Pacific Australians – G’day All

Martin here continuing our coverage with a look at another “new” Nation properly introduced in Pacific.

Unlike in the Desert Campaign where it is just a few Command Cards applied to the British Force this time Australia has its own complete Army section. With all the usual Battlefront features; History, Operational Background, Nation specific equipment and their own Special Rules and importantly its own Force Diagram. Complete with 6 not quite unique Australian Formations to choose from as well as its own Force Support options.

We get 3 Infantry Formations comprising Regular Rifles, Malitia Rifles and Commando Formations and 3 Tank Formations with Grants, Honeys and the AC1 Cruiser Sentinel but sadly no Matilda II (perhaps we will get an extra pdf list when the Early War British are released).

I’ll start with the Infantry and then talk about the tanks and finally a bit of list building and my take on how they might fare in a general Mid War open setting.

Australian Infantry

Now don’t get too excited here the Australians are a Commonwealth country and as such still follow well known and tried and trusted British Army organisation model but, there are some distinctly Australian modifications within the platoon structures if not the overall Formation. The one noticable Formation difference is that the Australians can utilise infantry scout platoons within their Rifle Formations in place of one of the Universal Carrier Patrols a more suitable option in dense jungle terrain.

Standard Australian Rifle platoons comprise 7 stands of Rifle/MG teams with the option of adding a Boyz AT Rifle and 2″ Light mortar team offering a bit more customization as well as points flexibility than with the Desert Rifle platoons. The Boyz may well prove to be a very rarely seen weapon in Australian hands. Leaving the small based teams out enables you to field all three 7 team platoons for the cost of two more classicly organised 9 team ones.

The option to field one of your Universal Carrier Scout patrols dismounted is an interesting twist and provides some scouting infantry ideal for use in heavily terrained jungle themed tables. They aren’t quite as good in the Assault (they still hit on a 4+) as regular riflemen but being all Bren Gun teams does mean they offer considreable amounts of anti-infantry fire power and may be a real option for a third or fourth infantry platoon.

The one draw back in the Australian Rifle Companies is they don’t have the option to include 6pdr anti-tank guns being only equipped with the 2pdr which is a slight drawback in an open gaming environment. Not an issue versus Japanes tanks.

The Militia Formations are essentially the same as the Regulars without the Dismounted Carrier platoon option. They come as slightly lower quality troops being Trained and Agressive but have an accompanying points reduction as a result. Essentially you can field 3 Militia platoons for the cost of 2 regular platoons, and when facing the Japanese with their potent Banzai charge more platoons might prove to be very beneficial.

The Independant Commando Formation allows us to field up to 8 Commando sections and 1 Commando Scout section. Lacking any integral support weapons this is an out and out hand to hand attacking formation and will make a good second formation choice for combining with one of the Tank Formations. A mere 23 points will get you 3 platoons of Commandos and an HQ leaving more than enough for a tank Formation and possibly some 25pdr artillery. You get the option of swapping up to 2 of the Rifle/MG teams for Owen SMG armed teams and to add a Flame Thrower Team offering a way to boost their fire power and size, a useful feature and helped by the points saving on not having compulsory AT/mortar teams.

Australian Armour

So what about the Armoured options, well here we get a standard Grant Formation of HQ plus 3 troops one of which you can swap for Stuarts, platoon sizes follow the British model of 3 tanks per troop. A full Formation will cost you up to 76 points. This is mirrored with the Stuart Formation this time its 4 troops again one of which can be swapped for Grants. A Stuart Formation with a platoon of Grants is probably the best build option at 49 points vs the Japanese. One change from the exiting vehicle rules is that the Stuart in the Pacific comes equipped with canniser shot giving it a mighty ROF6 principally for defensive fire, its only AT1 FP6 with Range 8″ (20cm) so is limited in use otherwise and as it has a +1 to hit penalty when moving, the extra shot over the regular MG option is not worth using in other circumstances.

Lastly we have the AC1 Sentinal Cruiser Tank Formation, this follows in the “might have been” category of tanks. These were produced but never saw active service outside Australia. It comes in both a 2pdr armed 6pdr and 25pdr armed varient and overall this is actually quite a good tank with FA6, SA5 as well as decent mobility. Your HQ is 2pdr armed only but the rest of the troops can field a mix of any or all of the options, the low MG count and no HE making it poor versus infantry is its only real gaming drawback, especially against the Japanese. In an open setting these tanks could prove a potent counter to almost anyone elses medium armoured options and being almost as potent as a MW Sheman.

Overall the Australians offer a viable option for armoured warfare but nothing overly exciting or new. Lastly on armour we have been sent a Dynamic Points update for the Pacific Forces and like the other Nations Forces you will get a small points decrease for the Medium tanks (Grant and Sentinel) and the mirroring increases for the Light tanks (Stuart and Unversal Carrier). This has a minimal difference to the Australians overall and doesn’t really change my view on them.

Support

This follows the standard Bitish layout just with a lot fewer options, an infantry observer makes a sensible choice rather than one in a tank. There is an option to field your Bofors Light AA as either Regular or Militia troops. Overall your only likely to want some 25pdr guns and an Observer from this section of the Force diagram so, you should maximise your points spend on your Formation.

Command Cards

Austrlian have a small selection of Command Cards all of their own. Most of these are either the generic Lucky or Soft Skinned transport or ones we have seen before. Whilst some of these are genuinely useful like a PIAT upgrade for your boyz anti-tank rifles for open play most are a bit more situational. Two of the more interesting are Local Porters which can make your infantry very rapid moving giving them a potential Terrain Dash movement rate of upto 20″ inches ” (50cm) (comprising 12″ (30cm) Dash+4″ (10cm).

The Short 25pdr Field Troop represents the stripped down gun used in the jungle, this looses some of its benefits in direct fire and durability, no gun shield but is more mobile and has just as powerful artillery bombardment and AT6 will still deal with any Japanese tanks easily enough with FP3+, plus you get a small points break. This makes a nice modelling option to create a really thematic force.

My thoughts on list building

My Force build to start the Australian journey is below. It covers all the bases and has plenty of troops and two five platoon Formations so, should be hard to break. The Japanese will have to play well and capture objectives to defeat me in the Pacific. Overall they will should hold up reasonably well in the Desert theatre against the Axis allies but in Blue on Blue it could be a more tricky against some armoured Force builds. Against the Eastern Front Lists Australians may struggle in general on their own with low AT. I don’t fancy them vs Soviet or German Heavy Armour. The only draw back in the release is as far as we are aware at present there is no starter army set for the Australians and the British one contains 6pdr AT guns which the Australians don’t have being purely equipped with 2pdr guns. Making it a full RRP (or your LFGS discount pricing) army to collect, making them maybe an expensive option – though if you can get 2pdr gun sprues separately the British Starter could be worth picking up.

• Stuart Armoured squadron
• HQ Troop of 4 tanks
• 3x Stuart Platoons
• 1x Grant Platoon
• Commando Independant Company
• HQ
• 3x Commando Sections with 2″ mortar team and 2 Owen SMG teams.
• Commando Scout Section with 2 Owen SMG teams
• Infantry Observer
• 25pdr Troop

Well that’s my brief tour through the all new Australian Force from Pacific. Overall l’m looking forward to seeing these on the table top in the nearish future and seeing how they go. Martin