It’s been a few months since the Bulge compilations came out and on the weekend of the 10th of December 2016 Adam organised a themed tournament. In the background as a side project I worked on an army for the event and the Bulge period in general as I don’t have any lists from these books.
I wanted something a bit different, that I could put together easily and even use some of my existing collection with and so I went for a German list… but then threw some Americans in going for an Operation Griffin 150. Panzerbrigade Kampfgruppe!
With captured vehicles, disguised tanks, recce and assault infantry backed up by German Guns and Skorzeny Commandos the only real deficiency in the list is the lack of smoke the company provides. Though of course Version 4 will allow you to mitigate this!
The HQ, Panthers, Stugs, Infantry and M8s are all disguised in their vehicles and form the bulk of the company. The PAKs are there to provide some support on defense and the mortars are in there for the pin and to lash out at enemy artillery when the real fighting starts.
The commando teams can play havoc with enemy reserves and ambushes if used right and pin backfield units too. If they’re deployed and moved right they’ll do their job and or bait command teams into the open for the rest of the army to shoot at! In a defensive battle if left alone they can stop an opponent getting any reserves… yes i know there might be several Patton Clones out there meaning i’m defending… but I can’t do much about that!
I’ve found a new favorite fiddliest bit to glue on the Ersatz Panthers! The bar behind the turret! you’ll be picking superglue off your fingers after those, but all the models I used for this list were good. Almost all are Battlefront, but I had some Plastic Soldier Company M3 halftracks laying around so used them. I had the German Infantry so just needed to add some mortars making that painted collection a little larger.
I used this list to the best of my ability at the event but even though I was the only Axis player to take points from the top two allied players who otherwise ran away with 6-1 scores in the rest of their games… I couldn’t build on those points to and get wins to get into top Axis spot. I played five allied infantry companies in various forms, most of which were veteran, so I struggled at times to make an impact but the event at Entoyment was fantastic.
Anyone who likes the look of this and has another Bulge list doesn’t need the full army! How does adding some Panthers and armoured Infantry or Stuggs that have to be identified before they can be shot at to a list along with a couple of commando teams and an HQ you can hide easily in V4? It makes an interesting side project.
Happy hobby everyone!
Jersey
Great looking army! But as a fellow 150 PzBrigade player, did you know your list was not legal? You must have at least one combat platoon that is SS which means you have to take at least one combat platoon of SS jaeger or fallschirmkommando. It would be an easy fix by dropping your halftracks and counting that infantry platoon as an SS platoon.
Unfortunately he is right. I play this list too, and you do need one unit of SS. I use captured trucks to move them about the table. Still fits nicely in the theme.
I’d never seen that before, it’s strange there isn’t a separate box for the infantry if it’s compulsory!
I don’t think I ever used the Halftracks anyway! Jersey
Really – that’s not mentioned in forces, or in the book on page 77 with the forces rules.
It’s on pg 80 where it tells you how to pick a force. I have seen this mistake over and over, and even a Bf staffer got it wrong when making the army for a website spotlight when it was first released, lol.
It would be so much easier if they just made the first compulsory box a choice of either SS infantry unit only.