Andrew's Desperate Measures Lists

Andrew's Desperate Measures Lists

by Andrew Haught

Desperate Measures has become my go to book for both Soviet and German lists. I am actively building 4 lists from the new book. The lists will use some of the same models so 4 lists will not be too hard to achieve and I already finished my King Tiger list. I feel Desperate Measures army lists are all about choice and that resonates with me as a player. The replacement German tank lists just call to me. Cheap tanks, and loads of choice makes the Germans from Desperate Measures more appealing to me then past books. For the soviets, two lists hold my attention: first off the Hero Motostrelkovy is an amazing list, the other soviet list that caught my eye is the Hero Sredniy Samokhodno-Artillyeriyskiy; with a good mix of SU-100 and SU-85s you will have an interesting list.

Scwhere Panzer Ausbildungs Abteilung 500 (pg 80) Onto the lists! First off, the Big guns. The Panzer Ausbildungs Abteilung 500 allows players to bring really cheap King Tigers. And I am talking cheap, like fit six into one 1575 point army and still have room for infantry and AA type of cheap. A combat platoon of two king tigers comes in at 445 points. Why are they so cheap? No Tiger Ace Skills, no Mission Tactics, no Stormtrooper on the non-HQ tanks and they’re Confident trained. This may seem like a major amount rules to lose but they are mitigated by cleaver use of the HQ tanks.

HQ- Scwhere Panzer Ausbildungs Abteilung 500 (Confident Trained) 2 Köningstiger (Porsche) 470 Combat Platoons 2 Köningstiger (Porsche) 445 2 Köningstiger (Porsche) 445 Weapons Platoons Panzergrenadiers (NCO School with MGs and Panzerschreck) 150 Support Platoons 3 3.7cm Flak43 65 TOTAL 1575

Since I only have two platoons of tanks in my army, the CiC and 2iC will both bascliy be attached to one of the two platoons allowing me to get Stormtrooper roll for each unit. The HQ tanks will also be on hand to elect a new platoon commander and by doing so gives me a basic form of mission tactics in each of my key platoons. The list has only 4 platoons but this allows me to get 6 King tigers on the table in games with reserves. So here is the Panzer Ausebildungs Abteilung 500 list I built it at 1575 for a local snapshot tournament.

Panzer Ausbildungs Verband (pg 76) The next list on my painting table for Germans is my Hetzer list. I simply love this little tank a bit too much and being able to take them with tank riders is something I had to do. These tanks are dirt cheap at 300 points for 4 tanks with Tank Escorts.

One of the Issues with Hetzers is that they're overloaded (bog down on a 1 or 2). Hetzers can be a risk when assaulting infantry in difficult terrain. Tank Escorts mitigate this to some degree allowing me to avoid a lot of bogging tests by just having the escorts fight on. Also a bogged down tank with escorts can still fight since it’s escorts still roll a dice in the assault. So tank escorts on Hetzer tanks seems to me to be a really good idea, even more so if they are going to serve as your main battle tanks. The mix of tanks gives me more options when moving forward, the panzer II Luchs recon tanks are a fast objective grabber or screener. The Brumbar tanks are slow and steady and will creep towards the objective head first hopefully soaking up allot of the opponent’s firepower and deverting there attention from my Hetzers. So here is my Panzer Ausebildungs Verband list, this one is a 1500 point list and for me it is well rounded.

HQ- Panzer Ausbildungs Verband (Confident Trained) 2 Hetzers with tank escorts 160 Combat Platoons 4 Hetzers with tank escorts 300 4 Hetzers with tank escorts 300 3 Brummbär 150 Weapons Platoons Panzergrenadiers (Sniper School with Rifles) 100 Support Platoons 3 Panzer II Luchs 90 3 3.7cm Flak43 65 Cannon Platoon with 4 12.8cm K81 guns 335 TOTAL 1500

One last thought on the German lists before I start talking about the soviets. I love the Ausbildungs Panzergrenadiers Platoon; it is really customizable and it allows you to fill up those last points in your list. It really is one of the coolest German infantry platoons because of its flexible nature.

HQ- Hero Sredniy Samokhodno-Artillyeriyskiy (Confident Trained) 1 T-34/85 obr 1944 with tank escort 95 Combat Companies 3 SU-100 320 3 SU-100 320 3 SU-85M 270 3 SU-85M 270 Support Companies Hero Heavy Mortar Company with 4 120-PM-38 110 Hero Motostrelkovy Company with 2 platoons and 2 panzerfausts 180 Hero Light Armoured Car Platoon 90 TOTAL 1745

Now for the Soviet lists. Hero Sredniy Samokhodno-Artillyeriyskiy (pg 50) I will start off with the Hero Sredniy Samokhodno-Artillyeriyskiy. This list has so much going for it, high AT 16 from the SU-100s and medium AT 12 from the SU-85Ms, All with front armour 9, no hen and chicks, passes all skill tests on a 3+ and the tanks all have Cat Killer! These tanks are the opposite of the German tanks in this book they have it all. The biggest drawback to this list is the smaller sized tank platoons but if that is a draw back for you, you can always take the non-hero variant and bring loads of them for cheap, but for me hero tanks are way cooler. 17 Tanks makes the core of the list add in some infantry, Recon and a good source of artillery and I get a really well rounded list that utilizes everything that makes a Hero list awesome. So here is my Confident Trained Soviet Hero Sredniy Samokhodno-Artillyeriyskiy list at 1750.

Hero Motostrelkovy Batalon (pg 42) The last list I would like to talk about is what I consider the best list of the book, and that is the Hero Motostrelkovy. At first I was trying desperately to get Quality of Quantity out of them but I soon realized that is not what this army is about. This army is more of an elite attack force, all its rules are there to make them hit harder and to that end smaller platoons would work best. I settled on two Motostrelkovy companies with two platoons each and as many panzerfauset as I could fit. The next thing I needed was to maximise my artillery and AT assets, I settled on only using SU-85Ms for this list instead of the mix of 85s and 100s choosing instead to rely on my heavy artillery to help me kill the big tanks. I really like my Hero Motostrelkovy list at 1500 points it does just want I think it needs to do and still has 8 platoons.

HQ- Hero Motostrelkovy (Confident Trained) Batalon HQ 30 Combat Platoons Motorstrelkovy Company with 2 platoons and 2 panzerfausts 180 Motorstrelkovy Company with 2 platoons and 2 panzerfausts 180 Weapons Companies Hero Heavy Mortar Company with 4 120-PM-38 110 Hero Motorised Artillery Battalion with 4 76mm Zis-3 guns 140 Hero Light Armoured Car Platoon 90 Support Companies 3 SU-85M 270 3 SU-85M 270 Hero Reserve Artillery witj 4 152mm obr 1943 guns and observer 230 TOTAL 1500