Volksgrenadiers - List discussion part one

Hi All

Dr Cox here again, and this time it's a big article.

So just for completeness before I begin I'd like to show off my 2nd Sturm platoon.

After reading up on volksgrenadiers most companies had two Sturm platoons so it seemed fitting to include a second.

There were a couple of miscasts in this lot, including the missing legs of one panzershreck loader even! but I was able to clean them up and used the painting techniques for what I hope is the peripenultimate time... - yes there are a couple more units to come.

but now onto bigger matters...

Some of you may have noticed that I’ve painted the odd Volksgrenadier unit; with this in mind I thought I’d go through the list and my ideas of how I think  it should play to evaluate the units and also look at the option available. I’m going to look at the CV list for this, I’m not feeling the RT, but I’ll probably try it too.

I'm going to cover the combat, weapons and regimental support platoons in this post, and the divisional support and an army list post in the next

General Principles

• This is an infantry list with lots of integral anti tank, so I think that I could survive with maybe only 1 or 2 dedicated anti tank units,
• I’m likely to have to attack other infantry or fortified lists, so could benefit from 3 infantry platoons
• I like a little bit of smoke, recon and templates to force opponents to think.
• I like a list where I don’t need to deploy half the platoons on a half on half off mission – I like some choice!
• I like to try and add in some of the more iconic weapons to a list.

HQ, Combat platoons and other Infantry Platoons

Now these are the compulsory bits, the main advantage here is the almost unholy amount of panzerchreks you can take, with one available in each squad and 3 from the HQ. Now personally I’m for as many of these as possible, it gives a little range against the enemy, and also puts people off assaulting you, well the fausts also do that as well I guess… You also have the special character Moldenhauer, he does help a lot with failed assaults (and also extra moral roles,) but little else IMHO.

The Sturm platoon I love, with 5 stands of assault rifles for bucket loads of shots on the way in and the MG’s for some added defensive fire when pinned, they are however a little short ranged, so getting into the enemy quickly and safely is key.

The Schutzen platoon is you standard rifle/mg platoon, it gives you the long range fire to support your troops. I keep toying with the idea to make a Kamfungroup with 3 of the bases from this and 2 HMG’s and then attach the remaining HMG’s to the remnants of the platoon to give two firebase teams to support the Sturm platoons.

As mentioned in my theory section, I like a 3^rd infantry platoon. Now the options for this are pretty handy, you can have another Sturm or Schutzen platoon, or some panzergrenadiers or Pioneers. My instant thought is for another Sturm platoon, as the company is made of 2 of those and the Schutzen platoon. But the grenadiers are cheaper, can take trucks, but lack the schreks. The pioneers again would be a great choice, but with the double price of pioneer and faust (as well as being only rifle) I just don’t see them meshing well (and I love the models which is a further shame!). The other consideration is if I take a scout platoon their special rule Stosstaktik only works for Sturm, Schutzen and pioneer teams.

Weapons Platoons

Well you get a nice little selection here,mortars are my personal go to for smoke, and I would always take a couple of sections for that alone!

The HMG’s are something I like (for anti infantry fire) but they never seem to be as effective as I want – but then I normally seem to assault infantry. To me they’re not an auto include, but they’re definitely something I want if I can.

The infantry gun is the next option; now I like these, you have either the IG37 or the Pak 50. I view them as the weapon to fill in the gaps – especially if you’re on a budget (and who isn’t in a list so full of assault rifles and fausts!) They can act as artillery, add weight to anti tank defensive fire (do I need even more?) and can also take out dug in teams at short range – oh and some direct smoke too! I really want to include them, but just not 100% sure I need them!

Regimental Support

Well you can get more infantry guns…

You also have some Heavy Mortars, now again this is a unit I want to love, great against emplaced infantry (a theme emerging here yet?) but on the downside no smoke, if they had that I’d have 2 sets please!

Recon is far more interesting as you have two very different units. You have your traditional recon, which is hugely customizable from simple rifles up to panzerfaust assault rifles! They do everything you want recon to do, and you can have a nice small unit or beef it up to 5 stands. The one downside is the Stosstaktik rule, meaning you auto attack vs infantry but gain a spearhead move. Now part of me loves knowing I’m assaulting infantry – it gives me a frame to work on in my head as opposed to having to balance offense and defense. On the other hand my brits keep attacking too!

Well that is the first part of this long ramble, I hope it's interesting and part 2 will be along next week!