Preparing For Tournament - British Paras

OK so getting my Para's ready for the Breakthrough Assault Tournament in a week...

See I'd been playing them for a while and thought I knew what I needed.

1) Core Choices (obvious I know)
2) Frost - I love the 2+ motivation, the bonus immediate ambush and also his rules for keeping guns alive more.
3) Smoke - as much smoke as possible
4) Airlanding battery with medium support - great weapon to pop smoke, and also when you get the second hit, FP2+ AT5, + re roll saves...
5) An even number of platoons, I'm usually defending so it makes sense.

So I kept playing with this

Platoon	Qty	Unit	Points
Headquarters
Parachute Company HQ  p.15	2 3 1	Cmd SMG team PIAT team Warrior and Higher Command team Lt Col John Frost	190
Combat Platoons
Parachute Platoon  p.16	1 1 6	Cmd Rifle/MG team PIAT team Rifle/MG team	230
Parachute Platoon  p.16	1 1 6	Cmd Rifle/MG team PIAT team Rifle/MG team	230
Weapons Platoons
Parachute Machine-gun Platoon  p.17	1 4	Cmd Rifle team Vickers HMG (no bombardment)	160
Divisional Support
Airlanding Heavy Anti-tank Platoon  p.26	1 4	Cmd Rifle team OQF 17 pdr gun	265
Airlanding Anti-tank Platoon  p.21	1 4	Cmd Rifle team OQF 6 pdr gun	160
Airlanding Light Battery  p.27	3 1 2 8	Cmd Rifle team Staff team Observer Rifle team M1A1 75mm pack howitzer Airlanding Light Battery Medium Artillery Support	340
Company Points:			1575

It was fun - played a couple of matches against some Strelkovy and some US armoured rifles - won both, but then I noticed as i was printing a new lists the 'Know your enemy update' - KYE: Each Gun Troop operates as a separate platoon for all purposes. The Command team and the Staff team from the HQ Troop must be attached to Gun troops at the start of the game (see Independent Command on page 248 of the rulebook).

So an odd situation, as I now was odd units, - so I then came across Frost's other rule, the reinforcement platoon - this could work! I could get a platoon of mixed HMG's and para's, great of defending an objective. I gave it a couple of goes, one was against a German Panzer Gren list by the wonderful Robin who spanked me and it was the dawning of the one thing I've been so reluctant to admit - 17prds may not be worth it.... They are easily avoidable, hard to place to ensure they get concealment and vulnerable in assaults. After a bit of a chat I decided that for this I'll go for two sets of 6pdrs. So the following list was born!

Platoon	Qty	Unit	Points
Headquarters
Parachute Company HQ  p.15	2 2 1	Cmd SMG team PIAT team Warrior and Higher Command team Lt Col John Frost	170
Combat Platoons
Parachute Platoon  p.16	1 1 6	Cmd Rifle/MG team PIAT team Rifle/MG team	230
Parachute Platoon  p.16	1 1 6	Cmd Rifle/MG team PIAT team Rifle/MG team	230
Weapons Platoons
Parachute Mortar Platoon  p.17	1 1 4	Cmd Rifle team Observer Rifle team ML 3" Mk II Mortar	145
Divisional Support
Airlanding Anti-tank Platoon  p.21	1 4 4	Cmd Rifle team OQF 6 pdr gun Jeep	165
Airlanding Anti-tank Platoon  p.21	1 4 4	Cmd Rifle team OQF 6 pdr gun Jeep	165
Airlanding Light Battery  p.27	3 1 2 8	Cmd Rifle team Staff team Observer Rifle team M1A1 75mm pack howitzer Airlanding Light Battery Medium Artillery Support	340
Air Support  p.29	3	Sporadic Air Support Typhoon	125
Company Points:			1570

Frost - ready for war

I've not had much chance to test it out, but I think it should be good, I can split the mortars to give two separate smoke templates, and also a nice big artillery battery and a good mix of infantry and Anti-tank to defend objectives. So should be fun to try out in the heat of a tournament...


Adam