Over the Easter weekend I got 3 games of FOW in with my new Irish Guards Armoured Squadron. Surprisingly I won all 3, even more surprising was the fact I thought I had lost two of the games two or three turns in! It was a nice selection of opponents, with three different companies and three different missions, so hopefully I can start to see were I am with the list from these games.First up was a German Armoured Recon list which was mainly Pumas. We played Hasty Assault, my main problem was a unit of Tigers that deployed in ambush, they killed 4 or 5 tanks but couldn't stop me from taking an objective before the German reinforcements could come on in big enough numbers. 6-1 Win to me.
Next up was Adam's (from For King, Country and the Empire Blog) British Para Company in Pincer. I took a pounding, but my Guards (thanks to being Guards) held it together and I took the objective on turn four by rushing it with everything I had and assaulting the one Infantry platoon on the objective with 2 different tank platoons. If the game had gone on for one more turn I would have been swapped by arriving Para Platoons on from my flanks and I would have been wiped out. 5-2 Win to me
The final game was against Ferb's (from Ferbs Fighting Forces Blog) German Panther Company. Ferb has written a AAR on the game. This was a tough game for me, by turn three I really thought I was dead and buried. All my Platoons were down to 2 working tanks, I had taken and passed 4 platoon moral checks and my company commander was dead. Then the Unit of the Match Typhoons turned up and killed a platoon of Panthers freeing up a flank, Pete then had a bad turn of shooting and my Shermans were able to push and take an objective. I really don't think I should have won this game, yet some how I pulled off a 5-2 win!
Lessons Learnt
Well this was my first games not using an Axis force. I knew Shermans were not Panthers, Tigers or Finnish T-34/85's (the only other tanks I have used in Late War), but I really had to see them in action against Axis armour to realise how brittle Shermans are! Also Fireflies look great on paper but Anti-Tank 13 is not that good in long range duels with tanks that save most shots from 17 Pounders, but your Fireflies don't get a save from the return fire!
The main plus points I liked with the army were "All Guns Too The Left" and the Typhoon. AGTTL really makes this an attacking army which brings it's own risks, but that re-roll is really useful. I did think long and hard about weather it's better than Semi Indirect Fire and while I think they both have there uses I like AGTTL more as I will be facing Veteran Infantry lists quite often and as SIF only works a long range you can't hit dig in gone to ground Veteran Infantry. I also found JOE's extra move very useful with ADTTL for getting side shots, sure it's only on a 5+ roll so you really can't rely on it, but when it works it's just great. The second plus point and without doubt the best unit in the army was the Typhoons. It just keeps enemy armour second guessing there moves and sometimes doing something risky hoping they pass their Stormtrooper move, with a fail probably mean some dead tanks. One last thing to remember is Guards are hard! The 4+ with a re-roll to pass yout platoon motivation test means most of the time you need to wipe out the platoons to get them off the table. This really saved me in the second and third game!
This is my current list.
  |
Guards Armoured Squadron 1st list |
British Late-War |
| Platoon | Qty | Unit | Points | ||
| Headquarters | |||||
| 2 1 1 | Sherman V Warrior JOE Vandeleur in Humber RAF Forward Air Controller | 245 | ||
| Combat Platoons | |||||
| 1 1 2 | Sherman V Sherman V with .50 cal AA MG Firefly VC | 395 | ||
| 1 1 2 | Sherman V Sherman V with .50 cal AA MG Firefly VC | 395 | ||
| 1 1 2 | Sherman V Sherman V with .50 cal AA MG Firefly VC | 395 | ||
| Brigade Support | |||||
| 3 1 1 2 2 2 2 | Universal Carrier -OR- Cmd Rifle team Troop Carrier -AND- ML 3" Mk II Mortar Mortar Carrier - OR - OQF 6 pdr gun Loyd Carrier | 100 | ||
| Divisional Support | |||||
| 7 | Priority Air Support Typhoon | 220 | ||
| Company Points: | 1750 | ||||
Source document: Hell's Highway
As always thanks for reading.
Ben
Damn Typhoons!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the feedback. I know what you mean about the Typhoons Ferb, I've just been and bought some 3.7cm Flak...
ReplyDeleteI can see flak being very important in 3rd edition and that goes double for Veteran armies.
DeleteThat's a cool list. I like it. The new aircraft rules should make those Typhoons even more awesome.
ReplyDelete