Digesting LW Dynamic Points

For any readers who haven’t been tracking on social media, Battlefront have released draft Dynamic Points for Late War (located here). These aim to fix some of the balance issues in LW, or in Battlefront’s words ‘we have noticed that generally the current points are working well, but there have been a few areas of interest that we thought were worth another look‘.

The points will be open to feedback until 11 Dec using the form here. I encourage everyone to do it and also don’t be afraid to use the free text box to highlight anything you think is missing.

I would also add that whatever is right or wrong in these DPs its great that BF are developing and supporting the game. This process is becoming more common in non GW wargames ( its business as usual if you play GW) and it takes time an effort from the developers, so thank you.

With that laid out I wanted to give my take on the draft points and highlight some winners and losers and fundamentally look at whether this ‘fixes’ anything.

The issue

Late War is a complex beast, with many more options than MW (and Team Yankee) and, thanks to integrated AT options, a different balance between infantry and tank force (ie Infantry isn’t as helpless). It also has a lot more special rules and in general is more open to competitive list abuse. The period also covers a lot of campaigns and moves into what is often called late late war where the options tend to eclipse those of the earlier DDay offerings. It has become increasing obvious to TOs and FOW followers that Late War had some key balancing issues. I would summarise these as:

1. Expensive Soviet units which struggle in the meta (with some exceptions such as Red Banner inf).
2. Berlin Germany competitive dominance with a combination of well priced units and fantastic force structure and support options.
3. Overly cheap poor quality gun lines eg 6 x Reluctant Aggressive Pak40s, 88s or Pak43s.
4. Cheap KTs being a go to option especially in inf armies as a almost 1 drop reserve (mobile bunker that is virtually unkillable in experienced hands).
5. Cheap ‘chaff’ units creating spam (similar to MW pre DP).
6. Not seeing more common units such as PZIVs, Brit Shermans etc.

Are the issues addressed?

I am going to be honest and say it’s a mixed bag. Definitely a step in the right direction and better than before, however it misses the opportunity to address many issues and makes some puzzling changes to a few units that didn’t help. That said, DP in MW took a few years to get into the good state it is now, so the assumption is that this is a ‘journey’ and areas not addressed now will be in future years. Let’s look back at our previous 6 areas.

1. Soviets – Good point drops on a range of SPGs and tanks. T34s more useable and SU100s and ISUs will now see the table. Very surprising (and a missed opportunity) not to align Soviet infantry companies (ie non heros) to MW DP values. The (large) drops to some German units (especially PZIV/70s and panthers) somewhat negate a lot of these Soviet point drops.
2. Berlin German is still amazing. With no changes to infantry or guns the Berlin battlegroup is still a stella list. Light vehicles went up (good) but the drop to the cost of supporting units such as Reluctant Vet Cautious Panthers means the lists will be loosely the same but with a bit different support – A step in the right direction though.
3. No change to Reluctant guns. A drop on the cost of medium armour on one hand has a passive effect reducing their value, but on the other hand means they have better targets to gain their cost back against; it’s more effective for a Reluctant 88 to be lazer beaming a Sherman or T34 than a Daimler or Stummel.
4. I was very surprised not to see King Tigers go up. As formation support they are superb mixed with Axis allies or Berlin inf/Armoured inf. The fact that you see them riding so high and the very limited options to counter them (when they are defending) suggested they might have been hit. Perhaps a missed opportunity.
5. As a rule of thumb units such as Drillings, Stummels and Recce went up 33%. This is a good thing. I would argue that it was a little light in some areas, for instance I still think 2pts per Stummel (ie 50% rise) is more than reasonable but it will make people think more about them. The wide issue links back to point 2 whereby the points drop of other German heavies often cancels this out.
6. Seeing more ‘generic’ tanks – Definitely addressed with T34, PanzerIV, Stug, and Sherman getting a drop. Comets and Cromwells (well, some of them) also went down, which also make sense. I’ll be honest I still wouldn’t run Cromwells or British Shermans (just outshined by the US options to be honest) from a competitive POV but it’s a move in the right direction.

So overall, I would call it a mixed bag, but definitely I step in the right direction. Feedback could alter some of these changes, and for me the biggest thing is to address the German Berlin pts drops and the rise of the 5.3pt FA10 Panther (brigade Panther drop was extreme!).

Some examples

The Soviets did well, let’s look at a few forces.

T34 (85mm) Book Points

vs Dynamic Points

Hq 1 x T34 (85mm) 4pts (-1)
8 x T34 (85mm) 30pts (-4)
8 x T34 (85mm) 30pts (-4)
6 x 82mm mortars 4pts (same)
Hero SMG Company 7pts (same)
Hero BA64 Platoon 4pts (+1)
Hero SU76 Platoon 9pts (-3)
4 x 160mm mortars (same).

That’s a 11pt saving vs book points, interestingly you get more of a saving with the mixed T34 Formation

Hq 1 x T34 (85mm) 4pts (-1)
8 x T35 76mm with 4 upgraded to 85mm 26pts (-6)
8 x T35 76mm with 4 upgraded to 85mm 26pts (-6)
6 x 82mm mortars 4pts (same)
Hero SMG Company 7pts (same)
Hero BA64 Platoon 4pts (+1)
Hero SU76 Platoon 9pts (-3)
4 x 160mm mortars (same)
Here you get a 15pt saving (previously this was 99pts). By changing the hero SU76s to 122mm guns and the Hero BA64s to vanilla, you can squeeze in 4 x SU100s and a total 20pt saving vs book points.

Equally this is looking better from a Hero Soviet perspective at 100pts

1 x hero T34 85mm 4pts (-1)
4 x hero T34 (85mm) 16pts (-2)
4 x hero T34 (85mm) 16pts (-2)
4 x hero T34 (85mm) 16pts (-2)
6 x 82mm mortars 4pts (same)
Hero SMG Company 7pts (same)
4 x Su100 17pts (-8)
3 x IS85 19pts (-5)
Make your own luck 1pt

That’s a saving of 20pts which is pretty significant. I am not saying this is as good as the Germans or a meta busting list but it has an answer to most things, with 10 medium tanks, 3 assault tanks, a template, and 4 x lazer beam high AT shots. I still think if you gave LW Soviets smoke as other nations, these points and the soviets in general would be pretty spot on.

The Germans

Here is a no thrills Panzer Battlegroup in book points. Its units are cautious (so important) vets but reluctant. They lack artillery and will be minced by infantry armies defending.

Now with DPs…

1 x Battle Group Panther 7Pts (-2)
3 Battle Group Panther 20pts (-7)
3 Battle Group Panther 20pts (-7)
3 Clausewitx PZIV/70 14pts (-7)
Battlegroup Escort Platoon 10pts (same)
Sd Kfz 250 Scout Platoon 4pts (+1)
3 x Sd Kfz 251 Triple AA 4pts (+1)

That’s a saving of 21pts (!) and Cautious Late Panthers weren’t in a bad place before (Earlier cautious ones in DDay were). lets ‘fix’ this list by taking it with the Bulge book to allow

4 x Volks 10.5cm Guns (with 7.5cm Card making them bombarding Pak40s) 7pts (Same)
4 x Volks 10.5cm Guns (with 7.5cm Card making them bombarding Pak40s) 7pts (Same)
Add 1 x Panther to the HQ 7pts (-2).

Here my total saving is more than the Soviets!

I am not going to do an armoured infantry example because the rise in Stummels and AA halftracks will just get more than cancelled by taking some Panthers, PZIV/70 or Jagpanthers (even Hezters) as support due to the savings. Equally, it will just lead to Berlin Battlegroup being even more popular to mix with tanks.

I am also not going to do examples for other nations as the changes to Brits and US are quite minimal (ie it might buy you an extra Sherman in an army). It’s a real shame Churchills weren’t reduced, as they really struggle in the Late, late War environment.

Axis Allies had a winner with Hungarian tanks going down and definitely more playable now, however beyond StuGs, Romanians didn’t get any love, and it’s a shame their PZIVs weren’t shown some love.

Summing up

LW DP is a step forward, the ‘outcry’ by the community already about the German point drops being so big (some early Panthers did need it) I hope will be heard (submit those questionnaires). If not, we will have an odd situation where DP was kind of meant to stop German dominance and actually made them better! Ironically, German units that now don’t get seen in Late, late War e.g. D Day Tigers didn’t get any love. That said, there are some welcome changes for Soviets, although imho still not enough to mitigate being aggressive and having no smoke when closing with the enemy.

There are lots of other changes I wish had been in DP and I cross my fingers for next year but if I could have one extra thing it would be the Soviet ‘blob’ infantry points adjusted (especially given the Polish infantry seemingly pointed in MW alignment).

Finally, a big thank you to BF for continuing to support and develop the game.