German Blitz force 1939-1940 – force selection

With any force it needs a commander. I have been trying to add a bit of uniqueness to my forces by adding a few character models to them.

While the bulk of my miniatures come from Warlord games I tend to look further a field for the characters. Copplestone casting, Foundry Miniatures, Artisan miniatures are a few sites that have lots of interesting range.

I had previously purchased Major Kreipe figure from the ‘Trilling Tales’ range at Artisan and thought he looked suitably aristocratic to be a Prussian Officer. With his glinting monical and stern grimace he looked suitable tough (and I expect unforgiving commander). I have named him Captain Maximilian “Max” Von Sheer – his bolt action rank is actually a second lieutenant, but it didn’t fit the character.

Picture: Captain Maximilian “Max” Von Sheer

Von Sheer’s force is essentially split into two. Based on military tactics these are effectively named the hammer and the anvil.

The ‘Anvil’ force is not one that will excite and generally form the defensive line upon which the enemy will advance before being ‘smashed’ by the hammer. It is based around two 10 man infantry squads armed predominantly with rifles. The second of which has a LMG and a truck for a bit of added mobility. They will effectively support and defend the light artillery and mortar that round off this force. The purpose of these artillery pieces is to lay down HE and smoke as required and soften up the enemy. I've tried to have full units of 10. I know in various forums there is much debate around the optimum unit size, but for me a full unit reflects that these are early war so I'd expect them to be complete - they hadn't quite got to the point where every man and his dog was required and also 10 men can absorb quite a lot of damage before it is effectively redundant as a fighting force. All my force is regulars wounded on a 4+ the extra men would come in handy for unit preservation. 

Picture: Medium Mortar

Picture: Light Artillery 

Picture: Infantry units (and truck)

The fun stuff is in the ‘Hammer’. This needed a decent amount of punch to it. The centre of the assault would be launched by a 10 man unit of engineers in a Hanomag. I wanted especially to include a flame thrower - although previous experiences have been disappointing they look good and will be protected by the numbers in the squad. They are also equipped with antitank grenades and there is an LMG.

Picture: Assault engineers and Hanomag

These would be supported by a rifle unit (with LMG) in a truck. With both the Hanomag and this truck I wanted to have a little bit of fun to almost create a mini diorama so have added riders fighting from/jumping off the truck - hopefully create some dynamic photos (although looks a bit odd driving across the battle field)

Picture: Support rifle squad and truck

To add some 'punch' I've included a Panzer IV Aus D. This option gives me a medium howitzer. From previous games my experience has been that it is important to suppress and pin as many infantry units as you can as they tend to win the game rather than the armour - I've found that as it is difficult to have mass armour it is difficult for it to totally dominate the battlefield. While it is a pain and a focus on the battlefield in reality its main armament for example will only have 6 shots and I don't think they don't usually get their points back in terms of units destroyed. HE and machine guns from our experience has had more of an impact than AT - especially when you've lost key squads in collapsed buildings - hence the decision to go for the Aus D variant - it isn't as classy looking as the other variants with its stub nosed cannon, but I'm hoping for it to be more effective in gaming terms.

Picture: Panzer Aus D

The final unit was the air observer. We played a game with the British and used the Artillery observer. There was a degree of randomness about it that made it interest - it could be devastating or nothing could happen - when we played with the artillery observe it put 3 pins on a T-34 which effectively kept it out of the game until turn 4. So having a few spare bits and a left over radio from some DAK troops my air observer was born. The reason it was an air observer rather than artillery was that my dad had given me some 1:72 fighter kits. This meant I could create a dramatic unit. Given the time scale of the army I was creating a Junkers-87 dive bomber would have been great, but when you have Fock Wulf FW190 you use Focke Wulf FW190 and it has the desired affect.

Picture: Air observer and air support

Lastly, I wanted to mention some other characters. I'm hoping to create some narrative around my force. Large to add a bit of flavour to the battle reports and create some continuity between games - at the minute we don't play many games so its quite nice to have the link. The first battles I'll play with the Blitzkrieg Germans will be circa 1939 and centred around the 'Phoney war'. These will be forces on the German/French boarder tangling with French patrols. I envisage Abwehr agents trying to get information through  to the German lines (and there are some scenarios that work for this)- to add further 'character' I had some miniatures I'd purchased from Artizan Games Thrilling tales range that I could paint up as German Agents - they won't have any direct impact in gaming terms, but will add to and link the narrative. I also thought they'd be good for any Operation Sea Lion based games:

Picture: Colonel Brauman - Sheers' direct superior and senior intelligence officer in the Abwehr 

Picture: Claire du Lane (Agent 'Paddington') - German agent working in France/Britain

Picture: Additional Abwehr agents.

So that's the over view of my first army completely painted in about 20 years. Hopefully it will be getting into action soon...