The Fallschirmjager: elite of the elite. These were German paratroopers, super highly trained and deadly soldiers. They have a legendary reputation, for holding the line no matter the cost and for beating huge odds. If you are playing as the Axis in Flames of War and you need to hold the line no matter what, then these are the boys for the job. They have their own integral support, Waffen SS ally options and plainly will be very hard to shift from objectives.
Let's take a look at the company list, which is: Fallschirmjager kompanie, from the Atlantic Wall book. The list was created to adhere to three fundamental concepts: 1) the troops have to highly skilled and highly motivated (FV), 2) the company needs to a combined arms company that is balanced and fair (as much as possible) and 3) the company needs to be fun to play!
Note to reader: the list is set to 2000 points, a non-standard points level. This is purely because this is the comfortable points level (minimum) here, and because higher points levels are better for learning the game.
Atlantic Wall: Fallschirmjager Kompanie
2000 points
Waffen SS, Heer allies
HQ platoon: Cic SMG panzerfaust, 2ic SMG panzerfaust, panzershreck, 2 8cm GW42 mortars-155pts
Combat platoon 1: 6 rifle/mg's, command SMG panzerfaust-195pts
Combat platoon 2: 6 rifle/mg's, command SMG panzerfaust-195pts
Combat platoon 3: 6 rifle/mg's, command SMG panzerfaust-195pts
Weapons platoon: 4 HMG's, command SMG-150pts
Weapons platoon: 4 8cm GW42 mortars, command SMG-120pts
Regimental support platoon: 2 PaK 40's, command SMG-120pts
Divisional support platoon: 3 StuG G's-325pts
Divisional support platoon: 4 10.5cm howitzers, staff, 2 observer rifles, command SMG-230pts
Divisional support platoon: 3 15cm nebelwerfers, observer rifle, kubelwagen, command SMG-105pts
Divisional support platoon: 3 2cm Flakvierling, command SMG-60pts (RT)
Divisional support platoon: 2 8.8cm FlaK 36, command SMG, extra crew-115pts (RT)
This company list fills the main guidelines behind the force. These are (minus a few allied platoons) super elite, super special soldiers. They have great motivation and are highly skilled. They will be very hard to shift off of objectives and have a lot of options to reach out and strike the enemy. The force has a solid foundation of Fallschirmjager, with supporting allied platoons/semi-allied platoons.
Let's go through a brief discussion of the different platoons and the purpose each holds in this company! There is "the base", "offense" and "defense".
1) The base
I) HQ platoon
II) Combat platoons
III) Weapon platoons
The base is the core of your company. These platoons will hold your objectives, make local counter-attacks, and if need be, they will advance upon enemy positions (with fire support from appropriate friendly platoons). These are the types of platoons that will recover from being pinned over, and over again. When "concealed" and "gone to ground", they will be impossible to kill at long range with normal shooting and very hard to kill otherwise. Factor in a sucessful skill test to "dig in", and the enemy will not only suffer negative modifiers to hit the platoon but they will need a sucessful "FP" (firepower) test to destroy them--exactly the same as for shooting at tanks). All in all, three platoons of these soldiers will be incredibly hard to move off of objectives or vital terrain/vital locations of the battlefield.
In addition to three Fallschirmjager platoons, you have a mortar platoon and a heavy machine gun platoon. The heavy machine guns are your answer to approaching enemy infantry, especially large formations. They will absolutely wreck any enemy infantry that approach without using cover and will be incredibly deadly when conducting defensive fire. The heavy machine guns may be used as their own platoon, but then become a high priority target for enemy mortars: there is no need to make things easy for your opponent. Attach them out to your "FJ" (fallschirmjager) platoons, and make it hard for the enemy to approach with infantry while providing armour in the form of extra bodies to keep your "HMG's" (heavy machine guns) alive. The mortars, on the other hand, are not to be attached out. Keep them behind large pieces of terrain, or somewhere behind the combat platoons. Dig them in and don't move them! Then just keep bombarding the enemy over and over. These guys are key for a sucessful offense: they will pin down "shooty" enemy platoons and will provide smoke bombardments to keep your troops alive. They also can provide counterbattery fire and smoke enemy artillery. Mortars are a must for this company, providing close artillery support on a hard to kill platform: couldn't be better.
There is not much to say about your HQ. Attach the "old man" (company commander) out to the platoon you think will need the most help, or to the one that you think will see the least action: both are valid plans. His re-roll of failed motivation checks is huge, but it is horrible when he dies and your whole company leaves the table Warmachine style (if you have lost enough platoons, and your commander dies, you lose the game). The second in command is your backup commander, but with no sweet re-roll ability, so keep him alive too. The panzershreck just needs to go where you think you need some extra, hard to kill, "AT" (anti-tank).
I) artillery
II) armour
This is the part of the army that allows you to engage the enemy on your terms, as opposed to the more defensive role of foot slogging infantry, who usually try not to advance on the enemy. This section is broken up into two parts: artillery and armour. The armour is your main offensive fist, while the artillery is your in-direct way of striking the enemy. Air support would be the third category, but for the purpose of this list, we will not need to discuss that.
The "regular" artillery in this list would be the 10.5cm gun platoon. This platoon may do perform four main actions: 1) bombard an enemy target, 2) direct fire upon a platoon acting as an improvised anti-tank gun, 3) fire a smoke bombardment, 4) direct fire smoke on an enemy platoon. You, as the "General", will have to judge each turn which action is the best for you. Of course, the range on the direct fire mode is not great so most of the time you will have to choose which type of bombardment you wish to use. Note to reader: unlike standard rocket launchers, howitzers do have the sheer power to blow up enemy tanks, both in direct fire and in a bombardment (especially in bombardments). However, these guns cost more then the 15cm Nebelwerfers, so it is up to you which you prefer. I find the idea of using two seperate, and different, artillery platoons to be rather wonderful and far more useful then just a single platoon. It's all about that combined arms approach to playing the game.
The second artillery platoon I speak of is the 15cm Nebelwerfer rocket launcher platoon. This is a wonderful little choice! You most likely will see this platoon in many, many German armies as it provides a super cheap source of smoke bombardments and also can pin down "soft" enemy platoons ("hard" would be armour) just like mortars can. The great difference with rocket launchers is that they do not suffer modifiers to hit based on their ranging in roll, and they also use larger templates more often. Quite nice indeed! I like to think of this platoon as a better mortar platoon: it can lay down smoke bombardments to cover the movement of my troops, and it can pin down "soft" enemy platoons. Quite a steal, being "CV", for 105 points.
The third thing to talk about here is the real punch in the army, the armour. In this case, we are rollin' (pun intended! :-D) out with Sturmgeschut, otherwise known as the StuG G. Three StuG G's is not a lot in terms of armour, but they are "FV" and do have "protected ammo". This means that they pass motivation checks on a 3+, and will re-roll failed motivation checks to re-mount their tanks. Quite nice!
StuG G's have good armour, good guns and even "Schurzen". Overall, they are a pretty beasty unit and you will realize why Battlefront placed them in the plastic starter set. They really are very useful, especially for infantry companies (such as this one!).
Basically, just point these at the enemy tanks and watch them die. They do have a few small problems though: 1) they really should not engage in mobile battles, 2) they have trouble with massed infantry. StuG G's have a side armour rating of 3 and no turret, which means that they really are not meant to hop around with enemy tanks. Use terrain, friendly combat platoons and PaK's to cover their flanks/rear end. If you try to use them like tanks, against tanks, you will most likely find out very quickly why they cannot be used like that. Infantry are another problem for Sturmgeschutz, but less so then enemy tanks (ironically enough, given that they were designed to fight infantry/guns, and not meant to fight tanks). StuG G's are equipped with a hull mounted tank gun, and a roof mounted (in rules, hull mounted) machine gun. They only have 1 "MG"! In effect, StuG's are fine against infantry in limited numbers because they will tear them up pretty badly in assault. However, once the enemy infantry greatly outnumber the Sturmgeschutz, then you will see that having just 1 "MG" really can be of issue. It may not seem like a big deal, as after all, they are only losing out on 1 shot each, when compared to normal tanks, but every shot counts when it comes to facing clusters of infantry and every shot less increases the chance that your tanks will burn in fiery assault.
3) Defense
I) FlaK
II) AT
This section is relatively brief, as there are only two topics to talk about. The first is "FlaK" (air defense). In this list, there are 2 FlaK platoons: one light, and one heavy. Each one has a different role.
The light FlaK platoon, which is the FlaKvierling quad gun, is a most wonderful little platoon and one which an experience player may make great use of!!! This platoon has one main role, and that is to shoot down enemy planes. With a "ROF" (rate of fire) of 6, "AT" of 5, and "FP" (firepower) of 5, this will absolutely take enemy planes out of the sky. Even "flying tanks" (heavily armoured enemy aircraft) will have to wonder about making attack runs near this platoon. You only have to spend 60 points, for 3 "RT" (reluctant trained) guns. This is nothing in points, and it also has the plus effect of increasing your total number of platoons for just about no points. This comes in useful during missions that require you to place parts of your army in reserves.
The other plus of this gun is that it is a rather good weapon to use against enemy infantry if they get too close. With 6 shots each, enemy infantry will look at this the same way that they look at your machine guns. Of course, with range 16in, this is NOT the same as "FJ" (fallschirmjager) heavy machine guns, but close. These guns are really nice if you place them next to your combat platoons, as they will scare enemy armoured cars and light tanks from wanting to assault your combat platoons. Now, this platoon does have one glaring weakness: bad morale. With the platoon being rated as reluctant, if the enemy pin it down, it may stay pinned for multiple turns. But for 60pts, the player really has nothing to complain about. This platoon is an absolute steal, I highly suggest always taking it!
The second selection here is also FlaK, the dreaded "88". This gun was in use throughout the entire war, and was incredibly deadly to enemy tanks as well as aircraft. Again, this is a support platoon and is not "FJ", it is "RT" (reluctant trained). That means that it will get pinned down easy by artillery and small arms fire, as it will not recover from that and will most likely stay pinned for some time. Also, since it is trained, it is less effective at performing certain tasks. However, the disadvantages do not outweigh the advantages: this gives you excellent long range "AT" and a decent back-up FlaK.
Primarily, I would use this to bust armour. If your opponent does not have any (a weird situation!), then just try to keep this platoon alive, or let it be in reserve for most of the game (if you are forced to place platoons into reserve). You want to place this somewhere where there is a good line of sight across the board (or 2), and just let it blast away at enemy armour. It has long range...use it! Don't put it at a spot where it will be engaged at close range, use that long range.
The last selection is one of my favorites: the PaK 40 anti-tank gun! This is a great selection, especially the Fallschirmjager ones. They are rated as "fearless veteran", of course, and are even harder to deal with then normal. Now, as a disclaimer, this is not a super powerful unit. You cannot place it on the table, say "RAAARRHH!!!" and win the game. The reverse is also not true: this unit is far from useless. What you want to remember is, this is a normal anti-tank gun. It has the range and power to take out light and medium tanks pretty easily, but will struggle with late-late war uparmoured medium tanks and obviously will not do so well against many heavy tanks. Tanks such as the IS-2, Panther, Tiger II, Jagdtiger and Pershing are trouble for this gun. Against those tanks, you generally will need to find a better solution then this platoon.
How I see PaK 40's is very simple: they work as a team with my StuG G's to deny space to the enemy. It is not even really about killing enemy panzers, they just want to make it so there are spots on the board the enemy panzers will not go to, such as areas close to the objectives your combat platoons are guarding. Even better, if you place these close to your combat platoons, then when the enemy charges them (which they will if they can!) with tanks, then the PaK's will conduct defensive fire! This will not make your opponent happy!
Essentially, what you want to do is two seperate things: 1) deploy the PaK's far from your StuG G's in order to maximize the amount of board space you can cover with "AT", and 2) keep them near your infantry in order to get sweet, out of turn shooting, known as "defensive fire". Most of the time your opponent simply will not charge your infantry if they have anti-tank gun support, because it usually does not work out too well. This means that your tanks are helping to keep your infantry alive. Additionally, the anti-tank guns just want to control space and to keep it a "panzer free zone" (:-D). If you follow these basic guidelines, you ought to find these guns to be very useful.
Thanks for reading, and come back to the blog for more later! :-). This brief article is just the start, there will be much more later in terms of: list discussion, tactics articles and possibly even some battle reports.
