May Tournament List - Kampfgruppen Balck (Part 2)

I was sprucing my army list and decided to present a flavorful army organisation chart to the judges.

I always had been a Grossdeutschland Division fan and impressed with their nickname "The Fuhrer's Fire Brigade" for their actions in the Eastern Front.

Panzerkompanie (Grey Wolf) VS Soviet Heavy Assault Gun (Red Bear) [PROLOGUE STORY]

For those who have read my Battle Report :

Panzerkompanie (Grey Wolf) VS Soviet Heavy Assault Gun (Red Bear)

I have decided to write a prologue to the battle report as per below. I hope some readers will enjoy this!

Location: Somewhere in Belorussia
Date: Mid July 1944

Obergefreiter Hans was despondent, most of the news they had been receiving through the radio network were of desparation and despair. Units were surrounded and destroyed by the gigantic Soviet armored offensive that had opened up in June 1944.Vitebsk, Orsha, Mogilev and Bobruysk had fallen to the Soviets and the Wehrmacht was still trying to cobble up effective defense. And now Hans had heard that Soviet tanks were seen approaching Minsk despite desperate German resistance.

YouTube Video - Kursk 1943

A video montage of German action at Kursk 1943 billed as the largest tank battle in WW2.

It's interesting to note the numbers of Panthers and Tiger Is deployed were minuscule but their propaganda impact was huge.

The fact that the Russians claimed their Tiger kills were more than the actual number of Tigers deployed were a testament to their fear of these tanks in 1943.

Nonetheless, the industrial might of Russia and the price of fighting against two industrial superpower (USA and Russia) proved to be the death knell of the German forces in WW2.

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Panzerkompanie - Grey Wolf 1750pts (25 March 2012)

After deliberating for a while, I decided to finalize below list.

HQ

2 X Panthers IC & 2IC

1 X General Von Saucken

Combat

4 X Panzer IVH

3 X Panther G

Weapons

Panzer Scout Platoon (3 Squads)

Panzer AA Gun Platoon

(3 armored Sd Kfz 7/1 w. Quad 2cm)

Divisional Support Platoon

JU87 Stukas (Sporadic)

So hoping for a fun game tomorrow.

Panthers PSC in Pictures

The completed Panthers from PSC.

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Panzerkompanie (Grey Wolf) FOW List 1750 points Part II

Still tweaking the list as the weekend approaches. My previous list was mentioned here.
I'm wrestling with the fact on how many Panthers shall I bring on the board. (unfortunately, I have only 4 painted Panthers and my strategy is limited by those numbers...)

Due to its high points, it's quite apparent I will be lacking platoon numbers and may become a glass fist instead of an iron fist.

Assembling My Panthers!

I'm going to assemble my first batch of PSC Panthers.

Still thinking of whether to apply a 3 color camouflage or just plain factory yellow.

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Coming Soon : Blood, Guts, & Glory (FOW)

I'm looking forward to the upcoming FOW installment of TOE (Theatre of Operations Europe) campaign
Blood, Guts, & Glory: Tanks Battles in The Lorraine, September 1944 - January 1945

We all know what happened to those German Panzer Brigades as they were launched against Patton's armored fist. This campaign main highlight would be the Battle of Arracourt 1944.(Wikipedia)

So it was been said in FOW forums for this installment, German players will be able to field Confident Trained Panthers!

Looking forward to it and trying out the German lists! CT Panthers vs veteran Shermans?

Fallschirmjager in Italy

Another YouTube video.

Interesting portion of the video showing Fallschirmjagers from 1FJD in color defending Monte Cassino.

Does provide interesting references if somebody needs to paint up FJ models based on LW Italian campaign.

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Inspiration - Panzers

A YouTube video to inspire anybody to play Panzers! Ok...you need to paint them as well!!

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Panthers, O Panthers, Thou have arrived!

Well at least they arrived at my local gaming store PI. After my recent experience with PSC, I'm quite delighted to handle these babies!

With each box having 5 Panthers at such a good price (its 17.50 GBP per box as per PSC website) you can have a good LW Panzerkompanie in FOW by buying 2 boxes of them.

A feared tank on FOW board since they wield that goody 75L/70 gun that can pierce most Allied tanks and able withstand most frontal AT shots in return!

The cons?

Expensive comparable to most medium tanks and watch out for flanking shots. Oh...never try to assault bazooka toting infantry since all shots will be on its thin Side armor.

Time to try some Panther tactics!

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Sd Kfz 251D WIP

These half tracks are from Plastic Soldier Company which are churning good quality plastic 15mm vehicles.

Ever thought of playing a fully mechanized Grenadier army but was deterred by the cost of buying the APCs? Well the Plastic Soldier Company had conveniently solved my dilemma.

The parts are well moulded and had many spare bitz. I had assembled a box of them (5 vehicles per box) in about total 3-4 man hours in a leisurely pace.

I am going to attach the balkenkreuz first before I decide on the camouflage pattern. More pics to follow up.

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Command Team with Panzerknacker

Painted a command team equipped with Panzerknacker. It will be used for my pseudo gebirgsjager platoon.

Gebirgsjager are more or less equipped as normal Grenadiers. So you can actual use normal Grenadier stands.

The cool thing is that gebirgjagers counts as a FJ platoon instead of as allies. I hope to use them as either a blocking force or harassing unit in my army list.

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Update on Release Date: 15mm WW2 German SdKfz 251 Ausf D Halftrack by Plastic Soldier Company

Just an update...the 15mm WW2 German SdKfz 251 Ausf D Halftrack is scheduled to be released by end of September 2011. I shall wait till the actual release date itself. Still priced at the uber affordable GBP 16.50 for 5 half tracks.

Maybe I should wait a lit bit more and buy both versions....

Too bad it doesn't offer the other versions such as the "Stummel", Flamethrower or Mortar.

SdKfz 251 Ausf D Halftrack is the more economically designed version of the Ausf C where Ausf D variant was developed with a purpose of reducing the number of angled body plates by 50%, simplifying the design and thus speeding up the production. Ausf D can be easily recognized by its single piece sloping rear (with flat doors).

15mm WW2 German SdKfz 251 Ausf C Halftrack by Plastic Soldier Company

Ever since I started playing FOW, I had thoughts if there are cheaper ways to get my hands on certain models. As far as Battlefront is concerned, it's awfully costly to play a German Armored Infantry list. The cost of the halftracks alone will kill off any temptations to buy. But to play the off repeated cinematic picture of German soldiers riding halftracks is just soooo tempting!

For those who are wondering the "coolness" of a German halftrack...for your reading pleasure.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sd.Kfz._251

I had calculated a normal 1750pts worth of German Armored Infantry needs at least 15 halftracks!
But it seems I will have some salvation to play this list. **Cue Entry**

I definitely I'm not getting paid by PSC for blogging this article, for a neat 5 x SdKfz 251 halftracks @ GBP 16.50 per box (about SGD 35.00) is really value for money.

In comparison BF is selling its halftracks at USD 12.50 each which is about GBP 8.00.
Since I'm the cost-saving wargamer, I will definitely get a PSC boxed set rather than BF!
Note: This excludes shipping costs if you are ordering online.

http://theplasticsoldiercompany.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_22_24_50&products_id=206

Its spruce has good mixture of stowage and equipment which you can attach as you see fit.
Some of my friends had bought the PzIV and T-34 boxed set and they are quite happy with the quality and pricing as well.

Until I have more dough in my pocket. This is a must BUY boxed set!

WWII Footage in Color - German Army

Just recommending a play list of videos showing German army in WWII.

It shows the real colors and provides better visual representation on the actual colors used in their uniforms and equipment.

Beats looking at black and white pictures and color plated from voluminous books.

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Fallschirmjager Painted (Non-panzerfaust)

I tried to accelrate my painting process by spray painting the bases and using colored acrylic resin from Vallejo.

The Fallschirmjagers were painted a mixture of basic colors to give the impression that their command and NCOs are Africa veterans who insist to wear the same uniforms and helmets as a mark of respect.

I decided the miniatures using smg and FG42 are the veterans and some are actually Luftwaffe troops. So their trousers were painted Luftwaffe blue.

I will using this platoon for my upcoming tournament. :)

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Marder IIIMs or Martin in English

I'm never fond for lightly armored AT tanks but it's cheaper than the Stugs. I'm going to try them out in some practices leading to my FOW tournament.

Painted up 2 of them and touched up another 2 which my brother bartered with me for mortar section.
They are good in ambush or concealed terrain.

Here's a link about their development.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marder_III

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