Shotgun wrote:Are you tied to using 3rd Armor out of Overlord? Reason I ask is that the Overlord structure tends to limit the versatility of individual armor units. Your non-76 units have no real
AT threat, your 76 units lack direct fire smoke.
Yes, this is an Overlord list. I do not mind the fact that I have limited
AT, many lists do and have to make do. Shermans in my mind have to use positional play, hitting flanks. Tigers and Konigstigers are supposed to be a problem. Air support, smoke, and at a pinch bazookas can deal with them.
Real US armor had to make to with 75's, too many lists spoil US players with special tanks which were not always available. Yes list are not history, but this is not uncommon. Some British lists have massed AT10 without Fireflies. How do you win? You make do.
My opponents are not competitive cheeseheads, I wont see many heavy tanks. However I have it on reasonable authority (from WhatWouldPattonDo) that massed stock Sherman 75's and Stuarts can be real winners. Flanking and stabilisers being key.
Besides my army is against all comers. Heavy armour is a problem, so be it. Plenty of
MG's though, and plenty of guns for tank horde and mech list bashing.
Shotgun wrote:
Later units like 7th
AD out of BGG still give you
CT pointing, but bring a bit of swiss army knife ability to the units.
Please explain the extra acronyms, what is a BGG?
I wanted 3rd Armored Division as I have the decals and like the unit history.
Also I am not a fan of the plethora of fancy special rules for late Shermans to make them 'interesting'. They have an artificial GWesque feel to most of them and apply major advantages to relatively minor features. Basic M4A1s are enough for me.
Shotgun wrote:
2K points is a -big-
FoW game. That unit of KTs you opponent might have thought out of reach now isn't so much a splurge. Or dual Panther units. Maybe two units of SU-100. Point being that lots of big tough nuts come out at 2K points and you don't really have a lot of tough nut crackers.
AT 12 is as far as Overlord gets US armor and you only have one unit of that. Air is iffy...you are armor and will most likely be advancing which limits the amount of viable targets Air is able to hit.
We make lists to 2k and then peel back to 1500pts or 1750pts if needed. This doesn't describe my list, it more or less describes my collection. Yes this does mean that Konigstiger are affordable.
My 1750pts list is almost identical, just cuts back air support to limited, removes one ARP and the TRV. This is what I have now.
I am interested in understanding better how my list will work in larger games, or not.
Also the downside isn't in my/our opinion. We chose 2k because it allows players to field the toys we want, with emphasis on combined arms. Yes someone could splurge on Konisgtigers, but that isnt intended, its intended so a regular kompanie can take a Konigstiger, or two, to back up its backbone of Panzer IV''s, Hanomags or Grenadiers. In fact we could say that 2k favours the flavour of the Germans, it was for the benefit of playing German we choose the points total this way, and the fact that its a nice round number of course. It doesnt necessarily make Germans better, in fact possibly less so due to the ability to buy too many specialised characterful units but allows a good selection of wunderwaffen gamers like to collect but don't get a workable excuse to field.
As for Soviets, none of our group collect them yet, but they are on the purchase horizon of some. Again the emphasis isn't on minimaxing lists. Soviets dont feel right in most Flames of War
IMHO, their effective units are expensive and all to often you either get small quality armies or Strelkovy. Massed SU-100's? No thanks, I just want to afford to field some IS-2's and still have enough other stuff mostly a couple of large formartions of T34/85's and whatever infantry I have the excuse to field. Whatever is enough for a 'someone kicked over the termite mound' effect. Anything less might win battles but it just isn't Soviet.
From entry level play onwards I would want to put my hands on my big Russian balls and hear the words "build me an army worthy of Stalin".
Shotgun wrote:
Also not a huge fan of the 3 tank assault Sherman squad. Too small to be an assault threat on its own, no spotter to work well as arty. When I play mine, I try to max out the unit size of that unit.
Most advice is to buy the Armored Mortars instead. However my list is very very similar to the
PSC army deal I bought last summer. 15 Shermans, 5 halftracks and 5 Stuarts plaus infantry sprues. So similar that at first all I was after were the jeeps M8 greyhound (I use Axis and Allies miniatures) the flyer (not necessary but I have a prepainted diecast metal P-47). The only other thing I was missing was one bazooka, and
PSC nicely added an extra sprue so I had a complete list.
The second ARP isnt collected yet, I might use the Flames of War V3 list and take the starter boxes US Paras instead, though it doesn't come to a round 2k doing that. And I have a thing about spending all the points exactly. For that matter I will need to cook up a TRV from bits and one of the Sherman V's from the starter set.
Shotgun wrote:
Priests could solve some of your problems. Smoke and a respectable bombardment to keep opposing top armor on its toes.
As a general rule we don't use long range artillery on board except for specific scenario play. Mortars and assault guns are exceptions.
Sherman 105's can deal bombardments well enough for their pricetag, yet aren't pussy artillery vehicles. Direct fire earns them a lot of forgiveness, as does breakthrough gun. Besides they used to be expensive, now they are 155pts for three. Though I suppose I could get six, let me think on this...
An Armored Mortar Platoon provides smoke bombardments and is cheap at 80pts. I am also still considering that option, but with so much direct smoke available
