Wednesday, 26 June 2013

Overlord British Airborne

Hi everyone,

I was excited to get hold of the new and instantly started checking out the Para's to see how they improved are they 'better' than my Market Garden para's and their fabulous 'medium support'


So for those of you who remember the old book why not check out my review of para's from there first.


Ok so where are we now, well the first thing to hit me was Canadians! Seriously did not expect that, but how welcome are they.

 The other big change is the Airbourne Armoured Recce - and their options bring loads of new support options to the party.

The basic units are still all the same with the 4 section mortar getting a 5pt reduction, and the airlanding HMG'S up 5pts.

The 17pdrs are not the AT15 beasts of MG but being AT14 which is still pretty damn good, and only for a small points increases.

The Air landing light battery is back as are engineers and commando and 'regular' rifle platoons.


As for the Airlanding Armoured Recce, well they're now split with the Searbourne Armoured Recce AKA the Cromwells! Both have had a small point increase (and no longer 4 Tetrachs boo!) but they all get Cautious Movement and Disengage - which I think has all sorts of potential options!

The other new armour option is the Independent Armoured Platoon, CT/CV and with a Firefly or DD option is pretty handy.

As for recce itself WOW! There are motorcycles everywhere. The basic Airborne Recce is up by 10 points for this extra mobility, but it's the Airborne Assault Platoon which I wish they had access too...

The final option here is the Belgian armoured Car platoon for some cheap CT recce.


Artillery has been spruced up too. The humble 25pdr with UK and Canadian options as well as a huge range of ratings available. Also for less pinable artillery are some Priests. Along with these are the old hands, Centaurs (no longer in the old armour slot) and Medium Battery.  Finally there are three options of naval gunfire - which is just so tempting right now! They have also can have an AOP.

 
The final change is too everyone's favourite wooden box! Pine-coffin. His rules have been properly revamped and I think justify the 50pts but really could help the army on attack or defense!

 Well that's my review I hope you found it useful, would I use these guys over their MG cousins? Probably not, whilst mobility is definitely higher here the power to assault with 'Medium Support' is just too good. But I think these guys offer new challenges and options which I will be trying out!

 Thanks for reading!

 Coxer

13 comments:

  1. Thanks for the review. I was umming and ahhing about whether to shell out for the Overlord book, but it looks worth the money. Certainly nice to have some mobility with the Para's, it's always been a major drawback when playing them.
    What does Pine-Coffin do now? He had to have been the most overpriced Warrior ever in previous incarnations!

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  2. you lose night attack, but can have all parachute platoons deploy in immediate ambush and spearhead - he also forms a counter attack platoon

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    1. Hi,

      Great review, thanks. Can you combat attach the 6 pdr's in this list or is that only possible in Market Garden? That could make the immediate ambush nasty... :P

      Cheers

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    2. No you can't attach 6pdr's in the Overlord list.

      Ben

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    3. That's fair enough I guess. It would be quite obscene otherwise! :P

      Cheers

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    4. Just a bit! Hello Mr Tank Company, we're playing No Retreat and I have 8 Pdr's and an ambushing platoon of 17 pdr's you can't see until after you deploy..... That'll be fun!

      Ben

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    5. Yeah, that would be ever so slightly painful... How many lists can take Challengers now and what are the differences with Challengers aside from the AT value?

      Also on a completely unrelated note - how would you rate Luttrel's CS platoon vs conventional artillery?

      Sorry to be a pain.

      Cheers

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    6. Not a pain at all.

      The challenger is only different with the AT value. Challengers are available with 7th Armoured, 11th Armoured (Market Garden) and Welsh Guards.

      Luttrel's platoon is ok, they really need Breakthrough Gun, but they are a great assault platoon. Get the 1IC in there and maybe the 2IC and you have 7 or 8 tanks assaulting, that'll cause a lot of damage (plus they can fire smoke first to reduce defensive fire). I will say I haven't got the 11th Armoured Recon to work yet, but I have a few ideas.

      Ben

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    7. Cool, thanks mate. I was really worried that they'd have unreliable...

      I was hoping that there'd either be a briefing that covered the 2nd Northamptonshire Yeomanry or the 15th/19th Hussars prior to Market Garden. I take it that this is not possible then?

      That does sound like it could be effective. I've actually done pretty well with it. I win more than I lose with them anyway... :)

      Cheers

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    8. No unreliable, just AT 14 which I think it better as you get a nice points break on it and it's still good enough to like most tanks.

      You can do the 2nd Yeomanry with Overlord, but they don't get Fireflies or Challengers.

      I think the list can work, I just need to get my head around using trained armies, I use Veteran armies far too much!

      Ben

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    9. I can live with that :)

      Better than nothing I guess. Am I right in thinking that they will get access to some aspects of the recce rules then?

      Ahhh, you see I play trained mostly and struggle to build a list I'm comfortable with using veteran. I love the 15th/19th as it's the best of both worlds.

      Cheers

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  3. Any interesting changes to the Commando forces (Beach & Orne)?

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    1. Other than the rule changes I posted in the full review and bring the Breaching Groups inline with Market Garden not really. But then none of us use Commandos so we may have missed something.

      Ben

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