Mid War Panzers

With the Eastern Front book now being released I thought I’d talk about the one list I wished worked but I struggle to find anything which fits in its points bracket – Mittlere Panzers.

Whenever I read the briefing I think to myself – yes! You can get a tank with direct smoke, you can get one with decent(ish) AT, you can get cheap and cheerful ones to fill out the numbers – oh wait – they’re not cheap!

And that’s the problem, even going for a platoon with no frills it still sets you back 360 points, (for 4) and as I keep finding out that leaves precious little points for support. And when you consider the hoard of T34/Stuart’s/Grants/Sherman’s (or red on red tigers and panthers) there is a real question about how can you survive the hits, and deal out damage in return – let alone attack an infantry army backed up with AT guns like Pak40’s or 6pdrs.

So what’s the plan? Well 3 units only… Why’s that you may ask – kampfgruppe – I think you need two platoons with a tank from each helping out the 2IC – my favourite here is the Panzer 3 E/F1 with DFS and arty mode, they make a great small platoon, you only need three, and they’ll either pin for an assault or smoke a KV

The only non panzer platoon is recce, you need this vs infantry – (though you can panzer up with panzer 2’s)My favourite is the panhard, love the model and the ability to hit the flanks with AT6 – there’s also always something cool about captured vehicles!

So back to the combat platoons, now I always try and make them identical – just because I then need to remember less in the game! I firstly want some ‘good’ AT – now the best here is 11, so let’s get two there, I’m opting for the panzer 4 F2/G over the G (late) firstly I don’t have the extra points for FA6, and secondly I like a wall of FA5 – I don’t but I really am trying to be positive!Now I want a way to deal with heavy tanks like panthers etc, so the best option I think is the Stuka, the G, with 3+ to hit AT11 cannons is I think a bargain, and even Tigers and KV’s have to notice it – as it’s important to the mission I’m also going for priority.

This leaves a handful of points left, (35) I’ve upgraded another tank to a E/F1 – no for bigger bombardment – but for more FP3+ vs gun teams, and more DFS!

So there you have it – I really want to try this army, as I love the look, but every time I’ve played against MW panzers they evaporate – I just hope the smoke helps!