Achtung Panzer!

Quick look at two of my favourite tanks of the Wehrmacht. The venerable Panzer IV H and the awesome Jagdpanther Tank Hunter!

Now many a German commander swears by the fear inducing strengths of  the big cat Panthers and Tigers oh my! which are available but my love for the Panzer IV H rests on two key things.

First being the belief that more is better (So more Panzer IV's on the table is better than having a few big cats). Personally feel that the flexibility of the P.IV beats out the uber powers of the big cats, especially considering that the P.IV CAN kill essentially any allied medium tank and even a few of their heavies if you play it right. A boast that not all of the allied mediums can lay a claim to. Second thing is what's in the image below.

Panzer Commander! The actual memoirs of the heroic Hans Von Luck. This book is a must read for anyone who wants some insights into what going into war on the German side must have felt like, and on top of very interesting details regarding his campaigns (The man fought in Poland, France, The East Front, Afrika, France again and then back in The East Front) your also get to delve into the thoughts and sentiments of one of the most remarkable and inspiring individuals that there has ever been. Topping it all off, you get an appreciation for what the P.IV being a workhorse for the Wehrmacht really meant. Truly, words cannot express how excellent that book is so just go out there, get a copy and read it.

Panzer IV H's led by the Company Commander tank

Should have taken some side shots.. oh well next time.

Jagdpanthers led by the indomitable Hauptmann Blitz

Kill rings from the Tank Aces campaign.. Need to paint a couple more on as a matter of fact.

 Great armor, great range, great AT and moves as quick as any medium tank. A very lethal combination that has led to them being instrumental in most of the games in which they feature in. They do cost a bomb though at a whopping 230 points a tank and tend to be fairly overindulgent when facing anything other than tank companies. Still, for sheer fear inducing fun factor they are a great choice to go with.

FoW Mittlere Panzerkompanie

Right, today we'll be looking at the first of the two Medium Panzer companies which I'll be running for the upcoming Case Orange campaign.

Fairly straightforward with half a dozen Panzer III E's (CO, 2iC and a Combat Platoon) at the core of it supported by a Platoon of 3 Panzer II's, a Mixed Panzerspah Platoon of Sdkfz 221's/ 222's, a Luftwaffe battery of 2 88's and a gun battery of 4 of the excellent German 10.5 artillery.

Panzer III's will lead the way with this list giving me a great base of mobile fire to play around with.

A young Leutnant Blitz?

Panzerspah recon leads the way while the Panzer II platoon looks to harass and flank the enemy.

Will try to take pictures under better light and with a better camera next time. Can't seem to find the bleedin charging for the digital cam so relying on the ol iPhone.

Artillery. Indispensable in the Early War period really what with the masses of dug in Tommy and Froggy infantry to be expected, not to mention hordes of tissue paper thin yet up gunned Tanks

The guns are of course a rather expensive option to take on points wise, but am quite confident that they'll recoup the cost with charred corpses and burnt out tanks. 

Pioneers.... Who aren't actually in the list.. Frickin photobombing krauts...

And the wondrous 88s. Yet another rather expensive option, but they're just plain iconic of the Wehrmacht so couldn't have left them out of the line-up/collection, no sir. Also, they're an excellent solution to those damned Matilda's, Char Bi-1's and Somua's which are likely to be running about.

Managed to have a test game with these krauts against Mark and his Tommy Rifle Company already and while there were plenty of painful lessons learnt, had to say that I was rather pleased with how these boys pulled together for the win. Onward now to the Blitzkrieg!

Re-activation

Hopefully won't regressed to rants on life, just looking to have a repository for the wonderful hobbies which I love.

So anyway. About 3 months ago (or less?) I finally got myself into Flames of War.. and have been loving it since. There's nothing more satisfying that being able to relive those childhood exploits born from epic war movies, and FoW fits the bill perfectly in doing that. As it stands I've already gathered near on 3000 points worth of Early and Late War Germans put together and painted up and I dare say the excitement is still rearing up. Which brings me to my just finished, Junkers Ju-87 Stuka dive bomber.

Here's what I was gunning for.

Originally had mixed feelings about this one as my original estimation of Dark Angel green being the right green was quite a far way off. Figured I could dull away the bright green shine by dry brushing the entire DA surface with Catachan green and then washing it with a coat of Badab Black. Appreciate that the pro-painters out there might blanch at the technique but living up to the principle of it's straightforward, simple and on the better side of good enough for gaming I was actually rather pleased with the result. Especially when it means that my Mittlere Panzerkompanie for the upcoming EW Case Orange campaign at Legio is going to have some much welcomed air support.