Warriors of the Night: British Commandos (Part 1)

Today we have the first article from new writer Stuart King, hailing from the US of A  (as the spelling of ‘defence’ would no doubt reveal).

Hello all! Stuart here to show you my newest project: British Commandos.

As someone who takes pride in playing a variety of lists, I have found myself falling behind in sampling new things. Having played basically nothing but Germans for the last year, I wasn’t getting as much exposure as I’d like, so, I recently decided to tackle the one type of list I haven’t dabbled in at all; infantry.

First, I went with Always Defends Italians and enjoyed them mightily. The only logical next step was to go with an infantry force that attacks. Two came to mind; Hero Red Banner Strelkovy and British Infantry. Bouncing back and forth between the two, I finally settled on Brits for a few reasons that I will explain a little below. First, the list:

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With a tournament in the new year on my mind, I built this list to its 1750 point standard.

Meat: I like Commandos, specifically Nachtjager Commandos, for a number of reasons. Firstly, and most importantly British Night Attack rules. What makes that really great is in Nachtjager, FV Commandos gain German Mission Tactics, hit on 2+ in assaults, are mountaineers, AND keep British Bulldog unlike in other books. Couple that with a Panzerfaust on the command stands and you have some really killy troops! I brought 3 platoons because I feel like this list needs to be able to push in numerous places on the attack, and have depth in the defense.

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Potatoes: Artillery. You’re not playing the Allies right if you aren’t taking advantage of their artillery rules. The Americans and British do Arty better than anyone, and that’s reflected in my list. I ‘could’ have gone cheaper and left out the 5.5 battery in favor of some other choices, but I really needed something in this list that can hurt tanks in bombardment, and also dig out infantry. Being able to combine the bombardment with the 25pdrs, I can lay down some hurt on enemy in their foxholes, or on some tanks that get a little froggy and try and bring the fight to me. In defense, you’ll see these 25pdrs being my main AT asset as they can use turntables to make sure they are always throwing out 2 shots.

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Garnish: COMETS! Ok, Ok. I hear ya! Comets are overpriced, they are only Front Armour 7. While true, this is a “Rule of Cool” choice. I’m bringing them because they are sexy. BUT, to help justify that we can’t forget that these are still Light Tanks that are Anti-tank 14 with Semi-Indirect Fire and Protected Ammo. Being able to move into a favorable position under cover of night before opening up will increase their survivability. More often, these are a platoon that comes out of reserve to help scare away the German Cats pressuring my Commandos.

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It may be over priced, and frankly under-armoured, but its still a sexy, sexy beast – Lee

Army Progress:

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Army Based and Primed (Not pictured: Artillery Crew and Arty HQ)

With the aforementioned event over a month away, I have more than enough time to finish this army and intend to spend some time making it look really spectacular. I’m going to use the BattleFront Rural Bases for the first time as well, so am painting the infantry off stands. A quick brown primer to help cover the infantry and pumice on the artillery bases, and then Firefly Green on the Comets. Also, for the keen eyed, these are not the normal Commando Figures. I went with a regular plastic British Rifle Company (Best plastic infantry I’ve seen BF make so far*) so that I could use these models in a variety of armies in the future.

For anyone on the fence, get the British Rifle Company plastics. They are, in my opinion, the most detailed box of infantry BF has released and come with enough models for an entire company with extras. It’s a phenomenal kit.

Well, that’s all for today. Keep an eye out for Part 2 in the near future after I’ve gotten some paint on the army!

 

 

 

2 thoughts on “Warriors of the Night: British Commandos (Part 1)

  1. Welcome Stuart, it’s nice to see an article about commandos, thanks a lot for your first post, I hope to hear more about them (maybe a tactica when you feel comfortable with the army?)!

    1. Absolutely! I’m thinking of doing just that after I finish painting them up. Maybe a tactica after a practice game or two before I take them to the tournament? We will see! Thanks for the comment and look out for part 2 in the near future!

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