this article in the future. I’ll add footnotes where I do that.

1980’s 4th Armoured Division

Prior to the update, my standard 100pt list for 1980’s revolved around the constituent units of 11th Armoured Brigade, 4th Armoured Division, combing a Chieftain demi-squadron from the brigades armoured regiment, 3RTR (shock!) with a FV432 Mechanised Rifle Company from the Green Jackets.

1985 feels too early for either Milan 2 or TOW 2 in British inventory (leave a comment below if you know otherwise!) and Mike’s Soviets and Eddie’s or Duncan’s WARSAW pact don’t really drive a need for that level of firepower. Similarly, LAW80 is a bit out of period and the Charlie G is more than fine. WRAP2 is right out on the FV432!

But there are some things that appeal to me from the new book additions; Towed Rapier and Gazelles!

The Towed Rapier is 4pts for four in the book, versus the Tracked Rapier’s 6pts for four that goes to 12pts in Dynamic. I’m assuming the Towed Rapiers will also double in dynamic, so call that 8pts. I trade away a shot a piece, plus mobility and armour. But the Rapiers can counter-attack and hit (on 4s) in Assault (top quality Sterling SMG action on the crews part) so are better for holding ground.

That also frees up the points I need for a pair of Gazelles. I’ll need to put the Lynx into a four-ship flight, which is less flexible than I’d like, but the Gazelles can harass advancing infantry and BMD, BMP or BTR with the SNEBS and GPMG whilst also preventing ambushes if I need to attack.

1990’s Operation Granby

A while ago I started a Operation Granby themed British force for Team Yankee and ran into a problem. Well two.

• Challengers were expensive to the point of almost being unfieldable
• SLR infantry just aren’t right.

The first problem was partly cured by Dynamic. Challengers are still pricey. Especially if you are running ROMOR for no reason other than they were so equipped, because only the HOT missiles or Hind’s can really scare even a baseline Challenger.

The second problem is cured by the new plastics. I had backed a recent kickstarter for some 3D sculpts but never could budget for a decent resin printer. This largely resolves that. Now I can have L85 and LAW80 armed infantry to ride in the existing Warriors.

Looking at 1991 level kit (so Milan 2 and uparmoured vehicles) gives us:

Points go quick with the Warriors and that’s even with just sticking to period correct Appliqué, not WRAP2! Milan 2 and ROMOR are all arguably overkill vs anything Iraq (or Duncan’s Iranians) can throw at me and I could save 11 points just by downgrading to Milan 1 and Challenger, but that’s not how things played out! Largely, the important part of “overkill” is *kill*.

Honourable mention should go to the new AT box in the force diagram which would let me take a troop of Strikers! No points to spare sadly, but I may still get some as they look cool in Desert Storm trim the the rocket pod stowage bins!

UPDATE – Op Telic!

Dynamic has gone live to make Challenger 2 a bit easier to shoehorn in the list and my two-player starter has arrived.

On that basis, lets take a quick look at a 2003 “Basra or Bust” list, building the the list above, but incorporating Challenger 2.

Again, Challenger with CAM is totally overkill vs anything the Iraqi’s can chuck at me, but I’m compelling myself to stick to theme. The Tracked Rapier is replaced by a quartet of Starstreak HVM which does almost a good a job as the larger system, though we will see how much I miss FP3+… The Challenger aren’t quite a one drop reserve so they need to be joined by either the Starstreak or, if the enemy has an air element, the HQ and Scimitar!

I also swapped out the Mortars and MCT for some M109 to give a big boost to the bombardment power.

1982 Operation Corporate

Finally, let’s take a look at a good, non-contentious subject, the Falkands! The new big goes full tactical ‘tache and puts in a very early 80’s themed Royal Marine force and has a box set to support it! Mike and I were talking through the idea of doing some Falklands games and we agreed that keeping to 50pt games would keep the action nicely focused on the infantry and the boxset plays nicely into that.

As it comes, the Commando box builds:

That’s not a bad start. I probably would have preferred having just three field guns and making the mortar battery a full six gun battery as its easier to add the three guns than two mortars, but its a decent core. Probably one of the priciest 38 points at £110 for the box but at least its not Polish SKOT transports!

Okay, we have 13 points left, so what to buy?

A Rapier Battery will compliment the Blowpipe and is quintessentially Falklands War (as is massively bolstering its success rate in the reports…). We are using book points for the Barn games so that takes 4pts off.

A flight of Gazelle with rocket pods reflects the fact that its SNEB rockets were a Falklands driven wartime fit! We’ll go with just two for now as I want to squeeze in one last thing… a flight of Harrier GR3! Battlefront have a new plastic GR3 kit coming with the British book, complete with the long Marked Target Seeker nose! BL755 wasn’t used in the conflict so we may house rule some 1000lb using the Kiwi A4 “bombs” stat line.

That leaves us with:

Not bad. I’m going to be getting a box of the Commandos but I’ll likely be taking point on the Argentinian Marine Rifle Company box to make sure we have somebody to hold the ridgeline!