Dietrich von Saucken

I don't know if you agree with me, but for me warriors add some flavor to army lists in FOW - however, they make also a really difficult job for Battlefront to make briefings balanced after introducing them.

Today, I would like to write few words about a warrior I'm really looking forward to introduce to my Heer gepanzerte panzerpioniers from the Grey Wolf book. I'm talking about general Dietrich von Saucken. It is a very colorful character himself. Coming from aristocratic family he didn't fit well to the model of axis officer at that time. However, he was highly valued by Adof Hitler himself despite his "inappropriate" attitude.

In FOW this character can be added to some lists from Grey Wolf, as well as to one of the pdf briefings on BF page. He is a kind of a warrior who doesn't have any extra combat powers himself (e.g., Carius or Barkmann) but supports your whole company. In my opinion he seems to be an ideal support for an infantry company reducing major problems of such rosters. Why? Just take a look on his special rules (you get for 65 points):

• He is a high command team ranked as Fearless / Veteran
• All platoons within Command Distance of von Saucken may re-roll any failed Skill Tests to make a Stormtroopers move.
• Each turn von Saucken may re-roll one die rolled to receive Reserves for his company.

The first one means that you will pass your company morale checks with him on 3+ (isn't that great?). The second skill seems extremely useful if you have some lightly armored tank killers like Marders or Nashorns. Some of the briefings give you an option to take veteran tank-hunters, which can move and shoot with full ROF as long they remain in a chosen terrain feature. For my panzer pioniers this re-roll might be extremely useful to disembark in a stormtroopers move after they reach their destination area in movement step. Finally, the ability to re-roll one die for reserves. It partially solves my main problem when defending against hords of medium tanks. Starting with three platoons is often not enough to hold an agressive player who has great number of tanks on table (55% to get a single platoon from delayed reserve right in turn 3 - sounds good?).

At this stage I have to make one remark - I haven't tried to play with von Saucken yet, so these are only theoretical considerations. However, I played against a list with him, and this battle proved what I expected. Maybe you have some experience or thoughts you could share?

Blister Contents 

Let's say something about the model itself. It was produced by Battlefront and is placed in the price B segment - a typical blister with medium tank. I have to admit I loved the set from the start. Inside, you will find a Sdkfz 250/1 half-track with additional stowage sprue, two figures of von Saucken himself enabling you to mount one figure into the half-track; and two bodyguards (while dismounted his group is treated as SMG team). The von Saucken figure is casted perfectly in my opinion. To be honest I haven't seen any figure in 15mm scale that look so realistic - great job :)

I decided to add some magnets to halftrack and one of the von Saucken figures to prevent from having two instances of general while he is dismounted.  It works like a charm. However, afterwards I realized that it would be even better to add a magnet to the small base instead of permanently fix one of the models. I wouldn't have to think what to do with a figure of von Saucken without a base when he is removed from the half-track (I could easily lost it during tournaments).

Gallery

As usual a short gallery of assembled model.

Big Kitty: Tiger II

Finally, I added one big kitty to my collection of minis. It is a Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf. B, which is btw often wrongly referred to as King Tiger or Royal Tiger (a very interesting story).

I have to admin that I wasn't a big fan of Tiger II tanks in FOW. Usually, expensive and useless. However, it turned out that Tiger II fits very well to my gepanzerte panzerpioniers company. I hope it will be even more usable once I replace the StuGs with a platoon of Marders. I think they will synergize well together. Tiger II is a great weapon for cleaning the assault path from panthers and other heavy tanks, while marders give quantity when defending against hords of light and medium tanks.

I bought a Tiger II model produced by Battlefront - the box set (GBX14), which contains two types of turrets - design by Porsche and Henschel. In addition, you will also receive one Tiger Ace skill dice.

Generally, the model is beautifully sculpted. However, there is one thing that guys from Battlefront should definitely rework - the fenders. Their parts just don't fit each other. If you want to attach them to a model (they are quite characteristic element of the Tiger II silhouette) you will have to play with green stuff to make it work. As you see below, I decided to forget about the fenders...

And finally, long awaited size comparison with the FiB version of Tiger II (thanks to elcee).

Gallery

As usual, couple of photos of finished model... You will find more in the gallery section.

FiB: SdKfz 234/2 Puma

Today, I would like to briefly review a set of SdKfz 234/2 Pumas. These little kitties are frequently used by German players in Flames of War. They provide excellent firepower as for an armored car, great mobility, and still recon abilities. I bet there are more models on players shelfs than have been ever produced and used in combat (I think only 101 were produced between 43 and 44).
Although Pumas are great in FoW they were not as successful in WWII mainly because of they armament. It was really tempting to smash some light tanks and soft vehicles with the powerful 50L60 gun. This is for sure not the aim of recon vehicles...
The models I have in front of me were produced by Forged in Battle (FiB) and are casted in resin with some metal parts (P-77). I painted them in ultra-fast way because of the tournament we had last week (there is no better stimulus to paint minis than forthcoming tournament ;).

Blister contents

The blister contains three Pumas. They are produced in "battle-ready" system. It means that FiB tried to reduce the time required to assemble the models. The number of parts is reduced in comparison to Battlefront miniatures. The body is casted in resin and the turret is made from metal. The drawback is that the models are fixed to bases (removing it would be quite difficult, but I assume possible). At the beginning I perceived it as a huge cons, but after assembling and painting the models it turned out that it is only a minor issue. "Battle-ready" means also that the models are produced in different variants (e.g., they have battle damage, crates, cans, etc.) so you don't have to add additional element to customize them. It is quite similar to what could be found in Battlefront's box sets. In my blister there were two variants of vehicle. You also get two commanders figures, which are sculpted and casted perfectly.

Model size

Probably most of you would like to know how they compare to Battlefront's version of Puma. In my opinion the difference is quite visible. However, if you don't play a recon company and don't need to mix tons of Pumas, it will not matter so much. A FiB blister gives you what you actually need in most cases - 3 vehicles. If you put grass on a base it won't be visible so much after all. Taking into account prices you receive three vehicles in price of two from BF.

Thanks to Radek (a.k.a. Radziecki) who provided a BF Pumas, I  can present you a size comparison of BF and FiB vehicles.

Battlefront vs. Forged in Battle Puma

There is a visible difference, especially in length (FiB is also a little bit higher). What surprised me the most was that they both have guns of the same length. The BF's is more bulky and looks like it was longer. I think that if you put BF's Pumas on bases and paint them uniformly with FiB's, there won't be much problem to mix them together in different platoons.

Gallery

Couple of photos of painted models:

Pyry Wojny 2012 - Tournament

Today, I had a pleasure to participate in a local tournament called "Pyry Wojny 2012". There were around 13 players (I'm not sure what was the exact number). The organizers proposed a non-typical format, which was 1450 points. This enforced players to reconsider their orders of battle. As a result nearly all of them decided to play with armor companies (I was probably the only exception to that rule). The most popular tank was... and here comes a surprise ... a King Tiger!

We played three battles: counterattack, surrounded, and free for all. I think that scenarios were well suited for such a small number of points. None of them had a standard reserves rule, so we didn't have to bother about the odd number of platoons so much.

My first battle was with the German panzer company. My opponent had a platoon of panthers, panzer IVs, StuHs, AA quads, and Pumas. He provoked me to move towards one of my unmanned objectives from the first turn. I forgot that the mission could be won by the attacker only after the 6th turn. Well, it finished bad form me. I lost badly.

The second battle was the surrounded mission - a nightmare for defender in my opinion. I was facing another German panzer company. This time reluctant trained company from Blood, Guts and Glory. It was a sea of panthers (I guess 7 of them), two platoons of panzer IVs. I was lucky to hold long enough to win the battle.

The last battle, a free for all, was against the schwere panzerkompanie. Two King Tigers, Otto Carius with another Tiger, and a platoon of Panzer Grenadiers. I was a little bit tired after heavy battles, and decided to push as much as I could from the beginning. Unfortunately, my start was not impressive at all. I lost nearly half of panzerpionier platoon going under heavy fire from tigers. I have to admit I was lucky from that point on. My Stukas destroyed Carius Tiger (even with re-rolls for one plane and ranging in because of buildings). Stugs were lucky to bail out a King Tiger by hitting it from a flank, and panzerpioniers successfully assaulted the remaining Tiger.

That's all. I would like to thank the organizers for the event,  and my opponents for enjoyable games. See you at the next tournaments.

Link to the full gallery