Week One: Bruce Beardsley So, here we go! Week one, Tale of Two Cities and I have chosen Germans. Now, since we had just completed an intra-office Tank Aces Campaign, I knew that I wanted to continue with the Germans that I started, but I want to take a different approach by doing some style of Motorised Infantry based list with a smattering of armor support, but not a tank heavy list.

Now, as a Flames Of War beginner I wanted to have a competitive list (as I don’t want those WWPD guys to have it to easy…) and at the same time not biting off more than I could chew from a hobby perspective. As the Battlefront Staff had a couple of distinct perimeters that I had to adhere to (lest making Joe Krone angry…don’t want that…) I needed the initial army list to include the Achtung! Starter Box which contains the fantastic new plastic StuGs. With the Achtung! as a corner stone starting place, I was off to the races. The other initial perimeter I had to keep in mind was that my list needed to come from the new Forces book, which comes with the Version 3 Book Bundle, making it very convenient as a beginner to have that as my initial stop. I dove into the Version 3 Rulebook and my Forces book for my list creation. I also went to www.easyarmy.com to make it even that much easier for my Noobie Brain. Keeping the StuGs in mind, here was the list I ended up going with (right on the money) for our 1500 point cap limit. Learn more about Achtung! here...

Bruce's Army List

Platoon  Quantity Unit Points Headquarters 1 Company Command SMG team 115 Gepanzerte Panzergrenadierkompanie (SS) HQ 1 2iC Command SMG team     3 Sd Kfz 251/1 Half-track     1 Panzerschreck team   Combat Platoons       Gepanzerte Panzergrenadier Platoon (SS) 1 Command Panzerfaust SMG team 270   4 Sd Kfz 251/1 Half-track     6 MG teams   Gepanzerte Panzergrenadier Platoon (SS) 1 Command MG team 260   4 Sd Kfz 251/1 Half-track     6 MG teams   Regimental Support       Gepanzerte Pioneer Platoon (SS) 1 Command Pioneer Panzerknacker SMG team 265   1 Sd Kfz 251/1 Half-track     1 Pioneer Supply Maultier     4 Pioneer MG team     2 Sd Kfz 251/7(Pioneer)   Divisional Support       Heavy Tank Platoon (SS) 1 Tiger I E 240 Assault Gun Platoon (SS) 2 StuG III G 215 Air Support   Limited Ju 87G Stuka 135     Total Points: 1500

The other element that I needed to keep in the sights of my 15mm MP40 was the overall cost of this army. Here is the breakdown of the units that I chose, not including the hobbying materials that I already had, so something to keep in mind there.

Product Name & Code Retail Price (US Dollars) Achtung! (FWBX02) $40.00 Panzergrenadier Company HQ (GBX17) $40.00 2x Panzergrenadier Platoon (Late) (GBX07) $130.00 SS Panzergrenadier (Pioneer) Platoon (Late) (GE813) $23.00 3x Sd Kfz 251/7D (Pioneer) (GE249) $37.50 Tiger IE (GE071) $14.00 Ju87 Stuka (AC002) $17.50 Total Cost: $302.00

Right!, so now I did need to add in a few painting supplies to get these bad boys painted up, again as not to embarrass myself come Historicon.  They were as follows:

Product Name & Code Retail Price (US Dollars) Panther Yellow (Mid / Late) (CWP210)  $12.00 Grenaider Green (Early / Mid / Late) (CWP211)  $12.00 German Armour Paint Set (CWP110) $20.00 Heer Panzer Decals (GE955) $12.50 Grand Total: $358.50

Now that I had my forces list and my models, I needed a hobby & paint plan for week one. Giving into procrastination that I would see how far I got with said plan and go accordingly forward from there. I decided to start were I had started with my list and put together my StuGs from the Achtung! box. These models were simple to put together but brilliant in detail. Each one a custom creation with the crew stowage available on the blister! From there since I was still on a Tank high, I put together my Tiger (just because Tigers are awesome!) and last but not least, my Panzergrenadierkompanie (SS) HQ.

As the end of week one was drawing to a close much faster than I had anticipated (I’m sure most can relate, with work and family obligations eating huge chucks from my hobbying time…) I got about priming what I had already assembled and base coating them with the above paints CWP210 & CWP211. So that was my week one in a nutshell. List building, some assembly, some priming and base coating, again not as far as I wanted to get but not too horrible. It also gives me some ideas heading into week two, initially starting with a finish up of week one and some assembly to the bulk of my force, the Panzergrenadier platoons! ~ Bruce.