Flames of War: More Grenadier Guards (300 point upgrade)

Just finished up the latest addition to my FOW British armored squadron:  the company's fourth and final Sherman tank platoon and a motor platoon. 

The Shermans are pretty much the same as the other platoons...2 mark Vs and a Firefly...

I like the British infantry models a lot, and painting them was a lot less trying than working on the German infantry models.  There's a lot more in the way of fiddly details with the Germans...bread bags, gas mask canisters and the like...that the British don't have.

The motor platoon is small but well armed, with command stand, PIAT, light mortar and 3 machine gun teams, not a lot of staying power, but enough firepower for smaller jobs... 

 And they look cool riding in amongst the tanks, which is important too.

The platoon's transport are four American Harvester M5 half-tracks.  No machine guns, unfortunately.  Pretty much anything looks better with a machine gun on it, but the British seem to have preferred to use theirs for other purposes.

 I love half tracks!  German, American, even French...they all look great! 

  Some time back I bought some Bolt Action German h-tracks, intending to convert them to transport for a Rogue Trader Imperial Guard force.  Haven't gotten around to getting started on them, though...so  many projects, so little time.

The Squadron so far...1200 points!  The next 300 points will be a lorried rifle platoon and a heavy mortar platoon.  After that, I just need to add 4 command Shermans, 1 for each platoon, and a fighter bomber.  That will push the force out to 2,000 points, which is as far as I'm going with my FOW armies.

War Walks: Operation Goodwood

Grenadier Guards Again (Flames of War 300 point upgrade)

Nothing super exciting tonight.  Just been working on building up my Flames of War British Armoured Squadron...I've miraculously managed to stick to my plan of building up the army in 300 point blocks for exactly one block so far. 

With the new 300 points, I've just bought another platoon of 3 Tommy Cookers and a platoon of Bren Carriers, but I'm kinda pleased with how it all looks, so far. 

Old Stuff:  (585 points)
HQ Platoon:
2x Sherman V:  + AA MGs: 135 points


Combat Platoons:

1st Platoon: 
2x Sherman V & 1x Firefly VC + AA MGs:  225 points

2nd Platoon:
2x Sherman V & 1x Firefly VC: +AA MGs:  225 points

New Stuff: (310 points)

 3rd Platoon:
2x Sherman V & 1x Firefly VC: +AA MGs:  225 points

Slopped on more mud, this time...

Brigade Support Platoons:

Scout Platoon:
3x Universal Carrier: 70 points + 1 extra MG per: 85 points

Would have preferred Daimler of Humber armoured cars for my recon platoon, but the Carriers were pretty cheap compared to the armoured cars, and they've grown on me.  I actually like them quite a bit, now.

I might eventually recruit some Daimlers to act as recon for my tanks, and use the Carriers to support an independent rifle platoon.

So...Good fun, so far!  Next I'd like to go for some motorized infantry and self-propelled guns, but I'll probably just knock out the last platoon of Shermans, since I've already got them, or maybe add the rifle platoon and strengthen my command platoon with 2 extra Shermans...

So, there's 895 points.  Back to my German Grenadiers, who are taking a lot longer than I imagined they would...the infantry stands are proving pretty challenging...

...til next time!

Grenadier Guards (Flames of War 600 pt force)

So there I was, broken in bed, studying the ceiling and trying not to feel overly sorry for myself.  My wife, sweet, thoughtful creature that she is, bought me a small stack of WW II books to read because she knows I like that kind of stuff.  And here my troubles began.  Over the next couple of weeks I picked up a few more new tomes, notably some volumes in the so far excellent Stackpole series, and rediscovered a few old loves, such as Guy Sajer's The Forgotten Soldier.  I was quickly getting into a rut.  You know how it is.

Once I could get up and around, I got out my Bridge Too Far and Battle of Britain DVDs.  I watched them over and over as I nudged a few minis glumly around on my desk, entirely unable to paint.  And then there was the internet.  The verdamnt internet.  Always sitting there in predatory silence.  Patient, watchful.  Wanting me to get on it and buy things.    And at last, with little else to do, get on it and buy things I did.  Tiny tanks and tiny men.  Too many of them.  You know how it is.

Anyway here are some of them.

A long time ago, I discovered something on the FOW site that got a big, fat iron  fishhook in my attention; these little 600 point starter forces.  I became fascinated by them and of course I had to have some of my own.  So now I've got late war British armor and American mechanized infantry, and German Grenadiers to fight them.  I'm starting out at 600 points with each army, and then I'm going to build up each army in 300 point blocks, until I get bored.

So here we go:  My British Armour Company, 600 pts:  (I'm using the FOW Armies book that comes with the new edition rules, not the high-speed Atlantik Wall and Overlord books; I'll acquire those eventually, but don't have 'em now.)

HQ Platoon:
2x Sherman V:  125 points

The CO and XO.  The extra tread should probably be green, but I sort of like how it looks painted as bare steel.  These are the plastics from the boxed Open Fire set, but purchased separately from bits merchants online.  Somehow, I got frames that all had the same commander figure.  I tried to get 1 tank with a distinctly different commander by buying one of the resin-and-metal Sherman Vs, but the commander figure that came with it was too short and skinny to look realistic next to the others.  Certainly, his smaller size would have poorly represented his Boss-Man stature.

Combat Platoons:

1st Platoon: 
2x Sherman V & 1x Firefly VC:  210 points

 I originally wanted my lads to be denizens of 11th Armoured Division for no other reason than that the 11th's division patch looks, frankly, badass...

Am right, no? 

But the decal pack I ordered seemed to be an older version that did not include the raging bull patch.  It did, however, have the somewhat disturbing all-seeing Eye of Sauron device of the Guards Armoured Division, so I was ok with that. 


2nd Platoon:
 2x Sherman V & 1x Firefly VC:  210 points

I would have preferred that my Guardsmen had been of the Irish regiment, (had images in head of Michael Caine as Joe Vandeleur, wearing that pained expression of quiet and dignified desperation as he tries to cram his regiment up the accursed single lane highway to Nijmegen) but no, the decals I had only supplied the '51' of the Grenadier Guards, and I was anxious to get started.  Grenadier Guards it would be.

 Giant hole in the back of the Firefly's turret that I didn't notice until just now. Grr.  Will have to go back and fill that in.

The decals look pretty good once you slop them up with 'mud' and when they don't catch the light in the wrong way.

So the compulsory units of my British armoured company were assembled.  I had a bare minimum HQ platoon, and 2 bare minimum combat platoons, and already it added up to 545 points out of 600 points.  What can you buy with 55 points in Flames of War?  Not much.  The one thing could do was to outfit all my tanks with AA Machine guns at 5 pts each. Good for fending off wandering Stukas, and, perhaps just as important, I think they look cool.  So that's 585 points.  Next:  German Grenadiers.  Right after I finish my Oldhammer Gobbo stickas.

 "Oh...Bluddy Hell.  Men, we've come the wrong way.  Turn around, objective's back that way.  Christ, are we ever going to get out of this bocage country?"