List Discussion - US Paratroopers Nuts!

Hello All,

I have played a load of games with these guys and have remind my list a bit so I thought it would be nice to give a pointers and advice to anyone else looking to play with or against the list. So I'm building to the Late War standard 1750pts with a Parachute Rifle Company from Nuts!.

So the Core:-


HQ: 1iC and Lipton 55pts

Obviously this you have to have a HQ section in the list and normally you don't get many option, but with the Parachute Rifle company you get the Easy Company Heroes who add a fair few more options. For me Lipton is a no Brainer, for 25pts you get a re-roll platoon moral tests is pretty nice, add to that he comes with an SMG which is normally a 15pts upgrade he seems a bit of a bargain.

I did think about adding in Speirs, mainly as for me he is the iconic Band of Brothers character from the series during the Bulge, but I'm don't think he brings enough to the table to be worth the 40pts upgrade.

2 x Rifle Platoon with Extra Bazooka team, 1 rifle team turned into a Bazooka team and Toccoa Sergeant (2 x 290pts) 580pts

Now the work horse of the list, the Rifle Platoons. These guys can and will do most of the fighting in the important parts of the battlefield, weather dug in on an objective and assaulting the enemies objective these our the guys who will be doing it.

I would always add the Toccoa Sergeant upgrade to the platoons as it means you don't need to baby sit them with the 1iC while attacking. Also for 10pts it seems a really good bargain. I take the extra Bazooka upgrade as it brings the team count in the platoon to 10 an even number and to me this is important for moral reasons. I also found the Rifle down grade to not be that effective, I quite often missed the extra shots. I will say if you are a little short on points then maybe downgrade one platoon and use it as your assault platoon and leave the rifle/mg platoon as a more defencive platoon.

The other option is for lots of Bazookas, I have 3 in each platoon as I have found that in an all comers list anymore can be a worst of time. If you did want to upgrade to the maxium 5 I would also take the rifle downgrade as it'll basically pay for the itself and if your going that anti tank you won't miss the few extra shots. But for this list build I'm looking for an all comers list so I prefer my above set up.

So that's 635pts spent, we have two nice big platoons that can hold there own against anything thrown at them and 1115pts left to support them, so onto the support.

Parachute Machine-gun Platoon, 4 LMG's 100pts

This are purely added in to be combat attachments to bulk out the Rifle Platoons and give them some much needed firepower. There may be one or two match ups were you would not want to attach them and use them as an ambushing platoon on the defencive, but I would say at least nine times out of ten they would combat attach. As I plan on combat attaching them I haven't spent the points on the Toccoa Sergeants upgrade as that would be a wast of points.

Airborne Anti-Tank Platoon, 4 57mm Anti-Tank Guns and 4 Bazookas 225pts

Now this is my favourite unit in the list. Not only are the a useful defencive tank deterrent, but I love sending the 4 Bazookas and the platoon commander off as an assault force of there own. The only main problem with the unit is AT 10 means you can't rely on them to kill much outside of defencive fire, so don't be tempted to shoot with them unless the odds are in your favour. I have found this unit is also quite useful against infantry companies thanks to the ROF 3 and having 9 bases on an objective is always going to be hard to shift.

Airborne Divisional Recon, 4 Jeeps with .50 cals 110pts

Now the core has been sorted out it's time to round out the force and my first point of call is some recon. I personally think this is a great little unit, being Fearless Veteran they are recon that you can rely on to lift Gone To Ground and to stick around once the bullets start flying. They are also a great anti infantry and light vehicle threat with the 4 .50 cals. I'm very aggressive with this unit on defence, I like to try and get them behind the other army and look to attack the lighter support units, I hope this gives the enemy commander the problem of sending troops back to save the support or carrying on and losing them.

Glider Artillery, 6 105mm Light Howitzers 210pts

Now this is the unit I have had the most change to over the cause of testing the list. To start with I was running 2 platoons of 3 guns to give me a fair bit of reliability and thanks to the US Artillery rules the ability to combined fire if I needed to. But in half on half off missions even with 8 platoons starting with 2 platoons of artillery on the table rarely seemed a good option. Also the artillery is a prime target to get shot at and it only took the lose of 1 gun to make the bombardment very ineffective, I really started to get frustrated with the platoons . So I decided to try out one platoon of 6 guns and although there are times I wish I had two platoons I'm far less frustrated with this set up and have had less issues with half on half off missions. The combination of Time on Target and with all 6 guns either gives you re-rolls to hit or a double width template the enemy company really has to spread out which helps a lot with a small army like US Paras.

Tank Destroyer Platoon, 4 M18 Hellcats 410pts

The final platoon and the real reach out and touch power, the Tank Destroyers. Now I don't think I need to go into too much details as you why these are great, there is more than enough of that on the Flames of War and WWPD forums. But the fear factor of these alone makes them worth having, add to that on defence they give you an extra ambush platoon they mean you can almost deploy your whole army on the table were it is needed as and when you need. Of course if the trail rules for the TD's become official  they may get a little worst but with the current play testing rules I don't think they will be that different from how I use them right now (I haven't used the real rules abusing element of the platoon so far).

AOP, L4 Grasshopper 40pts

Finally to round out the list an AOP, for 40pts this is a bargain! This gives the artillery an observe with unlimited range and sight (well it does need to be carefully about Anti-Air) and on the attack a great no ambush zone can only be a good thing. Not much more to say about it but I would always include one in a US list.

Fearless    Veteran	Parachute Rifle Company	USA Late-War
Infantry Company

Platoon	Qty	Unit	Points
Headquarters
Parachute Rifle Company HQ  p.17	2	Cmd Carbine team	30
Combat Platoons
Parachute Rifle Platoon  p.17	1 5 3 1	Cmd Rifle/MG team Rifle/MG team Bazooka team M2 60mm mortar	290
Parachute Rifle Platoon  p.17	1 5 3 1	Cmd Rifle/MG team Rifle/MG team Bazooka team M2 60mm mortar	290
Weapons Platoons
Parachute Machine-gun Platoon  p.18	1 4	Cmd Carbine team M1919 LMG team	100
Warriors
First Sergeant Carwood Lipton  p.14	1	Warrior 2iC Cmd SMG team 1st Sgt Carwood Lipton	25
Toccoa Sergeants  p.15	2	Warrior Command SMG team Toccoa Sergeant	20
Support Platoons
Tank Destroyer Platoon (Veteran)  Confident  Veteran   p.27	1 2 4	.50 cal Recon Jeep M20 Scout Car M18 Hellcat GMC	410
Airborne Anti-tank Platoon  p.19	1 4 4	Cmd Carbine team M1 57mm gun (late) Bazooka team	225
Airborne Divisional Recon Platoon  p.28	4	.50 cal Recon Jeep	110
Glider Field Artillery Battery  Confident  Veteran   p.25	1 1 1 6	Cmd Carbine team Staff team Observer Carbine team M3 105mm light howitzer	210
Air Observation Post  p.31	1	L4 Grasshopper AOP	40
Company Points:			1750

www.EasyArmy.com

Source document: Nuts Book

So there you go a nicely rounded 1750pts list, after 20 odd games with the Paras I'm pretty happy with this list as my  new incarnation, I hope to get this list on the table soon so keep your eyes pealed for an AAR soon.

I hope this has either been helpful to you or at least interesting.

Thanks for reading

Ben