Updates, thoughts on MG lists, painting

Where to begin...

Let's start with having way to much stuff to paint!  I think I have finally caught the disease of buying way too much stuff than I will ever paint.  And for this I blame Battlefront and Evan.

So I am still putting finishing touches on my 2 ID / Winter Infantry Company.  I still have a bunch of vehicles that need decals.  And then what happens...

I go out and buy (now in my defense, these were fire sales!!!):

2 Strelk Platoons
1 Strelk Company
Brit Rifle Company
US SP AA - enough to field the 4 vehicles
US 155mm Arty
US M4A3 Lates from BF
Brit Shermans
3 Brit Commando Platoons
Brit Para Recon Jeeps
US Winter Bazookas
US Winter HMGs
Brit Universal Carriers
Brit Ram / Roos
Brit LVTs
Brit Land Mattresses

Ok, you get the idea...

And this is on top of the stuff that I am still trying to paint.  I am an idiot...

Here is a quick picture or two of my progress:


 





These are three of my Rams.  I will admit to having 9 more...

One of my LVTs.  I will admit to having 5 more...

Which brings me to my thoughts on the MG books.

First, I am much more familiar with the Allied lists because, well I play Allied lists.  The German lists a varied, some are a bit quirky - like 12 88s!!! - and others are simply good lists - KG Spindler.  But there is literally something for everyone in the BbB book for the Germans.

The MG book for the Allies is very good.  Yes, everyone is aware that the 17pdrs now get APDS, so the AT stat has been bumped up to 15.  At the 6pdr AT gun has been bumped up to AT 11.  The PDFs have been incorporated into the book and the Commandos have been added - along with some really good Canadian lists.

Let me say that again...  really good Canadian lists...  Remember when I posted last year about TFA??  While not TFA quality "good", the Canadians are worth a peek.  Plus you get the cool Rams / Roos to have your infantry tool around in!!  Oh, the Commandos are pretty good too.  I mean, where else can you get 16 Sherman tanks rated CV for 800 points??  Ok, they are Crab Tanks (Flails) and they can't assault and they don't have a hull MG, but they are still AT 10 tanks...  So Commandos can get 16 tanks and the LVTs.  And if you want more fun, grab some Naval Guns!!

Now are they 2 ID strong, maybe.  But probably not.  But check them out.

As you see in the pictures above, I did try to get some painting done last weekend.  All told, 32 vehicles have now been base coated and panel faded.  Unfortunately, my airbrush is now "dead".  But the good news is the TWO replacement airbrushes are now in the mail!!

So that is about it for now.  I don't have any tournaments on the docket as I am skipping EW Nats at Adepticon this year.  But I am planning on attending Historicon again and entering the LW Nats!

What?! First post in 2013?!?!

Unreal.  I had not realized it had been so long since my last post.  And those two sentences are becoming more and more common on this blog.

So...  what have I been up to?

Lots of course!

My painting queue is getting rather rediculous.  Between Christmas gifts, ordering from a fire sale and gifts from friends, my unpainted stuff is rather large.  I am having to resort to playing with basecoated models!  I believe I literally have 50+ vehicles that need decals and weathering.

I am very pleased to see the new MG books!  I will say this about the Allies: The Canadians Rock!  Like I said with TFA, the Canadians are very, very strong.  Due to special rules, you get to re-roll to unpin and unbail.  So the Canadians effectively get Protected Ammo on everything.  Plain Jane Shermans just got better!  Oh yeah, the Armored Reccee get Eyes and Ears as well as Cautious Movement.  Nice!

I also went to visit a good friend in California that is moving to the UK in a few weeks.  Yup, had to go play and drink with Bill and his lovely wife.  That was a hoot!

We played Up Front!, a Napoleonic game (very cool!) and 4 games of FoW.  Here is a quick AAR:

Bill ran his list that he took to Bane of War.  It was CT US Tanks with Patton.

HQ: E8 and Jumbo
Platoon 1: 2 E8 and 2 Sherman Lates
Platoon 2: 2 E8 and 2 Sherman Lates
Platoon 3: 5 Stewies
Platoon 4: Engineers (he later removed and went with 4 more Stewies)
Platoon 5: Cav Recon
Platoon 6: Armored mortars
Patton
(after 4 games, he did tweak the list a bit more, but you get the idea)

I ran 2 ID (CV).  While my list was altered as well, this was the most common version:

HQ
Platoon 1: Full platoon with pimped out zooks
Platoon 2: Full platoon with pimped out zooks
Platoon 3: HMG platoon with pimped out zooks
Platoon 4: HMG platoon with pimped out zooks
Platoon 5: AT Gun platoon
Platoon 6: Recon Jeeps (all .50 cal)
Platoon 7: TD platoon with Jacksons (Trained)
Platoon 8: Towed TD (Vet) with pimped out zooks
(yes, no arty.  Crazy, huh??)

The first 3 games were all played on the same board.  It was fairly dense - call it "I-95" quality.  I did not get a picture of the board - sorry.

Game 1: Fighting Withdrawal (Bill 5, Allen 2)

I put one infantry platoon on the left and one on the middle.  I had two TD platoons middle to middle right.  Jeeps were on a road in the middle and AT guns in Ambush.  I had Combat Attached both HMGs to each platoon.  Bill put everything on my right.

This was over before it started.  Bill moved his entire army up to 16.1" away from my dudes.  Or he was able to get closer, but out of LoS.  And for the first time, I was very worried that my TDs would be prevented from deploying (we used the proposed changes from Phil).  He swarmed the objective on Turn 1.  I deployed the TDs and popped the Ambush.  I put a world of hurt on the Shermans and killed a Stewie platoon.  But not enough.  He was able to pin, block movement and keep me off the objective.  2-5 for Bill.  This was my first game against Bill ever.  He does play a different style!

Game 2: Breakthrough (Bill 4, Allen 3)

Now that I had experienced Bill's style, I knew what to do.  My deployment was really good (after the game, Bill illustrated the PERFECT deployment) and I focused his attack.  He was surprised that I did not deploy right up on the deployment border, but rather gave him room to move.  I did not attach the HMGs this time and that was the right call.  I put the AT guns in overwatch that covered the middle of the board.  Towed TDs were on the board as my only mobile platoon.  Jacksons and Jeeps were in Reserves due to Mobile Reserves rule.  So I had the two infantry platoons and the MG platoons ready to run to the objectives.  Bill focused on the middle and went AT gun hunting.  But he did try to flank of Sherman platoon, which was a mistake.  Turn 1 saw the AT guns get ripped, but they lived.  One gun that is...  In my turn, I got reserves and the Jacksons came on for side shots on the Sherman Platoon.  That lone AT gun was able to kill one of the Shermans and the Jacksons ripped apart the rest.  Point for me!  Turn 2 saw the ATguns wiped and Bill put the Stewies within distance to contest the closest objective.  I deployed the Towed TDs and the Stewies were gutted.  If not for Patton, they would have run!  And that started the swirling death match.  My jeeps came on the next turn and I went hunting for his recon.  While the odds were with me, the dice were not.  My jeeps died and one of his recon jeeps was left standing.  I did run another Sherman platoon.  Bill ended up assaulting my troops with his engineers after blasting them for a few turns.  The Stewies were the star for Bill as they kept killing infantry.  By Turn 6, he is on one objective and I cannot get a guy to contest (even with rerolls due to 1iC, I failed to unpin 3 straight turns).  But I was able to get Bill below half strength, so it came down to Company Morale for Bill.  He passed and won!  3-4 for Bill.  This was a great game and came down to a 50/50 roll for the win.

Game 3: Counter Attack (Bill 3, Allen 4)

This game was also a blast!  I kept the HMGs as separate platoons, which allowed me to get 4 on the board.  I put AT guns on the board, both infantry platoons and Towed TDs.  Reserves were Jeeps, Jacksons and HMGs.  I was able to dig in where needed and moved where needed.  Bill went AT gun hunting again, but I survived much better this time.  The game came down to TDs + AT Guns killing a Sherman platoon, Jacksons getting a Sherman platoon and the infantry assaulting the 1iC.  We ended up calling the game as I had total control of the objectives and Bill was about to lose the Company Morale roll.

Game 4: Dust Up (Bill 5, Allen 2)

Short and sweet - a mistake by me in Turn 1 cost me!  Bill and I broke for lunch after Turn 1 and he showed me the mistake.  UGGGHH!!!  Now I can say with 100% certainty, I never saw the move.  Had I done what Bill suggested, we calculated he is rolling Company Morale Turn 2.  So a 6-1 or 5-2 ended up a 2-5.  And that is FoW!  As I said, Bill plays a different style and that was the case in this game.  I learned more in this game than any single game in a long, long time!

So Bill ended up 3-1 against me.  Or as I say it - I beat Bill!  And if not for a 50/50 roll, we would have split our two games!

Maybe I don't suck afterall...

Merry Christmas!

All -

I hope that everyone has a Merry Christmas!

It has been a great FoW year and I am so very happy to have met and made such wonderful friends playing a silly game of toy soldiers.

I look forward to the New Year!

Campaign Update and Doubles Tournament Update

So we have moved into Round 2 of the Campaign.  If you are interested in the campaign rules, check out my previous post.

This past week, Mike went down the list for determining "initiative" which meant that I was subject to everyone else's whim.

And guess what?  My expanding territory was not even atatcked!  Turns out that Rob decided to attack Robert.  So Rob went for a para-drop.  Mike decided that since Robert wasn't there to play, that Rob would instead face me as Robert's proxy.  The deal is that if you can't make an evening, you should not be penalized with an "auto-loss."  Not sure how Rob was feeling about that...

So we had US Paras dropping on top of...  US Paras.  Both Rob and I fielded a list out of Nuts!  I went with 2 para platoons, para LMGs attached into those platoons, TDs (Hellcats), glider arty, and 2 sections of .50cal jeeps.  I also upgraded to Toccoa Sergeants and bought "Shifty" Powers.  Rob went with 4 para platoons, AT guns and arty.  We fought the Airborne Assault mission out of the new Normandy Battles.

No pictures (again?!?!!).  The game went fairly quickly as I deployed the 2 para platoons and the recee jeeps on the board.  I did have to shift one of the para platoons to be able to cover the two objectives that were left (attacker pulls one of the two he places).  Rob slowly moved in, waiting on his reserves to arrive.  So we got to Turn 3 really quickly.  Bottom of 3 Night is still in effect.  Top of 4 Night stays in effect and Rob now is closing the gap very quickly.  I need night to lift!!  Bottom of 4 I get my wish.  And the timing was very bad for Rob.  I ran the arty, but at the cost of my 4 jeeps!  You see, I killed all but a gun and the commander and lost 2 recee jeeps in the process when Rob shifted his paras and got shots on the jeeps.  So with just the gun and the commander, I assaulted with two jeeps.  Got through DF just fine.  So two swings with Vet and...  I missed two.  He doesn't have a hit, so no Motivation test needed.  Two swings with trained...  and two hits.  Damn!

Elsewhere I am gutting paras in the open with LMGs and the TDs had come on to blast .50cals into the same para unit.  After that turn, Rob decided to "pull back" and withdraw from the mission.  This is allowed after Turn 4 in any mission that we are playing for the Campaign.  So Robert keeps his territory with the loss of 100 points.  Not bad...  Rob got a bit of a bloodier nose from the fight.

Doubles Tournament

This past Saturday, Mike hosted a tournament at The Last Square.  The event was MW Doubles at 1,165 per Company - with the ability for you to mix nations as long as they are both Allies or both Axis.  For those of you wondering, Mike did that point level because that is the cost of 3 Tigers.  As a 10th team, he played 6 Tigers.

I partnered with Joe.  He ran Mixed Tankovy with Lees, Stuarts, T-26s and BT-"whatevers" for the points.  Lots of Soviet Tanks.  Oh yeah, Conscript Soviet Tanks.  I ran US Armored Rifles with 2 ARP, M10s, Scotts and Armored Mortars.

Round 1 we ended up playing 6 Tigers.  Thanks Mike!  In a twist, Round 1 was Free For All.  Basically, Joe's 1,165 were almost useless since the best the Lees could do was bail on the side (no long barrels).  But what Joe did was to litter the objectives with a ton of tanks to keep the Tigers from moving in certain places.  The M10s got a Tiger, but couldn't kill the other one.  The ARP did that and we claimed an objective.  Mike was 2-2-2 across the back and he couldn't get over to the objective in time.  Plus we had the other side also locked down with ARP.

Round 2, we played Chriss Fretts and Andrew Hobson from Indy.  Great guys and a game that I will remember for a very, very long time!  We played Breakthrough and Joe and I attacked Chris' US Tanks (Stuarts, Lees, armored recee) and Andrew's Brit Paras.  Bloody, swarming battle that came down to the bitter end.  Joe and I broke Chris' company and took them 6-1.  But the score does not at all describe the closeness of the game.

Round 3 was against Robert and Robert in Fighting Withdrawal.  Robert #1 had Soviet Strelk horde with AT guns and recee, while Robert #2 had US Tanks with Lees, Stuarts (AGAIN!?!?!!?), 105s, Scotts and SP arty.  While I was the main attack force in Round 1, Joe was the main attack force in Round 2.  My job was to kill Lees and the M10s did that perfectly.  Joe's job was to line up and assault Strelk.  Which he did perfectly.  In the end, we had the objective on Turn 5 and won.  But even if we lost the objective, we were going to get both guys to Company Morale rolls the next turn.  5-2 to us.

So we ended up 5-2, 6-1 and 5-2.  With some scoring adjustments (you got extra points for wins and lost points for losing 1iC, 2iC and any warriors), we came in 2nd place behind some of the Indy guys.  So it was Gary's team in 1st, we were 2nd, Joe Lewis' team was 3rd and Chris / Andrew were 4th.  Not bad company!!

But most importantly, I had a blast with my friend Joe!  We played well together and our lists allowed us to carry the other guy when needed - me in Round 1 and Joe in Round 3.  THAT is what a doubles tournament is all about!!

LW Campaign in the US Midwest!! Who knew??

New Campaign Underway!

After getting a little burned out with just playing week after week of "decide and era, build a list and drop dice", Mike decided to take matters into his own hands again.  And that is when he came up with the idea for a campaign set in the Midwest USA.

Basically, think of this as a game of Risk.  Everyone that wanted to join the campaign was given two territories - a rural and expansive territory and a "capital."  So with 10 players, we took a map and went about splitting up Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Michigan and Minnesota.

But that wasn't enough...

Mike also decided that we would be given a "bank account" of 3,500 points to use in battle in Late War.  Now a single battle could only go to 1,780 points.  You could choose to use less if you wanted.  And when you lost a vehicle, you lost the points.  When you lost a gun, you lost a point.  When you lost an infantry platoon, you lost the points.  If a vehicle platoon runs from the table, you only "lost" what was left behind (i.e. destroyed vehicles).  If a platoon of infantry runs, you lose 50% of the points.  You lose more if you had 3 or fewer stands.  Of course, if the entire platoon is destroyed you lose all the points.  And for aircraft, you only have 10 total planes.  If two get shot down in a single attack, you now have 8 total.  So air will be at a premium and expect your bank account to go down.

But if you take a territory, you earn 250 points.  If you take a capital, you get 500 points.  So you are rewarded if you attack!

Players had to choose a nation and cannot change at all.  We also decided that Canadians will not be considered British, rather they are their own nation.  In addition, we can only use books or PDFs that are published and approved by BF.  I, of course, went with U S of A baby!!  American, F@#* Yeah!!

As to the map itself, Mike also rules that if you are on Lake Michigan or Superior, you can amphibious assault from the lake into another territory.  Now you don't have to have a list that is "beach assault" and we are not running the "beach assault" mission, but it does allow you to traverse the map quickly.  He also ruled that you can paradrop on any other territory on the map - provided you have access to a para list.  And for our campaign, that means Soviets and Canadians do not have paras.  As a note on that, this isn't a historical argument but rather a list issue in FoW.

Without further ado, here is the map after Round 1: (although two players have yet to complete Round 1)

I was given Milwaukee (USA) and the area surrounding the city (green in the lower right).  CJ (Canadians) is to the west in Madison, Patrick (Germans) is to the north in Green Bay.  Rob (USA) is up in the UP of Michigan with Mike (German) to his south in Wausau.  Joe (British) is hanging out in Iowa, with Robert (Soviet) to his north in Rochester, MN.  Ben (German) is in Minneapolis area, Kevin (USA) to his north in Duluth, with Pickle (his last name!) in Eau Claire, WI (Germans) and bodering almost everyone on the map.

To start Round One, Mike picked three players who could start the game by declaring their attack.  If you were attacked, you don't get to pick a battle - you are now "spoken for."  He will rotate this list throughout the campaign so everyone gets an equal chance.  I was able to go second and in a quirk of map making, Mike had created an open territory in Illinois with a capital in Rockford.  Well I had to go and liberate my Illinois Brothers!  But I think someone forgot to tell Illinois that they needed liberation.  To counter my move, CJ decided to also invade Illinois.  That led Mike to declare that CJ and I will play Encounter!  Mike decided to paradrop on Rockford for the easy points.  But wait!!  Joe also decided to paradrop on Rockford!  Pickle decided to invade Minnesota and took on Ben.  Patrick and I have a peace pact and he decided to attack Rob to the north!  So four games all happening at the same time!

In my game of Encounter, I went with a 6 platoon Cav Recon list.  To be completly fair, CJ wanted a short game and wanted to experience the TD stuff.  Okaaaaaaaaay - I can do that!  I deployed Jackson Sec Section, Towed Sec Section, 2 ID infantry.  Chafees, and the two recee platoons were in Reserve.  In a brilliant move, CJ decided to actually keep the high point totals off the board because he thought he would be wiped out.  So he put 25pdrs, a Sherman platoon with 1 Firefly, Stuart Recce platoon and an infantry platoon on the board.  His reserves were two Sherman platoons, an infantry platoon and an AA Crusader platoon that was split off from the HQ.  He also got some special hero in a tank.

I won't give a full AAR, but basically the Shermans were dead Turn 1 before he even had a chance to play by virtue of my Towed TDs popping within 16".  My zooks stayed in the halftracks and lit up the infantry platoon.  The Jackson Sec Section stayed on the board and wiped the 25pdr command stand, staff team and the battery command team.  The 2 ID dug in on one of my objectives.  Turn 2 saw me kill the hero, two 25pdr (Jacksons popped) and the Stuarts.  CJ passed the platoon morale.  Now in his shooting over the first two turns, he did get 3 guns and a Jackson.  Turn 3 saw my Chaffees arrive from Reserve in the perfect spot and move to assault the infantry platoon.  But the Jacksons completely destroyed the 25pdrs, and with CJ below half and having lost the 1iC, the game was over.

What was "sad" is that I told CJ I wouldn't go completely crazy with the TDs - meaning I did not pop the Jacksons, assault the guns and run the platoon in Turn 1, which would have placed me on the objective and ended the game because he could not have moved over quick enough.  And that, my friends, sums up a big issue with the TDs.  The infamous Turn 1 win without the other guy really getting a chance.

To that end, I do want to thank BF for opening the official dialog on the subject of TDs!

In the other games, Mike fought to a bloody victory over Joe; Pickle took out Ben and Patrick took out Rob's US Paras.

I will keep folks updated as the campaign progresses!

RockCon Update, Fall-In Preview!

New proclamation:

No More Proclamations.

Another month goes by with a single post.  Wow.  So here is my FoW update to cover the last 4 to six weeks:

This past weekend was RockCon, which is a mid-sized convention held in Rockford, IL.  My LGS is a big supporter, so the guys try to either run events, participate in events or just help out where and when we can.  This year, Joe ran a Bulge game (not a tournament) on Friday night and a 1,780 LW Normandy Themed Tournament on Saturday.  Let me start with Friday.

If you want details, you can see the details at FoW forums under the Conventions Thread.  Basically, the Allies got 1,000 points and the Germans got 2,000.  However, if anyone ran a list out of the three Bulge books, then you got an extra 100 points.  So I created three lists that all saw the table at 1,100.  They were a 2nd Cav Recon list, a 2 ID list and a Combat Engineer list.  We ended up having a Ranger list from Normandy (Igor from Poland was in the house again this year!!), a Para list from Nuts! and Armored Rifles.  We went up against 12,000+ points of German nasties!  The boards were laid out in a giant "H" shape, with each verticle being 24' long and the connector part being 6' long.  Bastogne was located in the vertical connector - right in the middle.  So the Germans could come on at any of the 4 "ends" of the H shape.  Roads were normal, off road was slow going and concealed (very light woods) but did not block LoS.  There were also 4 random events for each section of the ends and the middle connector.  Here is a map:


















Bastogne is Orange and the grey boxes were towns along the way.  Based on a random event, my 2nd Cav Recon popped up in the lower left corner of the map above - facing Panthers, Stugs, Grens - Oh My!  Rangers were in the upper left, Engineers popped on the upper right section and Rifles in the lower right.  2 ID was deployed at the start of the game split between the two towns to the left and right of Bastogne.  And of course, our Paras were defending Bastogne!!

After 4+ hours of bloodbath, my Cav Recon were destroyed, but they fought valiantly and took two German companies with them - one by destruction and the other by "no way in heck we are getting to Bastogne so we run!!"  All told, 1,100 Cav Recon points destroyed 2 Panther Platoons of 4 Panthers, 1 Panther Platoon of 3 Panthers, 1 StuG Platoon with 3 StuGs and a Panther 1iC - with that kill coming from a M8 Greyhound!!  But my Jacksons, Towed TDs, 2 Recon Patrols, 2 ID platoon and another M10 TD platoon from the 2 ID company down the road all met a glorious end for the Allies!  The other areas were just as bloody, but the Germans did make it much further down the road than in my sector.  However, in the end Bastogne held as the Germans forces that finally got there were so depleted that they could not move the Paras!

It was a great time and the second time in three years Joe has run this game.  It takes a lot of work and prep.  I do think the next time we run it, we will make movement a little easier as the Germans have a tough time getting down the roads.

Saturday saw 1,780 in LW Normandy - you could only field lists out of Turning Tide and Earth & Steel.  I ran the Cromwell 7th AD list - yes, not TFA!  24 players started the day ready to fight.  I started the day going up against James (Chaos45) and his very good list of CT guns, arty and grens with CV Marders, 8-Rads and StuGs.  James ended up spanking me 6-1 and was a great sport because for a bit he ended up playing against himself as work called and had issues.  So after the game, I talked to Joe and relegated myself to the bottom and helped teach some newer players.  Plus I kept getting calls from work and it was not fair to my opponents.  So I had a fun game with Nick, who was playing a Panzer IV company.  Congrats to Panzer Dan for the victory and to all the other players.  It was great to see everyone.

So now I can prepare for the upcoming Fall-In Doubles Tournament and a MW Double Tournament in Madison next month!

I am also finishing up some long awaited painting chores.  I am close to getting 8 Hellcats, 4 Jacksons, 2 M10s, 6 M8 Greyhounds, 2 Oddballs, 4 Jumbos, 5 Easy Eights, 4 M4A3 lates and 2 Abrams Warriors done and off the table!  Whew...  I am now in the hated "painting treads" part as I choose to paint the treads on the models.  Yes, I know...  Yes, I know...

I will also be finishing up some buildings and I will be placing an order for more Sentinel buildings now that they have released the Row Houses.  And yes, the church will be mine too!

And I also used my Lucage from Luke Melia on Saturday (although we played them as hedges and not straight up Bocage).  They looked great and we got a lot of compliments!

LW List Discussion - Cav Recon in DC

If you have been reading my blog for a while, you know that I have a certain love for all things Tank Destroyer.  Now this post is not about my feelings over the rules and the power that TDs and multiple TDs bring to the game.  That is a different topic and I am not using this post to discuss that topic.  This post is about list construction using the rules as they exist today.

So with that in mind, here we go!

The key element to maximizing the power of the TDs is to bring more than one platoon to the table.  There are many options here:  Task Force A in Turning Tide, Rangers in Turning Tide (I believe), TD Company in Blood, Guts & Glory, Rifle Company in Devil's Charge and Cav Recon in Devil's Charge.  I might have missed one or two, but you get the idea.  Now if you want a discussion on TFA, look in my archives to March of 2012 and read those posts because...

Right now, my list is Cav Recon.

When BG&G came out, I was all over the Tank Destroyer Company.  You can build a great list using that force - no doubt.  But when DC came out, a friend let me on to the Cav Recon list as a possibility.  After looking into the details, I am convinced this is a great list.

Rather than going through my thoughts, I will simply show the list and discuss each platoon and the reasoning around my choice.  And it will be done with an eye towards tournament play.

Here is a solid iteration of the Cav Recon Company from DC:

Let's start with the "core" of the list, which are the Combat Platoons.  You have to bring two platoons, just like almost every list in the game.  To maximize the points in support, choose the smallest platoons possible.  So with a single patrol in each platoon and the HQ, you have spent 265 points.  That leaves 1,515 out of 1,780 yet to spend.  And this is a huge benefit!  For the math fans out there, I have just spent 15% of my total points to fill out the diagram of what I have to bring.  Amazing!  And this is a key for building a nasty, tournament worthy list.

Next are the TDs.  You have the ability to bring two platoons of TDs with this list.  To bring anything other than two is just crazy talk!  So which do you bring?  One word - Jacksons.  I love the M10s and M18s, but you have to bring M36 Jacksons.  AT 14 is necessary in LW.  Plus you get Detroit's Finest and you get Front Armor of 4.  One thing that killed me in a game at LW Nats was Ed Harding's AA guns.  Those are nasty against Hellcats.  In fact, more Hellcats were killed by AA than by Panzer IVs in that game.  So Jacksons get a better gun, 14" movement and enough armor to ward off machine gun fire, HMGs, .50cals (think Blue on Blue) and some AA.  Do you go Vet or Trained?  The answer depends on points and play style.  Personally, I am going Vet.  Why?  Well, you will whiff on some shots - trust me.  So what is the best defense in that situation?  Easy - don't get hit with the shots coming back!  Assuming you are in terrain, you will be 5+ to hit.  And that is better than 4!  8 shots coming back will hit you between two and three times at Vet.  At Trained, you are getting hit four times.  You want Vet.

Now the second TD platoon will be Towed, since that is all that is offered in the diagram.  But fear not!  You must add in the bazzokas and the halftracks to make a mobile unit.  Plus, with 5 infantry stands (4 being bazookas) that are also recon running around the board, this is too good to pass up.  You need to go after infantry - .50cal them to death.  Armor - guns and bazookas to clean up the mess via shooting and assaults.  And you can leave the guns behind if necessary and take the infantry and tracks to go raise hell on the table! Now, Vet or Trained?  I still like Vet here because I need the Vet roll on skill checks.  Lift GtG with bazookas?  Yes, with a 3+.  Need to hit in assaults?  Yes, with a 3+.  So make the investment in Vet.

So we are now at 4 platoons and have chewed up 1,105 points.  Yes, the TDs are expensive but well worth it.  What do we do next?

Grab an infantry platoon.  You can choose Vet or Trained Rifles, Trained ARP or Vet Engineers.  Now I love Engineers.  I use them in my TFA list and they work really well, provided you jack them up with the bazookas and supply trucks.  With TFA, you can even add a Sherman Dozer, but not here.  The knee jerk is to go with the Trained ARP.  Now this would work and can work in this list if you need points, but the sleeper is the Vet Rifle Platoon (2 ID).  Take that and either go SMG for all or go with max bazookas.  Both have their place.  But remember that you will get the 2 ID benefit of Moving At The Double through Difficult Terrain.  Yes, 16" of Vet, nasty, bazooka laden Riflemen goodness!  This will help when you have to attack an Infantry Company or another Mech list.

Next, you need one more trick up your sleeve.  You need smoke.  It would also help to have more armor.  And fast armor at that.  So go grab Chaffees!!  Your 6th platoon will be 5 Chaffees.  Now I know they cost about the same as a Sherman.  But the real value with the Chaffees is that they come from a different box in the force diagram.  They are not a Tank Platoon, they are a Light Tank Platoon.  And you can get this in the Cav Recon list while still getting two TD platoons.  So you buy a Stuart with a Sherman gun.  And with Stabilizers...  and with Smoke...  This is the final piece.  What you will do is smoke those units that did not die from TD shots.  Or use them to get side shots on high armor targets, like Panthers...

And with the 40pts you have left, go grab an AOP.  Use it to prevent an ambush right where you don't want it to appear.

And that does it!  You have a 1,780 point LW list that:

• Has exceptional AT capabilites
• Huge amount of Recon
• Great Ambushes
• Strong infantry
• Supreme mobility with Recon Moves and fast armor (the slowest tank is 14")

And that makes for a killer list...