Staff 600 point Project: Dale's British

Dale’s British Rifle Company Dale is a former staff member who used to manage terrain and tournaments. Being somewhat the king of gaming cheese, he also use to wait patiently by writers’ desks for them to finish work on new rules or briefings. Once in his hands, he then broke them!

Having not built a British Force before, this was a great chance to do so. As I don’t like tank forces this ruled them out, and I thought a recon force might be a bit light at 600 points. So what else? Commandos or paratroopers could be fun, but I liked the look of normal British infantry, they’re nice and cheap for average size platoons with some great weapons such as the Vickers machine guns and universal carriers.

Following the rules of page 185 of the rulebook I buy my mandatory Company headquarters and a Rife Platoon as the core defensive part of my force. I then brought a full strength 6pdr platoon to back them up. For the attack part of the force I have 315 points. You can’t go past the scout patrol, of which I brought two. One I left as universal carriers, upgraded to mount a PIAT and two .50 cal machine-guns.

The second patrol I upgraded to Wasp flame-thrower carriers.  Then finally for the last platoon choice was a Machine-gun Platoon mounted in MMG carriers. They are excellent because they their Vickers can be fired mounted from the MMG carriers. They move and fire as a vehicle MG or fire stationary as a HMG or can bombard from a stationary position.

This brings me to 595 points, for which I get 5 platoons. I have attack and defence parts, an all round force. I still wouldn’t like to face a fully armoured force, but I believe with a lot of care I can handle them.

British Rifle Company Company HQ Includes carrier (30 points) Rifle Platoon 3 Squads (135 points) Carrier Patrol 3 Universal Carriers (90 points) Wasp Carrier Patrol 3 Wasp Carriers (95 points) Machine-gun Platoon 2 Sections + MMG Carriers (140 points) Anti-tank Platoons 2 Sections (120 points) Total 595 points

Dale’s 1000 point Force Looking at the other forces that the Battlefront staff are making, all including tanks, I thought my force was a bit light, it mainly consists of carriers and light to medium support weapons. I needed something to hold my centre together. Adding Shermans or  similar seemed still too lightweight for my liking, so I went for the Churchill Crocodile with 13 (that’s 13!!) Front Armour and the OQF 75mm gun with Semi-indirect fire and a heavy Flame-gun with ROF 5, FP 5+.    These will be certain to hold my centre. The PaK 43 will only penetrate at long range on a die roll of 1, and a Panther’s gun can’t penetrate the front at any range. The flame-gun is certain to keep most tanks out of short range. The OQF 75mm gun can of course re-roll long range missed shots because of Semi-indirect fire. The only down side is the cost of 390 points, so for my 1000 point force I had to drop the 6 pdr Anti-tank Platoon to fit in the second Rifle Platoon as well. Dale  A company of the 1st Oxf Bucks As part of the 53rd Welsh Infantry Division, they where deployed north of Carpiquet in the role of reserve division for operation Epsom on the night of the 24th of June 1944. They saw very little action leading up to 2 July, when they had their baptism of fire by relieving the exhausted 15th Infantry Division around Grainville sur Oden, which brought them under immediate artillery observation from Hill 112. Their orders where to hold the ground gained from operation Epsom, so had to endure continual bombardment until the hill was cleared some weeks later. Their next deployment for combat operations was for Operation Bluecoat on or around the 30th of July to the west of Falaise. Their orders were for a measured advance due to the tight bocage country that the germens held. In their line of attack due south was the river Oden and the German’s 89. Grenadierdivision, in and around the Soisse Normande District. Operation Bluecoat gradually changed during the first weeks of August, from a battle of attrition to a general advance, as the bocage country slowly opening up into more open ground. By 17 August the 2nd British Army which the 1st Oxf and Bucks battalion was part of, had formed the western and northern rim of the Falaise pocket which snaked across from Briouze to near Falaise.