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I have a love for German tanks and will be starting a Panzergrenadiers Army(This will be my first Historical started with 40k and I'm kinda done with GW for now). I will start with the D-day firefight, Armies of Germany book, and two of the April Armoured Patrols, where should I go from there? I would like the ubiquitous StuG III or a StuH 42 to be included, and will probably get a 2nd Hanomag to pair with the first.

I think you'll want to look at some team weapons next, that'll help fill out the platoon. Some sort of AT gun, maybe a mortar.

The great thing about Bolt Action is that you can't go terribly wrong with anything. Just pick what units or models you like and try them out. Just be sure you include plenty of infantry. In a 1,000 point list it's good to have 4-5 regulars or 3-4 veteran squads.

I would recommend getting a box of the Panzergrenadiers and making a couple more squads out of them with a variety of weapon options, as well as making your officer team. Currently it seems like you have enough for two infantry squads, which is fine for very small games (~500 points). But you will likely want to take 3-5 (depending on experience level), as well as your officer and small teams. If you have an actual military unit you want to base your troops on and a year, this will affect what weapons to give them a bit (no assault rifles before 1944).

Halftracks are nice but tend to be a bit overpriced for what they provide, but they can be very good for keeping your troops alive so I wouldn't crap on them too hard. Against lists with little AT they are extremely valuable.

I wouldn't recommend anti-tank guns. They tend to limit the movement of enemy tanks more than they actually take them out, as they can be easily avoided. I would recommend taking teams to complement your list's play style. If you want to get in people's faces, grab a flamethrower. Artillery is always good in the form of mortars and howitzers to pin/wipe out enemy infantry and teams. Snipers can be particularly nasty as well, and present a good ranged threat.

The Stug III is a nice, relatively cheap heavy AT option. I prefer the Panzer IV because its turret allows it a greater range of motion when firing. The Stug's pintle MMG is nice, though, as well as its low profile. Keep in mind in your standard games you will generally only see one or even zero tanks in a typical list. If you want to play with lots of tanks, I'd recommend checking out the Tank Wars supplement.

So I was thinking about picking up the Build an army like this,
HQ: German Army HQ (1943-45)
Infantry 1: German Grenadiers plastic box set
Infantry 2: German Grenadiers plastic box set
Team: German Heer 81mm medium mortar team (1943-45)
Transport/Armoured Car: Sd.Kfz 251/1 ausf C halftrack
FREE Tank: Stug III ausf G or StuH-42 plastic box set

And a Sniper/Flamethrower team.

I'd have all that and
two Panzer IV F2s
12 Grenadiers
A Hanomag
12 German Infantry

That would give me some time to play around with different ideas and see wher to go from there, and have a nice army to display until I find someone to play with. Was thinking about equipping/painting them for Late Summer or Fall 1944. Any tips for painting the warlord models?

FireSkullz2 wrote:
Any tips for painting the warlord models?

Generic German infantry

German camo

There is also this:


A bit of colour variation never hurts

Wow thanks.

Nice pic of the color variation, sometimes I get myself a little wound up worrying about that. Nice to see there were several different shades/hues. In particular, I like the grey...though that might have been from watching Hogan's Heroes as a kid.

FireSkullz2 wrote:
So I was thinking about picking up the Build an army like this,
HQ: German Army HQ (1943-45)
Infantry 1: German Grenadiers plastic box set
Infantry 2: German Grenadiers plastic box set
Team: German Heer 81mm medium mortar team (1943-45)
Transport/Armoured Car: Sd.Kfz 251/1 ausf C halftrack
FREE Tank: Stug III ausf G or StuH-42 plastic box set

And a Sniper/Flamethrower team.

I'd have all that and
two Panzer IV F2s
12 Grenadiers
A Hanomag
12 German Infantry

That would give me some time to play around with different ideas and see wher to go from there, and have a nice army to display until I find someone to play with. Was thinking about equipping/painting them for Late Summer or Fall 1944. Any tips for painting the warlord models?

That is enough to build an armoured platoon and a regular reinforced platoon. From here I would advise building up your 60 Infantry as:
4x regular/veteran units with an LMG and 2 assault rifles/SMG's. You may ant to add in a few more smg's/assault rifles.
2x Ostruppen sections with a MG.

That should give you a decent core with a pair of cheap (but surprisingly effective) units to play with and build your army on. Slap on to that your two Hanomags for transport, your mortar and you have a respectable platoon. Your tank will also provide some decent support.

Can you use Osttruppen on the Western Front?

FireSkullz2 wrote:
Can you use Osttruppen on the Western Front?

They were in smaller number, but yes. They had some in the invasion of Normandy as defenders, but also in Southern France and Antwerp.

Is it possible to magnetize to the Infantry so I could switch between SMGs or ARs and such? I have no experience with the Warlord Minis.

FireSkullz2 wrote:
Is it possible to magnetize to the Infantry so I could switch between SMGs or ARs and such? I have no experience with the Warlord Minis.

No as most weapons are molded to arms and even if they aren't the weapons are true scale so very thin.

Virtually everyone would have a K98 anyway, Bolt Action allows really unhistorical levels of SMGs and ARs and the Grenadier sprue actually makes it difficult to make historically accurate squads due to the lack of rifles.

 Silent Puffin? wrote:

FireSkullz2 wrote:
Is it possible to magnetize to the Infantry so I could switch between SMGs or ARs and such? I have no experience with the Warlord Minis.

No as most weapons are molded to arms and even if they aren't the weapons are true scale so very thin.

Virtually everyone would have a K98 anyway, Bolt Action allows really unhistorical levels of SMGs and ARs and the Grenadier sprue actually makes it difficult to make historically accurate squads due to the lack of rifles.

To be fair though, by the end of the war there would be a vast mix of weapons in each squad as it was a case of 'use what you can get'

 master of ordinance wrote:

To be fair though, by the end of the war there would be a vast mix of weapons in each squad as it was a case of 'use what you can get'

Not to extent that BA allows, to a large extent.

2 Pv IV F2s and a load of STG44s would probably make some Grognard heads explode

 Silent Puffin? wrote:

 master of ordinance wrote:

To be fair though, by the end of the war there would be a vast mix of weapons in each squad as it was a case of 'use what you can get'

Not to extent that BA allows, to a large extent.

2 Pv IV F2s and a load of STG44s would probably make some Grognard heads explode

Haha, true.

There is a simple reason squads didn't have lots of different weapons in them... ammunition supply.

It's why StG44 were issued to entire platoons.

Anything that eases logistics and resupply is a good thing.

I just got onboard too! I bought a huge, new, German Winter Army!

1 x German Heer HQ (Winter)
2 x German Heer MMG Teams (Winter)
1 x German Heer 75mm Pak40 Anti-tank Gun Team (Winter)
4 x German Grenadier Squads (Winter)
1 x Sd.Kfz 251/1 ausf D halftrack plastic box set
1 x Panzer III (Plastic Box)
1 x Tiger 1 E
1 x Sd.Kfz 251/7C Pionierwagen
1 x Stug III ausf G

all for $180

A friend and I are getting into BA, but are waiting for the 2nd edition books.

We are using PSC's 15mm plastics to augment the contents of one Flames of War Open Fire starter box. We are single-basing all the infantry (except weapon teams).

I'd like to build a historical late war German heer list. Are there any good sources?

With V2 of Bolt Action, they are releasing a new German book with that. Might be a great place to build it, as they usually have themed forces from different theatres within those books.

We also started out with the Open Fire box set, all based on individual bases. We've actually bought into full scale Bolt Action in my area because it's taking off.

Thinking about starting BA myself since seeing some special offers on facebook.

Is there any real need to get the US or German Army book when the mini rulebook has the US and German units found in the full version?

Also any tips for building a US army over a German one? Ideally getting a US 'build an army' set after the D-day starter set. My most terrifying outlook is painting vehicles... troops I can manage.... think an airbrush is a must have here....

 Baldeagle91 wrote:
Thinking about starting BA myself since seeing some special offers on facebook.

Is there any real need to get the US or German Army book when the mini rulebook has the US and German units found in the full version?

Also any tips for building a US army over a German one? Ideally getting a US 'build an army' set after the D-day starter set. My most terrifying outlook is painting vehicles... troops I can manage.... think an airbrush is a must have here....

Depends on your group, but if you are planning to play competitive, then you need the Army books. Along with that, the Army books gives more options for creating your reinforced platoon and gives you some special lists to play Historical battles.

Edit: Also, I suggest holding off on getting the books since there will be a new edition coming out near September if what I heard was correct.

 Tanakosyke22 wrote:

 Baldeagle91 wrote:
Thinking about starting BA myself since seeing some special offers on facebook.

Is there any real need to get the US or German Army book when the mini rulebook has the US and German units found in the full version?

Also any tips for building a US army over a German one? Ideally getting a US 'build an army' set after the D-day starter set. My most terrifying outlook is painting vehicles... troops I can manage.... think an airbrush is a must have here....

Depends on your group, but if you are planning to play competitive, then you need the Army books. Along with that, the Army books gives more options for creating your reinforced platoon and gives you some special lists to play Historical battles.

Edit: Also, I suggest holding off on getting the books since there will be a new edition coming out near September if what I heard was correct.

They're only replacing the core book and the Armies of Germany book from what I've heard. Getting the US army book is a safe bet for the foreseeable future.

I'd like to make a little comment about weaponry.

After 1944's Heer restructuration.

In Volksgrenadieredivisionen; a squad (or Zug) was provided 1 LMG, 2 SMGs, and the rest rifles or AR. In fact, such a platoon consisted, theorically, in 2 AS squads and 1 rifle squad.

As far as Panzergrenadiere, they had, by the end of the war, been issued 3 LMGs per squad!!. The others were provided with with a large amount of assault rifles ans SMGs too, even though I haven't succeded in finding how many of them per squad. The squads were made out of 9 men in both cases.

I hope that'll help you build your forces!

 Maréchal des Logis Walter wrote:
The squads were made out of 9 men in both cases.

Panzergrens were in squads of 10, 8 infantry and 2 vehicle crew. IIRC motorised panzergrens were slightly larger (11-12?)

Well the great thing about Bolt Action is you don't have to follow the exact numbers for force organization - especially as those numbers and units weren't deposited on the battlefield fresh and minty. My DAK army for example has understrength squads to represent attrition with not enough replacements.

 Maréchal des Logis Walter wrote:
I'd like to make a little comment about weaponry.

After 1944's Heer restructuration.

In Volksgrenadieredivisionen; a squad (or Zug) was provided 1 LMG, 2 SMGs, and the rest rifles or AR. In fact, such a platoon consisted, theorically, in 2 AS squads and 1 rifle squad.

As far as Panzergrenadiere, they had, by the end of the war, been issued 3 LMGs per squad!!. The others were provided with with a large amount of assault rifles ans SMGs too, even though I haven't succeded in finding how many of them per squad. The squads were made out of 9 men in both cases.

I hope that'll help you build your forces!

Thanks, that's very helpful.

You welcome!

 Ctaylor wrote:

 Maréchal des Logis Walter wrote:
I'd like to make a little comment about weaponry.

After 1944's Heer restructuration.

In Volksgrenadieredivisionen; a squad (or Zug) was provided 1 LMG, 2 SMGs, and the rest rifles or AR. In fact, such a platoon consisted, theorically, in 2 AS squads and 1 rifle squad.

As far as Panzergrenadiere, they had, by the end of the war, been issued 3 LMGs per squad!!. The others were provided with with a large amount of assault rifles ans SMGs too, even though I haven't succeded in finding how many of them per squad. The squads were made out of 9 men in both cases.

I hope that'll help you build your forces!

Thanks, that's very helpful.

Not so helpful for Bolt Action though. Putting three machine guns into a single squad would be a huge waste of points.