List writing and tournaments

Hi guys, Griddon here. In the wash up from Breakout and in subsequent games and list building activities I've started to wonder a bit about my approach. I thought I'd muse the subject for public consumption ;)

Breakout was our first tourney and running it gave us a good opportunity to stand back and watch some of the games. I think until now Mat and I have been comfortable in our own small meta pushing round pretty historically accurate and fluffy lists while learning the game and having some laughs. After Breakout I realised that this approach probably wouldn't wash in the FoW tourney scene unless I liked getting walloped in every game. (And believe me, I don't! :) )

Beginners: Late war lists ready to go!

Right. Continuing the Flames of War for beginners theme I wanted to write a couple of 'starter' lists for the Late War period. In this post you'll find some introduction to the lists, the lists themselves and some discussion about the selections. I've also made your shopping experience pretty easy if you want to actually go ahead and buy that exact list. Cut, paste, email your LGS and ask for a quote!

Ok, for starters, it's tough to pick a book for the lists. Each Flames of War source book is specific to a time period in the war. Blitzkrieg deals with Early war. Eastern Front and North Africa deal with Mid War and pretty much everything else is focused on Late War. I've proposed the use of Fortress Europe as it's a good starter source book before but for specific reasons I'll explain further on, I think Turning Tide and Earth and Steel are wise investments for the new Late War players.

"The Polar Bear Butchers"

Hi, Blackwolf here, with a little post regarding the plans for my next army.

Before I start my next company though, there are a few things I need finish off. First is my Dutch countryside table and scenery, and second, is my small Soviet tank company. I'll post pics of both when they are complete. But in the mean time, I've been planning and buying the models for my next project. Can you guess by the title and the picture? If so, brilliant! You either hail from the fair county of Yorkshire, or, have a firm grasp of British Division nicknames and emblems. If not, let me be your guide ;) So my next project will be an infantry company from the British 49th West Riding Division, who featured a Polar Bear on an ice flow as a divisional symbol (due to being stationed in Iceland in the early part of the war), thus receiving the nickname 'The Polar Bear Butchers' from the Nazi propaganda broadcaster Lord Haw-Haw.

Eastern Front Panzer List

The Hornisse / Nashorn

Hi all. Back again with some list discussion. A few weeks back I detailed my plans to get Panzer-Grenadier Division Großdeutschland onto the table. Those plans may be on hold. :) I had some doubts about putting another 'hobby' list together which I already acknowledged wasn't going to be competitive. I've since got a few more games under my belt. I've also been playing World of Tanks a bit. The combined effect was a rewrite of my intended German list.

The aims were quite simple. I wanted competitive. I wanted fun. I also wanted a combined arms list which had Tank Hunters, Panzerspah and a solid back bone of Panzer IVs. Since I also have an Eastern Front table on the go it makes sense to have an Eastern Front list to push about. So, I immediately went to take a look at the Bagration Panzer Divsions PDF available on the Flames of War site. Not bad but aside from some interesting support selections the same lists can be achieved from Fortress Europe and with the later I benefit increased Tank Hunter options.

Upcoming Mid War Tournament List's

Hi, Blackwolf here, with some musings about an upcoming mid-war tournament.

Hobby store "Realm of Legends" here in Melbourne are planning on running a one day mid-war tournament on Saturday, the 7th of May (link to their WargamerAU post here). I believe this comes at the end of a mid-war escalation league they've recently run. We here at Bunker 3030 couldn't participate in the league as we were concentrating on late war armies, plus Realm of Legends is in Croydon, a suburb about an hours drive from the Bunker. However, we are interested in the one day tournament.

Our problem, as already stated, is that we have late-war armies. But, with a little tinkering, we've written up some lists from the armies we have that should do alright in mid-war (we think, but honestly, we have no idea, we have no experience with the period). I'm planning on the following list from Eastern Front...

6th Guards Tank Brigade - Part 1

Hi all. Griddon here with a introduction into a quick mini project I have planned before I start my Germans in the Aussie winter. I'd like to call this project: "Project Churchill Awesome". 6th Guards Tank Brigade is probably more sensible and accurate. I have six Chuchills and a Machine Gun Platoon to paint and then we can give the Germans something with slightly more resiliance than wet paper to shoot at.

We'll do some history first. This is a bit back to front as I first decided I wanted to get some Churchills on the table and I then went looking for historical justification. Let's pretend I did it the other way around for a moment. (I'll admit this also. When picking a historically accurate unit, I wanted to make sure I could get decals to suit.) So having done some research I decided on representing 6th Guards Tank Brigade, 4th Tank Battalion Coldstream Guards. There is quite a lot of information on these guys online. Google is your friend as always. Some references were contradictory but this is pretty much par for the course for the lesser known combatants in the war. What I do know is that the Bridage landed at Gold and Juno beaches on July 20th 1944 and almost immediately went ito action supporting the 15th Scots in Operation Bluecoat. Here, the 6th Guards Tank Brigade were the unfortunate recipients of some unwanted attention from a Jagdpanther from 654 schwere Panzerjägerabteilung. Let's just say, the Jagdpanther did particularly well. Read more at your leisure. As I mentioned, decal availablilty is important. Dom's Decals has got me covered here and they supply the tank names in decal form too. This info at Northirishhorse tells me what the tank names were for each tank in the battalion so I'm basically fully set.

Panzer-Grenadier Division Großdeutschland

Hi folks, Griddon here.

This is to be the very first post detailing the development of my German Late War Flames of War army. It starts with a discussion about the list in this post, but in the coming weeks and months i'll be putting a lot of effort into documenting how I go about pretty much everything in the process of concept to table top.

Firstly I will say this. The list wont win tournaments. It isn't designed to. The list is a step in the process of getting a good selection of Germans painted and available and should be fun to play in casual games. This list is an elite four platoon list that will be cheap and easy to get ready and gaming with.

I have chosen to represent the Panzer-Grenadier Division Großdeutschland on the Eastern front around 1944. These guys were known to be really quite well equipped. Infact this was one of the reasons I picked them. In my very first list I had a squad of armoured Panzergrenadiers. During late war, it was actually quite rare for Panzergrenadiers to be issued with halftracks so finding a regiment that definitely did receive them was top priority.