Friday 12 October 2012

A Tale of Two Winter Gamers : 25th Panzergrenadierkompanie

So the question you may ask is why out of all the axis bulge lists I chose this one? Well firstly the deal was it had to be a bulge list, sounds obvious but other axis lists had been tempting me.

For my allies I can do infantry, recon and armour, so mechanised infantry seemed the gap to tackle, I also thought basing the infantry in snow would be more fun than constant white wash on tanks.

 The next consideration was list flexibility. The nice thing about panzer grens is that you can change a few support choices and do lists from most books in LW, again a bonus, as they could then be fighting in the snow on the Eastern front, or the freak snow in Normandy, the low countries and Italy lol!

 The other thought was of course money! I've some Germans coming from 'open fire' and they seemed a good choice of model to form the core of the army with trucks - but maybe half tracks in other lists.

I'm also keen on panthers as support, so with little money added I'll be able to do a German armoured list.

So with the above in mind I started with my two compulsory choice + HQ I'm going to mount them in trucks too for some added manoeuvrability.
 I also like the idea of them moving up with at least some company support, so I'll also be getting the Heavy Platoon, with HMG's and mortars for added firepower and help pinning/smoke.

The next option are Panthers, I like the idea of these being able to sit and shoot from a distance but also take any incoming heavy fire away from the advancing grenadiers. Due to having 2 armour slots I'll take two sets of 2.

Next some AAA, the obvious choice here is the triple 15mm mainly as they're a compulsory choice in quite a few lists from BGG so should be good giving air cover, and also hit infantry if needed.

Finally I need a little recon to lift GtG, the 8-rads are cheap so I'll take them to help with that.

 So there we have it, 6 platoons, it's small being a CV list, but the infantry have a heck of a lot of anti infantry and anti tank fire on board, add into that the panthers for more anti tank I feel quite hopeful. I would have liked a little artillery, but I think getting everything in a German list is quite difficult, and I think due to the sheer number of options available in this list it may well have more options available later!

And finally as I read up on the 25th Panzergrenadier Division and Nordwind, I noticed that they were originally an infantry division of Swabians and Bavarians. My lovely girlfriend is Swabian, and I frequently head over there, so that made the choice even more fitting.


 Ic and 2IC - kublewagons
 Panzer grenadier 3 sections all PF/MG with trucks 
Panzer grenadier 3 sections all PF/MG with trucks 
 Panzer grenadier Heavy Platoon 2 sections HMG and  1 mortar section with trucks 
2 Panthers 
2 Panthers 
3 KFz triple's 
2 8-rad

4 comments:

  1. I'll be following how you get on with this force closely.
    Do you plan to actively make use of the trucks?

    I have often looked at the trucked PG lists but have an experience of getting my halftracks badly shot up (and they're armoured), never mind using trucks, which anything can kill!

    Best of luck with them.

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  2. Great write up. Can't wait to get this started, come on November!

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  3. I think the trucks are going to be very vulnerable! I had hoped to get more smoke, but in the end it came down to either Nebs or the mortars, and the at least get one extra attempt to range in on Ben's Vets.

    I think there will be a lot of praying I get the storm trooper move off so they dismount effectively.

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    Replies
    1. Trucks will be vulnerable no doubt...

      The problem I have found with smoke, is the rules mechanism, forces you to commit to the move, and them hope your smoke ranges in, which I think is a serious flaw in the rules... If smoke fails to range in you are left exactly where the enemy wanted you - exposed in the open... not good! I think you should be able to fire a smoke bombardment First then move, if it materialises...

      Good luck on hoping you get the stormtrooper dice... the addition of a hero who gives a stormtrooper on a 2+ could be useful... if one is available for your force?

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