Right, after doing a little research and some re-reading of ‘Desert Fox’ Intelligence handbook here’s what I’ll go for initially I think. This army list is based on the 15 Panzerdivision around Dec 1942 - post the Second battle of Alamein. Specifically the British ‘Left Hook’ operations that the NZers were involved with in the closing of ‘42.
15 Panzerdivision operated in the same area as the NZ 2nd Div at that time so they’ll be a great force to play against my existing NZ Flames of War army.
15 Panzer Armee Armored Coy
HQ Platoon
200 2 Panzer IIIj (Early)
30 Upgrade all to IIIj (Late)
5 Sd Kfz 9 Recovery Vehicle
—–
235
Combat Platoons
300 Panzer Platoon, 3 Panzer IIIj (Early)
45 Upgrade all to IIIj (Late)
—–
345
300 Panzer Platoon, 3 Panzer IIIj (Early)
60 Commander upgraded to IV F2
60 Upgrade two to IV F1
—–
420
Support (1 per Panzer Platoon)
220 Panzergrenadier Platoon with 3 squads
5 Command Panzerknacker SMG team
—–
225
Divisional Support (1 per Panzer Platoon)
240 Heavy AA Gun Platoon with 2 sections
20 Extra gun crew on both guns
—–
260
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1485
Drat! 15 points left to spare…or is that a ‘lucky 15′ because they’re a 15 Panzer Armored coy? Here’s hoping.
One of my regular opponents fields a European themed Panzer Armored Company as well, fortunately this force is a little different from his. From memory he’s fielding light Panzers and AA armored half tracks, whereas I’ve gone for the 88 Flak battery and a Panzergrenadier platoon.
The good news is that since I’ve already purchased most of the core of the army I only have to add an additional few blisters to field the force. Namely:
$18nz GE600 Recovery half track (if I can get one).
$42nz 3 x GE042 Panzer IV F1/F2 blisters.
$28nz GE703 Panzergrenadier blister.
=====
$88nz
All up that means this army will cost me less than $280! Man that’s cheap. Good luck building a GW 40k or WHFB army for that much. The only down side to this force for me is I can’t field those nifty Mechanised Panzergrenadiers I mentioned in the last post. Ah well just as well I didn’t just grab a box of them then!
To be honest the more I play Flames of War, the more I look at all my old GW armies and think why did I bother? Hopefully Battlefront won’t screw up the system with their soon to arrive Second edition rulebook.
Damn thats actually a pretty good list, I spend hours trying to come up with something compeditive anyways why not upgrade your HQ Tank to a Pz III J long for that little bit more AT.
Curse my reading you’ve already done that so thn yes it is a nice tight list with a lucky 15 spare points.
Aye looks good to me and as you say quite different to Nats army which is nice.
You could drop the recovery vehicle and with the 20pts upgrade both you command tanks to Panzer III L or M for that extra point of armour.
I say keep the recovery vehicle attache him with the 2iC and join up with one of the platoons and do crazy driving through boggable terrain the watch as your towed to safety incase you roll the dreaded one.
I have to admit the recovery vehicle could be a sticking point. The FOW online store lists them but only as a ’special order’ which I assume means they’re either out of stock or out of production or both!
I added it because I feel it just wouldn’t be right to field an Armored Coy without a recovery vehicle, and particularly a DAK force given the German’s basic need to recover their damaged and abandoned tanks for repair in the desert.
It would be nice to have some more IV F2’s in their with their long 32″ range in there but Nate’s bloody IV F1’s have caused me so much grief with their close support artillery and smoke I thought I’d give them a try.
Hmmm of course I could just buy a whole IV F1/F2 box set and then have the ability to swap F1’s and F2’s around depending on what works best?
Oh and the Panzergrenadiers will probably be tank riders because I dislike wasting modelling funds on transports!
The recovery vehicle is only special order as it’s huge and doesn’t fit in a regular box and you could always use captured British trucks to transport troops if you’ve got em.
Really? Crikey it must be a monster! Wonder if I can get Vagabond in town to order me one?
Hmmm, well only 15cwt’s for my Artillery Staff team which probably won’t cut it for the Panzergrenadiers.
Think of Desert panzergrenadiers as the scabs of the desert anything with 4 or more wheels is classed as acceptable (cept russian trucks)
Heh…well, I wonder if I could rig up some removeable recognition flag system…? Probably could with a bit of carefully sculpted green stuff and some rare earth magnets.
That way all my Panzergrenadiers could ride in ‘borrowed’ NZ 15cwt’s and Quad gun tractors and I could save $14…
You’re tempting me to do a bit of vehicular conversion Daniel you fiend!
Excellent, my plan is working
Actually looking at it, the IV F1’s and IV F2 should be the HQ unit for this army. Since the F2 has a 32″ range and the F1’s can indirect fire to 48″ as close support arty.
You might find that you have to field 1 combat platoon with the same tanks as the HQ. Im not SURE this is the case but it is with some of the armies (US armour for instance).
Of course it may be that all PIII & IV are considered the same kind of tanks or something like that.
Yes true, I must read the Desert Fox army book in great detail before long.
I’ll probably leave it the way it is. The IV’s can lurk a little back offering some fire support to the forward IIIj’s. Not that desirable to have the Company HQ in the thick of it, but it is an Armored Coy after all!