“Your task will not be an easy one.
Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle-hardened.
He will fight savagely”.
– General Dwight Eisenhower (6th June 1944)
Today, Duncan looks at V4 Late War Tournament prep and beute love.
Preamble
I have a confession to make…
Late War V4 has passed me by since the release of the new rules set. There I’ve said it. More than 12 long months of no 21st Panzer Division and any real Normandy battles. The initial V4 release brought my attention back to one of my favourite theatres – North Africa – but now my covetous eye has been drawn back around to the awe-inspiring battles of the Bocage; as usual, the catalyst is a tournament…
Tournament Prep
I think that I am not alone in saying that deadlines help me focus on completing painting projects – I’m not a slow painter but I find that getting over the cursed painters block can be troublesome at times and the looming deadline of absolutely *having* to get things done pushes me on to complete units and armies.
I’ve not really considered LW as a theatre since the V4 release – mainly due to Hobby Magpie Syndrome – so when Ben said that he and Fez were off to the new, shiny Entoyment store to take part in a small 1550pts LW event I thought I’d gatecrash with my beloved 21st Panzer Division.
Grabbing my copy of Atlantik Wall and the Latest Lessons from the Front I started to ponder the various options available to me and I came to a stark revelation; like Oliver Twist – I wanted more! The issue is not that I don’t have a sizeable force of delightful beute vehicles but that some of the formations needed tweaking and also my army was optimised for the previous *standard* of 1420pts; with the rebate for reluctant teams, I was looking at a 150pts – 200pts shortfall in troops. Unacceptable.
Fortunately, the Prepper in me had purchased three Lorraine Schleppers, before the V4 reboxing, and the wonderful Lorraine Schlepper OP so I set about those to start with. Three 10.5cm guns are very useful, as it always has been, giving you a full template of artillery without having to pay for the 4th gun and thus saving a few points, but with the rebate, for redundant teams, this unit is a steal at 170pts and allows you to get the armoured OP as well.
Next thought was 2 full platoons of Grenadiers… is that enough? No. No, it is not. With the changes to V4 regarding infantry and gun teams rerolling saves against already ranged in artillery I’m not hopeful that I can cover all my proverbial bases with just the 2 units but with the full platoon of Confident Veterans rocking in at 190pts with the compulsory SMG/Panzerfaust command team including a 3rd platoon was going to be tricky! So I compromised. I compromised hard.
The 16th Luftwaffe Field Division bravely defend Caan during the Normandy battles and replaced the 21st Panzer in the line occupying the terrain directly in front of the battered veterans; so I thought thematically they would fit and also as they are Reluctant Trained would be cheap as chips. I managed to get hold of a platoon pack of the Hermann Göring Panzer Grenadiers (these are the recommended unit to use for Field Division Troops) and they are next on the painting table.
For the drop down, drag out, bargain basement cost of 95pts you get six RT Rifle/MG stands and an SMG/Panzerknacker command team. Like I said cheap as chips but in every conceivable way inferior to the 21st Panzer Grenadiers but quality does have a quantity all of its own. I’m not expecting much from this unit – babysitting an objective is probably the limit of its capabilities but that does mean that my vets are freed up from having to do that themselves. We’ll see how well that turns out on the table top because as history tells us it certainly didn’t work well in 1944.
Finally my beloved S307(f) R-Vielfachwerfer and S307(f) Reihenwerfer units – my how V4 has changed you! I used to run two platoons each of two S307(f) Reihenwerfer multiple 8cm mortars as they were immense at consistently pinning infantry and putting down smoke; which in V3 was extremely important. With the changes to smoke and the way that rocket (the multiple mortars use the V4 rocket rules) units use the “counts as…” stat line I’m really on the fence with how to use them.
In essence, the two S307(f) Reihenwerfer units would mean that I would be rerolling any hits that I score as the “counts as…” stat is taken only into account in the size of the template now and so they only count the two models and therefore re-roll. However, you only get one smoke mission per platoon now. So if I were to consolidate my two platoons of two into a bigger platoon of four, giving me back my consistent pinning capability, then I only get the one smoke volley. Decisions, decisions… I will definitely be including these models, for one they are iconic of the work of Major Alfred Becker, but also they are still brilliant for their cost I’m just unsure as to which version is better; two-two or four-one.
The S307(f) R-Vielfachwerfer is an entirely different proposition. With its extra crew option, you get to use the 12” by 12” salvo template… that is awesome. The drawback again is the rerolling hits for only having a two-gun battery. This is what kills it for me. Yes, that template means you will be rolling to hit potentially a tonne of stuff but rerolling to hit and a firepower of just 6+ means against traditional artillery targets you just won’t be shifting anything dug in. It’s a shame that the S307(f) R-Vielfachwerfer is a bit out of place now – the S307(f) Reihenwerfer can go to four guns and comes in the weapons platoons slot and the 10.5cm (Sf) Lorraine Schlepper is only 60pts more and has a much better chance of digging out stuff indirectly AND can also fire smoke.
Conclusion
As you can see I am still wrestling with my list and some of the units that I did take and might not now but that is fine. I hope to do another article with the final 1550pts laid out and my reasoning behind each choice but until then I’m going to channel this indecision into getting more beute and Luftwaffe tabletop ready.