Great War US Brett's Brawlers (GUSAB01) Spotlight

Hello All

A few days ago we looked at the French Clavery's Chargers army deal, today we are going to look at the U.S. Brett's Brawlers (GUSAB01) box set.

The box set comes with 6 platoons with includes a HQ with 2x 37mm mle 1916 guns, French Flame-thrower Section with 3x Flame-throwers, 2x Rifle Platoons, Machine-gun Platoon with 4x Hotchkiss mle 1914 HMG teams, Light Tank Platoon with 2x Renault FT-17 (37mm) and 2x Renault FT-17 (MG) tanks, and a French Char d’Assault Platoon with 1x Schneider CA. Tank.

Stuartica - Using An Early War Tank In Late War

Stuarts -They are better than you think they are.

I'm on a one man crusade to prove that the best tank in late war, point for point is the humble Stuart M5 light tank. I am aware that this is an uphill struggle to pursuade people of it's merits, but one day I will get the chance to take on Ben in a Stuart Vs Panzer IV/70 fight to the death and when I emerge triumphant on my one remaining light tank, I will be able to insist we get a new logo replacing the silly Gudarian's ducks with a proper tank, from early war, in late war.

Anyway, there are a number of options for using Stuarts in late war, should you choose to, the British use them as recce, the soviets use them as a 10 tank mass of awesomeness and the US use them in squadrons of 5 as a light tank in a number of lists. Having played around with the US options I think the best option is to go for Confident trained Stuarts and I tend to use the 3rd AD from overlord as I get to auto attack and spearhead, both if which are very useful, the first because this is a very, very aggressive army, and the second because spearheading let's you cover some more ground before the enemy start shooting you, which as we will see is absolutely vital.

Stuarts vs T34s, suicide you say? I think not...

Welsh Open 2015 AAR

Hello All

Last weekend was the Welsh Open, if you have listened to the podcast you will know this is one of our favourite events of the year. This year was 1675pts LW. I was using the 7th Armored with Patton (yes I saw that roll of the eyes!).

 I was planning on doing a detailed run down of my games but I got the podcast edited surprisingly quickly and so I didn't see the point of going into too much detail here.

Vietnam SEAL Teams: The Ultimate Side Project or Inspiration for Brown Water Navy!

Hello All

The day the SEAL Platoon and Patrol Boats were put up on Battlefront's online store I placed an order. A few day's later they arrived through the post and ended up on our new sofa.

All the models were great but I've set the PBRs asside for now as I was less concerned with these little naval interdiction vehicles than I was the teams they could carry.

Late War AAR - 29th Infantry vs 9th Panzergrenadiers - No Retreat

Hello All  I have had a hankering to play some themed games and so I asked Andy if he'd be up for a Normandy Bocage game with his German vs my US. He was really up for it so rocked up at his house with a bucket load of Boccage terrain and we set out to play.  We decided on 1675pts, Andy was using the 9th Panzer Division in the form of Grenadiers as thats basically the only list he could make from what he had. I was using the 29th Infantry as I had just painted up some Crocs and I wanted to use them. We rolled up No Retreat and as I was auto attack thanks to the Crocs I was the attcker.

US 29th Infantry HQ + 2 Bazookas Full Infantry Platoon + Pioneer Upgrade + Flame Thrower Full Infantry Platoon + Pioneer Upgrade + Flame Thrower 4 81mm Mortars 4 M10's Cav Recon 4 105mm Artillery 4 155mm Artillery 3 Churchill Crocodiles - Allied Platoon AOP

9th Panzergrenadierkompanie HQ + Panzerschreck Full Grenadier Platoon + Faust Full Grenadier Platoon + Faust Full Grenadier Platoon + Faust 4 12cm Mortars 3 Pak 40's 5 Panzer IV's 4 10.5cm Artillery

Expanding Grimball's Beasts (USAB05)

Hello all, Fez here.

I've been given the task of writing up how to expand the fantastic Grimball's Beasts US starter Tank army from Battelfront, as I had all the models in the box already!
Out of the three starter boxes, this is probably the hardest to write such an article, for one reason - the Pershing!

Bovingdons M26 Pershing

Unlike the German or the Soviet boxes, currently the Pershing only appears in one list - the Tank Company in Bridge at Remagen. This can be either the Confident Vet 9th, or my personal favorite the Reluctant Vet 3rd 'Spearhead' Armoured Division. I find that the points break for reluctant means I can round my platoons out to give me the tools I need for the job, and if I play it right, I won't need to motivate much anyway. Add the fact the 1ic is rolling up with the normal shermans anyway, a 5+ with a re-roll is still pretty good.

Unboxing Kelly's Heros

What makes Tour of Duty and now Brown Water Navy games different to the World War Two games is the strategies the Free World and PAVN must use defeat their opponents. The PAVN and especially the Viet Cong Company found in Brown Water Navy rely on numbers and hit and fade tactics to weaken the Free World companies where as Free World Forces rely on well trained, disciplined units and  backed up by medics that get their troops back into action.

All these pictures were taken at work as soon as I got the box open. The large boat bits come wrapped in bubble rap and each set of small metal bits comes in its own plastic box or bag.

Brown Water Navy - Forces of War Review

Navy SEALS… Gunships… Patrol Boats… Jets… Amphibious Guerrilla Warefare!

So for those of you who have resisted Tour of Duty so far, I might have grabbed your attention with some buzz words, particularly SEALS but keep reading if your one of the people that hasn't got into the Vietnam theatre yet as Brown Water Navy is seriously good!

A lot of my friends don’t play Vietnam games and that might be because of a lack of historical interest in the conflict as we come from a tiny corner of the South of England but I’m hoping to convert a few of you over to this Flames of War expansion.

For those of you who are interested in Vietnam, the lists are on Forces of War, the book is on Flames of War Digital and Wargames Illustrated have done a fun article. Ben even got to see a demonstration copy of Brown Water Navy in Entoyment Store and I wanted to have a look at the lists, rules and why something that should catch your attention, even in the face of other new expansions in 2015.

AAR - US 8th Infantry vs 26th Panzer - Breakthrough

So Ben and myself decided to try out our Breakthrough Assault 3 lists, we rolled up breakthrough. Ben Was using the 8th Infantry out of the Citizen Soldiers PDF, they have the option to Night Attack and in fit of near insanity Ben elected to do so! (Not really too insane, he mostly just wanted to see how it would work before using it at BA3) Having chosen table quarters Ben placed two objectives - and I deployed the Panthers in one quarter, the Panzer 4's in the other - Ben deployed artillery at the rear recce at the edges, and left an infantry platoon in reserve.

US 8th Infantry Division HQ + 2 Bazookas Full Infantry Platoon Full Infantry Platoon 4 81mm Mortars 4 HMG's + 2 Bazookas (Ben forgot to deploy the Bazookas...) Full Pioneers + Supply Cart Cav Recon Cav Recon 4 M10's 4 155mm Artillery 4 155mm Artillery AOP

26th Panzer Division 2 HQ Panzer IV's 4 Panzer IV's 3 Panzers 2 Flakpanzer 38(t) 4 StuG M43 105/25 2 8-Rads 2 Nebs

The Road to Corrivalry, Ben's 2nd ID (Yes them again!)

Hello All,

If you tuned in for the last Podcast you will know the biggest (and one of the best) FoW tournament in the UK takes place next weekend, Corrivalry. This event marks the beginning of the tournament scene for 2015 (they come fast and furious after this, including Breakthrough Assault III in a months time).

So after last years less than glorious performance with my Matilda horde I decided to go back to an old favourite of mine- US Infantry. I had already done a fair amount of the infantry for my US Armoured rifles but I needed to bulk my collection to turn the Armoured Rifle platoons into Rifle Platoons,

Corrivalry - Stuarts Ho!

So as may have been alluded to on a few occasions, I've been trying to put together a list of late war Stuarts for a while. This is the list memorably described by Winner as 'the worst list I have ever seen', shortly before it ground him down to a 3-4 win (I lost, it's not that good).

So this idea came about when I read the bridge at Remargen book and saw the Task Force Rider's special rule which let's armoured rifle companies bin off their half tracks an sit on tanks gaining a 3+ save, rather than a 5+ save. I thought 'that's quite cool' and then looked at how I could maximise light nippy Staurts using the armoured rifle bazookas to compensate for the rubbish guns on the tanks. The idea is that the Stuarts kill infantry (very well with stabilisers and loads of machine guns) while the armoured rifles dismount to scrag anything bigger than a panzer IV.

Anyhow, this struggled a bit in playtesting, particularly when my dice were awful and when I realised that Machine Gunning tanks covered with men resulted in a dead armoured rifle platoon, regardless of a 3+ save.

Bring Up The Guns, US Style!

Hello All

As you might be aware Corrivalry is around the corner; and with already 80 sign ups as I type and with players from Italy, Ireland and France this is going to be the biggest tournament of the year in the UK. If I'm honest myself and Adam tend to worry about lists for Corrivalry more than any other event on the calendar. With that in mind I have been madly writing lists, then emailing Adam and Co and chatting to WWPD Luke about every US infantry list around. So with a load of lists written I needed to add a lot of guns!

A quick dig through the bits box found four Towed M5 3" Guns and an order to get four more Towed Guns and eight (yes that's right eight!) 155mm artillery! And of course me being me I decided to paint them all in one go.

Vietnam US Infantry Company

Hello All

The last leg of my US leg infantry (pun of sorts intended) is finished! I will admit I was struggling to find the time to paint them up so I sent them over to our own Matt (Papa Bear) so I could finally start playing some games!

Matt painted the models while I did all the basing as I wanted to make sure it matched the Helicopters I had already done.

Late War AAR - Panssari vs US 1st Armored - Free For All

Hi All

Another AAR and an odd one for you, I decided to risk unleashing the mighty Panssari  company - I almost felt the ground tremble.  Paul opted for US 1st Armoured from the Italy compilation - really wanting to field his 76mm! We rolled up Free for All

The lists

Starting with Paul, he'd gone for an Italian US list - he realised after he's made a small mistake as the 57mm guns were not an option in the list but not a huge problem in hind site he had

M4A3 (Late) Plastic Sherman Platoon (UBX44) - Review

Hello all

My main focus for the end of 2014 going into 2015 will be expanding my US forces so I can use a number of different army lists. So when I saw the new M4A3 (Late) Plastic Shermans (UBX44) I had to grab them to add to my army.

The Flames of War range of plastics is getting better and better from the slightly awkward beginnings with the Open Fire Shermans and StuG's to the excellent SU-85 and Pershing Box Sets. With that in mind I was interested to see if this set fixed the problems that plagued the Open Fire Versions, and at first glance I am happy to say that this is a completely different model.

AAR - Late War - 9th Armoured Rifles vs SS-Westfalen - Encounter

Hi All, It's been a while since myself and Adam have played a game. With Adam looking for GT practice for his SS Westfalan and myself having just finished adding some options to turn my MW Armoured Rifles into a LW list; it seemed like the perfect time to have a game. I turned up at Adams and we rolled up encounter... we'll be honest we are not fans of Encounter so we quickly had a chat. We decided to play it as we rolled it up and Adam may have to play it at the tournament, but we added the gentleman's agreement that we would both attack from the start (nothing worst than spending 4 or 5 turns with two infantry armies just sitting there!). So with that we rolled off to see who the attack would be.  Note:- I forgot my Artillery and Dead Infantry markers, so if it makes the game harder to follow, I'm sorry and promise to remember them for next time.

US 9th Armor Armoured Rifles Company HQ + AA MG Full US Armored Rifle Platoon Full US Armored Rifle Platoon Cav Recon + Stuart Super Pershing 3 Easy Eights + 1 Jumbo 4 105mm Artillery

SS-Westfalen HQ + 2 Schrecks + 4 Trap Teams Full SS Platoon + Faust Full SS Platoon + Faust 2 HMG's 2 Mortars Short Scouts 2 King Tigers (RV) -For the Fatherland 2 Panzer III N's and 2 Panzer IV's 3 Pak 40's (RT) 3 FlaK 43's (RT)

List Discussion - 9th Armored, Armored Rifles

Hello All

It's been a while since I have done a list discussion and while I was turning my Mid War Armoured Rifle Company into a Late War version I thought it was a good chance to correct that. Now I will start by saying this is a List Discussion with a bit of a difference, I'm using the New Bridge at Remagen book and the 9th Armoured Rifles list.

So what is the difference from are normal list discussions? Well normally it's about use fine tuning our lists and making the best list we can, well I'm not trying to do that, I'm going to try and make a list that will use some new options I haven't tried before and not use some of the staple units I normally use for the US. I'm doing this as I personally think one of the best ways to improve at any game is to try and play the game without your normal staple as it forces you to think more about what you have to do. Now I will say at this point I don't try to make bad lists, I'm not all about trying to win the game but I like to have a list that has a chance.

The Definition of Madness (US Armoured Rifles Painting Challenge)

Hello All

From the title you may have guessed I'm doing another painting challenge. As I start typing this it's the morning on the 30th June and I'm planning on painting an Armoured Rifle Company for Devizes Attack 2014 on the 19th/20th July. As I have no painted models for the army yet that's 19 days to paint 1750pts of Mid War US! I do have two weeks off during the 19 days so I do hopefully have the spare time to be able to hopefully do it, but just to add a little extra pain to the whole thing I'm also painting up a few extra bits so I can do the army for Late War and as a standard infantry company.

Now you may ask why I would want to do this mad challenge, well that's not an easy answer. I have always wanted to do US Armoured Rifles as I love the platoons being so big and being almost a complete combined arms force in themselves. Add to that I have come to the painful conclusion that I'm an infantry player and not a tank commander, I felt I needed a new army. The final reason was I wanted a reason to use the new plastic Armoured Rifles as they looked great on the Battlefront Website (the guy how painted them shuld have his hands cut off).

M26 Pershing Platoon (UBX43) Review

Hello All

Last week I finally got my hands on the new M26 Pershing Platoon (UBX43) kit and while I'm in the middle of painting up a 1750pts MW Armoured Rifle company for Attack 2014 in a few weeks (more on that in a future post) I just had to build and paint these bad boys ASAP! 

What's in the box:-

The box comes with enough bits to make 3 Pershing and the sprues include the bits to make a Super Pershing if you want to use that option. You get the normal US decal sheet and a plastic sprue with 5 tank crew on. One thing of note it the box does not include any magnets, the model is designed to be bui

lt with a plastic peg to slot the turret into the hull, but it does look like a Magnet would fit the whole the peg goes into if you wanted to use magnets instead.

Bridge at Remagen Review

Hi there, it's 1945 and the allies are advancing into Germany, the US 9th army have managed to capture the bridge at Remagen...

I  placed this review I wrote elsewhere, but thought I'd share it with you guys here, hope you find it usefull

The first thing to notice is that we've moved back to the western front, why is this interesting? Well the last set of soft back LW were all linked to the Ardennes campaign, this book along with the previous - Desperate measures are not linked by geography, but by time - it's 1945 and the Reich is collapsing!