Nachtjager Part Two:- The Germans!

If you missed the British in part one check them out here.

We again join the Germans in the last days of the Reich. We have had the quickly rushed together Armoured Kampfgruppes of Desperate Measures and the Auto Defend Heavy Tanks holding off the US in Bridge at Remagen. Now it's the turn of the Night Attacking Infra Red equipped Tanks of Nachtjager. There are three lists and like the British you have two armoured and one infantry list. The Tank lists focuses on the last Panzer Division Clausewitz and the Infantry are the 2. Marine-Grenadierdivision.


The Germans!
Special Rules

There are a lot of special rules for the Panzer Divisions, they are a proper division so follow all the Storm Trooper, Mission Tactics or Kampfgruppe like we have seen in the other Late Late War books. Something to note is there is no Enjoy The War, this was quite a surprise to say the least!
rules for Germans in the rulebook, so no limit on Kampfgruppe.

Infra-Red Equipment means if your company is equipped with Infra-red equipment you may Night Attack and any platoon with Infra-red Equipment may Spearhead move.

Infra-red Visibility is the same as the Arab-Israeli War version, any troops with Infra-red Equipment rolls two dice for visibility at night.

Infra-red Searchlight, this is a special rule for Independent Sd Kfz 251/20 (Uhu) half-tracks. In the shooting step they pick an enemy team within 24" and in Line of Sight, any Infra-red Equipped teams within 24" of the highlighted team doesn't have to roll to see them on the Night Visibility Table, but they are still concealed. The downside (not much of one) is that in the enemies shooting phase if they are Infra-red Equipped they can see the half track without having to roll for it if within 24".

Uhu Searchlight Half-Tracks, this basically means when it's no longer night time the Half Tracks are removed from the table.

The Lists

There are two different Armoured lists for the Clausewitz Division, Both are Reluctant Veteran and the core to each is pretty much the same, but the support is quite different.

Panzerkampfgruppe Wallenberg

With the Infra-red Equipped rule you need to think carefully when you are creating you force. As I understand it you only need one platoon with Infra-red Equipment but still there isn't much point running it like that if you don't take advantage of it.

The HQ can either be a Panther G or a StuG G (Late) (no 2IC so no Kampgruppe), only the Panther can have Infra-red Equipment, one of your platoons must be equipped with the same tank.

The first three core platoons can either be Panthers or StuG G (Late) both can have 2 to 3 tanks. Again only the Panther G's can have Infra-red Equipment, the Panthers can also have an Independent Uhu half-track (the one with all the special rules above).

The 4th Troop choice can be either a Jadgpanther platoon, a Panzersturm Platoon or a Gepanzerte Panzergrenider Platoon. The Jadgpanthers can have 1 to 5! Jadgpanthers which can have Infra-red Equipment and a Uhu half-track. The Panzersturm Platoon are all mounted in half-tracks are armed with Assault Rifles and Panzerfausts and can be upgraded to have Infra-Red equipment. The last choice is the Gepanzerte Paznergrenadiers which are all MG/Panzerfaust and can't have Infra-red. I'm not sure between the Jadgpanthers or Panzersturm which I think is better, the Panzersturm won't get much use out of the Infra-red bar being able to spearhead and I think the Jadgpanthers might be over kill if you already have Panthers.

The only weapons platoon choice is a Panzer Anti-Air platoon with either 2 to 3 Mobelwagens or Ostwinds. And with that I will quickly sum up the support:

• There are two infantry slots each has the same options, either Panzersturm Platoons and Gepanzerate Panzer Grenider Platoon (same as above), Volkssturm Platoon or Panzergrenaders Platoon.
• Artillery support is either Panzersturm Mortars or Heavy Mortars. the Mortars platoon has 12cm Mortars, while the Heavy version has Armoured 8cm Mortar half-tracks and 7,5cm half-tracks.
• Two more AA slots give you the choice of Sd Kfz 251/17 (2cm) or 251/21 (Triple 15mm) FlaK half-tracks.
• Air rounds out the list with sporadic Arado 234 B, Me 262, FW 190 or Ju 87D Stuka.
• The list has no recon option.

Panzerkampfgruppe Von Benningsen

This list is surprisingly different from Wallenberg, while Infra-red Equipped Panthers is the common theme of both lists the supporting cast makes them both have a different feel.

Starting at the HQ you have the options a of a Panther G, a Panzer IV J's or a mix of the two with a Infra-Red upgrade, while the Panzer IV can't.
A 2IC so you can Kampgruppe, again like above you have to have one platoon equipped the same tank.

Now the core platoons have a great selection of units, You have the same Panther option as above, Panzer IV platoons with 2 to 3 tanks or a Panzerjager Platoon with 2 Panzer IV/70's and either a StuG G (Late) or a Jagdpanzer IV, again only the Panthers can have the Infra-red option.

The 4th slot is a real mixed bag, to give you an idea the title is Armour, Infantry or Reconnaissance! So yeah anything really! The Armoured slot is a Schwere Panzer Platoon with 1 or 2 Tigers (but no Tiger Ace skills), Gepanzerte Paznergrenadiers which are all Panzerfaust MG teams covers the Infantry slot and finally the Recon is a Aufklarungs Platoon with the options for Motorcycle troops or they can be upgraded to Schwimmwagens, they are also all Panzerfaust MG teams.

Again the only weapons platoon choice is a Panzer Anti-Air platoon with either 2 to 3 Mobelwagens or Ostwinds. The support looks as follows.

• There are two infantry slots each has the same options, Aufklarungs and Gepanzerte Paznergrenadiers Platoons like above and Volksturm.
• Anti-Tank platoon with Pak40's.
• Three recon options with your choice of Sd Kfz 250/9 (2cm), Sd Kfz 234/1 or Sd Kfz 221 MG's.
• The artillery choice is either Grille K (15cm sIG)'s or Sd Kfz 250/8 (7.5cm).
• Air rounds out the list again with sporadic Arado 234 B, Me 262, FW 190 or Ju 87D Stuka as before.

So the two armoured lists are very different (which is great of course!). I'm torn between which list I like more, I'm learning towards Benningsen (and not because it has my name in it!) mainly as it has recon and that is something I think you'd want in the list if your focusing on the auto attack angle. I would probably go with the 251/9 for the artillery option, combined with recon this would be great at digging out infantry. No matter which list you choose they both remind me of SS-Peiper from Devil's Charge.

2. Marine-Grenadierkompanie 

The last list in the book is the Kreigsmarine, on the face of it these guys look a lot like the SS-Westfalen from Bridge at Remagen, but once you get past the Auto Defend rule and the fact they are both Fearless Trained the differences are quite big. The Marine-Grenadiers have no super heavy tanks, no trap teams and more importantly no Enjoy the War! What they do have is a Railway Gun that can have 8 FlaK 8.8's (more on that later) and a much bigger choice of support options.

Special Rules

Defending the Weser and Aller, basically they lose Stormtrooper and gain always defends, also like the Armoured lists no Enjoy the War.

Luftwaffe Special Rules

Deploying Railway Gun, the same as the train deployment rules except you choose any two opposite table edges (and not your opponent) and the Railway Guns must be deployed in your deployment zone at the start of the game, unless it is set up in ambush! (yeah that's not a typo!)

Railway Gun, this is a gun team that can never dig in, never move for any reason and even though it has multiple guns it can always fire at full RoF.

Concealed in the Rail Yard, you can not be shot at it until your within 16" unless the Railway Gun has fired.

Area Air Defence, Luftwaffe Light Anti-aircraft Gun Platoons, Heavy Anti-aircraft Gun Platoons and Railway Gun Platoons are ignored when working out the number of platoons that start on the table.

First up is the HQ and Infantry platoons, these will look similar to you if you have looked at any German infantry in the past few books. One platoon with Assault Rifles, the other is Rifle/MG and everyone has a Panzerfaust. It's a good solid core and is all but unassaultable for tanks. I also think it benefits from auto defending as the fausts come into their own and the Assault Rifle platoon makes a great counter attacking unit.

The basic support is HMG's which can combat attach, a platoon of 4 to 6 mortars, a 15cm sIG33 Infantry Gun Platoon and a new unit the Tank Hunter Platoon (I will focus on this new platoon for a minute as I like the flexibility). The platoon is made up of one SMG/Faust team, 3 Panzerschreak teams and 3 Rilfe/Faust teams. Now you may think with all the basic troops having Faust why do you need a platoon with more? Well thats a good question, firstly as it is at most rifle armed the teams are cheaper, the Panzershrecks also give you better range than the fausts and more shots. But the main reason I like this platoon is it's ability to ambush, that's right ambush. Enemy armour will stay away from woods, wheat fields and the like. All that cheap tank assault will cause some damage!

I will quickly cover the rest of the support before moving onto what you want to know about, the Railway Gun!

• Firstly you have an Armoured slot with a mixed platoon, Confident Trained with Tigers (no Tiger Ace skills), Panther or StuG G (lates) or a platoon of Marine Hezters.
• Anti-Tank slot with Marine & Heer Pak40's and Marine & SS Tank Hunter Platoon (same as above).
• Infantry slot with Marine Sturm and Schutzen platoons, Volkssturm, Heer & SS Grenadiers and a Hungarian infantry platoon!
• A second infantry slot Pioneers as well as most of above.
• Marine artillery is either 10.5's or 12.2's with the option of Heer Rockets too.
• Luftwaffe AA with the normal mix of light and heavy, with the new stationary 10.5cm AA
• And finally the same air as the armoured lists.

Finally lets talk Railway Guns! This comes in two forms, either Twin 8.8cm FlaK 37 or 10.5cm FlaK
39 (AT 17!), you can have either 1, 2 or 4 Railway Cars each with one set of guns (so yes 8 8.8s!). You also have the option to add extra crew to make the 8.8 RoF 3 or 10.5 RoF 2. While these look impressive (and do remember you can't be shot these unless you are within 16" until it fires) these are Reluctant Trained and are gun teams, so once they start getting shot at they will start to die and the 10.5cm doesn't have a gun shield!

So there you have it, with yesterdays British preview you have the whole book spoiled! Personally I like all 6 of the lists and I'm looking forward to painting them up and getting some games in. I hope you enjoy the book and this little sneak peak. I'm not sure it'll upset the meta too much but how much fun will night attacking Veteran armour be!

Keep an eye out for our Tale of 4 Gamers Plunder Painting Challenge in the next few days and Beyond the Foxholes 23 where myself and Adam interview Mike Haught about the new book. But until then head over to the WWPD forum to chat about the new book.

Thanks for reading and until next time

Ben