Building a Perimeter Outpost

Building a Perimeter Outpost with Chris Townley The Perimeter Outpost Company from Devil's Charge is one of my favourite lists to come out as part of the Bulge series of Intelligence Handbooks. For me it is a combination of the interesting platoon organisations that have a little bit of everything, the history of the 28th Infantry Division and finally, Reluctant Veteran! Being Reluctant is not such a big a problem as you might think when you are hard to hit (and therefore hard to pin or break). Looking through the list though I quickly realised though it was not a straight forward list where you can just buy one box or a couple of blisters and get it on the table top straight away. So during the process of working out a company that I’d like to field I made a note of the relevant products (a shopping list if you will) and started looking for the easiest (and cheapest) way to get it together.

Devil's Charge The Germans had been in retreat since the Allied breakout from Normandy, finally settling into defensive lines on their frontier as Autumn turned into Winter. In early December 1944 it seemed, to the Americans facing them in the Ardennes forests of Belgium and Luxembourg, unlikely that the Germans would attack. Learn more about Devil's Charge here...

Platoon Teams Points Perimeter Outpost HQ 2x HQ Teams 15 points   1x Trench Line   Outpost Platoon 1x HQ Team 210 points   4x Rifle Teams     1x Bazooka Team     1x M1919 LMG Team     1x M2 60mm mortar Team     1x M1919 HMG     1x M1 57mm (late) gun     3x Trench Lines     1x Gun Pit     2x Barbed Wire Entanglement   Outpost Platoon 1x HQ Team 210 points   4x Rifle Teams     1x Bazooka Team     1x M1919 LMG Team     1x M2 60mm mortar Team     1x M1919 HMG     1x M1 57mm (late) gun     3x Trench Lines     1x Gun Pit     2x Barbed Wire Entanglement   Outpost Platoon 1x HQ Team 210 points   4x Rifle Teams     1x Bazooka Team     1x M1919 LMG Team     1x M2 60mm mortar Team     1x M1919 HMG     3x Trench Lines   Outpost Fortifications 2x Minefields 200 points   1x Anti-tank Obstacle

From here on out the company gets easier as the platoon organisations are much more traditional. Suffice to say though that my list would include M24 Chaffees or Tank Destroyers of one flavour or another and Artillery. That gives me some fast moving heavy hitters to balance out the more static infantry platoons. My Shopping List My next step was to work out the blisters or boxes that I needed where I would end up with the least number of left over bits.

Blister / Box Description Quantity Contents Used Release Date UBX35 Rifle Company (Winter) 1x 4x HQ Teams 12x Rifle Teams 3x Bazooka Teams July 2012 US760 Weapons Platoon (Winter) 1x 3x M1919 LMG Team 3x M2 60mm mortar Team September 2012 US755 HMG Platoon (Winter) 1x 3x M1919 HMG September 2012 US503 M1 57mm gun (Winter) 1x 1x HQ Team 2x M1 57mm gun August 2012 BB131 Trench Lines 3x 10x Trench Lines Now BB119 or Log Emplacements: Gun Pit Markers 1x 2x Gun Pit Now BB149 Log Emplacements: Gun Pit Markers (Winter)   2x Gun Pit September 2012 BB132 Barbed Wire 1x 4x Barbed Wire Entanglement Now  BB130 Obstacles 1x 2x Minefields 1x Anti-tank Obstacle Now

So what as left over? I was surprised by how little was left over, I had half a dozen infantry teams, a small pile of Bazooka teams (but building an American force it always pays to have a stash of those!), a single HMG, LMG and 60mm Mortar team and some more Fortifications (some of which I could add in to my platoons), I was thinking of dropping the Outpost Fortifications until someone (thanks Dvalin) reminded me that they were compulsory.... that would have freed up some points to add a 4th Outpost Platoon - oh well, back to drawing board for a new plan on how to use up the extras!

I also noticed once I had the company based up and sitting in front of me (other than the pre-painted terrain the rest was still unpainted sadly….) that it did not take much imagination to turn the force into an Armored Rifle Company (and I hear those are pretty competitive at the moment too!). I had my Rifle teams, Bazookas, Mortars and LMGs – just dust off those half tracks and it was two armies for the price of one! Next step, paint the army... ~ Chris.