Bushing off the Dust

Brushing Off The Dust

Brushing Off The Dust
with Andrew Haught

I am so stoked for this book, as I get to play one of my favourite mid-war armies Kingforce in V4. I painted this army over 11 years ago and I am now going to go through the steps of cleaning it up and updating it to V4. And that is my Kingforce army. I going to need some more paint!

Kingforce was a Churchill force made up of six Churchill’s under its commander Norris King during the Second battle of El Alamein. During the battles they only lost one of the six Churchill tanks after weathering a staggering amount of direct hits. To complement the themed list I am also taking a Mortar company that supported King during the battle and a platoon of 25 pdrs to round off this Second battle of El Alamein themed list. 

When I first made the list I had to kind of fudge some of the units as V2 didn’t really work well to make this particular list. I had to run a rifle platoon at its smallest size and a throw in a few other things to get the mortar company I needed. But in V4 I can get it right, I am able to take a Motor company and a Churchill company on their own to create the exact list I think best represents Kingsforce . That’s is one of the coolest things about V4, the flexibility of list building lets me to get really into the history of cool niche forces and take exactly what I need to recreate them. 

So I don’t just have one 100 point list, I have two variants, one with all six Churchill tanks and one with only five Churchill tanks to represent the force after they lost a tank.  The first list is really aggressive while the second works well as a mobile force or a more defensive force. 

Brushing Off The Dust

Churchill Armoured Squadron List 1  
Churchill Armoured Squadron HQ 22 Points

Churchill III 6 pdr (x 2)

 

Good Shot Comand card (This represents King himself)

2 points

Churchill III  Armoured Squadron 1 22 Points
Churchill III 6 pdr (x 2)  
Churchill III  Armoured Squadron 2
22 Points
Churchill III 6 pdr (x 2)  
Motor Company  
Motor Company HQ 2 Points

SMLE Rifle (x 2)

 

Motor Platoon 8 Points
Bren Gun team  (x 4)  
Boys Anti-tank rifle (x 1)  
2-inch mortar (x 1)  
6 pdr Anti-Tank Platoon 6 Points
6 pdr gun (x 2)  
Universal Carrier Patrol 2 Points
Universal Carriers (x3)  
Support  
25 PDR Field Troop 14 Points

25 pdr gun (x 4)

 

Total

100 points

Brushing Off The Dust
Churchill Armoured Squadron List 2  
Churchill Armoured Squadron HQ 11 Points

Churchill III 6 pdr (x 1)

 

Good Shot Comand card (This represents King himself)

2 points

Churchill III  Armoured Squadron 1 22 Points
Churchill III 6 pdr (x 2)  
Churchill III  Armoured Squadron 2
22 Points
Churchill III 6 pdr (x 2)  
Motor Company  
Motor Company HQ 2 Points

SMLE Rifle (x 2)

 

Motor Platoon 8 Points
Bren Gun team  (x 4)  
Boys Anti-tank rifle (x 1)  
2-inch mortar (x 1)  
Vickers MMG Platoon 4 Points
Vickers MMG team (x 4)  
6 pdr Anti-Tank Platoon 12 Points
6 pdr gun (x 4)  
Universal Carrier Patrol 2 Points
Universal Carriers (x3)  
Support  
25 PDR Field Troop 14 Points

25 pdr gun (x 4)

 

Total

100 Points

Brushing Off The Dust

Brushing Off The Dust

I like how flexible this list is, when facing infantry focused armies I can be aggressive with this list. So to this end I will choose to attack or manoeuvre. I want to move in quickly using my artillery to soften my enemy defences, to help my later assaults with the Churchill tanks. 

Against a tank list or a light tank horde I will still be aggressive but I may lean towards the mobile battle plan if I am facing Sherman’s or tanks with AT 10 or higher as I will have to be slightly more careful with my advance. 

Man it is awesome bring back this list, Kingforce was the first list that I went deep into researching it, and from the research creating a on theme army list. I really enjoyed playing this army so much it caused me to continue making theme strong lists to this day. V4 has made it possible to create even more on point historical lists that my focus is constantly moving from one list to the next to create fun narrative focused armies.
~Andrew