D-Day Global Campaign: Alex And His Hobby League Army

D-Day Global Campaign: Alex And His Hobby League Army

D-Day Global Campaign: Alex And His Hobby League Army
with Alex Nebesky
Well, it’s finally done. A hundred and something infantry figures and a handful of guns and tanks and that’s my Hobby League project. They’ve faced off in a fair few Global Campaign battles and frankly… not great.

The Force as It Is
I have mentioned numerous times what is in my force and what I based it on, but just to make sure we’re all on the same page here it is one more time.

The force represents 16. Feld Division (L) in and around Caen during July to help hold it against Allied attacks. The Luftwaffe ground troops are not the world’s most effective or resilient fighters, but with ROF 3 when stationary, a single platoon is launch 15 dice at advancing enemies, and as long as the Lufwaffe are dug in they will provide some sort of obstacle for assaulting infantry.

All-in-all, it's been a lot of fun and I'd thoroughly recommend getting involved in the next hobby league. I'm already pondering the options for a whole new Soviet force for Bagration next year - lots of infantry and a handful of heavy tanks!

Attached to each platoon is a Panzerschreck team to keep enemy tank commanders cautious around the Boys in Blue, as well as the obligatory Panzerfaust upgrade for assaults against tanks. I’m not sure how effective a purchase Panzerfausts are in a platoon that will get rolled nine times out of ten in hand-to-hand combat, but coupled with the Schreck, the best I can hope for is that the AT weapons act as a deterrent.

D-Day Global Campaign: Alex And His Hobby League Army

Speaking of AT, a platoon of three 7.5cm PaK40s gives the infantry on the ground some anti-tank capability and is a great unit for ambushing or digging in early game. In any case, the 7.5cm guns can tag some of the tougher enemy armoured assets if I spring them from ambush, or can be plonked somewhere to cut off another avenue of approach.

Attached to my core force is a selection is a support unit of StuGs from 21. Panzer Division and a captured Firefly for flavour and as something of a very obvious distraction.

D-Day Global Campaign: Alex And His Hobby League Army

D-Day Global Campaign: Alex And His Hobby League Army

In The Hobby League
Having chalked up only losses, however brave they may be, this force has a solid foundation but is completely let down by its support. In all of my battles the Infantry fought until they were wiped out, but the Tigers and Fireflies tended to be too few and far between to really influence the battle in any major way. The infantry, though effective at pushing back Phil’s light tanks or digging in on objectives, were too few in number to really stick around long enough and too unmotivated to hang on with grim determination.

D-Day Global Campaign: Alex And His Hobby League Army

Changes to be Made
I think there are some changes to be made. Firstly, I need to increase my platoon sizes for my infantry and the only way to do that within the points is to drop my platoons down from MG42 teams to MG & Rifle teams. A little less ROF, but more teams is well worth it.

I also think that although they are handsome beasts, the Tigers and the Firefly need to find homes in different German lists, and instead be replaced with StuHs and an HQ StuG to fill out a Stug formation to partner with my infantry. 

Another option to bolster the infantry list would be to add an MG platoon to the formation. So my revised list might looks something like this:

D-Day Global Campaign: Alex And His Hobby League Army