Andrews Fighting First Army

Andrews Fighting First Army With the release of Fighting First I saw my opportunity to recreate one of my first Flames of War armies. I am not sure what ever happened to my first army, I am sure its packed in a mislabelled box lost somewhere in deep storage (my parents house back in the States) being looked after by top men. But I am in luck since I can now get my army in plastic, so even if I had my old army I would still want to revamp it with the new plastic models.

For this army I want to make my troops harder to hit, so I am going to be using the new Command Cards. I am going to upgrade my entire formation, making my units better trained and harder to hit. I will also be grabbing the It Shall Be Done card to improve my Lee platoon.

Right, well before I can do anything I need an army list. The first thing to get sorted is my Formation. I will want an Armored Infantry HQ, and two full strength Armored Rifle platoons just like in my original list. My original list also ran HMGs and 75mm cannons so I want to add those units. My old list did not run mortars but mortars aremazing in 4th Edition so I have to add them, they are only 4 points with the command card so it be crazy not to add them, right?

As support I want to add the three Lee tanks that were in my original list. “Why Lee tanks?” you may very well ask, well I could go into how flexible they are or how they are pointed just right but the truth is I really love the look of the Lee, it’s as simple as that. Another support platoon that was in my original list was the 105mm Field Artillery Battery, a very popular unit to run back in the day and is still quite the unit in V4. I also want to add a Stuart OP, a very useful unit that only cost one point.

After adding all those units and their Command Cards, I find that I am still short 6 points for my 100 points army. I could add another unit but I think I want to add some more Command Cards. I end up adding Nicholas Minue, Hail Mary and Arsenal of Democracy to add to my formation. I choose these mainly because I really dislike when my Reserves don’t show up and I want to be hard hitting in my assaults. For my last two points I am adding Dead Eye to one of my combat platoons. Dead Eye is great in an Armored Rifle Platoon as they have many different teams to choose to get the re-roll, but I see this being used with my Bazookas making them even more deadly.

This list is set up to be very aggressive, with three artillery batteries to soften well defended objectives, mobile troops armed with almost every weapon they could need backed up by tanks and HMGs. My plan is to choose the Attack battle plan for my missions and press the attack, if I end up defending then I will dig in my massive infantry units and dare my opponent to assault me, and if they refuse, I may just surprise them by jumping out of my foxholes bringing the battle to them!

Now I just need to build the army. Theres nothing like grabbing a nice cup of tea, putting some classic Doctor Who episodes on the T.V. and sitting down at the hobby desk to build a brand new army. Well that’s my evening planned!  ~Andrew

US Fighting First Army

US Armored Rifle Formation  4 Points Command Card: Nicholas Minue 2 Points Command Card: Hail Mary 1 Point Command Card: Arsenal Of Democracy 1 Point Armored Rifle HQ 4 Points M1 Carbine team (x 2) 2 Points M3 Halftrack (.50 cal MG) (x 1)   Command Card: Unity Is Strength 2 Points  Armored Rifle Platoon 24 Points M1 Garand rifle team (x 6) 15 Points M1 Bazooka team (x 5)   M1919 LMG (x 2)   60mm mortar (x 1)   M3 Halftrack (.50 cal MG) (x 1)   M3 Halftrack (.30 cal MG) (x 4)   Command Card: Regulars, By God! 7 Points  Command Card: Dead Eye 2 Points  Armored Rifle Platoon 22 Points M1 Garand rifle team (x 6) 15 Points M1 Bazooka team (x 5)   M1919 LMG (x 2)   60mm mortar (x 1)   M3 Halftrack (.50 cal MG) (x 1)   M3 Halftrack (.30 cal MG) (x 4)   Command Card: Regulars, By God!  7 Points M1917 Armored Machine-Gun Platoon 5 Points 4x M1917 HMG 3 Points Command Card: Unity Is Strength  2 Points T30 75mm Assault Gun Platoon 5 Points 3x T30 (75mm) 3 Points Command Card: Old Ironsides  2 Points M4 81mm Armored Mortar Platoon 4 Points 3x M4 (81mm mortar) 2 Points Command Card: Old Ironsides  2 Points Support Platoons   M3 Lee Tank Platoon 21 Points 3x M3 Lee (short 75mm) 15 Points Command Card: It Shall Be Done  6 Points 105mm Field Artillery Battery 10 Points 4x 105mm howitzer   M3 Stuart OP Observation Post 1 Point