Great War Stosskompanie - List Discussion

Hello all

So when I first got the new Great War book I as happy to see that the original two nations had been bulked out to four with the French and the U.S. and while I wanted to collect a Entente army there was one list that stole my attention, The Stoss Company.

Why a Stoss Company? Simple really, how doesn't like elite troops? Add the imagery of these elite troops using ,at the time, revolutionary tactics to raid and take enemy trenches and break the deadlock of the Western Front.

I'm going to build a 1650pts army as I feel the 1500pts games we have been playing are a little to
small given the high points costs (and rightfully so) of the HMG's, Tanks and artillery, I hope 1650pts will give people the options they need./want without slowing the game down too much.

Before I go through the lists lets talk about the special rules for the army, I feel this will have a great influence on the army.

Night Attack - This is mostly what you would expect, your army gains the Night Attack rules in the rulebook, except for one very big difference. You do not get the Preliminary Bombardment special rule. I personally think the trade off is better to have night attack over the enemy being pinned (and with the number of Flame-throwers you have they won't be unpinned for long!

Trench Fighter - This is quite a standard rule now for Great War but means all your Stoss infantry hit on a 2+ in assault. What makes this better for the Stoss teams is they all get it unlike the British, French and US where only the Pistol and Rifle teams get it.

Stosstruppen Infiltration - This means all the Stoss and Infanterie platoons gain the Spearhead Special rule in missions where you are the attacker. This isn't as massive in Great War as Standard FoW as you deploy a lot closer in most missions but it's still a very useful tool to have in your tool box.

Infantrie Vor! and Mission Tactics - Not going to go into too much detail here as you all ready know these. Infantrie Vor! in basically Storm Trooper and Mission Tactics is Mission Tactics.

Auto Attack - Any company that has a Stoss platoon auto attacks unless they also have artillery in which case it auto defends. You are always going to auto attack as you can't afford the artillery options in this army. I also feel the Stross platoons would make for very bad defensive troops.

Tank Assault 3 - While not a special rule isn't worth noting that you are Tank Assault 3 so can be used to assault tanks if needed. Having said that I would only assault them to finish off a damaged tank. A lot of tanks have two attacks and the rear machine guns special rule, you will struggle to get enough hits to worry the opposing player.

In my opinion all these special rules mean you have an elite aggressive army that has most of the tool so match any situation it comes across, plus lets not forget that the Stoss infantry are Fearless Veterans! With that in mind I set about making my list:-

HQ - 90pts 

Starting with the compulsory choices we have the HQ. You get far less options options than you do with the Infanteriekompanie, just Flame-throwers. I choose to add one Flame-thrower as the Stoss platoons have then as standard and it's better to upgrade the platoon to have them so you can recycle them in The Big Push mission where as attachments don't come back. I also had 5pts left over at the end of the list and so turned the 2IC into an SMG team, this isn't a massive advantage over the pistol (RoF 3 instead of 2) but it's better to spend the points than not.

Troop Choices - 2x Stoss Platoons - 720pts

The second lot of the compulsory choices are the two Stoss platoons. I have maxed these out at 9x Pistol teams and I also added the Flame-thrower teams. I did this (as I talked about before) so that they are a platoon upgrade and so are recycled in the Big Push Mission. Like before I had a few points left over at the end and so I upgraded the Platoon Commander to have an SMG.

Infantry Gun Platoon - 2x 7.62cm Krupp IG (Confident Veteran) - 270pts

So far most of the choices have been straight forward, now it's time to make some hard choices. I originally had a platoon of HMG's in the list, but they are pricey, not very mobile and I worried about opposing HMG's messing up my day. So I tried a few different units but ended up going for 1 7.62cm IG's. I when for these as they have a gun shield so can move up with the Stoss platoons with a fairly good chance of not getting killed, which is something the HMG's can't do. 

They also fill a whole in the list as I plan to use the Infantry Guns to take out opposing HMG's and Gun Teams with the 3+ Fire Power. They can also be used as a back up plan against enemy tanks. 

So with the IGs I have four platoons, I now wanted to get to six platoons and I felt this was an easy choice. I needed something that can kill tanks but also keep infantry honest. There was only really one options.

Panzer Platoon - 2x A7V's (Confident Trained) - 570pts

What does a WW2 army in WW1 need? Tanks! In the form of two A7V's. These will be multi purpose in the army giving us a mobile HMG bunker in mobile battles, more anti tank firepower and more ability to dig out gun teams. They can do all this while keeping up with the infantry, well mostly keeping up with them... 

Stosskompanie - 1650pts HQ + 1 SMG + Flame-thrower Full Stoss Platoon + SMG + Flame-thrower Full Stoss Platoon + SMG + Flame-thrower 2x 7.62cm Krupp IG (Confident Veteran) 2x A7V's (Confident Trained)

So there you have it, it's small and compacted but it should hit hard and fast. Once the enemy HMG's are down the tanks can go infantry hunting while the Stoss platoons either assault isolated infantry platoons or pick on the Gun Teams goes for a quick company break. If you are playing a game of maneuver, say Through The Mud and Blood, the stoss platoons can quickly outflank the retreating platoons or assault the rest of the army while the tanks and IGs deal with the front line.  

If you wanted to play 1500pts you could do this by dropping the A7V's and HQ Flame-thrower for 2 Beute Mk. IV Males. In some ways I think this might make the list better as you will have far more shoots to clear gun teams. Another option would be a Male and Female and I think this would leave you enough points to keep the HQ Flame-thrower.

Well I hope you have enjoyed this write up. Let me know your thoughts below.

Thanks for reading

Ben