Little late for the party, but nevertheless here I am. Every time you used Bofors I heard in my head the sound from Steel Panthers: World at War when that gun shoots. With Finnish kaukopartio this match would have been quite different in the deployment phase. That unit really puts things off-balance for the enemy. Here it was just plain ol' frontal charge. And boy, did the brits charge! And here we saw how effective an artillery observer could be. But still, if you had to pay 100 points (10% of your points) for this, it is somewhat hard sell. Good looking bunkers!
What a glorious charge by the crusader! Excellent game all around. I love bringing an intelligence officer with a veteran officer team in a bren carrier, so it was cool to see elements of that in this game. Have you considered getting a staghound armoured car? It complements the crusader AA nicely with it's AT gun and heavy armour, while having dual machine guns to rinse any enemy infantry that survive the crusader.
Morning dude and first of all let me say a huge thanks for the support you give us over here from all the lads. Staghound; heck yeah I've had my eye on one for a while, crazy that warlord don't produce one, 3D print here we come! You read my mind on pairing him with the crusader AA...then imagine that combo paired with a bofors for unholy levels of Dakka! (The piat team will just have to manage armour...sorry guys) I think the stag will have to be added as soon as I finish painting the gurkhas...and partisans! The glorious charge of the crusader was very fun, brassing those vets up in the courtyard then screaming down the hill sparking AA rounds off the Sherman, I just knew if I could keep that tank occupied for a few turns my infantry would win the day, and by George it worked, defo got yourself tea and medals for that manoeuvre bro 😂 That intelligence officer is clutch but there's a little nuance to it for sure, hes not actually done much for Sam...yet! I'd love to try one with Brits but can't see the option, although that gunnery officer that can recrew guns and let's them re-roll orders...
They do feel very different to play against so far, but the prevalence of US kit such as BARs is noticeable. It never run US forces but I play against them and it seems like the free french have bits from all different US subfactions in one place, stubbornness, lmgs in squads etc. Its a fun twist for sure!
The guy playing the french should consider taking d'Eclaireurs Skieurs instead of brigade de choc for better mobility especially with not transports in the army.
@scholaprogenium7276 no problem, I've been playing for years and can guarantee they're a fun army with some nifty tricks. Just keep playing them and testing stuff out and he'll learn what fun they can really be.
I wouldn't take more than 8 vets as the unit then becomes a lot of points invested in a dice. I think of it as two bodies worth of slack in the rope. If you went up to 9 and lose a casualty you are back in the same boat, 10 man teams with this load out would be 173 points which is too much!
@@anthonyrussell0912 I get what you are saying and there are plenty of great national rules to choose from so no argument there. I'm a big fan of optimisation so on the surface it seems obvious to run both rapid fire or tough as boots with sections divisible by 3. However, considering tough as boots is specifically an assault based buff, then the aim of reaching assault range with your units still being perfectly rounded, having taken no damage, is a fallacy in my experience. Therefore it would be silly to compromise other aspects of a list by exclusively taking unit sizes focused on maximising the efficiency of this one rule. I appreciate you taking the time to open up the discussion on this, perhaps you can see there is method to the madness now!
France had to fastest growing army of any of the allies after the Normandy lamdings. There was that many former resistance fighters and former soldiers wanting to join up that even the prodigious industrial power of the US had trouble outfitting them all, so they soldiered on with captured German equipment and recaptured French equipment. The French 13th Dragoons during the siege of La Rochelle in late 1944 had 46 Souma tanks and 26 Char B1s on their books, all painted green with big white stars.
@@rileyernst9086 interesting. I would have guessed all American tanks. I bet they were from colonial stock. The efficient Germans “appropriated” everything in France prober and the Allies destroyed it all!
@@tonyromano6220 Well no, not quite, the sieges did tend to drag on. The British and Americans did recover a lot of repairable French tanks which had previously been in German service in Normandy and elsewhere in France, including some of the last Char B1s the regiment received which had been converted into flamethrower tanks, and had been captured in Holland in autumn 1944. Other tanks had been in warehouses, workshops etc. Allied ground attack aircraft did deny the German armour access to spare parts etc prior to the breakout. So in many cases it could be as simple as getting parts from warehouses in France. The reisistance also stole some tanks too when the allies were approaching Paris, so it would seem the garrison had a few in stock. The story of the colonial stocks is in of itself quite interesting. Whilst there is no record of the French shipping out any Char B1s, the Vichy government did ship out 35 Soumas to reinforce their West African colonies, their colonies in Africa were mainly equipped with old Ft17 Renaults(ww1 vintage), and Renault Char D1s(armed with a stubby 47mm), although I'd suspect they also had some R35s as they made tons of them and they seemed to get everywhere. Now, shortly after the 35 Soumas arrived the French West African colonies joined the Free French government. These tanks were operated by the Chasseurs de Afrique in the North West African Campaign after operation Torch, and former Vichy French units and equipment from the North African colonies was also used. At the battle of Kasserine Pass Char D1s of the Chasseurs de Afrique engaged German armour and received horrific losses, although one D1 did knock out a panzer IV(quite a feat, as the Char D1's gun could penetrate around 27mm of armour at 100m(As opposed to the higher velocity 47mm in the Souma or CharB1's 80mm at 200m). The Char D1s were withdrawn from service, being replaced with Valentines. The Free French forces would also start to receive sherman tanks before the end of the Tunisian campaign. The Char D1s would last be used on parade after the liberation of Tunis, I don't know what became of the Soumas, but they had been operated the duration of this campaign, they're pretty comparable to a valentine, and seemed to be effective enough. I don't know how many survived the campaign, but if they land back in France it would have been during operation Dragoon. But realistically I think it's likely that they'd have been due for an overhaul, and it would have been easier to refit with Shermans before shipping out from North Africa.
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Little late for the party, but nevertheless here I am.
Every time you used Bofors I heard in my head the sound from Steel Panthers: World at War when that gun shoots.
With Finnish kaukopartio this match would have been quite different in the deployment phase. That unit really puts things off-balance for the enemy. Here it was just plain ol' frontal charge. And boy, did the brits charge!
And here we saw how effective an artillery observer could be. But still, if you had to pay 100 points (10% of your points) for this, it is somewhat hard sell.
Good looking bunkers!
Great battle, I love Sundays
What a glorious charge by the crusader! Excellent game all around. I love bringing an intelligence officer with a veteran officer team in a bren carrier, so it was cool to see elements of that in this game.
Have you considered getting a staghound armoured car? It complements the crusader AA nicely with it's AT gun and heavy armour, while having dual machine guns to rinse any enemy infantry that survive the crusader.
Morning dude and first of all let me say a huge thanks for the support you give us over here from all the lads. Staghound; heck yeah I've had my eye on one for a while, crazy that warlord don't produce one, 3D print here we come! You read my mind on pairing him with the crusader AA...then imagine that combo paired with a bofors for unholy levels of Dakka! (The piat team will just have to manage armour...sorry guys) I think the stag will have to be added as soon as I finish painting the gurkhas...and partisans!
The glorious charge of the crusader was very fun, brassing those vets up in the courtyard then screaming down the hill sparking AA rounds off the Sherman, I just knew if I could keep that tank occupied for a few turns my infantry would win the day, and by George it worked, defo got yourself tea and medals for that manoeuvre bro 😂
That intelligence officer is clutch but there's a little nuance to it for sure, hes not actually done much for Sam...yet! I'd love to try one with Brits but can't see the option, although that gunnery officer that can recrew guns and let's them re-roll orders...
Man this is so 1970s!
Always sort of call the late war French as USA lite as they basically have a lot of the same rules.
They do feel very different to play against so far, but the prevalence of US kit such as BARs is noticeable. It never run US forces but I play against them and it seems like the free french have bits from all different US subfactions in one place, stubbornness, lmgs in squads etc. Its a fun twist for sure!
lol, special!
The guy playing the french should consider taking d'Eclaireurs Skieurs instead of brigade de choc for better mobility especially with not transports in the army.
Cheers for the pointer, we are new to the french so it is much appreciated!
@scholaprogenium7276 no problem, I've been playing for years and can guarantee they're a fun army with some nifty tricks. Just keep playing them and testing stuff out and he'll learn what fun they can really be.
skills that add 1 dice per 3 then taking 8 man sections seems very silly
I wouldn't take more than 8 vets as the unit then becomes a lot of points invested in a dice. I think of it as two bodies worth of slack in the rope. If you went up to 9 and lose a casualty you are back in the same boat, 10 man teams with this load out would be 173 points which is too much!
@@scholaprogenium7276 then select a skill not unit size dependent? As a long time Brit player very much issues ive addressed regularly
@@anthonyrussell0912 I get what you are saying and there are plenty of great national rules to choose from so no argument there. I'm a big fan of optimisation so on the surface it seems obvious to run both rapid fire or tough as boots with sections divisible by 3. However, considering tough as boots is specifically an assault based buff, then the aim of reaching assault range with your units still being perfectly rounded, having taken no damage, is a fallacy in my experience. Therefore it would be silly to compromise other aspects of a list by exclusively taking unit sizes focused on maximising the efficiency of this one rule. I appreciate you taking the time to open up the discussion on this, perhaps you can see there is method to the madness now!
1944 French?
Yeah late war Free French mate.
France had to fastest growing army of any of the allies after the Normandy lamdings. There was that many former resistance fighters and former soldiers wanting to join up that even the prodigious industrial power of the US had trouble outfitting them all, so they soldiered on with captured German equipment and recaptured French equipment. The French 13th Dragoons during the siege of La Rochelle in late 1944 had 46 Souma tanks and 26 Char B1s on their books, all painted green with big white stars.
@@rileyernst9086 interesting. I would have guessed all American tanks. I bet they were from colonial stock. The efficient Germans “appropriated” everything in France prober and the Allies destroyed it all!
@@tonyromano6220 Well no, not quite, the sieges did tend to drag on. The British and Americans did recover a lot of repairable French tanks which had previously been in German service in Normandy and elsewhere in France, including some of the last Char B1s the regiment received which had been converted into flamethrower tanks, and had been captured in Holland in autumn 1944. Other tanks had been in warehouses, workshops etc. Allied ground attack aircraft did deny the German armour access to spare parts etc prior to the breakout. So in many cases it could be as simple as getting parts from warehouses in France. The reisistance also stole some tanks too when the allies were approaching Paris, so it would seem the garrison had a few in stock.
The story of the colonial stocks is in of itself quite interesting. Whilst there is no record of the French shipping out any Char B1s, the Vichy government did ship out 35 Soumas to reinforce their West African colonies, their colonies in Africa were mainly equipped with old Ft17 Renaults(ww1 vintage), and Renault Char D1s(armed with a stubby 47mm), although I'd suspect they also had some R35s as they made tons of them and they seemed to get everywhere. Now, shortly after the 35 Soumas arrived the French West African colonies joined the Free French government.
These tanks were operated by the Chasseurs de Afrique in the North West African Campaign after operation Torch, and former Vichy French units and equipment from the North African colonies was also used. At the battle of Kasserine Pass Char D1s of the Chasseurs de Afrique engaged German armour and received horrific losses, although one D1 did knock out a panzer IV(quite a feat, as the Char D1's gun could penetrate around 27mm of armour at 100m(As opposed to the higher velocity 47mm in the Souma or CharB1's 80mm at 200m). The Char D1s were withdrawn from service, being replaced with Valentines. The Free French forces would also start to receive sherman tanks before the end of the Tunisian campaign. The Char D1s would last be used on parade after the liberation of Tunis, I don't know what became of the Soumas, but they had been operated the duration of this campaign, they're pretty comparable to a valentine, and seemed to be effective enough. I don't know how many survived the campaign, but if they land back in France it would have been during operation Dragoon. But realistically I think it's likely that they'd have been due for an overhaul, and it would have been easier to refit with Shermans before shipping out from North Africa.